ion is
simplified.

SIMPLE WAY OF MAKING CHARCOAL

Dig a pit 5 feet square by 3 feet deep and fill with fuel. After
lighting, see that the pit is kept full. The hot embers will gradually
sink to the bottom. The fuel should be kept burning fiercely until the
pit seems almost full, when more fuel should be added, raising the heap
about a foot above the level of the ground. The earth dug out of the pit
should then be shovelled back over the burning mass. After leaving it to
cool for 24 hours the pit will be found nearly full of charcoal. About
one-quarter the weight of the dry fuel used should be recovered in
charcoal.

ROUGH SMELTING ON THE MINE

Rough smelting on the mine is effected with a flux of borax, carbonate
of soda, or, as I have often done, with some powdered white glass. When
the gold is smelted and the flux has settled down quietly in a liquid
state, the bulk of the latter may be removed, to facilitate pouring into
the mould, by dipping an iron rod alternately into the flux and then
into a little water, and knocking off the ball of congealed flux which
adheres after each dip. This flux should, however, be crushed with a
pestle and mortar and panned off, as, in certain cases, it may contain
tiny globules of gold.

MISFIRES IN BLASTING

One of the most common sources of accident in mining operations is due
either to carelessness or to the use of defective material in blasting.
A shot misses, generally for one of two reasons; either the explosive,
the cap, or the fuse (most often the latter), is inferior or defective;
or the charging is incompletely performed. Sometimes the fuse is not
placed properly in the detonator, or the detonator is not properly
enclosed in the cartridge, or the fuse is injured by improper tamping.
If several shots have been fired together, particularly at the change
of a "shift," the men who have to remove the broken material may in so
doing explode the missed charge. Or, more inexcusable still, men will
often be so foolish as to try to clear out the drill hole and remove
the missed cartridge. When a charge is known to have missed all that
is necessary to do in order to discharge it safely is to remove a few
inches of "tamping" from the top of the drill hole, place in the bore
a plug of dynamite with cap and fuse attached, put an inch or two of
tamping over it and fire, when the missed charge will also be exploded.
Of course, judgment must be used and the depth of the drill taken i