CHINESE GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA.
HOW A SHIP WAS DESERTED.
It is related that one day a ship came into port, having taken a pilot outside the entrance to the bay. The pilot, in the hearing of some of the crew, told the captain of the wonderful discovery, and, as he afterwards acknowledged, exaggerated the real state of affairs very considerably. The ship came to anchor about sunset, and was to be moved to her dock the next morning. When the captain went on deck to wait the arrival of his pilot, he found nobody on board. The sailors had heard the story of wonderful fortunes to be obtained in the mines, and they had stolen a boat, and gone ashore. The first and second mates had followed the example of the men, leaving the captain to his solitary ship. The pilot came off, as agreed. He was a conservative old grandfather, who did not believe in making money; otherwise there would have been no pilot at all. He told the captain that it was useless to try to get the ship to the dock, or do anything with her; and the latter, after thinking the matter over, concluded it would be best to leave the craft at anchor, put her in charge of a keeper, if such a man could possibly be found, and make a journey to the mines himself.
The first specimen of gold sent from California to New York was forwarded to the editor of the New York Herald, the paper which was first on the Atlantic coast to announce the discovery. The first rumors were received with incredulity and ridicule, but very soon the specimens of the precious metal coming in considerable quantities, and the enthusiastic letters of officers of the army and men of good repute, changed the current of feeling, and an almost unparalleled excitement began. It spread through Europe and Asia, and the thirst for gold was universal. In 1847 the population of California altogether was not fifteen thousand; in 1849 the great rush began, and it was estimated that, during the six months from the 1st of July, 1849, to the 1st of January, 1850, ninety thousand persons arrived in California from Mexico, Chili, Peru, the Sandwich Islands, United States, and Europe. Of this ninety thousand, such were the hardships they had to endure, and the privations to which they were subjected, one fifth of the entire number perished by disease within six months succeeding their arrival.
Before 1850 the population of California had risen to one hundred thousand, and it has been increasing ever since. Its population ten years later was estimated at about seven hundred thousand.
It is a curious fact that most of the rich placer diggings in California were discovered within three or four years of the discovery at Sutter’s mill-race. Some rich deposits have been found since that time, but none of them of any great importance. The placer fields of California to-day are pretty nearly worked out, and the most extensive mining of that state is now prosecuted by machinery.
WASHING WITH THE ROCKER.
The earlier diggings were in the valleys or streams or in gulches, opening into the valleys. The washings were first conducted with a sheet iron pan, held in the hands of the miner, who could wash only a few quarts of earth at a time. An improvement upon the pan was the rocker, a box arranged so that it could be rocked like a cradle, with no board at one end, with a few slats nailed across the bottom to catch the gold, and having a piece of sheet iron on the top pierced with holes a quarter of an inch in diameter. Earth was thrown upon this iron, and water was poured on. The cradle was set upon a slight incline, so that the stones rolled off at the end, while the water, with the earth, sand, and gold, was carried through. The gold caught upon the riffles, while the lighter substances were washed away. Nuggets, or large pieces of gold that would not pass through the holes, were sometimes thrown out with the stone and lost; but the danger of such an occurrence was not very great, principally for the reason that nuggets were not alarmingly abundant.
Two men were required to work a rocker. It was placed by the side of a stream, and one man grasping its handle with one hand, flourished a dipper in the other. His companion brought the auriferous earth to the machine, and threw it upon the iron. Man number one would then throw a quantity of water upon the earth, and agitate the machine as rapidly as possible. The earth and water would become mixed, and pass through the holes, and the stone would roll away from the end of the cradle. It was necessary to keep the water running pretty briskly on the top of the machine, and likewise to keep it well supplied with earth. By the end of the day’s working at this business, the two men would be delightfully wearied and ready to engage in almost any other honorable and profitable pursuit, especially a profitable one.