50 FAIRBANKS AND RAMPART QUADRANGLES. 
the condensation of the steam and the conditions for working are con- 
sequently better. 
Hot-water hydraulicking by means of the pulsometer or other 
steam pump has been very successful in some places. Pulsometers 
in use in 1905 were reported to do the work of 20 points, and as 
by this method a jet of hot water is thrown forcefully against 
the frozen face, the gold particles are more easily released from 
adhesive material in which they may be embedded than by the use 
of points. Pulsometers are generally suspended in a sump at the 
bottom of the shaft, and the hot water is supplied by siphon from 
the boiler. Surplus water is generally removed by centrifugal pumps. 
It seems probable that hot-water hydraulicking will be more generally 
employed. 
After thawing, the gravel is removed with pick and shovel and 
carried by wheelbarrows to the shaft, whence it is hoisted to the 
surface by buckets attached generally to an automatic trolley. In 
summer it is conveyed directly to the sluice boxes, or, when the water 
for sluicing is available for only part of the shift, to a hopper con- 
nected with the set of boxes. In winter the gravel is conveyed to a 
dump under which sets of boxes have been arranged and later, in 
the spring, it is passed through the sluices. Ground which stands 
Avell without timbering is worked both winter and summer, but sum- 
mer work is cheaper. Ground having a tendency to cave is often 
left for winter exploitation, as it is found that the expense of rehan- 
dling in the spring is more than counterbalanced by the greater 
facility with which the gravel can be extracted. 
The ordinary sluice boxes with pole rimes are universally employed, 
usually 12 by 14 inches in cross section and 12 feet long. An aver- 
age size dump box or rock box is 20 to 22 feet in length and 36 
to 40 inches or more in width. This catches from GO to 90 per cent 
of all the gold saved, and most of the remainder is caught in the next 
three boxes, which have grades generally ranging from 9 to 12 inches 
to the box. Ordinarily two clean-ups a week are made. The con- 
centrates are dried in mining pans on stoves or blacksmiths' forges, 
and as a rule are cleaned by dry panning and blowing. 
COSTS. 
The cost of mining under conditions in 1905 was so great that most 
of the ground worked had to carry in the pay streak values of at least 
2 cents to the pan, or approximately $2.75 to the cubic yard. Most 
of the claims are 1,500 feet in length, measured parallel with the 
courses of the creeks on which they are located, and there are gen- 
erally two or three outfits working on a single claim. At many 
claims the ground is worked by laymen, who give from a third to a 
half of the output to the owners. 
