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CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE CHIEF MINEKAL DEPOSITS IN BRITAIN. 



Gold. 



GOLD is always native, always alloyed with silver, and contains 

 minute quantities of copper and iron. Iron pyrites almost always con- 

 tains gold. Gold usually occurs in quartz veins, which are sometimes 

 in granite, and sometimes in schists and the older primary rocks. 

 Much gold has been obtained from the eastern slope of the Ural, a 

 little from the western slope, and from the Siberian governments of 

 Tomsk, Yenisseisk, and Irkutsk. The veins at Beresow are in 

 granite. The Austrian gold mines are on the western borders of 

 Transylvania at Zalathna, where the gold is combined with tellurium. 

 At Schemnitz and Kremnitz, gold is obtained from silver. The 

 sands of the Rhine between Bale and Mannheim, especially about 

 Strassbourg, have long yielded gold. In France the river Arriege 

 derives its name from " Aurigera." French gold is chiefly obtained 

 from lead veins. The only quartz vein in France worked for gold 

 is that of La Gardette in the department of Isere. The sands of the 

 Douro and Tagus have both been washed for gold, but at the 

 present day the only auriferous streams in the peninsula are the 

 rivers Sil and Salor. Auriferous pyrites is found in the Auzasca 

 valley near Monte Rosa ; and gold is worked in the Serpentine near 

 Genoa. 1 



Gold in Wales. The British gold mines were formerly of some 

 importance. The Romans worked a gold mine at Gogofaw, west of 

 Llandovery, in South Wales, where gold occurs in a quartz vein, 

 cutting the Arenig rocks. A more important gold region lies on the 

 north side of the river Mowddach, in Merionethshire ; and from 

 1854 to 1866, 12,800 ounces of gold were obtained in this region, 

 chiefly from the Vigra and Clogau mines. The auriferous veins run 

 east and west, and the gold was most abundant, in quartz, at the 

 points where the veins cross other mineral lodes, especially those con- 

 taining ores of silver, copper, and lead. "Welsh gold is of a pale 

 colour, owing to its being alloyed with silver ; and this circumstance 

 somewhat reduces the value of the metal. 



1 Concerning the distribution of gold and other metals, reference may be made 

 to Whitney, " Mineral Wealth of the United States ; " and John Arthur Phillips 

 on Ore Deposits. 



VOL. I. 2 D 



