In the pre-Cambrian regions
In the pre-Cambrian regions arid among the intrusive older mountains of Central Europe, both pre-Cambrian and Paleozoic, there are found silver and rare minerals with some gem stones; and then the Mesozoic with the coal and iron mines of England; and the Cenozoic with the coal and iron mines of Germany and France, and the great basin formations containing the clays and earths on which so many European industries are founded. These basins have been pretty thoroughly explored, excepting only the great Russian basin between the mountains of Central Europe and the Ural regions; and under this basin expectations are entertained, by some, that great deposits of coal, iron and petroleum will be found. In Spain there is the fragment of the Archean and eastward along southern Europe is the Mediterranean basin with its volcanic formations and few mineral deposits. Europe is not a place of great mineral enrichment ; and perhaps the great mysterious continent of Asia may also be found but poorly endowed compared to other regions of the earth. Yet the wealth of Asia is proverbial, the splendors of her rulers, the crushing poverty of her hoards of population; but recent investigation has advanced the theory that the accumulated wealth is not so much that the mines are very rich, but that many hands are available to gather what there is. However this may be, Asia presents a field for mining enterprise and speculation to which eager eyes are turned.
Attention has been attracted to the gold mines of Siberia among the Altai mountains; mines worked by bleeding convict hands, and with such cheap labor, yielding returns which are notable ; yet perhaps, worked under another system the Siberian gold mines would not yield so great a profit. Of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic regions of Asia little is known, and among these formations where the intrusive mountains have broken in their gradual uplift, especially along the Hymalayan regions where both Paleozoic and Mesozoic formations are found, precious stones, and precious metals may be had; and rumor has it that in the lands over toward Thibet there are many gold deposits, and in these regions, and in the mountains to the westward through Persia, enterprises and speculations may develop, and the regions are worth watching. Among the Cenozoic plains and lands and the rolling hills of China, coal and iron deposits are reported, copper is had, and here elements for great speculations are at hand, and the opportunities for entering upon them are often discussed.
Among the Cenozoic mountains, the great uplift of the Hymalayan, which have in comparatively recent times broken through during a steady upheaval among the older formations, there are reports of mineral deposits, but little is known, though, as previously stated, in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic regions of northern India and Indo China, over toward the base of the Hymalayan, mines of gold and precious stones exist, and developments may follow which will result in a wide speculation.
Of the older continents none are, perhaps, better endowed with minerals than Africa, ancient regions where the surface has been so little disturbed that it may be considered the oldest in all the earth. Here perhaps the greatest developments are to be made, greater, it may be, than those which have been in operation in these latter years; for the vast interior of Africa is scarcely known, and reports come that every mineral is there to be found.
