In the carboniferous basins of Staffordshire and of Saarbrück and Silesia there are likewise coal mines which have been on fire for a long period. At Zwickau in Saxony the first accounts of one of these subterranean conflagrations date as far back as the fifteenth century, and the fire still burns on. The hot vapours which rise from the surface have since 1837 been put to an ingenious use. Conducted through pipes into conservatories, they ripen the choicest fruits of the south, and produce a tropical climate under a northern sky. In a Staffordshire colliery which had been on fire for many years, and which was called by the inhabitants Burning Hill, it was noticed that the snow melted on reaching the ground, and that the grass in the meadows was always green. Some speculators conceived the idea of establishing a school of horticulture on the spot, and imported colonial plants at a heavy expense. These flourished for a time, but one day the subterranean fire went out, and as the heat it had imparted to the soil gradually diminished and departed, the exotic vegetation likewise drooped and died. CHAPTER XXIV. GOLD. The Golden Fleece—Golden Statues in ancient Temples—A Free-thinking Soldier—Treasures of ancient Monarchs—First Gold Coins—Ophir—Spanish Gold Mines—Bohemian Gold Mines—Discovery of America—Siberian Gold Mines—California—Marshall—Rush to the Placers—Discovery of Gold in Australia—The Chinaman’s Hole—New Eldorados—Alluvial Gold Deposits in California and Australia—Washing—Quartz-crushing. Gold is probably the metal which has been longest known to man. For as it is found only in the metallic state, its weight and brilliancy most naturally have attracted attention or awakened greed at a very early age. Thus we read in the Bible that one of the rivers flowing from Paradise ‘compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.’ Gold is also mentioned among the riches of Abraham, and when the patriarch’s servant met Rebekah at the fountain of Nahor, he presented the damsel with a ‘golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold,’ undoubtedly the first trinkets on record.