GOLD: MINING AND METALLURGY. It is probable that gold was the first metal to attract the attention of prehistoric man, but it could hardly have been used even for ornaments until the art of melting had been invented in the bronze age. The earliest mining work of which traces remain was on gold ores in Egypt, and gold washing is depicted on monuments of the fourth dynasty (2900 B.e.). There are many other records of work on gold in ancient times. The legend of the Golden Fleece, stripped of its heroic dress, describes an expedition about 1200 B.C. to seize gold which was being laboriously washed out from the river sands with the aid of sheepskins by the long-suffering people of Armenia. It is interesting to note as an example of the value of some old ideas that, in the latest development of practice in the Transvaal, blankets are used to collect the gold (see AMALGAMA