Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 422
FRIENDSHIP AMONG THE PIONEERS 159
deed of gold, but of something infinitely more valuable,
— Tinka herself, the Treasure of the Redwoods.
The operation of washing was thus described by a
Pioneer: ‘“‘ The bowl is held in both hands, whirled violently back and forth through a half circle, and pitched
this way and that sufficiently to throw off the earth and
water, while the gold mixed with black sand settles
to the bottom. The process is extremely tiresome, and
involves all the muscles of the frame. In its effect it is
more like swinging a scythe than any other labor I ever
attempted.”
This work was much less laborious when the miner
had access to a current of water, and in later times it
was assisted by the use of a magnet to draw away the
iron of which the black sand was largely composed.
The bowl or pan stage was the first stage, and its tendency was to arrange the miners in couples like that of
Tennessee and his Partner. Next came the use of the
rocker or cradle, — the “ golden canoe,” as the Indians
called it. The rocker was an oblong box, open at the
lower end, the upper end being protected by a screen
or grating. The screen intercepted all pebbles and
gravel, and the finer material, earth and sand, was swept
through the screen by the action of water thrown or
directed against it. The same water carried the earth
through the box, and out at the lower end; but the
heavy sand, containing the gold, sank and was intercepted by cleats nailed across the inside of the box. A
rough cradle, formed from a hollow log, would sell at
one time for two hundred dollars.
This process required the services of four or five men,
and in pursuing it the miner ceased to be a vagrant. He
acquired a habitation, more or less permanent, and entered into various relationships with his fellows, which
finally included the lynching of a small portion of them.
This is the life described by Bret Harte in The Luck of