e that the
information, original or compiled, which the book contains, will be
found both useful and profitable to those who are in any capacity
interested in the gold-mining industry.

J. C. F. J.

LONDON, November, 1896.

GETTING GOLD

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

GOLD is a name to charm by. It is desired by all nations, and is the one
metal the supply of which never exceeds the demand. Some one has aptly
said, "Gold is the most potent substance on the surface of our planet."
Tom Hood sings:

Gold, gold, gold, gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold;
Molten, graven, hammered, rolled,
Heavy to get, and light to hold;
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled.

That this much appreciated metal is heavy to get is proved by the high
value which has been placed on it from times remote to date, and that it
is light to hold most of us know to our cost.

We read no farther than the second chapter in the Bible when we find
mention of gold. There Moses speaks of "the land of Havilah, where there
is gold"; and in Genesis, chapter xxiv., we read that Abraham's servant
gave Rebekah an earring of half a shekel weight, say 5 dwt. 13 grs.,
and "two bracelets of ten shekels weight," or about 4 1/2 ozs. Then
throughout the Scriptures, and, indeed, in all historic writings, we
find frequent mention of the king of metals, and always it is spoken of
as a commodity highly prized.

I have sometimes thought, however, that either we are mistaken in the
weights used by the Hebrew nation in early days, or that the arithmetic
of those times was not quite "according to Cocker." We read, I. Kings x.
and xli., that Solomon in one year received no less than six hundred
and three score and six talents of gold. If a talent of gold was, as has
been assumed, 3000 shekels of 219 grains each, the value of the golden
treasure accumulated in this one year by the Hebrew king would have been
3,646,350 pounds sterling. Considering that the only means of "getting
gold" in those days was a most primitive mode of washing it from river
sands, or a still more difficult and laborious process of breaking the
quartz from the lode without proper tools or explosives, and then slowly
grinding it by hand labour between two stones, the amount mentioned is
truly enormous.

Of this treasure the Queen of Sheba, who came to visit the Hebrew
monarch, contributed a hundred and twenty talents, or, say, 600,000
pounds worth. Where the La