The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-26

| THESE S0HtlSUlSu, dS wei as 10 MINING
circles at large in this intermountain
region. The Standard says:
| Several men from Butte left recently
| for Manila and the Philippines TO in
vestigate the business opportunities
and mineral resources of that country,
and there are many others who are
waiting for reports from there. The
United States government has yielded
! to the general demand for information
regarding the mineral wealth of the
Philippines and the geological survey
has sent DR.. George. F. Becker, a
famous expert in mines, to Manila for
the purpose of investigating the de-
posits Of precious metals on the islands.
Many who claim to be familiar with
! that country predict that it will in the
near future develop into a tropical
Klondike. 1t is confidently predicted,
| indeed, by persons well acquainted
Of the archipelago viii rival those of
Alaska and South Africa. All the
streams on the eastern side of LuZon
carry gold down from the mountains,
and no brook finds its way into the
Pacific ocean whose sand and gravel
| do not pan at least a yellow color.
Even now very little is known about
the geology of the Philippines, and
their mineral resources are wholly I'M
developed. The absence of practicable
roads has restricted mining to districts
near the coast, so far as modern meth
DDS requiring heavy machinery are
concerned.
The vegetation of the islands is so
dense that ordinary prospecting is out
of the question. In other words, indi-
viduals can accomplish very little in
! the way Of exploring and locating val
liable deposits. However, Uncle Sam
is behind this enterprise and he has
plenty of money to spend on it. From
I! the earliest times Spanish travellers
have written about the latent golden
wealth of the archipelago, but the Dons
have never had the enterprise and in
dustry to develop it. When they first
landed on the islands they found gold
an article of traffic among the natives,
just as it is now. In Pigafetta's
DIARY of Magellan's Voyages" the
natives are described as
WEARING GOLDEN ORNAMENTS
and as offering to present a bar of the
metal to the commander of the naval
expedition. A still extant Chinese book
dated in the third century A D., de-
scribes trading voyage from Annoy
to Manila and mentions gold as the
chief product of Luzon.
Nowadays, outside of the large towns
in the Philippines, the traffic in gold is
very extensive, that metal being in
fact the principal medium of exchange.
1t is weighed in small scales, its value
being estimated at about S11 an ounce,
usually, though in small quantities it
brings only $40. Gold-hunting is prac-
ticed by the natives in a desultory
fashion, when an overdue tax or an
approaching holiday with its cock
fights makes the possession of a few
dollars in cash more than usually de-
sirable. There are, however, the re-
mains of great works at Mambuloa-
the name signifying Place of Gold
which once produced large quantities
of the metal from pounded quartz. The
regular output, according to records,
was 1000 ounces weekly.
1t is known that there is a great deal
Of gold in the province of Benguet,
central LuZon, and also in northeast
ern Surigao, on the island of Mindanao.
The streams in SUrigao are particularly
rich. Mindanao is the least known and
least settled of the islands, though it
is nearly as big as Luzon. Portions of
it are controlled by Malay sultans, who
are exceedingly independent, having
never acknowledged any allegiance to
Spain. These sultans have piratical in
clinations, and it is not unlikely that
the United States government will have
to deal with them pretty sharply be-
fore long. 1t is believed that the auri-
ferrous formation from which the gold
of the streams is derived continues
throughout the range of mountains
that forms the backbone, so to speak,
of LuzOn. These mountains have never
been explored to any extent, though
sometimes heavy nuggets are brought
down from them.
One reason why so little is known of
the gold of the Philippines is that there
has never been any official control of
the output, or any tax upon it. The
miners mostly live in isolated districts,
and communication between villages
is rare. The universal man of business
is the omnipresent Chinaman, peramb-
ulating peddler or storekeeper with
fixed abode, who penetrates the dis
tant settlements, buys gold with his
wares, and sends it out of the country
to Hong Kong, Annoy or elsewhere
His business is to keep the extent and
volume of his trade a secret. Paracale
gold dust is we'll known in Manila,
though few Manilese know where Para
Gale is. 1t is a prosperous village and
its output of dust is
MELTED INTO TINY INGOTs,
small sea shells serving as a mold, so
that each ingOt shows the shape of the
shell. Each ingot also bears the mark
of the testing augur of the Chinese
merchant.
In Mindanao the people generally
carry gold about in little bags and use
it as money. 1t is said that nowhere
in the world outside of the Philippines,
the Treadwell mines of Alaska except
ed, is pay ore found within a few hun
dred yards of the anchorage of sea-
going vessels. In one place on the Pa
cific coast of LuZon a narrow peninsu-
Ia juts out into the ocean-a headline
of white and glittering quartz. This is
vast deposit Of gold ore, and at the
present time is being prepared for the
reception Of crushing plant and ap-
purtenances.
The methods of gold-seeking adopt
ed by the natives are, as might be ex-
pected, exceedingly primitive. They
wash the sand and gravel of the
streams in wooden bowls, seeking the
yellow specks which fall to the bottom
Elsewhere they crush the rocks to
powder, treating the latter in a similar
way. Some of their mines are honey
combs of pits dug in the ground, the
soil being a rubbish of decomposed
much as so feet deep. At three feet
below the surface of the ground gold
occurs, and increases in quantity usu-
ally to a depth of Is feet. The pieces
of rock are carried out of the pits in
baskets, the miners using ladders of
bamboo. Water is carried out in the
same way, in pals; but during the
rainy season the holes cannot be kept
free from water, and work has TO be
The pieces,of rock thus obtained are
crushed by means of the primitive con-
trivance known as the "arrastra." This
anDaratllS consists of a block Of rock