mints and assay offices $1,102,264,541. (See
Coins.) Of this amount coinage to the value
of $35,249,337 and bars valued at $20,495,616
were issued during the year ending June 30,
1873. The amount of gold of domestic production,
exclusive of coins, deposited at the various
mints and assay offices of the United States
from their establishment to June 30, 1873, with
the sources of production, has been as follows:
SOURCE.
VALUE.
Virginia
$1,631,612 78
North Carolina
9,983,585 88
South Carolina
1,378,180 77
Georgia
7,267,784 76
Tennessee
79,018 69
Alabama
211,827 79
New Mexico
911,171 27
California
640,030,657 59
Nebraska
27,026 96
Kansas
955,867 44
Montana
33,982,498 21
Oregon
11,950,289 60
Colorado
20,574,914 27
Maryland
258 53
Arizona
1,039,074 08
N. Hampshire
320 89
Washington territory
$71,662 41
Idaho
18,389,785 84
Utah
198,827 91
Nevada
1,140,067 94
Wyoming
153,646 13
Dakota
5,760 00
Sitka
397 64
Vermont
8,904 97
Parted from silver
5,264,224 78
Contained in silver
111,736 58
Refined gold
76,285,912 30
Other sources
9,874,113 22
Total
$841,529,129 23
The localities given in this table are merely
those from which the mint deposits were
declared or inferred to come; hence they do not
represent correctly the actual origin of production.
A considerable amount, for example, is
attributed to Kansas, which really produces no
gold. The gold coinage of Great Britain and
Australia for 10 years has been as follows:
YEARS.
England.
Sydney, Australia.
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
£
s.
d.
6,607,456
5
4
9,585,597
17
6
2,367,614
4
1
5,076,676
14
6
496,397
17
11
1,658,384
8
0
7,372,204
17
9
2,313,384
18
11
9,919,656
1
2
15,261,441
15
10
60,603,815
1
0
£
s.
d.
1,876,962
9
10
2,880,668
4
3
2,359,561
13
9
2,955,732
8
2
2,492,853
15
3
2,345,728
8
1
1,319,388
2
2
1,243,298
1
9
2,870,418
13
1
.............
20,344,611
16
4
Total
The exports of domestic gold from the United
States during the year ending Dec. 31, 1873,
amounted to $55,178,229 in coin, and $12,754,257
in bullion.—Gold Mining. Gold occurs
principally in metallic form, as threads, scales,
spangles, films, grains, monometric crystals,
nuggets, &c. Such native gold always contains
from 1 to 40 per cent. silver, and often also small
quantities of iron, copper, mercury, palladium,
platinum, or iridium. Gold ores proper are
rare; the undoubted species are tellurides.
More commonly gold occurs associated with
other minerals, chiefly (in decomposed ores)
the oxides of iron, and (in solid ores) iron and
copper pyrites, galena, blende, mispickel (all
of which may be auriferous), bismuth,
stibnite, magnetite, hematite, various spars, and
quartz. It is believed by many that auriferous
pyrites often contains its gold in chemical
combination with antimony, arsenic, or sulphur;
but this is probably not the case with all
pyrites,
or with all the gold in any variety of
pyrites. Gold is classified further as quartz gold
(found in veins, &c.), and wash gold (found in
placers, gravel and cement deposits, &c.). The
methods of extraction are mechanical, chemical
or both, according to circumstances.
Mechanical methods involve the agency of air or
water. Air separation is the rude process of
winnowing, occasionally practised in localities
where water is wanting. The dry pulverized
material is repeatedly thrown into the air,
allowing the wind to carry off the lighter
portions, the remainder being caught as it falls in
a hide or blanket, or a shallow wooden basin
called a batea. The process is concluded by
blowing the last residuum with the mouth.
Washing is the almost universal method of
mechanical separation. In exploring for gold,
the earth or pulverized rock suspected to
contain it is washed on the blade of a shovel, or
in an iron pan, wooden batea, or horn scoop.
The operation is commonly called panning. It
consists essentially in stirring and shaking
under water the contents of the vessels employed
in such a way as to suspend the finer earthy
particles and allow them to escape over the
edge, while the gold, with the larger stones or
lumps of clay, remains behind. The stones
are removed with the fingers, and the lumps
of clay are rubbed between the hands and
reduced to a slime, the process being skilfully
continued until nothing is left except gold and
heavy black sand, usually titaniferous iron,
which accompanies native gold in most localities
and cannot be separated by washing.
When perfectly dry, a part of it can be
removed by blowing and a part by the magnet.
It is common to melt the finer dust with fluxes
and collect it in buttons. Quicksilver may
also be introduced in panning, to take up and
secure the fine gold. The cradle, or rocker, is
an apparatus somewhat resembling a child's
cradle. The box is usually about 40 in. long
and 20 wide, and from 15 in. to 2 ft. high at
the upper end, upon which is set a hopper or
riddle, a box 20 in. square and 6 in. deep, having
a bottom of sheet iron perforated with
half-inch holes. Under the riddle is placed an
inclined apron of canvas, and across the bottom
of the main box are nailed two bars or
riffles, about three fourths of an inch high. In
washing, the dirt is shovelled into the hopper,
and the workman ladles water upon it with one
hand, rocking the cradle with the other. The
sheet-iron bottom retains the larger stones;
the disintegrated earth, passing through the
riddle, falls upon the apron, which carries it
to the head of the cradle box, whence it flows
along the bottom and escapes at the lower end,
leaving behind the riffle bars the gold, black
sand, and heavier particles of gravel, which are
cleaned up two or three times a day. This
apparatus is both slow and wasteful in operation;
but it is cheap and portable, and requires little
water, since the same water can be used in it
over and over again. The long tom is a wood-
