The Gold-seeker's Manual |
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Common terms and phrases
acid alloy alluvial amount annual supply appears ARTHUR HENFREY assay auriferous auriferous veins avoirdupois bay of San beds bottom Brazil California carats cascalho chiefly coast colour considerable contain gold copper cupel deposits described dollars estimated Europe extend feet gold and silver gold-washings grains granite gravel hitherto Illustrations important iron labour large quantities less lumps masses mercury miles millions sterling mineral mines mode mountains native gold nature nearly nitric nitric acid ounce of gold ounces of silver oxide particles porphyries pounds weight precious metals present probably produce proportion pure gold pyrites quantity of gold quartz rich river rocks Sacramento San Francisco San Joaquin San Joaquin river sand schist Siberia side Sierra Nevada soil specific gravity stones streams supply of gold surface tains tellurium tion trachytic transition porphyries Tule lakes upper Ural valley value of gold Villa Rica volcanic washing worth yield
Popular passages
Page 100 - Indian baskets, but the greater part had a rude machine, known as the cradle. This is on rockers, six or eight feet long, open at the foot, and at its head has a coarse grate, or sieve ; the bottom is rounded, with small cleats nailed across.
Page 101 - ... the cradle, the current of water washes off the earthy matter, and the gravel is gradually carried out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold mixed with a heavy, fine black sand above the first cleats.
Page 125 - The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labor which it enables him to purchase or command.
Page 101 - ... the sand. A party of four men thus employed at the Lower Mines averaged $100 a day. The Indians and those who have nothing but pans or willow baskets gradually wash out the earth and separate the gravel by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is separated in the manner before described.
Page 30 - Looking westward from the summit of the Sierra, the main feature presented is the long, low, broad valley of the Joaquin and Sacramento rivers — the two valleys forming one — five hundred miles long and fifty broad, lying along the base of the Sierra, and bounded to the west by the low coast range of mountains, which separates it from the sea.
Page 35 - Approaching from the sea, the coast presents a bold outline. On the south, the bordering mountains come down in a narrow ridge of broken hills, terminating in a precipitous point, against which the sea breaks heavily. On the northern side, the mountain presents a bold promontory, rising in a few miles to a height of two or three thousand feet. Between these points is the strait — about one mile broad, in the narrowest part, and five miles long from the sea to the bay.
Page 131 - A guinea may be considered as a bill for a certain quantity of necessaries and conveniencies upon all the tradesmen in the neighbourhood. The revenue of the person to whom it is paid, does not so properly consist in the piece of gold, as in what he can get for it, or in what he can exchange it for. If it could be exchanged for nothing, it would, like a bill upon a bankrupt, be...
Page 126 - The quantity of labour which any particular quantity of them can purchase or command, or the quantity of other goods which it will exchange for, depends always upon the fertility or barrenness of the mines which happen to be known about the time when such exchanges are made. The discovery of the abundant mines of America reduced, in the sixteenth century, the value of gold and silver in Europe to about a third of what it had been before.
Page 12 - The greatest quantity, however, has been obtained by washing the sand from the bed of certain rivers, or the alluvial deposit on their banks. It is only in comparatively recent times that attempts have been made to work the mines in the mountains. Before the beginning of the last century the quantity of gold obtained was inconsiderable, but it increased rapidly. The greatest quantity was found between 1753 and 1703, but it afterwards decreased.