In such places the stream of
water washes out the earth from below, and tree after tree falls before
the current, any gold which may have adhered to the roots being washed
away. With a pressure of sixty feet and a pipe of from one and a half to
two inches' aperture, over 1,000 bushels of earth can be washed out from a
bank in a day.
'Earth which contains only one-twenty-fifth part of a grain of gold, equal
to one-fifth of a cent in value to the bushel, may be profitably washed by
this method; and any earth or gravel which will pay the expense of washing
in the old way gives enormous profits by the new process. To wash
successfully in this way requires a plentiful supply of water, at an
elevation of from fifty to ninety feet above the bed-rock, [Footnote: This
is by no means necessary. The jet can be thrown from below like the
fireman's hose playing upon a burning house. I shall return to this highly
important subject.] and a rapid slope or descent from the base of the bank
of earth to be washed, so that the waste water will run off through the
sluices, bearing with it gravel, sand, and suspended clay.
* * * * *
'In the case of a deposit in North Carolina, where ten men were required
for thirty-five days to dig the earth with pick and shovel and wash it in
sluices, two men with a single jet of water could accomplish the same work
in a week.
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