136 



THE PIEDMONT REGION. 



position of the different rocks and the degree of development of the gold 

 veins of the various types in each by the size of the dark blocks opposite 

 its name, may make this clearer : 



Geological 

 Eras. 



Rocks in the 

 Order of 



THEIR 



Superposition 



VEINS. 



< 



o ^ 

 ^ 2 



o 



Pi 



o 

 o 



< 



O 

 H 



o 



i-i 



-pv , A •!■ f Super If acolumitic 



Post Auriferous I Limestone. 



II. 



Auriferous. 



III. 



Sub-Auriferous. 



IV. 



'' Itacolumitie 

 Rocks. 



{ Clay Slate. 

 Talc Slate. 

 Mica Slate. 



(^ Gneiss. 



Anti-Auriferous— Granite. 





These facts support the views of Sir Roderick Murchison and Lieber, 

 that there has been a golden age among the geological periods. Here it 

 seems clearly marked as the period when the talc slates were forming. 

 As to whether the gold came up from the bowels of the earth, through 

 the agency of eruptive forces peculiar to that or a subsequent period, or 

 had a meteoric origin, falling upon what was then the surface, from the 

 interplanetary spaces, just as iron dust is now falling on the perpetual 

 snows of the east coast of Greenland, may be matter for discussion. Gold 

 certainly gives out at certain depths ; whether it exists at all at still lower 

 depths is unknown. That it exists outside of the earth the metalic 

 vapors of the sun and stars revealed by the spectroscope renders prob- 

 able. 



