But, as is well known, the gold of streams comes from quartz-veins in the mountains, which have been worn away and washed down by the rains during the long ages, then carried down stream, with the mud and the gravel of the rock débris, and gradually sinking to the bottom. There may be rich rock-veins in the interior, at the head of those gold-paved water channels. But I have made no search for these mother-beds; neither have the Spanish.
Many Chinese enter the gold districts, penetrating into the most distant parts, and exchanging their wares for gold, which is sent to China in ways known to themselves alone. Paracale is a prosperous village in the interior of Luzon, and “Paracale” gold is well known in Manila on account of its shape,—the metal being melted in shells, that give it form. Every small shell bears the mark of the Chinese testing-auger; its fineness seldom exceeds sixteen carats. Paracale is near the Mambulao district, already mentioned, and is famous for its abandoned mine and for its gold-washings.
La Laguna Lake: The Neighborhood of a Gold Discovery.
The Whole Country a Virgin Mine.
In fact, the whole country waits in virgin richness to be exploited by a wide-awake people, and now the outcome of the land falls into the hands of the Americans. In my own mind I am convinced that gold is to be had in paying quantities for the mining, if hunted for by some of that enterprising people that have recently dug up such wealth in the frozen river-beds of the Yukon. Spain held California for centuries, and picked up not even an ounce of gold from its broad acres. The Americans, on the other hand, found it teeming with gold; and in the first year of their possession too.
The same may be said of Alaska. Russia found it hardly worth the keeping, and sold it at a low price to the United States. To-day it could not be bought back for a hundred times the price paid for it.
Such may prove to be the case with the Philippines. They wait to be exploited. Spain has held them for centuries, and knows next to nothing about them. I venture to affirm that the United States would not hold them ten years before they would be veritable mines of wealth. I am satisfied, too, that they are far richer in gold, iron, coal, and some other minerals than is suspected. But this can be proved only by a stirring people, that will cut their way through the tropical jungles, explore the hill-country from base to summit, and cover the islands with a network of rails,—the iron nerves of modern enterprise.