GOLD. 
483 
expense, in ol der to collect the gold deposited by 
the stream. 
A gold-mine was discovered in the reign of 
Peter the Great in the mountains of granite which 
skirt the eastern side of the lake Ladoga near Alo- 
netz. When first this mine was worked, the vein 
containing the metal was supposed to be inex- 
haustible. Masses of native gold of a pound and 
moi e m weight were found near the surface of the 
earth, but after digging several fathoms, these flat- 
tering appearances vanished all at once, and left the 
workmen nothing but a barren vein of quartz. 
Several specimens of gold from this mine, as rich 
as tnose brought from Peru, are preserved in the 
cabinet of mineralogy of the Academy of Sciences 
at Petersburg. 
Several parts of Asia contain gold-mines of con- 
siderable importance, especially the southern coun- 
tries of this extensive quarter of the world. Amono- 
the rivers and rivulets which produce this metal 
may be mentioned the Pactolus, a little river of 
Lydia, in which tradition tells us, that Midas 
washed himself when he turned into gold whatever 
he touched, and that Croesus afterwards derived all 
his riches from the same place. One would sup- 
pose from the present state of this celebrated river 
that the covetous monarch left very little for pos- 
terity. 
China and Japan are rich in gold-mines; and the 
kingdom of Siam is, perhaps, of all the countries 
in Asia, the most productive in this metal ; at least 
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