GOLD 701 



the other granular, rather than nuggety. Griffin prospected St. Mary's loch district, 

 and found gold in dust or granules everywhere. 



' 3. Head-waters of the Annan, Moffutdalo ; streams falling into Moffat water ; 

 Hartfell range, about Dobbs Linn; several small finds of gold were made in the 

 summer of 1863, and one small nugget, weighing about 6 grs., was exhibited in 

 Moffat.' 



Sutherland Diggings from 1867 to 1869. In 1867 it was noised abroad that gold 

 was abundant in Sutherland, and for a period a considerable number of adventurers 

 were found working, for gold, on the estates of the Duke of Sutherland. 



The following are the only returns which have been obtained, as the result of the 

 workings in this district : 



ozs dwt gra s. d. 



1868. Helmsdale : Sutherland . . 577 valued at 2,000 



1869. Kildonan . 17 17 8 61 3 9 



The monthly returns of gold from the diggers at Kildonan were declared as 

 follow : 



ozs. dwt. grs. 



17 17 8 



It is tolerably certain that some gold was obtained, which was not declared by the 

 , diggers ; but the fact of all the works being abandoned proved that the gold found 

 was insufficient to pay for the labour bestowed upon it. On April 20, 1869, Mr. J. F. 

 Campbell, of Islay, wrote thus in his ' Something from "the Diggins " in Sutherland ' : 

 ' The Sutherland " diggins " are now established and likely to be worked for some 

 time to come. More than 280 men are paying a pound a month for leave to camp out 

 and work like navvies in claims of 40 feet square ; so that they must be earning wages 

 or going crazy. If many men go away, more diggers arise daily, and gold is almost 

 daily found at new spots. It is estimated that 6,000/. has been washed from the 

 shingle of two small burns already.' 



At Helmsdale, near the mouth of the river, and in the jaws of the glen, are more 

 heaps of stuff like Brora moraines, and the Helmsdale leads back to Beinn Ormen and 

 Clibric again. Gold has been found in burns, which come in from both sides of the 

 Helmsdale strath, in burns which come from the south, and in those which come from 

 the Caithness range on the north. The source of the gold has not yet been found in 

 Helmsdale. The gold is in stuff sorted by modern burns, and it is now worked in 

 watercourses which come down from the Caithness side of the Helmsdale glen. These 

 are branch-burns, which arise amongst bare granite and Silurian rocks, and flow down 

 the side of the main groove towards the main river. These branch -burns have done a 

 good deal of digging and carving on their own account ; they have done more than the 

 main river ; so they have worked longer. The Kildonan Burn has carved a trench 

 in crystalline Silurian rock from the place where the chief diggings are now carried on 

 down to the farmhouse. It is about 20 feet below the road ; it is about 80 feet deep 

 behind the new township, which has been christened Baile'-n-oir, or Golden Town. In 

 this it is like other buAs, and marks a gradual rise of land at this spot. Where the 

 fall is rapid, this rock-groove is now washed clean, or left with a few large stones on 

 the bottom. Above this bit of river-cutting is a ' flat,' in which a lot of rolled drift 

 settled probably long before the rock-cut was deepened by the stream below the flat. 

 The water in this ' flat ' or ' creek ' now meanders through rolled drift, washing it, 

 carrying off the lighter parts and leaving big stones, heavy iron-sand, garnets, and 

 gold. Little gold has been got out of the actual watercourse, but some was found 

 there at first, and that find started the diggings. For about a mile, the whole of this 

 water- worn drift is being turned over and washed in various contrivances, and every- 

 one of these engines is worked on the same principle as the natural engine which 

 washed and sorted this drift. 



* 6r-mSn=gold mine. 



