1848.] Metalliferous deposits in the Sub-Himalayas. 143 



known, we must search for the matrices of the precious metals, as 

 there are no auriferous alluvise. 



A very probable reason, why auriferous alluvise are not found amidst 

 the Cis-Himalayan hills, is, that besides the absence of plains, to serve 

 as dams to the streams, the whale surface of the mountains is covered 

 with tangled close vegetation, that prevents the rains cutting away the 

 soil and carrying much detritus down the streams. 



In eastern Siberia, where the richest alluvial deposits exist, the sur- 

 rounding low hills, from which they have been washed down, have been 

 found to be composed, geologically, similar to the eastern flank of the 

 Ural, so abounding in ores ; and it is most probable that most of the 

 transition series overlaying primitive strata, throughout the great central 

 Asiatic chain, will be found more or less metalliferous. Baron Hum- 

 bolt pointed out that rocks similar to those so richly auriferous in the 

 Ural, re-appear in various parallels of longitude, along the whole line 

 of Altai. — Both in Siberia and South America, granite and gneiss alone, 

 often contain rich veins of gold and silver ores. 



Captain Newbold ascertained that auriferous veins and deposits exists 

 at various points in Hindustan, extending from north to south. 



Sir R. J. Murchison states that in the Ural, Siberia, as in Mexico 

 and South America, green stone syenite and serpentine, appear invari- 

 ably to have been the agents by which the metamorphic rocks have 

 become auriferous, and that as the structure of the Taurus, and its 

 spurs, of the Amanus, and Kurdistan mountains, is precisely similar, 

 there is every reason to believe, that gold will be found scattered through- 

 out western Asia ; and as similar rocks contain gold in Kamtschatka, 

 they are therefore in all probability continued throughout all the great 

 primitive ranges of Asia. 



It has been well remarked that so far as regards our own material 

 interests, the great augmentation of precious metals in Russia, should 

 be met by increased activity of research on our parts, by qualified per- 

 sons in Hindustan, as well as other British dependencies. 



Should metallic ores ever be discovered at, or around Darjeeling, 

 either in our own or any native state, a rapid increase of population 

 would ensue ; and in working such mines, one great advantage would 

 arise from tiie remarkable disintegration of the gneiss rock, which could 



