266 NOTES OX THE OCCURRENCE OF GOLD IN PRINCE ALBERT. 



quartz removed, the gold sticks out in flat, platey pieces, which- 

 eventually become bent over against the remaining quartz. This^ 

 has led people to believe that the gold cannot be derived from a. 

 reef since it appears to have grown round the fragments of 

 quartz, and we consequently hear of a theory being advanced that 

 all the gold has been dissolved out of a certain bed of sandstone^, 

 which is stated to contain as much as 2 dwt. per ton, and re- 

 crystallized from solution, in the form of nuggets, at the spots- 

 where the latter are now found. In support of this theory it is 

 quoted that in some specimens distinct crystal faces are noticed. 



A careful examination of the specimens found confirmed the 

 writer's first opinion that they were reef gold. Every step in the 

 formation of a waterworn nugget from a piece of rich reef is well 

 illustrated. The fact that some of the gold shows crystal faces is- 

 easier of explanation in the case of reef gold than in that of nug- 

 gets crystallized in soil, for in reefs, especially such as are found 

 in this locality, there is generally more space for crystals to develop- 

 than there would be in soil. In the latter case, too, the dissolving 

 and recrystallizing would have to take place under conditions very 

 similar to those existing at the present day, which are by no means 

 favourable, at any rate for the dissolving of surface gold. 



The geological formation at the Ganze Kraal locality is very 

 simple. The bed rocks are shales and fine-grained sandstones 

 belonging to the Beaufort Series. Saurian remains are fairly 

 plentiful in the vicinity. These Beaufort Beds lie on the Ecca Beds, 

 the basement conglomerate of which crops out many miles to the 

 south at the Great Tygerberg. Tills range of hills is formed by 

 an upheaval which has thrust the Witteberg Quartzites through the 

 Ecca Series. Further south there is a similar, but much greater, 

 upheaval, which has brought the Zwartberg Mountains into beiny. 



From the village of Prince Albert, at the northern foot of the 

 Zwartberg Range, there is a gradual increase of elevation from 

 2,100 feet to 4,400 feet above sea level, the latter being the eleva- 

 tion of Ganze Kraal. At this point there is a rather flat anticline, 

 the axis of which, running east and west, is a little north of the 

 spot where the best specimens of gold have been found. 



The bed rock consists mostly of very fine-grained sandstone, 

 merging on the one hand to a shale and on the other to an ordinary 

 sandstone. A large number of perfect cubes of iron pyrites are 

 met with, scattered through the rock. Near the surface they have 

 been partly or completely oxidised to Limonite. Here and there 

 small irregular masses of Calcite are found, evidently a secondary 

 formation. At many localities calcareous nodules are found in the 

 rock, sometimes in large quantities. The dip of the beds is not 

 great, and the surface is gently undulating. At Hartebcest 

 Fontein it is more hilly, and at Spreeuwfontein still more so, but 

 the beds, though considerably denudeS, are not much tilted. 



Right through the gold belt a very large number of small 

 quartz reefs are met with, all running approximately east and west. 

 These reefs, or leaders, as they are locally termed, are of various- 

 widths, from mere threads up to one foot, and represent cracks 

 formed parallel to the axis of the anticline. These cracks have 

 been filled, or nearly filled with quartz, a marked feature of most 



