The Times lately published a letter from Dr. Carl Peters,
in which that explorer records some of the results of his discoveries. From figures which he has found between the Zambesi and the Sabi, especially a figure of Isis 4 in. high, he has come to the conclusion that the country between those two rivers is the Ophir of Scripture. Dr. Peters has found besides tracings of old gold work- ings of immense extent. One question which always arises in our mind in reading of these discoveries is,—Why did these extremely ancient peoples so value gold ? We think the feeling natural because it is ours, but, of all the metals, gold is of the least use in war, and the Japanese while they were cut off from commerce held it to be only as valuable as silver. Was the attraction colour, or rarity, or comparative imperishability ?
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