and although many of the mountain ranges in
that country tend from east to west, yet the
conditions of the surface, and the meridional
directions of the mountains too, would indicate
in China some extensive districts over which
gold would probably be found in tolerable
abundance. Gold exists also in Lydia and
Hindostan.

Now, to pass over to America, where, as
we have already said, the Russians have
a district in which gold may some day
be discovered. In many districts along the
line of the Rocky Mountains, especially in
that part of them which is included in the
British territory, gold may be looked for. The
gold region of California has been recently
discovered. Gold in Mexico, where the
conditions are again fulfilled, is not a new discovery.
Gold in central America lies neglected, on
account of the sad political condition of the
little states there. There is gold to be found,
perhaps, in the United States, some distance
eastward of the Rocky Mountains. Certainly
gold districts will be found about the
Alleghanies. Gold has been found in Georgia,
North and South Carolina, and Virginia; it
exists also in Canada, and may, probably, be
found not very far north, on the British side
of the St. Lawrence. In the frozen regions,
which shut in those straits and bays of the
North Pole, to which early adventurers were
sent from England on the search for gold,
gold districts most probably exist, although
the shining matter was not gold which first
excited the cupidity of our forefathers.
Passing now to South America, New Granada,
Peru, Brazil, La Plata, Chili, even Patagonia,
contain districts which say, " Look for gold."
There are one or two districts in Africa where
gold exists; certainly in more districts than
that which is called the Gold Coast, between
the Niger and Cape Verd; also between
Darfur and Abyssinia; and on the Mozambique
Coast, opposite Madagascar. In Australia,
the full extent of our gold treasure is not
yet discovered. In Europe, out of Russia,
Hungary supplies yearly one or two hundred
thousand pounds worth; there is gold in
Transylvania and Bohemia; the Rhine
washes gold down into its sands from the
crystalline rocks of the high Alps. The
Danube, Rhone, and Tagus, yield gold also
in small quantities. There are neglected
mines of gold in Spain.

To come nearer home. In the mining fields
of Leadhills, in Scotland, gold was washed for
busily in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It is
found also in Glen Turret, in Perthshire, and
at Cumberhead, in Lanarkshire. Attempts
have been made to turn to account the gold
existing in North Wales and Cornwall. About
sixty years ago, gold was found accidentally in
the bed of streams which run from a mountain
on the confines of Wicklow and Wexford, by
name, Croghan Kinshela. A good deal of gold
was collected by the people, who, having the
first pick, had soon earned about ten
thousand pounds among them by their findings.
Government then established works, and
having realised in two years three thousand
six hundred and seventy-five pounds by the
sale of gold, which it cost them more than
that amount to get, they let the matter drop,
judiciously.

Let nobody be dazzled, however, by this
enumeration of gold districts, which is not by
any means complete. It is quite true that
there is no metal diffused so widely over the
world's surface as gold is, with a single
exception, that of iron. But with regard to
gold, there is this important fact to be taken
into account, that it is not often to be obtained
from veins, but is found sprinkled—in many
cases sprinkled very sparingly; it is found
mixed with quartz and broken rock, or sand
and alluvial deposit, often in quantities
extremely small, so that the time lost in its
separation—even though it be the time of
slaves—is of more value than the gold; and
so the gold does not repay the labour of
extraction. It is only where a gold district
does not fall below a certain limit in its richness,
that it yields a profit to the labourer.
Pure gold in lumps, or grains, or flakes, is to
be found only at the surface. Where, as is
here and there the case, a vein of it is found
deep in connexion with the quartz, it is
combined with other minerals, from which it can
be separated only by an expensive process;
so that a gold vein, when found, generally
yields less profit than a field. As for gold
hunting in general, the history of every gold
district unites to prove that the trade is bad.
It is a lottery in which, to be sure, there are
some prizes, but there is quite the usual
preponderance of blanks.

The villages of gold-seekers about Accra
and elsewhere, on the Gold Coast, are the
villages of negroes more squalid and wretched
than free negroes usually are. The wretchedness
of gold-hunters in the rich field of
California is by this time a hackneyed theme.
Take, now, the picture of a tolerably
prosperous gold-seeker in Brazil. He goes into
the river with a leathern jacket on, having a
leathern bag fastened before him. In his
hand he carries a round bowl, of
fig-tree wood, about four or five feet in circumference,
and one foot deep. He goes into the river at
a part where it is not rapid, where it makes a
bend, and where it has deep holes. Be pleased
to remember that, and do not yet lose sight of
what was before said about the heaviness of
quartz. The gold-seeker, then, standing in
the water, scrapes away with his feet the
large stones and the upper layers of sand, and
fishes up a bowlful of the older gravel. This
he shakes and washes, and removes the upper
layer; the gold being the heaviest thing in
the bowl, sinks; and when he has got rid of
all the other matter, which is after a quarter
of an hour's work, or more, he puts into his
pouch the residual treasure, which is worth
twopence farthing, on an average. He may