E 



CHAPTER IX. 



JUNGLE LIFE AT AREMU. 



SOME PAGES FROM MY DIARY. 

 (By C. William Beebe.) 



VEN more to the Gold Mine of Aremu than to Hoorie is 

 the application " island " or "oasis " in the jungle, appro- 

 priate. The clearing is about twenty acres in extent, approxi- 

 mately circular, with the magnificent forest trees crowding 

 densely to the very edge. The bungalow and mine shaft 

 are on the summit of a symmetrical hill, which slopes evenly 

 and steeply down on all sides. The hill is about a hundred 

 feet in height and yet the trees far down at the foot tower 

 high above it. 



The concession includes about seven and a half square 

 miles, and in many places where the rock outcrops, well 

 paying deposits of gold arc visible. At Aremu there is a 

 soft quartz ledge about eight feet wide running almost 

 vertically and rich in gold. Often the metal is visible and a 

 small lens shows the yellow crystals encrusting the while 

 matrix. 



The first day at Aremu we went down in the mining 

 bucket, two and two — each clinging to the wire cable and 

 balancing the opposite person. Down and down went the 

 swaying bucket, slowly revolving — the heat and sunshine 

 of the upper air replaced by the cool darkness — damp and 

 chilly with rich earthen, clayey smells. Eighty-five feet 

 below the surface the four leads began, one a hundred feet 

 along the vein. This consists of a ferrugineous gold-bear- 



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