s are
being sunk to the 150 foot level, and are at present connected by a
drive 300 feet long. On this level the reef is throughout payable,
while a chute 100 feet long is of high grade ore. Trenches on the line
of the reef indicate its occurrence towards the eastern portion of the
mine, where five shafts varying from 100 feet to 150 feet deep have been
sunk. At the depth of 150 feet the various shafts will be connected by
a gallery, which will give 2000 feet of reef material. At the present
time work is being done for the purpose of developing sufficient ore to
keep a twenty-stamp mill going. The necessary machinery has been
ordered, and the engineers expect to begin producing some time about the
middle of 1898. On examining the material at the mouths of the shafts,
those among us who knew of what they were speaking declared that much of
it was of high grade. High pyritic quartz abounded, and this was rich
in fine gold. Sulphide galena was found in some of the quartz. At the
mouth of one shaft visible gold was very frequent, and about forty of
the visitors obtained specimens wherein miniature nuggets were plainly
visible. Where the reef was being worked at the deepest shaft it showed
a breadth of 24 inches; in some places it is only 18 inches wide; at
others it is 48 inches broad.

"We saw enough to prove that Rhodesia is an Auriferous Country."

My readers need scarcely be told that the exhibits of ores are only such
as a few companies of Rhodesia were induced to send after urgent appeals
from the public-spirited citizens of Bulawayo. I saw none from
Salisbury, Mazoe, or any part of Mashonaland, and only a few mines in
Matabeleland were represented. There was no time for a proper
exhibition. Many more were _en route_, but the distances are great and
the ox-wagon is slow. At any rate we have seen sufficient to prove that
Rhodesia is an auriferous country though as yet no one knows what rank
it will take among gold-producing lands. My own conviction--a
conviction that is, I suppose, made up from what I have seen and heard
from qualified men--is that Rhodesia will not be much inferior to the
Transvaal. True, it has no Witwatersrand--forty miles of reefs; but the
superficial area is twice the size of the Transvaal State, and the
prospectors have only succeeded in discovering a few plums.

Then, though the railway has been brought to Bulawayo, it is still far
from the Belingwe and Selukwe districts, and w