The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-09-16
GOLD IN rIRE1.
A Region Which tae EnterprfsIne Miner
of the West Will some Day Invade

1t has been known for centuries that
| gold exists in the mountains of Central
| Asia but we had no definite Informal
ton until Pyejevalsl1y began his series
of explorations. Much of the informa-
ton he obtained of these auriferous re-
gions was mere hearsay derived from
natives, and it has been left for Mr..
| Bogdanovitch to give a somewhat de-
tailed account of them. He was tn.
geelogist of the Pievtzof scientific mis-
sion, which travelled in central Asia in
| lSS9-90.
In his geological report he describes
twelve regions in Khotan-Daria and
the Kwen-Loun and Altyn-T agh noun
tains, where gold exists in considerable
quantities. These mountains are on
the northern border of Tibet. He has
studied nine of these districts himself,
and he gives a particularly interesting
description of the gold-bearing sands
and conglomerates found in the Kwehs
Loun ranges. lie tells curious story
Of the native method Of separating gold
from the earth in regions where water
Is not obtalnable
He says the gold diggers, most OF
whom are Chinese, make air do the
work of water. That is to say, thu.
employ the same process by whSn
farmers used to winnow their grain be-
fore tanning mills We're invented. They
lift the baskets containing earth and
gold to an elevation, and then slowly
empty the contents to the ground. In
| those regions strong winds prevail a
large part of the time. The gold, being
heavier than the sand falls vertically,
while the earth is blown little to one
side or the other, and in this way the
gold is fairly well cleaned.
On prejevalsl1y's last journey he met
in northeastern Tibet a party of thirty
men who We're engaged in gold wash
ing lie said that gold is very plentiful
throughout northern Tibet At the dig
gings he visited the Tangutans went no
deeper than one or two feet from the
surface, and the washing was of the
most primitive description. Neverthe-
less they exhibited whole handouts of
gold in Jumps as big as peas, and often
twice or thrice as big without doubt"
said PrejevalslSy. with more careful
workings, vast treasures could be found
here. | believe, on the whole, that
am not over bold in predicting that in
! the course of time northern Tibet will
become second California, perhaps
even richer than the first in precious
metals lying in the soil over the vast
surface of the desert land
Mr.. W. Mesny, in 1885 wrote of the
kol>o Nor region in northeastern Tibet:
81 saw men digging down under a peb-
bic bed over twenty feet thick, but
they did not wash the upper stuff.
They only commenced to wash within a
couple of feet Of the solid rock on
which gold was found in nuggets vary
ing from the size of a turnip seed to a
pea, and | was told that humps Of sew
eral taels' weight were occasionally I'M
| earthed. On the other hand | have
seen nuggets OF gold in eastern Tibet
varying from the size of a pea to that
of hazel nut and, as in the first case
the gold was almost pure and perfectly
malleable. | also found traces of patti
mum in the kol<o Nor region, but the
diggers did not prize it enough to col
lect it, as they We're unable to melt it. y
Mr.. Bonvalot, in his journey across
| Tibet in lSs990, found, when he reached
Lob Nor that there was considera bic
talk among the natives about the gold
that could be had by comparatively
easy digging among the Allyn Tagh
mountains He found that China. to
which all this immense region belongs
as dependency, is in the habit of col
lecting its taxes in gold from the
nomads and other natives who are able
to procure the precious metal He was
told at Lob Nor Of one man who had be-
come so deeply involved in debt that he
had given the services of his son to his
| principal creditor, who was to enjoy
The benefits of his labor until the debt
was discharged. The father had set
out for the mountains with a native
made pick and shovel, intending to dig
for gold, and he said that he should not
ceturn until he had sufficient gold dust
to discharge all his debts and ransom
his son. Hemade considerable GUAM
| tiLy vi RuhpOWutr hlmSel1 ana Dor
rowed good supply of shot in order to
kill the game upon which he expected to
live. SO he set out into the solitude,
without any expectation of seeing
human being for many months, intend
ing to devote all his time to digging for
gold and killing game. Some time
later, while Bonvalot was ascending
the great Tibetan plateau south of the
mountains, he met native who had
recently seen this solitary miner, and
reported that he had met with fair. but
not great, success in his hunt for gold.
! This auriferous mountain region is
now not very inaccessible, provided the
! permission of China is secured to travel
! there. 1t can be reached in few weeks
march from Kuldje, on the frontier
! between the Russian and Chinese nos
sessions. Every year it is getting a
| little easier to visit these formerly in
accessible mountains, and the day is
not far distant when prospectors will
carefully investigate this country to
/ ascertain the extent of its gold-bearino
resources. 1t is not at all improbable
that these mountains, of which one
range, the Altyn-ragh, was never heard