washed in the common wooden hand dish, of circular form, and the gold it contains collected by amalgamation. The
profits of this pursuit are small, and the labour great; the men not
netting more than two or three annas a day profit, which must be
regarded as a miserable remuneration, where the ordinary hire for a
cooly is eight annas, or twice that at the rice ports during the
shipping season.
In another Paper, on the " Metalliferous Resources of British Burmah," Mr. Theobald says :*—
Though
of slight economic importance, gold occurs in most parts of Burmah, but
is very little worked within British territory, which I attribute to
the higher and more certain remuneration there obtainable for
agricultural or other labour; and gold working is therefore pursued
mainly in bad seasons, or as an exceptional means of industry taken up
merely now and again.
Tavemier,f
in his enumeration of the places where gold is produced in Asia,
mentions the kingdom of Tipra (? the modern Tipperah). He says, " it is
coarse, almost as bad as that of China."
Other references to the gold of Burmah are to be found in various works descriptive of that country.
Afghanistan.—There
is a gold mine a little to the north of Kandahar city. It appears to be
in quartz veins, which are superficially excavated, gunpowder being
employed. The gold is sometimes chiselled out in pure granules ; the
stone is not taken out unless it contains visible gold. It is taken
into the city for treatment. The mine belonged to the Government; had
been worked anyhow for some twelve years, and in 1872 was leased to a
contractor for Rs. 5,000 a year. As much more was spent on working the
mine, and the yearly out-turn was said to exceed Rs. 10,000.
* " Records Geological Survey of India," vol. vi. p. 95. f " Travels."
