A naturalist in Western China : with vasculum, camera, and gun, being some account of eleven year's travel, exploration, and observation in the more remote parts of the flowery kingdom; . the larger streams throughout Szechuan. Thereturns are most insignificant, and the industry would neverbe attempted in lands less overpopulated than China. Inthe district of An Hsien and in the prefecture of Lungan Fu,both situated in the north-west of the province, gold-bearingquartz occurs and is worked and crushed, but the industryis only on a small scale. In the district of Mienning Hsien,in the Chienchan
A naturalist in Western China : with vasculum, camera, and gun, being some account of eleven year's travel, exploration, and observation in the more remote parts of the flowery kingdom; . the larger streams throughout Szechuan. Thereturns are most insignificant, and the industry would neverbe attempted in lands less overpopulated than China. Inthe district of An Hsien and in the prefecture of Lungan Fu,both situated in the north-west of the province, gold-bearingquartz occurs and is worked and crushed, but the industryis only on a small scale. In the district of Mienning Hsien,in the Chienchang Valley, there is a Government gold minefitted out with foreign machinery. This Moha mine, as it isnamed, a few years ago received a development grant of100,000 taels from the provincial treasury, and intermittentattempts at working it have been made without, however,any substantial returns. Most of the gold used in, and exported from, Szechuancomes from the western limits of the Chino-Thibetan border-land and from Thibet proper. The district of Litang is oneof the principal sources of supply, and there, as elsewhere, it isobtained by placer-mining. In the Chiarung state of Badi-. WESTERN CHINA 197 Bawang there is much gold, but it is jealously guarded fromChinese hands. This small State comprises a narrow strip ofcountry on both sides of the upper reaches of the Tung River,thereabouts known as the Tachin Ho (Great Gold River).From time immemorial this and the surrounding regions havebeen famous for their precious metals. The aggregate of gold won from these various placesmust be very great. Practically all has been obtained byplacer or pocket mining, and the metalliferous lodes appearnever to have been found in situ. Possibly these exist in regionsmore remote and nearer the sources of the Tachin, Yalung,and Dre Rivers. Certain it is that the nearer the head-watersare approached the richer in gold become the sands and shingle-beds of these great streams. The gold is melted and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1913
