48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Colorado, where the production of gold rose from $5,300,000 in 

 1893 to $7,527,000 in 1893, and to about $12,000,000 in 1894. The 

 production for 1895 in Colorado is confidently expected to reach 

 $20,000,000. The Director of the Mint is of opinion that the pro- 

 duction of the United States rose from $33,014,981 in 1892 to about 

 $39,500,000 in 1894, while other good authorities put the produc- 

 tion for 1894 at $50,000,000. The annual product of other great 

 producing countries shows a large increase of late years. In his 

 notable article in the North American Review,* Mr. Preston 

 states that the world's production of gold for 1893 was "the largest 

 in history, amounting in round numbers to $155,522,000." The 

 product for 1894, however, very largely exceeded probably by 

 twenty-five per cent the product of 1893. There is scarcely any 

 assignable limit to the gold known to exist in the world or even 

 in the United States. It is said that simply by the removal of 

 the restrictions on hydraulic mining California can produce half 

 a billion of gold. The quantity easily obtainable in Colorado is 

 stupendous. Other parts of the United States are also rich, while 

 Australia and Russia probably possess a stock equal to our own, 

 and are increasing the annual output every year. 



But the most surprising and, so to speak, revolutionary facts 

 regarding gold that have recently come to light are those con- 

 cerning the great Witwatersrandt mines of South Africa. There 

 gold is found in enormous quantities and in a cheaply workable 

 form in a new geological situation " in strata the component 

 parts of which are pieces of quartz held together by a clayey 

 cement." A part of this tract about one fifth of the whole has 

 been separately explored by a mining expert sent by the German 

 Government and by a distinguished American mining engineer, 

 Mr. Hamilton Smith. Each of these gentlemen concluded that 

 the minimum amount of gold obtainable from the tract surveyed 

 was upward of a billion dollars. These mines began production 

 in 1887, when their product was about $500,000. In 1893 it was 

 nearly $30,000,000. It is therefore not hazardous to predict that 

 from this one mine will come in the near future enough gold to 

 double the total existing stock of about $4,000,000,000. 



There is therefore, in my opinion, not the slightest fear of an 

 appreciation of gold arising from its scarcity. It is as certain as 

 anything can well be that the abundance of gold will be such as 

 not only to prevent a rise in its value, but materially to accelerate 

 its fall. It is not probable that the increased production will be 

 relatively as great as that of the Californian period ; but the ab- 

 solute increase may well be larger, and it would not be surprising 

 to see an annual production of $300,000,000 worth of gold by the 



* January, 1895, p. 46. 



