(From the Ceylon Times.) The Maha Oya Diggings.
Having
been to the scene of the operations of the Seamen late of the " Martin
Luther" in the bed of this river in their search for Gold, we now are
able to form a better opinion of the matter derived from a careful
personal inspection extending over two entire days in a place which
both for heat and desolation exactly resembles the lower ravines of the
hills which lead the Nerbudda and Taptee Rivers of Guzerat to the
plains, or of the gorges and vallies which take the rains off the
Ghauts, of the Deccan, all like the Maha Oya affording the same
characteristics for gold, both as to geological formation and general
appearance.
As
to the question of gold in the Maha Oya, there is no doubt whatever on
the point, for not only did we see other procure it, but with the aid
of a tin pan and a spade which we took from Colombo, we washed some 12
or 15 pans of clay or gravel quartz dug out of the river bed from
amongst some large quartz boulders. In four or five of these pans,
after careful washing, we found amongst the black sand left after the
washing off of the earth-clay, and quartz, from one to two most minute
specks of gold of a more vivid yellow tint, which through a lens
evidently by their abraded surfaces showed the effects of long travel
from the original matrix whence they were washed to the lower parts of
the river by the heavy floods of ages.
Independently
of the product of our own personal exertions we saw the results of
trails by other gentlemen who were also successful in their search, nay
one visitor Mr. Anthony Worms of Pussellawa, took a few handsful of the
gravel and with Mr. Jones of the same place, carefully washed it, and
found what may be called the only nugget which has hitherto been taken
from the Maha Oya. This specimen was about the size of a small canary
seed, flat on one side, the other being rounded. On Saturday, Bradley
and his chums set to work about 8 o'clock in the morning, and with the
aid of about 12 or 14 coolies washed from 4 to 500 buckets of earth,
and on clearing the trough under the Tom at about 5 p. m. the residuum showed
about 150 to 190 specks of Gold, the value of which might be 10
shillings. The opinion formed not only by us, but by almost every
Englishman present (about 30 in number) during the two days we were
there was, that although Gold was present, it would not pay for
the trouble and outlay necessary for the prosecution of the search; but
as a mineralogioal search where the outlay of a few pounds would produce a few farthings worth of Gold in order to
