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VI. 



THE MILESIAN COLONIZATION CONSIDEEED IN EELA- 

 TION TO GOLD-MINING. By J. P. O'REILLY, C.E. 



[Eead January 22, 1900.] 



If one considers attentively, not only what is actually taking place in 

 South Africa, but also what has been taking place there, in W. 

 Australia, in N. -Western America, and in the Caucasus, in connexion 

 with mining, during the last ten or fifteen years, it may fairly be 

 asserted that during the latter half of the nineteenth century, mining 

 enterprise has influenced the social and political development of the 

 world, to an extent probably greater than at any former period of its 

 history. Looking back to the discovery of gold in California in 1847, 

 one can follow the onward rapid course of all the industries and 

 sciences connected with mining or bearing on it, and note the impulse 

 given to commerce, and to emigration from the old world, by the 

 successive developments of gold fields in America, in Australia, and in 

 Africa, with the consequent rapid increase in the modes of conveyance 

 and the means of communication between Europe and the most remote 

 parts of the globe. Going back to the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century and the discovery of America by Columbus, the beginning of 

 another period of intense mining activity may be noted, gi'ving rise to 

 an enormous production of precious metals, mainly in S. America, to 

 the active exploration of the Continent, and to emigrations from Spain, 

 and colonizations of these newly-discovered countries, having for 

 general result profound changes in the social state of Eui-opean 

 countries and in the balance of power of the nations of Europe. 



Were we to go back still further we should have to follow the 

 development of the Eoman Empire and note the activity with which 

 the useful and precious metals required for its magnificent works and 

 vast expenditures, were sought out, and worked in the interest of the 

 Imperial Government. Going still farther back we come upon the 

 traces of the Carthaginians, and Phoenicians, and Egyptians; the 

 former so active and skilful in their colonizations, in their mining and 

 trading enterprises ; and we are able to observe how profoundly they 

 were influenced by the more or less abundance of gold and silver, 



