140 Notes from Correspondents. 



bands of this drift, with intervening beds of sand, drift, or felspathic 

 clay, the lower one, which is always on the bed rock, containing 

 very large unwieldy boulders. Gold was found in some half dozen 

 of the tributaries flowing into the Ullie from the north. Mining 

 operations, however, had been confined chiefly to the Kildonan, the 

 Suisgill, and the Torrish, — the two former being the more favourite 

 grounds. Eespecting the origin of the gold, he referred to the latest 

 propounded theories on the subject. Sir Eoderick Murchison takes 

 us to the grand central plateau of Sutherland, whilst Mr. Campbell 

 of Islay, who has written a pamphlet on the subject, hesitates whe- 

 ther to travel a little farther and carry us to Lapland and the Polar 

 regions. Sir Eoderick attributes the gold to the abrasion of the 

 granites and metamorphic Lower Silurian rocks, in the interior, which 

 have been carried by glacial action down the eastern slopes of 

 Sutherland, and deposited in straths and valleys, such as those of the 

 Ullie and its burns, the Kildonan, Suisgill, Torrish, etc. \- whilst 

 Mr. Campbell points to the fact of gold being found in Unst in 

 Shetland, and in river drifts in Scandinavia and Lapland,. — and, refer- 

 ring to data collected by himself and others respecting the curves of 

 the glacial flow, suggests the possibility of the gold being brought by 

 icebergs and glaciers from these Boreal regions. The Eev. Mr. Joass 

 is inclined to infer that the granite may yet be found to be the 

 matrix of the gold, and remarks that the material in which granular 

 gold occurs, namely, the detritus, is not necessarily far travelled, foi' 

 it includes boulders of apparently local origin. Mr. Cameron, whilst 

 admitting all conclusions as yet to be more or less conjectural, is 

 inclined to agree with Mr. Joass in ascribing the gold to a local 

 origin, and probably to a granite matrix. With respect to the ques- 

 tion as to whether the Sutherland gold fields would pay to work, 

 Mr. Cameron says, upon the whole, whilst doubting the desirability 

 of these fields for individual labour, he was disposed to believe that, 

 with united enterprise and combined labour and capital, and with 

 systematic and economical working, which would be vastly aided by 

 the great natural advantages of the country, satisfactory results would 

 be obtained. 



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NOTES FEOM COEEESPONDENTS.i 



NOTES ON THE Fleet and Chesil Bane. — Me. Edwaed Wilson 

 sends us a long letter, in which he discusses, among other 

 topics, the origin of the present outline of the coast of the Fleet. 

 Maintaining that at one time, before the Chesil Bank was formed, the 

 land from Abbotsbury to Portland was shaped into cliffs like the 

 coast now west of Abbotsbury, he is inclined to regard its present 

 shape as due to a peculiar kind of denudation, such as might be per- 



* In consequence of the small space at our disposal, we are compelled to make 

 abstracts of a number of letters ; but our correspondents will, we feel sure, not 

 complain of this, as we have given them good notice (see the Prefatory remarks to 

 Vols. V. and VI).— Edit. 



