Description - The Gold-Seeker's Manual by David Thomas Ansted
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849 edition. Excerpt: ...bed of the stream could only be worked by making a new cut and diverting the stream; and even when this was done, the wheel was still necessary. The wheel was a clumsy machine, which it was frequently necessary to remove, an operation which occupied fifty slaves or more for a whole day; but it was the only means in use for saving human labour, for not even a cart or hand-barrow was to be seen; the rubbish and the cascalho were all carried in troughs upon the heads of slaves, who in many instances had to climb up steep ascents where inclined planes might have been formed with very little trouble, and employed with great advantage. River-mining however was the easiest and most readily performed, and it was therefore the commonest. But the greater part of those streams which were known to be auriferous at length were wrought. The mountains were more tempting, but required much greater labour; a few braqas, if the veins were good, enriched the adventurers for ever, and in the early days of the mines, the high grounds attracted men who were more enterprising and persevering than their descendants. The mode of working in such ground is not by excavation, but by an open cutting, laying the vein bare by clearing'away the surface. This labour is immense if water cannot be brought to act upon the spot; and when even there is water, it is not always easy to direct it, nor will the nature of the cut allow always of its use. When the miners found no cascalho in the mountains, they suspected that the stones might contain gold, and they were not deceived in the supposition. This is the most difficult mode of extraction, since the stones were broken by manual labour with iron mallets; in a few instances, however, the machine was worked, but it was by slaves...
Buy The Gold-Seeker's Manual by David Thomas Ansted from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, BooksDirect.
Other Editions - The Gold-Seeker's Manual by David Thomas Ansted
A Preview for this title is currently not available.
A Short Trip in Hungary and Transylvania in the Spring of 1862
Checking availability...
