scram
To scratch (something) with claws or fingernails; to claw.
transitive
scram [...] Verb. [...] 2. To scratch, with claws or fingernails. E.g. "It's my own fault the cat scrammed me, I was teasing it." [South Wales use]
To mine for ore on a small scale, especially from mines previously been worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed.
archaic, transitive
Just west of this pit is another one, which has been nearly worked out; but three men are scramming about five tons per day in it.
Where it comes from
The verb is a variant of dialectal English scramb (“to pull or rake together with the hands; to gather a handful of something from the ground; to scratch with the claws or nails; to pull down violently; to tear off; to maul about; a handful of something from the ground”), possibly related to Dutch schrammen (“to graze, scratch”) and German schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”); see etymology 1. The noun is derived from the verb.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry scram (CC BY-SA 4.0).