Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/319

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A LITERARY EVENING.
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to them and dig out the rock, and break it up fine to get out the gold, just as they do silver. Another way is to find it in the loose sand in the bottoms of rocks and in gravel. When the miners first went out, they used to take a little gravel in a dish with some water, and shake it hard, so a little would slop over each time. The gold was heavy and would sink and stay after all the rest had gone. They called it ‘panning out well’ when there was a lot left in the dish. Now they turn brooks to run over a row of troughs with holes scooped out in the bottoms, and the gold drops into the holes, and the other stone goes on. Then there is hydraulic mining. They turn a stream of water against the side of a hill and wash it all down to start with, and then they put it through the troughs just the same way.

“Gold is soft when it is pure, so they have to mix it with other metals to keep it from wearing out. They call that alloying it. We tell how pure gold is by the number of carats. Twenty-four is pure, but eighteen is very fine.

“I have only one thing more to say. When you say a person has ‘sand,’ or courage, that