The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-27

, of Egypt, with peaks rising from a
 mile to a mile and a half above the level of the Mediterranean. It lies within 30 miles
 of the Red Sea- and is filled with ancient
 workings of gold, lead, copper. iron and emeralds. Just west of this concession the Egypt and Soudan mining syndicate has four prospecting areas of % square miles each, upon which ancient gol< workings are shown, and evidences of old mines haze been found in many of
 the other a1lotments.
 1t is well-known that the desert east of the Nile supplied quantities of gold ages ago. It was for several centuries the i California of the civilized world, and pro-
 duced enough to make the Pharaohs rich
 and to enable them to send treasure to
 the kings of western Asia. Some of the letter 10 Pharaoh. which have been dis
 covered come from his royal eorre-
 spondents in Asia. and they are filled with requests for gold which Is spoken
 of as being as plentiful in his country
 as dust.
 A little later, when Egypt Lad lost her empire and had been overrun by the bar barians of the north, the amount of gold yielded by the mines of the desert was still great Old Rameses the oppressor of the Hebrews. hat a big income from them. and under the Ptolemies the reve-
 nu. of the country is said to have been something like S20,000,0UO per annum, l large part of which came from the mines. On some of the oldest tombs there arc pictures showing how gold jewelry was made over ADO years ago, and one of the officials of that time states that he had commanded an escort which brought gold
 from the mines of Keneh and Kosser to l Coptos.
 1 This same region is now being exploited 1 by the Egyptian Mines Exploration com pany and not far above Kossier, on the Red sea- Is the Um Rus Mining com pany which, with a capital of $91O,Od0 IS
 working some of those old mines
 It nas erected q large plant, consisting of an electric generating station, air com pressors for driving rock drills and
 railway six miles long, connecting the
 mine with it's 10 stamp mills on the sea- shore. The main shaft is now over 6U0 feet deep, and the output is $IOOO to SSOO per month In the report of last October the tm Rus officials stated that more chan Sloo eco worth of gold had been mined l and that Improvements were under way which would materially increase the out put. This mine was worked as far back
 as 1871 B. C., and vast quantities of gold were taken out of it w:len the Pharaoh of the Bible was on the throne. At that time it Is said that the Egyptian task
 masters worked the mines with slaves. l They made them labor away day and
 night The children were forced to carry
 the ore and the old people ground it to powder.
 The opening up of the oases of western l Egypt is an agricultural proposition rather than q mining one, although exten-
 sive deposits of alum, phosphates and minerals are said to exist there. Gold,
 which runs as high as S2 per ton. has been found in the lower beds of the phosphate
 rocks, but 1t is not known whether 1t is merely local freak of nature or whether
 1t may expand into richer collaborating ore.
 The oases of Egypt lie 100 miles or so west of The Nile, in the heart of the Lib
 van desert There are four great centers which have been known for ages, and l some of which were noted for their fer tility when the Hebrews were still at
 work under their Egyptian tasfmasters. ! The oases are Kharga, which lies l2a l miles directly west of Esneh, but which 1 Is best reached from Assiout, Farafra, 1 which is almost directly west of Assiout ] and may be reached oy camels in the i space of eight days; Dal<hla, which lies
 between f<harsa and Farafra, and also the oasis of Baharia, which is about 1 three days journey from Girga on the | Nile.
 The corporation of western Egypt pro-