Gold dust

“ Gold dust was used to transact all business; all the coin was in the hands of the gentlemen gamblers. Most miners found it necessary to have a small pair of scales in the breast pocket to weigh the dust so as not to have to trust some one who carried lead weights and often got more than his just dues. Gold dust was valued at sixteen dollars an ounce. ”

“ It is a dust of remote ages, of things destroyed; a dust that is here continually—of which the gold at this moment fades to green at the zenith, but flames and glistens in the west, for it is now that magnificent hour which marks the end of the day's decline, and the still burning globe of the sun, quite low down in the heaven, begins to light up on all sides the conflagration of the evening. ”

“ Heat the gold over a spirit lamp, and a deposit of mercury will soon be seen upon the colder sides of the tube above the bottom. The tube may be broken and the mercury collected into a globule under water.
In mining regions gold dust passes current as coin, according to what is supposed to be its value. Occasionally counterfeit dust is offered. The readiest means by which it may be detected are as follows: The dust from any one district is always much alike, and any unusual appearance should create suspicion. ”

“ So far as discovered, the gold is found in an extent of country four hundred miles long, by one hundred and fifty wide, and no particular portion seems more productive than another. In the river and on the flatlands the gold dust is found; but among the rocks and in the highlands it is found in lumps, from the size of a man's hand to the size of an ordinary duck-shot, all of which is solid, and presents the appearance of having been thrown up by a volcanic eruption. So plenty is the gold, that little care is paid to the washing of it by those engaged when he left ”

“ The second and chief exploitation of gold dust is to the south of the great desert of Zaara, in the western part of Africa, from the mouth of the Senegal to the Cape of Palms. The gold occurs in spangles, chiefly near the surface of the earth, in the bed of rivulets, and always in a ferruginous earth. ”

“ The first gold dust seen by me in California was at Lassen’s Ranch, near where we entered the Sacramento valley. At that point there were traders selling provisions, mining implements, clothing and other needed articles to the unfortunate immigrants who had entered the valley by the way of “Greenhorn’s Cutoff,” and to miners that were traveling up the valley to Redding’s mines; these men taking in exchange gold dust which they wished with small scales provided for that purpose. ”

“ The gold-finders told us that some of them frequently got as much as fifty dollars a-day. As we rode from camp to camp, and saw the hoards of gold—some of it in flakes, but the greater part in a coarse sort of dust—which these people had amassed during the last few weeks, we felt in a perfect fluster of excitement at the sight of the wealth around us. One man showed us four hundred ounces of pure gold dust which he had washed from the dirt in a tin pan, and which he valued at fourteen dollars an ounce. ”

“ The gold-coloured dust fell from the dwarf's file like a thin, down-driven spirt of auriferous vapour.
"Miracle Gold," he thought, "Miracle Gold. All gold is Miracle Gold when one tests it by that only great reagent, the world. The world, the world. In my Miracle Gold there would be found an alloy of copper and silver. Yes, a sad and poisonous alloy. Copper is blood-red, and silver is virgin white, and gold is yellow, a colour between the two, and infinitely more precious than they, the most precious of all metals is gold. ”

“ Thickly powdered with the fine white dust of its own unpaven streets, dust that sent the inhabitants chronically sneezing and weeping and red-eyed about town, or sent them north to the lakes for exemption, dust that hung impalpably suspended in the still air and turned the sunsets to things of glorious rose and red and gold though there wasn't a single cloud or streamer in the sky to catch the light, dust that lay upon lawns and walks and houses in deep gray accumulation ... ”

“ Shall it profit a man to fill his mouth with dust, though it be the dust of gold mingled with precious stones, when he desires water? Or shall he be warmed in winter by the reflection of a fire in a mirror? ”

“ One man came in for supper last night who planked down a bag of dust worth fully $800 for me to weigh the dollar from. I poured out a little too much and he grabbed the bag and went out, saying, "Keep the change!" Most of the money taken in is dust. Cash is scarcer than ever. Copper plates are not obtainable, and silver dollars and halves are at a premium for covering the bottoms of rockers. The coins are amalgamated with mercury to catch the fine gold dust. I saw fifty arranged in rows in one rocker. Our claims are now covered with beach jumpers and we cannot get them off. ”

“ And he knew that this little-known Shungnak gold, which he had bought, was quite unlike the gold of Candle, which was a well-known dust in Nome:
The questioner exchanged significant glances with his friends, which Ticely did not appear to notice.
It is customary in a mining camp to ask men where their dust comes from. The excuse for so personal a question is the general interest which attaches to the subject of gold dust, and the often striking, and always minute, differences in the product of each creek. ”

“ The same cupidity has given rise to two new terms in the miners' glossary,—trade dust and bankable dust. Bankable dust means simply gold, pure and undefiled. Trade dust is gold with a plentiful sprinkling of black sand, and is of three grades, described very clearly by the terms good, fair, and dirty. The trader, in receiving our money, complains if it does not approximate what is bankable, but in paying us his money pours out a combination in which black sand is a predominating ingredient. ”

“ Whether with a pan, a cradle, or a sluice, the only thing that enables a miner to separate the gold from the worthless dirt is that the gold is smaller and heavier. But suppose the gold dust is so fine as to be invisible, it will be so light as to wash away easily; if it is in fine flakes, the flakes will almost float. All that light gold would be lost in the dirt that flows out of the bottom of the sluice, the tailings, as they are called. ”

“ The boys gazed at the gold nuggets in silent delight. They were of good size, and the youths realized that they must be very valuable. Frank thrust his hand into the sack again and this time brought forth a handful of reddish sand that they recognized as gold dust.
"Gold dust and nuggets! We've found it at last!"
"There are more sacks yet. Didn't dad say there were four?" ”

“ On our proceeding to the great temple, and passing the courtyards adjoining the market, we observed numbers of other merchants, who dealt in gold dust as it is dug out of the mines, which was exposed to sale in tubes made of the bones of large geese, which had been worked to such a thin substance, and were so white that the gold shone through them. ”

“ The recesses of the mountains and the rivulets that derive their sources from them are said to be rich in gold and silver, and they are also reported to yield copper and iron; it is, however, with great difficulty that gold is procured, on account of a superstitious feeling on the part of the mountaineers, who think it necessary to sacrifice a human life for every bottle of gold dust that is collected ”

“ The rivers and torrents carry down the golden sand, which in many localities is likewise to be found in places where there is no water, but there it is invisible, but in those that water flows over the gold dust gleams out. And flushing with water that has to be fetched the arid spots, they make the gold dust glitter, and by digging wells and by [98] devising other means they get out the gold by washing the sand, and what are called gold washings are now more numerous than the gold diggings. ”

“ Then arise, gather as much as possible of a black dust which thou wilt find thickly strewed on the ground; put it into this bag, and throw it down to me, after which I will contrive an easy means for thy descent, and when thou hast rejoined me we will return to our vessel, and I will convey thee safely back to thy own country. The dust, which has the quality of transmuting metals into gold, we will share between us, and shall each have enough to rival all the treasuries on earth. ”

“ What dirt there is is pure gold dust, which the dust carts collect in order to throw in large baskets into the drains.
"The pebbles against which we stumble continually are brilliants as large as nuts, despised on account of the extraordinary abundance with which the soil supplies them. ”

“ We threw off the top earth and commenced our washings with the gravel, which proved so rich, that, excited by curiosity, we weighed the gold extracted from the first washing of fifty{73} pansful of earth, and found seventy-five dollars, or nearly five ounces of gold to be the result. We made six washings during the day, and placed in our common purse that night a little over two pounds,—about four hundred dollars worth of gold dust. ”

“ May one cut himself with a knife because it is made of gold? தங்கத்தைக் குவிக்கிறேன் என்றாலும், தன் புத்தி விடுகிறது இல்லை. Though I promised to give a heap of gold, he persisted in his own ideas. தங்கத்தூள் அகப்பட்டாலும் செங்கற்றூள் அகப்படாது. Though gold-dust is procurable, brick-dust is not. தங்கத்தை உருக்கி விட்டதுபோல. As fine gold was melted and poured out. தங்கம் தரையிலே தவிடு பனையிலே. Gold scattered on the ground, bran in an earthen vessel. தங்கம் புடத்தில் வைக்கப்பட்டாலும் தன் நிறம் போகாது. Though gold is put into the fire to be refined, its hue is not lost. ”

“ The particles of gold are deposited among the hairs, while the earthy matter, being lighter, is washed away. The greater part of the gold dust is collected on the three upper, or head skins, which are changed every four hours, while the lower skins are changed every six or eight hours, according to the richness of the ore. The sand which is washed from the head skins is collected together, and amalgamated with quicksilver, in barrels ”

“ By friction, gold loses every year a fourteen hundredth part of its bulk. This is what is called the Wear. Hence it follows that on fourteen hundred millions of gold in circulation throughout the world, one million is lost annually. This million dissolves into dust, flies away, floats about, is reduced to atoms, drugs, weighs down consciences, amalgamates with the souls of the rich whom it renders proud, and with those of the poor whom it renders brutish. ”

“ Before the party returned to tea I had washed out all the stuff, and procured from it nearly two pennyweights of gold-dust, worth about 6s. or 7s.
Tin-dish-washing is generally done beside a stream, and it is astonishing how large a quantity of "dirt" those who have the knack of doing it well and quickly can knock off in the course of the day. ”

“ The sand containing the gold generally lies upon a layer of light yellow clay and is covered with a darker bituminous clay. The gold dust originates from the friction of the nuggets and laminæ against each other, or against stones, while they are being borne along by the wild rush of the waters. Real mines in which the layers ”

“ The Lump, or Rock Gold, is in pieces of different weights, pretended to be brought our of Mines. I saw one of these which Mr. Phips had at Cape Corso, weighing thirty Ounces, they are always suspected to be artificial, and by the cunning Fellows in Trade, cast so, to hide some baser mixture of Silver, Copper or Brass: wherefore it is not safe trusting to the antique, dirty look, but to cut or run it for satisfaction.
Dust Gold is the common Traffick, the best comes hither from the neighbouring inland Kingdoms of Dinkira, Akim, and Arcana, and is got (we are told) out of the River-Sands. ”

“ But, at all events, this yellow leaf of dead gold, shed, not from the ruined woodlands, but the ruined rocks, will help you to remember the second kind of crystals, LEAF-crystals, or FOLIATED crystals, though I show you the form in gold first only to make a strong impression on you, for gold is not generally or characteristically, crystallized in leaves; the real type of foliated crystals is this thing, Mica; which if you once feel well and break well, you will always know again ”

“ 'Commerce has set the mark of selfishness,
The signet of its all-enslaving power
Upon a shining ore, and called it gold: _55
Before whose image bow the vulgar great,
The vainly rich, the miserable proud,
The mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings,
And with blind feelings reverence the power
That grinds them to the dust of misery. _60
But in the temple of their hireling hearts
Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn
All earthly things but virtue. ”

“ Gold, the most precious of all metals, for which men delve and starve and toil and die, still lies hidden in immeasurable masses, in unsuspected places, screened perhaps by a thin sheeting of earth, over which thousands have tramped, never dreaming of the boundless riches just beneath their feet. And rubies and diamonds strew the bottom of the ocean or scintillate within caverns and caves, as they have shone and gleamed through ages, still waiting for the fortunate miner or explorer to bring them to light and the gaze of an admiring world. ”

“ Death was the guardian of the valley and the specter that patrolled its beat. Mineral wealth was the irresistible allurement which dared men to defy its terrors. Gold! Dismukes himself had claimed there were ledges of gold quartz, and Dismukes was practical and accurate. Many fabulous stories of gold hung on the lips of wandering prospectors. The forbidding red rocks held jewels in their hard confines—garnets, opals, turquoises; there were cliffs of marble and walls of onyx. The valley floor was a white crust where for miles and miles there was nothing but salt and borax. ”