powder; the process of washing removes all the lighter particles, and
amalgamation finally secures the gold-dust. The washing, when
described, sounds a very simple process; but it is beautiful to see how
the exact adaptation of the current of water to the specific gravity of
the gold, so easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal. The
mud which passes from the mills is collected into pools, where it
subsides, and every now and then is cleared out, and thrown into a
common heap. A great deal of chemical action then commences, salts of
various kinds effloresce on the surface, and the mass becomes hard.
After having been left for a year or two, and then rewashed, it yields
gold; and this process may be repeated even six or seven times; but the
gold each time becomes less in quantity, and the intervals required (as
the inhabitants say, to generate the metal) are longer. There can be
no doubt that the chemical action, already mentioned, each time
liberates fresh gold from some combination. The discovery of a method
to effect this before the first grinding would without doubt raise the
value of gold-ores many fold.
It is curious to find how the minute particles of gold, being scattered
about and not corroding, at last accumulate in some quantity. A short
time since a few miners, being out of work, obtained permission to
scrape the ground round the house and mills; they washed the earth thus
got together, and so procured thirty dollars' worth of gold. This is
an exact counterpart of what takes place in nature. Mountains suffer
degradation and wear away, and with them the metallic veins which they
contain. The hardest rock is worn into impalpable mud, the ordinary
metals oxidate, and both are removed; but gold, platina, and a few
others are nearly indestructible, and from their weight, sinking to the
bottom, are left behind. After whole mountains have passed through this
grinding mill, and have been washed by the hand of nature, the residue
becomes metalliferous, and man finds it worth his while to complete the
task of separation.
Bad as the above treatment of the miners appears, it is gladly accepted
of by them; for the condition of the labouring agriculturists is much
worse. Their wages are lower, and they live almost exclusively on
beans. This poverty must be chiefly owing to the feudal-like system on
which the land is tilled: the landowner gives a small plot of ground to
the labourer for building on and cultivating, and in return has his
services (or those of a proxy) for every day of his life, without any
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