MINING AND MINING INVESTMENTS CHAPTER I A LITTLE ANCIENT HISTORY N many mining countries there are extensive IN remains of ancient workings; and while some of these are within the well-defined historical period, others are of absolutely unknown age, carried out by races of which no accurate record exists. These ancient mines are often of value at the present day as affording guides to exploration, and in many cases we are still working profitably in depth the very mines which in unknown ages before were worked from the surface. In India the old mines were found to go down several hundred feet, and to be of great extent along the course of the veins. In some cases the surface pits have proved the guides to large and profitable mines, opened below them; and in other cases very extensive ancient workings are over ground which is not payable at the present day. Hasty conclusions of the value of ancient workings B as indications are not infrequent, but consideration of the facts will show this must be so. There is no doubt that in ancient times the conditions as to employment of labour were essentially different from those of the present day, for generally slaves would be used; and in any case the cost would be little more than the mere support of existence of the workers, while the market for the final metallic product was equally distinct in its elements from the market of to-day. As explained in the chapter on the occurrence of ores, the irregularity in the distribution of values makes it quite uncertain that a mine which is profitable to work at the surface will also be payable in depth; and a very long list could be made both of individual mines and of whole mining districts wherein experience has demonstrated, by continuous work in recent times, that increasing poverty accompanied increasing depth. From this it must be clear that even if the ancient mines were profitable to the ancient miners, it does not follow that the reopening and extending of their workings will result in dividends to the moderns. Again, it is not at all certain that all ancient mines were in a modern sense profitable, even under ancient conditions of working, since it is unnecessary to suppose the old miners possessed a special sense of divination; but, on the contrary, it is more reasonable to suppose they did a great deal of groping in the dark, as their successors do still, and that occasional successes encouraged many failures in the same neighbourhood. Broadly considered, the importance of ancient workings as indications consists in the pretty certain fact that some surface values had existed and continuance of such values in depth is always possible. The mining in historical times is in itself quite ancient enough to have a special interest of its own, but it can only be lightly touched on from its very magnitude; some few figures of interest will be found in Appendix A. Throughout Europe most extensive workings are found which are known to be of Roman origin, or under Roman rule. These mines were for various metals-mostly gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin; and the signs of great smelting operations are seen in the vast slag and cinder heaps at many places. The following quotation from Pliny (about A.D. 50), which lately appeared in the Engineering and Mining Journal of New York, among other mining news of more modern date, is interesting as showing the great variety and importance of some of the operations in gold mining at an early period : "PLINY ON GOLD MINING.* "Gold is found in our part of the world, not to mention the gold extracted from the earth in India by the ants, and in Scythia by the griffins. Among us it is procured in three different ways; the first of which is in the shape of * Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis, lib. xxxiii. chap. 21. |