116 
CALIFORNIA ILLUSTRATED. 
As the sun approaches the meridian, streams become swollen, 
frequently rising several feet, and fall as it disappears behind 
the mountains. It ceases to rain about the first of March, but 
in consequence of the immense quantities of snow on the moun¬ 
tains, streams do not resume their natural channels until the 
first of July, at which time, deposits made during the flood 
are found, as a general thing, above water-mark. One cause 
and perhaps the main one, of the almost universal failure of 
canalling operations is, that the facilities attained do not coun¬ 
terbalance the enormous expenditures requisite. Another diffi¬ 
culty is that a company of thirty men cannot, in the mines, 
operate with the same economy of time that they can when 
working in pairs. As I had lost on my stock in the Mormon 
Bar I determined to make it up by buying in the balance, which 
I did at from ten to fifteen dollars per share, and eventually 
sold it at several hundred per cent, advance to a company de¬ 
signing to operate upon it with quicksilver machines. Gen. 
Winchester & Co. became joint owners, and soon several of the 
machines were in successful operation, propelled by water drawn 
from the canal. The success of the experiment was placed 
beyond a doubt. The machines used were called the “Burk 
rocker.” They were placed on an inclined plane, and in the 
upper riffles, which were of iron, was placed a quantity of quick¬ 
silver. Dirt was thrown in at the upper end of the machines, 
and as it was washed through, the rocking motion would bring 
it in contact with the quicksilver, which having a strong affinity 
for the gold, carefully collects it without including any other 
substance. After the quicksilver has taken up, or freighted 
itself to its utmost capacity, and become a solid mass, or amal¬ 
gam, it is taken out and its place supplied. 
In separating the gold and quicksilver the amalgam is put 
into a retort, to the top of which is screwed a crooked iron tube, 
the end passing into a vessel of water. A heat is raised under 
the retort of six hundred degrees, which causes the quicksilver 
to evaporate and pass up into the tube, when it condenses and 
passes down into the water. This operation is performed at a 
loss of only two and a half per cent, of the quicksilver. These 
machines were purchased at a cost of one thousand dollars each, 
although in the States they are worth less than forty. Their 
