240 



HISTORY OP CALIFORNIA. 



circumstances in methods that will be alluded to in a 

 future chapter. In pepitas and small grains it is car 

 ried down by streams and deposited in their beds, the 

 pepitas being usually most abundant where there is 

 reason to suppose considerable disintegration of the 

 surface, and where the action of denuding causes to a 

 great extent is evident. The coast of Africa and the 

 rivers of Europe are examples of the former case, 

 while the Siberian deposits and those of California 

 would appear to belong to the latter. 



The following are examples of the constituent parts 

 of various specimens of gold obtained from different 

 gold districts, and will form a useful guide for com 

 parison. 



Table showing the Composition of Native Gold.* 



The gold from California, according to the assay 

 of Mr. Warwick of New York, yields 89*58 per cent, 

 pure gold, and is therefore, about equal to that ob 

 tained from the washings of Miask (the richest district 

 in Western Siberia, and that producing the largest 

 pepitas,) and superior, as the assayer remarks, to the 

 gold dust from Senegal. 



There is a remarkable mixture of native gold with 



* Abridged from Dufresnoy's " Mineralogie." 



