Another Early Unlisted Episode… In the second episode of The Gold Prospecting Show we continue reading from “The Diary Of A Forty-Niner” and learn more about the life of a gold miner in the Gold Rush era. About the long tom sluice for placer gold mining tips…from 1890 “Getting Gold” book available in our prospectors Launchpad…Sign Up to Get Access NOW! A long tom is a trough some 12 feet in length by 20 inches in width at the upper end, widening to 30 inches at the lower end; it is about 9 inches deep and has a fall of 1 inch to a foot. An iron screen is placed at the lower end where large stones are caught, and below this screen is the riffle box, 12 feet long, 3 feet wide, and having the same inclination as the upper trough. It is fitted with several riffles in which mercury is sometimes placed. Much more work can be done with this appliance than with the cradle, which it superseded. Of course, the gold must be coarse and water plentiful. When, however, the claim is paying, and the diggings show signs of some permanency, a puddling machine is constructed. This is described in the chapter called “Rules of Thumb.” Hydraulicing and ground sluicing is a very cheap and effective method of treating large quantities of auriferous drift, and, given favourable circumstances, such as a plentiful supply of water with good fall and extensive loose auriferous deposits, a very few grains to the ton or load can be made to give payable returns. The water is conveyed in flumes, or pipes to a point near where it is required, thence in wrought iron pipes gradually reduced in size and ending in a great nozzle somewhat like that of a fireman’s hose. The “Monitor,” as it is sometimes called, is generally fixed on a movable stand, so arranged that the strong jet of water can be directed to any point by a simple adjustment. A “face” is formed in the drift, and the water played against the lower portion of the ledge, which is quickly undermined, and falls only to be washed away in the stream of water, which is conducted through sluices with riffles, and sometimes over considerable lengths of amalgamated copper plates. This class of mining has been most extensively carried out in California and New Zealand, and some districts […]