Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/319

Rh to them and dig out the rock, and break it up fine to get out the gold, just as they do silver. Another way is to find it in the loose sand in the bottoms of rocks and in gravel. When the miners first went out, they used to take a little  gravel in a dish with some water, and shake it  hard, so a little would slop over each time. The gold was heavy and would sink and stay after all the rest had gone. They called it ‘panning out well’ when there was a lot left in  the dish. Now they turn brooks to run over a row of troughs with holes scooped out in the  bottoms, and the gold drops into the holes, and  the other stone goes on. Then there is hydraulic mining. They turn a stream of water against the side of a hill and wash it all down  to start with, and then they put it through the  troughs just the same way.

“Gold is soft when it is pure, so they have to mix it with other metals to keep it from  wearing out. They call that alloying it. We tell how pure gold is by the number of carats. Twenty-four is pure, but eighteen is very fine.

“I have only one thing more to say. When you say a person has ‘sand,’ or courage, that