240 LUPTON : GOLD, SLATE, AND SALT MIXES IX GREAT BRITAIN. 
also abound, fire-clay, china-clay, freestones, slates, salt, sulphur, in 
the form of sulphides of iron, copper and lead ; coal, cannel, jet, fluor- 
spar, gypsum, marble, limestones, and many other minerals are ready 
for our use. Of course it is not profitable to mine any metal in one 
country if it can be got at. less cost from another, unless legal restric- 
tions interfere with the free course of trade. With the exception of 
certain periods and certain articles of commerce in these periods, 
England has been, on the whole, a free-trading country, and it was 
one of the chief articles in the instrument known as Magna Charta 
that there should be no interference with trade by the sovereign. 
There is no country (so far as I have ever read or heard) which has 
placed restrictions upon the importation of gold, though, exactly, why 
gold should be admitted free, whilst iron and corn or copper and 
lead were taxed, it is not easy to understand. Gold has many uses, 
such as coinage, stoppings for decayed teeth and ornamentation, but 
it would hardly be missed if it was never seen in comparison with 
the loss that would ensue from the loss of iron, copper, tin, lead, &c. 
Whatever the reason may be gold has been ahvays freely imported, 
and hence the gold mines of Great Britain (and Ireland) have been 
neglected, whilst our supplies of this most beautiful and lovely metal 
have been draw^n from countries which had either more abundant 
stores of it, or less of other mineral wealth or manufacturing industries 
to engage their labour. The most ancient and easy manner of obtain- 
ing gold is to /wash the sand in ancient river beds that contain gTains 
of gold. The more modern method is to crush the rock in which 
gold exists. Where gold is got by mining it is chiefly, though by no 
means' exclusively, found in quartz veins, where it exists in tim^ 
grains of pure gold. To separate it from the (piartz it is necessary to 
crush the rock into sand, after which the gold grains may be 
separated from the sand. This process of obtaining gold is more 
difficult than the simple gol4-washing process. Firstly, the mine is 
required and the use of explosives to break up the exceedingly hard 
rock, then the costly machinery driven by w^ater-power or steam- 
power for pulverizing the rock. 
The chief supplies of gold now come from the river-washings and 
from mines iu quartz reefs in Australia, Siberia, the Rocky ^loun- 
