The immense cost of importing even the lightest stamp batteries has, of course, retarded the gold industry to an enormous extent, but the completion of the Beira Railway will work a great change in this respect. What crushings have taken place show very rich results. The average yield from several hundred tons of ore extracted from all reefs in the Victoria district, good and bad together, was 18·3 dwt. per ton, or about 73s. It has, however, been proved in practice that mining operations even under present conditions can be carried on in Mashonaland at a cost not exceeding 20s. per ton, leaving the very handsome profit of 53s. for every ton crushed in the above district. In a cablegram recently received from the Company’s administrator on his return from a tour of inspection of the various mining districts he states that new finds were occurring everywhere daily, and that crushings were everywhere successful; that the reefs were improving with depth, and that wonderful development was proceeding in every district. As regards alluvial gold, that large deposits do exist, and that their discovery is only a question of time, is the opinion of all experienced miners. That this time has now arrived seems probable from a cable message recently received reporting that 50 oz. of alluvial gold had been brought into Salisbury, causing great excitement there. Should, however, alluvial fields, so valuable to a new country from their power of attracting a large mining population, never be discovered, it may not be too much to say—the progress that has been made in so short a time, and the enormous extent and richness of the auriferous reefs being taken into consideration—that the time cannot be far distant when Mashonaland will assume a leading position amongst the principal gold-producing countries of the world. NOTES [1] M’, which looks so mysterious in all African books, is supposed to express that the first syllable may be pronounced either um or mu; there are four correct ways of pronouncing the name in question, Umtali or Mutare, Umtare or Mutali. The English have adopted the first and the Portuguese the second. [2] Vide Chap. VII. [3] Chap. VII. [4] Vide illustration, ch. X. [5] Chap. X. [6] Chap. XI. [7] Vide Chap. IX. [8] Encyclop. Brit. [9] 17·17 feet is equal to 10 cubits of 20·62 inches; and as all parts of the building which we have been able to measure accurately, and all small articles which would probably be made on any scale of measure, apparently have been made in terms of a cubit of this length, it seems probable that this cubit was one of the standards of measure in use. [10] This is not very accurately shown in the small scale plan. [11] There are many astronomical points in these buildings still to be considered, and the results of further investigation will be published later. [12] Vide illustration, p. 181. [13] Vide Illustration, p. 181. [14] Lucian, De Syriâ Deâ, p. 477.