GEOLOGY. 



THE GOLD-FIELD AND GOLD-DIGaiMS OP OEAWFOKD- 

 LINDSAY (LAl^AEKSHIEE). 



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



{Cojitinued from page 268. ) 



FROM the beginning of the twelfth century down to the 

 present day, feu-charters and other legal documents affect- 

 ing landed property in Scotland have made frequent reference to — 

 contain clauses regarding — possible ^^ gold my7ies^^ in or under the 

 lands which they describe. The earliest official or documentary 

 notice extant of the gold-mines of Scotland is a grant, of date 

 1 125, by David I. of a gold-mine in Fifeshire. This is an illus- 

 tration of the fact that allusions to gold-mines are frequently 

 made in the charters of lands that do not contain gold, — never 

 did contain it. Fifeshire is not an aurifeous area, though it was 

 in 1852 the scene of a veritable gold-digging and gold mania — 

 known as the Lomond diggings} on the eastern bank of Loch 

 Leven — the precious metal being represented on that occasion 

 by a grosser, commoner ore that has often deceived the unwary 

 — Iron pyrites. - 



On the other hand, the latest allusion I have seen made to the 

 gold-mines of Scotland has been the case of " the Breadalba?ie 

 gold and silver mines," which have been more than once before 

 the Court of Session during the last few years. Their ownership 

 was the subject of dispute between the present Earl of Breadal- 

 bane, pursuer, and the judicial factor on the trust-estate of thQ 

 late Marquis, defender ; an " action of declarator and reduction" 



1 Described in the ' Transactions ' of the Geological Societies of Edinburgh 

 for 1870, and of Dublin for 1871. 



2 Calvert gravely informs us, however (p. 164), that, "on the statement of 

 mineralogists, gold is now found in the Fifeshire mountains." 



