GOLD-BUYING AND GOLD-MINING.
HOW THE GOLD IS FOUND--GOLD-WASHING--QUARTZ-CRUSHING--BUYING GOLD FROM
CHINAMEN--ALLUVIAL COMPANIES--BROKEN-DOWN MEN--UPS AND DOWNS IN
GOLD-MINING--VISIT TO A GOLD MINE--GOLD-SEEKING--DIGGERS' TALES OF
LUCKY FINDS.
I must now be excused if I talk a little "shop." Though my
descriptions hitherto have, for the most part, related to up-country
life, seasons, amusements, and such like, my principal concern, while
living in Majorca, was with bank business and gold-buying. The
ordinary business of a banking office is tolerably well known, but the
business of gold-buying is a comparatively new feature, peculiar to
the gold-producing districts, and is, therefore, worthy of a short
description.
The gold is found and brought to us in various forms. The Majorca gold
is generally alluvial, consisting of coarse gold-dust and small
nuggets washed out from the gravel. There are also some quartz reef
mining companies, whose gold is bought in what we call a retorted
state. Let me explain. The quartz containing the gold is stamped and
broken up by heavy iron hammers falling upon it; and a stream of
water constantly running down into the box in which the stampers work,
the soluble dirt is washed away, while the particles of quartz and
gold are carried forward over boards, in which, at intervals, are
small ripples containing quicksilver. The quicksilver clings to the
gold and forms an amalgam with it. This is collected, taken out, and
squeezed in bags of chamois leather,--by which the greater part of the
quicksilver is pressed out and saved for a repetition of the process.
The residue is placed in a retort, and exposed to heat, by which the
remainder of the quicksilver is driven off by evaporation, leaving the
gold in a solid lump. There are, however, various other processes by
which the gold is separated from the quartz.
Sometimes the gold is offered for sale in a very imperfectly separated
state, and then considerable judgment is required in deciding as to
its value. In alluvial gold there is always a certain proportion of
chips of iron, which have flown from the picks used in striking and
turning up the gravel. These pieces of iron are carefully extracted by
means of a magnet. The larger bits of gold, if there be any, are then
taken out and put to one side. The remainder is put into a shallow tin
dish, which is shaken with a peculiar turn of the wrist, and all the
sand and dirt thus turned to the point of the dish. This is blown off;
then up goes the gold again, and you blow and blow until all the sand
is blown off. If there remain any gold with quartz still adhering to
it, the particles are put into a big iron mortar and well beaten, and
the process above described is repeated. The gold is then ready for
weighing and buying, and there is usually no difficulty in settling
the price with English diggers, the price varying according to the
assay of the gold.[12]
Our great difficulty is with the Chinamen, who are very close-fisted
fellows. They mostly work at sludge, which Englishmen have already
washed; and they are found hanging on to the tailings of old workings,
washing the refuse in order to extract the gold that had been missed.
Old tailings are often thus washed several times over, and never
without finding gold to a greater or less amount. When a party of
Chinamen think they can do better elsewhere, they may be seen moving
off, carrying their whole mining apparatus on their backs, consisting
of tubs, blankets, tin scoops, and a small washing-cradle.
The Chinamen get their gold in a very rude way, though it seems to
answer their purpose. They put the stuff to be washed on to their
cradle, and by scooping water over it and keeping the cradle going
they gradually rinse it away, the fluid running over two or three
ledges of blankets, and leaving the fine gold remaining behind
adhering to the wool. After the process has been continued
sufficiently long, the gold-dust is collected from the blankets, and
is retorted by the Chinamen themselves, and then they bring it for
sale. The retorting has usually been badly done, and there remains a
good deal of quicksilver and nitric acid adhering to the gold. The
only way of dealing with it is to put the whole into a crucible, then
make it red hot, and keep the gold at the melting-point for five or
ten minutes.
As we have got no furnace of our own on the premises, I have
frequently to march up the street to the blacksmith's shop, to put
John Chinaman's gold to the test. If John is allowed to go by himself,
he merely waits till the gold gets warm, takes it out again, and
brings it back, saying, "All light; welly good, welly good gole; no
gammon." But you should see John when I go up to the blacksmith's
myself, put the crucible into the hottest part of the fire, and begin
to blow the bellows! When the gold begins to glow with heat, and he
knows the weight is diminishing by the quicksilver and dirt that are
flying off, he cries, "Welly hot! too muchee fire; me losem too muchee
money!" But the thing must be done, and John must take the choice of
his dirty gold or the regular price for it when cleaned. I have known
it lose, by this process of purifying, as much as from five to six
pennyweights in the ounce.
Sometimes he will bring only a few shillings' worth, and, when the
money is tendered for it, he will turn it over in his hand, like a
London cabman when his regular fare is given him. One man, who almost
invariably brought only a very small quantity, would begin his
conversation with, "No more money now--no more chow-chow (dinner)--no
more opium!" Sometimes matters come to a climax, and he tells us that
we "too much lie and cheatem;" on which we send him out at the door.
The lower orders of Chinamen are almost invariably suspicious that
Englishmen cheat them, although some of them are very decent fellows,
and, indeed, kind and even polite. Several times I have asked them how
they were going to spend the money for which they had sold their
gold--say five shillings; and they would answer, ingenuously enough,
"Two shillings for opium, three shillings for chow-chow;" leaving no
margin for sundries.
We buy from the Chinamen as little as three shillings' worth of gold,
and from the mining companies up to any amount. Some of the latter
bring in hundreds of pounds' worth of gold at a time. The quartz
companies bring theirs in large yellow lumps, of over 200 ounces,
fresh from the retort; and the alluvial companies generally deposit
theirs in leather bags containing their washings, until the end of the
week or fortnight, when they sell the accumulated product.
There is, of course, a good deal of excitement and anxiety about
gold-digging. When men get into good gold-yielding ground, by steady
work they contrive to make fair earnings, and sometimes a good deal of
money; but they have usually to work pretty hard for it. Of course,
the most successful men are working miners, men who understand the
business; for gold-mining is a business, like any other. The amateur
men, who come in search of lucky finds and sudden fortunes, rarely do
any good. Nearly all the young fellows, sons of gentlemen, who could
do no good at home and came out here during the "rushes," are still in
no better position than they were at starting. A few of them may have
done well; but the greater number are bullock-drivers in the country,
cab-drivers in Melbourne, shepherds in the bush, or, still worse,
loafers hanging about the drinking-bars.
I know many men, of good family and education, still working as common
miners in this neighbourhood. Although their life is a rough one, they
themselves think it is better than a struggling clerk's life at home;
and perhaps they are right. I know one young man, formerly a medical
student in England, digging for weekly wages, hired by a company of
miners at 2_l._ 10_s._ a week; but he is not saving money. He came out
with two cousins, one of whom broke away and pursued his profession;
he is now the head of a military hospital in India. The other cousin
remained in the colony, and is now a hanger-on about up-country
stations. There is also the son of a baronet here, who came out in the
time of the gold-fever. He has never advanced a step, but is
wood-cutting and rail-splitting in the bush, like a poor Savoyard.
Still the traces of his education can be seen through the "jumper"
shirt and moleskin trousers, in spite of rough ways and hard work.
There are many ups and downs in gold-mining. Sometimes men will work
long and perseveringly, and earn little more than their food; but,
buoyed up by hope, they determine to go on again, and at last,
perhaps, they succeed. One day two men came into the bank with 120_l._
worth of gold, the proceeds of four days' mining on a new claim. They
had been working for a long time without finding anything worth their
while, and at last they struck gold. The 120_l._ had to be divided
amongst six men, and out of it they had to pay towards the cost of
sinking their shaft and maintaining their three horses which worked
the "whip" for drawing up the water and dirt out of the mine. When
they brought in their gold in a little tin billy, the men did not seem
at all elated by their good fortune. They are so accustomed to a
sudden turn of luck--good or ill, as the case may be--that the good
fortune on this occasion seemed to be taken as a matter of course.
One day, the manager and I went out to see a reef where some men had
struck gold. It lay across the bare-looking ranges at the north of the
township, in a pretty part of the bush, rather more wooded than usual.
The reef did not look a place for so much gold to come out of. There
were a couple of shafts, small windlasses above them, and two or three
heaps of dirty-looking brown quartz and refuse. I believe the reef is
very narrow--only from eight inches to a foot in width; the quartz
yielding from eight to twelve ounces of gold per ton. Thus, ten tons
crushed would give a value of about 400_l._ Though this may seem a
good yield, it is small compared with richer quartz. I have heard of
one mine which gave 200 ounces, or 800_l._, to the ton of quartz
crushed, but this was unusually rich.
At some of the larger claims the works are carried on upon a large
scale with the aid of complete machinery. Let me describe one of the
mines, close to Majorca, down which I went one day to inspect the
operations. It is called the Lowe Kong Meng mine, and was formerly
worked by Chinamen, but had to be abandoned because of the great
quantity of water encountered, as well as the accidents which
constantly happened to the machinery. The claim was then taken up by
an English company of Tributors, who pay a percentage of the proceeds
of the mine to the proprietor, the large Chinese merchant, Mr. Lowe
Kong Meng, who resides in Melbourne.
In some of the shallower workings the men go down the shaft with their
feet in a noose at the end of the rope; or, in some small and narrow
shafts, by holding on to the sides with their knees and feet. But in
large workings, such as this (which is about 150 feet deep), we
descend in a bucket, as in ordinary mines. What a speed we go down at!
We seem to shoot down into darkness. There--bump! we are at the
bottom. But I can see nothing; I only hear the drip, drip, and
splashing of water.
In a few minutes my eyes get accustomed to the darkness: then I see
the dim light of a candle held by some one not far off. "Come up
here," says the guide; and we shortly find ourselves in a somewhat
open space, more light than the actual bottom of the shaft. We are
each supplied with a dip tallow candle, by means of which we see where
we are. The two drives branch off from this space: the main is 6 feet
3 inches in height, broad, and splendidly timbered with stout wood all
the way along. The Chinamen did this work.
Water is running everywhere. We try to walk upon the rails on which
the trucks run, to keep our feet dry. But it is of no use, as there is
more water in our way to get through. Every now and then we slipped
off the rail and down into the water. As we got into the narrower and
lower drives I was continually coming to grief, my head bumping
against the dirty top, my hat coming off, or my candle getting
extinguished.
We were taken first up to the place where the water had broken in so
heavily upon the Chinamen, and in which direction the mine could not
be worked. Strong supports of wood held up the gravel, through which
the water poured in, running down the drives of the well underneath
the shaft. What a labyrinth all these different passages seemed to me!
yet I suppose this claim is a small one compared with many others in
the gold-mining districts.
Then we were shown a monkey--not the animal, but a small upright shaft
leading into a drive above, where the wash-dirt was being got out.
Should the course of the wash-dirt, in which the gold is, go downward
below the level of the well or the drives for draining the mine, the
shaft must then be sunk deeper down. The monkey was rather difficult
for me to scramble up. However, by holding on, and using the niches at
the sides, I managed to mount, as usual with the loss of my light.
Along the drive we went, waiting in a corner until a truck of dirt
passed by, and its contents were shot down the monkey into the tram
waiting for it below. Now we creep up from the drive into a narrower
space, where we crawl along upon our hands and knees. We shortly came
upon four men getting out the wash-dirt, using their picks while
squatting or lying down, and in all sorts of uncomfortable positions.
The perspiration was steaming down the men's faces as they worked, for
the heat was very great.
We did not stay long in that hot place, and I did _not_ take a pick
and happen to strike upon a nugget, as it is said the Duke of
Edinburgh did, though I saw a small dish of the dirt washed when we
reached the top, and it yielded a speck or two. We saw "the colour,"
as the expression is. I felt quite relieved at last to find myself at
the top of the shaft, and in the coolness and freshness of the open
air. Here the dirt raised from the mine is put into the iron
puddling-machine, and worked round and round with water. The water
carries off the mud, the large stones are picked out, and the gold in
the bottom of the machine is cradled off. Such was my little
experience in mine-prospecting.
I must also tell of my still smaller experience in gold-seeking. One
morning a little boy brought in a nugget for sale, which he had picked
up from a heap of dirt, while he was strolling down the lead outside
the town. After a heavy washing fall of rain, it is not unusual for
small bits of gold to be exposed to sight; and old diggers often take
a ramble amongst the mullock after rain, to make a search amongst the
heaps. A piece of gold was once brought to us for sale, weighing about
two ounces, that had been thus washed up by a heavy shower of rain.
Inspired by the success of the little boy, I went out in the afternoon
in a pair of thick boots, and with a pair of sharp eyes, to search for
treasure! It had been raining hard for several days, and it was a good
time for making an inspection of the old washed-out dirt-heaps. After
a long search I found only one speck of gold, of the value of about
4_d._ This I was showing with pride to a young lady friend, who, being
playfully inclined, gave my hand a shake, and my microscopical speck
was gone, the first and last fruits of my gold-seeking.
Some of the tales told by the old diggers of their luck in the early
days of gold-finding are very interesting. One of these I can relate
almost in the very words of the man himself to whom the incident
occurred; and it was only an ordinary digger's tale.
"My mates and I," he said, "were camped in a gully with some forty or
fifty other miners. It was a little quiet place, a long way from any
township. We had been working some shallow ground; but as the
wash-dirt when reached only yielded about three-quarters of a
pennyweight (about 3_s._) to the dish, we got sick of it, left our
claim, and went to take up another not far off. About a day or two
after we had settled upon our new ground an old acquaintance of mine
looked in upon us by chance. He was hard up--very hard up--and wanted
to know whether we could give him anything to do. 'Well, there is our
old place up there,' said I, 'it is not much good, but you can find
enough to keep body and soul together.' So he went up to our old
place, and kept himself in tucker. A few days after he had been at
work, he found that the further down he dug in one direction the more
gold the soil yielded. At one end of the ground a reef cropped up,
shelving inwards very much. He quickly saw that against the reef,
towards which the gold-yielding gravel lay, the ground sloping
downwards towards the bottom must be still richer. He got excited,
threw aside the gravel with his shovel, to come at the real treasure
he expected to find. Down he went, till he reached the slope of the
reef, where the gravel lay up against it. There, in the corner of the
ground, right in the angle of the juncture, as it were, lay the rich
glistening gold, all in pure particles, mixed with earth and pebbles.
He filled his tin dish with the precious mixture, bore it aloft, and
brought it down to our tent, where, aided by the mates, he washed off
the dirt, and obtained as the product of his various washings about
1000 ounces of pure gold! The diggers who were camped about in the
gully being a rough lot, we were afraid to let them know anything of
the prize that had been found. So, without saying anything, two of us,
late one night, set out with the lucky man and his fortune to the
nearest township, where he sold his gold and set out immediately for
England, where, I believe, he is now. He left us the remainder of his
dirt, which he did not think anything of, compared with what he had
got; and three of us obtained from it the value of 600_l._, or 200_l._
a man."
The same digger at another time related to us how and when he had
found his first nugget. He declared that it was all through a dream,
"I dreamt," he said, "that I sunk a shaft down by the side of a pretty
creek, just under a gum-tree, and close to the water; that I worked
down about ten feet there, put in a drive, and, whilst I was working,
chanced to look up, and there, sticking in the pipeclay, was a piece
of gold as big as my fist. Such was my dream. It took complete
possession of me. I could think of nothing else. Some weeks after, I
selected just such a site for a shaft as that I had dreamt of, under a
gum-tree, close by a creek; and there, new-chum like, I put in the
drive at the wrong depth. But, one day, when I had got quite sick at
fruitlessly working in the hole, on accidentally looking up, sure
enough there was my nugget sticking up in the pipeclay, just as I had
dreamt of it. I took out the gold, sat with it in my hand, and thought
the thing over, but couldn't make it out at all."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 12: The ordinary price of good gold is 3_l._ 19_s._ 6_d._
the ounce. In the early days of gold-digging, the gold was never
cleaned, but bought right off at a low price, 2_l._ 15_s._ or 2_l._
17_s._ 6_d._ an ounce; the bankers thus often realizing immense
profits.]