Existing comment:
Burrowing under the gravels for rich pockets of gold was called "coyoting." Miners would sink a shaft and create a small open-pit mine as they tunneled along the bedrock layer in search of the pay streak. Many lost their lives in these diggings due to sudden unexpected cave-ins in the poorly constructed tunnels.
As the accessible rich gravels were rapidly depleted. Miners were forced to develop efficient methods of dealing with larger quantities of low grade pay dirt. Various forms of the sluice, a sloping through with riffles or blocks to trap the gold, were developed.
The Long Tom was used alone or at the head of a sluice line to wash very coarse gold-bearing gravels. The upper trough could handle large amounts of sand and gravel, while the steady flow of water washed the finer materials down into the screen or sluice below. The sands collected here were usually reworked in a rocker or pan. |