'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎325] (382/552)

1 DANCING ON TOM TIDDLEB'S GROUND' 325
cruelty with which they were goaded on to work until they
died of fatigue. He also gives some interesting details as to
the processes of abstracting gold, which tally well with what
we saw on the spot. ' They burn the quartz and make it
soft,' which will account for the quantity of burnt quartz
which we saw ; and again, ' they take the quarried stone and
pound it in stone mortars with iron pestles.' Mr. Eudler
examined the specimens of quartz we brought home, and
describes it as ' vein quartz, more or less ochreous with oxide
of iron suggestive of auriferous quartz,' and told us that, unless
we were going to start a company, there was no necessity to
get it assayed; for archaeological purposes the presence of
gold was sufficiently established.
Will this mine ever be available again for those in search
of the precious mineral ? is the first question that suggests
itself. Unfortunately being no gold expert, I am absolutely
unable to give an opinion as to the possibilities of the still
existing quartz seams being payable or not, but there is
abundance of it both in the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Gabeit and in the collateral
valleys, and it is improbable that the ancients with their
limited knowledge of mining could have exhausted the place.
Specimens of quartz that my husband picked up at hap
hazard have been assayed and found to be auriferous, with
the gold very finely disseminated; an expert would un
doubtedly have selected even more brilliant specimens than
these. Against this the absence of water and labour seemed
to us at the time to negative any possible favourable results,
but, on the other hand, the mine is so conveniently near the
sea, with comparatively easy road access, that labour might
be imported j and such wonderful things are done nowadays
with artesian wells that, if the experts report favourably upon
it, there would be every chance of good work being done, and
these desert mountains of the Soudan might again ring with
the din of industry.