Gold Mining Notes. 39' 
entangled in it. The apron being removed, the cradle is 
set up on end and the floor washed into a miner's pan or 
bowl, and the gold collected as before described. The 
rocking motion not only mixes the contents of the hopper, 
but by agitating the sand on the floor allows of the 
gold particles being arrested by the riffle bars and the 
lighter sand being carried off by the flow of the water. 
If the claim is unusually rich, a " clearing up" is made as 
often as advisable but the final wash up is always made at 
the end of the day. When the gold is very finely divided, 
it is found to be an advantage to place the hopper over 
the lower end of the cradle and use an apron of thick 
woollen cloth or blanket, whg-n frequently the gold is 
arrested by the nap of the clor^. 
The inclination of the cradle is governed by the con- 
dition of the gold and of the earthy matter in which it 
is contained. The cradle, however, is not an economical 
apparatus as from its rude construction much of the free 
gold is lost, as is proved by some of the earlier placers 
being worked over again and again with equal success. 
It is now used by only the Chinese miners. The rocker 
after being known and used for hundreds of years has been 
superseded by the "Long Tom/' which in its turn has been 
discarded, at least in California, for the " Sluice-box." 
The Long Tom which was used in California is 
described as a wooden box or trough 12 or 14 feet long, 
two feet wide at the upper and three feet at the lower 
end. The bottom is covered with iron sheets overlaying 
each other like shingles. The sides ten inches high are 
at right angles to the bottom. The lower end is closed 
with a sheet iron screen punched with holes, and the top of 
this screen is turned up at a slight angle. The Tom is 
