310 A. LIVERSIDGE. 
of nuggets and points out that most of the large nuggets have had 
a great quantity of quartz adhering to them or intermixed with 
them, clearly indicating that the nuggets must have come from a 
quartz reef, or else the gold and quartz must both have been 
deposited together from meteoric water in the drift. 
In Mr. W. Birkmyre’s list of nuggets quoted by Mr. Brough 
Smyth, he says of the Welcome nugget, weight one hundred and 
eighty-four pounds nine ounces (Troy) that it was apparently 
water worn and contained about ten pounds of quartz, clay and 
oxide of iron. 
The Blanche Barkley which weighed one hundred and forty-five 
pounds three ounces, apparently contained two pounds of quartz, 
clay and oxide of iron. 
The next in his list weighed one hundred and thirty-four pounds 
eleven ounces, contained dark coloured quartz. 
In fact he mentions the association of quartz with nearly all 
the very large nuggets, and expressly states that many of the. 
smaller ones were free from quartz; as we might naturally expect. 
Brough Smyth remarks that, ‘“‘ much stress is laid on the fact 
that nuggets are sometimes found at a considerable distance from 
a quartz reef”; but it may be, that the reef from which the nugget 
has been set free may have been completely denuded away, its 
matrix need not necessarily have been the nearest now existing 
reef. He quotes Ulrich’s remarks in support of Selwyn’s 
hypothesis of the formation of gold nuggets im sifw in alluvial 
deposits: ( Notes on the Physical Geography, Geology and Mineralogy. 
of Victoria by Alfred R. C. Selwyn and Geo. Ulrich, Melbourne, 
1866, p. 43), but points out that if such is the case in the present 
day, then the older sedimentary rocks ought from the greater 
lapse of time to contain large masses of gold. Moreover large 
nuggets are not confined to deep leads, but many have been found 
only a few inches below the surface. He also says that the state- 
ment that all the large nuggets have been found on the western 
gold fields where basaltic eruptions have been prevalent is errone- 
