704 GOLD 



Ojne river, in the Jenesei district, belonging to Messrs. Kjasonow & Co., namely, 

 54,020 ounces, ^^ to {^ fine; or at 31. 16s. 6d. per ounce, value 203,925^. 105. 



dwts. grs. 



2 5-6 per ton. 



8-1 



1 4-7 

 5 18-4 

 20-8 

 12-3 



In 1823 the sands washed in the Berosow district yielded 

 1861 



1828 Bogalousk (N. Ural) 



1830 

 I860 

 1861 (first half year) Mijask 



The force employed was in 1860 : 



Horses and Steam - 



Men Women. Mules. Engines. 



W. and E. Siberia . . . 31,796 919 8,751 



Ural 20,352 2,181 8,339 4 



Total . . . 52,148 3,100 17,090 4 



The average payments for royalties in the private mines is 7 per cent. 



In Erman's 'Archives 'we find that in the year 1851, the gold of the Ur;ili;m 

 washing and amalgamation-works produced 332 poods; the Nertschinsk works, 67 

 poods; the remaining West and East Siberian washings, 1,107 poods; the produce 

 of the Altai Mountains and of Nertschinsk Siberian works, 39 poods; making 1,546 

 poods. 



Gold in Asia. In Asia, and especially in its southern districts, there are many 

 mines, streams, rivers, and wastes which contain this metal. The Pactolus, a small 

 river of Lydia, rolled over such golden sands, that it was supposed to constitute 

 the origin of the wealth of Croasus. But these deposits are now poor and forgotten. 

 Japan, Formosa, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines, and some other 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago, are rich in gold streams. Those of Borneo are 

 worked by the Chinese in an alluvial soil, on the western coast, at the foot of a chain 

 of volcanic mountains. 



Little or no gold comes into Europe from Asia, because its servile inhabitants place 

 their fortune in treasure, and love to hoard up that precious metal. 



Numerous gold mines occur on the two slopes of the chain of the Cailas mountains 

 in the Oundes, a province of Little Thibet. The gold lies in quartz veins, which traverse 

 a very crumbling reddish granite. Gold is said to have been found in tolerable abund- 

 ance in the sands of some of the tributaries to the Amour river. 



Gold in Africa, Africa was, with Spain, the source of the greater portion of the 

 gold possessed by the ancients. The gold which Africa still brings into the market is 

 always in dust, showing that the metal is obtained by washing the alluvial soils. None 

 of it is collected in the north of that continent ; three or four districts only are remark- 

 able for the quantity of gold they produce. 



The first mines are those of Kordofan, between Darfour and Abyssinia. The 

 negroes transport the gold in quills of the ostrich or vulture. These mines seem to 

 have been known to the ancients, who considered Ethiopia to abound in gold. Hero- 

 dotus relates that the king of that country exhibited to the ambassadors of Cambyses 

 all their prisoners bound with golden chains. 



The second and chief exploitation of gold-dust is to the south of the great desert ot 

 Zaara, in the western part of Africa, from the mouth of the Senegal to the Cape of 

 Palms. The gold occurs in spangles, chiefly near the surface of the earth, in the beds 

 of rivulets, and always in a ferruginous earth. In some places the negroes dig pits 

 in the soil to a depth of about 40 feet, unsupported by any props : they do not follow 

 any vein, nor do they construct a gallery ; but by repeated washings they separate the 

 gold from the earthy matters. 



The same district furnishes also the greater part of what is carried to Morocco, 

 Fez, and Algiers, by the caravans which go from Timbuctoo on the Niger, across the 

 great desert of Zaara. The gold which arrives by Sennaar at Cairo and Alexandria 

 comes from the same quarter. From Mungo Park's description, it appears that the 

 gold spangles are found usually in a ferruginous small gravel, buried under rolled 

 pebbles. 



The third spot in Africa where gold is collected is on the south-east coast, between 

 the twenty-fifth and the twenty-second degree of south latitude, opposite to Mada- 

 gascar, in the county of Sofnla. Some persons think that this was the kingdom of Ophir, 

 whence Solomon obtained his gold. 



The following account of the Transvaal gold-fields is abstracted from a communi- 

 cation to the ' Times/ dated December 28, 1873 : 



