314 A. LIVERSIDGE. 
— CALIFORNIA AUSTRALIA TRANSYLVANIA Nevapa 
Nuggets ........ 800 to 980| 9925 to 966 ps ee 5 
Weiss iene 730 to 860 AES 600 333 to 554 
Egleston states, ‘“‘ that the violence of the old placer currents 
was very much greater than that of the ordinary streams of these 
days,” and that ‘‘if this were the whole process and no further 
action had taken place, the gold would have been found in the 
comminuted condition exclusively.” Further “that, gold is, 
however, also found as nuggets, and in small particles in rocks 
which have never been disturbed from their original positions, but 
which have been decomposed to a considerable depth and it then 
has the same mammillary form, occupying positions which make 
it evident that it must have been formed in situ, and never have 
undergone any abrasive action. The nugget found in 1828 in 
Cabarrus Co. N.C., which weighed thirty-seven pounds, and 
also the one found in the valley of Taschku Targanka near Miask 
in Siberia, which weighed ninety-six pounds were both found under 
such circumstances in a decomposed dioritic rock. In some few 
cases it has been definitely ascertained that the gold has been 
dissolved and precipitated in the decomposed rocks, for it has 
penetrated only just so far as the decomposition has allowed it, 
the yield in gold ceasing entirely at the point where the rock 
allowed no further filtration; while in other rocks of a more 
porous nature in the same district the gold has penetrated to a 
depth not yet ascertained.” 
‘There is a tradition prevalent in all the shallow placer gold 
mines of the south, and in those of some other districts, to the 
effect that gold grows from the seed gold which is not extracted, 
so that every few years the tails of the old mines are reworked, 
generally with a profit ; the quantity separated each time, accord- 
ing to the local tradition, being in proportion to the length of 
time the material has remained undisturbed.” This admits of an 
easy explanation, although Prof. Egleston does not offer one, viz., 
that the gold is, of course, not wholly removed by the ordinary 
