The Story of Gold |
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Common terms and phrases
amalgam amount of gold beds Bonanza California carried cent Central America clay Colorado concentration Coolgardie cost creased cubic yard cyanide process decline depth dollars Eduard Suess enormous exploration extraction fall of prices feet fissures formed free milling gold and silver gold deposits gold discoveries gold dredge gold fields gold mill gold mining industry gold occurs gold production gold supply Guanajuato hydraulic mining important increased iron Kalgoorlie labor large amounts lode machinery material mercury methods of gold Mexico miles Mining Company mining district modern gold mountain Nevada operations ounces output particles patio process period placer mining placers precious metals production of gold profit prospector prosperity quantities quartz railroad region result river rock sand scarcity Siberia sluice South Africa South America stamp mill streams supply of gold surface tion transportation Transvaal twenty United valley veins wages washed West Australia Western Australia yield
Popular passages
Page 190 - All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United States...
Page 100 - ... the mountain above. In mining either by shaft or by gallery, barriers of silex are met with, which have to be driven asunder by the aid of fire and vinegar; or more frequently, as this method fills the galleries with suffocating vapors...
Page 191 - A location cannot be extended over a senior discovery in the actual possession of another.
Page 67 - ... enquiry was always if there was any gold to be found there ; and according to the information which they received concerning this particular, they determined either to quit the country or to fettle in it. Of all thofe expenfive and uncertain projects, however, which bring bankruptcy upon the greater part of the people who engage in them, there is none perhaps more perfectly ruinous than the fearch after new filver and gold mines.
Page 51 - The same is the case in the West India islands ; and, according to the common reports, in South America and in India. There must be some general cause producing such extensive effects, which are thus felt alike where taxation is high or low, under despotic and free governments, and whether the land is cultivated by slaves...
Page 192 - An alien, upon declaring his intention of becoming a citizen, may have the advantage of work previously done, and of a record previously made by him, in locating a mining claim on the public mineral...
Page 141 - ... loss of the fine gold which is sometimes carried away with the dust it is customary to spread a piece of canvas on the ground, one end being placed under the pan and the other extending to leeward.* The next stage is to further winnow the material by tossing it up and down in the pan (see Fig. 7); the latter is held slanting forward, and is jerked so as to throw the dirt from the front to the back of the pan. The light particles are separated, as chaff is driven from grain.
Page 51 - In this country, where the cultivators are a class of capitalists distinct from the proprietors, their capitals have generally been diminishing, whilst the decline of the mines has been proceeding, and the application of their produce to other purposes than that of coin has been increasing. It certainly does not follow from these two courses having been in simultaneous progression that one is the cause of the other.
Page 142 - ... the dirt from the front to the back of the pan. The light particles are separated, as chaff is driven from grain. Then, giving the dish a vanning movement, the prospector again removes the coarser particles that come to the surface by skimming them off with his hand. There now remains about half a pint of material, and this is diminished by panning, just as in water, the dry particles having a mobility permitting this method of treatment. Finally he drops on his knee, and, holding the pan (see...
Page 51 - Europe, the same complaints are heard, however various be the tenures on which land is held. Such complaints are not bounded by the limits of Europe. The cultivators of North America assert that the prices of their productions yield them no profit, especially those of corn, tobacco, cotton, and rice.