of
eighteen provinces of the empire. The greatest number of washings is
in the province of Sze-Chuen (Se-Chuen) and along the branches of the
Kuen-Lun mountain chain, which have an east and west trend, penetrate
ing into Central China between the Wei River and the Sze-Chuen
boundarv. Placers are numerous at the base of the water-shed between
Kwei-Chow and Hu-Nan, and through the centre of Shantung, from
southwest to northeast. Most of these placers furnish coarse gold.
In
the province of Shensi, on the northern frontiers at Hopoota and the
Hala Mountains, much gold-dust is obtained annually. " Hundreds of
thousands" of natives find employment in washing the sands of the river
Kinsha-Kiang. On the banks of the Lou-tsze Kiang there are numerous
gold-washings, and gold is reported to be found in almost all of the
streams in the eastern portion of Shantung.
Consul
Adkins (1877), at Newchwang, reports rich diggings in the valley of
Chia-t'i-kou thirty miles long, and about five or six days' journey
east by south from Kirwin and Newchwang.
Henry
F. Holt's " Notes on Gold in China," published in Lock's work on "
Gold," give very interesting information of the condition of
gold-mining in this country, and Pumpelly furnishes a table of the
placers.
Japan.—Gold
was first discovered in Japan in 749 A.D.,* and the art of mining is
said to have been introduced from China about the close of the same
century. The gold-fields of the Musa valley are reported to have been
worked by miners from Chikusen A.D. 1205. Japan has always been
represented as a country rich in precious metals. Marco Polo, in the
thirteenth century, said of Zipangu : " They had gold in the greatest
abundance, its sources being inexhaustible." j " Great abundance" of
gold was reported by Kaempfer in 1727. The export of precious metals,
chiefly gold, from 1550 to 1639 by the
* According to Dr. Geerts.
