Show FOR GOLD i at the kate of a day from the bed of a birer extravagant stories aro told about the wealth of gold sprinkled throughout the snake river country in idaho a general thing tho gold ia very fine the par tides being of so light weight to be elusive save when worked on a large aicale it is difficult to make good wages in recovering the gold numerous bare along the river would prove profitable could water be commanded for sluicing or hydraulic purposes an adequate supply ia bard to obtain on account of the slight and gradual fall of the stream and the level character of the outlying lands to overcome this lack of water as well as insure sufficient dumping ground a big floating gold saving dredge has been constructed and is now at work on the idaho bank of the snake river about 10 miles above payette it ia a stem wheel flatboat propelled by steam substantially constructed 63 feet long and 23 foot wide it is equipped with a 85 horsepower marine engine and boiler and adapted in every way for navigating great waterway with a slight alteration it could be transformed into a steam dredge and used to scoop up sand and gravel from the bottom of the stream that has never been attempted As in the past operations are now confined to working bars out of the bed or channel of the river the method pursued is to anchor alongside one of hese gravel deposits and by the use of scrapers bring the material to be handled within the reach of the gold washing machinery with which the craft Is rigged the gravel is scooped up by buckets attached to an endless chain there are 48 of these receptacles on a belt 60 feet in length and each has a capacity of about 20 pounds of dirt which is delivered into a hopper this is also an agitator and the process employed may be described as a steam rocker with the exception that it has an end motion instead of one sidewise the gold is caught on copper plates with quicksilver the tailings are carried off in sluice boxes by the force of a stream of water of mineral inches supplied by a china pump run by the engine which drives all the other machinery the gravel is worked so thoroughly that no gold escapes in the tailings that are dumped fato the river an average of tons of gravel is daily handled and for this work three men are employed an engineer one to work the scraper and another who shovels the dirt into a pile so that the buckets can scoop u a full load the bar now being worked covers an area of 10 to 15 tho gold is on top or close to the surface and will not pay to handle to a greater depth than 1 toot to 18 inches this shows avalue of 1 to 8 cents a pan A cleanup is made every night and the average of the runs for the first three days was very satisfactory to thornton williams the owner of the craft he says be expects to take out upward of a day as long as he works which will be cold weather sets in when he has gone over the bar which now engages his attention he will tackle another helena independent |