GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. The Quest ol Gold. Independent researches in many parts of the world have conclusively shown that much so-called ' allu vial' gold has not been deposited by flowing water but by water in its solid form viz. by glaciers. In British Columbia in the Northwest Territory of Canada in Nova Scotia and in New Zealand are many gold placers formed by glacial action. In North Caro lina Professor Kerr the State geologist attributes square miles of auriferous gravels to ' frost drift ' or and thaw in decomposing the rocks and then by alter nate expansion and contraction causing their
GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. The Quest ol Gold. Independent researches in many parts of the world have conclusively shown that much so-called ' allu vial' gold has not been deposited by flowing water but by water in its solid form viz. by glaciers. In British Columbia in the Northwest Territory of Canada in Nova Scotia and in New Zealand are many gold placers formed by glacial action. In North Caro lina Professor Kerr the State geologist attributes square miles of auriferous gravels to ' frost drift ' or and thaw in decomposing the rocks and then by alter nate expansion and contraction causing their detritus to rearrange its component parts. Even in tropical Finally to come nearer home gold is found in the ' till ' on the flanks of the celebrated Lead hills of Scotland. Quite recently it has been claimed that some of the Californian ' gravels ' are not gravels in the true sense of the word but that they are partly due to mud volcanoes much of the accumulated mat ters being angular instead of rounded as they are in riverine deposits. Whatever the means by which the placer gold has been conveyed to its present bed it can only have had one source—mineral veins. At one time it was the fashion to suppose that vein gold would be found only in quartz rocks of Silurian age but though such forma tions do afford a large proportion of vein gold there are many other minerals which carry gold—notably calcite—and scarcely a rock formation in which one could safely predict its absence. As to how the gold got int4 the mineral veins there are many plausible theories—in solution by decomposition by condensa tion of vapors etc. Probably all these may have had their share in its production. Certain it is that gold has been found in solution in sea water and in native crytals in the pores of lava which has been ejected within historic times. ing because the underground workings are more ex tensive and more difficult and when the vein stuff has been mined the hidden gold can only be got
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