3o8 The Scottish Naturalist. 



to belong to the O'0W7i without limitation." Hence the common 

 exception of gold-mines in the conveyance of landed estates ; and 

 hence also the vexatious 7-oyalty or tax that proved so great an 

 obstacle to the development of the Sutherland diggings of 1869. 



But the term gold-mine would appear to be oi p7-ehistoric origin 

 in some parts at least of Scotland. It is, at all events, not con- 

 fined to old Crown-grants or feu-charters — to historical or anti- 

 quarian works. It is incorporated with the very soil or skeleton 

 of the land itself. Thus one of our foremost Gaelic scholars, who 

 is, moreover, a geologist, and a describer of the Sutherland gold- 

 field — J. F. Campbell of Islay — as well known for his ' Frost and 

 Fire ' as for his ' Tales of the West Highlands ' — tells us that one 

 of the hills in Sutherland — from which the auriferous Helmsdale 

 water takes its rise — is called Ben-ormen, or, more properly, Beinn- 

 orm-mein — that is, the Hill of the GoId-ini?ie} 



Let us see now what grounds exist for speaking of or writing 

 about go\d-?nines in Scotland. 



We have to consider, in the first place, the evidence presented 

 by medieval records, showing apparently that veritable gold 

 mines and gold-mining existed at one time in the Crawford dis- 

 trict of Lanarkshire. It has already been stated (p. 259) that 

 Bowes erected a stamping-mill on the Longcleuch Burn ; and it 

 now falls to be considered what this implies. Atkinson (as 

 quoted by Calvert, p. 146) declares it to be "most true that 

 Mr Boiues discerned a small vein of gold, which had much small 

 gold in it, upon Wanlockhead. . . . Mr Bowes swore all his 

 workmen to keep it secret and never discover it to the Scotch 

 King or his Council ; for so he had promised to do to the Queen 

 of England, on whose letter he had a warrant from the Scotch 

 Lords to dig and delve where he would. . . . Mr Bowes digged 

 several shafts in solid places in the mountains, in Robertsmoor, 

 and in Wanlockhead. . . . He returned and told the Queen of 

 England that he had performed and concealed his trust : that 

 he had found a small vein of gold." Oi Bulmer, Atkinson says : 

 '* From Shortcleuch he removed up the great hill to Longcleuch 

 Head, to seek gold in solid places, whereof he discovered a 

 small spring ; but there he wanted a water-course to help him. 

 This vein had the sappar-stone " plentifully in it, which some- 



1 * Something from the Gold-Diggings in Sutherland,' 1869, p. 17. 



^ Which he describes as "brown spar, somewhat like sugar-candy " (Cal- 

 vert, p. 149). I'robably this was simply a brown-coloured or ferruginous 

 quartz — not the brown spar of modern mineralogists. 



