228 
In the Heart of Africa 
the stones, sand, etc., whilst the gold sinks to the bottom, in 
consequence of its specific gravity, and settles in the clefts and 
crevices of the boards. Pieces are found of the size of a pea 
or bean intermingled with granular gold, whilst the lighter refined 
gold flows on with the sand and is caught on the table at the 
foot of the sluice (a square board in which a number of hollows 
have been made). The biggest nugget found up to the middle 
of 1909 had the very respectable weight of 300 grammes, and 
another weighed 150 grammes. 
When we visited the place five “ champtiers ” * were in 
operation, on each of which a sluice was kept going. Probably 
this number has been increased since then. The sluice gold is 
collected once a month, the amount, of course, varying accord¬ 
ing to the richness of the creek. 
The gross amount taken monthly at Kilo when we were there 
came to about 30-35 kilograms, valued at from 90-100,000 
francs. This, however, was only a small amount as compared 
with the wealth that the soil contained, and could easily have 
been quadrupled if the prospectors had been more energetic, if 
the negro labour had been better controlled, and if more sluices, 
etc., had been constructed. 
The gold collected is refined by a chemist in a laboratory 
at Kilo, and then re-melted into ingots the size of bricks, each 
worth 37,000 francs. The first large consignment of these ingots, 
valued at 1,000,000 francs, had been sent just before our arrival 
to Herr Schulz, the German Vice-Consul, the representative of 
the Victoria Nyanza Agency. From there it was transmitted to 
Brussels. 
So far it has not been possible to ascertain the precise limits 
of the gold region. As, however, the area is an enormous one, 
it is not to be wondered at that up to the present no creek has 
been worked without result. 
Reef gold must also be taken into consideration. No shaft 
had been sunk when I was there. The rivers Shari and Ituri 
carried, however, so much gold that the management, following 
* Workings on the creek. 
