This was of great specific gravity, and when carefully washed, discovered the gold--some in grains, some in mere specks, and some like fine, golden flour.
At this interesting stage the search has been given up: although the cheering sight of gold can be obtained in nearly every pan of earth at such trifling depths, and literally in every direction, the prospect is abandoned.

The government leaves it to private enterprise, but the enterprising public have no faith in the government.
Without being over-sanguine, or, on the other side, closing our cars with asinine stubbornness, let us take an impartial view of the facts determined, and draw rational conclusions.
It appears that from a depth of two and a half feet from the surface to the greatest depth as yet attained (eighteen feet), gold exists throughout.
It also appears that this is not only the case in one particular spot, but all over this part of the country, and that this fact is undeniable; and, nevertheless, the government did not believe in the existence of gold in Ceylon until these diggers discovered it; and when discovered, they gave the diggers neither reward nor encouragement, but they actually met the discovery by a published prohibition against the search; they then latterly withdrew the prohibition and left it to private enterprise, but neglected the unfortunate diggers.

In this manner is the colony mismanaged; in this manner is all public spirit damped, all private enterprise checked, and all men who have anything to venture disgusted.
The liberality of a government must be boundless where the actual subsistence for a few months is refused to the discoverers of gold in a country where, hitherto, its presence had been denied.
It would be speculative to anticipate the vast changes that in extended discovery would effect in such a colony as Ceylon.

We have before us the two pictures of California and Australia, which have been changed as though by the magician's wand within the last few years.

It becomes us now simply to consider the probability of the gold being in such quantities in Ceylon as to effect such changes.