The Scottish Naturalist. 307 



and pertinents thereof wliatsomever lying within the Lordship and Barronie of 

 Jedburgh and Sheriffdome of Linlithgozo, with all and sundry ?nynes of gold 

 and silver, tinn, lead, copper, and other metalls whatsoniever within the said 

 bounds of the said lands of Kinglass, with power to dig and sett doun shanks 

 and vaults within any part thereof, with sinks, passages, and all other Meins 

 and Instruments to use for working the said mynes and mineralls, And to use 

 and dispone thereupon. And with liberty of fineing and refineing and transport- 

 ing the same over seas {except the gold and silver)." 



Neither Lesmahagow (Lanarkshire) nor Linlithgow is an auri- 

 ferous area, geologically speaking, though various unconfirmed or 

 unproven statements have been made concerning the finding of 

 gold in both areas. 



Thus Calvert tells us (p. 160) that "in 1620 the gold and 

 silver mines of Lesmahagow were bestowed on the Marquess of 

 Hamilton, and in thirty days afterwards eight pounds of native 

 gold were brought to the mint, besides what the workmen got." 

 A much more extraordinary statement, however, is that which he 

 makes concerning Z/;//////^^7£/j-/«>^ (p. 164). " This county," he 

 affirms, " is one of the chief gold regions of Scotland. ... As 

 early as the reign of Queen Mary I. of Scotland, in the sixteenth 

 century, the mines were worked here — said to be near Linlith- 

 gow, but which is not certain : and one of the partners of these 

 mines gave to the Regent, Earl of Morton, a bowl made of gold, 

 capable of containing a gallon, and which was filled with coins, 

 hkewise of gold, the produce of the mine." The same story, 

 however, has already been told on the authority of Mr Fittis in 

 connection with the native gold of Crawford Moor — that is, 

 Lanarkshire.! Calvert further states (p. 164) that "a gold 

 locality, lately identified in Linlithgowshire, is in the Bathgate 

 Hills on the borders of Edinburghshire. "^ 



In 1424, James I. passed an act at Perth relating to gold-mines 

 in Scotland — an important one, in so far as its influence extends 

 to the present day. Our latest standard Encyclopaedia — the 

 * Globe Encyclopaedia' — during the present year (1878) tells us 

 that ''in Scotland, by the statute of 1424, gold-mines are declared 



1 Vide p. 258 of present series of papers in the '' Scottish Naturalist.' 

 - In a prospectus of the Hilderston Hill Silver Mining Company, issued in 

 i873> we are told that "the leases include gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, 

 nickel, arsenic, sulphur," &c. But my friend Andrew Taylor, F.C.S., 

 mineral surveyor and lecturer on mineralogy, Edinburgh, who is both a native 

 of Bathgate and familiar with the geology and mineralogy of his native county 

 and their literature, informs me (in a letter of date April 187S) that he knows, 

 of no proper evidence of the existence of gold in Linlithgowshire at a]]^ith4iP Z^ 



V 



now or at any previous time. A ^^"^ — ^*- /^ 



