ZINC, GOLD 227 



The Canadian zinc mines are chiefly in the Kootenay district 

 of British Columbia, though Quebec and Ontario produce 

 a certain amount. 



In Newfoundland there are said to be extensive deposits, 

 along with silver and lead, in the Red Indian Lake District. 



Bawdwin, in the Northern Shan States of Burma, besides 

 lead, has large deposits of zinc ores and is regarded as a piomis* 

 ing source of future supplies. 



It is estimated that the output from these mines is suffi- 

 cient to make the empire self-supporting, though at present 

 we import from various foreign countries, chiefly from Italy, 

 Spain, Algeria, and (before the war) from Germany. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

 METALS (continued) 



GOLD. We read that in ancient days Jason, accompanied 

 by all the heroes of Greece, sailed in the good ship Argo to 

 Colchis, on the Euxine, to fetch the Golden Fleece, which 

 hung on an oak-tree in the grove of Mars, and was guarded 

 night and day by a fiery dragon. 



Since Jason's day men have been willing to brave ' fiery 

 dragons ' innumerable in order to obtain the precious metal, 

 which on account of its beauty and its many valuable qualities 

 has always been an object of intense desire. 



Gold is one of the heaviest of the metals, and it is extra- 

 ordinarily malleable and ductile ; it can be beaten out into 

 ' sheets ' or ' leaves ' so thin that 250,000 of these placed one 

 on top of the other measure only one inch in thickness, while 

 one grain in weight can be drawn out into a wire 167 yards 

 long. In consequence of its softness it is not used pure either 

 for ornaments or coins, a certain amount of copper or some 

 other metal being used with it to harden it. 1 



1 English sovereigns contain 8-33 per cent, of copper. Often the propor- 

 tion of gold is reckoned according to the number of parts out of 24. Each 



P 2 



