June i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
83 1 
At tlto annual met tins of the Deli Langkat Tobacco 
Company the directors presented their report, which 
was satisfactory. The condition of the undertakings 
and the prospect of the crops were very favourable. 
After app oval of the balance sheet a proposal was 
adopted raising the capital to fl. 1,000,000. — L. C. 
Express, April 20th. 
(it will bo seen that while sugar has largely 
increased, coffee, tea, and pepper have decreased 
considerably, — Ed.] 
+ 
GOLD IN THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE 
OF CEYLON. 
THE DEWURANGALA GOLD FIELD. 
Practical Information. 
(By a Special Correspondent — an Australian Gold- 
digger.) 
12th May 1888. 
Referring to the Dewurangala gold field, the 
peouliar appearance of all the pieces of gold, with 
their ragged edges that I have seen, look more like 
pieces spurted from a smelting ladle than gold dug 
from the earth, and the quality more like jewellers 
than virgin gold. These considerations, together 
with the fact that no fine gold had been found 
in the pits out of which these p'eces had been 
taken, force a doubt on oie's mind as to the 
finds being genuine On the other hand what 
cause could be assigned for the owners of the pits 
trying to play oil any deception ? Had they wished 
to sell their claims, and for that purpose tried 
to make out that they wero rich in gems and gold, 
there would bo reason to suppose that the 
gold had been melted- down jewellery, and mae'e 
use of to try to catch buyers. There seems to have 
been nothing of that sort however, so there is 
reason to believe that the finds were genuine ; 
also that there is considerably more gold to find 
thereabouts. Nature may and sometimes does 
play (jueer freaks, but it is most unlikely that she 
would have deposited eight or ten ounces of gold 
in that narrow spot, and not scattered some of her 
precious treasure as profusely in other parts o" 
that neighbourhood. In addition to prospecting all 
the fiats, gullies, and rising ground over a wide circle 
round the gem pits, I would be inclined now that 
there is abundance of water to sluice in longtoms 
a piece of that fiat from top to bottom where 
the gold was found, taking a good slice of 
the latter. I suspect when the pits are worked over 
and abandoned, their claim to them lapses. 
According to the prospects (if genuine) out of these 
old holes it would pay handsomely. The long- 
torn is simply a long [rough, into which all that is 
to bo washed is thrown and puddled till all the 
clay is dissolved. It is then run out with a good 
rush of water through wide llat-bottomed spouts. 
Across these spouts there are 2 inch bars or ripples 
placed at threo to four feet apart for catohimj 
the gold. The heavy gold is caught by the 
lira ripple, and if any lino gold should 
reach the last ripple, it is considered 
necessary to add another spout with more ripples. 
The miner reasons that if any gold has got so far 
as the last ripplo, sumo may have got away alto- 
gether. 
It is to bo hoped Mr. Armitngo will drop on to 
something to reward his enthusiasm. Ho had 
made fair progress when I saw him at what 
waj then castles in the nir. Theso structures are 
by no means to bo despised. Next to money in 
one's pocket, I know of nothing more helpful to 
tho gold prospector. 
Mr. Dominion, " full of high hopo," and 
with tho air ol a man who wan losing troa- 
euros overy hour he wan oH his claim, 
was hurrying up to set men to work. He 
(like some others 1 met) seems to think if he got 
on to a lead of gold, it would guide him to the 
matrix: that attained, they evidently think, their 
fortune is no longer matter of speculation. The man 
of experience does not trouble himself about the 
matrix : whoever yet managed to connect a single 
alluvial lead of gold with a quartz reef, or say with 
any degree of certainty to what reel it owed its exist- 
ence ? 
Science has probably done less for the goldseeker 
than for any other individual. Auriferous reefs aro 
often found in the ranges that intersect the gold 
fields, but what about the plains of hundreds and 
hundreds of acres rich in gold and far from any 
reef? How did the gold come there? and what 
about the matrix? Reefs run parallel, alluvial 
leads run in all directions. It is common enough 
for men to be sinking shafts all along for a mile 
or more ahead of where a lead has been struck, 
believing they were on the line of it, but to find it 
had turned a right angle to suit those who could 
not get on to the line. There has been no reliable 
theory ever yet got to bear on gold finding. The 
plodding man. with his pick, shovel, and tin dish 
discovered most of the old rich gold fields of 
Australia. The scientific man followed up afterwards, 
but too late to be useful. 
♦ 
A Valuable Medicinal Oil, a sort of wool said 
to be obnoxious to moths, and a strong, cheap, mat- 
ting, are among the products now made from 
pineapples. — Home paper. 
One of the oldest industries in Egypt is artificial, 
egg-hatching, principally engaged in by Copts. 
There are said to be 700 establishments of this 
nature in the country. — Ibid. 
Plantains have greatly risen in price, owing, prin- 
cipally, I think, to all the lands, as far as Polgaha- 
wela being cleared and planted out. Hum boat men 
now go about the gardens in town paying very fair 
prices for inferior kinds of plantains unfit to be cut 
in order to supply the shipping. — Cor. 
Laikie Government Urdeh For Forest Trees. — 
We note in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard 
that the firm of Meters. T. Kennedy & Co., 
nurserymen, Dumfries, were recently invited by 
Her Majesty's Oommi.-sioners of Woods and Fore.-ts 
to tender an offer to supply 000,000 young forest 
trees of specified varieties for planting on the Crown 
lands in the Isle of Mau. Their offer has been 
accepted for over a quarter of a million plant*, 
which have to be straightforth delivered to the 
Crown Receiver at Douglas. The order consists of 
Birch trees, Beech, Sycamore, Alder, Silver Fir, 
Corsican Pine, Austrian Pine, Douglas Spruce, Scotch 
Firs. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
China Crass and Coca. — The Socio'6 d ' Acclimat- 
atiou heard at its last meeting a wry interesting paper 
from Dr. Belauces, presented M. Gtaoffroy St. 
llilaire, the celebrated naturalist. Dr. Belances, has 
made a study of the cultivation of " China-grnss and 
Coca" which plants he ha* introduced into Porio 
Rico and San-Doming". Ife says theso plants aro des- 
tined to be of immense value to the Ant lies, where they 
havo beeu definitely acclimatised. The lecturer showed 
two stalks ol ramit, ft i>. 11 in. long, cut alter < ue 
month of cultivation l>> M. D- del Koro (' f Cibo l!oj.>) 
ami a beautiful branch «\ ('*«, overe I »ih Mo-mm, 
which had been sent to him by the Archbishop ot Sau 
Domingo. " In the deluge nl economical perturbations 
threatening thiscountri ." he stid " this branch may 
be shown t > the people as a token of salvation." Dr. 
Behinccj likewise exhibited the iruiis ol a p ant •.till 
in the wild state: dioscor* bulbifna. It is called yusrf.i 
at Porto- Kico, lunula, at >ui I >.iiiiiiio>, ami igaaiiut Ht 
nulla (yum) in Voin'isuol". This tuber is e»»y ol cul- 
tivation, is possessed of the s4ine nutritive qualities AJ 
the potato, and contoius • large proportion ot foeuU. 
