Made fast and a string, fixed to the edge of
the dish, is pulled, and the dish tipped up allowing the dirt to fall on
to the prepared surface below, where it is swept up and treated as in the
first method described. With a fair breeze this is a very effectual way of
getting rid of the fine dirt.
3 BY MEANS OF A SIEVE.
This method is only suitable when the soil is wet and sticky, or where the
nuggets are fairly large and not too rare.
On the first rush to Kurnalpi, where more alluvial gold was found in a
short time than on any other field, sieves were almost the only implements
used.
A sieve is very useful for prospecting the surface soil, being more
portable and more rapidly worked than the dishes.
A combination of these three methods is found in the DRY BLOWING MACHINE.
It has always been a hotly debated question, whether what is known as the
"Cement" comes under the heading of "reefs" or "alluvial." This cement is
composed of angular quartz-fragments, broken from the reefs or veins,
and fragments of diorite and hornblende schists, cemented together by
lime; it is very hard and solid and, in places, continues to a depth of
over twenty feet.
