obtained
by a kick of the foot, and by boys and men with a tin dish. These modes
are, however, too primitive to be profitable, except accidentally so.
A tin dish is no bad test of the soil when "prospecting." AVash the
soil, pouring carefully away the mud, and leaving the heavier portion
at the hinder angle of the pan. Then amalgamate the residue with a
little quicksilver. If there is gold, the quicksilver on kneading it
will become solid, and form a pasty mass. If the quicksilver remain
liquid, and in globules, there is no gold—try again,
The
Hungarian method of separating gold would answer well in Australia,
where for the most part the gold is coarse and heavy. Get a long broad
board, grooved longitudinally, and nail a thin strip of wood all round
it, except at one end. Give it a slight incline against a bank, and put
your gold earth at the upper end. Pour water over this, and if there is
gold it will all remain, from its weight, in the upper grooves, whilst
the soil, being light, will be washed away. Where people work
independently, as in Australia, and the gold is coarse, and water
plentiful, this method, simple as it is, would be a very efficient one.
The
following is just as simple and as efficacious. Carry with you a large
wooden bowl, and put into this, or dig out of the bed of the stream
with the bowl, a quantity of earth, stir this well in the water, and
let it rest a minute or so, then throw away the water and repeat the
operation six or seven times. The gold, with care, will remain at the
bottom. A bowl with five or six pounds' weight of stuff may be washed
in a few minutes, and this method will be quite as productive as the "
cradle," in which, by the testimony of all parties, half the gold is
wasted. The sediment may be treated with quicksilver as before, if
required, and the superfluous quicksilver may be wrung out through a
piece of wash-leather, leaving the gold amalgam behind. We shall
by-and-by shew how to recover the quicksilver.
We are here supposing the absence of mechanical contrivances, many of which are more ingenious than useful, and that
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