GOLD. 
485 
7 
South America, especially Brasil and Chili, are the 
countries which produce the most ; we must not, 
however, omit Mexico, which is rich in veins of 
silver containing more or less of gold. But all 
those veins which are found in mountainous coun- 
tries, and which are so rich in silver, contain, com- 
paratively, but little gold. It is in the valleys and 
the plains, near the surface of the sandy soil, where 
this metal is principally disseminated, and from 
whence, as we have before remarked, it is sepa- 
rated by repeated washings. Indeed there appears 
to be scarcely any part of the torrid zone where the 
earth is of a sandy and ferruginous nature, that does 
not contain gold in a greater or less proportion. 
Gold is a metal in which are united the most 
useful properties, without any prejudicial mixture: 
it has ever been regarded as the most perfect and 
the most precious of all the metallic substances, 
and has consequently been sought after in all ages, 
and by every nation. Ductile and malleable in a 
supreme degree, it takes, with ease, every form 
that can be given it by the art of man. It is sus- 
ceptible of the most beautiful polish, and its colour, 
which is as engaging as it is unalterable, makes 
it, of all other metals, the most proper for orna- 
ments. 
As a proof of its great ductility, an ounce of 
this metal may be formed into a thread of seventy- 
three leagues in length, and the same quantity 
may be beaten into sixteen hundred leaves, of nine 
square inches each. This great ductility, however. 
