In Afghanistan, gold and lapis-lazuli are found at Huladat near Bamian, and at Istalif north of Kabul, also in the Kabul river, and auriferous rocks occur near Kandahar.
Central Asia.—Gold is found on the banks of the Basba stream, in Little Tibet. Vigne had no doubt that the drun or marmot of Little Tibet are the ants as big as foxes ' noticed by Herodotus as throwing up gold. Nagir is celebrated for its gold washings. Tavernier tells (p. 156) that toward the Thibet, which is the ancient Caucasus, in the territories of a raja, beyond the kingdom of Chach meir,there are three mountains close one by another, one of which produces excellent gold, the other granats, and the third lapis-lazuli.' Thokjalung, lat. 32°, is the chief gold field of Western Tibet. It is a large desolate plain, about 16,000 feet above the level of the sea, and in 1868 the pandit sent by Captain Montgomerie saw a nugget weighing 75 tolas, nearly 2 lbs. In Tibet the gold fields are , said to extend from Rudok to Lhassa, or eleven degrees of longitude. They also extend northerly to between Aksu and Ili. The places mentioned in Tibet are Thok-Jalung and Thok-Daurakpa, Tang-Jong and Sarka Shyar. The gold mines of Sar Chaka are about 100 miles north of the borax mines of Gnarl It occurs in nuggets in quartz. The gold mines of Thok-Jalung, in lat. 32° 30' N., are north of Kailas ; and the mines under the still loftier.pealts of Ailing Gangri are I said t,o be especially productive.
There is a gold mine at Dango Bookpa, twelve days' journey S.E. of Manasarowar ; and they say one was discovered between Gungeoo and Mana sarowar, which was immediately shut up by orders from Lhassa.
Gold - dust is imported into the Panjab from Elache in Khoten. Gold is found in Gnari and Guge, Baltistan and Zanskar. Dr. Cleghorn men tions (Report, p. 178) that a little gold-dust is brought across the higher range through Chilas from the valley of the Indus, where gold washing is carried on to a considerable extent.
Lieutenant Wood mentions a torrent in Wakhan, called Zarzamin, Gold ground, and says (p. 382)
all the tributaries of the OXUS are fertile in gold. Gold-dust to the value of £8590 was imported from Turkestan into India in 1871, and a new gold field has been discovered near Khoten.
Indus and Panjab. —Gold is obtained from the sands of the Indus ; and between Attock and Kalabagh about 300 persons are employed in washing the sand for gold, which occurs in small flattened grains. The Indus flood of 1842 strewed with gold the fields of Chuch above Attock. Dr. Thomson (Tr. p. 212) found a number of people a little below Khapalu, washing the sand of the Indus for gold ; but the work is only carried on during winter, when labour is of no value for other purposes. He purchased for a rupee (paying, he believes, a good deal more than the value) the produce in gold-dust of one man's labour for three weeks. It is found in the districts of Ambala, Kangra, Lahore, Rawal Pindi, Jhelum, Hazara, Bunnu, and Peshawur. It occurs in the form of minutes scales in the sandstone of the Salt Range, a lower range of hills running parallel to the Himalayan chain, between the rivers Indus and Jhelum ; it is also found in small quantities in the sands of the Indus, Jhelum, Beas, and Sutlej ; but the gains are not more than from 3d. to 6d. a day, and the proceeds of the annual lease of gold washing amounted in one year to but £84. The gold washings of the Salt Range arc nearly all in the Jhelum district. In the year 1850, 158 cradles were at work, and they were taxed from Rs. 2 to 5 per troon ; the total tax amounted to Rs. 525. In the streams where gold sand is washed, grains of platinum are occasionally found iu small quantities ; the gold-seekers call it Safed sona, white gold, and reject it as useless. Platinum has also been found in the Tavi river of Jummoo territory, and in the Kabul river at Naushera. Gold has been found between Ambala and Kalkah. In the neighbourhood of Patiala is a small mountain stream where gold is washed for, and gold-dust can be obtained from sand in the Sri linggur district, arid in the rivers of Knmaon.