n Washoe, the price was at one time thirty
dollars per ton; but in the large mills, where many tons are crushed
every day, is about two dollars per ton.

_The Divining Rod._--In prospecting for auriferous quartz, use is
sometimes made of the divining rod, a practice not without credit with
some good miners. The rod is a fork of a green hazel-bush, shaped like
a V, with the arms about a foot long. The prospector holds the end of
an arm in each hand, with the point of the V directed forward
horizontally, and as he walks along, the point turns down whenever he
comes over a metalliferous vein, metallic body or water. It is supposed
that very few persons can use the divining rod effectually; for most
men it refuses to turn. It is used in nearly every civilized country,
especially by miners, and is generally considered superstitious,
because it is employed by ignorant people, and because there has been
no generally accepted scientific explanation of the manner in which a
stick could be influenced by a metal hidden under ground. A scientific
explanation of the principle of the divining rod has been offered to
the world, by Baron Reichenbach, (see page sixty of his _Odic-Magnetic
Letters_, translated by John S. Hittel).

_Quarrying Quartz._--The quarrying of quartz rock differs little from
the quarrying of other metalliferous vein-stones. The lode descends
steeply, and the excavation must follow its course. Sometimes the
quartz is so soft that it may easily be loosened with the pick. The
harder rock is blasted. Soft quartz is that which is penetrated by
numerous cavities, though the lumps between the cavities may be very
hard. Some quartz on exposure to the air crumbles into sand, though
hard when first taken from the vein. In narrow lodes, some of the
wall-rock must be cut away to get room for the workmen. In wide lodes,
that part of the vein-stone which does not pay is left. Sometimes the
gold from the lode penetrates a little way into the foot-wall, and in
that case the quarrying must extend beyond the vein stone. The quartz
loosened in the vein, must either be hoisted perpendicularly in a
bucket with a windlass, or be hauled out through a tunnel. The common
method is to hoist the rock with a windlass. Most of the veins are in
such places that shafts are more easily dug than tunnels. After the
excavation has extended twenty or thirty feet below the surface, it is
usual to dig a perpendicular shaft, so as to strike the vein