JUNGLE LIFE AT AREMU. 287 



ing quartz, somewhat decomposed by the dissolving out of 

 several of its constituents. The candles shed a flickering 

 light on the slimy, dripping walls and for a few moments one 

 felt completely confused — so hard was it to stand there 

 shivering and yet realize that a few yards overhead was 

 brilliant tropical light and sunshine, gaudy birds and butter- 

 flies. One seemed in a wholly different world. 



But though forever buried in dripping darkness, there were 

 as bright colors here as in the living creatures above ground. 

 Each side of the quartz vein ran an endless series of beauti- 

 fully stratified, decomposed, talc-like clays; purest white, 

 orange, slate-colored, pink, blue, yellow and brown — one 

 hue succeeding another like some strange fossil rainbow. 



Outside near the bottom of the hill, two gaping holes 

 showed where the blacks who discovered the gold years 

 ago worked the ledge by hand — leaving even in their 

 tailings enough gold to make it well worth working over. 

 Now electric stamps, run by great boilers, do the work, all 

 brought up the Little Aremu bit by bit, with the greatest 

 labor, at seasons of high water. 



Here as at Hoorie a few pork-knockers were allowed to 

 locate their diminutive claims and glean what superficial 

 metal they could from surface deposits. A mile away to 

 the west was a large outcro])ping known as "England" and 

 here four or five blacks were working. On each Saturday 

 night they would bring their little packets of gold to the store 

 to receive credit checks or receipts. Once as we were crouch- 

 ing in the jungle watching some "cushie" or parasol ants, 

 two of these black pork-knockers passed within a yard with- 

 out seeing us, each with his little bundle of worldly belong- 

 ings on his head, topped by a wooden gold pan. 



I have mentioned panning as the most primitive method of 

 mining, next to which comes the "Long Tom." At "Eng- 

 land" we found a third advance — a method of breaking up 



