At Axim I
was shown a model flume, made to order after the plans of a M. Boisonnet,
or, as he signs himself, 'boisonnet.' He was reported to be a large
landed-proprietor who had made a fortune by mining in French Guiana. He
proposed for M. Bonnat and himself to secure the monopoly of washing the
Protectorate with this flume--a veritable French toy, uselessly
complicated, and yet to be used only upon the smallest scale. We must go
for our models to California and Australia, not to French Guiana.
The following will be the implements with which the natives of the future
must do their work on the Gold Coast:--
The pan begat the cradle, a wooden box on rockers, shaped like the article
which gave its name. It measures three feet and a half by eighteen inches,
and is provided with a movable hopper and slides. Placed in a sloping
position, it is worked to and fro by a perpendicular staff acting as
handle, and the grain-gold, a metal seven times heavier than granite,
collects where the baby should be. As some flour-gold is here found, the
cradle-bottom should be cut with cross-grooves to hold mercury; and the
latter must be tempered with sodium or other amalgam.
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