184 The Scottish Naturalist. 



conclusions on a comparison between the gold-rocks of Otago 

 and the Lower Silurians of Scotland. Since that date I have pub- 

 lished twenty papers ^ on various subjects connected with actual 

 or possible gold-fields, gold-finds, or gold-diggings in Scotland;^ 

 all having it in view to stimulate to some sort of systematic test- 

 ing of the auriferous wealth of our Silurians and their debris. No 

 public interest, however, was taken in the matter till the discovery 

 by Robert Nelson Gilchrist in Sutherlandshire, and the effects of his 

 discovery, demonstrated unmistakably the auriferous riches of that 

 part of Scotland.^ Since the date of the Sutherland gold-diggings 

 (1869), much public interest has been manifested in all alleged 

 finds of gold in different parts of Scotland; an interest culmin- 

 ating now and then in newspaper discussions — sometimes in one 

 part of Scotland, sometimes in another. But since at Kildonan 

 what has been variously stated at ;^i 2,000 to ;£"i 5,000 worth of 

 gold was turned out by the rough operations of a few returned 

 Australian diggers, there has been a tendency to too great credulity 

 as to the nativity of gold-finds in Scotland, — the wish being natur- 

 ally father to the thought that occurring in Scotland they must be 

 of Scotch material — the genuine produce of our own rocks. If I 

 have not myself been regarded by certain geologists and mineralo- 

 gists as over-credulous regarding the gold products of Scotland, 

 and especially its gold-quartz, I have been considered at least 

 peculiarly sanguine. I mention all this to show that, had I any 

 bias at all in the matter, it would be to make out the Gemmell 

 Quartzite, if possible, Scotch or native. And, in point of fact, 

 when in 1874 and 1875 I assisted in giving publicity to the dis- 

 covery of the Gemmell Quartzite, which was first made known by 

 Dr Grierson of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, in 'Nature,' in 1873, 

 I was under the impression that its Scottish nativity would be 

 proven, though I distinctly pointed to " a flaw in the evidence as 

 to the said quartzite belonging to the rocks of Wanlockhead." 



My suspicions regarding the real nativity of the Gemmell 

 Quartzite were aroused by a visit I had in 1875 f'"^^"''' ^^^^ ^^^^ 

 Dr Moir Porteous of Wanlockhead, who has been ten or twelve 



^ Some of the principal are specified in the 'Scottish Naturalist,' vol. iv, 

 p. 268. 



- The latest series— on "The Gold-Field and Guld-Diggings of Crawford- 

 Lindsay" — is to be found in the ' Scottish Naturalist,' vol. iv. (1878). 



'•'• The latest reference I have seen to these Sutherhand Diggings was con- 

 tained in a leader in the ' Northern Ensign ' of April 25, 1878, on "Australian 

 Gold-quartz in Scotland." 



