The Scott is J i Naturalist. 351 



contained in the Public Record Office, London, of date January 

 1604, says of Buhner's finds : '' There be some peeces of stone or 

 spar also w^^ gold in them, as it weare y^ utmost sprigges of 

 greater branches and y? body of a mine w?^ they seeke for" 

 (' Records,' p. 116). 



Bowes " discovered a vein of ore from which some small 

 amount of good-like gold was obtained ; but it is doubtful, from 

 his description, whether the metal had not been washed in by the 

 water-courses made for the purpose of tearing up the ground " 

 (Introduction, p. xx). 



The Cottonian Reporter tells us that '' Theis Reasones persuade 

 me that theare are vaines of gold in sundry partes of Crawforde 

 Llore " (Introduction, p. xxx). 



But the same Reporter makes a prior and counter statement 

 entitled : " Theis Reasones make me doubtefull that the gold is 

 not in vaynes, bet rather lyenge dispersed in chevore rockes, 

 neare the topes and heighte of the mountaynes " (Introduction, 

 p. xxix). 



Whatever may have been the ground for the belief, it is noto- 

 rious that a belief existed in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 

 turies as to the occurrence of " vaines " of gold or gold-quartz 

 in the Crawford- Lindsay district; and this belief was quite as 

 strong and as striking on the part of successive kings of Scotland 

 — at least of James V. and VI., and of their Parliaments, English 

 and Scotch — as on that of the various gold prospectors, mining 

 engineers, and miners, who were then engaged in the develop- 

 ment of the auriferous resources of ' God's Treasure-House in 

 Scotland.' 



Bowes repeatedly confesses that his object at Crawford Moor 

 was the " discoverie of a vaine of golde." " If any vaine there 

 (God willinge), I shall finde it," says he (' Records,' pp. 107 

 and 105). His " travill onelye tending for discouverie of a vaine 

 of gold," he explains ('Record?,' p. 108). 



It is evident that Bowes bestowed much pains on his search 

 for the said " vaine," — that is, for gold-quartz i7i situ ; and he de- 

 tails, in his various letters or reports to the Earl of Suffolk, Lord 

 Elie, Lord Essenden, and other members of the English Parlia- 

 ment, his many efforts to find it. But in a multitude of ways he 

 confesses the failure of his efforts and the disappointment of his 

 hopes. Thus he says he has found sundry " strange myneralls 

 stones, but not any gold fixed or growing in those leaders or 



