ms amas supayang and amas
sungei-abu, from the names of places where they are respectively
procured. The former is what we usually call rock-gold, consisting of
pieces of quartz more or less intermixed with veins of gold, generally of
fine quality, running through it in all directions, and forming beautiful
masses, which, being admired by Europeans, are sometimes sold by weight
as if the whole were solid metal. The mines yielding this sort are
commonly situated at the foot of a mountain, and the shafts are driven
horizontally to the extent of from eight to twenty fathoms. The gold to
which sungei-abu gives name is on the contrary found in the state of
smooth solid lumps, in shape like gravel, and of various sizes, the
largest lump that I have seen weighing nine ounces fifteen grains, and
one in my possession (for which I am indebted to Mr. Charles Holloway)
weighing eight grains less than nine ounces. This sort is also termed
amas lichin or smooth gold, and appears to owe that quality to its having
been exposed, in some prior state of the soil or conformation of the
earth, to the action of running water, and deprived of its sharp and
rough edges by attrition. This form of gravel is the most common in which
gold is discovered. Gold-dust or amas urei is collected either in the
channels of brooks running over ground rich in the metal, in standing
pools of water occasioned by heavy rains, or in a number of holes dug in
a situation to which a small rapid stream can be directed.

The tools employed in working the mines are an iron crow three feet in
length, called tabah, a shovel called changkul, and a heavy iron mallet
or hammer, the head of which is eighteen inches in length and as thick as
a man's leg, with a handle in the middle. With this they beat the lumps
of rock till they are reduced to powder, and the pounded mass is then put
into a sledge or tray five or six feet long and one and a half broad, in
the form of a boat, and thence named bidu. To this vessel a rope of iju
is attached, by which they draw it when loaded out of the horizontal mine
to the nearest place where they can meet with a supply of water, which
alone is employed to separate the gold from the pulverized quartz.

In the perpendicular mines the smooth or gravel-gold is often found near
the surface, but in small quantities, improving as the workmen advance,
and again often vanishing suddenly. This they say is most likely to be
the case when after pursuin