long breath of the fresh pure air, but his eyes felt quite painful
in the vivid glare of the sun.

"I don't envy the gnomes," he said gaily to Archie as they went on
to the puddlers; "they must have been subject to chronic
rheumatism."

Mr McIntosh, not having an acquaintance with fairy lore, said
nothing in reply, but took Vandeloup to the puddlers, and showed all
the process of getting the gold.

The wash was carried along in the trucks from the top of the shaft
to the puddlers, which were large circular vats into which water was
constantly gushing. The wash dirt being put into these, there was an
iron ring held up by chains, having blunt spikes to it, which was
called a harrow. Two of these being attached to beams laid crosswise
were dragged round and round among the wash by the constant
revolution of the cross-pieces. This soon reduced all the wash dirt
to a kind of fine, creamy-looking syrup, with heavy white stones in
it, which were removed every now and then by the man in charge of
the machine. Descending to the second story of the framework,
Vandeloup found himself in a square chamber, the roof of which was
the puddler. In this roof was a trap-door, and when the wash dirt
had been sufficiently mixed the trap-door was opened, and it was
precipitated through on to the floor of the second chamber. A kind
of broad trough, running in a slanting direction and called a
sluice, was on one side, and into this a quantity of wash was put,
and a tap at the top turned on, which caused the water to wash the
dirt down the sluice. Another man at the foot, with a pitchfork,
kept shifting up the stones which were mixed up with the gravel, and