Resting on this beautiful escarpment we looked out over a dreamy
landscape, and then settled ourselves down for a nap. It was our
intention when rested to look for gold in the peculiar tinted rocks
below. Being tired we were soon fast asleep, and were surprised on
waking to find that several hours had elapsed. We were greatly
refreshed, and started out at once to prospect for the yellow metal with
a couple of hammers.
Finding a natural pathway we began scrambling down the rocks, clinging
to the bushes and long grasses that grew in the crannies, and chipping
occasionally at the craggy protuberances around us. Torrence was ahead,
while I was close behind him. I don’t think it could have been ten
minutes when I heard him call out:
"Color!"
Before I had time to let myself down to his level he held up a great
chunk of reddish stone filled with yellow nuggets, as large as my fist.
I had never beheld such a sight, and on reaching his standing, was
electrified at the vision that greeted my eyes. This was not quartz
mining; it was simply bending one’s back and picking up wealth faster
than a bank teller could deal it out over a counter. We chipped away as
hard as possible for a few minutes, and then stopped to consider what we
should do with the metal. It was evident that in an hour’s time the
accumulation would exceed our capacity for removal. It was clear enough
how the inhabitants could afford to use gold in such wild profusion.
Indeed the metal could not be so valuable here as the peat on an Irish
bog or coal at a Pennsylvania pit. We were discouraged at our inability
to turn the world wrong side out, or that we had not a railway at our
command. But what must we do? Our early education made it impossible
to leave the place without taking with us all we could carry, and so we
resumed our efforts, determined to do our best. We pounded and hammered
for an hour. Nuggets were in sight that were of greater value than all
our stock of sovereigns. The mines of Solomon were trifling by
contrast, and we stopped occasionally to survey the field and stare at
each other in amazement. It was evident that whatever we succeeded in
removing must be carried in the ore, as we had no machinery to separate
it; and had this been of an ordinary kind, it would have been a serious
consideration, but the gold was nearly as plentiful as the rock itself.
All we could hope to do was simply to loosen the quartz with our hammers
and knock out the kernels, which left us a really very insignificant
residuum of rock to transport. It was not necessary to dip into the
ledge or to go below the most superficial outcroppings, as more pure
gold was to be had upon the surface than we could ever hope to remove.
"We can easily get out a million of money with our hammers," said
Torrence, "and it would be folly to trouble ourselves with any but the
richest and easiest handled."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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