[Illustration:  Decorative]

[Illustration:  Decorative]

Johannesburg.

We had some little trouble in finding our way into the town, as for the last two hours the daylight failed, and we had to grope our way along at a snail’s pace in total darkness.  This, in a country of such rough roads and deep and dangerous gulleys and water-courses, was a most intricate and difficult proceeding.  Eventually, however, we reached our destination about nine o’clock at night.

This “auriferous” town is indeed a marvellous place, lying on the crest of a hill at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the level of the sea.  Along its sides are spread out every variety of habitation, from the substantial brick and stone structures, which are being erected with extraordinary rapidity, to the multitude of galvanised iron dwellings, and the still not unfrequent tents of the first, and last comers.  It is indeed a wonderful and bewildering sight to view it from the opposite hill across the intervening valley.  Scarcely more than two years have elapsed since this town of twenty-five thousand inhabitants commenced its miraculous existence.  The excitement and bustle of the motley crowd of gold seekers and gold finders is tremendous, the whole of the live-long day.  The incessant subject of all conversation is gold, gold, gold.  It is in all their thoughts, excepting, perhaps, a too liberal thought of drink.  The people of Johannesburg think of gold; they talk of gold; they dream of gold.  I believe, if they could, they would eat and drink gold.  But, demoralising as this is to a vast number of those, who are in the vortex of the daily doings of this remarkable place, the startling fact is only too apparent to anyone who visits Johannesburg.  It is to be hoped that the day will come when the legitimate pursuit of wealth will be followed in a less excitable, and a more calm and decorous manner, than at present regretably prevails.

I spent a pleasant, as well as interesting, week at Johannesburg; and, during my stay, visited several of the mines, among them Knight’s, the Jumpers, Robinson’s, Langlaagte, &c.  At Robinson’s, I had an opportunity of inspecting the wonderful battery just completed, and in full working order, constructed on the most approved principles for gold crushing, with sixty head of stamps.  It is a marvellous specimen of mechanical contrivance for crushing the ore.  Many parts of the machinery work automatically.  I ascended the various floors, and had all the processes minutely and clearly described to me in a most courteous manner, by the superintendent of the battery.  I afterwards went down into the mine, first to the 70-feet, and then again to the 150-feet levels.  In this way, I passed two hours wandering underground with a candle in my hand, and inspecting the gold-bearing lodes of one of the richest mines in the Randt.  This mine possesses magnificent lodes, and millions of tons of gold-producing quartz.  There is a