The Only Method Of Stealing Gold
Is To Secrete Pieces Of The Ore, And Take Them Out As Occasion
May Offer.
Whenever the major-domo finds a lump thus
hidden, its full value is stopped out of the wages of all the
men; who thus, without they all combine, are obliged to keep
watch over each other.
When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into an
impalpable 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 wages.
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