and which made everything appear in the most favorable lights, then there is 

 nothing strange in a notion of Japan's mineral treasures having at that time 

 prevailed, which was far from corresponding witli the actual facts. 



In the course of the succeeding ye^rs, the truth had, although reluctantly, to 

 he admitted, that the expectation in Japan to have found a second Eldorado, 

 was without any nctual foundation. Those happy times have unfortunately 

 gone by, when a large amount of gold could be obtained with a comparatively 

 small amount of labor, through the working of placers that is, spots where nature 

 through thousands of years has worked for man by disintegration of rocks, by 

 floating away a portion of the worthless, and by leaving behind a sediment, that 

 had become enriched by natural washings ; the few still remaining alluvia are 

 so poor, that it does nut pny to work them. In the same manner as the miners 

 in the far more important goldfields of California, Australia &c, were very soon 

 compelled to leave off mere washing of the alluvium and to commence real mining, 

 so they have also here already long ago had to hunt for the gold in its original 

 hiding places, the veins. And even in these, it mostly occurs in only small 

 quantities, and the extent and volume of the veins themselves are so inconsider- 

 able, that in many cases even the most improved working system gives no promise 

 of a favorable pecuniary result. I hereby by no means intend to deny the 

 existence of gold-mines, which either already now are worked with profit, or at 

 all events, if properly worked, might yield a surplus ; I merely intend to lay 

 stress on the fact, that the gold-mining is not of such a nature as to justify ex- 

 traordinary hopes for the future. In the same manner as the gold-production, 

 which in 1877 amounted to only about 11,000 English ounces, so the produc- 

 tion of silver, which in the same year aggregated about 350,000 ounces, must 

 also be pronounced low. 



Further disappointments followed with regard to copper, the export of which 

 quickly fell off as soon as the old stock had been exhausted. (The quantity of 

 copper annually exported — manufactured, in ore and in slabs — ,wliich in the j'ears 

 J 868-72 had risen from a value of about $33,000 to $1,330,000, fell from then 

 down to $236,000 in 1875, and has only since that time again gradually risen, 

 so that it in 1878 amounted to about $750,000.) It moreover became evident, 

 that the Japanese had much more throughly, than had been anticipated, search- 

 ed the soil for mineral treasures : in many districts the mountains were literal- 

 ly honeycombed with old explorations and workings. A further proof of the 

 zeal, with which the natives had carried on mining, was afforded by the exis- 

 tence of a rather comprehensive mining literature, and by the care, with which 

 reports on miues have been drawn up and preserved. 



Formerly the hopes had been too sanguine ; now, as the same were not rea- 

 lized, there was a reaction in the opposite direction and a bias to entertain most 



