pans." One man working alone with a cradle
ought to wash from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty pans in a day,
and two men will wash twice as much. A pan may contain one-third or
one-half of a cubic foot. Two men can work more conveniently with the
rocker than one. There is enough work to give constant employment to a
cradler and a shoveller. The latter has a couple of buckets or pans,
which he fills alternately, always keeping one full and near the
cradler, so that without moving his feet he can pick it up and empty it
into the riddle-box. If the rocker have only one man, he must stop
rocking after washing every pan and get more dirt. This delay is
injurious to the process of washing, because it allows the dirt in the
bottom of the cradle to harden and pack, and some gold is always lost
as a consequence. If the dirt and water be convenient, not more than
two men can work to a profit with a rocker. But sometimes it happens
that water cannot be led to the claim, and in such case the dirt must
be carried to the water, a greater weight of which is used than of
dirt. At least three times as much water as dirt is required for
washing. If the distance from the hole to the water be not over ten or
twenty feet, the miners will usually carry the dirt in buckets; if
farther they will use wheelbarrows; and sometimes for greater distances
pack-mules or waggons. The greater the distance, the more the men
required for carrying the dirt. Sometimes, too, it happens that the
claim is troubled by water, and then one man may be constantly employed
in bailing.

It is of great importance in mining with the cradle, to have the cradle
placed within four or five feet of the hole from which the pay-dirt is
obtained, and to have a good supply of water at the head of the cradle,
and then to have a good descent below the cradle, so that the tailings
may all be carried away by the water, so as not to accumulate. The
rocker washes about one-half the amount of dirt that can be washed by
an equal number of men with the tom, one-fourth of what can be washed
with the sluice, and one-hundredth of the amount that can be washed
with the hydraulic process; but it is peculiarly fitted for some kinds
of diggings. Many little gullies, containing coarse gold in their beds,
cannot obtain water for washing except during rains, and then only for
a few days at a time. In these gullies the cradle can be used to the
best advantage, for it can easily be transporte