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■i.^ 11 M 11 U 81 H If M '■ ■' .U.JIi, II 



GEOLOGY. 



THE GOLD-FIELD AND GOLD-DIGaiNGS OP OEAWFOED- 

 LINDSAY (LANAEKSHIEE). 



By W. LAUDER LINDSAY, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.L.S. 



THE auriferous capacity of that portion of the Southern High- 

 lands — that section of the Lowther range of hills — which 

 has frequently been denominated '' God's Treasure-House in Scot- 

 land,"^ has recently created renewed interest on the part of our 

 local mineralogists and geologists — and of all, in short, who are 

 concerned in the development of the mineral wealth of our 

 country — in consequence of the presentation to the National 

 Museum of Science and Art at Edinburgh, in March last, of a 

 lump of auriferous quartz, the alleged produce of the district in 

 question. A duplicate of the printed label attached to it in the 

 said museum, for which I am indebted to Dr Grierson of Thorn- 

 hill, Dumfriesshire, bears the following inscription : " Auriferous 

 quartz found by A. Gemmell, miner, at Wanlockhead, in 1872. 

 This specimen was unfortunately broken up by the finder, and 

 the different pieces came into the possession of his Grace the 

 Duke of Buccleuch, Mr Clark of Speddoch, Mr Dudgeon of 

 Cargen, Dr Grierson, Thornhill, and Mr Stewart, Wanlockhead, 

 who have presented the restored mass to the Museum of Science 

 and Art, Edinburgh." The specimen in question is what I de- 

 scribed nearly three years ago in the 'Scottish Naturalist'^ as the 

 " Gemmell Quartzite." 



The auriferous district of Crawford-Lindsay stretches from the 



^ Four of the chief streams of the district, which are hereinafter mentioned, 

 or their tributaries, were in the olden time compared to the four rivers in 

 "the Garden of the Lord," Pison, Gihon, Iliddekel, and Euphrates, which 

 " compass the land where there is gold." Under the title of " God's Trea- 

 sure-House in Scotland," the district is spoken of both by the Rev, Dr Moir 

 Porteous, in a work afterwards quoted, and by Dr John Brown of Edinburgli, 

 in his pamjililel on "The ICnterkin." 



- Of April 1875. 



