Placer mining | Britannica
As the material moved through the cradle, the gold was caught on the riffles, to be removed later. In sluicing or hydraulicking methods, a slightly sloping wooden trough called a box sluice, or a ditch cut in hard gravel or rock called a ground sluice, is used as a channel along which goldbearing gravel is carried by a stream of water. Riffles placed transversely along the bottom of the sluice cause the water to eddy into small basins, retarding the current so that gold