THE REVOLT OF THE UlTL ANDERS 
351 
The great gold deposits of the Rand are beds of conglomerate, 
known in South, Africa as “ banket ” or “ reef.” They crop out 
for some 27 miles at a distance of from one to two miles from 
the crest of the Witwatersrand, and usually dip near the surface 
at an angle of 45° or more. When followed downward the dip 
diminishes somewhat rapidly to 25° or less. None of the mines 
are }mt very deep ; none in fact reach 2,000 feet, but the reefs 
have been found by the diamond drill to a depth of 2,500 feet. 
The structure of the country seems to show that below the 2,000- 
foot level the reefs will continue for a long distance at a moderate 
angle. How deep mining can be carried on may be more or less 
questionable, but the mining engineers on the Rand confidently 
believe that they can get down 5,000 feet, and I agree with them. 
The ore of the Rand is phenomenally uniform for an auriferous 
deposit. Wdiile it is locally patchy, considerable areas show 
only moderate fluctuations from a general average. The quan- 
tity of gold can be computed with something like the same con- 
fidence that the amount of coal in a coal seam can be calculated. 
Such a computation is in the nature of things only a first ap- 
proximation. but within certain limits it has a value. Estimates 
of this kind for the whole area or portions of it have been made 
by various experts, among whom may be mentioned Mr Hamil- 
ton Smith, Bergrath Schmeisser, of the Prussian raining service, 
Mr John Hays Hammond, Messrs Hatch and Chalmers, and 
Professor De Launay, of the Paris School of Mines. These esti- 
mates accord fiiirly well. The latest is Professor De Launay’s, 
who, after a review of the other estimates, calculates by a method 
of his own that to a depth of 1,000 meters (2,381 feet) and for a 
length of outcrop of 25 miles the amount of gold accessible is 
13 or 14 milliards of francs, or from 2,600 to 2,800 million dollars. 
This would give down to the 5,000-foot level from 3,962 to 4,267 
million dollars. Other of the estimates, similarly treated, Avould 
give still larger values. Hatch and Chalmers, on the other hand, 
estimate that the Rand proper, together Avith outlying ])ortions 
of the district (all Avithin about 20 miles of Johannesburg), Avill 
yield doAvn to the 5,000-foot level about 3,500 million dollars. 
I have not been able to find any grounds for regarding this as 
an overestimate, and I know of no one familiar Avith the de])Osits 
Avho thinks it exaggerated. 
The sketch of the character and resources of the Transvaal just 
given contains nothing new. It has been outlined in order to 
indicate hoAV ithai>[)ens that a community has suddenly si)rung 
