CHAP. ii.

TO THE EAST OF PERSIA.

and pursue the Indians by their smell with in-credible swiftness. They affirm, that if theIndians did not make considerable progresswhilst the ants were collecting themselves toge-ther, it would be impossible for any of them toescape. For this reason, at different intervals,they separate one of the male camels from thefemale, which are always fleeter than the males,and are at this time additionally incited by theremembrance of their young whom they had left.It is thus, according to the Persians , the Indiansobtain their greatest quantity of gold ; what theyprocure by digging is of much inferior import-ance.”—Beloe’s Herodotus , vol. ii. p. 5281—287-

Though the father of history may have beentoo credulous in receiving these tales of ants—in size between a dog and a fox—of their labourin digging up heaps of gold—and their swift pur-suit ofthe plunderers of their hoards—his relationconfirms the general view every inquirer musttake, that the produce of gold from mines is veryfar inferior in quantity to that procured in theform of dust, which, in spite of both Herodotus and Pliny , seems to be chiefly, but not exclu-sively, gained by washing the sand brought downby mountain torrents.

It is more than probable that the countries tothe north of Persia , though unknown except by1Um our to the more refined inhabitants of centralAsia, contributed in some degree to increase

VOL. i, t-j