Getting Gold

l the supply of which never exceeds the demand. Some one has aptly said, "Gol

old, go

yellow, har

ven, hammer

et, and li

owed, squand

he high value which has been placed on it from times remote to

er xxiv., we read that Abraham's servant gave Rebekah an earring of half a shekel weight, say 5 dwt. 13 grs., and "two bracelets of ten shekels weight," or about 4 1/2 ozs.

ee score and six talents of gold. If a talent of gold was, as has been assumed, 3000 shekels of 219 grains each, the value of the golden treasure accumulated in this one year by the Hebrew king would have been 3,646,350 pounds sterling. Considering that the only means of "getting gold" in t

situated has evoked much controversy, but there is now a general opinion that Ophir was on the east coast of Africa, somewhere near Delagoa Bay, in the neighbourhood of the Limpopo and Sabia rivers. It should be

e of Mashonaland, which evince a high state of civilisation in

le metal iron, gold is the most widely distributed metal known. Few, if any, countries do not possess it, and in most parts of the world, civilised and uncivilised, it is mined for and brought to market. The torrid, temperate, and frigid zones are almost equa

remains of old mine buildings and appliances left by the ancient gold-miners, who were mostly State prisoners. Some of these mines were worked by the Pharaohs of, and before, the time of Moses; and in these drea

d possibly by means of such primitive mechan

motion is given by manual power by means of the bamboo handles

one of our newest concentrating machines, the Frue vanner, was known in India and the East centuries ago; and we have it on good authority-that of Pliny-that gold saving by am

o was himself bitten with the craze, it was widely believed that, by what was known as transmutation, the baser metals might be changed to gold; and much time and trouble were expended in a

ournal it is said that a scientific metallurgist there has succeeded in producing absolutely pure gold, which stands all tests, from

spects in its mode of occurrence from its useful but more plebeian brethren of the mineral

ream, Pactolus, were supposed to renew their golden stores miraculously each year. What really happened was that the winter floods detached portions of auriferous drift fro

ed a little water, and caused the contents of the bowl to take a circular motion, somewhat as the modern digger does with his tin dish, with this difference, that his ancient prototype allowed the water and lighter p

rica to-day, and we have seen that the Koreans, with Mongolian acuteness, have gone a step farther, and pulverise the quartz by rocking one stone on anoth

, South America, Transylvania in Europe, Siberia in Asia, California in North

millions of English capital, is now, after much difficulty and disappointment-thanks to British pluck and skill-prod

g cut off, yellow specks and small nuggets were found in the tail race. The enormous "rush" which followed is a mat

California since that date up to

there is now no reason to doubt that gold had previously been discovered in several parts of that great island continent. It may be news to many that the first gold mine worked in Australia was opened about twelve miles from Adelaide c

excoriated back. The man then very naturally admitted that the alleged discovery was a fraud, and that the nugget produced was a melted down brass candlestick. One would have imagined that even in those unenlightened days it would not have been difficult to have found a scientist sufficiently well informed to put a little nitric acid on the supposed nugget, and so determine whether it was

e fact that the search was ultimately successful beyond all precedent, that Australia has been for so many years relieved of the c

Australasian colonies has realised the enormous amount of nearly

ed by melting down plate, etc., 4230 tons of silver more than it mined. From 1800 to 1870 the value of gold was about 15 1/2 times that of silver. From 1870 to 1880 it was 167 times

usually understood loose gold in nuggets, specks, and dust, lying in drifts which were once the

rongly, that true alluvial gold is not always derived from the disintegration of lodes or reefs. For instance, the "Welcome Nugget" certainly never came from a reef. No such mass of gold, or an

out "fossickers" named Deeson and Oates. The weight of this, the largest authenticated nugget ever found was 2268 1/2 ozs., and it was so

to gather together by means of puddling machine, cradle, long tom, or even puddling tub and tin di

pital is employed, such appliances are superseded by steam puddles, buddles, and other machinery, and sometimes mercury is used to amalgamate the gold when very fine. Hydraulicing is the cheapest form of alluvial mining, but can on

or kerbstone, continuing to unknown depths in the earth at any angle varying from perpendicular to nearly horizontal. This kerbstone is totally distinct from the rocks which enclose it; those on one side may be slate, on the other, sandston

ta, and cuts out when, say, the basic rocks (such as granite, etc.) are reached. Again, there is a form of lode known among miners as a "gas

s, particularly those containing gold, are of igneous origin, and point to the black and brown ferro-manganic outcrops in confirmation. It must be admitted that ofte

say, the bulk of the lode and all its metalliferous contents were once held in solution in subterranean waters, which were ejected by

Zealand, where hot springs stream or spout above the surface, when the silica and lime impregnated water, reduced in heat and released from pressure, begins forthwith to deposit the minerals previously held in solution. Hence the formation of the wondrous Pink and

allic form by electro-chemical action. It is true we do not find oxides, carbonates, or bromides of gold in Nature, nor can we feel quite sure that gold now exists

ks, quartz, the madre de oro ("mother of gold") of the Spaniards, there is the additional labour required to pulverise the rock so as to set free the tiniest particles of the noble metal it so je

scertain two things. First, the strike or course of the lode; and secondly, its unde

the cap of a lode may appear on the surface, and some distance further the cap may be hundreds of feet below. Usually a shaft is sunk in the reef to prove the underlie, and a level, or levels, driven on the course to ascertain it

gives us fresh inventions for the purpose, each one better than that which preceded it, according to its inventor. Most practical men, however, prefer to continue the use of the stamper battery, which is virtually a pestle and mortar on a large scale. Why we adhere to t

rforated iron plate called a "grating," or "screen," on to an inclined surface of copper plates faced w

vered with coarse serge, blankets, or other flocculent material-so that the heavy particles may be caught in the hairs, or is passed ove

fere with the amalgamation or lixiviation, and then either ground to impalpable fineness in

m the troughs and riffles. It is then squeezed through chamois leather, or good calico will do as well, and retorted in a large iron retort, the nozzle of which is kept

ts matrices, such as lixiviation or leaching, by means of solvents (chlorine,