From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

Next morning we rode out with the Saggid and General Safdar Ali to visit the gold-mine at the foot of the hills to the north of the city. The mine is situated in a small creek running up north-east into an angle formed by a spur projecting on to the Kandahar plain from the Baba Walí range. The hills are of a very hard and compact blue limestone, but the surface of the creek and the adjoining plain is a coarse gravel, containing fragments of greenstone, hornblende, quartz, and mica-schist. Coursing down the centre of the creek is a tortuous little water-course, now dry, and with only a few wreaths of snow lying under the shade of its rough conglomerate banks.

The mine is situated half-way up the creek, and on its southern side, close to the ridge of blue limestone. It is a wide excavation straight down into the soil, and in a soft easily-worked rock, quite different from any in the vicinity. The piles of excavated rock heaped up round the mouth of the pit presented a remarkable variety of colours, amongst which black, blackish-green, bluish-green, reddish-orange and fawn colour were the most prominent. I examined several of these stones, and found them to consist of particles of greensand, hornblende, felspar, quartz, and mica, bound together in a gritty ferruginous clay. The formation appears to be one of decomposed sienite, and is sufficiently compact to require blasting in the excavation.

We descended into the great irregular pit by a steep path in its side, and saw the miners at work. The process is very rough, and simply this: A vein of quartz, from three or four inches to only half an inch or less thick, is exposed in the rock, either by the use of the pickaxe or by the aid of gunpowder. The workmen then examine the vein with the naked eye, and if any particles of gold are detected, they are removed, with the surrounding portion of matrix, by means of a chisel and hammer. The gold-dust thus removed is collected by each workman separately in small baskets, and taken to the city, where it is treated for the separation of the precious metal, as will be described presently.

An immense number of quartz veins traverse the rock in all directions, and in several of them we saw the compressed flakes of gold in situ. In two or three instances the metal was in thick lumpy masses, nearly the size of an almond. The pit is about one hundred and twenty feet long, by thirty or forty wide, and about eighty feet deep in the centre. Its sides are sloping and irregular, owing to the tracing up of veins for a short distance in different directions. There must be an immense amount of waste in this rough process, and no doubt the heaps of excavated rock lying about the mouth of the pit would yield to the experienced miner a very profitable return.

The mine was discovered in 1860 in the following manner. A shepherd boy, tending his flock at graze on the creek, picked up a bit of quartz studded with granules of gold. He took it home to his father, who carried it to a Hindu to see if he could get anything for it. The Hindu, true to the instincts of his race, in whom the love of gold is an innate quality, at once recognised the value of the discovery, and gradually, after his own fashion, got out of the lad’s father the exact spot on which the specimen was discovered. His next step was to apprise the Governor, and the site was at once explored. At a few feet below the superficial gravel, the ferruginous formation of disintegrated quartz and sienite above described was exposed, and in the veins on its surface gold was discovered. The site was at once claimed as crown property, and work was forthwith commenced by Government.

The mine has now been worked nearly twelve years, but with several intermissions. For the first two or three years it is said to have yielded very abundantly. It is now farmed by a contractor, at an annual rental of five thousand rupees, or five hundred pounds. The yearly cost of working it is set down at another five hundred pounds, but this is palpably a gross exaggeration. The profits, it is pretended, hardly cover rent and working charges, though the reverse is pretty generally believed to be the fact, notwithstanding the contractor’s solemn protestations to the contrary, and his bold appeals to God, his prophet, and all the saints as witnesses to the truth of his assertions. There is little doubt that the mine, worked as it is now even, is a really profitable speculation; but in a country such as this, where life and property are proverbially insecure, it would be most unsafe to admit the truth, for to do so would assuredly provoke the cupidity of the ruler, whose despotic will brooks no hindrance in the accomplishment of his desire, be it just or unjust. Hence it is that all classes below the nobility, and not a few even among that favoured class, as a precautionary safeguard, assume an appearance of poverty, and by common consent profane their most sacred characters for the support of a falsehood which is apparent to all.

Under the difficulties of such a position it is impossible for the stranger to arrive at an approximation to the truth. But that the mine does pay under the disadvantageous conditions mentioned, is best evidenced by the fact of its continued operation. We had no opportunities during our short stay here of ascertaining the extent of the auriferous formation, disclosed by the excavation of the mine. But as the surface gravel of the plain north of the city is of the same character as that on the creek in which the mine is situated, it may be reasonable to suppose that the gold-yielding stratum extends for some distance under the alluvium of the plain. If this be so, Kandahar is destined to prove a valuable acquisition to its future possessors. Under European exploration and skilled working, it would assuredly produce an hundred-fold of what it has hitherto done. For in the creek itself only one pit has been dug at the actual spot on which the metal was first discovered. All the rest of the surface is yet untouched, and under the existing government of the country it is destined to remain so.

On leaving the mine we passed through the Baba Walí ridge to the shrine of the same name, dedicated to the patron saint of Kandahar, for a view of the Argandáb valley, the most populous and fertile district of the whole province. From its source in the hills north-west of Ghazni, to its junction with the Tarnak at Doúb, it has thirty-one villages on the right bank, and thirty-four on the left. They are mostly occupied by Popalzai and Alikozai Durranis. Though now seen in the depth of winter, the valley has a remarkably prosperous and fertile look. We returned through the Baba Walí range by a recently-made carriage-road blasted through the rock, in the track of an old pass a little to the west of the one we entered by. On return to our quarters, we found the miners ready with their implements and a small stock of quartz to show us the process by which they extracted the gold. The process appeared very simple and efficacious. The bits of quartz, ascertained by the eyesight to contain particles of gold, are first coarsely pounded between stones, and then reduced to powder in an ordinary hand-mill. The powder is next placed on a reed winnowing tray, and shaken so as to separate the particles of gold and finer dust from the grit. From the latter the larger bits of gold are picked out and thrown into a crucible, and melted with the aid of a few grains of borax flua. When melted it is poured into an iron trough, previously greased, or rather smeared, with oil, and at once cools into an ingot of bright gold. The fine dust left on the winnow is thrown into an earthen jar furnished with a wide mouth. The jar is then half filled with water and shaken about a little while. The whole is then stirred with the hand and the turbid water poured off. This process is repeated four or five times, till the water ceases to become turbid. A small quantity of quicksilver is next added to the residue of sand, some fresh water is poured on, and the whole stirred with the hand. The water and particles of sand suspended in it are then poured off, and the quicksilver amalgam left at the bottom of the vessel is removed to a strong piece of cloth, and twisted tightly till the quicksilver is expressed as much as it thus can be. The mass of gold alloy is then put into a crucible with a few grains of borax, and melted over a charcoal fire. The molten mass is finally poured into the iron trough mentioned, and at once solidifies into a small bar of bright gold. Such was the process gone through in our presence. Even in this there was a good deal of waste, owing to the rejection of the coarser grit. With proper crushing machinery there is no doubt the yield would be considerably increased.

This afternoon we received a post viâ Khozdár and Calát, with dates from Jacobabad up to the 18th January. The courier described the route as almost closed by snow in Shál and Peshín, where, it seems, more snow has fallen since our passage over the Khojak. Whilst reading our papers, General Safdar Ali was announced. He brought a nazar, or present, on the part of the Amir for General Pollock, as the representative of the British Government. It consisted of fifteen silk bags ranged on a tray, and each bag contained one thousand Kandahari rupees, the value of which is about a shilling each.

A north-west wind has prevailed nearly all day, and the air is keen and frosty. During the night boisterous gusts of wind disturbed our slumbers and threatened to overturn some of the tall trees in our garden. In the forenoon we visited the ruins of Shahri Kuhna or Husen Shahr, the “old city,” or “city of Husen.” The latter name it derives from the last of its sovereigns, Mír Husen, Ghilzai, the second son of the celebrated Mír Wais, and brother of Mír Mahmúd, the invader of Persia, and the destroyer of the Saffair dynasty by the wanton massacre in cold blood of nearly one hundred members of the royal family.