1835.] Note on the Gold Washings of the Gdmti River. 281 



died, we should imagine, were the washers in the habit of giving the 

 amalgam to their employer, who might complete the process in close 

 retorts. It is evident that under the eye of an active and interested 

 person, a trade might be carried on here of a description by no means 

 contemptible : a much greater quantity of the mineral might be pro- 

 cured; and that on the adoption of a trade in the article, an improve- 

 ment of the apparatus might be effected, tending much to that point. 

 I have much pleasure in sending you three packets. 



No. 1, containing the sand as found in the bed of the river. 



2, the black powder, the result of the first washing in the 

 trough. 



3, the gold ore ; and shall hope to see your note on the quality 

 as well as the natural state in which the ore exists : it would appear 

 from the account of the washers that lumps or larger particles than 

 those sent are not found, although it is by no means an easy matter 

 to get correct information on points of this sort*. 



That the gold exists in any other shape than that of the present 

 specimen in these lower mountains is very improbable. The particles 

 may differ in size ; and we may in all probability detect the stratum 

 containing the gold dust, and so procure it before it has undergone 

 further attrition in the river's bed ; but we must look to the Himalayas 

 themselves for the auriferous strata, from the disintegration of which 

 the sands of these lower hills have been supplied with the mineral. 

 Captain Herbert alludes to the occurrence of the ore having been 

 traced up to a certain point in one of the tributaries of the Ramgunga, 

 a fact corroborated by Mr. Ravenshaw of the Civil Service, in a note to 

 the Society. My inquiries establish a similar limit in the Gumti river : 

 this is a point, however, that would require very careful examination, 

 and that examination under the eye of an experienced person, who, 

 after all, in such a maze of mountains and rivers, would perhaps have to 

 depend upon chance for successful prosecution of his labors. 



The occurrence of gold in alluvial soil is common to every quarter of 

 the globe, although South America and Africa provides the greatest 

 supply of commerce, and in all probability there is no extensive chain 

 of primary mountain that does not charge its drainage with the mineral 

 in question ! Its incorruptible nature, and its not being subject to the 



* These have not yet reached us. The hlack powder is however doubtless 

 bimilar to that which accompanies the gold dust in the rivers of Assam and 

 Ava : — for the most part magnetic oxide of iron. Platiaa may also be found in 

 it but rarely. The use of a strong magnet would perhaps prove advantageous, 

 before rubbing in the mercury for amalgamation. — Ed. 

 N N 



