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Updated: June 26, 2025
It is of great importance in mining with the cradle, to have the cradle placed within four or five feet of the hole from which the pay-dirt is obtained, and to have a good supply of water at the head of the cradle, and then to have a good descent below the cradle, so that the tailings may all be carried away by the water, so as not to accumulate.
In the former the pay-dirt is found deep, twenty feet or more beneath the surface; in the latter, near the surface. The shallow or surface diggings are chiefly found in the beds of ravines and gullies, in the bars of rivers, and in shallow flats; the deep diggings are in hills and deep flats.
The man who rocks a cradle learns to appreciate the fact, that the "golden sands" of California are not pure sand, but are often extremely tough clay, a hopperful of which must be shaken about for ten minutes before it will dissolve under a constant pouring of water. Many large stones are found in the pay-dirt.
Moreover, the short distance from the shore offers peculiar advantages for 'hydraulicking. Flumes and sluices could carry the golden subsoil to the sea and discharge it into a series of tanks and cisterns, which would be cradled for 'pay-dirt. Finally, it will be easy to baffle the plundering negro workman by sending all stone containing free gold to be worked in England, where superior appliances extract more than enough to pay transport-costs.
Then they had a little field of their own. All found the rich pay-dirt, but it was Cleve to whom the goddess of fortune turned her bright face. As he had been lucky at cards, so he was lucky at digging. His claim paid big returns. Kells spread the news, and that part of the gulch saw a rush of miners. Every night Joan had her whispered hour with Cleve, and each succeeding one was the sweeter.
In placer mining, the earthy matter containing the gold, called the "pay-dirt," is washed in water, which dissolves the clay and carries it off in solution, and the current sweeps away the sand, gravel and stones, while the gold, by reason of the higher specific gravity, remains in the channel or is caught with quicksilver.
Say, boys, you've struck gold in this layout o' yours. That's what's brought me out in this all-fired storm." The two brothers exchanged rapid glances and then Ralph spoke for them both. "You're smart, Victor. That's so. We've been workin' a patch o' pay-dirt for nigh on to twelve month. But it's worked out; clear out to the bedrock.
The shaft is dug by one man in the hole, and one or two are employed at a windlass in hauling up the dirt. Mining-shafts in placer diggings are rarely over one hundred feet deep; but one was dug in Trinity county to the depth of six hundred feet, for the purpose of prospecting, but it found neither pay-dirt nor the bed-rock. River-Mining.
The greater the amount of dirt to be washed, other things being equal, the steeper should be the grade; for a swift current will wash more dirt than a slow one. In many claims the pay-dirt is full of large stones and boulders, weighing from one hundred to five hundred pounds each, all of which must be carried away through the sluice.
The light snapped out, and in the midnight darkness of that icy cavern the two grappled and fell. Had Johnny been in possession of the full power of his left arm, the battle would have been over soon. As it was they rolled over and over, their bodies crushing frozen bits of pay-dirt, like twin rollers. They struggled for mastery.
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