284 On the native Gold Dust found in 



authors ; and if the earths of which I shall speak do not 

 furnish so large a quantity of gold dust, they afford indisT 

 putable proofs that the gold certainly does not proceed from 

 any mine traversed by water, at least in the present day. 



In the north of the commune of St. George, in the cir- 

 cle of Chivas, in the department of the Loire, we find fer- 

 tile rising grounds^ and hills almost wholly covered with 

 vineyards, which continue till we come to the highest of 

 them, the hill of Macugnano, part of which is cultivated, 

 part covered with wild chestnut trees ; a distance of about 

 three miles. — In our progress from the outer and upper sur- 

 face of these hills to the bottom of the valleys, which inter- 

 sect them in different directions, we find in general three 

 very distinct strata. — The upper stratum is for the most part 

 argillaceous, as it furnishes an excellent earth for making 

 bricks and tiles. The thickness of this stratum varies in 

 different places from three or four feet to twenty- five or 

 thirty. The second stratum, which stretches likewise hori- 

 zontally beneath the stratum of clay, is a few feet thick. It 

 is composed of a considerable portion of sand, of gravel, 

 and of pebbles of different natures, argillaceous, calcareous, 

 and quartzose. Of these I shall speak more particularly in 

 the second part, as well as of the fragments produced by their 

 being broken or decomposed. The third or lower stratum, 

 which forms the bed of the valleys, and of the rivulets that 

 Tim through them, in rainy weather, is composed in great 

 measure of the fragments of the argillaceous and calcareous 

 stones of the second stratum. — The rains have gradually 

 produced little gullies in different directions ; which by the 

 falling of fresh rain, and the quantity and rapidity of the 

 water, have in the course of time been extended and con- 

 verted into valleys, more or less broad and deep, in different 

 places. Part of the water of several gullies accumulates par- 

 ticularly in one valley, where during storms and long rains 

 it forms a torrent, called in the country the Merdanzone. 

 Now the gold dust is found chiefly among the sands of this 

 torrent, and of the small lateral rivulets that flow into the 

 Merdanzone or other similar valleys. 



Does this gold proceed equally from the different strata I 



have 



