The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-29

Egypts New Gold ff'si> -.
Red sea-Ancienf Mines Being Ike
,nrs.d-T1,e GASES OF Ifbya and
How They Nil BE Developed
Something About the fayon'ia-
Which 4. Now Reached ny fIai'-
How Egypt Governs me fehinu
of Sandstone Queer Ncihode -
Justice and How Thieves are De
tecfed BY Water. Fire and Dream
(Capyright by Frank G Carpenter
Port Tcwnk. oct. 25-Modern en-
terprise & opening UP the hackwoods
Of Egypt. Syndicates with large cap
ital are prospecting for coal OH anu
copper in the Sinai peninsula me
Egyptian Exploration Company i
working gold mines betWeen LuAo.
and the Red Sea. and the Nlle doli
Fields Company is operating furiheF
south beyond AssOuan An EhgiiSn
syndicate with a capital OF TWO anu
one-balf million dollars Is about 70
build a railroad across the Lpyah
desert TO develop the string Of GASES
which lie one hundre miles or SO
west of the Nile valley; and oE 'hs
Assouan dam over fifty thousand
acres have been added 10 that great
fertile spot IN the desert known As
the Fayoum. All OF these regions
may be called the backwoods u
Egypt Most OF them have long been
considered barren worthless anu
about them little is Known.
The Gold Fields OF the Desert.
Within the past two or three years
a great interest has sprung w as 10
the gold fields of Egypt. PrOspectors
have been going over the desert above
Cairo, between this country and the
Red Sea, and more than a score OF
syndicateS have been formed TO pros
pect the various concessions. The
whole country has been divided among
them. and the Egyptian government
has instituted a department OF mines
to control them. This department Is
under the minister of the interior and
it has a camel police so that its sol
diers can go rapidly from place 10
place and keep order. Lines Of com
munication from certain ports on the
Nile to the Red Sea are being opened
up in order to enable labor to be more
economically sent to the mines and to
give the companies better means of
transport for the materials and food
stuffs which they require.
At present tAe headquarters Of the
mining department is at Edfou, be-
tween Assouan and Luxor. It has sup
plies and material stored there. and
it has been making experiments of
crossing the eastern desert on motor
cars and motor cycles to some Of the
mining centers. Just now the chief
mines are far away from the Nile. and
it is necessary to haVe quick methods
of reaching them. A numbe are right
on the shores of the Red Sea. and
they run up and down through the
whole of the eastern desert in the
mountainous regions bordering the
coast. There are other mining COM
panies operating in the Soudan. and
some which have concessions on the
very border of AbysSinia.
Ancient Mines Being Operated.
A number of these mining compan-
les are r~e-opening the workings Of
the ancient Egyptians. The Streeter
concession, for instance, is looking for
emeralds at the foot Of label Nugras.
near where gold mines once We're. It's
territory includes some of the most
mountainous country of Egypt, with
peaks rising from a mile to a mile and
q half above the level of the Medi-
terrean. It lies within thirty miles
of the Red Sea, and is filled with an
cient workings of gold. lead, copper,
iron and emerald Just west of this
concession the Egypt and Soudan min
ing syndicate has four prospecting
areas of twenty-five square miles each
upon which ancient gold workings are
shown, and evidences of old mines
have been found in many of the other
allOtmentS.
1t is we'll known that the desert
east of the Nile supplied quantities of
gold ages ago. 1t was for several CEN
turtles the California Of the civilized
world. and produced enough to make
the PharaOhs rich and to enable them
to e treasure to the kings of west
ern Asia. Some Of the letters to
Pharaoh, which nave been discovered.
come from his royal correspondents
in Asia. and they are filled with re-
quests for gold, which is spoken of as
hnI N nr g | on f1,1 to &c
dust.
A little later. when Egypt had lost
her empire and had been oVerrun by
the barbarians of the north, the
mount of gold yielded by the mines
of the desert was still great Old Ra-
meses, the oppressor of the Hebrews,
had a big income from them. and un-
der the Ptolemies the revenue of the
country is said to have been something
like $50, 600, 600 per annun. a large
part of which came from the mines.
On some of the oldest tombs there are
pictures showing how gold iewelry
was made over 40 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 Kossier to Coptos.
h same regiop is now being ex-
plotted by the Egyptian Mines Explor-
alton Company. and not far above
ACSSiD III ~ iA1o sd - III l.
Rus Mining Company. which. with a
capital of S9O0,0 600 is working some
of those old mines. IT has erected a
large plant. consisting of an electric
generating station. air cOmpressors for
driving rock drills. and a railway six
miles long, connecting the mine with
its ten stamp mills on the seashC~>
The main shaft is now over 500 feet
deep, and the output is seven or eight
thousand dollars per month. In the
report of last October the I'm Rus
officials stated that more than $4,000
worth of gold had been mined, and
that improvements were under way
which would materially increase the
output. This mine was worked as far
back as 1877 B. c.. and vast q~uanti-
ties of gold were aiken out of it when
the Pharaoh of the Bible was on the
throne. At that time it is said that
the Egyptian taskma=ters worked the
mines with slaves. They made them
labor away day and night. The child
rem were forced to carry the ore and
the old people ground It to powder.
Exploiting the Gases.
The opening up of the GASES of west
ern Egypt is an AGRICULTURAL prODO-