RIVER OF GOLD

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 303, 7 December 1931, Page 11

RIVER OF GOLD

AN AFRICAN MYSTERY LOST REEF OF THE WATERBERG. PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN THE DARKNESS. Capetown, October 18. Visions of an underground world inhabited by a race that had eats’ eyes, and could see in the dark, are conjured up by recent discoveries made in the course of prospecting for the “lost reef of the Waterberg.’’ Traces that in the past people had lived, eaten, cooked food and herded cattle underground have been discovered in the course of organised efforts now being made to discover the spot from which, 30 years ago, two German prospectors took gold, but who died before they could reveal’ their secret as to its whereabouts. Responsible opinion is now leaning to the view that the German prospectors’ gold was panned from the underground river, and that somewhere at the end of an almost limitless labyrinth of chambers and passages, gold would be found sticking out of the walls of the caves. One farmer traves the connection between the old Rooiberg workings—said to be King’s Solomon’s mine—and the Rankin Pass caves, a few miles away. At the moment the mystery of the eaves endures, for on no occasion has anyone explored them to their end, although one farmer is reported to have travelled some miles underground in the attempt. UNDERGROUND TREASURE. According to prospectors and higher authorities, the reef is supposed to rival Johannesburg and the Rand and turn Rankin’s Pass into a second Johannesburg. The most favoured spot is Zwagershoek. It was here, 30-odd years ago, that two German prospectors died of fever, and it was found that they had amongst their belongings bottles of gold dust and nuggets, together with large quantities of quartz. Where it came from no one knew, but it is believed that before their deaths the two Germans had discovered the long-sus-pected Waterberg gold reef. So far as the reef is concerned, it is stated that gold-bearing rock has been assayed at 24dwt to 26dwt to the tom The conclusion arrived at is that the German prospectors found their gold underground in what appears to be ar. underground world. There is a cave close to where the Germans died of fever which opens out into miles and miles of passages and large chambers, many of them a hundred yards square, and it is believed that in this underground world the lost treasure will be found. LABYRINTH OF PASSAGES. This underground world is almost limitless, with a perfect labyrinth of passages, and some idea of the size of the chambers to be found there may be gauged from the fact that there are complete cattle kraals built of wood in them. Mr -Rankin, who named the pass in the mountain, has advanced far into the caves, and there found distinct evidence of human habitations that date from the remote past. He states: “I found pots, pans and wood planted, which had been obviously used for a cattle kraal. 'What manner of people inhabited this underground world is hard to conjecture, but certain it is that they lived underground herded their cattle underground and perhaps watered them in the underground river.’’ The finders report that the remains are those of natives, and advance the theory that in the early days Waterberg natives used this place as a funk hole when being raided by northern Bantu tribes. • . The caves remain a mystery, for no living person has yet been to the end, and few care to try, as there is too great a risk of being lost for ever.