234 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE GOLD district OF THE MAZOE EIVEK. 



Ill (juest of gold — Ex})loration syndicates — Mashonaland as a 

 field for emigration — The Mazoe gold-fields — Captain 

 Williams's report — Old workings^ — ^The " Golden Quarry " 

 mine — Other mines visited in the district — More disap- 

 pointments. 



In the course of the morning I rode on into Fort 

 Salisbury, a distance of fourteen miles, which I 

 covered in an hour and a half. Here I found that 

 ^Ir. Henry C. Perkins and Captain Williams had 

 returned from their expedition to tlie Mazoe River, 

 having had a very interesting time and some very 

 rough experiences in respect of food and shelter. 

 They brought no good report of the gold dis- 

 coveries in the Mazoe district. l\Ianv mines had been 

 visited and examined, Init nothing very promising 

 seen. The reefs appear to be similar in character, 

 long, thin, and fairly rich (some of them) on the 

 surface, but in all cases, so far as hitherto Avorked, 

 either " pinching out " to nothing at a depth of 

 from t\veuty-fi\'e to fifty feet, or degenerating into 

 (piartz containing little gold. Both the eminent 

 experts, Messrs. i^erkins and Rolker, were of 

 opinion that although here and there were reefs of 

 comparati\ely limited extent and depth, which 

 might yield a small profit to the small individual 



