5 THE PROSPECTOR'S HANDBOOK 



triluition of the metal in these as it usually does in most 

 deposits where the portions nearest the bed-rock are richest. 

 Here, too, it may be mentioned that in conglomerates, such 

 as the South African, the gold is not chiefly in the pebbles, 

 but in the matter which binds them together. 



Nearly every country in Europe lias yielded gold under 

 the usual circumstances, in deposits and veins in rocks older 

 than the carboniferous formation?, in metamorphic rocks, &c. 



The precious metal has been found not generally very 

 lucratively in the muds and sands of such rivers as the 

 Danube, Elbe, Oder, Weser, Rhine, and in many of the 

 lesser rivers, and consequently some parts of the hill districts 

 through which they pass contain auriferous rocks. Austro- 

 Hungary is rich in lodes (the gold being sometimes found as 

 a telluride), and the extent of the gold-bearing alluvial de- 

 posits of the Ural Mountains is enormous. (See Fig. 37.) 



In the British Isles gold is found in various parts of Scot- 

 land, in Ireland, in Cornwall, Devon, Lancashire, and more 

 especially in Wales. In North Wales not only has it been 

 gathered from the beds of rivers and sand on the seashore, 

 but has been and also is being obtained from lodes (one of 

 which was worked by the Eomans). The auriferous quartz 

 reefs (carrying iron pyrites, galena, &c.) run through slates 

 of the old fossiliferous rocks (Lower and Upper Cambrian), 

 and at the intersection of these gold-bearing lodes with 

 other copper and silver bearing ones the reefs are some- 

 times rich. 



The Western States and territories of North America 

 (especially California), some of the Southern States of North 

 America, Canada, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Central 

 America, Chili, Venezuela, Brazil (some of the mines have 

 for ages back been worked very lucratively), Australia 

 (Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Aus- 

 tralia, New South Wales, and especially Victoria), New 

 Zealand, West Coast of Africa, South Africa, India, &c., 

 Borneo, New Guinea, Philippine Islands, Ceylon, Mada- 

 gascar, Persia, and others unmentioned, are all gold-bearing 

 countries. 



Some of the conditions in which gold is met with in a few 

 of the leading places are herewith given. 



