Much more work can be done with this appliance than with the cradle, which it superseded. Of course, the gold must be coarse and water plentiful. When, however, the claim is paying, and the diggings show signs of some permanency, a puddling machine is constructed. This is described and illustrated in Chapter XII., called “Rules of Thumb.” Hydraulicing and ground sluicing is a very cheap and effective method of treating large quantities of auriferous drift, and, given favourable circumstances, such as a plentiful supply of water with good fall and extensive loose auriferous deposits, a very few grains to the ton or load can be made to give payable returns. [Illustration: FIG. 9. FLUME, GREAT SOUTHERN GOLD-FIELD, SHOALHAVEN, N.S.W.] [Illustration: FIG. 10. MONITOR AT WORK, GREAT SOUTHERN GOLD-FIELD.] The water is conveyed in flumes (Fig. 9), or pipes to a point near where it is required, thence in wrought iron pipes gradually reduced in size and ending in a great nozzle somewhat like that of a fireman’s hose. The “Monitor,” as it is sometimes called, is generally fixed on a movable stand, so arranged that the strong jet of water can be directed to any point by a simple adjustment (Fig. 10). A “face” is formed in the drift, and the water played against the lower portion of the ledge, which is quickly undermined, falls, and is soon washed away in the stream of water, which is conducted through sluices with riffles, and sometimes over considerable lengths of amalgamated copper plates. This class of mining has been most extensively carried out in California and New Zealand, and some districts of Victoria, but the truly enormous drifts of the Shoalhaven district in New South Wales must in the near future add largely to the world’s gold supply. These drifts are auriferous from grass roots to bed rock, extend for nearly fifty miles, and are in places as much as 300 feet deep. Want of capital and want of knowledge has hitherto prevented them being profitably worked on a large scale.