Ground sluice

Definition of ground sluice

• A channel cut in the bottom or bed-rock, into which the earth is conveyed by a stream of water. It is sometimes lined with sawn planks. False bottoms formed of stout battens, framed together and laid lengthwise in the sluice are occasionally used to protect the wooden bottom from the wearing action of the stones, etc, passing through the sluice. Some sluices are paved with large stones, and others are paved with blocks of wood, grain on end. Ground-sluices are employed where the bottom is sufficiently high to afford the necessary fall for the stuff passed through the sluice.

– The Gold Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria, 1869