Metals, to identify.
Hints to gold searchers.
In travelling through little known or comparatively undescribed countries, it will be well for the experienced traveller to closely investigate and carefully study the geology of the region he is passing through; outcropping rocks and the stones of the river beds should be closely investigated. Sand should be gathered on the borders of the deep pools, dried, spread out on paper, and examined under the lens. Thus will the formation of inaccessible mountain regions be often brought to light. The winter ices and spring floods, by breaking up and disintegrating the rocks they flow through, gradually, by friction and the grinding power of water-moved boulders, reduce the detritus which accompanies them to sand, more or less ponderous according to the metallic elements of which it is formed. Thus, by the breaking up of quartz veins by the agencies just referred to, gold is released from its matrix to enrich the sands and shingle beds of certain rivers. Alluvial tin is in the same way set free in grains and nodules from the granitic or other formations in which it resides, and, water borne, travels onward until arrested by some deep pit or crevice in the river bed, where it remains until disturbed by floods of more than ordinary magnitude, or the pick and shovel of the miner. Our space will not admit of our dealing at length with the indications of gold or other metals, or of the regions in which the precious metals and gems are to be sought. Metals, to identify. We shall, therefore, content ourselves by giving a few plain, and we trust practical, hints for the finding and identification of such metals, stones, &c., as the traveller is likely to meet with. First in importance we class gold; and, although precarious and uncertain in the bulk of its deposits, is more generally distributed throughout the earth’s surface than any other metal. Hints to gold searchers. Clay slate formations, traversed by iron-stained quartz dykes, are well worth investigating; and most of the streams which flow through such formations will be found, on careful examination, more or less auriferous. In prospecting a stream, or river bed, choose localities where the stream, after a sharp descending run, has impinged against a perpendicular bank, forming an eddy before flowing onward. Dig away boldly all the top deposit until the bed rock is reached. Rout out all the depressions, crevices, and holes in this, scooping up all the clay, gravel, and grit they may contain. Place all this in convenient quantities in a broad shallow metal pan or dish, add water to it, rub it about briskly with the hand, pour away all the dirty water, add more, shake it about, give a sweeping rotatory motion to your pan, pick out all large lumps of stone or quartz, giving a sharp look at the latter; still add water, and work the pan until nothing but fine clear sand remains in it. A dexterous rolling, tilting motion is given by the initiated, which at once clears away the baser fragments, and reveals the “colour,” as the gold dust is called by the miners. A broad shovel is at times used somewhat in the same manner, the handle being held as shown in the full-page illustration “[Searching for Gold],” when the process is called vanning.
Mining and miners’ tools.
