130 THE PRAZOES 



has been found to exist, and there can be no doubt 

 that some of the claims pegged, especially at 

 Missale and Chifumbazi, have given most encourag- 

 ing results. In all the prazoes of Mara via and 

 Macanga traces of gold are found, and payable 

 areas, both reef and alluvial, are not uncommon ; 

 thus in one of the localities to which my attention 

 was recently drawn, and wherein considerable work 

 had been done, two galleries had been cut, one of 

 6 metres, the other of 13 metres, the quartz reef 

 showing visible gold. At the end of 1906 some 

 500 tons of this reef already exposed was beUeved 

 to contain over 1 oz. of gold to the ton. Other 

 mining propositions in the district have been shown 

 to contain anything from 1 dwt. to 8 dwts., whilst, 

 in very rare cases, as much as 15 oz. to the ton 

 are said to have been proved. All these results 

 were obtained within the district of Chifumbazi. 

 In Missale, certain claims conceded to a small 

 syndicate gave appreciable results early last year, 

 when a small 3-stamp battery produced, before 

 the usual accident which deprived the owners of 

 its services, so much gold as to warrant the setting 

 up of a larger apparatus. By this time, I understand, 

 serious crushing has commenced; a 5-stamp battery 

 with ] ,000 lb. stamps, capable of crushing 25 tons 

 of reef a day, having been set up. The task of 

 getting this battery, with all its heavy machinery, 

 transported from the river to the gold fields was 

 one of immense difficulty, which will be the better 

 realised when it is explained that the only means 

 of conveyance consisted of the head of the in- 

 dispensable native. But of this form of develop- 



