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12 gold. the alluvial soil of valleys or plains. The northern parti of Africa afford but little gold, but in the middle and southern regions, there are several tracts remarkable for the quantity of gold they afford. The first is Kardofan situated between Darfur and Abyssinia. The gold cob lected there, ,s brought to market by the Negroes in quills of the ostrich and vulture. This territory, it would ap pear, was known to the ancients, who regarded ./Ethiopia as a country rich in gold. The second principal tract lies to the south of the -reat Desart of Zara, and in the western part of Africa & The gold is collected in that extensive flat which stretches from the foot of those mountains in which are situated the sources of the rivers Gambia, Senegal, and Niger. Gold is also found in the sands of all these rivers Dam bouck, which is situated to the north-west of these moun tains furnishes the greatest part of the gold which is sold on the western coast of Africa, as well as that which is brought to Morocco, Fez, Algiers, and to Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. The third principal tract where gold is abundant, lies on the south-east coast, between 15° and 22° of south latitude, and nearly opposite Madagascar. The gold of that country, it is said, is found not only in the state of dust, but also in veins; and it is supposed, that Ophir, from which Solomon obtained gold, was a country on the same coast. Nearer to the equator, the Gold Coast supplied the Portugueze, and afterwards the Dutch, with great quantities of gold dust *. America. In modern times, this continent is consider ed the richest country of the world in gold There the gold is chiefly collected in alluvial soil, and in the beds * Bronpiini't’s Mineralogie, t. ii. p. 271, 272, 273.