378 Transactions.— Chemistry. 
upper layers ; and their superior fineness of quality as compared with that 
of any of the reef gold found in their vicinity. 
Impressed by these facts Mr. A. C. Selwyn proposed another theory for 
explaining the origin of these nuggets, and one which certainly appears to 
meet the question upon the particular points just cited. This theory is “ that 
nuggets may be formed and that particles of gold may increase in size through 
the deposition of gold from the meteoric waters percolating the drifts, which 
water, during the time of our extensive basaltic eruptions, must have been of 
a thermal, and probably of a highly saline character, favourable to their carry- 
ing gold in solution.”* 
At the time this idea was broached nothing systematic or thorough had 
been undertaken towards investigating this matter as to the probable presence 
of gold in those meteoric or saline waters referred to, and nothing whatever 
had been accomplished towards showing any likely means by which gold, 
depositing from such solutions, would be determined upon itself as a continuous 
couting, and in such quantity as occasionally to form nuggets of the enormous 
size we find them in such drifts, nor did Mr. Selwyn indeed make any 
suggestion on this matter ; perhaps considering the initiation of such an idea 
sufficient for his part, he left the support of it to the ingenuity of chemists, 
to whom in fact such a labour rightfully belonged ; in reality, so little was 
known in support of this theory at the time of its evolution that it seemed in 
the highest degree chimerical. Since then, however, chemical investigations 
have given us results greatly in favour of this idea. Thus in the first place 
as regards the presence of gold in a soluble state in the waters percolating 
our drifts, it appears that Mr. Daintree found gold in pyrites which had 
obviously replaced the organic structure of a tree occurring in a drift-bed, 
and Mr. Newbery, Analyst to the Geological Survey of Victoria, afterwards 
obtained the same results upon other pyrites occurring in a similar manner, 
both results showing that gold must have been “ presented to the pyrites in a 
soluble form.” 
_ Since that time gold has been by no means unfrequently discovered to be 
present in certain mineral and mine waters, and indeed Mr. Daintree has 
_ recently found gold while testing the water of a mine in Victoria. 
Perhaps, though, the most important communication we have relative to 
this subject is that of E. Sonstadt, “On the Presence of Gold in Sea-water,” 
(“Chemical News,” 4th October, 1872), This metal has indeed before this 
been alleged to exist in sea-water, bnt these allegations have not been sustained 
with such evidence and accompanied with such detailed description of pro- 
cesses employed as entitled them to an unreserved belief on our part. Son- 
* ** Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. of Victoria,” Vol. Ix p. 53. 
