Siam.—Gold is found in Siam at Bang Taphan, in the province of Xamphon, at the foot of the Three Hundred Fmk mountains. On tho east side of the mountains at the base of which the deposit rests, the Siamese Government,' says Dr. Morton, ' have several hundred men perma., neutly occupied, each of whom, it is said, is expected to deliver one tikal (about one rupee and a quarter) weight of gold-dust per annum. The Burmese a.uthorities in former times also employed people in this work at the streams on the British side of the boundary, but though the quantity then procured Nvas greater than at present, this does not appear to have ever been considerable. The method adopted is that of digging a longi tudinal excavation in the sand, and washing from time to thne the deposit found therein.' In Sumatra, after the rainy sea,son, Tavernier says (Tr. p. 156) they find veins of gold in the flints (quartz ?), Nvhich the Nvaters wash down from the mountains that lie toward the N.E. Upon the west side of the island, when the IIollanders come to lade their pepper, the natives bring them great store of gold, but very coarse metal, if not worse than that of China.
Borneo.—The produce of the western side of Borneo, in the neighbourhood of Moutradok, is by far the largest. The metal is found in small veins from eight to fifteen feet below the surface. If the depth of the vein be less than ten feet, a trench is dug, the whole of the upper stratum being removed ; but if deeper, a shaft of three feet square is sunk perpendicularly into the vein, and the miner works into it about ten feet in both directions, sending the ore up in baskets. When it is all removed, another shaft is sunk into the vein 20 feet beyond the first, and the miner works back into the old excavation, extending his labours ten feet in the opposite direction. The gold is for the most part as fine as sand, and is often adulterated with a glittering sand called passir B'rni, or Borneo, sand. On one occasion rain fell in great quantities in Sarawak, and a considerable portion of the face of the Trian mountain was washed down into the plains below. The deposit was found to abound in gold, and afforded work for fully 2000 men for about a month or six weeks, and it was reckoned that at the smallest averaoe they procured a bunkal a month per man. The gold Nvas in lumps, and not in dust; several of the lumps weighing from three to four bunkal, and they were rarely less than one or two amass in weight.
In Celebes, according to Professor Bikmore (p. 378), gold occurs over all the northern peninsula, from the Minahassa south to the isthmus of Palas. Tavernier also relates (Tr. p. 156) that Celebes or Macassar produced gold, which is drawn out of the rivers, Nvhere it rowls amon,g the land.' Mr. Lawes says gold has been discovered in the interior of New Guinea.
In China, gold is collected in the sands of the rivers in Yunnan and Sze-chuen, especially from the upper branch of the Yang-tze, called Kin-sha kiang, or Golden Sanded River. The largest amount is said by Sir John Davis to come from Li - kiang- fu, near that river, and from Yung chang-fu, on the borders of Burma. It is wrought into personal ornaments and knobs for official caps, and beaten into leaf for gilding. Silver also is brought from near the borders of Cochin China ; and the mines in that region must be both extensive and easily worked, to afford such large quantities as have been exported. It is found in the sands of the Min river in Sze-chuen, and in very many of the small streams in Chefoo in Shan tung; the island of Hainan (Kiung-chau-fu), also Shan-king-fu and Lien-chau in Canton province, several places in Yunnan and in Kwei-chau, all yield gold.
In the Japanese Islands, gold -dust has been largely washed for ; but that of the Sado district in the northern part of Niphon, and those of Sur unga, and Satzuma, and Omura, and Tsi-kun-go, are mentioned as the most productive.
The information given here as to the diffusion of gold in the streamlets of Malabar, tbe Neilgherries, and Mysore, was also printed in the first and second editions of this Cyclopmdia. It showed that the gold-washers were earning at most about 3d. a day, and offered no prospect of profit to skilled workers. But in 1877 to 1882, speculators formed 26 cotn panies, with capital amounting to about £3,000,000, about half of Nvhich went to the sellers of estates. It is the second speculation that has occurred in the Madras Presidency since 1860, the first having been coffee. Gold there is, but, as yet seen, by no means sufficient to meet the heavy demands of skilled labour and machinery. The annual imports of gold into all British India from 1872 to 1882 has ranged in value from /1,443,712 in 1877, to X4,856,392 in 1882.