50
GOLD IN CEYLON.
The
result of the exploration of the 21st was 6 spangles of gold as large
as a small canary seed, three of them being a little larger, so that
probably the whole find of Bradley and his fellows, from 6th of the
month to the present time, has not amounted to 15 shillings.
Heavy
rains with violent thunder had commenced, and the next accounts will
bring intelligence of the sweeping away of the dam if it has not
already gone. The Police we hear had killed a small crocodile, in their
hut which showed fight, never once attempting to run from the blows
inflicted. We hear that the whole are sadly disgusted and wc may expect
a week hence to hear that "Bradley's diggings" have resolved into their
primeval solitude, tenanted only by the alligator of the river and the
wood-pecker of the forests of this miserable and deadly hole. We speak
feelingly, for we are compelled to curtail our remarks in to-day's
issue from an attack of fever, the result of too much exposure whilst
prospecting for gold in a midday sun in the delectable locality. So far
as we hear, the best thing is to order all the I'olice there to forsake
the place at once; the farce of keeping 30 or 40 men with officers, to
look after a challie's worth of gold is too palpable an absurdity to be persisted in for a day longer.
We
repeat that there is not gold enough to be found to pay for the
sustenance of a mosquito, and the curtain should be allowed to descend
on the whole farce at once.
Latest from the Gold Explorers.
We
are told that Mr. Power, Dr. Ellery and the Seaman Bradley, who went to
the Maha Oya Diggings, and left that place on the 19th instant in
prosecution' of further search to the north-cast of the river, have
made further discoveries of auriferous earth in the bed of one of the
tributaries of that river, called the " Hingool Oya," giving a name to
that valley, through which was to have run a portion of the Railway to
Kandy, which, under the auspices of Lord Torrington would ere this time
have been in full work giving a most ample return for outlay. This
river runs to the southwest under a wooden erection at the foot of the
ascent of the Kadugannawa Pass, called Gordon's Bridge across the Kandy
road between the 58th and 59th mile-stones.
-Tracing
the Maha Oya upwards at the village of Attapitiya, at about 40 miles
above the original station, they again found auriferous earth; the
specks very small, but existing in every pan of earth washed. The above
report is of so early a date as Tuesday last, but the delay in its
receipt, was owing to its having been sent to Kandy en route to Colombo.
Wc
have had no further report from Nuwara Kliya, but from indirect"
sources we hear that the search has been unproductive of Gold.
Altogether
we much fear the outgoing Mail of to-morrow will take but a "Flemish
account" of the far-famed Gold discoveries in Ceylon.
