Cape Breton's Magazine

all of those mines--sell the stock. When they sold enough stock, to hell with it, whether they were making money (from the gold). And they were making money. They had a big stamp mill. Ever see one of them working? The ore went down in a chute. That's the job I had when I was there: lit? tle ore cars, you know, and rails. Run them down from the mine to the chute. There was a thing on them. You'd turn it, dump them in--and the stamp mill was work? ing, night and day--working up and down, crushing the rock--stamping it. And in the end the stuff ran as fine as flour, pretty near. It ran down in chutes, water running in it. And mercury in that. Big gobs of mercury, probably as big as my fist. And that would catch the gold. And that's how they did it. Alex a Maglqire Poirier, Plateau: And I used to go down twice a day, with a mug. The plunger was coming down and the water was running on the plate and gold was sticking on that plate. And the rest--sand and everything--was dumping away. And I had to go, twice a day. I'd stop the ma? chine, and I'd stop the water, and I'd go there. I'd put the mug under there and rub the board like this with a piece of cotton, good cotton, perfect for that, for the gold, rub that down. And I used to get a mugful twice a day. And by gosh, it was heavy enough. I had to take care not to drop it. I used to do that at dinnertime. Then I' used to go inside and "muck her"--take that stuff out of the mine, drop it down, put it in the crusher. It was hard, muck? ing that stuff, for me. I was about 14 years old. And I used to shovel the stuff. It weighed about half a ton (each box). And you had to push, you know. I used to haul 18 boxes a day. That stuff was heavy-- white quartz. It was a lot more quartz than it was gold. And when the gold was crushed it looked like--it wasn't looking good at all. It was blue. But they used candles for light inside the mine, so they wouldn't make any dirt, you know. The gold was in the quartz. When you put your lamp out (a seal-oil lamp on the cap) you could see that. You'd see the gold that was in the quartz. And [Take aValue home today- ... . ' CAPE BRETON SHOPPING PLAZA -- SYDNEY RIVER ''.A Mtt' I hskDW We Are3 MAYFLOWER mall - grand lake road 'U'TiZvi I I 'wvv ??vv'#'iv'v-r pQj'.j. HAWKESBURY S>

Cape Breton's Magazine