ON GOLD AND SILVER. 527 



yield of gold in South Africa, and the accounts of the value of the gold- 

 producing areas are very conflicting. Some look to South Africa as a 

 district which will soon rival California and Victoria ; but there is no. 

 evidence that such a future is before it. There are numerous reefs of 

 auriferous quartz, some apparently along the bedding of the rocks, others 

 cutting across the bedding : these auriferous veins are associated with 

 intrusive diorites. 



No important areas of alluvial gold-bearing gravels ai-e known, 

 although most of the gold obtained up to within the last few years was 

 alluvial. The future of South African gold-mining dejiends upon quartz 

 veins. The veins yield gold of rather more than average purity and 

 quantity. At jiresent only the richer veins are worked, but with improved 

 methods and machinery much of the poorer ore can be treated, which will 

 increase the total yield whilst reducing the percentage. So far as yet 

 worked, the gold of the veins is mostly free ; the losses in working should 

 therefore be less than in most other vein-areas, or than probably will be 

 the case when the veins are followed to the deep. 



A steadily increasing yield of gold may be looked for from this area, 

 but, so far as we yet know, not in sufficient amount to be of importance 

 in the general stock of the world. Much of the Transvaal gold passes 

 throngh Natal ; the value thus exported was G,865Z. in 1882, and 52,222Z. 

 in 1885. 



India. — Although gold occurs in many parts of India, it is only to 

 the southern part of the peninsula that people look who have great hopes 

 of a large gold supply. Probably these hopes are less high and less 

 generally felt than they were a few years back. There are no deep 

 placers, such as have yielded the vast supplies of Victoria and California ; 

 the shallow alluvial deposits, often locally very rich, have been in great 

 part e.\:hausted, and for the future supply of Indian gold we must look to 

 vein-mining. The Wynaad and Mysore are the districts most likely to 

 yield the future supply. In the former the gold is often associated with 

 sulphides, and hence there is much loss in working. In Mysore the gold 

 is more often free. Kolar is supposed to be the district which yielded 

 the chief supply of gold to the native pi'inces in past times, and it gives 

 some promise of supply for the future. • But there is no probability that 

 it, or any other part of India, will rise to a high rank as a gold-producing 

 country. Nothing is officially known as to the exact amount of gold 

 produced in India at the present time. 



The amount of gold raised in China is certainly large, but its value 

 is unknown ; Mr. R. GiSen states that the excess of export of gold over 

 import is about 1,000,000Z. per year. This is important, because, from the 

 absence of statistics, China is not included in Dr. Soetbeer's estimate. 



Many of the Asiatic islands, and especially Japan, have in the aggre- 

 gate yielded a considerable amount of gold, and will probably continue 

 to do so ; but from the point of view in which we are now considering 

 the question these areas need not detain us. Here, as in Africa, the 

 reputed production during Portuguese rule is vastly in excess of what, 

 apparently, can be raised now. 



South America and Mexico. — It is of some importance to obtain a 

 fairly correct estimate of the yield of South America and Mexico, 

 because it is on all hands allowed to be large. The differences in the 



' See Professor V. Ball's Coal, Iron, and Gold Mines of India, and his lecture to 

 the Geologists' Association, Mining Journal, June 12, 1886. 



