Properties.— Gold is the only metal of a yellow colour, which is, however, notably affected by small quantities of other metals; thus the tint is sensibly lowered by small quantities of silver, and heightened by copper. The surface colour of particles of gold is often apparently reddened by translucent films of brown iron ore. It is nearly as soft as lead. The hardness varies, however, with the composition. Crystallized specimens from Oregon and Fraser River, containing respectively 835 and 910 parts of gold in 1000, are slightly harder than calc spar but sensibly softer than fluor spar, or much harder than the pure metal. When pure, gold is the most malleable of all metals. One grain may be beaten into leaves which cover a surface of 56 square inches, and are only -^.⅛yyth of an inch thick. Faraday has shown that the thickness of gold leaves may be still further reduced by floating them on a dilute solution of cyanide of potassium. When very thin, leaf gold appears yellow by reflected and green by transmitted light. If, however, certain gold films are heated, the light transmitted is ruby red; the pressure of a hard substance on the film so changes its state of aggregation that green light is again transmitted. The metal is extremely ductile·, a single grain may be drawn into a wire 500 feet in length, and an ounce of gold covering a silver wire is capable of being extended more than 1300 mile3. Gold can readily be welded cold, and thus the finely divided metal, in the state in which it is precipitated from solution, may be compressed between dies into discs or medals. According to G. Rose, the specific gravity of gold in the finely divided state in which it is precipitated from solution by oxalic acid is 19 - 49. The specific gravity of cast gold varies from 18'29 to 19*37, and by compression between dies the specific gravity may be raised from 19 - 37 to 19'41; by annealing, however, the previous density is to some extent recovered, as it then is found to be 19 , 40. Its atomic weight is variously given as follows:—196 - 67 (Berzelius), 196*3 (Levol), 196 ’ 5 (Wurtz), 196Ό (Watts). The number adopted in this work (Chemistry, vol. v. p. 528) is 196 ’ 2. Different observers have given the following temperatures as its melting point : —1425° C. (Daniell), 1200° C. (Pouillet), 1380° C. (Guyton de Morveau). Riemsdijk, after comparing the several results, concludes that it may be considered to be 1240° C. The electric conductivity is, given by Matthiessen as 73∙99 at 15 ’ 1° C., pure silver being 100; this depends greatly on its degree of purity,—the presence of a few thousandths of silver lowering its conductivity by 10 per cent. The specific resistance of the metal in electromagnetic measure, according to the centimetre-gramme-second system of units, is 2154. Its conductivity for heat is 53 ’ 2 (Wiedemann and Franz), pure silver being 100. Its specific heat is 0 ’ 324 (Régnault). Its coefficient of expansion for each degree between 0 and 100° C. is 0 , 000014661, or for gold which has been annealed 0Ό00015136 (Laplace and Lavoisier). The specific magnetism of the metal is 3 ’ 47 (Becquerel). Details as to its tenacity and rigidity are given in the article Elasticity. With regard to its volatility, Gasto Claveus states that he placed an ounce of pure gold in an earthen vessel in that part of a glass-house where the glass is kept constantly melted, and retained it in a state of fusion for two months without the loss of the smallest portion of its weight. Kunkel describes a similar experiment, which was attended with the same result. Homberg, however, observed that when a small portion of gold is kept at a violent heat, part of it is volatilized. Both Macquer and Lavoisier showed that when gold is strongly heated, fumes arise which gild a piece of silver held in them. Its volatility has also been studied by Elsher, and, in the presence of other metals by Napier. Hellot affirms that when an alloy of 7 parts of zinc and 1 part of gold is heated in air, the whole of the gold rises in the fumes of oxide of zinc which are produced. Gold is dissipated by sending a powerful charge of electricity through it when in the form of leaf or thin wire. In the gold spectrum Huggins has observed twenty-three lines, and the wave lengths of the three most important of these are 5231, 5835, and 6276 respectively. Some preliminary observations on the spectrum of the vapour at the temperature of the oxyhydrogen flame, made by Lockyer and Roberts, showed that there was a distinct absorption both at the blue and at the red end.

The solvents for gold are given in the article Chemistry, vol. v. p. 529. It may be added that finely-divided gold dissolves when heated with strong sulphuric acid and a little nitric acid. Dilution with water, however, precipitates the metal as a violet or brown powder from the solution so obtained. Gold is also attacked when strong sulphuric acid is submitted to electrolysis with a gold positive pole. W. Skey has shown that in substances which contain small quantities of gold, the precious metal may be removed by the solvent action of a tincture of iodine or bromine in water. Filter paper soaked with the clear solution is burnt, and the presence of gold is indicated by the colour of the ash.

Occlusion of Gas by Gold.— Graham has shown that gold is capable of occluding 0 ’ 48 of its volume of hydrogen, and 0 - 20 of its volume of nitrogen. Varrentrapp has also pointed out that “cornets” from the assay of gold may retain gas if they are not strongly heated. Artificial crystals of gold may be formed when the molten metal is slowly cooled.

Occurrence and Distribution.— Gold is found in nature chiefly in the metallic state, or as native gold, and less frequently in combination with tellurium, lead, and silver, forming a peculiar group of minerals confined to a few localities in Europe and America. These are the only certain examples of natural combinations of the metal,—the minute although economically valuable quantity often found in pyrites and other sulphides being probably only present in mechanical suspension, although for practical purposes it may be spoken of as combined. The native metal occurs tolerably frequently in crystals belonging to the cubic system, the octahedron being the commonest form, but other and complex combinations have been observed. Owing to the softness of the metal, large crystals are rarely well defined, the points being commonly rounded. In the irregular crystalline aggregates branching and moss-like forms are most common, and in Transylvania thin plates or sheets with diagonal structures are characteristic. These have recently been shown by Vorn Rath to be repeated combinations of distorted tetrahexahedra. During the preparation of a mass of pure gold in the Mint at London, some fine crystals which appear to be aggregations of octahedra were obtained; and dendritic crystals of gold, prepared artificially, have been described by Chester. It is possible also to obtain gold in crystals by heating its amalgam; according to Knaffl, an amalgam of 1 part of gold with 20 parts of mercury is maintained at a temperature of 80° C. for eight days. It is then heated to 80° C. with nitric acid of specific gravity 1 - 35, when dull crystals will be left, which become brilliant when more strongly heated. More characteristic, however, than the crystallized are the irregular forms, which, when large, are known as “nuggets” or “pepites,” and when in pieces below J to ⅜ ounce weight as gold dust, the larger sizes being distinguished as coarse or nuggety gold, and the smaller as gold dust proper. Except the larger nuggets, which may be more or less angular, or at times even masses of crystals, with or without associated quartz or other rock, gold is generally found bean shaped or in some other flattened form, the smallest particles being scales of scarcely appreciable thickness, which, from their small bulk as compared with their surface, subside very slowly when suspended in water, and are therefore readily carried away by a rapid current. These form the “float gold” of the miner. The physical properties of native gold are generally similar to that of the melted metal and its alloys as described above. The composition varies considerably in different localities, as shown in the following table :—

Analyses of Native Gold from various localities. [table]

Of the minerals containing gold the most important are sylvanite or graphic tellurium, of composition (AgAu) Te 2 , with 24 to 26 per cent.; calaverite, AuTe 2 , with 42 per cent.; and nagyagite or foliate tellurium, of a complex and rather indefinite composition, with 5 to 9 per cent, of gold. These are confined to a few localities, the oldest and best known being those of Nagyag and Ofenbanya in Transylvania; but latterly they have been found in some quantity at Red Cloud, Colorado, and in Calaveras county, California-—the nearly pure telluride of gold, calaverite, being confined to these places.

The minerals of the second class, usually spoken of as auriferous, or containing gold in sensible quantity, though not to a sufficient amount to form an essential in the chemical formulae, or even in many instances to be found in the quantifies ordinarily operated upon in analyses, are comparatively numerous, including many of the metallic sulphides. Prominent among these are galena and iron pyrites,—the former, according to the observations of Percy and Smith, being almost invariably gold-bearing to an extent that can be recognized in operating upon a pound weight of the lead smelted from it, the proportion increasing to some extent with the amount of silver. The second is of greater practical importance, being in some districts exceedingly rich, and, next to the native metal, is the most prolific source of gold. Magnetic pyrites, copper pyrites, zinc blende, and arsenical pyrites are other and less important examples,—the last constituting the gold ore formerly worked in Silesia. A native gold amalgam is found as a rarity in California, and bismuth from South America is sometimes rich in gold. Native arsenic and antimony are also very frequently found to contain gold and silver.

The association and distribution of gold may be considered under two different heads, namely, as it occurs in mineral veins, and in alluvial or other superficial deposits which are derived from the waste of the former. As regards the first, it is chiefly found in quartz veins or reefs traversing slaty or crystalline rocks, usually talcose or chloritic schists, either alone, or in association with iron, copper, magnetic and arsenical pyrites, galena, specular iron ore, and silver ores, and more rarely with sulphide of molybdenum, tungstate of calcium, bismuth, and tellurium minerals. Another more exceptional association, that with bismuth in calcite from Queensland, was described by the late Mr Daintree. In Hungary, the Urals, and northern Peru, silicates and carbonates of manganese are not uncommonly found in the gold and silver bearing veins. In the second or alluvial class of deposits the associated minerals are chiefly those of great density and hardness, such as platinum, osmiridum, and other metals of the platinum group, tinstone, chromic, magnetic, and brown iron ores, diamond, ruby, and sapphire, zircon, topaz, garnet, <fcc., which represent the more durable original constituents of the rocks whose disintegration has furnished the detritus. Native lead and zinc have also been reported among such minerals, but their authenticity is somewhat doubtful.

The distribution of gold-bearing deposits is world-wide; although the relative importance of different localities is very different, their geological range is also very extensive. In Europe the principal groups of veins are in slaty or crystalline schists, whose age, when it can be determined, is usually Palaeozoic, Silurian, Devonian, or Carboniferous, and less commonly in volcanic formations of Tertiary age. The alluvial deposits, being more extensive, are less intimately connected with any particular series of rocks. Few of either are, however, of much importance as compared with the more productive deposits of America and Australia. In the United Kingdom gold-bearing quartz veins were worked during the Roman occupation at Ogofau, near Llanpumpsant, in Carmarthenshire; and in the year 1863 as much as 5300 oz. was produced from similar veins in Lower Silurian slates at Vigra and Clogau mines, near Dolgelly. In 1875 the mine was reopened, and in 1878 it produced 720 oz. Tetradymite, native bismuth, and several other characteristic associates of gold were also found in small quantity. In Cornwall small pieces of native gold have at intervals been found in alluvial or stream tin works; and similar but more important finds have been made in the granite district of Wicklow, and more recently at Helmsdale, in Sutherlandshire. The largest nugget of British origin weighs under 3 oz.

On the continent of Europe the great rivers originating in the crystalline rocks of the Alpine region, such as the Rhine and Danube, are slightly auriferous in their alluvial deposits in several places; but the proportion of gold is extraordinarily minute, so that the working is only carried on by gipsies, or by the local peasantry at irregular intervals, the return for the labour expended being very small. The same remark applies to the Rhone and its affluents, and the rivers of the central granitic mass of France. In the Austrian Alps the gold quartz mines at the Rathausberg, near Gastein, at a height of about 9000 feet above the sea-level, and at Zell, in Tyrol, are of interest historically as having developed the system of amalgamation in mills, although they are economically of small importance at present. On the Italian side, in the Valanzasca and Vai Toppa above Lago Maggiore, a group known as the Pestarena mines have yielded from 2000 to 3000 ounces annually for several years past; and more recently a discovery of great interest of a highly auriferous copper ore has been made at Ollomont in the Vai d’Aosta. In Hungary the gold-bearing veins of Schemnitz occur in greenstones and trachytes of Tertiary age, the most powerful example, the Spitaler -gang, being filled with a mixture of quartz and brown iron ore known as zinnopal, and containing gold associated with silver ores, galena, and pyrites. In Transylvania, at Nagyag, the gold-bearing tellurium minerals previously noticed are found in small veins traversing greenstone trachyte. These are often very thin, as low as lth to τ 1 , r th of an inch, but each is carefully traced out, the rock being impregnated with gold and silver to a certain depth on each side. At Vυrospatak, another Transylvanian locality, gold with a very large proportion of silver and associateci with gypsum is worked in veins traversing a Tertiary sandstone, being almost the only known instance of such a mode of occurrence.

The Russian empire has the largest gold production among the countries of the Old World, most of the produce, however, being derived from its Asiatic territories. The more important localities are situated on the eastern slope of the Ural chain, extending in a nearly north and south line for more than 600 miles from 51° to 60° N. lat. The chief centres are Miask (55° N.), Kamensk (56° 30' N.), Berezovsk (57° N.), Nijne Tagilsk (58° N.), and Bogoslowsk (60° N.), the known deposits, which include both veins •and alluvial mines, extending for about one degree farther north. The geological age of the Ural veins is not very well defined—strata of the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous periods, which form regular parallel alternations on the European slope, being present on the Asiatic side, but in much disturbed and contorted positions, in association with plutonic rocks, diorite, diabase, and granite, with which the gold veins are intimately connected. The latter are therefore of post-Carboniferous and probably of Permian date. At Berezovsk the mines cover an area of about 25 square miles, mainly composed of talcose, chloritic, and clay slates, vertical or sloping at high angles, and penetrated by dykes of beresite, a fine grained rock made up of quartz and white mica with some felspar and pyrites, the latter usually transformed into brown iron ore. These dykes, which have a general north-and-south direction are vertical, and are from 20 to 70 feet and upwards in thickness, are traversed perpendicularly to their direction by veins of quartz from the thinnest string to a maximum of 3’- or 4 feet thick, in which gold is associated with brown iron ore or ochres, resulting from the decomposition of pyrites. The workings being essentially shallow, none of the associated sulphides, galena, disulphide of copper, Ac., have as yet been found, as a rule, to be gold-bearing. The valuable parts of the veins are almost entirely restricted to the beresite dykes. The richest of the Ural mines are those of Smolensk, near Miask, and Ouspensk, near the village of Katchkar, in 52° N. The alluvial deposits which, though called sands, are but very slightly sandy clays, ex-, tend to the north beyond the inhabited regions, and to the south into the Cossack and Bashkir countries. The most valuable diggings are in the district of Miask, where the largest nuggets have been found, and in the Katchkar, which are remarkable for the great number of gems, pink topazes, emeralds, &c., found in connexion with the gold. Magnetite, quartz, and platinum are very common in all the Ural gold sands; less common are hematite, titaniferous and chromic iron, pyrites, garnet, and, least of all, zircon, kyanite, and diamond. These alluvial deposits are of later Tertiary age, some of them containing traces of prehistoric human work; others are post-Pliocene, with the remains of the mammoth, tichorrhine, rhinoceros, and other mammalian fossils. Somewhat similar conditions prevail in the alluvial gold region of the Altai. Besides the veins and alluvial deposits, the Ural rocks, such as serpentine, diorite, beresite, agrairite, Ac., are at times auriferous.

The gold deposits of the Caucasus, though immortalized in the tradition of Jason and the Argonauts, are now entirely abandoned, the last attempt at working them having been suspended in 1875.

In India gold is obtained in small quantities by native gold washers in various parts of the highlands of southern Bengal, and more recently quartz veins and alluvial deposits of considerable promise have been discovered in the district of Wynaad, in the southern part of the Madras presidency.

On the Atlantic slopes of North America the chief gold-bearing localities are on the Chaudière river, near Quebec, and in Nova Scotia. In both instances the quartz veins worked are contained in slates belonging to the Quebec group of the Lower Silurian period, those of the latter province being specially remarkable for their quasi-stratified character, as they penetrate the slates at a very low angle of inclination, and have been folded and corrugated together with the containing rocks by subsequent disturbances. Other deposits of old geological periods are found in Tennessee and North Carolina.

On the Pacific side of America gold is found under very different conditions, and on a much larger scale than on the Atlantic side. The whole distance from Mexico to Alaska may be said to be more or less auriferous, the most extensive deposits being in the great north-and-south valley of the Sacramento, which runs parallel to the coast, between the so-called Coast Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, the latter being...

Fabrics woven with gold and silver continue to be used on the largest scale to this day in India; and there the preparation of the varieties of wire, and the working of the various forms of lace, brocade, and embroidery, is at once an important and peculiar art. The basis of all modern fabrics of this kind is wire, the “gold wire” of the manufacturer being in all cases silver gilt wire, and silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. In India the wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into the strip or ribbon-like form it generally assumes by passing it, fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, round-topped anvil, and beating it as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. From wire so flattened there is made in India io>ιm, a tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, a similar tissue of silver. Gold lace is also made on a warp of thick yellow silk with a weft of flat wire, and in the case of ribbons the warp or web is composed of the metal. The flattened wires are twisted around orange (in the case of silver, white) coloured silk thread, so as completely to cover the thread and present the appearance of a continuous wire; and in this form it is chiefly employed for weaving into the rich brocades known as kincobs or kinkhâbs. Wires flattened, or partially flattened, are also twisted into exceedingly fine spirals, and in this form they are the basis of numerous ornamental applications. Such spirals drawn out till they present a waved appearance, and in that state flattened, are much used for rich heavy embroideries termed karchobs. Spangles for embroideries, &c., are made from spirals of comparatively stout wire, by cutting them down ring by ring, laying each Ø-like ring on an anvil, and by a smart blow with a hammer flattening it out into a thin round disk with a slit extending from the centre to one edge. Fine spirals are also used for general embroidery purposes. The demand for various kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and silver work in India is immense; and the variety of textiles so ornamented is also very great. “Gold and silver,” says Dr Birdwood in his Handbook to the British-Indian Section, Paris Exhibition, 1878, “are worked into the decoration of all the more costly loom-made garments and Indian piece goods, either on the borders only, or in stripes throughout, or in diapered figures. The gold-bordered loom embroideries are made chiefly at Sattara, and the gold or silver striped at Tanjore; the gold figured mashrus at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Hyderabad in the Deccan; and the highly ornamented gold-figured silks and gold and silver tissues principally at Ahmedabad, Benares, Murshedabad, and Trichinopoly.”

Among the Western communities the demand for gold and silver lace and embroideries arises chiefly in connexion with naval and military uniforms, court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies, theatrical dresses, and the badges and insignia of various orders. To a limited extent there is a trade in gold wire and lace to India and China. The metallic basis of the various fabrics is wire round and flattened, the wire being of three kinds—1st, gold wire, which is invariably silver gilt wire; 2d, copper gilt wire, used for common liveries and theatrical purposes; and 3d, silver wire. These wires are drawn by the ordinary processes, and the flattening, when done, is accomplished by passing the wire between a pair of revolving rollers of fine polished steel. The various qualities of wire are prepared and used in precisely the same way as in India,—round wire, flat wire, thread made of fiat gold wire twisted round orange-coloured silk or cotton, known in the trade as “orris,” fine spirals and spangles, all being in use in the West as in the East. The lace is woven in the same manner as ribbons, and there are very numerous varieties in richness, pattern, and quality. Cloth of gold, and brocades rich in gold and silver, are woven for ecclesiastical vestments and draperies.

The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the lace trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold lace wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, coated with 3 parts of gold. On an average each ounce troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yards of wire; and therefore about 16 grains of gold cover a mile of wire. It is estimated that about 250,000 ounces of gold wire are made annually in Great Britain, of which about 20 per cent, is used for the headings of calico, muslin, &c., and the remainder is worked up in the gold lace trade.

By Bosman, the Dutch factor at Elmina in the beginning of the 18th century, the Gold Coast is said to extend “about 60 miles, beginning with the Gold River, 3 miles .west of Assini, or 12 miles above Axim, and ending with the village Ponni, 7 or 8 miles east of Acra.” In modern times, Cape Apollonia (2° 35' W. long.) being accepted as the western buundary, and the mouth of the Volta river (0° 4Γ 2" E. long.) as the eastern, the whole coast measures about 225 miles, and this is divided into two sections, the windward or western and the leaward or eastern, the boundary between the two being the Secoom river (0° 3' 2" W. long.). Beginning at the west, the first places on the coast that deserve to be mentioned are Grand Bassam and Assini, both French settlements up to 1870. The mouth of the river Assini forms the outlet of a series of lagoons, the eastmost of which is fed by a considerable river —the Tanno or Tando. About 55 miles eastward from this point are the Four Hills or Hummocks of Apollonia, where the English formerly had a fort; and about 20 miles from Apollonia is the mouth of the Ankobne. Three miles further and we come to Axim, the site of an old Dutch fort built near the mouth of the Axim river; and other 20 miles and we reach Great Friedrichsburg, founded by the Brandenburg Company. Rounding Cape Three Points (2° 7' W. long.), whose vicinity is marked by a line of breakers nearly 2J miles long, the first place of importance that we find is Akodah or Aquidah, and 10 miles beyond Akodah lies the better known Dixcove or Dick’s Cove. From Dixcove Pompendi is distant 10 miles, and other 12 or 13 miles brings us to Secondee, which is only 8 or 9 miles from the mouth of the Busum (or Sacred) Prah. With the exception of the Volta this is the largest river of the Gold Coast; it is on one of its sub-tributaries that Coomassee is situated. At the mouth of the Beyah, 19 or 20 miles eastward, stands Elmina, or in the native language Edenà, one of the most important posts of European settlement, with a native population of some 10,000 (see Elmina). Eight miles east of Elmina is Cape Coast Castle, which was the capital of the British territory until 1876. Anamaboe, 10 miles distant, is a town of some 4000 or 5000 inhabitants, with a free port and a good landing-place; and about 38 miles further on we come to Winnebah, which up till 1812 was the seat of an English fort. About 11 miles eastward there is another abandoned fort at Barrocoe; and at Barrocoe we are only 23 miles from Acra or Accra (in Tshi Nkran), the present capital of the Gold Coast colony. It was selected instead of Cape Coast Castle on account of its comparatively healthy position. In the words of Dr A. F. Elliot, it is the healthiest station on the west coast of Africa, being surrounded for miles by fresh undulating ground, and backed at the distance of a day’s journey, or about 30 miles, by a range of hills where Europeans can recruit. A sanitary station has been fixed at Akropong, 1800 feet above the sea-level, where the Basel missionaries have their headquarters. About 2 miles east of Acra is the old Danish fort of Christiansborg. There is no station of much importance except Tassi, Ponce, and Great Ningo or Ningua, in the 60 miles between Acra and the Volta. The Volta, otherwise known as the Firaw, the Shilao, or the Amu, is a large river, the course of which has been only partially explored, but which may be expected to furnish a means of opening up the interior. In December 1875, M. M. J. Bonnat, journeying partly by water and partly by land, proceeded as far as Salaha or Paraha, a commercial town of some 18,000 inhabitants. He reports that the Labelle rapids, though 25 feet high, can be ascended by steamers during the rains in September and October, because at that season the river rises 50 feet. The lower part of the course is of difficult navigation in the dry season owing to the shallows, Addah, on the right bank of the river near its mouth; Quittah, the seat of a British fort; and Jellah Coffi, a trading port, are the principal places on the coast between the Volta and FIouhow, which lies at the eastmost extremity of the Volta lagoon. According to the ordinary divisions we enter the Slave Coast when we proceed east of the Volta.

Such are the chief points of interest along the Gold Coast, hut there is a considerable range of territory extending from 20 to 60 miles inland, which belongs to the colonial protectorate; and about this a few words are necessary. The western portion of the protectorate is occupied by the woody hill country of Fanti, which stretches northwards towards Ashantee. From the mouth of the Secoom a fine range varying in height from 1200 to 1500 or 1600 feet stretches N.N.E., and divides the eastern portion into two halves. Between the mountains and the sea there are large stretches of prairie land, in which the grass grows to a height of 10 or 12 feet.

The inhabitants of the Gold Coast may be divided into two great classes—the Tshi or Chee, a black type, and the Aera, a red type. The Fantis and Ashantis, both belonging to the former class, have already been described in Ashantee. The Akems live in a thick forest region, and maintain existence by hunting, gold-digging, and the gathering of wood snails. The capital of their country is Kyebi. The Aquapems are extensively engaged in agriculture and in trade, both with the other tribes and with Europeans. The Ga or Aera, a clever race, greatly modified by contact with European culture, are to be found in all the towns of the λVest African coast as artisans and sailors. They are employed by the interior tribes as middle men and interpreters. On the right bank of the Volta are the Adangme or Adampe, distinguished by strength and rudeness. The Crobos live in little villages in the midst of the palm tree woods which grow round about the Croboberg, an eminence about 1000 feet high.

The Tshi or Chee language belongs to the great prefix-pronominal group. Jt comprises many dialects, which may, however, be reduced to two classes or types. Akan dialects are spoken in Assini, Amanahia (Apollonia), Awini, Ahanta, Wasaw, Tshuforo (Juffer or Tufel), and Denkyera in the west, and in Asen, Akem, and Aquapem in the east, as well as in the different parts of Ashantee. Fante dialects are spoken, not only in Fantiproper, but in Afutu or the country round Cape Coast, in Abora, Agymako, Akomfi, Gomoa, and Agona. The difference between the two types is not very great; a Fanti, for example, can converse without much difficulty with a native of Aquapem or Ashantee, his language being in fact a deteriorated form of the same original. Akem is considered the finest and purest of all the Akan dialects. The Aquapem, which is based on the Akem but has imbibed Fanti influences, has been made the book-language by the Basel missionaries. About a million people in all, it is estimated, speak dialects of the Tshi. The south-eastern corner of the Gold Coast is occupied by another language known as the Ga or Aera, which comprises the Ga proper and the Adangme and Crobo dialects. Ga proper is spoken by about 40,000 people, including the inhabitants of Ga and Kinkä (i.β., Dutch and British Aera, in Tshi, Nkran, and Kankan), Osu (i.e., Christiansborg), La, Tessi, Ningua, and numerous inland villages. It has been reduced to writing by the missionaries. The Adangme and Crobo dialects are spoken by about 80,000 people. They differ very considerably from Ga proper, but books printed in Ga can be used by both the Crobo and Adangme natives. Another language known as Gum is used in parts of Aquapem and in Anum beyond the Volta; but not much is known either about it or the Obutu tongue spoken in a few towns in Agona, Gomoa, and Akomfi. The dialects of the Ahanta country have still to be investigated.

Mahometanism and Christianity are both making themselves felt to some extent among the natives of the Gold Coast. A Danish mission was started at Christiansborg about 1736 by Protten and Huckoff, the Moravian brethren. In 1835 the Wesleyan mission began its l.∙i>ours among the Fanti. The Basel missionaries had made a start in 1828, but it was not till 1835 that they were fairly settled at Akropong, the capital of Aquapem. They now have stations also at Kyebi, at Kukurantimy, at Abune, at Abokoli, at Addah, and at Aera, and the leaders of the English expedition against the Ashantees speak very highly of their labours.

The climate of the Gold Coast is notoriously unhealthy. Ab Cape Coast Castle the thermometer ranges from 72° to 85° or 90°, and the amount of moisture in the atmosphere is very great. Not only are the coasts in many places lined with swamps and lagoons, but, according to Dr Gordon, the very basis rock of the country—a granite in which iron ore and hornblende are present—gives oft" under the influence of the air and the rain large quantities of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The native towns are populous and dirty, and to add to the evil it was, until the prohibition of the British authorities (at Elmina by Colonel Resting, and at Cape Coast by Governor Strahan), the custom to bury the dead in the floors of the houses. Intermittent fevers, remittent fevers (the so-called coast fever is of this class), and dysentery are the diseases most to be dreaded by the European. “The native inhabitants,” says Marcus Allen, “appear to enjoy tolerable health and to live to an average age; but in the rainy season it is not uncommon to find them suffering from pleuritis and pneumonia, rheumatic attacks, bronchitis, and catarrh.”

Though the precious dust to which the Gold Coast owes its name is no longer obtained in any considerable quantities by the rude methods of collection employed by the natives, there is abundant proof that the whole region is more or less auriferous, and it is possible that European energy and skill might make it again a real gold coast. In some parts of the country—in the neighbourhood of the Volta, for example—the surface of the ground is broken by innumerable small pits dug by the native miners. At present the value of the territory is mainly due to the profusion of vegetable products supplied by the rich alluvial soil. Of the timber trees which abound in the vast stretches of forest, the best known are several species of the genus bombax (silk cottou tree, &c.), from which canoes and wooden wares are manufactured, and the odoom used for building and cabinet-work. The cocoa-nut and the palm oil are common along the coast, and the bread-fruit tree has been introduced with success at Napoleon. Indian corn, yams, cassava, sweet potatoes, tiger-nuts, ground-nuts (Arαchis hypogaea), Guinea corn (Sorghum vulgare), Guinea grains (Amomum grana-paradisi), the egg-plant (Solanum oνigerum), bennie seed, oranges, limes, shaddocks, pine apples, ginger, and indigo are some of the many objects of cultivation. Nor must the kola nut be forgotten (Sterculia acuminata), variously styled colat, khola, and in older writers gura or gouroo; for it is the favourite substitute in Western Africa for the betel nut, and forms an important article of export. Both tobacco and cotton are indigenous, but neither is cultivated by the natives. Coffee and tobacco are grown by the missionaries at Akropong.

The exports are mainly gold dust, palm oil, and palm kernels; and the imports, in exchange, dry goods from the United Kingdom, and tobacco and spirits from America. In 1875 and 1876 the exports were respectively of the value of £327,012 and £465,268, and the corresponding imports amounted to £364,672 and £446,088. The revenue of the Gold Coast, mainly derived from customs duties, was £67,368 in 1875, and £64,788 in 1876; the corresponding expenditures were £67,368 fur 1875, and £93,944 for 1876. There is no public debt.

The jurisdiction of England on the Gold Coast was defined by the bond of the 6th of March 1844, an agreement with the native chiefs by which Her Majesty receives the right of trying criminals and repressing human sacrifices, pannyaring, &c. The limits of the protectorate inland were not very rigidly defined. The purchase of the Danish forts in 1851, and of the Dutch forts and territory in 1871, led to the consolidation of the British power along the coast; and the Ashantee war of 1873-74 resulted in the extension of the area of British influence towards the interior. By the royal ordinances of December 1874 the selling, buying, or dealing in slaves was declared unlawful, and no person can any longer be put in pawn for debt; but those who were actually slaves at that date are left in the same state, except where cruelty can be proved against the masters.

See The Golden Coast ora Description of Guinney, together with a relation of such persons as got wonderful estates by their trade thither, London, 1665: James Horton, Medical Topography of the West Coast of Africa, London, 1859, Physical and Medical Climate, London, 1867, and Letters on the Political Condition of the Gold Coast, London, 1870; Otto Finsch, “Die Goldküste und ihre Bewohner in ihrem heutigem Zustande,” in Zeitsch. für allg. Erdkunde, Berlin, 1864; Wanderings in JV est Africa by a F. R. G. S. He., Captain Burton), London, 1863; Marcus Allen, The Gold Coast, London, 1874; Charles A. Gordon, Life on the Gold, Coast, London, 1874; Captain Croft, “Exploration of the River Volta,” in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., Lond., 1874; P. Wurm, “Anfänge der Basler Mission auf der Goldküste,” in Evangelisches Missions-Magazin, 1874; E. Buhl, “Die Basler Mission auf der Goldküste,” Ibid., 1877. The following maps are of service :—J. Wyld, Map of British Possessions on the Gold Coast, London, 1873; Die Goldküste nach den Arbeiten der Missionare A. Riis, &c., Basel and Stuttgart, 1873; and E. Stanford, Map of the Gold Coast, &c., 1873.

Among his more important works are his Paroeneticorum veterum (Lille, 1604), which contained the Kunig Tyro von Schottland, the JVinsbeken, and the JVinsbekin; Rerum Alcιmannicarum Scriptorcs, Frankf. 1606, 3 vols., newed. by Senckenberg, ibid. 1730; Monarchia S. Romani imperii, Frankf. 1621; Commentarii de regno Bohemi<x, Hanover, 1627, new ed. by H. Schmink, Frankf. 1719. He edited the works of Pirkheimer and De Thou; and a volume of correspondence, Virorum Gll. ad Goldastum epistoloe, was published in 1688. See Senckenberg’s Goldasli Memoria, prefixed to Rer. Alamanoι. Scrip., 1730; Bayle’s Dictionary, and Von Raumer, Geschichte der germanischen Philologie, Munich, 1870.

The gold used by the goldbeater is variously alloyed, according to the variety of colour required. Fine gold is commonly supposed to be incapable of being reduced to thin leaves. This, however, is not the case, although its use for ordinary purposes is undesirable on account of its greater cost. It also adheres on one part of a leaf touching another, thus causing a waste of labour by the leaves being spoiled; but for work exposed to the weather it is much preferable, as it is more durable, and does not tarnish or change colour. The external gilding on many public buildings, such, e.g., as the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London, is done with pure gold. The following is a list of the principal classes of leaf recognized and ordinarily prepared by British beaters, with the proportions of alloy per ounce they contain. [table]

The process of goldbeating is thus conducted. The gold, having been alloyed according to the colour desired, is melted in a crucible, at a higher temperature than is simply necessary to fuse it, as its malleability is improved by exposure to a greater heat; sudden cooling does not interfere with its malleable properties, gold differing in this respect from some other metals. It is then cast into an ingot, and flattened, by rolling between a pair of powerful smooth steel rollers, into a ribbon of 1⅛ inch wide and 10 feet in length to the ounce. After being flattened it is annealed and cut into pieces of about 6⅜ grs. each, or about 75 per ounce, and placed between the leaves of a “cutch,” which is about half an inch thick and 3⅛ inches square, containing about 180 leaves of a tough paper manufactured in France. Formerly fine vellum was used for this purpose, and generally still it is interleaved in the proportion of about one of vellum to six of paper. The cutch is beaten on for about 20 minutes with a 17-pound hammer, which rebounds by the elasticity of the skin, and saves the labour of lifting, by which the gold is spread to the size of the cutch; each leaf is then taken out, and cut into four pieces, and put between the skins of a “shoder,” 4⅛ inches square and ∣ths of an inch thick, containing about 720 skins, which have been worn out in the finishing or “mould” process. The shoder requires about two hours’ beating upon with a 9-pound hammer. As the gold will spread unequally, the shoder is beaten upon after the larger leaves have reached the edges. The effect of this is that the margins of larger leaves come out of the edges in a state of dust. This allows time for the smaller leaves to reach the full size of the shoder, thus producing a general evenness of size in the leaves. Each leaf is again cut into four pieces, and placed between the leaves of a “mould,” composed of about 950 of the finest gold-beaters’ skins, five inches square and three-quarters of an inch thick, the contents of one shoder filling three moulds. The material has now reached the last and most difficult stage of the process; and on the fineness of the skin and judgment of the workman the perfection and thinness of the leaf of gold depend. During the first hour the hammer is allowed to fall principally upon the centre of the mould. This causes gaping cracks upon the edges of the leaves, the sides of which readily coalesce and unite without leaving any trace of the union after being beaten upon. At the second hour, when the gold is about the 150,000th part of an inch in thickness, it for the first time permits the transmission of the rays of light. In pure gold, or gold but slightly alloyed, the green rays are transmitted; and in gold highly alloyed with silver, the pale violet rays pass. The mould requires in all about four hours’ beating with a 7-pound hammer, when the ordinary thinness for the gold leaf of commerce will be reached. A single ounce of gold will at this stage be extended to 75×4× 4 = 1200 leaves, which will trim to squares of about 3∣ inches each. The finished leaf is then taken out of the mould, and the rough edges are trimmed off by slips of the ratan fixed in parallel grooves of an instrument called a waggon, the leaf being laid upon a leathern cushion for that purpose. The sizes to which British leaf .is cut are 3, 3⅛, 3∣, 3g, and 3⅛ inches. The leaves thus prepared are placed into “books” capable of holding 25 leaves each, which have been nibbed over with red ochre to prevent the gold clinging to the paper. The leaf is used for gilding picture frames, and for other ornamental purposes. See Gilding.

The fine membrane called goldbeaters’ skin, used for making up the shoder and mould, is the outer coat of the caecum or blind gut of the ox. It is stripped off in lengths about 25 or 30 inches, and freed from fat by dipping in a potash solution and scraping with a blunt knife. It is afterwards stretched on a frame; two membranes are glued together, treated with a solution of aromatic substances or camphor in isinglass, and subsequently coated with white of egg. Finally they are cut into squares of 5 or 5^ inches; and to make up a mould of 950 pieces the gut of about 380 oxen is required, about 2∣ skins being got from each animal. A skin will endure about 200 beatings in the mould, after which it is fit for use in the shoder alone.

The dryness of the cutch, shoder, and mould is a matter of extreme delicacy. They require to be hot-pressed every time they are used, although they may be used daily, to remove the moisture which they acquire from the atmosphere, except in extremely frosty weather, when they acquire so little moisture that then a difficulty arises from their over-dryness, whereby the brilliancy of the gold is diminished, and it spreads very slowly under the hammer. On the contrary, if the cutch or shoder be damp, the gold will become that which is technically termed hollow or sieve-like; that is, it is pierced with innumerable microscopical holes; and in the moulds in its more attenuated state it will become reduced to a pulverulent state. This condition is more readily produced in alloyed golds than in fine gold. It is necessary that each skin of the mould should be rubbed over with calcined gypsum (the fibrinated variety) each time the mould may be used, in order to prevent the adhesion of the gold to the surface of the skin in beating. Dentist gold is gold leaf carried no further than the cutch stage, and should be perfectly pure gold.

By the above process also silver is beaten, but not so thin, the inferior value of the metal not rendering it commercially desirable to bestow so much labour upon it. Copper, tin, zinc, palladium, lead, cadmium, platinum, and aluminium can be beaten into thin leaves, but not to the same extent as gold or silver.