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Speck. —A small piece of alluvial gold weighing up to an ounce or two. 
Specking. —Walking over the ground on the chance of picking up a lump of 
gold on the surface. 
Spirits of Salt. —Muriatic or hydrochloric acid. 
Splint, or Splint Coal. —A hard laminated variety of bituminous coal. 
Spotted. —Leads in which the gold is in patches. 
Speag. —Small single props. 
Squeezes. —A pinch of the vein in passing through hard bands of rock. 
Stalactite. —Hanging columns of carbonate of lime formed by dripping 
water. 
Stalagmite. —Pinnacles of carbonate of lime rising from the floor to meet 
the stalactite. 
Stamp. —The weighted head or pestal in a battery for crushing ore. 
Stanniferous. —Yielding or containing tin. 
Steam Coal (Anthracite).— A non-bituminous coal. 
Steatite. —A talcose rock. Soapstone. 
Steel. —An alloy of iron and carbon. 
Stein. —Stone-work used to secure the sides of a shaft. 
Stockwerts. —A number of small strings of ore which can be worked 
together. 
Stopes. —The workings in a mine between levels from which the ore is taken 
in a series of steps, called overhead or underhand stopes, accordingly as they are 
above, or below, a level. 
Stratum. —When rocks lie in layers one above another, each layer forms a 
stratum, and the whole series the strata. 
Streak. —The appearance of the surface of a mineral when scratched. 
Streaming.— Separating ore from gravel by the aid of running water. 
Stream Tin. —Tin ore occurring in stream beds in the same way as alluvial 
gold ; term used to distinguish it from lode tin. 
Striated. —Streaked or with lines running parallel to each other. 
Strike. —A valuable discovery. The direction taken by the horizontal out¬ 
crop of a lode or rock. 
String. —A thin course of ore. 
Stulls or Stemples. —Staging on which rubbish is left in the workings of a 
mine. 
Sulphate. —A compound of sulphur and oxygen with a metal. 
Sulphide. —A compound of sulphur and a metal. 
Sump. —A pit sunk at the bottom of a mine to collect water. To test the lode 
in depth. 
Swallow. —A large cavity, mostly met with in limestone; useful for draining 
a mine. 
Synclinal. —A trough-shaped curve of the strata. 
Tackey. —Having a rough catchy surface. 
Tailings. —Refuse from workings after the ore has been extracted. 
