The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-04-09
THE COMING Ell DORADO.

HE AONiIINu FL DONADOs
1t will soon be twenty years since the
great gold fields of the nineteenth century
in California and Australia ceased their
phenomenal yield. 1t is only now that
there seems to be prospect of gold
yield from new source, which may
materially help 10 restore the old relations
between the precious metals. That new
source is in South Africa, in the South
African Republic, near the twenty-sixth
degree of south latitude. This is probably
the oldest worked gold field in the world.
Conmenlat tors are inclined to place The
land of Ophir in Southern Arabia; but
they probably attach too much Importance
to texts which are vague; recent discovery
makes IL almost certain that the gold
which abounded in Egypt and Palestine in
the time of Rameses and again in the time
of Solomon came from South Africa and
was shipped north In vessels sailing from
ports on or near Delagoa Bay. 1t need
hardly be said that the mining appliances
of three thousand years ago were rude
and that the miners merely scratched the
surface for outcrop gold or washed the
gravel for nuggets. When the first pros
pectors went 10 work in earnest in the
Orange Free State, the Transvaal and
Natal some ten years ago they found
ridges Of gold bearing rock carrying from
three TO five ounces TO the ton, which were
practically virgin. These ridges appear
to outcrop all over the belt of country
from the twenty-sixth to the thirteth
parallel, but the miners seem to have
settled down to the conviction that the
richest of them are in the South African
Republic (the old TransvaaD in the neigh
borhood of Johannesburg. and upon a
range of mountains known as the Witte
Water Rand.
AS in Nevada the gold Is found In the
quartz OF this. veins dipping at various
angles cut through conglUmerate rock in
which water-worn pebbles are i'm pedded.
The ore is, Of course. milling ore. A
line of mills with short intervals between
them extends along the main reef for a
distance OF twenty miles. How busily the
stamps fall may be inferred from the fact
that their cleanup in January was 149.864
ounces of gold, which a SD an ounce
would represent So. 300 900. at this rate
the annual output of the mines would be
nearly S40000.000 but the miners figure
that the gold-bearlng veins extend further
than the present limit OF operations, and
that a monthly output of 200. 900 ounces,
worth 81. 100000, may be expected before
long. This would be the yield Of the new
FL Dorado up 10 the average yield of Cali
fornia during the last days of he boom.
The South African Republic is an indie
pendent State, recognized as such by
Great Britain by the treaty oG.1SS4 It's
area is about the same as that of Nevada
Its population II is impossible to estimate,
10 consequence Of the recent rush of min
ers to the gold fields. Labor is abundant.
The natives. who supply it at the rate of
6219 cents per day, are pronounced as good
workers in the mines as VIII lite men. Thus
there is no inducement for working miners
to 60 there. but experts. possessed of
scientific knowledge and with a small
capital, will probably find better chance
of fortune there than anywhere else in
the world at this moment of time. Skilled
labor will probably also find employment
there in building the railroads which the
mines will require. The country is good
one independently of the mines. 1t will
grow wheat, sugar and cotton, and on the
hills cattle aud sheep are being reared. Ii
is abundantly watered by streams which
feed the rivers flowing into the Indian
Ocean. The climate is hot, but not un-
healthy. The only drawback to the future
prosperity OF the country is the danger of
wars with England. whose territory and
proteciorates encircle it all around.