72 GRAVEL AND PLACER MINING IN ALASKA. [bull. 26 
hand. A man is continually employed for this duty. He also watche 
large bowlders and prevents jamming in the flume. However, ver 
few large stones are allowed to pass through, for in the work of exes 
vation the larger rocks are piled at one side of the track. 
One man is employed at the hoisting winch and does his own firing 
Three 114-pound sacks of coal are consumed each shift. A 15-hors< 
power boiler is used with vertical engine, and a five-eighths inch cab] 
hauls the cars. 
The dump box is 24 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet high, and hi 
a grade of 1 inch to 1 foot. Following this are 240 feet of boxes wit 
a grade of three-fourth inches to 1 foot. The boxes are 16 inch* 
wide and 14 inches high, and are supplied with cast-iron grate riffle 
These are 16 inches square and can be used either as Hungarian c 
longitudinal riffles. In washing, 125 miner's inches are used, a 
obtained by gravity from a claim above. After being used the wat€ 
is caught in a retaining dam, settled, and carrried by flume to a low* 
claim, where it is sold. Two 2-horse scrapers are used to keep tai 
ings clear, and all gravel is impounded by a brush dam upon the clain 
A little gold is caught in the entire string, though by far the great] 
proportion is retained in the mud box and that following. In tt 
mud box a perforated iron sheet laid over the riffles aids the movin 
of material and prevents clogging. In the center of this sheet : 
placed a heavy iron plate which receives the heavy fall from the cai 
and saves the bottom of the mud box. 
Bed rock on this claim is mica-schist, though in places the pay 
underlain by a stiff clay. The gold sinks in the broken schist aboi 
2 feet, but not at all in the clay. 
A bed-rock drain, 250 feet long, has been cut nearly level, which 
joined by small drains from various parts of the pit. Only about 1 
miner's inches of water were running from the drain at the time < 
observation. Men are paid $5 a day, with board. 
The advantages of the car-and-incline system are not especial 
pronounced. The method of stripping used in the above-describl 
plant, or at any plant where water under pressure is available ci 
hardly be improved upon. Where the overburden is thawed or whe: 
frost is encountered only in spots, as in the claim under discussion 
hydraulicking has been found the most economical and efficient mea: 
of removing material. The car system, however, has little of sol 
economic advantage to recommend it. In order to increase capaci 
more men must be employed to shovel. In this system an undi 
proportion of time is consumed in tramming the cars to the top of tl 
incline. A mechanical system, such as derricking or steam scrapin ; 
has many advantages over the track-and-incline. In the Klondike, < 
far as could be learned, the track-and-incline system does not make < 
economical a showing as other methods of working open cut, althoug 1 
the opportunity for comparison of efficiency was limited. 
