Messrs. Chalmers 8f Raich — 3Iashonaland 8f Mataheleland. 203 



of having been the field of former mining operations. Probably 

 90 per cent, of the reefs known at the present day have been 

 previously exploited at one time or another ; that the Victoria 

 gold belt should be an exception is remarkable, lying as it does 

 in close proximity to the best known and most extensive ruins in 

 the country. The fact seems, in the absence of explanation, rather 

 to go against the generally accepted theories with regard to 

 Zimbabwi and gold-mining ; or, as has been suggested, with, to 

 our mind, small ground, it may be that old workings exist in the 

 district, that are now filled up and have been concealed by natural 

 agencies. 



The general method of prospecting in a new district is to get 

 hold of the natives in the neighbourhood, and by practical per- 

 suasive arts, in which beads and salt play an important part, to 

 make them act as guides to the holes and depressions that naark the 

 position of old workings. Sometimes an outcrop has been left, but 

 more often the old workings are the only indication remaining. 

 Having pegged off a line of old holes and as much of the extension 

 as he feels inclined to incorporate with it, the intelligent prospector 

 proceeds by panning from the old dumps and loose quartz lying 

 about, and, by a critical examination into the relative sizes and 

 depths of the overgrown holes, to select a site for his shaft. The 

 object naturally is to strike the reef where, from the evidence at 

 hand, it is likely to present a good section, and in this the prospector 

 is so often successful that if such first strikes could be taken as 

 a gauge of the average grade of the reefs, there could be no doubt 

 whatever of immense future prosperity to the mining industry of 

 Ehodesia. 



While the majority of reefs pegged in the country will probably 

 never yield one sovereign for two that are sunk in them, it would 

 be extraordinary indeed, considering the great number of reefs 

 proved to exist, if there were not some prizes in the lottery. They 

 may be few and big, or few and mediocre, or they may be many, 

 but to condemn or extol the country, as a whole, in its present stage 

 of development, would be in our minds rash and prejudiced. Given 

 a proper discrimination in the selection of properties, and the exercise 

 of judgment in the expenditure of capital, the country certainly 

 commends itself to the attention of capitalists. 



The immediate future of mining in Ehodesia, and in fact the 

 immediate future of Ehodesia itself, depend almost entirely on the 

 success of gold-mining. Silver is of comparatively small importance. 

 We say the immediate future, for, whatever the mineral prospects 

 of Southern Zambesia may be, we have small doubt that in the 

 course of a few decades, possibly half a century, the country will, 

 ■with its healthy and fertile uplands, support a considerable popula- 

 tion on its pastoral and agricultural merits alone. 



