on the rock and dirt like a huge serpent. | quently many tons in weight-"cave down" As the upper end of the hose is much larger than the lower end, the water running in, keeps it full to the very top; and the weight of this water, escaping through a pipe attached to the lower end of the hose, in a similar manner to that of a fire engine, plays upon the bank with great force and effect, washing it rapidly away. There are sometimes stratas of gravelly cement in the bank which are exceedingly hard and difficult to wash away, even with the immense force given by the weight of from fifty to two hundred and twenty feet of fall, which the water contained in the hose receives from above. The most efficient manner of washing down these banks is by undermining them near the bed rock, when large masses-fre and not only break themselves to pieces by the fall, but unfortunately often bury the too venturesome miner beneath them. It is in this kind of mining so many accidents have occurred; and when we read in the newspapers of the day that Mr. so and so was badly injured-or killed-by the "caving of a bank," we may know it is generally in such places. If the reader will please refer to the engraving he will see a stream of water running over the bank, which is often required effectually to cleanse and remove the large quantities of earth and rocks washed down by the pipe, and convey them to the sluice, down which they pass, and in which the gold is principally saved, although large amounts of the golden dust lie among the earth and stones, but a few feet from whence | acted upon by the water in its rapid pasthey were washed. sage through the flume. After "cleaning up" the rock and "washing down" the sluice, the precious contents are swept into a pan where they are carefully panned out. After the day's work is done the miner repairs to his cabin to build his fire, cook and eat his supper, dry his dust, and blow out the black sand. Sometimes when a man has been covered up by the bank falling upon him, not only the stream generally used in the claim, but often the entire contents of the ditch are thus turned on, and with the assistance of every miner who knows of the accident, it is used for sluicing him out, and which is by far the speediest and best method for his deliverance. One becomes surprised when looking at the bold defiant strength of a miner's will and purpose, and the risk he so often runs, that comparatively so few accidents of this kind occur. By care, however, this branch | of mining can be conducted with the same safety as any other. The "hydraulic process" removes and washes immense masses of earth that would otherwise be useless and its working unprofitable, thus making it not only one of the most useful and effectual, but almost an indispensable method of mining for gold in California. RIVER MINING. In the beds of nearly all the rivers that traverse the gold region of California, deposits of gold have been found, many of them exceedingly rich; and large expenditures have been made in order successfully to work these "river claims." Oftentimes the entire water of the river is turned into new channels, generally consisting of flumes of wood, built along the banks. A dam is constructed that turns the water into the flume, and being conveyed, often many hundred yards, is turned into the river bed again below. The water that remains is then pumped out, and usually, by the power obtained from wheels The bed of the river by this means rendered dry or nearly so, the sand and gravel down to the bed-rock is then washed by either of the usual modes, with pan, cradle, tom, or sluice. In a future number, we shall give engravings illustrative of river and quartz mining; the latter, having within the last two years, assumed an importance that entitles it to a more extended notice and space in our columns, than can well be devoted to it in this number. A MAMMOTH TUSK. A MAMMOTH TUSK. The above engraving represents a remarkable tusk of solid ivory, eleven feet nine inches in length, and twenty-four and a half inches in circumference, at the base. It was found during the month of September, 1854, by a German miner named Geo Keller, while working on Canal Gulch, near Yreka, Siskiyou county, firmly imbedded in water-washed gravel, about twenty feet from the surface. We saw a portion of this immense tusk, in a cabin adjoining the claim where it was discovered, during the month of February, 1855, and which, although somewhat injured by its exposure to the air, still showed its ivory grain very distinctly. This piece -about two feet in length-we had the curiosity to measure, and though only a middle portion of the tusk, was eighteen and three quarter inches in circumference at the one end, and seventeen and fiveeights inches at the other. We suppose the above remarkable relic of a bye-gone age and generation must belong to the Megatherium, a genus of the extinct Edentata, which has for many years engaged the attention of the most eminent professors of Geology and anatomy. South America, and particularly in and about the neighborhood of Buenos Ayres, has furnished indubitable evidences that there once existed immense numbers of the Mammalia class of animals, now numbering comparatively few. Many museums have been lately enriched with this once dread animal's fossil remains, which were formerly only to be found in the museum of Madrid. They were sent over to Europe in 1789, and afforded Cuvier an opportunity to determine the affinities of this wonderful creature. They were dis covered southwest of Buenos Ayres, on the river shore of the Luxon. three Of later date, nearly a complete skeleton of one, was found in the bed of the river Salado, south of the Pampas, near the same city. During a long drought, of almost years, it had become dry, and one Don Soza called the attention of Sir W. Parish, F. G. S., then H. M. Charge d'Affairs at this place, to this extraordinary discovery of some large bones found imbedded in the sand. An account of this was given in the "London Penny Cyclopedia," May 29, 1839. There is one of the finest specimens in the world, to be seen in the British Museum, set up I believe by Professor Manton. This is nearly seventeen feet in height, and as many in length. Were the above specimen less curved, it would have doubtless belonged to the Mastadon maximus, a full account of which is recorded in the American Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and Science. These animals the Megatherium and Mastadon, must have been most extraordinary. The bones of their skulls were of enormous size, and the tusks that issued from them, must have been levers, sufficiently powerful to uproot and lay prostrate, trees some four feet in circumference, on which they might fill their capacious maws to satiation. They are both supposed to have been herbivorous; from the appearances of their tusks, the Mastadon more especially, and from a remarkable matter found connected with one of the skeletons. In the midst of the ribs, there was seen a mass of matter composed apparently of twigs of trees, in small pieces about two inches long, of different diameters, from the smallest size to half an inch. Mixed with these, were four or five bushels of a finer vegetable substance, like finely well, almost anything" earnestly avers divided leaves, some in whole pellets, some the unselfish and affectionate parent "than in broken pellets, some within the lower either of my children should be without a part of the ribs, some without, plainly good education." That's right, say we, showing the food upon which the animal your heart is evidently in the right place; lived. The estimated weight of this ani- education is a good thing-it is even better mal, is twenty thousand pounds. than some people by their actions allow it to be; and next to a good strong mind in a healthy body, it is, in our estimation, the best blessing that a parent can bestow upon a child. How carefully then should the labors of the school-room be seconded and assisted by the co-operation of the home circle?-not in the cultivation and elevation of the mind only, but in the nobler and most refining impulses and aspirations of the heart. Next to the tusks of these wonderful gormandizers, their teeth excite our unqualified surprise. These have given name to one kind,—the Mastodon,-which, in Greek, signifies small hill and tooth; the Megatherium-Great Wild Beast. The Megatherium is supposed to have had the head and shoulders similar to those of the sloth, and from the length and number of the vertebræ of the neck, many imagine that it could have had no tusks of the size attributed to it; but when we consider that the ponderous size of the connected shoul LINES. BY MRS. C. A. CHAMBERLAIN. ders, legs and claws, could never have allow- Suggested by white flowers growing in the Cemetery of ed of any active habits; but like the sloth, only moving from one location to the other, after it had devoured the entire herbage of the full grown trees it might have felled, the conclusion would be otherwise. The weight of the antlers of many deer compared with the structure of the vertebræ of the neck, affords a good argument against such an assumption. Sacramento. Like lovely dreams Both these creatures must have been Here your strange presence seems. So lone and lovely from this desert sand? Amidst the graves, ye white-robed ones, why stand EDUCATE YOUR CHILDREN. In this sad spot, Has Nature placed these shining ones to glow Where human hope is not? Or does she seek, By many a gentle hint around us thrown, NEVER BE DISCOURAGED.-Many a man, "the lead" of whose claim, apparently, had Everybody believes in children-God" run out " one day, has "struck it" again, bless them-being well educated. Everybody says "yes-certainly" when you point out the advantages and pleasures of a good education. "I had rather go without the next;-whereas had he either sold or abandoned it then, another, probably, would have reaped the reward of his labor. One often works within three inches of a fortune SIJENOPHE. BY G. HARRY R. Lovely Sijenophe! Beautiful maiden, That bloomed to her shame. Ere the subtile one came. To goodness inclined. How gay were the sports Of young thoughts that held courts In the halls of her mind! Never once fearfully, One unworthy to share it : 'Gainst the heartless pretender, If madenly innocence Could not defend her. All disregarded, She hath borne her, Through deep sorrow; Who would scorn her E'en below her, Some despise her, But who know her Though few mourn her, Still her meekness, In love and in wonder, I gaze on her eyes,What eloquence under The raven lash lies! There a spirit that feels, The slanderer's art, The glance half reveals, Through the fringe that concea's. Oh! who with a heart, Could resist their appeals! In the woodland, Drooped a sweet flower, Crushed by rude hands In its bright hour. Like that blossom, Crushed, heart-broken,— In her bosom, All faith shaken; Must she shiver? Oh! forgive her! In this cold world, Ah, wherefore deeper, So oft is hurled, The gentle weeper! Oh, that woman, Will not list her To her human, erring sister! Faults outlive her, Think of her confidence, Fall like the rain; Wash out the stain? Thy tenderness. Of condemnation, Think of your own Humiliation. Seek not to discover, From whence she came, Think not thou 'rt above her, Though lowly her name. One error look over, In pity look over,— |
