Instead of blanket tables percussion tables are sometimes used, to which a jerking motion is given against the flow of the water and pulp, and by this means the heavier minerals are gathered towards the upper part of the table, and are from thence removed from time to time as they become concentrated. I have seen this appliance doing fairly good work, but it is by no means a perfect concentrator. Another form of "shaking table" is one in which the motion is given sideways, and this, whether amalgamated, or provided with small riffles, or covered with blanket, keeps the pulp lively and encourages the retention of the heavier particles, whether of gold or base metals containing gold. There has also been devised a rocking table the action of which is analogous to that of the ordinary miner's cradle. This appliance, working somewhat slowly, swings on rockers from side to side, and is usually employed in mills where, owing to the complexity of the ore, difficulties have been met with in amalgamating the gold. Riffles are provided and even very fine gold is sometimes effectively recovered by their aid. The Frue vanner will, as a rule, act well when the pulp is sufficiently fine. It is really a adaptation of an old and simple apparatus used in China and India for washing gold dust from the sands of rivers. The original consisted of an endless band of strong cloth or closely woven matting, run on two horizontal rollers placed about seven feet apart, one being some inches lower than the other. The upper is caused to revolve by means of a handle. The cloth is thus dragged upwards against a small stream of water and sand fed to it by a second man, the first man not only turning the handle but giving a lateral motion to the band by means of a rope tied to one side. Chinamen were working these forerunners of the Frue vanner forty years ago in Australia, and getting fair returns. The Frue vanner is an endless indiarubber band drawn over an inclined table, to which a revolving and side motion is given by ingenious automatic mechanism, the pulp being automatically fed from the upper end, and the concentrates collected in a trough containing water in which the band is immersed in its passage under the table; the lighter particles wash over the lower end. The only faults with the vanner are--first, it is rather slow; and secondly, though so ingenious it is just a little complicated in construction for the average non-scientific operative.