ORIGIX OF ZliMI!A[!WE-rULTURE. 333 



In 1897, Air. Telford Edwards, another consulting mining 

 engineer of high repute, confirmed .Mr. Hammond's findings, 

 and. moreover, estimated that, from the number, size, length and 

 depth, and the value> of the ores extracted, the ancient workings 

 had produced, on a 50 per cent, reduced estimate of ores owing 

 to the absence of modern reduction plant, gold to the present 

 value of anything between y^ millions and 150 millions of pounds 

 sterling, all of which quantity had been exported out of the 

 country. 



But since those earl\ days additional ancient workings, some 

 of immense size, have been discovered every month, and others 

 are constantly being come upon. Out of the 129,000 mining 

 claims registered and current for 19 10, at least eleven-twelfths 

 of the blocks are pegged on the sites of pre-historic workings. 



Mr. Telford Edwards was the first authority to claim that 

 there were ancient gold mines in Rhodesia centuries older than 

 the Zimbabwe Tem]:)le and its associated type of buildings 

 throughout the country, a claim which is supported 1)_\' a great 

 numljer of authorities conversant with both rock mines and 

 ruins, and so obvious and overwhelming are the evidences point- 

 ing to this conclusion that the claim is impossible of disproof. 



In my " Pre-Historic Rhodesia," three years ago, I gave the 

 names of fullv two score of consulting mining engineers in 

 Rhodesia, who, on their own ]:)ro])erties. and on their own inde- 

 pendent evidences and ex])eriences. amph' confirmed the re])orts 

 of Air. John Hays Hammond and Mr. Telford Edwards. 



In 1906 Air. Rhodes collected from our mining engineers 

 descri]:)tions of the pre-historic gold workings, with plans, sec- 

 tions, assay values of ores extracted, and methods of mining 

 employed. This collection he took to Europe and laid it before 

 the highest known and accepted authorities on ancient mining in 

 other countries, and he was informed that the oldest and finest 

 rock mines -in Rhodesia were undoubtedly of Asiatic origin, but 

 that later negroids were responsible for the later and cruder 

 shallow workings and outcrop scratchings. 



Five years ago Professor Gregory, of Glasgow, examined 

 some of our rock mines and rci)orted the oldest to the British 

 Association as being unmi-^takaljly ancient and the work of other 

 people than the Bantu, while the later workings he considered 

 to be those of local negroids. 



A short while ago. Air. H. A. Piper, the consulting engineer 

 of the Gonsolidated Goldfields of South Africa, and of the Globe 

 and Phiienix Aline, who for the past sixteen years has been 

 engaged in examining and reporting on mining i:)roperties in 

 Rhodesia, told me wdthout the slightest hesitation : " I thoroughly 

 agree with every word you have written on this question." 



The Globe and Phoenix Aline, says Air. Piper, alone con- 

 tributed over a quarter of a million pounds' worth of gold to the 

 pre-hist(^ric miners, and this estimate, he adds, makes most 

 liberal allowances for crude methods of working, and the absence 



