withdrawal, the company employed nine Europeans, thirteen Japanese and Chinese, and some three hundred Koreans.
Korean mining is very elementary. The usual methods are "placer" and "crushing" and a process of treatment by fire. A vertical shaft is sunk, with narrow steps cut into its sides, to the level of the reef; the bottom of the shaft is then packed with wood, which is ignited and kept burning for several days. The heated rock becomes very friable and yields readily to the crude implements of the miners. There is great competition to secure the bottom pitch in these shafts; the more intrepid rarely delay their descent until the working has cooled. The quartz is sometimes rubbed to powder and the gold washed out, or it is crushed between huge boulders, washed, re-crushed and panned again. The gold is then picked out. Until lately there were no places where the gold was tested by other than the most antiquated methods.
Such sanguine hopes have been raised as to the results of the mining in Korea, that it would be as well if the public accepted all statements in regard to these investments with great caution. The results of the development of the various mining concessions, now in progress, will be awaited with much interest, and will, it is to be hoped, form a reliable test of the mining possibilities of the country. The returns from the American mines encourage the belief that these possibilities have not been over-estimated; but it has yet to be proved that mining operations can be profitably carried on with Western methods and appliances. The deposits in which gold is found in Korea are irregular, and by no means continuous. To a Korean miner this is of small importance. His outfit costs at the most a few shillings, and his belongings are easily transported to any
