by exposure to heat prior to the crushing, proving
beyond a doubt that these mines, though not immediately
on a gold reef, formed the capital of a gold-
producing people who had chosen this hill fortress
with its granite boulders for their capital owing to
its peculiar strategic advantages. Gold reefs and old
workings have been lately discovered about twelve
miles from Zimbabwe, and it was from
these that their auriferous quartz was
doubtless obtained.
Near the above-mentioned furnace we
found many little crucibles, of a composition
of clay, which had been used for
smelting the gold, and in nearly all of
them still exist small specks of gold adhering
to the glaze formed by the heat of the
process. Also we found several water-worn
stones, which had been used as burnishers,
which was evidenced by. the quantity oi
gold still adhering to them ; and in the
adjoining cave we dug up an ingot mould
of soapstone of a curious shape, corresponding
almost exactly to an ingot of tin
found in Falmouth Harbour, which is now
spe^ ead in the Truro Museum, and a cast of which
may be seen at the School of Mines in.
Jermyn, Street. This ingot of tin was undoubtedly
made by Phoenician workmen, for it bears a punch
mark thereon like those usually employed by workmen
of that period; and Sir Henry James, in his
pamphlet describing it, draws attention to the statement
of Diodorus, that in ancient Britain ingots of
TO OLS