24-2 LUPTON : GOLD, SLATE, AND SALT MIXES IX GREAT BRITAIX. 
rock ; near to the foot wall the vein contains iron ore, iron pyrites, 
blende, and some other metals, and also grains of gold ; in some 
places the gold is visible in the iron ore, in others tin}^ specks may 
be seen in the quartz ; in the place where most of the ore is got they 
are getting a width of 10 feet ; some of the ore is very rich, contain- 
ing at the rate of several hundred ounces of gold per ton ; the whole 
is said to contain on the average two to three ounces of gold per ton : 
the gi'eater portion is said to contain 12 dwts., or say, 40s. worth of 
gold per ton. It will be evident that if the mine continues to pro- 
duce quartz of this quality that it will reimburse the capitalists for 
the outlay they have made. 
Bat of course it must be expected that the vein will vary in 
width and richness. The mine is situated in a mountain side 
several hundred feet above a river, and a steam-engine is used to 
work an inclined tramway to the mine ; another steam-engine is 
being erected to work one of Sturgeon's air-compressors intended to 
drive Ingersoll Rock Drills. In September, 1888, about 40 miners 
were emploj^ed. The quartz is taken to the stamps which are situated 
by the river at a waterfall, which works a 40 feet wheel, three sets of 
stamps, five heads in each ; these stamps will crush about 30 tons of 
quartz in 24 hours. AW the rock has to be crushed until it will pass 
through a wire guage of thirty meshes to the inch, which is rather 
finer than a safety lamp gauze ; a stream of water passes through the 
stamps and carries the sand through the gauze over copper plates 
which have been covered with quicksilver ; quicksilver has the pro- 
perty of amalgamating with gold, so that the gold is caught whilst 
the sand is washed away. 
When the copper plates have received a sufficient coating of 
auriferous amalgam it is rubbed off, and the amalgam is squeezed in 
bags to drain out the uncombined mercury ; the gold amalgam is 
then put into a cast-iron retort and heated till all the mercury has 
been evaporated, and the mercury is saved by passing through a con- 
denser and used over again ; the gold, which remains in a spongy 
state, is melted in a plumbago crucible and cast into an iron ingot 
mould. 
At the Morgan mine I was informed that 95 per cent, of the 
