The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1877-01-11
CURRENCY IN AFRICA AND CHINA.

OLA utontus III duVdHces j u
CURRENCY IN AFRICA AND CHINA.
Africa. acontinent naturally desti-
fute, SO far as is known, of silver, has
always been driven to strange expe-
dients for currency. In the SoUdan.
where an elephants tusk represents so
many able bodied slaves-where . GER
tain number of strips of cloth are
equal 10 calabash filed with beans
or buttons. and bean-pod brimming
with gold-dust does duty for q bank
note, small change is urgently requir-
ed. This want is partially supplied
by those little white shells known as
"cowries," which are found on the
coast of India and are often there used
to adorn the horse -trappings of Prin-
ces. In Angola, and other parts of
Central Africa, these same cowries-
two thousand five hundred of which,
in India, are the equivalent of one
rupee, and are the pocket-money of
native children of the poorest caste
rise to the vslue of five thousand to
the pound sterling. Except in Egypt
aud Morocco, no money ia coined in
Africa north of the Cape ofGoodHope.
1t is wonderful that so highly-organ-
lied and commercial community. as
that of wealthy China should have
contentedly remained so i'll off in .
monetary point of view. The Flow
cry Land in this anomaly, as in others,
has probably been enslaved by the ty-
ranny OF custom. Those long strings
OF perforated copper coin, technically
called cash, have been, for centuries
untold, the only recognized money of
the central kingdom and even now,
although the indigenous taels and
tungsteens are largely supplemented
by Spanish and Mexican dollars, q
Chinese merchant prefers to make
payments of silver, not by teal or by
weight, but by measure. China, like
Africa, no doubt contains large pro-
portion of the whole stock of the prec-
ious metals, but its absorbent qualities
are SO great that what was anciently
called the balance of trade Is nearly
sure to be against the outer bsrbarians.
CURIOUS SILVER DIsCOv RY MORE
CON.
The newly discovered Camp Creek
mines, in the southern part of Wasco
County, Oregon, is occupied by stock
ranchers, who formerly had much
trouble to keep their cattle from get
ting mired in the numerous sink-holes,
or soap wells as they were called in
this vicinity. Those wells are filed
with a soft, slippery, grsyish substance
which, when used in water, makes q
very good soap. The depths of these
wells are not known, but the liquid
stands at different levels, showing that
there can be no underground commu-
between them. A short time
since an assay was made of some of
this soap, and it was found to contain
a very large percentage of chloride of
silver. The first assay at Portland
returned $500 to the ton the next,at
San Francisco, $3.50, and later ones
from $500 to 5000 to the ton. These
will seem like pretty large figures, but
the mines have been assayed by sever
al different assayers, and they all re-
port over $500 to the ton. One con-
solidated Company has already fixed
its stock value at $500 900 and begun
selling shares. The mines are situated
on Camp Creek, near the Post Office of
in the southern part of this
county. The engineers are at work
on the locks OF the cascades of the
about fifty miles below here,
and we expect in few years to have
communication with the
coast.