No doubt in the Gold Coast section of the Gulf of Guinea there is this same constant carrying down of sand by the rivers. Whenever these rivers pass through gold-bearing regions, the sand carries with it vast quantities of gold grains, or scales, which have to be panned, or separated from it by washing.
We have in our reading gained some little idea of the struggles of the Dutch to obtain possession of the soil of such sections as Natal, Cape Colony, and what has been known until within a few years as the Transvaal Republic.
The Witwatersrand may be considered the great gold-mining district of Africa. It is rapidly pushing its way to the front in the list of sources for the supply of the precious metal. This region, locally called the Rand, gives Africa the fourth place in the list of the sources of the earth's supply.
The Rand is situated in what has been known as the Transvaal Republic. It is the home of the Dutch settlers, or Boers, but is under the rule of the British power to a great extent.
The great metropolis of the republic and of the Rand is Johannesburg. It is a regular mining center, or what is known by the miners as a "boom" town. From a small settlement it has, in the course of a few years, grown to a city of nearly twenty thousand inhabitants, while around it clusters a mining camp of thirty thousand more.
The Boers are naturally a contented people, caring little for display, but fond of comfort and plenty.
They have had little ambition to dig for such treasures as the earth might hold in its depths, but have been content to till the soil and to gather the harvest or fruits of their labor, or to engage in sheep farming for the purpose of raising wool for exportation.
No doubt, too, they deemed it better policy not to attract strangers to "prospect" for treasure beneath a soil which they preferred to call their own, rather than to see it laid out in "claims" by those eager to mine for its stores.
Now that the miners have rushed into the Rand in such numbers, the Boers must feel that their own claim to the land is but a name, particularly as the largest and most profitable mines are owned by London companies.
At the close of the year 1893, the mines in the Rand were producing at the average rate of two million five hundred thousand dollars value of bullion each month.