fty feet high; but a
greater height will burst it. Now, as the force of the stream increases
with the height of the water, it is a matter of great importance to
have the hose as strong as possible; and for this purpose, in some
claims, it is surrounded by iron bands, which are about two inches
wide, and are connected by four ropes which run perpendicularly down.
The rings are about three inches apart. The "crinoline hose," thus
made, is very flexible, and will support a column of water one hundred
and fifty or two hundred feet high. The pipe at the end of the hose is
like the pipe of a fire-engine hose, though usually larger. Sometimes
the pipe will be eight inches in diameter where it connects with the
hose, and not more than two inches at the mouth; and the force with
which the stream rushes from it is so great, that it will kill a man
instantaneously, and tear down a hill more rapidly than could a hundred
men with shovels.

One or two men are required to hold the pipe. They usually turn the
stream upon the bank near its bottom until a large mass of dirt tumbles
down, and then they wash this all away into the sluice; when they
commence at the bottom of the bank again, and so on. If the bank is one
hundred and fifty feet high, the mass of earth that tumbles down is of
course immense, and the pipemen must stand far off, for fear that they
will be caught in the avalanche. Such accidents are of daily
occurrence, and the deaths from this cause probably are not less than
threescore every year in the state. Often legs are broken; still more
frequently the pipemen have warning, and escape in time. When men are
buried in the falling dirt, the water is used to wash them out. In some
claims, the pipe will tear down more dirt than the sluice can wash; in
other claims, the sluice always demands more dirt than the pipe can
bring down. In the latter case, blasting may be used to loosen the
dirt, or the miners may undermine the bank, leaving a few columns of
dirt for support; and then these being washed away by the pipe, the
whole bank comes tumbling down.

In hydraulic claims, all the dirt is washed; in all other kinds of
claims, such dirt as contains no gold is thrown to one side, or
"stripped off." "Hydraulic mining" is the highest branch of placer
mining; it washes more dirt, and requires more water, and a larger
sluice, than any other kind of mining. The number of men employed in a
hydraulic claim, however, is usually small, f