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0257 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / Page 257 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000233
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promptly moved to Sorgak, in order to be under the rule
of a man who did not "eat" money.

Many of the mines at Sorgak are located on the top of
the great gravel fan, far from the gorge of the river. Accord-
ingly, the miners winnow the gravel instead of fanning it.
When first I saw this primitive process, the gravel was
dumped in a conical heap two feet high. With their bare
hands, scarred and maimed by frequent cuts, bruises, and
sores, a man and a woman moved the heap forward by
throwing handful after handful to the top. The finer sand
was blown away during the process, and the coarser frag-
ments rolled to the bottom of the cone, where they could
be brushed away. Thus the advancing heap was gradually
diminished in size, and reduced to a somewhat homogeneous
mass of very fine pebbles and coarse sand. At length the
miner put this in a wooden pan, and holding it higher than
his head, poured it into a cloth on the ground, thus allow-
ing the wind to blow away part of the remaining sand
and pebbles. In the midst of the pouring, the young man
stopped and began to whistle. "What are you whistling
for?" I asked. "For the wind," was the sincere answer.

When the wind had done its work, the miner spread the
remaining gritty mass thinly over the cloth, and blew it
away by mighty blasts from his lungs, beginning on the
edges and working inward. All his partners, of both sexes
and all ages, or at least as many of them as could find room,
gathered around the cloth, and, lying on their stomachs,
watched with the traditional gold-miner's excitement for
traces of the yellow metal. A little girl pounced on a flake,
but that was all.