Washbourn. — On the Formation of Gold. 405 



the gold concentrated out of an immense extent of country 

 into narrow channels, have been found and followed. 



9. " It is on hard bottoms, false or true, over which the 

 drift- water mostly flows, that the washdirt as a rule is richest." 

 This is not borne out by experience. The richest gold is found 

 on the bottom that forms and retains the best mechanical 

 catches with regard to the course of the depositing stream ; 

 and where the bottom has any advantage for catching and 

 retaining the gold, there the richest places will be ; and, as a 

 rule, these are on the higlier portions, where the drift-water 

 would not flow. 



10. " The marked quantity of reddish oxide of iron at the 

 level of the richest washdirt is partly accounted for by the 

 oxidizing power of chloride of gold." It maybe; but I do 

 not see how this would account for the fact that all minerals 

 of high specific gravity associated with the gold in the rock 

 are found deposited with it in all its situations, and, like the 

 gold, more or less water- worn. To any one exj^erienced in 

 gi'ound- sluicing this is clear enough, as precisely all the action 

 of drift-formation is seen on a small scale, and the phenomena 

 mentioned to show" that the gold formed in the drift will in- 

 variably take place in it. It is the natural result of force of 

 water acting on material of different specific gra\dties ; and the 

 action is just the same, the only difference being the magnitude 

 of the operations. If gold were found in the drift clearly- 

 separated from any of its heavy rock-associates, it would be a 

 stronger argument in favour of its having been formed there 

 than anything that has been brought forward yet. 



The question is not, Is it possible under certain conditions 

 for gold to form in a drift? but, Is there any evidence to show 

 that it has done so to any appreciable extent? While admitting 

 that it is quite possible under favourable conditions for gold to 

 have formed in the drifts, I do not think that there is the 

 slightest evidence that it has done so to any noticeable extent. 

 A careful examination of drift-gold under a powerful mag- 

 nifying-glass would be of assistance in determining the ques- 

 tion : for if it formed in the drift it certainly should not have 

 an abraded surface ; and this, I think, all drift-gold will be 

 found to have, with the possible exception of a very little that 

 has been released by disintegration of the matrix while in the 

 drift. I believe that nuggets have grown as defined above, 

 but think it has been in the hollow vughy water-channels or 

 lodes in the rock, not in the drift-gravel. 



