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ON THE GOLD MINES OF CANADA,

AND THE MANNER OF ^VOEKING THEM.
From the Canadian Naturalist for February, 1863.

The existence of gold in the sands of the Chaudiere valley, to
the south of Quebec, was, so far aa we are aware, first announced to
the world by General Baddeley (then Lieutenant) of the Koyal
Engineers, in the year 1836, and by him communicated to Prof.
Silliman. (see American Journal of Science for that year, vol.
xxviii. p. 112.) In 1847, and the three or four years following,
careful examinations were made in that region by the Geological
Survey, and it was found that the precious metal is not confined
to the valley of the Chaudiere, but exists in the superficial deposits
of a wide area.

The source of the gold throughout this extent appears to have
been the breaking up of the crystalline schists of the region, in
which the metal has occasionally been met with. One example
of this is in a vein of quartz in clay state, in the parish of St.
Francis, on the Chaudiere, where it occurs with argertiferous gale-
na, arsenical pyrites, cubic iron pyrites and sulphuret of zinc,— -
the latter two ores containing a notable proportion of gold. The
results of assays of all these materials will be found in the re-
ports of the Geological Survey for 1858, page 370. During the
past year, another vein of quartz, about one hundred yards from
this last has yielded very rich and beautiful specimens of native
gold, also accompanied by arsenical pyrites. The precious metal
occurs again not far from the Harvey Hill copper mine, in Leeds,
at a locality known aa Nutbrown's shaft, which is sunk on a vein
of bitter-spar, holding specular iron, vitreous copper ore, and native
gold, generally in small grains or scales. Some specimens from
this locality, however, have weighed as much as a pennyweight.
The only attempts as yet made at gold-mining in Canada have beer
in the diluvial deposits. We extract from the General Report of
the Geological Survey of Canada, now in press, and soon to appear,
the following details with regard to these deposita, together with
the results of some of the trials hitherto made to work them, and
suggestions as to the best mode of obtaining the gold.

"These rocks of eastern Canada maybe traced south-west-
wardly through New England, along the Appalachian chain, to
the state of Georgia, and furnish gold in greater or less quantity in
nearly every part of their extension. They constitute the great
gold-bearing formation of eastern North America, which in its

minoralogioal and Hthological characters is similar to that of the
western coast, and to those of Russia aud Aust/alia. These auri-
ferous rocks in Canada, belong hr the greater part to the
Quebec group, of Lower Silurian age ; but the quartz veins contain-
ing gold, mentioned above, are found cutting strata, which are sup-
posed to belong to the Upper Silurian period. The auriferous
drift covers a wide area on the south s ide of the St. Lawrence,
including the hill country belonging to the Notre Dame range, and
extending thence south and east to the boundary of the province.
These wide limits are assigned, inasmuch as although gold has not
been everywhere found in this region, the same mineralogical cha-
racters are met with throughout. In its continuation southward
in Plymouth, and elsewhere in Vermont, considerable quantities
of gold have been obtained from the diluvial deposits. In Canada,
gold has been found on the St. Francis River, from the vicinity of
Melbourne to Sherbrooke ; in the townships of Westbury, Weedon,
and Dudswell, and on Lake St. Francis. It has also been found
on the Etchemin, and on the Chaudidre, and nearly all its tributa-
ries, from the seigniory of St. Mary to the frontier of the state of
Maine ; including the Bras, the Guillaume, the Riviere desPlantes,
the Famine, the Du Loup, and the Metgermet. Several attempts
have been made to work these alluvial deposits for gold, in the
seigniories of Vaudreuil, Aubert-Gallion, and Aubert de I'lsle, but
they have been successively abandoned ; and it is difficult to obtain
authentic accounts of the result of the various workings, although
it is known that very considerable quantities of gold were extract-
ed. The country people still, from time to time, attempt the
washing of the gravel, generally with the aid of a pan, and are
occasionally rewarded by the discovery of a nugget of considera-
ble value. In the years 1851 and 1852, an experiment of this
kind, on a considerable scale, was tried by the Canada Gold Min-
ing Company, in the last named seigniory, on the Riviere du
Loup, near its junction with the Chaudiere. The system adopt-
ed for the separation of the gold from the gravel was similar to
that used in Cornwall in washing for alluvial tin, and the water
for the purpose was obtained from a small stream adjoining.
Great diflSculties were however met with, from a deficient supply
of water during the summer months. The gravel from about
thre'e-eighths of an acre, with an average thickness of two feet, was
washed during the summer of 1861, and yielded 2,107 penny-
weights of gold ; of which 160 were in tie form of fine dust,

I* • • •

• • • • '

• 4 • •

« « t • •

*• • •

• • - •

• t • • ♦ r •

• • • • •■*•,•

mingled with about a ton of black iron sand, the heavy residue of
the washings. There were several pieces of gold weighing over
an ounce. The value of this gold was $1,826, and the whole eX'
pendituro connected with the working $1,643, leaving a profit of
$182. In this account is, however, included $500 lost by a flood,
whicii swept away an unfinished dam ; so that the real difference
between the amount of the wages and the value of the gold ob-
tained should bo stated at $682. The average price of the labor
employed was sixty cents a day."

" In 1852, about five-eightbs of an acre of gravel were washed
at this place, and the total amount of gold obtained was 2,880
pennyweights, valued at $2,496. Of this, 30Y pennyweights were
in the form of fine dust mixed with the iron sand. A portion was
also found in nuggets or rounded masses of considerable size.
Nine of these weighed together 468 pennyweights, the largest
being about 121, and the smallest about 11 pennyweights. Small
portions of native platinum, and of iridosraine, were obtained in
these washings, but their quantity was too small to be of any im-
portance. The washing season lasted from the twenty-fourth of
May to the thirtieth of October, and the sum expended for labor
was $1,888, leaving a profit of $608. A part of this expenditure
was, however, for the construction of wooden conductors for bring-
ging the water a distance of about 900 feet from the small stream-
As this worV would be available for several years to come, a pro-
per allowance made for it would leave a profit in the year's labor
of about $680. It thus appears that from an acre of the gravel,
with an average thickness of two feet, there were taken $4,323 of
gold ; while the expenses of labor, after deducting, as above, all
which was not directly employed in extracting gold, were $2,957,
leaving a profit of $1,366. The fineness of the gold dust of this
region was 871 thousandths ; another sample in thin scales gave
892, and masses 864. A small nugget of gold from St, Francis
gave 867 thousandths, the remainder in all cases being silver."

« Although the greater part of this gold was extracted from the
gravel on the flats by the river side, a portion was obtained by
washing the material taken from the banks above. .As has been
before remarked, the distribution of the gold-bearing gravel over
the surface of the country took place before the formation of the
present water courses, and the reason why the gravel from the
beds of these are richer in gold than that which forma their
banks, is that these rapid streams have subjected the earth to a

partial washing, carrying away tho lighter materials, and leaving
the gold behind with the heavier matters. According to Mr.
Blake, it is found in California, that the gold in the diluvial depo-
sits, which have not been subsequently disturbed by the streams,
is not uniformly distributed, but is accumulated here and there in
quantities greater than in other places. It would mem that
during the first deposition of the earth and gravel, the precious
metal became in some parts accumulated in depressions of the
surface rock, constituting what are called pockets by tho miners.
It would appear from the facts here given that the quantity
of gold in the valley of the Chaudiere is such as would be remu-
nerative to skilled labour, and should encourage the outlay of
capital. There is no reason for supposing that the proportion of
the precious metal to be found along the St. Francis, the Etche-
min, and their various tributaries, is less considerable than that of
the Chaudiere."

"What is called the hydraulic method of washing deposits of
auriferous gravel is adopted on a great scale in California, and to
some extent in the states of Georgia and North Carolina. In
this method, the force of a jet of water, with great pressure, is
made available, both for excavating and washing the auriferous
earth. The water, issuing in a continuous stream, with great force,
from a large hose-pipe, like that of a fire-engine, is directed against
the base of a bank of earth and gravel, and tears it away. The
bank is rapidly undermined, the gravel is loosened, violently rolled
together, and cleansed from any adhering particles of gold ;
while the fine sand and clay are carried oflF by the water. In this
manner hundreds of tons of earth and gravel may be removed,
and all the gold which they contain liberated and secured, with
greater ease and expedition than ten tons could be excavated and
washed in the old way. All the earth and gravel of a deposit is
moved, washed, and carried off through long sluices, by the water,
leaving the gold behind. Square acres of earth on the hill sides
may thus be swept away into the hollows, without the aid of a
pick or a shovel in excavation. Water performs all the labor,
moving and washing the earth, in one operation ; while in ex-
cavating by hand, the two processes are of necessity entirely dis-
tinct. The value of this method, and the yield of gold by it, as
compared with the older one, can hardly be estimated. The water
acts constantly, with uniform effect, and can he brought to beaf
upon almost any point, where it would be difficult for men to

work. It is especially effective in a region covered by trees, where
the tangled roots would greatly retard the labor of workmen. In
such places, the stream of water washes out the earth from below,
and tree after tree falls before the current, any gold which may
have adhered to the roots being washed away. With a pressure
of sixty feet, and a pipe of from one and a half to two inches
aperture, over a thousand bushels of earth can be washed out
from a bank in a day. Earth which contains only one twenty-
fifth part of a grain of gold, equal to one-fifth of a cent in value
to the bushel, may bo profitably washed by this method ; and
any earth or gravel which will pay the expense of washing in the
old way, gives enormous profits by the new process. To wash
successfully in this way requires a plentiful supply of water, at an
elevation of from fifty to ninety feet above the bed-rook, and a
rapid slope or descent from the base of the bank of earth to be
washed, so that the waste water will run off through the sluices,
bearing with it gravel, sand, and the suspended clay."

" The above description, and the added details are copied flrom
a report on the gold mines of Georgia, by Mr. William P. Blake,
who has carefully studied this method of mining in California, and
by whose recommendation it has been introduced into the southern
states. He states that in the case of a deposit in North Carolina,
where ten men where required, for thirty-five days, to dig the
earth with pick and shovel, and wash it in sluices, two men, with
a single jet of water, would accomplish the same work in a week.
The great economy of this method is manifest from the fact that
many old deposits in the river beds, the gravel of which had been
already washed by hand, have been again washed with profit by
the hydraulic process. He tells us that in California the whole
art of working the diluvial gold deposits was revolutionized by
this new method. The auriferous earth, lying on hills, and at
some distance above the level of the water-courses, would, in the
ordinary methods, be excavated by hand, and brought to the
water ; but by the present system, the water is brought by aque-
ducts to the gold deposits, and whole square miles, which were
before inaccessible, have yielded up their precious metal. It
sometimes happens, from the irregular distribution of the gold in
the diluvium in California, that the upper portions of a deposit do
not contain gold enough to be washed by the ordinary methods ;
and would thus have to be removed, at a considerable expense, in
order to roach the richer portions below. By the hydrauUe

method, liowever, tho coat of cutting away and excavating is so
trifling, that there is scarcely any bank of earth which will not
pay tho expense of washing down, in order to reach the richer
deposits of gold beneath.

" Tho acqucducts or canals for the mining districts of California
are seldom constructed by the gold workers themselves, but by
capitalists, who rent the water to the miners. The cost of one
of these canals, carrying the waters of a branch of the Yuba
River to Nevada County, was estimated at a million of dol-
lars ; and another one, thirty miles in length, running to the same
district, cost $500,000. The assessed value of these various canals
in 1857 was stated to be over four millions of dollars, of which
vMue one-half was in the single county of Eldorado. The Bear
River and Auburn Canal is sixty miles in length, three feet deep
and four feet wide at+hetop, and cost in all $1,600,000; not
withstanding which, I'le water-rents were so great that it is stated
to have paid a yearly dividend of twenty per cent, while other
similar canals paid from three, to five and six per cent., and even
more, monthly. The price of the water was fixed at so much the
inch, for each day of eight or ten hours. This price was at first
about three dollars, but by competition has now been greatly
reduced.

" From these statements, it will be seen that the great riches
which have of late years been drawn from the gold mines of Cal-
ifornia, have not been obtained without the expenditure of large
amounts of money and engineering skill. This last is especially
exhibited in the construction of these great canals, and the appli-
cation of the hydraulic method to the washing of auriferous de-
positSj which were unavailable by the ordinary modes of work-
ing, on account of their distance from the water-courses, or by
reason of the small quantity of gold which they con*- in.

*' In order to judge of the applicability of this method of wash-
ing to our own auriferous deposits, a simple calculation based
upon the experiments at the Riviere du Loup will be of use.
It has been shown that the washing of the ground over an area of
one acre, and with an average depth of two feet, equal to 87,120
cubic feet, gave, in round numbers, about 5000 pennyweights of
gold, or one and thirty-eight hundredths grains to the cubic foot ;
which is equal to one and three-quarters grains of gold to the
bushel. Now, according to Mr. Blake, earth containing one forty
fourth part of this amount, or one twenty-fifth of a grain of gold,

can bo profitably washed by the hydraulic method, while the
labor of two men, v/ith a proper jot of water, sufRcos to wash one
thousand bushels in a day, which in a deposit like that of liiviire
du Loup would contain about soventy-throe pennyweights of gold.
It is probable however that a certain portion of the finer gold
dust, which is v olloctod in the ordinary process, would be lost in
working on the larger scale. It has already been shown that the
gold is not confined to the gravel of the river channels, and the
alluvial flats. The beds of irtorstratifiod clay, sand, and gravel,
which occur on the banks of the Metgermet, were found to contain
gold throughout their whole thickness of fifty feet, and even
though its proportion were to be many times less than in the
gravel of the Riviere du Loup, these thick deposits, which extend
over great areas, might be profitably worked by the hyc'raulio
method. The fall in most of the tributaiies of the Chaudiero and of
the St. Francis throughout the auriferous region, is such that it
will not bi! difficult to secure a supply of water with a sufficient
head, without a very great expenditure in the construction of
canals ; and it may reasonably be expected that before long the
deposits of gold-bearing earth, which are so widely spread over
southeastern Canada, will be made economically available."

T. S. H.