tow a ship up or down the river against wind and tide at a fair rate.[1]
What gold Ralph Morton needed to pay the expenses of his enterprise was taken out of the mine by his own labor and that of his brothers. To lessen this labor a horse-power was set up outside of the building which enclosed the mouth of the mine. By this power were run drills to cut holes for blasting, winches to raise the rock and metal to the surface, and saws to cut the metal up into pieces small enough to be melted in crucibles. In the quartz contiguous to the mass of gold were pieces of gold so small that Morton did not consider it worth while to extract them, but so large as to be readily discerned. If these pieces were thrown to public view, public discovery of the mine would ensue. So a building was constructed in which to lock the telltale pieces, while the barren pieces of quartz were rolled down into the ravine.
- ↑ I have seen a ferryboat which ran diagonally across the Mississippi, a distance of five miles, driven by the power of two horses in a tread-mill, make good speed against the current. Ten horses on sweeps would furnish six or seven times the power of two horses on a tread-mill, or sufficient to run a large boat against a current of four or five miles an hour at a fair speed.
