Before leaving
this mine the great gold cake lump, weighing 1,370 ozs., which was being
forwarded, the day I was there, to the Paris Exhibition, was put into my
hands. It seemed a wonderfully big lump of the precious metal, which is
so earnestly sought for by every race of civilised man.
I also went over another mine, at present in the early stage of its
development, but which struck me as being conducted, as far as the
working management was concerned, on good, sound, business
principles--belonging to the Klerksdorp Gold Estates Company.
My stay at Klerksdorp much impressed me with the idea of the future of
this town of yesterday's growth. It is only fifteen months ago, (a
little more than a year) that the whole of the town on the side of the
stream where the Union Hotel is situated, was begun. The inhabitants
already number some thousands; and the indications I have seen in the
mines, of great prospects of gold being found in large and payable
quantities, are very strong. Klerksdorp may yet become a second
Johannesburg, whose remarkable and rapid development I was told, would
astonish me.
[Illustration: Decorative]
POTCHEFSTROOM.
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