The
women, in using this bowl, are, without exception, the most expert of
any people I have ever seen in washing gold. They never touch the
material with the hands, but trust to the water. I have seen gold so
fine from this system of washing, that if you put your finger upon it
you could not remove it from the hand. It is the prettiest process I
have ever seen. In Australia and Xew Zealand the natives apparently
were ignorant of gold mining or the value of gold, as 1 am not aware of
any trace of native gold mining operations having ever been
discovered. In Hungary and Northern Italy, where the Romans are
believed to have mined for gold, there are extensive ancient workings,
bin little is known of their manner of working or how they extracted
the gold from the matrix or quartz. Some few years after the discovery
of gold in Australia the first stamping mill {of the most primitive
construction) was erected, and, before quartz mining as an industry was
well established, numerous inventions were patented for extracting gold
from quartz, all of which were tried'
and abandoned for simpler and more effectivte plans. It would be
impossible to describe till the processes invented lor extracting gold;
but a few may be mentioned. One was for smelting the quartz and
obtaining the gold pure. Another proposed to melt the quartz by a
powerful mirror or burning glass. Another plan was to introduce jet of
mercury into a revolving cylinder containing a heated mass of
fine-crushed washed quartz. Another was the construction of an enormous
cast-iron roller many tons weight; by making this roller to travel
backwards and fonvrds on an iron table, it was believed hundreds of
tons would be crushed daily. The disintegrator also was put to a
practical test and abandoned. The Chilian mill retains its position,
but only in the after process with the concentrates. During this time
improvements were being effected in stamping, and about 185S the
revolving stamp was introduced, and is now used almost universally for
the reduction of gold ores, producing results which no other stamp-mill
has yet accomplished at a minimum of expense for wear and tear, and
must be considered by far the best mill of its class which has yet been
constructed, although many modifications are in use. There are
thousands of people now-a-days interested in gold mining, who never saw
a stamp-mill, or have any idea of the operation, ready to accept the
statements of interested parties as to the merits of some invention,
which, how-ever promising it may appear on paper, has never been
practically tried; nevertheless, it has the advantage of being cheap,
and will do much more work than the stamps. In making this statement I
have no desire to undervalue this effort which many investors and
others have made to produce a more effective stamping-mill. To all
interested in this subject, I say do not suffer yourselves to be
deceived. It is not cheap or so-called portable machinery which is
required for quartz crushing. If a mine is worth working, and the
operation is to become a success, the machinery should be of the very
best description and properly erected will prove the cheapest. For
prospecting work, cheap portable machinery may be of advantage. The
time may com e when the stamps will be superseded; until then follow
the surer method of ascertained facts, and make us only of proved
machinery, paying a fair price for a stamping-mill, and on no
consideration consent to the purchase of cheap untried machinery,
especially if intended for use abroad. Would time permit, I could
relate som; curious experiences of my own about cheap machinery. Before
leaving this subject, I would say a few words about the disintegrator
(of which there are many varieties), by the use of which it is asserted
that the hardest quartz is reduced to an impalpable powder; possibly
so, but we are not told what become of the gold! If difficult to obtain
from the matrix by the simple operation of stamping, how much more
difficult must the operation become after passing through a
disintegrator, unless the inventors have some special appliance for
saving infinitesimal particles of fine gold. The pneumatic stamps, well
adapted for the treatment of some descriptions of mineral, are not such as I would make use of for the reduction
