190 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



Kenzie, manager of the Minnehaha Development Com- 

 pany, very kindly invited us to his bungalow, eighteen miles 

 away, and later sent a carriage for our transportation. 

 The distance was covered in half a day, and lay mainly 

 through the heavy forest, although there was occasionally 

 an area of considerable extent covered with tall, rank grass 

 and bushes. The company was operating one small dredge 

 in Minnehaha Creek, and notwithstanding the fact that the 

 entire region had been gone over before, quantities of gold 

 were being recovered from the bed of the stream. As there 

 had been no "clean-up" for two weeks, one was arranged 

 for our benefit. The gold, which was in very fine particles, 

 was brought up from the dredge in tin cans, and then placed 

 in an iron retort and heated to a very high temperature; 

 this freed the mercury with which the yellow metal had 

 been collected from the mud and water in passing over the 

 sluiceway of the dredge. Later it was again placed in the 

 retort, together with pulverized glass and borax, to gather 

 up the impurities, and melted; then it was poured into 

 moulds. Four bars, weighing one hundred and twenty- 

 five ounces each, were recovered. It was then inspected 

 and passed by an official, who also made a note of the 

 amount of tax due the government. A coolie servant was 

 despatched to take it to Georgetown to the company's 

 headquarters, and although he would be on the way a num- 

 ber of days and be compelled to mingle with all sorts of 

 people, he carried no weapon of any kind with which to 

 protect his precious burden. This speaks well for the law 

 and order maintained throughout the colony. 



The country along Minnehaha Creek is rolling and cov- 

 ered with a good stand of timber. Numerous small streams 

 flow through ravines between the hills, and while the cur- 

 rent is strong the streams are not deep. A footpath con- 

 tinues to a point seven miles beyond, on the Konamaruck, 

 and from this a network of short, narrow trails branch out 

 in all directions. The rainfall is very great in the entire 

 region; during the month of August (1913) it was twenty- 



