Gold in British Guiana. 287 
Canuku gneiss region garnets are to be had for the 
picking up. While on the subject of crystalline minerals 
it may be observed that gold sometimes occurs crystal- 
lized in eight or twelve-sided regular figures, passing 
into cubes, and in the event of such crystals being found 
it is worth knowing that they possess a value, as mineral 
specimens, far beyond that of the gold which they may 
contain. It is also found in dendritic or tree-like en- 
crustations—a specimen which I obtained on one occa- 
sion resembling a small fern leaf in shape. 
Although the Government has taken time by the fore- 
lock in fixing a royalty on silver mined in the colony, 
there is no likelihood of any extensive revenue being 
derived from the source immediately. Silver ores how- 
ever exist. An attempt at silver mining was made on the 
Cuyuni by the Dutch as long ago as 1721. Copper is 
also said to have been found on the Cuyuni, and I 
have met with copper pyrites on the Essequebo. On 
the latter river an earlier writer states that there was a 
kind of metal so soft that it could be cut like lead. An 
old Indian has informed me that in the locality indicated, 
the natives were accustomed at one time to collect gold 
to barter with the early Dutch traders. The geological 
formation of this placer is identical with that of one of 
our richest gold-fields, and gold more or less certainly 
exists in the neighbourhood. As an illustration of 
the "tide in the affairs of men," it was the writer's 
experience to predict the finding of gold at Oumai a full 
year before the location of the first placer there, but a 
train of circumstances prevented his turning his observa- 
tions to account. 
The new Gold Mining Regulations which came into 
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