A Strong Man, Who Is Not
Accustomed To This Labour, Perspires Most Profusely, With
Merely Carrying Up His Own Body.
With this very severe
labour, they live entirely on boiled beans and bread.
They
would prefer having bread alone; but their masters, finding
that they cannot work so hard upon this, treat them like
horses, and make them eat the beans. Their pay is here
rather more than at the mines of Jajuel, being from 24 to 28
shillings per month. They leave the mine only once in three
weeks; when they stay with their families for two days. One
of the rules of this mine sounds very harsh, but answers
pretty well for the master. The only method of stealing gold
is to secrete pieces of the ore, and take them out as occasion
may offer. Whenever the major-domo finds a lump thus
hidden, its full value is stopped out of the wages of all the
men; who thus, without they all combine, are obliged to keep
watch over each other.
When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into an
impalpable powder; the process of washing removes all the
lighter particles, and amalgamation finally secures the
gold-dust. The washing, when described, sounds a very simple
process; but it is beautiful to see how the exact adaptation of
the current of water to the specific gravity of the gold, so
easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal. The
mud which passes from the mills is collected into pools, where
it subsides, and every now and then is cleared out, and thrown
into a common heap.
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