Show VISIONS S auriferous S curiosities of gold cold binin timing and of ft nature iture s gold cold grinding mw MINING WITH A NEEDLE AND ACT FEATHER scouting prospectors happy graybeards mining on bare back the gold mills of the gol goda pot holes not rots or of gold in brazil nature with a diamond drill A golden floor Cali california fornias valleys valley terear I 1 VIRGINIA NIA CITY NOV kov 6 1890 the th election has brought back a less n inner than bual of wandering cool coni irs this either cither indicates that no gr ni ai degree of interest Is taken in the pr lin ont ent contest ily by the absent conesor ones or that their landing dangling fi mancial anchors li 11 caught on in tho the regions to ekich w ilch they haio a voyaged A at w ila hae probably their is it il on the rocks of the foreign shores i which they have hare been lured by the hie fl at ns its that thai sing aing songs of regions of 9 tore store or of nuggets aud and ahli Is fihnn was bythe by tha robins i golden mountain as there inere are three kinds of strong sirens 1 11 li tia i 11 tho the generative and 11 tr t le it is to be eared feared that n 1 ri it w of f our have been IT I ft 11 L i IP latter and are now leading it 11 A f looseness to in lands whore where tho the i 0 o short hort that had old yoh keb 0 galui zar mr been turned out to graze in of the und lind he would never 81 a haio haic hven been up 1 l he be would have hare left his bis hones bones on the r range at ge elany miners nho mho are graduates es of th ill amstock school of mining have d acquired resli residence dence and be bonso conso voters in montana Mou taua idaho and other states and territories on the PA bilic coast these will now desire delre to ci ca t mbriar votes in places where their in ID acre crets ts lio lie GOOD OLT OLD SOTS NOTS some few lave pone gone back to califor rift their first love abeso are conly graybeards gray ry beards they are race moo A ho he have re of spots seen by them in the old golden days time as well as distance lends leads enchantment to therlow th evlow tho thi perspective of tho the vista of true it is just list the reverse ot of that been in nature arid and practiced by landscapists who follow the rules roles of their art arl la in the latter all distant objects are arc contracted while in the former they are expanded grandly arld and gather glory as they spread which it Is oven even contrary to tile the rules of not tat perspective it if there bo be controlling thought in the minds of the graybeards gray beards bearda it Is that thai bleb blessings sings brighten t a as they take lake their flight in one or two instances however old timers who bat hao a returned to the stain stamping p grounds of their liboro youthful da das a have been so fortuna forta oate teas as to they her went forill to seek they nill ill now b peacefully gathered to their fathers with mortar between their logs legs and a betle in their bands full of honors arid and ol of confidence onu dence in their own sagacity another has found his lode and now tux bis big aeao to la his cabla cabin while tha alors of a crook creek whirl about the dran drag stone of the are tra in wit fell tile the gold 1 t ground out of hia hi ore lie only alms to ciko aik n out of his vein quartz quarts to goiti act p his arati lra grinding ills his water chool alriq arn as aa as the cateri now flow and as it turns ills grinds 11 grinds while he be pets eats grinds while he 4 0 p grinds while i he ha sits in 0 o tile shado ol of at li panes and listens to the tales lies told bi b ill ih winds of times pat and old um loan nan canlon lon gone one over the tb dark 10 hirer per to llio aa ti I 1 ddn dalon bhore grinds ever except when ho he top atop to 04 clin an it up ta take ke out bl hr gold and go to town for his period it if i i and to renew the never to be coin broush d light with the royal beast of th tb bingle lilliin lill ir Pin WITH A swettie AVID AVD FEATHER i i R in r I 1 read an item I 1 in one of 11 th 1 N silt al L LI papers iH iMEt abut c came ame nr near e V tn an 11 I 1 n the big ridge to tile or i J 11 1 was ahat chakow ow I 1 ani lit a 11 high water in the h tut ill 11 isi 11 accumulations of 91 fr fp f ail ill id bd raulle mines i 1 it al rin don tha river bud aud i A rs snaking big wages wage at mong minia in iff rioka ri kb laid bald bars at 1 l i t i of j r w no n it from my old stamping nR gri arr in 10 ii ii tao 0 o as 1857 I 1 practiced a p illas kind of mining on the rori roe i lion aba tie enma zuba on oa th tile north ido id tit in river about opposite tit th mouth i hubans hu nans creak there 10 n ber ar wt 1 l bart ban rw ro k apparently 00 lb filli t it i oil oln work il ona bar thon wall wa aa A is nd of dirt on an acre ot of ro arts ok k awa 1 wa all ski baro bare as although though li 11 bat ua ln is w with a broom chirewin Th The irewin romon low bow rr r in th h rock in steal TH r R slid aud taja so niao rity and til th is i no lie r than the th back of 0 at wnm uni its da while r n HIE ate on the roil aati atler r dis it n oni on i a a al gulstan stall of two pill it ii I 1 01 ol at ehni wl I 1 idly mcgaa blowing ibo day band out of sain some into of the little in so doing I 1 discovered that all contained line fine gold I 1 was mining at omega and the moun tain lain between that town and the river was an n awful climb ossa when piled on tile the top of pollan was a molehill to that mountain however flomer during the week I 1 had mused so much upon the tine one gold I 1 hail bad seen that thai I 1 determined to descend to the rooks rocks the next sunday and try my luck at a now kind of mining I 1 had said lony toiny self 41 A man working all day oo on those these little scams and crevices as industriously as lie would work in a gravel placer ought to make wages As for tools I 1 decided that nothing more would be required than a common knitting needle a feather and a pan I 1 procured a good steel nee needle dle ground one end to a sharp point flattened the other end said and turned up about a sixteenth of an inch of the hie flat part so as to form a little line ho or scraper with a feather out of a turkey ing ia I 1 was a jtb thus u fully equipped I 1 went down to the river after breakfast the dext sunday to make my experiment saying noth nothing kog to my partners in regard either to my a y bostina lion or deigns dai with the point of the hie needle I 1 bained down into tile the crevices and scratched out the he sand which I 1 then brushed into a little bead with my feather and placed in the pan the sand land that appeared in the top of the crevices crevi coa was gotner generally ally whitish or gray but at tho the depth of an inch I 1 nearly always found a predominance of black band and I 1 frequently saw small spangles ot of gold while A bile working thus home crevices that were a more mere line at tho the top lop extended downward its as far ar as I 1 could work with the needle it seemed avery a very pottering lottering pott ering bru business siness but as I 1 had bad come to the river resolved to do a good honest days work I 1 kept kepi at it IL I 1 kept saying to myself 11 ill do the work and it if I 1 am not paid it will ill be the fault of the rocks lien then I 1 m was as doubtful a as to tho the result arid and it was hard bard to keep my any courage up to the 11 scratching point I 1 worked until almost rundown and then my pan was hardly even full of dirt but tine gold at once coca become visible when I 1 began the was washing laing process wince when I 1 had finished lini shed the washing I 1 laid had a little over SIO for air my work jc it looked to he be more in the pan being quicksilver quick silvered but it proved only a bit or two over 10 whort when weighed I 1 went down to the rocks on several sundays gild and on off days and the best I 1 ever niada was sj the highest wages age paid mo me was waa 15 for a long slid and buby day on the days s when I 1 made e too ten to twelve dollars I 1 generally had the luck joel to glad crevices throe or four inches in depth containing white while balky clay and little jo jot bl pebbles ot the size of zuailor quail or goodr shot eliol 1 mah till these pebbles I 1 coca occasionally sio nally pried out little braids beads of gold of about tile the same game siye says twine bome of my day partners afterwards afterward tried ahe 11 needle and feather style of mining hut but they ihry sun soon found their way down the river to the saloons of washington gLon arter after au all hour or two of scratching they swore they would not work PA such backbreaking business for all the gold in tile tha rocks but that I 1 then bad better pay in my any mine at oswego and but for tile tho terrible mountain monn iain climb to mud and fro 1 I should have worked over all the tables of rock tit in tho the vicinity thara may have been sull better bars farther do down n the river but I 1 never tried but the ono one any minar manir who has burned old stolen sluice boxes and ami riffle nnie blocks panned out the ashes care fully and slaved their contents ai will ill well understand why by oven even the most cant looking crevices in rock on oil a alier once rich in gold may he be made to pay w with ith no brailer lidai ier tools than a needle and a feather now HOW till lallia OP OF trin TIIE noris a ND GOLD thero there roust must now dow be lying I 1 in n tho the valleys between the sierra and the cot range kange mountains mount afna billions in fine gold w while title other bi billions ilion have been swept on out i into the pacific ocean pure gold Is a vry soft metal even when hardened with alloy and coined it Is so soft that there Is always alays considerable loo in handling and in transportation however much care Is in used what thun then must bo be lost when grains and nuggets nugget ft of the ihn pure metal are ground pounded and churned between bard and heavy rocks I 1 kit all the nuggets and grains of gold found foaud in either thu the ancle ancient or modern chor beds bed are arc worn down till cis as smooth as wa had pe libles I 1 let the experiment bo be made of drawing a guld gold coin across the face of a boulder A bright streak of gold m will ill he be left on the rock how tit ln iby y final be the particles of gold lef left ton on tile tho rock in tills streak yet they are as gold pus as Is the remaining in tho the coin though so title aniio that when abrow it dry upon water they will float ity continuing to rub the coin till rn the rock it will soon be worn away made into dust duft so 90 rine fine that tile the separate particles cannot be seon except with a powerful microscope all the nuggets now found have thus parted with their original substance by contact with rocks eliose gold streaked liae hae tit in turn born been worn away all and tho the gold set t broo run to float out mil to sea with the waterland waie wat erand silt alltop of the rivers chiapas chispas ch ispas we now tee bee no bigger than the off of melon w were ere doubLI OSS once corpulent nuggets we know that all mold gold a it cou chaim aills irom from its matrix in ill tho the qu all art Is rough but it ft Is id nuver noer so u clr h i found in the rivers or in mines w lion hen there has once in on n a lieu lien v cabla when found among rounded and pot pol hod lei do 01 it 1 gold been lost wo we sun sue even the hardest of quartz porphyry and granite worn and polished into rounded forms as aa smooth as agate I 1 abour 11 rot doirs noirs in tha th rocky boils of all the rivers river old and new ate aio found what bat the tha minors miners call pot holes these aro are round holes helps we worn r n in aba solid rork rock by stones atones being whirled round in them as the drag stones go round in an r ar astra the bottoms of 0 these holes are always found to be its as smooth as tho the bottom of an iron pot gold Is sometimes found in the pot holes b 0 lost but generally till all tbt falls into them tb Is brust is ground by the wb whirling irling stories to dust so 60 fine that tbt tile the water bolls it out in it the first days of gold minting mining in california the miners had 11 great expectations tat ions from these pot holes they aliey thought to find at the hie bottom of tho the bir big ones a bushel of golden nuggets after many a disappoint disappointment mouL experience peri ence taught them wisdom taught hem to indulge in fit very moderate expectations tile tho pot holes are of all depths from the were basins at 0 those just forming to such mich as are from fifteen to twenty feet in depth I 1 saw one no go deep on oil missouri armine in nevada county that la in order to reach the tha bottom it 11 was necessary to erect a windlass over it and work it as though it had been a shaft when the bottom was reached not enough gold wits was found to pity pay for rigging up tip this the windlass OP OF BRAZIL pot pol holes form in swift and shallow places vi here the bedrock bed rock lies but little be helow lowthe the surface of tho the running our cur rent arid and also below fills falls and lu in rapids rapid that pitch along down steep sleep elopes of solid rock 1 ine I he beginning Is the slopping of a rock in a small hollow where hero it Is kept agitated but cannot be rolled away by the force of tile the current by the rocking motion of the boulder small stones are ground into the underlying bedrock bed rock and the lie hole is deepened the big rouk roi k Is eventually thrown out by freshet u ben smaller ones got get into the bottom of the hole and spin round in it 11 until worn out or boiled out by a flood A small storm stone drop dropping plang into a pothole pot hole hola begins to spin about and after few revolutions climbs climb to abo toland top and escapes tho the stones that tho the current can spin but not lift out do tho the work of boring it Is a natural process of drilling indeed in some regions nature thus works with a alond drill on the river brazil a tributary of the and the Paris cas diamonds collect to ID the pot bol holes and under the weight of too the larger rocks spinning about do the work of drilling very rapidly unlike sold gold the diamonds aro are not readily worn out alio Tho lamond diamond washers cirs examine the abee caldei roos kettles kel llos very anxiously ai they almost always con contain taJO a number of diamonds each jai in bracil where there are falls on ohp swift boad headwaters of the rivers the pot holes are found to he be doing tho the work woric of cutting down the rock at a tolerably rapid rate and in a systematic manner in ibis way I 1 ane falls are slowly traveling up ahn streams rocks are left near the brink of the tha falls by the current by its sh hallowing allowing with its swifter rush before liking the leap arid and not being able to p pass ass over they are whirled about and begin the work of drilling in tills this way Is formed a row of 1 a few feet hack back from the brink of the vertical race of the rock forming the fall the holes are often so close together that ihil two or plants mojo unito and foria fona oue one largo large kettle some holes are found united at tho the bottom ottom Ij which are separated pa rated by a toot foot or two of solid rock at top tho the eventual result Is that a largo section of rock Is broken oil off in thermos the tico of 0 all such falls in fit Braaf flan rivers are to be seen the smoot smoothly bly bored halves of such it is iff much the samo game process as that eil in granite quarries here a slab of rock Is detached by drilling a row of holes ane GOLD Is VALLEYS however to return to california though the amount of gold swept into tile the ocean ateman and utterly hobt Is obviously vast beyond computation there undoubtedly still remains ad s much or more on oil tile bedrock bed lical rock under the valleys lying west of alio base of tho Bya luling shafts near ficare tile the americal Amerl Ame caa ami brie other rivers first strike |