In all places, and at all times, gold, probably the metal first used by
man, has been worked in the same way. This is a fair evidence of that
instinctive faculty which produces a general resemblance of rude
stone-implements from England to Australia. There are six methods for
'getting' the precious metal--surfacing or washing; shallow-sinking;
sluicing, or removing the earth through natural and artificial channels;
deep sinking; tunnelling, and quartz-mining.
The preceding notes show that the natives of the Gold Coast, and of West
Africa generally, are adepts at procuring their gold by 'surfacing,'
washing with the calabash or wooden bowl the rich alluvial formations that
underlie the top-soil. This is the rudest form of machinery, preceding in
California the cradle, the torn, and the sluice. Westerns made their pans
of brass or copper, about sixteen inches in diameter, and nearly two
inches deep in the middle where the gold gravitates. Panning in Africa is
women's work, and the process has been described in the preceding pages.
But the natives, as has been shown, can also work quartz, an art well
known to the Ancient Egyptians. They either pick up detached pieces
showing visible gold, or they sink pits and nibble at the walls of the
reefs.
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