Note 3 — Chapter VI · Gold, and How they Came to Use It.
Reading edition
On the Rhine, near Strasburg, a good able-bodied laborer can earn on an average one franc seventy-five centimes per day, washing gold from the sands of the river; but, as under most circumstances he can earn ten sous more by working in the fields on the banks of the river, and without so much risk of getting rheumatism, gold-washing on the Rhine is not often adopted as a regular employment.