light has been recently thrown by Livingston, Stanley, and others, rocks are to be met with quartz veins containing gold, and thus auriferous alluvium has been formed.  Western Africa was the first field which supplied gold to mediaeval Europe.  Its whole seaboard from Morocco to the equator produces more or less gold.  This small section of the continent poured a flood of gold into Europe, and until the mineral discoveries of California and Australia, it continued to be the principal supply to the civilized world.  In eastern Akim gold is said to be as plentiful as potatoes in Ireland.  The Fanti gold mines are far more valuable than Ashanti, and the Wassaw and the Nquampossoo have gold nuggets in profusion.  The King of Gyaman became immensely rich by the product of his gold mines; his bed had steps of gold.  The French claim that they imported gold from Elmina in 1382.  The Portuguese discovered gold in 1442, upon the borders of Rio de Ouro.  Mungo Park, in 1797, drew attention to the existence of gold in the provinces of Shronda, Kinkodi, Dindiko, Bambuk, and Barabarra.  Caille, in 1827, reported an abundance of gold in the valley of the Niger.  The gold mines of Boure were first visited by Winwood Reade in 1872.  The inhabitants of Western Africa have worked their gold fields for centuries to very little purpose.  Their want of pumps, of quartz-crushing machinery, and of scientific appliances, has limited their labors to scratching the top soil and nibbling at the reef-walls.  A large proportion of the country is virtually virgin ground; and a rich harvest has been left for Occidental science, energy, and enterprise.  It is fast becoming evident that Africa will one day equal half a dozen Californias.  The annual product of gold in Africa has declined from $17,000,000 in 1471 to $3,000,000 in 1816.  Since the latter date it has gradually declined to $2,000,000.  The gold product since 1471 has amounted to $3,500,000,000.

Gold, after the discovery of America, was produced in large quantities, principally in the Antilles, and chiefly in Hispaniola, and the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  America is pre-eminently the land of metals.  Gold is found in greater or less abundance throughout its Pacific coast from Alaska to Patagonia.  The New World furnishes nearly two-thirds of the precious metals annually produced.  The export of gold from the United States since 1848 has amounted to $1,548,564,852.  The gold mines of Peru were revealed to Europe by Pizarro in 1513.  The gold mines of South America extend throughout its entire territory.  Its richest mines are about Huylas and Turma, Most of the rivers of the Andes bring down auriferous sands.  Before the arrival of the Spaniards the Indians had gathered from the river sands large quantities of gold in Peru, Chili, and along the whole western coast of South America.  Brazil has yielded, from 1513 to the present time, $876,000,000 of gold.  The annual product of gold, in South America, at the present time is $8,000,000.