6 oz. gold and 0.3 oz. silver per ton. This
was from a depth of only ten feet. His own trial-shaft, when he left the
Coast, was not more than three feet deep; but every sample showed traces
of gold, and an Australian miner of thirty years' experience declared that
the 'stuff' promised a rich yield below. Like ourselves, he found the
whole country 'impregnated with gold.' On the path within fifty yards of
the Nanwa village we knocked off some pieces of quartz that displayed the
precious ore to the naked eye.
The slope in which the two shafts had been sunk fell into a depression
between the hills which indicated the richest surface-diggings. Here a
number of detached sinkings had been run together by the recent rains into
a long miry pool. Mr. Walker also speaks of a 'very large number of
shallow native pits.' No one could see this exceedingly rich 'gulch'
without determining that it should be washed upon the largest scale. It
will be time to sink shafts and make deep diggings here when sluicing and
surfacing shall have done their work.
From Ingotro we marched back to Nanwa and took leave of Chief Apo; his
parting words were a request that work might be begun as soon as possible,
and that at any rate his concession should be properly marked out.
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