The Scottish Naturalist. 263 



cerning, \kvQ productiveness of gold workings that, in the reign of 

 Queen EHzabeth, had not only an English but a European repu- 

 tation (Calvert). It is, however, impossible to arrive at anything 

 like an estimate that can be depended upon. The evidences of 

 their productiveness are very vague and unsatisfactory. But such 

 as they are, it is necessary to describe them, so that each reader 

 may judge for himself what value is to be attached to them. 

 These evidences, then, include the following : — 



1. The production, in the reign of James V., of a new gold 

 coin — the finest of the Scottish coins — the Bomiet piece, from 

 Crawford gold. 



2. The gift of platefuls of these coins to his marriage-feast 

 guests by the same king. 



3. The use of the same native gold in making additions to the 

 Regalia — the Scottish crown : still by the same king. 



4. His employment of it also in making his second queen's 

 crown and other of her ornaments. 



5. The presentation of a gold basin full of unicorns — both of 

 Crawford gold — by the Regent Morton to the king of France. 



6. The prohibition in 1576 of the export of Crawford gold. 



7. The enrichment of Foulis and Bulmer. 



8. Bulmer's presentation of a gold porringer of Crawford gold 

 to Queen Elizabeth. 



9. The fame that the Crawford region had by this time acquired 

 as a " golden area " and as " God's Treasure-House " in Scotland. 



10. The number of miners employed at various times — Dutch, 

 German, French, English, and Scotch — and their prosperity. 



11. The statements made by Atkinson, the Cottonian Re- 

 porter, or other writers, as to the value of the gold coined, or 

 otherwise made use of in its molten and wrought condition. 



So early as the reign of James V., according to the Cottonian 

 Reporter, no less than 300 persons maintained themselves by 

 washing gold ; and he speaks of the annual value of the yield of 

 the district for eighty years having been upwards of ;2^ioo,ooo in 

 money of that time (Calvert). What is the precise equivalent of 

 such a sum at the present day I am not in a position to say. 

 But Mr Patrick tells us, in his standard work on the Scottish 

 Coinage, that in 1503 one pound Scots was only one- third the 

 value of one pound sterling English : in other words, that ;^6ooo 

 Scots equalled at that time only ;^2ooo sterling English. This 

 disproportion subsequently became much greater, however — just 

 four times as great ; for we are told that on the accession of James 



