g a poor vein they suddenly come to large
lumps. When they have dug to the depth of four, six, or sometimes eight
fathoms (which they do at a venture, the surface not affording any
indications on which they can depend), they work horizontally, supporting
the shaft with timbers; but to persons acquainted with the berg-werken of
Germany or Hungary, these pits would hardly appear to merit the
appellation of mines.* In Siberia however, as in Sumatra, the hills yield
their gold by slightly working them. Sand is commonly met with at the
depth of three or four fathoms, and beneath this a stratum of napal or
steatite, which is considered as a sign that the metal is near; but the
least fallible mark is a red stone, called batu kawi, lying in detached
pieces. It is mostly found in red and white clay, and often adhering to
small stones, as well as in homogeneous lumps. The gold is separated from
the clay by means of water poured on a hollow board, in the management of
which the persons employed are remarkably expert.

(*Footnote. It has been observed to me that it is not so much the want of
windlasses or machines (substitutes for which they are ready enough at
contriving) that prevents excavation to a great depth as the apprehension
of earthquakes, the effect of which has frequently been to overwhelm them
before they could escape even from their shallow mines.)

In these perpendicular mines the water is drawn off by hand in pails or
buckets. In the horizontal they make two shafts or entries in a direction
parallel to each other, as far as they mean to extend the work, and there
connect them by a cross trench. One of these, by a difference in their
respective levels, serves as a drain to carry off the water, whilst the
other is kept dry. They work in parties of from four or five to forty or
fifty in number; the proprietor of the ground receiving one half of the
produce and the undertakers the other; and it does not appear that the
prince receives any established royalty. The hill people affect a kind of
independence or equality which they express by the term of sama rata.

It may well be imagined that mines of this description are very numerous,
and in the common estimation of the natives they amount to no fewer than
twelve hundred in the dominions of Menangkabau. A considerable proportion
of their produce (perhaps one half) never comes into the hands of
Europeans but is conveyed to the eastern side of the island, and yet I
have b