Gold miner

“ When the miner finds it there, he does not call it gold, he calls it "color." This rude device that is simply motion, water, and a receptacle for the particles of gold, is the same process elaborated upon by expensive machinery, that tears up and runs through the mill thousands of tons of material found along streams, and in gulches, where streams ran ages ago, and which, changing their channels, have left their deposits of gold containing the wash from the lump or quartz gold, found in the veins of ore. ”

“ It seems that people expected to find mines all ready to work, and, since none are visible, sit down and give it up. Our company, as well as many another, is something of a farce when it comes to being a "mining company." We are doing nothing. It seems that when the gold fever takes hold of a man it deprives him of a fair proportion of his reason. But it cannot be denied that we are getting experience. Who would not be a miner under such comfortable circumstances as ours? Meanwhile I am skinning mice and chickadees. ”

“ The miner has found it a profitable field for his operations, the Jerome and Congress, with the Old Vulture and similar mines, having made great fortunes for their owners. More than half our knowledge of the country came primarily from the daring and courageous prospectors who risked its dangers and deaths in their search for gold. ”

“ For the first few years after the discovery of gold in the Buller district, the miners sought for the gold only on the beaches and banks of rivers, as in these places it was quickly obtained, and often in large quantities without preliminary labour or outlay. As soon as the best of the gold was taken in any one place and heavy labour became necessary to get more, the miner would quickly shift camp in search of a fresh prize. New discoveries were constantly being made, and hence the rushes of hundreds, or perhaps thousands of miners, which were so common in those days. ”

“ It has since transpired that in my wanderings I passed over some of the richest gold bearing deposits in the world but so unlike the gold bearing fields of California and Australia is the Rand that the most experienced miner would never have dreamed of the richness of the claims. ”

“ There is an entrancing interest in diamond mining far exceeding that of gold, for at any moment one is likely to come across a princely fortune. The miner is ever hopeful. Communing with himself, he says: "To-morrow I may be made independent by a lucky find." ”

“ Nor is the gold in all cases too fine to be saved by ordinary rude sluices, for "nuggets as big as kernels of corn"—the ideal gold of the placer miner—have been found by the handful, and may still be had in one well-known locality if the miner [Pg 2] is willing and able to endure the hardships and escape the dangers incident to the search. ”

“ It'll soon be dark. That pay dirt will keep. It's been there a good many hundred years, and it isn't going to run away in the night."
"Hadn't we better stake out a claim?" suggested Jed, who was rapidly becoming familiar with mining terms.
"We'll prospect a bit more first," replied Gabe. "It may not pay us to remain here. No use cleaning up a little bit like this, when we can get big nuggets a bit further on."
"But we're sure there's gold here," objected Jed, "and we don't know whether or not there's any further on."
"Go slow," advised the old miner. "Come on, now, help me fix up the tent." ”

“ In the Atlantic States, gold-mining is only a branch of industry, and not a very important one, compared with the other pursuits of the population; but in California it is the chief and almost the only occupation of the inhabitants of the mining districts; so that while, in the former place, the general virtue of the people keeps in check the particular vices of the miner, in the latter, the good intentions of the few are overruled and stifled by the vices of the many. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Them was the days, I’m telling you–you couldn’t walk the street for miners out spending their money–and a cliff-house like this with a good, tight roof, would bring in a hundred dollars a night, any time that it happened to rain. All them melted-down adobes was plumb full of people, the saloons were running full blast, and the miner that couldn’t steal ten dollars a day had no business working underground. They took out chunks of native silver as big as your head, and it all ran a thousand ounces to the ton, but even at that them worthless mule-skinners was throwing pure silver at their teams. ”

“ The holder of a miner’s right is entitled to enter upon any Crown land for the purpose of prospecting and searching for gold, and to take and maintain possession of a parcel or parcels of land and work the same, subject to the regulations and provisions of the Act; he is also authorised to cut timber for removal or for the erection of a place of residence or of business, and with the Warden’s consent, to make tramways or roads for mining purposes. Claims are of four kinds—alluvial deposits and river or creek beds; quartz lodes, reefs, and leaders ”

“ And even when he comes to the favored bar or placer from which many pounds of gold may have been taken, there is perhaps one chance in fifty in favor of his collecting any considerable amount of gold. Upon these very localities thousands of industrious miners barely make their living. The hopeful miner eagerly hastens, with high expectations, to the diggings. He chooses his bar, and marks off a claim ”

“ Our sailors, as well as Captain Gay, the mate and my uncle, were at once set to work washing gold on the banks of the inlet, their numbers being distributed among the miners, who showed them what to do and supervised the work. It appeared that all the gold gathered by our people was to go into a common pot, to be distributed equally among our captors; but each miner worked for himself alone, and was entitled to whatever he secured. ”

“ Many devices have been tried to catch all the gold, but none have succeeded perfectly, and some which have caught a portion of what escaped from the ordinary modes of mining, have been found to cost more than their yield. The miner does not grieve about that which he cannot catch. He is not careful to catch all that he could. His purpose is to draw the largest possible revenue per day from his claim. He does not intend to spend many years in mining, or if he does, he has become thriftless and improvident. ”

“ This work, particularly, should be done carefully when the miner is, as it is called technically, prospecting, when he looks for places where he would work, as in so doing he at once gets familiar with the character of the earth in that region, and will know in what portion of it he should look for gold. It is considered by the miners at present, that if from a panfull of dirt they are able to get a quantity of gold equal in value to fifty cents, they are satisfied with the result, and consider that they can make a little more than an ounce per day with a pan only. ”

“ In some of the claims the pay-dirt lies within two feet of the surface; in others it lies much deeper, but all the superincumbent matter is swept away.
Water is the great agent of the placer miner; it is the element of his power; its amount is the measure of his work, and its cost is the measure of his profit. With an abundance of water he can wash every thing; without water he can do little or nothing. Placer mining is almost entirely mechanical, and of such a kind that no accuracy of workmanship or scientific or literary education is necessary to mastery in it. ”

“ Most of the would-be miners at first rather expected to find gold lying on the surface of the earth, and were very much disappointed to learn that they actually had to dig for it. Moreover, digging in the boulders and gravel, under the terrific heat of the California sun in midsummer, was none too easy; and no matter how rich the diggings averaged—short of an actual bonanza—the miner was disappointed in his expectations. One man is reported saying: "They tell me I can easily make there eleven hundred dollars a day. ”

“ Ferguson and Tom soon found that he had not exaggerated. The new diggings were certainly far richer than those at River Bend. It was, in fact, the bed of a dead river upon which Russell had stumbled without knowing it. My readers are probably aware that in the beds of rivers or creeks the early miners found their first harvest of gold, and, that, where practicable, these were mined by turning the stream in the dry season, when the water was low. ”

“ On payable gold being found and reported to the Warden, the prospectors are entitled to a reward claim which varies from two to twenty claims of the ordinary area. 50 feet frontage are allowed to each miner on river and creek claims. On ordinary quartz claims, 50 feet along the line of reef, by a width of 400 feet, are allowed. The extent of ground in any lode claim not to exceed 3 chains by 5 chains, alluvial claim not to exceed 4 chains by 4 chains. This area may be increased by the Warden when the ground is poor, or expensive machinery has been erected. ”

“ Mount Alexander, for instance, produced more than ten thousand ounces of gold in the first fifteen days of existence. Any man with a spade and tin dish could be a successful miner. Indeed, few knew anything of mining, shown by the fact that many claims were abandoned and re-abandoned only to yield fortunes to second and third comers. One such abandoned claim, the “Poor Boy” at Eureka, yielded a nugget of pure gold weighing over six hundred ounces. In another instance, a pillar of earth, left as a support in a deserted claim at Bendigo, calved a nugget weighing more than five hundred ounces. ”

“ The rivers in which the gold is found are mountain-torrents, in which a canoe can scarcely float in summer, much less a dredging machine; and any large scoop working under water would miss the crevices and corners in the rocks, where most of the gold is found. As the water is very seldom more than a couple of feet deep, a diving-bell would be of little service. The flume, the ditch, and the wing-dam, are the chief tasks of the river-miner. The ditch is rarely used, because the banks of the mining-streams are usually so steep, high, rocky and crooked, that a flume is cheaper. ”

“ While gold dust and gold nuggets were to be found in every miner’s cabin in amounts ranging up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, still the boys were as poor as ever, for nowhere had they found the slightest signs of gold packed in moosehide sacks and corded up like stovewood.
They had gone through valleys, up and down streams, over tundras, into forests and across lakes and they had combed these districts pretty well, but the only visible effect of their efforts was the exeunt of their good grub and they were fast running short of their reserve rations for both themselves and their dogs. ”

“ One of the conclusions at which we are rapidly arriving is, that the chances of our making a fortune in the gold mines are about the same as those in favor of our drawing a prize in a lottery. No kind of work is so uncertain. A miner may happen upon a good{57} location in his very first attempt, and in a very few days make his hundreds or thousands, while the old miners about him may do nothing. ”

“ By their courageous conduct however and their faithful observance of the law under circumstances the most trying the miners soon gained the admiration and sympathy of the thinking public and what was of equal if not greater importance the commerce of a great State began to yearn for the gold that lay hidden in the gravel beds of the Sierra Nevada mountains. ”

“ Having so long been a miner, and acquainted with all his privations and sufferings; having experienced{vi} his elation at success and his depression at failure; having passed through the trying season of acclimation, and lain once beneath a lone oak, expecting, as he looked up to the stars shining clear above him, there to end his days; having rocked the gold-digger’s cradle, wielded his pick and spade, messed and slept with miners, he is prepared to present a correct view of his subject for those who have friends at the mines. ”

“ Alluvial or placer gold mining may be and generally is carried on with a very simple equipment. It is not a business that requires capital. With a pick, shovel, pan, some boards and nails, a hammer and saw and a few pounds of quicksilver, the energetic miner may start in business, and will rarely fail to make expenses and good wages. If he is one of the lucky ones, and gets hold of a rich piece of ground, he is rewarded with a fortune in a very short time. ”

“ The placers where the auriferous dust is found are, in comparison with the whole extent of the country so named, exceedingly limited. The miner often travels many miles over this region—he wanders for days along its river banks and over its bars, and turns aside into some of its numerous ravines—he often pauses to examine spots which appear to him favorable, and with his pick, shovel, and knife—always his companions—digs his fifty holes, testing each with his pan, without success. ”