Intelligence and Miscellanemis Articles. 4-73 



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The gold of different localities varies very much in size. That 

 from the banks and sand-bars of the rivers, is generally in the form 

 of small flattened scales, and commonly it is found to be finer the 

 lower down you descend the stream, 'i'hat taken from the bottoms 

 of the dry ravines, which everywhere abound in these mountains, 

 and furnish outlets for the torrents of the rainy season into the prin- 

 cijDal streams, is mostly of larger size, and occurs both in small par- ■ 

 tides and also in small lumps and irregular water- worn masses, from 

 the size of wheat kernels to pieces of several ounces or even pounds 

 in weight. The fine gold of these ravines is commonly less worn 

 and flattened than that in the alluvium of the rivers. And the flat- 

 tened scale- like form of the gold in these latter deposits would seem 

 to be owing to the great malleability of the metal — the stones and 

 jiebbles among which the minuter particles and fragments of the 

 original vein of native metal chanced to lie, and hy which they were 

 rudely hammered, having performed very effectually the gold-beater's 

 otHce, and gradually reduced the rough angular particles, on their 

 granite anvils, to the flattened spangles which we now observe. 

 Some of these flakes are often an inch or more in diameter and 

 scarcely thicker than paper. Many specimens bear the distinct 

 impression of the crystalline structure of granite and other rocks ; 

 and I have seen several pieces deeply stamped, as with a die, by 

 crystals of quartz, the form of the crystal being as distinctly apparent 

 as the device on a gold eagle fresh from the United States mint. 



The black, ferruginous sand, which everywhere accompanies the 

 gold, and which, from its great specific gravity, remains with it in 

 the bowl or machine after the other earthy materials have been re- 

 moved, varies in fineness with the size of the accompanying gold ; 

 that obtained in connection with the fine river gold being of the 

 fineness of writing sand, while that associated with the coarse gold 

 of the ravines is often as large as wheat kernels, or peas, and some- 

 times of the size of hazel nuts or w^alnuts. These coarser pieces are 

 fragments of crystals very hard and heavy. I found no specimens 

 with the faces complete, and have not the means of knowing to what 

 species they belong, but suppose them to be magnetic iron. That the 

 •fine sand is composed of fragments of the same crystals greatly com- 

 minuted, I infer from the regular gradation of the one into the other. 



I am not aware that the gold has yet been discovered in place, or 

 ir .bedded in its native matrix. The slates, however, of the gold re- 

 i;ion, as I have before observed, are often traversed by dykes or beds 

 of quartz rock, and I have examined these in many places for indica- 

 iions of the presence of the metal, but could detect no traces of it. 

 Individuals have asserted that they have found veins of it in the rocks, 

 but they have refused to divulge the place where, inasmuch as they 

 intended to work the veins themselves as soon as the season would 

 permit. Though these statements are of course not impossible nor 

 indeed improbable, I do not consider the fact as established by tes- 

 timony, since the witnesses are men in whom I place but little con- 

 fidence. 



The amount of gold taken from these mines it is impossible to 



