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Show 4 MINING REVIEW. INTER-MOUNTAI- N revenue, $2; total revenue, $6555; operating expenses, $3784; expense, $623; total expenses, $4407, showing a profit of $2148. cellaneous Hydraulic Mining. From a work on hydraulic mining, issued by the Joshua Hendy Machine of San Francisco, the followThe Review is informed that there company general observations on the openhave been larger nuggets of gold found ing of a gravel mine are taken: in the Victoria gold fields than the one ing There are two vitally important redescribed in last weeks issue, the to be absolutely predetermined weight of which was given at 669 quisites before entering or engaging in any ounces. There is in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, hydraulic mining enterprise; and this preliminary caution and suggestion is England, a cast of the Welcome Stranger, the largest nugget of geld ever advanced in the interest of every perfound, and it came from the Victoria son who may contemplate undertaking gold fields. It was unearthed by John such ventures with a view to realizing Beason and Richard Oates at Dunolly. ultimate pecuniary profits. First The placer or deposit of gravel forty miles north of Ballarat, in Victoria, on February 5, 1869. In the must contain gold in sufficient quantirough this monster nugget weighed ties to yield a fair interest or dividend more than 140 pounds, its exact weight upon the capital invested in the purbeing 2250 ounces, 10 pennyweights and chase of the ground to be hydraulicked 14 grains. It appears to have been sinand the original cost of the mining gularly free from quartz, as when it profit must, of course, be over and was refined there were still 2228 ounces, above all of the expenses attendant upand these brought in the Bank of Eng- on the conduct of the mining operaland $46,430.58. The nugget was found tions, and a liberal estimate and allowon the extreme margin of a patch of ance must be made for all of these auriferous alluvium near Bulldog and contingent costs and expenses. Reef. It was about 21 inches in length Second There must be secured as and 10 inches wide, but there is no an available volume of water, record of its thickness. There is also large under as high a head or presacting a record of another large nugget which sure and in as close proximity to the was found in Ballarat in 1S58. Its proposed to be hydraulicked, as weight is given at 2166 ounces, but deposit is possible. there is no record naming its discovThese premises having been satisfacerers or showing what disposition was torily arranged and determined, then made of it. the work of hydraulic mining may be The sentiments of Mr. H. K. Thurber, commenced. This is accomplished by now manager of the Fortuna Mining the utilization of the force or power of company, at Hailey, are indicated by water, and under certain conditions the following item, published by the (governed by the character of the New York World: ground to be attacked) the use of exOne of those at Democratic headplosives enters as a factor. The power of the former depending quarters yesterday was H. Watson Cornell, a son of former Gov. Alonzo B. upon its volume and the pressure unCornell and grandson of Ezra Cornell, der which it can be applied, it is therethe founder of Cornell University. The fore essential that the source of water visitor announced that, though he was supply, the conveying ditch and the a Republican, he would support the distributing reservoir shall be at as movement, and as his first great an elevation above the deposit of contribution presented a letter from H. auriferous gravel intended to be hyK. Thurber, who is a member of the draulicked, and also in as close proxExecutive Committee of the American to it as the contour of the vicinProtective Tariff League. His contri- imity will permit. The first conbution headed the list of subscriptions age ground a maximum hydrostatic to the Harrison campaign fund of 1892. dition insures pressure; the second, short lines of Mr. Thurber writes: I am in this silver movement heart main and distributing pipes. To give an idea of the immense powand soul. I verily believe that Bryan and Sewall will win in this fight. It is er which can be derived from a given an uprising of the people against op- volume of water, acting under a given be stated that a quanpression. I think the result in No- pressure, it may vember will open the eyes of the Re- tity of water equivalent to, say, one thousand miners inches, discharged publicans. nozzle under a presthrough a h The mining men of this State should sure, or head of, say, three hundred contribute, in proportion to the import- feet, will have the effective impact of ance of the industry in which they are a solid body weighing a ton, being proengaged, to the Utah exhibit at the pelled through space with a velocity of, Exposition, to be say, one hundred and fifty feet per secheld at Omaha in 1898. The people of ond. Such a volume, uninterruptedly that city have shown a wonderful Impinging upon a bank of earth or of amount of enterprise, and all projects gravel, having, as it does, one-tenof this sort, designed to display the re- the velocity of a projected cannon ball, sources of the great West, should be must necessarily do enormous execuencouraged. tion and produce the caving of an ordibank of gravel without the necesNevadas four goldbug papers are the nary Reno Gazette, Carson News, Virginia sity of blasting. After a gravel deposit or bank has Enterprise and Elko Free Press. been given a fair frontage opening for the commencement of hydraulic operaminThe ignorance of some ing experts is much more remarkable tions and a line of sluice boxes, griz-zly- s, than their knowledge. undercurrents, etc., laid down free-silv- er six-inc- Trans-Mississip- pi th self-styl- ed and water, under pressure, conducted through iron pipes, connected with hydraulic nozzles (more familiarly designated as giants) the work of hydraul-ickin- g can be formally undertaken. hydraulic giant, attached to an iron pipe of any length and of suitable dimensions, conducting a given volume of water acting under a given pressure from the bulkhead or penstock of a ditch or reservoir, having been placed at a proper and safe distance from the point of attack upon the gravel bank A Intended to be hydraulicked, and the water gate in the giant pipe line having been gradually opened, a jet or stream of water issues from the nozzle. This stream increases in volume and strength as the gate is opened more and more, and in an incredibly short space of time a body of water, representing from, say two hundred to one thousand or more miners' inches, governed by the capacity of the nozzle, plays with astounding and magnificent force upon the bank. The water discharged through the nozzle is to the touch as hard as a bar of steel, and retains, when Issuing from the latest improved style of giant, its cylindrical and condensed form until it strikes the bank. The effect of this lance-thruof water is scarcely visible. At the first shock, a thousand rays fly in all directions; a little later the lance has buried Itself deep in the bosom of the bank and the water boils, hisses and scintillates over and around the lips of the aperature the opening widens masses of earth, sand, gravel, etc., tumble in all direction an arch, wide and deep, is carved in the breast of the bank the jambs of the arch to the right and left, are demolished, and the first cave in the mine is accomplished. This caved material flows downward st through a flume Into the line of sluice boxes, which have been previously placed in position, care being bed-roc- k taken that an even flow is maintained throughout their length, and that they are never overloaded. Masses of hard gravel, clay, cement, etc., too large and cumbersome to pass through the sluices, must be reduced to smaller fragments by either the pick or blasting. For all such material as can be preforated by drilling, powder must be used as the most efficient disintegrator. When a sufficient clearance of frontage area has been effected to afford ample open space for the disposition of heavy boulders, tree stumps and natural rubbish, either wheelbarrows, cars or derricks must be used to convey such to a suitable place of deposit. A thorough system of arrangement for the permanent placement of this cumbrous material must be primarily outlined, adopted and adhered to. Such a system will necessarily accustom the miners to dispose of at once and for nil time all valueless incumbrances. It is hardly necessary to reiterate that in opening a hydraulic mine it is first important to secure, as soon as possible, a large, unobstructed, opn frontage in order, for a further reason, that two or more giants may be utilized in attacking the bank, the number thus operated being, of course, governed by the volume of water at commond and the intended scope of the mining work. These several giants being supplied with water, can open a cross-fir- e upon any point of the bank, and thus, by concentrated action, perform grand execution. |