288 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



partly decomposed gold-bearing quartz. A deep narrow pit 

 showed where the material was found, shovelfuls being 

 thrown up on two successive ledges before it reached the 

 surface. It was then carried to an open thatched roof be- 

 neath which was a primitive, two-man power stamp. This 

 was nothing but a gigantic hammer made of two logs, the ham- 

 mer part covered with metal, and the handle hung in a socket, 

 so that the centre of gravity lay toward the head. Two men, 

 balancing themselves by clinging to uprights, stepped in 

 unison on the tip of the handle, their combined weight de- 

 pressing it and raising the head; then stepping off suddenly 

 the hammer came down with great force on a pile of broken 

 gold-quartz, fed into a hardened hollow beneath it. This 

 mining enterprise required no less than five men, and they 

 were taking out about $1.20 each a day. 



Comparing the division of labor among men with that 

 among cells, we may liken the single "pork-knocker" to an 

 Amoeba, where a single man and a single cell perform all 

 the necessary functions; the Long Tom with two men is like 

 the simpler sponges where one set of cells secretes the 

 skeleton of spicules, giving shape to the whole, and another 

 set lashes the water and absorbs the tiny bits of food. The 

 crusher' with its five men, each performing his individual 

 labor, corresponds to some slightly higher organism a 

 jelly-fish or anemone, while the electrically run stamps, 

 employing several score of men, is like the complex cell 

 machinery of a beetle or butterfly. 



The Aremu Mine clearing had been in existence only about 

 six months, and the trees which were felled had been sawed up 

 or burnt so that there was no such abundance of wood-loving 

 insects as at Hoorie. At night a few Longicorn beetles would 

 appear and buzz about, but almost no moths. In fact during 

 our whole stay only one moth of large size was seen. One 

 small species of moth, with wings of a general rusty-red, 



