GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 247 



53,810,212?. ; in South Australia, 160,000?. ; in Tasmania, 8000?.; 

 in New Zealand, 140,000?. ; total, 101,371,828?. 



THE "WELCOME" GOLD NUGGET FROM BALLAAEAT. 



Professor Tenxant exhibited at the late meeting of the British 

 Association at Oxford, the " Welcome" Gold-Nugget, found, 

 June 11. 1858, at Bakery Hill, Ballaarat, Australia. "The weight 

 ■of the original nugget was 2166 ounces. It was melted Sept. 22, 

 1859, and yielded quartz, earthy matter, &c, 1 4 < 3 i oz. ; pure gold, 

 2019f oz. Value of the gold S376?. 10s. 10d., being the largest 

 gold-migget known. 



A gold-nugget was found in 1857 at Kingovver Diggings, 120 miles 

 from Melbourne, which was called the " Blanche Barkly Nugget ;" 

 it was 2 feet 4 inches long, and 10 inches in its widest part, and 

 weighed 1743 ounces ; it was melted August 4, 185S, and yielded 

 gold to the value of 6905?. 12s. 9d. This nugget was exhibited 

 several months at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. — See Notts on a 

 Gold-Nugget from Australia, by Professor Tcnnaut. 



GOLD IN VEINS. 



Dr. William P. Blake has made to the American Association 

 some remarks on the Distribution of Gold in Veins. His observa- 

 tions had shown him the fallacy of the common opinion that, if gold 

 is found at one end of a quartz vein it extends through that vein. It 

 follows a general vertical direction, and we should dig down for in 

 instead of lengthwise. One gold mine in Georgia, when dug but 10 

 feet deep, yielded 10,000 dollars ; a single bushel of the blasted rock 

 yielded 3000 dollars. He showed some remarkable nuggets from 

 Georgia, quite equal in size and beauty to those from California and 

 Australia. The nuggets came from the Nacoochee mines in Georgia, 

 one of them weighing 387 pennyweights. There was also a quantity 

 of coarse grain, 200 pennyweights, washed out of the soil on the 

 summit of a high ridge. He argued that gold is of igneous origin. 



GOLD IN NEW ZEALAND. 



Dr. Hociistetter has delivered at Nelson, in New Zealand, a 

 second lecture on the Mineral Products of that province. He states 

 that the whole region of the eastern side of the Aorere Valley, rising 

 from the river-bed towards the steep sides of the mountains, and 

 occupying from the Clarke River towards the south, to the Parapara 

 on the north, a superficial extent of about 40 English miles, is 

 a gold-field. Throughout this whole district, on the foot of the 

 range, we find a conglomerate deposited on the top of the slate rocks, 

 (reaching in some places to a thickness of 20 feet. Pieces of drift- 

 wood, changed into brown coal, indicate a probably tertiary age of 

 this conglomerate formation. This is not only cut through by the 

 deep gullies of the larger streams, but in some places washed by the 

 more superficial action of occasional water, and so divided into 

 parallel and rounded ridges, of which that portion of the district 

 called the Quartz Ranges, is a characteristic example. This con- 



