Hittel on Gold Mines and Mining

box being twice as long as the bar. A set of riffle-bars is as many as fill one half of a box. They are wedged in, from an inch to two inches apart; the wedging being used, because the bars can more readily be fastened in their places, and more easily taken up, than if nails were used. Before the work of sluicing commences, all the boxes are fitted with riffle-bars, and the bottom of the sluice is therefore full of holes from one to two inches wide, from three to seven inches deep, and six feet long. These are the places in which the gold, quicksilver, and amalgam are caught. Quicksilver is used now in nearly all the sluices, and is the more necessary the smaller the particles of gold. The large pieces of the metal would all be caught by their specific gravity without the aid of amalgamation.

The sluice-boxes having been made, and set up with the proper grade, the water is turned in. The boxes are made of the rough boards as they come from the saw, and the joints are not waterproof, but the leaks are s