Transactions. If9 



when working there I was not quite sure whether the workings 

 were in Aj'rshire or Dumfriesshire — they are close on the march of 

 the two counties — so I will just mention I found Kermes (red 

 Antimony) there, with the other usual Antimony minerals ; I do 

 not include this locality in the lists of minerals annexed to this 

 paper. The rich field for minerals at ^Yanlockhead and Leadhills 

 I need not further allude to, beyond saying that exceedingly fine 

 specimens of Calcite, Barytes, Galena, Smithsonite, and Vanadinite 

 are to be obtained there. Dr Wilson of Wanlockhead has done 

 much of late in developing the minerals of that district, and has 

 made a very fine collection ; he has most kindly contributed some 

 very fine specimens to the Observatory Museum. Leadhills is 

 actually in Lanarkshire ; the places are so near together, and the 

 minerals of both localities are so nearly identical, that they may be 

 classed in one list. Gold was at one time worked for over a large 

 area in that district, and was all obtained from the alluvial deposits 

 in the various valleys. That the gold originally came from quartz 

 " reefs " containing the metal there can be no doubt, but none of 

 these reefs, if they still exist, have been discovered ; many pieces 

 of quartz containing gold have from time to time been found by 

 the miners and others, and one tolerably large piece of quartz 

 showing a good deal of gold is now placed in the Museum of 

 Science and Art, Edinburgh, and is well worthy of attention. The 

 late Duke of Buccleuch ordered a lithographic plate to be made of 

 this interesting specimen, a copy of which will be found in the 

 Observatory Museum. Atkinson, in his " Discouverie and Historic 

 of the Gold Mynes in Scotland," 1619, mentions that a Mr George 

 Bowes obtained from James VI. a permit to work the gold mines 

 in Scotland, that at Winlocke Head he discovered " a small vaine 

 of gold which had much small gold upon it." He swore his work- 

 men to secrecy, and after working the vein for some time, carried 

 off to England a considerable quantity of gold ; before leaving, he 

 caused the shaft to be closed up and concealed ; this vein appears 

 ■to have been looked for, and is alluded to by several other parties 

 about this time ; it has never been re-found. In the preface to a 

 French account of the reign of James V., a translation of which 

 was published in London in 1710, it is said that "in the King's 

 reign (James V.) gold mines were found in Crawford Moor by the 

 Germans, which aflbrded the King great sums. The Scots did 



separate the gold from sand by washing." And again "In 



James V.'s time 300 men were employed for several summers in 



