284 CHARLES DARWIN 



It is curious to find how the minute particles of gold, being 

 scattered about and not corroding, at last accumulate in 

 some quantity. A short time since a few miners, being out of 

 work, obtained permission to scrape the ground round the 

 house and mills ; they washed the earth thus got together, and 

 so procured thirty dollars' worth of gold. This is an exact 

 counterpart of what takes place in nature. Mountains suffer 

 degradation and wear away, and with them the metallic veins 

 which they contain. The hardest rock is worn into impalpa- 

 ble mud, the ordinary metals oxidate, and both are removed ; 

 but gold, platina, and a few others are nearly indestructible, 

 and from their weight, sinking to the bottom, are left behind. 

 After whole mountains have passed through this grinding 

 mill, and have been washed by the hand of nature, the residue 

 becomes metalliferous, and man finds it worth his while to 

 complete the task of separation. 



Bad as the above treatment of the miners appears, it is 

 gladly accepted of by them; for the condition of the labour- 

 ing agriculturists is much worse. Their wages are lower, and 

 they live almost exclusively on beans. This poverty must be 

 chiefly owing to the feudal-like system on which the land is 

 tilled: the landowner gives a small plot of ground to the 

 labourer, for building on and cultivating, and in return has 

 his services (or those of a proxy) for every day of his life, 

 without any wages. Until a father has a grown-up son, who 

 can by his labour pay the rent, there is no one, except on 

 occasional days, to take care of his own patch of ground. 

 Hence extreme poverty is very common among the labouring 

 classes in this country. 



There are some old Indian ruins in this neighbourhood, 

 and I was shown one of the perforated stones, which Molina 

 mentions as being found in many places in considerable 

 numbers. They are of a circular flattened form, from five to 

 six inches in diameter, with a hole passing quite through the 

 centre. It has generally been supposed that they were used 

 as heads to clubs, although their form does not appear at all 

 well adapted for that purpose. Burchell 8 states that some 

 of the tribes in Southern Africa dig up roots by the aid of a 

 stick pointed at one end, the force and weight of which are 



Burchell's Travels, vol. ii. p. 45. 



