GOLD. 155 



Personal Observations. 



Native placer workings are carried on all along the Yunnan 

 course of the Yang-tze. I have seen them myself around Chin-chiang- 

 kai and from Ma-chang to the junction of the Ya-lung with the 

 Yang-tze. At the former locality, which is only three stages north- 

 east of Ta-li Fu, the gravels in the present river-bed were being 

 washed by tribes-people, apparently in the employment of a local 

 Chinese. An inclined riffled table of the usual pattern was being 

 used and as the gravel was clean and the gold fairly coarse, it seemed 

 to operate quite successfully. Further down stream the auriferous 

 ground was being won from shallow drifts into the high-level allu- 

 vial. Around Hsin-kai and between it and the mouth of the Ya- 

 lung, which appears to be a stream nearly as large as the Yangtze 

 itself, the river terraces are pierced in many places by these old 

 excavations. The treatment of the gold dust is the same in both 

 localities. It is worked up with a tiny globule of mercury. The 

 amalgam bead is placed in a little hole scooped out of a piece of 

 smouldering cowdung. This is made to glow by being blown on 

 through a narrow tube. The mercury evaporates and leaves a small 

 sphere of gold. 



I have crossed the valley of the Yung-p'ing Ho on several occa- 



Reported occurrence s i° ns - & » a tributary of the Mekong about 



of gold in the Yung- half way between Yung-ch'ang Fu and Ta-li 



p inL' Ho. -p, T <i- * t i i t 



Fu. in this region I always heard rumours 

 that the gravels" of the stream contained gold and I tried panning 

 in various places more than once, but met with no success. I do 

 not know how the rumour has arisen, it is not probable that gold 

 does occur in this valley, which is composed entirely of rocks of 

 the Red Beds series. 



A-lu-sh'ih is a small town situated about 20 miles north of 

 Shun-ning Fu across the Mekong and on an 



Placer gold deposit -, *.<t • i 



near A-lu-sh'ih. unimportant route between that place and 



Meng-hua-Ting. It has an elevation of 6,300 

 feet above sea-level, and is surrounded by metamorphic rocks, 

 such as slates and phyllites, belonging to the Kao-liang system. 

 This system is pierced a few miles further south, by the intrusive 

 granites of the Shun-ning Fu neighbourhood. I was at A-lu- 

 sh'ih in March, 1910, and found that gold- washing was being carried 

 on in the deep valley of a small stream about a mile north of the 

 town. This stream is a tributary of the He-Ho, itself a tributary 



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