Show STEAMBOAT MINING HINING rich P returns of gold from the bed of snake alver er A novel blears or of working the im sara of icho great wate Water Y tha gold caught on copper platen plate with QuIck allyer Z vika stories are aretola told about the we wealth th of osgold gold s sprinkled crinkled throughout on t the snake river country in idaho As a general thing says the helena independent the gold is very fine the particles being of so BO light weight as to be elusive save when worked on a large scale it is difficult to make good wages in recovering the he gold numerous bars along the river would prove profitable could water be c commanded 0 r mand ed f fory or sluicing i or li b hel r lu icing dicing an ade adequate supply is hard y a to obtain on account of the slight and gradual fall of the stream and the level ch character fracter of the outlying lands to overcome this lack ot of water as well as insure suf sufficient 11 dumping ground a big floating gold saving dredge has been constructed ted and is now at work on th the 6 idaho bank of the snake river about ten miles above payette it is a stern stem wheel flatboat propelled by steam substantially constructed sixty five feet long and twenty two feet wide it is equipped with a thirty five horse power marine engine and boiler and adapted in every way for navigating gr great eat waterway 7 atory my with ib slight alteration it could be trini transformed fb ame steaba ldredge dredge and used to asido scoop up sand and gravel froni from the bottom of the stream that has never been attempted As in the past operations are n now 0 bior confined lined to work ting bars liar sout out of the bed or channel of the river the method pursued is to anchor alongside one of these gravel deposits and by the use of scrapers bring the miter material lil to be handled within the reach of the gold washing machinery with which the craft is rigged the gravel is scooped up tip by buckets attached to an endless chain there are forty eighton eight of these receptacles on a belt sixty feet in length and each has a capacity of about twenty pounds of dirt which is delivered into a hopper this is also an agitator and the process employed may be described describe d as a steam rocker with the exception that it has in an end motion instead of one ai dewise the goldIs gold is haughtion caught caugh tion on copper plates plate with quicksilver the arbe tailings ara are carried offin sluice boxes by the force of a stream of water of one V hundred and fifty mineral ln inches cli S supplied by a china pump run dy by tle 4 e engine n which drives all the other oabe cyna I 1 chinery the gravel is w rk i I 1 so cr thoroughly ehly that no gold escapes arx into 11 h e tailings that are dumped into i nt th theay v anve 1 0 er an average of one hu hundred tons ct gravel are daily handled and for this work three men are employed an ai en gincer ona one to work the sc scraper ands and another one who shovels avels th tb the dirt intha in 1 pile the buckets can scoop up a full load the bar now bing being worked covers an area of ten to fifteen acres the gold Is on top or close id to the surface and will not pay to handle to a great greater depth than one loot foot to eighteen inches shoara a value lue of t one d one half j to three cents a pan A al cupl made de every nigh tand and ther tho of the runs fo for r the first three days was very f to the owner er of the ajl craft he ej says lib he expects to tako take out up upward wa rd of one bue hundred doll dollars a day as long as he works which will willbe be until cold weather sets in when he has haa gone over the bar which now engages his hie attention he will tackle another |