730 R. A. F. PENROSE, JR. 
On the southern slope of this divide, where it drops off toward the - 
Vaal River, are the celebrated gold mines of the Witwatersrand, 
a name locally abbreviated to the Rand. The mines occur at fre- 
quent intervals for some fifty miles in a general east and west direction 
along the Rand, with the town of Johannesburg about midway along 
this line, while the ore-bearing format’on has been traced even beyond 
these limits. 
History.—Rumors of the gold of Africa have existed from the 
most remote times, some of them vague and indefinite, but some more 
specific, and there seems to be reason to believe that many sources 
of very ancient wealth were located there. Later on the Phoenicians 
are known to have bartered extensively in it, and the Arabs in the 
Middle Ages knew of it, and are supposed to have derived great wealth 
from it. The Portuguese explorers in the early part of the sixteenth 
century heard of it and made several more or less serious attempts 
to work it. It is probable, however, that most of the deposits known 
to them and to the earlier people were in the vast region extending 
from north of the Witwatersrand up to tropical Africa, though even 
in the Witwatersrand signs of old gold workings are said to have 
been found. 
_ It was not, however, until the latter half of the nineteenth century 
that modern gold mining in the Transvaal was active y begun. In 
1845 Von Buch, and some twenty years later Carl Mauch, reported 
gold in South Africa. It is said to have been discovered on what is 
now known as the Witwatersrand, or Rand, as early as 1854, but the 
Boers opposed its exploitation. In 1870 gold was discovered in the 
Murchison Range in northeastern Transvaal, and in 1873 mining 
was begun near Lydenburg, somewhat farther south. In 1875 gold 
was discovered in the DeKaap gold fields in eastern Transvaal, but 
active work did not begin until some years later. In 1885 the Sheba 
mine was discovered in the same region and the town of Barberton 
soon became a noted mining-center. A few years later, however, it 
was almost abandoned by the rush to the Witwatersrand. Placer 
gold mining had been carried on there in a small way for some time, 
but the first “reef” mining was begun in 1884 and 1885, and in 1886 
Johannesburg was founded. From the start the industry grew until 
now the Witwatersrand is the greatest gold-mining district in the world. 
