The upper part of this sluice will be filled with 3-inch by 4-inch blocks and the remainder with 1-inch by 3-inch cross-riffles, placed 11 inches apart and held down by a sand-board, which is halved down on them. Both will help to protect the sluice-box against wear. All pebbles, etc., more than | inch in diameter will be forked out of the sluices and left in the pit (11). After being raised by the elevator, the material will pass 'through another sluice (8), the tailings from which will be worked for monazite. It is expected that by far the largest part of the gold will be saved in the first sluice.
Active work was commenced in July, 1895, and after three months' washing with the giant and hydraulic elevator the undertaking was abandoned. So far as the working of the machinery was concerned, the operations were entirely successful, but the yield in gold and monazite did not meet the expectations.
The f-acre of ground (chiefly tailing dumps, which had already been worked over in an irregular and imperfect manner several times) that was worked to an average depth of 9 feet, yielded $350 in gold, and the monazite was so full of magnetite, rutile, etc., that its saving was not warranted.
It is by no means intended by this to condemn the property, for it is of course unjust to judge its value from this single test; and while it is undoubtedly true that the resources are insufficient to support a company organized on so large a capitalization as this English company was, there is no reason why smaller operations should not be entirely successful.
