gutter,
the company, a couple of years previously, obtained from Baldwin and
Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a mining locomotive for their future
work, and I found that these small engines did all the requisite work,
in the shape of fetching out "pay-gravel (i.e., washdirt) and
to take back timber, tools, and men over these heavy inclines, with
great facility. The cars hold about 1,800 lbs. of pay-gravel each, and
each train consists of thirty-two cars. The locomotives are a splendid
sample of machinery, and each measures 13 feet in length, 4 feet in
width, by 5 feet in height, the smoke-stack projecting only 3 inches
above the top ; gauge of the lines is but 20 inches in the clear, the
two driving wheels being 3 feet, and the four others 2 feet each in
diameter. These are "camel back" engines, the tanks being fixed above
the boiler. Each locomotive weighs but 7,850 lbs., and it can be worked
up to 40-horse power, with a daily consumption of 400 lbs. of best
bituminous Pennsylvania coal, which can only be got to this remote
region for 40 dollars per ton. The driver sits at the rear of the
engine, covered in, and does all the shunting, at slackened speed, by
means of an iron crook. A very powerful reflector lights up the
otherwise dark tunnel for forty yards ahead of the locomotive, and,
during my inspection, the trains .going in at 6 a.m. consisted of
thirty-two cars filled with mine timber, besides as many as forty-eight
miners, and still an average speed of thirteen miles was maintained up
the tunnel.
This
company was originally organised with twenty shares, at 1,000 dollars
each, and these shares were ultimately subdivided into the present
1,360, upon which, during the last five years, 600,000 dollars have
been paid in dividends. As regards the working of this large mine, one
imagines himself almost at Ballarat, and the whole system reflects
highly on the superintendents in charge. Water being very scarce, the
pay-gravel is shot down into two large "dumps," or paddocks, during the
dry season, which have a capacity of 18,000 and 28,000 tons
respectively. These paddocks are floored with thick planks, placed at
an incline towards a central line of sluice-boxes, running through the
paddocks and for nearly two miles outside ; the ripples in these,
charged with mercury, were constructed of chilled cast iron, the annual
repairs of which alone exceeded 5,000 dollars during that period.
Latterly, however, old worn-out truck or car wheels have been used at
less cost and with the same effects, as far as gold-saving is
concerned. As soon as the wet season has arrived, the pay-gravel in the
, paddocks is " hydraulicked" by means of strong rubber hoses and iron
nozzles. The gold seen, during the inspection of the workings and
outside apparatus, was of a very fine nuggety description, consisting
of solid pieces from a few pennyweights each up to one lump 64 ounces
in weight. The value of this gold was exceptionally high for
California, it being at the rate of 19 dollars 25 cents per ounce.
