112 DESCRIPTIONS OF MINERALS. 



reduce the material to loose earth and prepare it for further 

 washing by the same water in sluices arranged for the pur- 

 pose. 



The minerals most common in gold regions are platinum, 

 iridosmine, magnetite, pyrite, galenite, ilmenite, chalco- 

 pyrite, blende, tetradymite, zircon, rutile, barite ; also in 

 some cases wolfram, scheelite, brookite, monazite and dia- 

 mond. Platinum and iridosmine accompany the gold of 

 the Urals, Brazil and California ; and diamonds are found 

 in the gold region of Brazil, and occasionally in the Urals 

 and United States. 



Gold is widely distributed over the globe. In America, 

 it occurs in Brazil (where formerly a greater part oi that 

 used was obtained) along the chain of mountains which 

 runs nearly parallel with the coast, especially near Villa 

 Eica, and in the province of Minas Geraes ; in New Granada, 

 at Antioquia, Choco and Giron ; in Chili ; sparingly in Peru 

 and Mexico ; in Arizona ; in the Coast Range, and, much 

 more abundantly, in the Sierra Nevada, California ; in 

 Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska ; in New Mexico, 

 Colorado, and "Wyoming, and other parts of the Eocky 

 Mountain region ; in the Appalachians from Virginia to 

 Georgia, a region that formerly produced annually nearly a 

 million of dollars ; very sparingly in Vermont, New Haaip- 

 shire, and other New England States ; in Nova Scotia ; in 

 Beauce County, Canada ; also, north of Lake Superior ; 

 and in the gravel of Illinois and Indiana. 



In Eukope, it occurs sparingly in Cornwall and Devon, 

 England ; North Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, formerly in 

 the County of Wicklow, where a nugget of 22 ounces was 

 found ; and in France, very sparingly in the Department of 

 Isere ; in the sands of the Rhine, the Reuss, and the Aar ; 

 in Tyrol and Salzburg ; on the southern slope of the Pen- 

 nine Alps, from the Simplon and Monte Rosa to the Valley 

 of Aosta, Northern Piedmont, where nearly 6,000 ounces 

 were obtained in 1867 ; more abundantly in Hungary, at 

 Konigsberg, Sehemnitz and Felsobanya/ and in Transyl- 

 vania, at Kapnik, Vorospatak and Offenbanya ; in Spain, 

 formerly worked in Asturias ; in Sweden, at Edelfors. 



In the Urals are valuable mines at Beresof, and other 

 places on the eastern or Asiatic flank of this range, and the 

 comparatively level portions of Siberia ; also in the Altai 

 Mountains. Also in the Cailas Mountains in Little Thibet ■ 



