282 On the native Gold Dust found in 



of the science of mineralogy. My inductions go no further 

 than the small number of researches I have made : yet I 

 think I may venture to say, from the observations I am 

 about to present to the reader respecting the locality and si- 

 tuation of the native gold dust in the commune of St. George, 

 that such dust is not always washed down from mines in the 

 mountains by rivers. And if such were the primitive origin 

 of their dissemination amid the strata* it certainly could 

 have happened only at some very remote period of the grand 

 disruptions that have taken place on the surface and ex- 

 terior of the strata of our globe. But these revolutions, of 

 which we have no records, are buried in the night of time. 

 For we shall see that strata which furnish gold dust are 

 found at a considerable depth in some hills, equally remote 

 from mountains capable of furnishing it, and from rivers 

 that could force it from its native situation. It could, there- 

 fore, have mingled in them only at a remote period, when 

 the strata of the hills assumed the arrangement they have at 

 present, namely, at the time of their formation. 



This has been the opinion of several naturalists of our 

 country, and I should be guilty of injustice to them, if, in 

 collecting fresh proofs tending to support their hypothesis, 

 I omitted to mention their valuable works. Accordingly I 

 shall quote Mr. de Robillant, who, speaking of the gold 

 dust found in the sands of the Oreo, says very positively : 

 " This river carries along gold, which the people of the 

 country observe only below the bridge down to the Po ; 

 which confirms the opinion held by the people best ac- 

 quainted with the natural history of the country, that it is 

 from the gullies and hills that this gold dust is washed down 

 into the river by the rapidity of the water during storms *. 

 This valuable metal does not come from the high moun- 

 tains, since none is found above the bridge ; but it originates 

 from the washing of the red earth, of which most of these 

 hills and plains are composed, and which in stormy weather 

 is carried down into the principal river f." 



* See a geographical Essay on the Continental Territories of the King of 

 Sardinia, by de Robillant, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences 

 at Turin for 1784-5, part ii. p 234. f lb. p. 268. 



Mr. 



