Gold in Ancient Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1917, 18 October 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

Gold in Ancient Times.

Gold was in excess in ancient times, and mostly taken from the rivers in Asia. The fables of Pactolus, of the golden fleece of the Argonauts, of the gold from Ophir, the history of King Midas, etc. , all point to an eastern origin of this metal. According to Pliny, Oyrua returned with 34,000 Roman pounds of gold (about $10,000,000). The treasures exacted from Persia by Alexander ths Great amounted to 351,000 talents, or $400,000,000. Gold also came from Arabia, and upon the Nile from the interior of Africa. Pliny calls Asturias the country in which the most gold is found. A table bearing the following inscription was found in Idanha Velha, Portugal : " Claudius Ruf us returns his thank to Jupiter for having permitted him to find 130 pounds of Gold." These sources of wealth have ceased to flow, and the endeavor of several Englishmen to reopen them have been unsuccesf ul. Bohemia, Mahreh, Silesia and Tyrol all have produced gold, and the receding of the glaciers has caused old mines to.be uncovered, while upon the Italian side, at Monte Rosa, Val Sesina, Val, Ansasca, gold mines are still worked today, although with indifferent success. Theonly works of any note are those of Kremnitz, Hungary. It may therefore de safely asserted tHat Europe is completely exhausted in this respect.— Popular Science Monthly.