Through South Africa: His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, NatalStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
Through South Africa: His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
South Africa -- Description and travel
The first exhibits of ores I happened to inspect were from the
Camperdown Reef, in which the virgin gold was conspicuous enough to
satisfy the most unbelieving. The next exhibit consisted of a number of
briquettes of cement manufactured in Bulawayo. The third was a glass
case which contained old gold beads, discovered at Zimbabwe, and
attracted a great deal of attention from the dusky appearance of the
metal which centuries had given it, the rude workmanship, evidently
African, and the puerility of the ornaments. Beyond this the Rhodesia
Ltd. Company had specimens from the Criterion Reef, situate eight miles
from Bulawayo. The rock contained no visible gold, and the Curator who
guided me round had the assurance to say that the quartz where gold was
not visible was more appreciated than that which showed nuggets. This
made me think of the mountains of white quartz I had seen on the Congo,
and to wonder whether the Curator was indulging in unseemly levity.
However, perceiving some doubt in my glance, he said it would be
demonstrated shortly. Adjoining the Criterion ores was a heap from the
Nellie Reef in the Insiza district, fifty miles from Bulawayo. The
Curator said these were "very rich," and taken from old workings; but
despite the Curator and the old workings, I could not see a trace of
gold in the rock, even with a magnifier. Next to the Nellie exhibit was
a pile of rock from the Unit and Unicorn Reef--in the Selukwe district,
Eastern Rhodesia--but I saw no gold in any one of these rocks.
A Successful Crushing of Gold Quartz.
Just at this juncture the Curator told me that one of these apparently
valueless rocks was about to be crushed and panned for our instruction.
We went out into a yard, where there was quite a crowd of curious people
assembled. The lump of rock was put into a small iron mortar, and in a
few minutes it was pounded into a dusty looking mass. It was then
passed through a fine sieve and the larger fragments were returned into
the mortar to be again pounded. A sufficient quantity of the greyish
dust having been obtained, the mortar was emptied into a broad iron pan.
The pan was dipped into a tub full of muddied water, a dexterous turn
or twist of the wrist, and the coarser material was emptied into the
tub. Frequent dippings and twists reduced the quantity of material in
the pan, until at last there was barely a tablespoonful of it left, and
still I saw no glitter. Again the dipping and twisting and rinsing were
repeated, until at last there was only a teaspoonful of the dirt left;
but all around the bottom of the pan was a thin thread of unmistakable
gold dust. It was beyond belief that such a barren-looking piece of
quartzose rock should contain gold; but then these experts are wonderful
fellows. I pay them my most respectful homage.
How the Ancient Miners Worked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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