crevices in the bottom of the rastra, and carefully panned out, and as carefully re After this, most business men melt the gold into bars or ingots, before sending it to the mint to be coined. one ounce of quicksilver is generally used About ten minutes before the grinding is finished, about sixteen buckets of water are poured into the rastra, to the quantity named, and the same motion continued, the whole appearing like muddy water. This is then baled out, or run off quickly. Five hundred pounds more of the quartz are then added, and the process repeated, adding the same portion of quicksilver to every batch. This is kept on for one, two, three, or even four weeks, according to the richness of the quartz, or the taste and wants of the owner. The larger the amount of amalgam contained in the rastra, the more gold is there saved, in proportion, to the ton. The amalgam is then taken out of the Before commencing to grind again, the crevices between the stones covering the floor of the rastra, about one and a half inches wide, are tightly packed and filled with clay, level with the stone. In El Dorado County, rastras sixteen feet in diameter are used to great advantage, as more than double the amount of quartz is ground by them than by the smaller ones; but of course they require a proportionate increase in power to work them. It should also be remembered that not less than two fifths more quartz is ground in the same rastra when worked by steam or water-power than when worked by animals, inasmuch as the speed and regularity is increased. It should also be well remembered by every operator in quartz, that warm water is of great assistance in every thing connected with amalgam, as it will be the means of saving from ten to fifteen per cent. more gold than when it is worked with cold water -a very important kind of economy. This mill, as used in Chili, and from whence its origin and name are derived, is nearly as simple in its construction as the rastra. It consists of a circular inclosure somewhat resembling the rastra, with the walls a little higher, and more regular; and, instead of the "drag-stones," a large stone wheel, attached to the horizontal shaft, is used for grinding the rock. Into this mill a small stream of water is constantly running, a portion of which is forced out at each revolution of the wheel. The gold is saved by means of quicksilver on the bottom of the mill, in the same manner as in the rastra. To make this principle more subservient to the purposes of quartz mining, and better adapted to the requirements of a faster age and people, the "improved Chili THE IMPROVED CHILI MILL. Mill" was invented. This consists of two heavy cast-iron wheels, from three to five feet in diameter, and from ten to fifteen inches in thickness: these, revolve on an axle, moving steadily round in a cir cular iron basin about a foot in depth, into which the tailings from the blanket tables are conveyed, and ground to powder. As these improved mills are generally worked by steam, the speed attained, and the work accomplished, of course very far exceeds the old process. On the first page of the present number of the Magazine, in the foreground of the picture, will be found several small amalgamators in use at Mr. Chavanne's mill. The methods of saving the gold which passes over the blankets in the tailings, are almost as numerous as are the mills where the quartz is crushed. The principle, however, is to allow the tailings to run down a series of inclined tables, or sluices, at the end of each of which is often placed a wood trough, or iron pan, containing quicksilver, into which they flow, when the gold falls into the quicksilver on the bottom, and is there retained; while the lighter material floats over the edge of the trough or pan into another sluice, at the end of which is another pan, where the same process is repeated. The sluices, or inclined tables, are generally fitted up with "patent riffles across the bottom, filled with quicksilver. After the tailings have passed through the whole series of sluices they are sometimes worked through the improved Chili Mill, or other machine; but are oftener allowed to run into a large vat, from which the water flows off while the tailings settle at the bottom. These are then thrown into a heap and allowed to 'rust," preparatory to other processes at some future time. As California is one vast net-work of quartz leads, a thousandth part of which have never even been prospected; and as the bottom of a single lead has not yet been found, it is not an uncertain venture to say that this department alone is capable of giving employment to several millions of people: and, when people hazard the opinion that mining in this State is but in its infancy, we hope (with their consent) that they may live fifty or a hundred years (!) as we are assured that at the expiration of that time they will, with great er certainty than now, be willing to make the same confession. GRUMBLING IN A RAILROAD DEPOT. Vanity of vanities, Climax of vexation, Waiting for the cars At a railroad station. Little Yankee clock, Wagging very slow, Worries off an hour In a small depot! Sultry summer day, Hot Sahara weather, Crowds of melting people Huddled up together; Ladies flutter fans, Men all take to smoking, Tall, uneasy Yankee Corpulent old fellow, Every one impatient, Every body grumbling; Cars at length come in With tremendous rumbling. General stampede Made for every door, Half a dozen children Sprawling on the floor. She was the youngest of the third and last brood of the season a dark-eyed elf with shining plumage and slender figure, and now as she lay so snugly in that wee-bit cradle, her sturdier sisters and brothers were down by the spring, playing hide-andseek with the locusts. Now and then, as a shrill, screaming rattle, rattle, arose from one or the other of them, Jenny would raise herself on tiptoe to see what the matter could be; and she more than once joined her sweet voice to their tumult when she discovered the cause of the excitement: a white-winged locust, just emerged from its hard shell, still clinging with emp ty claws to the rough bark of a tree, while the ghostly pre-occupant slowly climbed onward and upward to the strengthening sunshine. But Jenny had other thoughts than of breakfasts of young bugs, and games at the spring. Before her rose a proud hill, whose brow was bathed in misty shadows, whose feet the tall trees caressed with their wildest embraces; and the flowers that robed its side, clustered like lakes of gold, and studded its tresses of matted vines, with here and there white, starry diadems, until to Jenny's fancy, the hill became a Princess, and above her, in the form of a stern craig, on which was set for a crown an eagle's nest, towered a King, the frowning father of the Princess! And the little wren, Jenny, with eyes oft glancing up ward, marveled if an angel guarded that crown, that showed so seldom and so weirdly amidst the mists that seemed to her like wings, now lifting a little, now falling, then swerving and swaying back and forth, around and far below, but never sweeping themselves away from between the soft, dark, wondering eyes of Jenny and the mystery above. Jenny began to mope, when day after day the same tantalizing mist-wreaths tortured her expectant vision; and dimformed yearnings to shape themselves in her heart, to penetrate the wonder, and know if indeed she had seen the wings of a guardian angel, and if the intense shimmer which sometimes made her hide her head beneath her wing, was the shining of the crown jewels, or the dazzling eyes of the Angel. Jenny was a weak little wren; not half so strong as her sisters were. They would have made little of a flight such as she now began to contemplate, but, for her, it was a long journey, and questionable if she could ever endure all the hardships of it. But her soul was growing, as you could have seen by looking at the wide eyes of the little wren, and she was soon ready to dare the dangers, and one morning she arose from her soft nest, and spread her tiny brown wings for flight from it. One glance at the smiling Princess, and upward she rose towards the outstretched arms of the nearest tree at the foot of the hill, where she reposed her panting form. Af ter she had taken breath, she looked up. How her heart sank! It grew cold and heavy in her breast. Above her she saw no longer the mist-draped hill-tops, but only a wilderness of green foliage. Could she ever find her way through it? Her hopes gave no response. An earthy spirit had caught her in its embrace. Her dear Princess, the King, the Angel, were shut out forever! Should she return to the nest? She could at least view them from afar! She looked down, around - all, all was one unbroken, vast wilderness of leaves. Her head sank upon her shoulder. She felt only the deepest despair. Suddenly her eyes brighten! She hears a strange, grand swoop of wings! Her little form shrank and shivered with wonder and terror and worship! Surely this was the coming Angel of the crown! That majesty of flight could only be his. Those mighty wings were only made to upbear the Guardian of the Mysterious. And the sunlight he bore with him into the shadowed wilderness, did it fall from his wings, or did he bear two diamonds to illumine the darkness of the gloom? Poor Jenny shut her eyes in very bewilderment. When lo! the Angel-Wonder said gently: "Whither, little Jenny, do your aspiring winglets tend ?" She raised her timid head, and her eyes met a blaze of light that poured in floods from the brow of the Angel Wonder. She knew not what she did, but with an impulse like that which makes the moth seek the devouring fire-light, she darted forward. An out stretched wing received her trembling form, and shielded from the blaze, she nestled close and closer, while the warmth penetrated her chilly frame, from the great heart against which she leaned. Soon she ceased to tremble, yet faster clung and clo- | ser nestled, and now she lay securely enveloped in the strong, soft folds of the Wonder's embrace. Ah, little Jenny had indeed found a paradise. She no longer doubted that she should ever reach those proud mysteries; and ah, happy little one if she could always rest so sheltered from the cold glooms of the dreary earth. The broad wings slowly expand; the rustle widens into a sound like storm-winds seeking calm in the bosom of sea-wavesand now they roar like the very Demon of Tempests, and rise and fall in gigantic swoops, now sinking deep into the shadowy valleys, now rising majestically above the clouds, ever moving with a mighty pride, as if the elements were its minions. And now up! up! up! with slow, grand ascent, the Wonder bears its tiny burthen. The wren gazes out from its protection, and lo! the Princess! Once more she gladdens Jenny's heart till it flutters at her fair aspect! And, ah! grand sight! The stern Craig. King lifts his mighty crowned head, and Jenny almost dies with joy as the Wonder swoops among the embosoming mistwreaths, and she, the little wren, discovers the mystery. Her Angel has borne her upward to the throne. The crown is her resting-place beside his heart; and the jewels he bears always with him, to illumine all earth's shadows. His eagle-eyes shall henceforth dispel the glooms of wildernesses; the mists of mountain-tops will melt before the gleam, and the earth will bear beauties an hundred-fold to her, upspringing from the warmth of his glances. Happy Jenny wren! And did the Eagle-Angel live for her? Ask the stars that shine, if they live for the rivulet in yonder glen? Ask the northern blast if its icy spears are sped for the wind-flower on the plains? Yet he, the Wonder, grew gentler, aye, far less stern, when he felt the tender pressing of the little wren's heart against his grand breast. Rest, then, Jenny! No more outward glances! Thy path to God and Love are one! What! art ambitious? Not yet at peace? Would'st win the throne? Presumptuos one! See the mild glances of those orb-jeweled, marvellous eyes; feel thou the strong beat of that mighty heart; listen to the subdued anthem that voice chants for thee, and turn thy rebellious restlessness to quiet and joy again. Ah! that I should have it to relate! That wren so loved, so honored, the companion in many grand flights, the only love of that magnificent Eagle-Soul, madly thrust keen, needle-pointed daggers at his heart, till one gloomy day, when the earth was shut in by rain-clouds, the Angel-Wonder gently severed the unworthy wren from his side, gazed lovingly and pityingly at her, then shook his noble plumes, and vanished "in lofty cloud," leaving her upon his couch of state-the airy crown of King Craig. And there the stunned birdling sat, stunned with grief at her own wickedness. Will the Angel ever come again? asks her agonized heart. Or, and she gazed down the steeps up which he bore her shall she descend to the obscure nest from which she took her first, short, faltering flight? Useless the sobbing sighs - worse than useless all thy struggles- only his invisible presence may help thee; but thy soul is weak, thy strength but tiny. He pities thee, poor wren-the magnanimous Onewhom thy presumptuous petulence has driv en from thee! He still sends down to thee, from the clouds, rays from his eyes to lighten the gloom of storms that cling rudely about thy little form. Even yet thy earnest struggles may upbear thee, and ye may in the Coming Time rest again, in penitent, humbled loving, upon his breast! Keep, then, thine eyes uplifted! Watch and work faithfully for this reward! Poor Jenny! her bowed head very slowly lifts itself above the shadows her own heart has nurtured, but as her languid eyes open in shrinking, they suddenly flare joyously, wide and bright! She springs to the edge of the crown-nest, and her voice rings in mellow, heart-stirring song. Her slender, fairy figure vibrates to the melody her soul outpours; and the black, threatening stormclouds sway, and sink, sink, as the hymn fills the atmosphere, until a silvery haze |