284 
CENTRAL CHILE 
CHAP. 
finds a lump thus hidden, its full value is stopped out of the 
wages of all the men ; who thus, without they all combine, are 
obliged to keep watch over each other. 
When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into an 
impalpable powder ; the process of washing removes all the 
lighter particles, and amalgamation finally secures the gold- 
dust. The washing, when described, sounds a very simple 
process ; but it is beautiful to see how the exact adaptation of 
the current of water to the specific gravity of the gold s.o 
easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal. The 
mud which passes from the mills is collected into pools, where 
it subsides, and every now and then is cleared out, and thrown 
into a common heap. A great deal of chemical action then 
commences, salts of various kinds effloresce on the surface, and 
the mass becomes hard. After having been left for a year or 
two, and then rewashed, it yields gold ; and this process may 
be repeated even six or seven times ; but the gold each time 
becomes less in quantity, and the intervals required (as the 
inhabitants say, to generate the metal) are longer. There can 
be no doubt that the chemical action, already mentioned, each 
time liberates fresh gold from some combination. The dis¬ 
covery of a method to effect this before the first grinding, 
would without doubt raise the value of gold-ores many fold. 
It is curious to find how the minute particles of gold, being 
scattered about and not corroding, at last accumulate in some 
quantity. A short time since a few miners, being out of work, 
obtained permission to scrape the ground round the house and 
mill ; they washed the earth thus got together, and so pro¬ 
cured thirty dollars worth of gold. This is an exact counter¬ 
part of what takes place in nature. Mountains suffer degrada¬ 
tion and wear away, and with them the metallic veins which 
they contain. The hardest rock is worn into impalpable mud, 
the ordinary metals oxidate, and both are removed ; but gold, 
platina, and a few others are nearly indestructible, and from 
their weight, sinking to the bottom, are left behind. After 
whole mountains have passed through this grinding-mill, and 
have been washed by the hand of nature, the residue becomes 
metalliferous, and man finds it worth his while to complete the 
task of separation. 
Bad as the above treatment of the miners appears, it is 
