352 The Scottish Naturalist, 



mothers " — that is, in veins containing " fixed lead ore, and some 

 marquesitt, accompanied wt^ keele, sparr, and brimstone " 

 ('Records,' p. 114). 



He disclaims distinctly having '' found a vaine of gold," and 

 complains of having been credited, or discredited, with such a 

 discovery; for he felt keenly that, had the discovery been a 

 reality, he would have been culpable for making no return, or no 

 adequate return, in produce to the anxiously expectant, probably 

 impatient and suspicious King. Hence he specially reports to 

 Lord Essenden, on behalf of the King and Parliament, dating 

 from " Codrus Cottage, High Winlocke Water," the real nature of 

 his operations and their unsatisfactory results (' Records,' p. 112). 



He refers to a " supposed vaine " (' Records,' p. 109), and he 

 gives it as his opinion that the character of the nuggety gold 

 which he found, like so many " diggers " both before and since 

 his day, proved that it was not of strictly local origin. This, at 

 least, is what he appears to mean when he says, " w* (in my con- 

 ceivinge) doth approve this gold grewe not in y*; place where I 

 found it" (' Records,' p. 104). 



He thus refers further to the distant nativity, the travelled char- 

 acter, of the Wanlockhead gold nuggets : " Upon better triall I am 

 satisfyed that they have not their natural growing in that place, 

 but are accidentallye brought thether." He is both sanguine, 

 courageous, and persevering enough to promise " eyther to per- 

 vaile in fyndinge whether it grew in a vaine, or, if not in vaines, to 

 fynd the beds wherein it doth growe or lye " (' Records,' p. 109). 



But neither Bowes nor any of his equally hopeful, brave, and 

 hard-working predecessors or successors, appear to have really 

 discovered atirifei'ous quartz-veins or gangues. 



Before we leave Bowes, with his hopes and disappointments, 

 and his instructive descriptions of gold-searching or mining ope- 

 rations, it is of interest to note that even in his time — about the 

 end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries 

 — the nefarious operation of "salting" with foreign gold or 

 gold-quartz the Crawford-Lindsay district — as this operation has 

 been described by Messrs Greg and Lettsom^ — would appear to 



^ Vide 'Scottish Naturalist,' p. 315, footnote. Scottish mineralogists 

 would appear to be subject to imposition l)y other nefarious practices on the 

 part of dealers in minerals ; for Professor Ileddlc denounces " the purchase, 

 at fabulous prices, of loose specimens from too {xQ,(\\\s.Xi\\y falsified localities.'^ 

 ["County Geognosy and Mineralogy of Scotland," ' Mineralogical Magazine,* 

 April 1878.] 



