84 Timehrr. 
nate companies, now defunct (not the mining engineers alas! but the com- 
panies), and one cannot but marvel at the glaring mistakes which have been 
made. So marvelling we leave it to turn to something more pro bono publico 
than weeping over the lost hopes of former ventures. 
Looking at the map of Dutch Guiana we find that the country is watered 
by five principal rivers, viz—working from west to east—The Courentijne, 
the Saramacca, the Suriname, the Commewijne, and last, but by no means 
least, the Marowijne. These streams flow generally from south to north and 
the first and last form the boundaries between the British and Dutch, and 
French and Dutch Guianas respectively. 
In all of these rivers and in some of their tributary streams gold can be 
found in the gravels in the stream beds. 
The nearest prospect of improved exploitation of the riches of Surinam is 
in a proposal now on foot to establish gold-dredging on the Marowijne river. 
As this scheme is inthe hands of thoroughly competent and experienced people, 
the result of their operations will be viewed with particular interest by the 
mining public, and should prove almost certainly of great value to the colony. 
The Marowijne gives promise of being an ideal dredging proposition, as the 
gravels are deep, regular, free of boulders, with a shallow overburden, and a 
soft and easily cleaned bedrock, whilst the values per cubic yard appear sufli- 
ciently good to warrant the investment of a large capital in the venture. 
On the Saramacca also there are indications which point to its becoming a 
profitable dredging field. Up to the present no dredging data are available 
which are at all worthy or indeed possible of consideration. One company 
operating a small prospecting dredge (which does not pay) has a staff of six!! 
European and creole engineers to keep it in order, but in spite of “ hard times ” 
this merry crew closed the dredge down for ten days holiday at Easter. 
It would be hardly fair therefore to accept data from an opera-boufle concern of 
this sort, and solemnly proceed to pass judgment on the possibilities of a 
whole district from figures which could only prove the incompetence of those 
responsible for a state of affairs such as the foregoing. 
Next we come to the possible existence or non-existence of lode formations 
of sufficient value and permanency to warrant their exploitation. On this 
question, as no development has yet been done on any of the lode formations 
discovered, it would be premature to form a decided conclusion. That gold- 
bearing quartz does exist in well-defined and workable lodes, my own observa- 
tions prove, as I have examined and tested two separate and distinct lodes on 
one property, which have been traced from the stream beds on each side of 
the mountain to the top of the range giving something over one thousand 
feet of backs, and both of these lodes carried payable gold. 
Labour is a question on which any company proposing to operate mines in 
Surinam must bestow careful consideration. The local black with his high 
