ON THE METHOD OF MAKING GOLD-ASSAYS. 127 
the sea. The total water-area of the harbour, including docks and basins, 
amounts to about 100 acres; and the total length of available quayage 
16,433 linear feet. The area of timber-ponds at present in existence is 
64a. 2r. 20 p. 
The total number of vessels which entered the Port last year was 7538, 
of an aggregate registered tonnage of 1,268,845 tons ; and the revenue for 
the same year (1873) amounted to £69,681 8s. 7d. 
The Plans illustrative of this paper are :— 
Prats I. Map of Belfast in 1660, and Map of the Port and Harbour of 
Belfast in 1840, j 
Pure II, Map of the Port and Harbour of Belfast in 1874. 
Prarn III. Sheet of Sections of the Timber and Stone Quays; and a Lon- 
gitudinal Section of the river Lagan from first Canal Lock to Queen’s Bridge 
in 1874, and of the Harbour and present navigable channels from Queen’s 
Bridge to Holywood Lighthouse, showing the greatest depths in the years 
1826, 1856, and 1874. ; 
Report of the Committee, consisting of W.Cnanpirr Roserts, Dr. 
Mitts, Dr. Boycortr, A. W. GaprspeEn, and J. 8. Seton, appointed 
for the purpose of inquiring into the Method of making Gold-assays, 
and of stating the Results thereof. Drawn up by W. CHANDLER 
Roserts, Secretary. 
Iw their last Report the Committee described the results of a series of 
experiments made with a view to determine the degree of accuracy to which 
it is possible to attain in gold-assaying. It was proved that the error was 
included between the iru and wan parts of the portion of metal operated 
upon. They recommended that a standard plate of pure gold, prepared by 
the Chemist of the Mint, should be adopted as a basis for a new series of com- 
parisons between the reports of different assayers ; but during the past year 
the Committee haye rejected this plate in favour of a second, which proved to 
be of a sensibly higher degree of purity. 
This new plate was submitted in December last to a jury of assayers, sum- 
moned by the Goldsmiths’ Company, and their certificate as to its purity is 
published in the Report of the Deputy Master of the Mint for 1873, p. 58. 
Portions of this plate have since been sent by the Warden of the Standards, 
to whom the custody of the trial plates is entrusted, to Mr. Du Bois of the 
United States Mint, to M. Péligot at Paris, to the Chevalier Van Riemsdijk of 
the Netherlands Mint, and to M. Stas at Brussels, as well as to the Assayers 
of the Mints at Sydney and Melbourne. 
- Only one Report has as yet been received, and the Committee therefore 
considered that they were not in a position to proceed further with the 
investigation before this Meeting of the British Association. 
