62 Mr W. Jory Henwood on the 



and Bananal, — or again, in a rounded, sandy, or gravelly state, 

 mixed with other detrital matter, in which case, as in that of our 

 stream-tin, the quality is far superior to that of the metal obtained 

 from mines. A fourth mode of occurrence owes its origin to the 

 workings on the other three, for it consists of the finer and lighter 

 particles which escape during the extraction and cleaning of the gold 

 obtained from the strata and veins, and which are often carried by 

 the rivers several miles before they subside. This is obtained from 

 the present beds of rivers ; and after heavy floods, it is also collected 

 from the grass and brush-wood which clothe their banks ; but it is 

 wrought only by the very poorest classes, and seldom yields them 

 more than a very fevf pence a day. A rich sample of gold taken 

 from the crop of a duck which fed in one of those streams was exhi- 

 bited, and this, though very rare, is not a sole instance of the kind. 

 The writer once saw the sand and earth scraped by children from 

 between the paving stones in the street of Itabira for sake of the 

 gold they contained. The mine of Gongo Soco, worked in the 

 Jacotinga formation by an English association, afforded its riches 

 so near the surface, that the extraction of gold was begun on the 

 third day of its prosecution, and it continues to be wrought, though 

 on a very reduced scale, to the present time. In the month of Sep- 

 tember 1829, there were 759 lbs. of gold obtained, of which 296 

 lbs. (or nearly £12,000 worth) were extracted in two days ; and 

 during twenty-four years, more than 33,000 lbs. weight, worth 

 about one million and a quarter sterling, have been taken out, and 

 yielded a very considerable profit.- — The mine of Morro Velho, also 

 carried on by an English company, at present yields auriferous 

 pyrites only ; but though it contains only about half an ounce of 

 gold in the ton of ore, it is nevertheless so extensively wrought that 

 it gives from 200 to 250 lbs. of gold a month, and has for several 

 years past left a large profit to the adventurers. 



The proportion of gold extracted from the strata he estimates at 

 two-fifths of the whole. 



The proportion of gold extracted from the veins he estimates at 

 one- half the whole. 



The proportion of gold extracted from stream-works and beds of 

 rivers he estimates at one-tenth of the whole. 



The first discovery of gold known to the Portuguese authorities 

 was in 1695, and from that time to the end of last year, the writer 

 calculates by the aid of Eschwege's work on Brazil, and by assist- 

 ance of the Grovernment officers, that sixty-three millions sterling 

 worth of gold had been extracted from the Brazilian gold workings. 

 To the end of 1846 (the latest returns he had access to), the Rus- 

 sian gold washing had yielded about twenty millions ; and Sir 

 Roderick Impey Murchison considers the returns from California as 

 one million and a half per annum. The latest Russian accounts 

 shew a produce of more than three millions annually, and they, as 



