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Show 1U7 Spring arrived almost without our noticing. One day rather than snow falling, it was rain. When the mountain began to melt, Caribou and I deserted our mine shaft and started building a sluice-a long open box with cross bars or "riffles" nailed along the bottom. We dug ditches and cut dams into the mountainside and channeled the rushing water through our sluice box. Day after day we shoveled our gravel dumps into the sluice, and day after day we scooped out the heavy gold caught in the riffles. In late spring after the run-off, Caribou and I built a rocker to conserve water. It was a small wooden box set on rockers with a hopper on top and two riffles across the bottom. We took turns shoveling gravel into the hopper, pouring water over with a dipper, and rocking the box with a handle. We used the water in our dams over and over again. "Slow down, Jaraes, slow down," Tip yelled daily. She worked outside with us now that it was spring. "Yes, rattling roosters, slow down," Caribou gasped. Whenever Tip and Caribou complained and went inside, I kept working-shoveling dirt into the hopper, pouring water over, catching the water, pouring it in again. Scooping up gold dust and nuggets. "Just because the sun is up all day and night, doesn* t mean you should be," Tip argued. |
