CHAP. n. TO THE EAST OF PERSIA. 33 



and pursue the Indians by their smell with in- 

 credible swiftness. They affirm, that if the 

 Indians did not make considerable progress 

 whilst the ants were collecting themselves toge- 

 ther, it would be impossible for any of them to 

 escape. For this reason, at different intervals, 

 they separate one of the male camels from the 

 female, which are always fleeter than the males, 

 and are at this time additionally incited by the 

 remembrance of their young whom they had left. 

 It is thus, according to the Persians, the Indians 

 obtain their greatest quantity of gold ; what they 

 procure by digging is of much inferior import- 

 ance." Beloe's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 281 287. 



Though the father of history may have been 

 too credulous in receiving these tales of ants 

 in size between a dog and a fox of their labour 

 in digging up heaps of gold arid their swift pur- 

 suit ofthe plunderers of their hoards his relation 

 confirms the general view every inquirer must 

 take, that the produce of gold from mines is very 

 far inferior in quantity to that procured in the 

 form of dust, which, in spite of both Herodotus 

 and Pliny, seems to be chiefly, but not exclu- \ 

 sively, gained by washing the sand brought down 

 by mountain torrents. 



It is more than probable that the countries to 

 the north of Persia, though unknown except by 

 rumour to the more refined inhabitants of central 

 Asia, contributed in some degree to increase 



VOL. i. D 



