CHARLESTON
cask or packing-case) and these “washings” periodically “streamed down,” i.e., passed a second time over the tables, handful by handful, in a small stream of water, and the cloths again rinsed in the trough. To this second “wash,” now containing only a small proportion of the sand or earth, was added a quantity of mercury (quicksilver) and the whole stirred until full amalgamation of gold and mercury was effected. It was usual to add a quantity of cyanide of potassium to assist amalgamation. The gold-bearing mercury was placed in a bag and the free mercury squeezed out. The ball of amalgam was then retorted; the bowl of the retort rested in a fire, but the tube-end was immersed in water which caught the evaporating mercury, for further use. Small quantities of amalgam were merely placed on shovels and held over a fire. Goodly quantities of mercury have, in consequence, been found in old chimneys. The retorted gold was taken to the banks for smelting, i.e., to be re-melted, treated for impurities, weighed and purchased. The smelting crucibles were, when discarded, eagerly gathered by boys who pulverised them in search of pellets of gold fused into cracks or bottoms. The gold purchased by banks was melted into large moulds of semi-pyramidal shape, for export. It was a constant joke for smelters to offer one of these to lady visitors if they “cared to take one away”—an impossibility, as no finger-hold was possible on the smooth, sloping surfaces.
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