Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 5 Issue 3.djvu/19



sand. After being filled, borax is added, as the crevices permit, which frees the gold from impurities, and the crucibles are placed on the hot coke-fires of the furnaces.. Additions of gold and borax are made to that in the crucibles at different times, until the smelter is satisfied that the bar will be of the usual size. Each crucible is also skimmed several times with a small, coiled wire that takes up the refuse matter which may rise to the top of the melted gold. Ap hour fits the gold for the mold, and nothing can be more beautiful than its appearance at this time. The color is not unlike that of a burning gas-jet, but it has a brilliancy far surpassing it. One who has seen it at this period need not wonder at the rise of that old Alchemy whose birth, and life, and death it proved to be. Poured into the mold, itinstantly changes to a dull, lustreless color, covered with black specks, and full of ugly little holes that mar its beauty and injure its sale. With the gold in bars, which have an average weight of 250 ounces, with a valuation of $19 per ounce, the "cleanup" is completed; and we notice, as the next and last important features of the mines, those of drifting and blasting. By "drifting" is meant the work of running the small tunnels into the face of the bank. These are of different lengths, according to the amount of dirt intended to be loosened, and have a uniform size of four feet in height by three in width. Work is continued upon them day and night during all the week, except Sunday—one man working at a time, and he in a disagreeable manner, as he can have choice of but two positions: one, a seat on an empty powderkeg, and the other, on his knees. He generally takes both by way of variety. When he has loosened a few wheelbarrows of dirt, he finds a temporary relief in wheeling the dirt out of the drift. After running a given number of feet, the main drift is capped by a short

er one, running at right-angles with it. When this is completed, the drift is ready for loading. This is generally done by the foreman of the claim, assisted by one or twoofthemen. The powder is brought in kegs from the powderhouse, on a rack made for the purpose, which is thoroughly lined with zinc, to prevent the lodgment of grains of powder in the wood, thereby causing explosion. The rack will contain from six to eight kegs, and is carried to the drift by two men. About fifty kegs are used, to load a common-sized drift, or twelve hundred and fifty pounds. The powder is deposited keg by keg in the given drift, in a horizontal position, until the cap-drift, and a few feet of the main one, are filled. A keg is then opened, and the end of a quarter-inch fuse imbedded in the powder. This fuse is inclosed in boxes, six or eight feet in length, which serve to protect it, while the men are tamping. The fuse being thus inclosed, tampingcommences. Thedirtthat came from the drift was first carefully packed around the boxes that protect the fuse, and then throughout the drift. Tamping finished, the fuse is lighted at leisure, and the blast goes off.

In most instances, a blast is successful, but occasionally one will blow out, leveling every thing that may stand in its way. A case of this kind happened in the Blue Gravel Mine, a few years since, ruining all of the buildings in the mine.

The largest blast ever put off in this mining district, was fired in the Randlin Claim sometime in May, of 1869. It consisted of 1,500 kegs of powder, or 37,500 pounds, and was the chief topic of interest in the village for months before the occurrence. All manner of predictions could be heard in relation to it, the most opposite and the most improbable: it must blow outs it could not upheave such an amount of dirt as it must loosen in order to be successful. The blast in question lay at the foot of