CH. XVIII 
MINERALS 
*75 
discoveries, or rather lack of discoveries, of prospectors 
and farmers, there are unlikely to be any of the more 
common minerals in payable condition and quantity. 
There are many who will be inclined to agree that 
this is very far from being a misfortune. Most mines, 
and more especially gold and diamond mines, though 
adding revenue, bring a class of immigrants who are 
not likely to add to the peace and happiness of an 
agricultural country. There is, moreover, every 
probability that the Protectorate will show once again 
that agriculture, under the best conditions, will prove 
the surest and most satisfactory source of wealth and 
prosperity that exists. 
As in most parts of Africa, there are many traces of 
gold in the Protectorate and the presence of these and 
also of diamonds, very small and very scarce, have 
raised the hopes of many a settler. Well do I recollect 
seeing a well-known professional hunter of elephants 
and other big game spurring a dripping horse up to 
our farm. Pouring with sweat and inarticulate with 
excitement, he assured us that he had found gold. It 
appeared that while hunting in a range of hills some 
twelve miles off he had been overcome with thirst 
and vainly sought water for some hours. At last, to 
his joy, he found a little pool and put his head down 
to drink ; no sooner had his lips touched the water 
than, in his own words, “ I saw that the pool was 
paved with gold, all gold ! it was like drinking gold! ’’ 
In the usual generous fashion of his type, he promised 
us all a share of his colossal fortune, and, hardly 
waiting for a drink, was off at a gallop to register his 
claim in Nairobi, some forty miles off. Alas! our old 
friend once again : Iron pyrites. Such is an instance 
of one of the many disappointments that have befallen 
