High-level Gravels of the Cape. 55 



made up of small transparent yellowish crystals of quartz ; these 

 reefs fill cracks which have been caused by the contraction of this 

 part of the earth's surface, probably due to the contraction after the 

 heating produced by the injection of the dolerite sheets and dykes. 

 The quartz has been deposited from water, and it is very improbable 

 to my mind that the cracks can have penetrated sufficiently deep to 

 allow the metalliferous solutions that came from the earth's interior 

 to reach them. It is not, of course, impossible, for we know of 

 springs in Nevada to-day that bring gold in solution to the surface, 

 but in these comparatively recent rocks as those of the Karroo, that 

 do not date back beyond the Permian or Trias, one does not look for 

 metal-bearing reefs. The same opinion was expressed by Mr. 

 Sawyer in his report on these fields. How, then, did the gold get- 

 to the Prince Albert gold-fields ? 



As a result of my recent survey I am very strongly of opinion 

 that the gold came from the Zwartebergen, and was carried over to 

 the various localities where it is now found, on top of the old high- 

 level plateau. The evidence is satisfactory as far as I can make out, 

 for the gold is found all along the belt of high country and nowhere 

 else. If hearsay evidence can be admitted, it also points that way, 

 for I heard stories that gold had been found recently on the top of 

 the Witteberg hills at Zoetendal's Vley, and Mr. T. Bain records a 

 find of gold near the same place in 1891. I heard similar stories 

 that gold has been found in fallen blocks on the flanks of the Zwarte- 

 bergen themselves, at Scotch Kloof on the farm Damascus. I state 

 these facts simply as I heard them, and I had no means of sifting 

 them to learn what amount of truth there was in them ; when any 

 one finds gold, he keeps the fact as secret as possible and certainly 

 will not give any information to a Government official. Whether 

 these finds have been gold or no, they occur in places where they 

 very well might be, and the Zwartebergen do undoubtedly contain 

 gold in small quantities, and it is quite possible that deposits may 

 be found in them as rich as those in the Outeniqua Mountains in 

 Knysna, which are in the same formation. Further, there exist in 

 the Zwartebergen beds of true banket, which are no more than old 

 gravels, and may, of course, be barren ; but it is a significant fact 

 that the Knysna gold is found in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 similar beds of banket (Plate X. 4). 



For a reason that is not yet sufficiently explained, where there is 

 a deposit of sand and gravel, if there are any heavy metallic particles 

 borne by the stream by which they are being deposited, it is always 

 in the gravels that the metallic particles are deposited. On the 

 Rhine and on the Irawadi Eiver in India the sands are perfectly 



