53 
jack when worked exerts its power so as to force down the pile which is at such time 
being operated upon. 
1 he inode of sinking the above box is as follows :—Supposing it to have been 
partially sunk through the drift or other earth, and the shaft to have been slabbed 
down as far as is convenient with its timber, which are over the vertical piles, then 
one of the floor or facing boards is lifted up and the piles on which it was supported 
are forced down, one at a time, into the drift a distance of about eight inches by a 
screw-jack, which obtains its purchase from the upper wedged frame, and exerts its 
force on the ledge provided on the piles. The space between these piles is then 
cleared out of the drift, sand, or earth therein, so as to allow of the floor boards being 
again fastened down in position by the keys. This operation is repeated until each 
pair of piles and its floor-board has been sunk to the same level, when another set of 
shaft slabs are inserted, and the frames released of their wedges and lowered again to 
their position on the piles. Should any difficulty arise in lowering the frames, a false 
frame can be put in so as to wedge the piles out and so free the other frames. 
Elliott's Sluicing Apparatus .—A trial of a new sluicing apparatus, the invention 
of Mr. G. B. B. Elliott, took place recently at the Melbourne Exchange, and was 
witnessed by an officer of this department, who reports thus concerning it:— 
The apparatus is intended to be worked in connexion with Priestman’s Patent Dredger. Both 
Mr. Elliott's machine and the dredger are floated on punts, each 40 x 20 feet, and 6 feet high, on the 
river intended to he worked. The dredger raises the washdirt at the rate of about 60 tons tier hour, and 
deposits it on a sloping platform from which it gravitates to a riddle upon which falls a constant shower of 
water, raised from the river by a small engine. The water washes the minerals, sand, and small gravel 
through the riddle into sluice-boxes fitted with ripples, blankets, &c., in the ordinary way. The riddle is 
on hinges, and can be tipped up by means of a lever whenever it is desired to throw back into the river 
the large stones, &c., which cannot pass through. At the end of the first row of sluice boxes there is a 
box with a false bottom of finely perforated metal. A pipe, leading from an elevated tank, conveys water 
into this box. The pipe is fitted with a tap, which is turned off and on alternately by a pulley driven by a 
belt. This causes the water to flow spasmodically into the box and up through the perforated plate, 
imparting, at the same time, a lifting or pulsating motion to the wash. As the lightest portion of the wash 
comes to the surface first it is carried away, while the fine mineral particles, if any have escaped from the 
sluice boxes, fall to the bottom. 
The cost, landed in Melbourne, of the entire apparatus, including the dredger, the sluicing machine 
the two punts, engines, pump, sluice boxes, and all other necessary appliances, is £2,000. 
For gold mining, it takes 15 hands to work the apparatus; for tin mining, 18. This includes two 
men for procuring firewood. The dredger itself can be worked by one man. All the men can live in the 
punts, which are constructed to float, if necessary, in eighteen inches of water; but, if required, the dredge 
will bring up stuff from a depth of 45 feet. 
Some of the rivers in Victoria which Mr. Elliott considers would yield handsome profits by the use 
of his invention aro the Thomson, Mitchell, Tanjil, La Trobe (for tin), Upper Yarra, Goulburn, Big River, 
Dark River, Loddon, &c. 
It is expected that the apparatus will shortly bo employed in tin mining on the rivers of Tasmania, 
and the results will no doubt be looked for with interest. 
Reference to Drawing .—A is the inclined platform, B the sluice boxes, and C the tail races. A 1 is 
the framing for the platform supported on punt D, E is the elevated water tank, and F , G, and M the series 
of supply pipes therefrom. II is the centrifugal pump, and / the engine. The pipes F lead to perforated 
trays J s and the pipe G with its branches G 1 lead to the wells or troughs 7i, each of which has a per¬ 
forated false bottom K\ while the pipes M lead to the heads of the respective sluices, over each of which 
is a perforated plate L. B l and C l are the buoys or punts for the sluice-box and tail race respectively. 
IP are hinged perforated plates for preventing large stones from falling into the wells or troughs K . 
The mode of operation is as follows:—The alluvial earth to be treated is lifted and deposited on the 
platform A by any suitable means, but preferably I employ what are well known as PriestmaiFs dredgers. 
This earth is then convoyed to the perforated plates L either by shovelling or by means of a water jet 
playing upon it, and as it falls on to said plates it is subjected to the action of a shower of water from the 
upper trays J which washes all the finer particles through the perforations in said plates L into the sluice 
boxes By which are of ordinary construction, the large stones remaining on said plates being then thrown 
out from time to time as required. The tailings from the sluice boxes are subjected to a water pulsation or 
jigging in wells or troughs A r , and the waste passes away through the tail races C, which are made 
sufficiently long to prevent the tailings from returning back into the excavation being made by the dredger* 
When all the valuable alluvial earth has been excavated in one spot, the anchors or moorings are loosened 
and the whole apparatus floated further up the stream and again moored, when operations are commenced 
afresh. By this means the operator is enabled to work river and creek beds, and to make artificial canals 
into alluvial fiats on the banks of such rivers or creeks where otherwise it would bo impracticable by reason 
of the difficulty of getting rid of the tailings at a sufficiently rapid rate. 
Mr. Elliott states, in reference to his apparatus— 
I do not claim any novelty in any of the contrivances herein described and explained, when taken 
separately and apart from each other, but what I believe to bo new and therefore claim as of my invention 
is the construction of apparatus for sluicing alluvial earths on floating supports, in the manner and for the 
purpose herein described and explained. 
