people who raised the tumuli. But at the present day the silver mines at Kongsberg, in Norway, and the silver lead mines of Sala, in Westmannia, Sweden, are the only Scandinavian mines of any importance. The first have been worked regularly since 1624, and from that date to the present time have yielded 1,840,000 pounds of fine silver, worth twenty-nine and a half millions of dollars. For the last thirty years the annual produce has been $254,000, and the net profit $158,000. The Swedish mines at this day yield rather less than 3,000 pounds of silver, worth $45,000. Of late years the Scandinavian mines have very much declined in value.

The Austrian empire furnishes annually of the precious metals a quantity valued at from two to three millions of dollars. The provinces most productive are Transylvania, Hungary, the Banat, and Bohemia. Saltzburg, Tyrol, and Styria formerly produced considerable quantities of gold and silver, but the yield of these provinces has declined until their annual produce is insignificant. The principal mines of Hungary are those of Schemnitz, Kremuitz, and Neusohl, employing about 15,000 miners, and producing large quantities of the precio us as well as of the useful metals. Those of Schemnitz were opened in 745, and of Kremnitz in 770, and with temporary interruptions have been carried on to the present time. The ores are auro-argentiferous, and are treated with great scientific skill, the results of centuries of experience. They are not of a very productive character, but owing to the extensive scale upon which mining operations are conducted, the eminent engineering and metallurgical skill employed, connected with a rigid system of economy, the mines are still profitably worked, and have enriched their successive proprietors for more than a thousand years. The extensive adit-level to drain the Schemnitz mines, commenced in 1782, was about two-thirds completed in 1850, at an expense of about $200 per fathom. This work is to be ten miles long, and will cut the veins at a depth of 1,380 feet. Mines of gold and silver occur on the western border of Transylvania, near the towns of Nagybanya, Kapnik, and Felsobanya, and also at Zalathna. The ancient works at these mines are on a gigantic scale, but the yield of the precious metals is much less than it was several hundred years ago. The Transylvania mines produce the rare and interesting combination of gold and tellurium. The mines of the Banat are found in a narrow gorge made by the waters of the Danube, forcing a passage through the Carpathian mountains. The ores are principally argentiferous copper, yielding about 120 ounces of silver to the ton, together with a little gold. The mines of Hungary, Transylvania, and the Banat yield annually about 5,400 pounds of gold, worth $1,215,000. The other provinces of the Austrian empire yield, perhaps, 100 pounds mere, worth from $22,000 to $23,000. Hungary, Transylvania, Bohemia, and the Banat furnish yearly over 90,000 pounds of silver, worth about a million and a half of dollars. That produced in the provinces of Tyrol, Saltzburg, and Styria is so trifling in quantity that no estimate is attempted. Yet these provinces, anciently a part of the Italian province of Illyria, lying in the region of the Noric Alps, poured out such a copious stream of gold two thousand years ago that its great quantity, according to Strabo, caused a decrease of one-third in its price throughout all Italy, and induced the proprietors to employ fewer workmen in order to raise its value again; and Pliny relates that the Roman senate, in order to restrain the excessive production of the precious metals and the consequent fall in their value, limited the number of slaves allowed to work in the mines to 5,000. So rich in gold at that day, and for many centuries afterwards, was the part of the Austrian empire now under consideration, and portions of northern Italy, that the precious metal was found partly in large grains upon the surface and partly in mines, so pure that an eighth part only was lost by the process of smelting and refining. Near Brixen, in the Tyrol, were mines which, as late as 1525, produced 52,000 pounds of silver when that metal was six times as valuable as it is now. These mines were the El Dorado of the sixteenth century, and with those of Hungary,

Saxony, Bohemia, the Hartz mountains, and the Spanish peninsula, furnished the supplies of the precious metals during the middle ages. But the mines of Brixen are exhausted, and those of the Noric Alps have long since ceased to exercise a disturbing influence on prices by the teeming abundance of their treasures. Tyrol and Saltzburg yield at the present day but trifling quantities of gold and silver.

The total annual product of the Austrian empire in both the precious metals may be set down at an average value of $2,700,000.

Since its incorporation of the kingdom of Hanover, of Saxony, and the duchy of Nassau, Prussia furnished more silver than any other state in Europe. The amount of gold furnished is very small, consisting of a few pounds obtained in the Hartz and from washing the sands of the Rhine and other rivers in Germany, not exceeding in all ten pounds.

The Erz Gebirge mountains, dividing Saxony from Bohemia, have been the scene of mining operations ever since the tenth century.

The mines of Freiberg, on the Saxony side of the mountains, were opened about the close of the twelfth century, and since 1524 have yielded about 17,000,000 pounds troy of silver, worth $112,000,000. More than nine hundred veins are said to exist in this mining district, interesting as affording one of the finest examples of silver veins retaining their character for richness at great depths, many of them being now worked at a depth of nearly 1,400 feet, while the quantities of silver obtained are constantly increasing. Many other silver mines are found in Saxony, but those of Freiberg are the most important. The annual product is about 80,000 pounds, equal in value to $1,280,000, of which the Freiberg mines produce nine-tenths. Another very interesting district is found in the Hartz mountains, principally belonging to Hanover and Brunswick, and since 1866 constituting a part of Prussia. The principal mines are those of Clausthal, Andreasberg, and Rammelsberg. Operations commenced in the last district A. D. 968, and in the others during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The business connected with these mines gives employment to about 60,000 persons. The Andreasberg mines are the most productive, and have been the most extensively wrought. The great Sampson vein has been worked to the depth of 2,580 feet, being the deepest mine now in operation in the world. At the depth of 2,160 feet one of the finest accumulations of ore ever met with was struck, and the works have been carried down 420 feet further without any considerable change in the richness of the ore. The mines are carried on profitably, not so much on account of the quality of the ore (which is argentiferous galena) as the highly improved system upon which all mining operations are conducted. The vein system is of great complexity, and the metalliferous combinations of great variety, their successful treatment presenting examples of the highest achievements yet attained in chemical and metallurgical science. The annual production of silver from the Hartz mines is 27,000 pounds, valued at $432,000.

From five to ten pounds of gold are annually obtained by separation, worth from $1,200 to $2,500.

The galena of the upper Hartz contains generally from thirteen to twentythree ounces of silver to the ton.

The little duchy of Nassau, of only eighty-two German square miles in extent, has several hundred mines in operation, of which thirty are of argentiferous lead, some of which have been mined since 1158, and produce about 2,500 pounds of silver annually.

In the province of Silesia are similar ores, which have been mined near Tarnowitz since 1526. In the Rhenish provinces, near Coblentz, Siegen and Aix la Chapelle, the same kind of mines have recently been opened, which appear to promise well, the ores of several yielding 80 ounces of silver to the ton.

The silver of Prussia is mostly the product of such ores, and in Silesia, the

Rhenish provinces, and the duchy of Nassau the annual supply is 70,000 pounds or more, equal in value to $1,120,000. The product of the whole kingdom, as recently enlarged, including the supplies of Saxony and the Hartz, is 180,000 or 190,000 pounds, equal in value from $2,880,000 to $3,000,000.

Italy has furnished the precious metals from very early times. The sands of the rivers descending from the Pennine and Leopontine Alps were washed for gold before the founding of Rome, and still continue to contribute small quantities. The most important mines now in operation are in Piedmont, which in 1844 yielded only about 560 pounds of gold, worth about $130,000. English and French companies have recently undertaken the working of some of these mines with very encouraging results, we are informed in a late excellent work on "The Mines and Metallurgy of Gold and Silver," by J. Arthur Phillips, of Kensington, England; and the probabilities are that the product is much greater now than in 1844.

The silver furnished by Italy is mostly obtained from its argentiferous lead mines found in Piedmont, Sardinia, Tuscany, and other provinces, amounting annually of recent years to about 30,000 pounds, and is worth nearly half a million of dollars.

If the result of recent mining enterprises in the Italian states have been as successful as there is reason to hope they have been, they must at the present day contribute a supply of gold and silver equal to the value of about $750,000.

Small quantities of gold or silver, or of both metals, are obtained in European Russia, or so much of that empire as lies west of the Ural mountains, in Turkey in Europe, in Greece, and in Switzerland, sometimes by washing the nearly exhausted sand of some of the rivers of these countries, occasionally by rock' mining conducted on a very limited scale, and, more frequently, as a product of the silver-lead mines. The quantities thus obtained in many localities are separately of small amount, but in the aggregate become important, and help to swell the supply of Europe to an amount varying at different times, but averaging, of late years, about 8,000 pounds of gold and 500,000 pounds of silver, equal in value in round numbers to about $10,000,000.

The product of Europe in the precious metals appears to have reached its lowest point for several centuries about 1830. In 1800 it furnished 5,300 marcs of gold, equal to 3,475 pounds, troy, and 215,200 French marcs of silver, equal to 141,150 pounds. In 1830 the amount of silver obtained was about the same, but the supply of gold had declined to 3,500 marcs, or about two-thirds the quantity produced in 1800. In 1850 the gold product had increased to over 5,000 pounds, and in 1860 to about 6,000 or 6,500 pounds, and at the present time it must be between two and three thousand pounds more. From 1830 to 1850 the yield of silver in Europe increased about 250,000 pounds, since which last date it has probably increased 100,000 pounds more. This has been partly the result of the discovery of valuable mines in Spain in 1843, the increasing richness of the ore of the Freiberg mines in Saxony, and of the improvements introduced by Pattison's process of dissilvering lead.

The additional quantities of gold now obtained are due entirely to improved systems of mining and drainage, and not to the discovery of new deposits. Some of the Austrian mines which are still profitably worked yield only four parts in 1,000,000 of the stamp-work, and in Italy some of the mines yield only 8 pennyweight of gold to the ton.

At the Russian mines at Beresov the stamped ore returns only from .0013 to .00208 per cent. of gold.

ASIA.

Previous to the discovery of gold in California and Australia the Russian empire contributed the principal supplies of that metal from its mines in the eastern slopes of the Ural mountains, in Siberia, and in the Caucasus. The

mines of the Ural were discovered in the middle of the last century, and operations commenced at Beresov in 1752 by mining in the solid rock. These mines are still continued, although their yield is very small, and in 1850 was less than one hundred pounds. Towards the close of the last century their product was from six hundred to eight hundred pounds of gold annually. Fifty years ago there were sixty-six localities in the Ural where mining operations were carried on, most of which are now abandoned. Even in those now existing the percentage of gold is very small, and it is only from the combined causes of low wages and skilful management that they can be profitably worked; and such is the perfection of the apparatus employed of late years that the amount of gold is increasing, notwithstanding the poverty of the veins.

The large quantities of gold furnished by Russia during the last forty years. have not, however, been obtained from these mines, but from washing the auriferous sands of Siberia in the valleys of the Ob, the Irtish, and the Yenisei, and the rivers descending from the Ural, commenced in this last locality in 1814, in western Siberia in 1829, and in the east in 1838, carried on partly by the government and partly by individuals upon paying a progressive tax, amounting, in some cases, to thirty and thirty-five per cent. on the gross product, independent of other special taxes. The total amount of gold obtained from the Russian washings, from their commencement in 1814 to this date, is about 1,880,000 pounds, troy, and the amount furnished by rock mining from 1752 to the present about 130,000 pounds, making an entire product of about 2,000,000 pounds of gold, worth from $450,000,000 to $500,000,000.

The silver of Russia is obtained from silver ores, argentiferous galena, copper, and by separation from native gold. Silver mines are found in the Altai mountains, in the valley of the Ob, which, from the beginning of the last century to 1855 had produced nearly 3,000,000 pounds of that metal, containing 100,000 pounds of gold, worth over $70,000,000. The annual produce of the Altai mining district in silver at the last-named date was 45,000 pounds, since which it has gradually declined. Another mining district lies in the province of Irkutsk, southeast of Lake Baikal, in the valley of the Amoor, which in 1771 yielded 27,600 pounds of silver. Mines of argentiferous galena have been opened in the Yablonoi mountains, between the valleys of the Amoor and the Lena, which in 1865 yielded 21,000 pounds of silver.

Veins of similar ores have recently been explored in the Caucasus, in the country of the Kirghises, in the Ural mountains, and in the valley of the Don. The present product of Russia in silver is probably about 80,000 pounds, and of the value of $1,280,000.

The total value of Russian silver since 1810 appears to be about $45,000,000. The annual product at the present is about $15,000,000 of gold and $1,000,000 of silver, making a total of $16,000,000 as the value of both metals.

Previous to 1800 the Russian mines had not yielded an annual amount of over $200,000, and about the time of the opening of the deposit mines in 1814, After this period there was a, those of Beresov had declined to $65,000.

progressive increase until 1847. In 1826 the yield was $2,578,000; in 1830, $3,485,000; in 1840, $5,800,000; and in 1847, $18,200,000. Since the lastnamed period there has been an apparent decline, the yield since 1854, and for several years previous, having been $15,000,000.

The Russian authorities ascribe the falling off to the exhaustion of the deposits and the unskilfulness of those in the business.

The metalliferous districts of Russia are of immense extent, and are doubtless capable of contributing much more copious supplies of the precious metals than have yet been reported from the mines. It is said the Emperor Alexander, in that spirit of wisdom which has already so eminently distinguished his reign intends making a large deduction in the duties imposed on the produce of private mines, and at the same time will throw open the Crown mines and washings to

the public; and there can be no doubt that such a policy would result in a very considerable increase in the supplies of gold and silver from Russia.

A certain amount of gold annually enters the commerce of western nations from Asia and Africa, but the amount thus obtained is rather a matter of conjecture than of reliable information.

Both China and Japan are known to contain gold, and it is asserted the deposits are very extensive. Sir R. Murchison states that the Chinese have ceased working their mines, according to certain theories of political economy. In the seventeenth century the palace of the Emperor of Japan and the houses of the chief nobility, it is represented, were literally covered with gold; and the Dutch in sixty years' trade are said to have carried away from $125,000,000 to $250,000,000. But so little is known of the internal affairs of that empire that no attempt has been made to estimate its product of the precious metals. The relation between gold and silver, in 1857, was stated by Mr. Harris, United States consul at Simoda, Japan, to be that of 1 to 34, the relation between them in Europe and America being, at the time, as 1 to 15.

The sands of the rivers of Thibet, of the Burmese empire, of India beyond the Ganges, of the Malay peninsula, the island of Borneo, of the Celebes and Philippine islands, are well known to be auriferous, and some of them have been celebrated from remote ages for their golden treasure. Sir James Brooke

states that 5,000 persons, mostly Chinese, wash from the sands on the western coast of Borneo $5,000,000 annually. The washings of the Burrampooter were estimated by Jacob, in 1830, to amount to from $600,000 to $700,000 annually. Various estimates have been made of the amount of gold annually obtained from southern Asia and the Eastern archipelago. Mr. Whitney, in his very useful work, "The Metallic Wealth of the United States," stated the amount at 25,000 pounds annually, or about $5,600,000.

Africa, though supposed to be one of the richest gold countries of the world, has, since the Christian era, contributed comparatively little to the commerce of civilized nations. In Kordofan, on the White Nile, the natives obtain gold by washing the auriferous earth in wooden bowls, which they store in quills of the vulture and pass it into the hands of the traders. The gold of Sannaar and Abyssinia occurs in the form of scales and grains in quartz enclosed in granite, gneiss, and slates. That of Nubia is of a deep yellow color and remarkably pure. The sands of Mozambique, on the southeast coast, near the Tropic of Cancer, are also washed by the natives, and a portion of the gold obtained annually reaches the English colony at Cape Town. But probably the richest gold district is in the Bambouk country, south of the Senegal river, where the soil is represented as so auriferous that every cubic foot contains gold in the shape of lumps, grains, and spangles. It is washed by the natives and given to the Moors in exchange for salt.

Birkmyre has estimated the annual amount of gold furnished by Africa at 4,000 pounds, and this has generally been adopted by subsequent writers. As it is all obtained by washing, and is of great purity, it may be valued at $1,000,000.

All attempts to develope the gold mines of Africa by civilized nations have hitherto failed. The Portuguese, tempted by the rich mines of Bambouk, took possession of the country in the fifteenth century; but the ruins of the Portuguese forts and houses are all that remain of their temporary occupancy. At present the climate, even more than the hostility of the natives, seems to bid defiance to every effort on the part of Europeans to work these mines.

This sketch of the countries furnishing the supplies of the precious metals at the present day will be concluded by a notice of one of the most important goldproducing countries of modern times.

In the spring of 1851 gold was discovered in Australia by a returned California miner, and a rush for the unwrought placers immediately commenced by orowds of miners from all quarters of the world.