llie Scottish Naturalist. 265 



Bibliography: Illustrative of the History of the " Gold-mynes" 

 of, and of Gold-mining in, Crawford-Lindsay, from the sixteenth 

 century downwards. 



I. Report on the Gold-mynes of Scotland : in MS. in the 

 Cottoniaii Collection of MSS. in the library of the British 

 Museum. 

 The fragment of MS. descriptive of the gold-mines of Craw- 

 ford Moor — the only gold-mines then known in Scotland — is 

 undated and anonymous. But it is obviously referable to the 

 sixteenth century, and it is written by a competent authority who 

 had been specially commissioned to survey or prospect, and 

 report upon the auriferous capacity of, the Crawford-Lindsay 

 district. Up to the present date it remains the most important 

 report that has ever been made on the gold-field and gold- 

 diggings of that "golden area." The MS. has been quoted by 

 Calvert, Dudgeon, and Porteous ; most fully by the first-men- 

 tioned writer, by whom it was for the first time made known to 

 the public. 



IL The Discouverie and Historie of the Gold-mynes in Scotland. 

 By Stephen Atkinson. Originally published in 1619: best 

 known as edited for the Bannatyne Club by Gilbert L. 

 Meason in 1825. 



As indicating the value now attached even to this modern 

 edition of Atkinson's work — of which only fifty-two copies were 

 printed — it may be mentioned that at the sale by auction in 

 London, in February 1874, of the library of the late Rob. 

 Nasmyth, F.R.C.S.E., of Edinburgh, as much as ^11, los. was 

 given for a single copy. 



Atkinson was one of the pupils, and then copartners of, and 

 mining managers for, the noted gold-speculator Sir Bevis Bul- 

 mer ; having previously been — in 1586 — gold and silver refiner 

 in the Mint of the Tower of London. In 16 16 he succeeded, by 

 a Privy Council Act in his favour, to Bulmer's post at Crawford 

 Moor, Bulmer having died in 16 13. 



The book was written for the purpose of keeping up the 

 interest of the king (James VI.) in the gold-mines belonging to 

 him in the Crawford Moor district ; and hence it is drawn up in 



uce of other auriferous countries. Thus the ' Statistics of New Zealand ' 

 for 1876 (the latest published) show that since 1857 the "value of gold 

 entered for duty for exportation alone " has been no less than upwards of 

 thirty-two millions in less than twenty years. 



