ON GOLD IN WESTERN AFRICA. 187 



pots (stock flecke) can be easily effaced from printed paper, without 

 endangering the impression, by passing the sheets through a hydro- 

 chloric bath, formed of one part of concentrated acid of commerce, to 18 

 parts of water. 



It is the same expedient which I recommended, many years ago, to 

 M. de Brou, a distinguished artist and conservator of the collections of 

 the Duke d'Arenberg, to remove certain blots which had dimmed, -with 

 a cloudy whiteness, the surface of some valuable engravings. This pro- 

 cess, which succeeded fully, would have infallibly caused the loss of the 

 print, if it had been printed on modern lime-paper. Damaged sheets, 

 spotted with ink or mouldy stains, may still be whitened, by plunging 

 them for some minutes, into a warm solution of one part of 'tartaric acid, 

 and 24 parts of water, and then washing plentifully with water. This 

 solution, as well as those of oxalic or citric acid, which may be sub- 

 stituted, has the advantage of being less likely to spoil the paper than 

 mineral acids. 



To Baron Thenard is due the application of oxygenated water to 

 spotted papers, or to prints discoloured by metallic sulphates. 



I have shown the inconveniences arising from the introduction 

 into paper, of mineral substances foreign to the regular manufacture. 

 There is also another cause that contributes quite as much to the 

 bad quality of modern papers, and which, until now, appears to 

 have escaped the attention of manufacturers ; it is the too rapid desic- 

 cation which the sheets undergo in the preparation of machine-sized 

 paper. 



Brussels. 



GOLD IN WESTERN AFRICA. 



BT CAPTAIN P. BURTON. 



We find in Leo Africanus, who is supposed to have died about 1526, 

 that the King of Ghana had in his palace " an entire lump of gold " — 

 a monster nugget it would now be called — not cast nor wrought by 

 instruments, but perfectly formed by the Divine Providence only, of 

 thirty pounds weight, which had been bored through and fitted for a 

 seat to the royal throne* The author most diffuse upon the subject 

 of gold, is Bosman, who treats, however, solely of the Gold Coast. 



According to Bosman (Letter vi.) "the illustrious metal " was found 

 in three sites. The first and best was " in or between particular hills :" 

 the negroes sank pits there and separated the soil adhering to it. The 

 second " is in, at, and about some rivers and waterfalls, whose violence 



* Similarly, the king of "Buncatoo" had a solid gold stool, which caused his 

 destruction at the hands of his neighbours of Ashauter. 



