MURCHISON. 301 



was impressed, when he read of the nature of the 

 Australian Alps, that they ought to be auriferous. 

 In 1845, and 1846, Murchison spoke and wrote on 

 this subject, and kept on directing the attention of 

 the colonists to the necessity of searching for the 

 precious mineral. In 1846 Murchison advised the 

 unemployed tin miners of Cornwall to emigrate and 

 dig for gold in Australia. In 1 847 a Mr. W. T. Smith, 

 of Sydney, acquainted Murchison that he had dis- 

 covered gold, and a Mr. Phillips, of Adelaide, wrote 

 announcing the same fact. Finally, in 1848, Murchi- 

 son impressed on Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

 for the colonies the necessity of having Australia 

 surveyed, for the purpose of gold finding. Three 

 years afterwards a Mr. Hargraves came forward as 

 the real Simon pure, and was acknowledged by the 

 ignorant legislature of New South Wales as the 

 discoverer of gold in Australia. Count Strzelecki, 

 a geologist, sent Murchison specimens of rocks 

 from Australia, and positively found gold, not by 

 inference, as in Murchison's case, but in reality. 

 But at the request of the colonial authorities it was 

 kept a secret ! ! ! The Rev. W. B. Clarke, F.R.S., 

 a capital geologist, found gold in places, and settled 

 what rocks it was in. This was in 1841. So that 

 Murchison, although not the first discoverer, or the 

 first who inferred the existence of gold in the 

 Australian rocks, must have great credit given to 

 him. 



Twenty years had passed away since Murchison 

 sold his horses and gave up fox hunting, and he 



