ORIGIN OF GOLD NUGGETS. Son 
The presence of gold (and silver) in sea water as alleged by 
Sonstadt is confirmed by the presence of gold and silver in the 
sheathing from old vessels and piles—one specimen which I 
examined from a vessel which had long traded along the Australian 
coasts, contained traces of gold and silver, but in much larger 
proportion than one would expect in Muntz metal, but as none 
of the unexposed metal could be obtained, the difference or 
increase if any could not be determined. 
The sheathing was dissolved in pure sulphuric acid and the 
insoluble residue examined for gold and silver; with the lead 
sulphate was a comparatively large quantity of iodine, the latter 
evidently derived from the sea water. Lately I have obtained 
through the kindness of Mr. C. W. Darley, Engineer-in-Chief 
for Harbours and Rivers, specimens of sheathing from piles in 
various places along the coasts of New South Wales so that the 
age and conditions of exposure of the sheathing are known, and 
he has also been good enough to have plates of Muntz metal 
attached to piles in the following places, viz :—at Newcastle and 
on the Richmond, Clarence, Macleay, Shoalhaven and Moruya 
Rivers ; and a section through the plate has been sent to me to 
determine the silver and gold before immersion in sea water, so 
that when the immersed plates are analysed after a certain number 
of years time, any accumulation of gold and silver can be rigidly 
determined. 
One of the earliest writers in Australasia, the Revd. W. B. 
Clarke, m.a., in his Southern Gold Fields (Sydney 1860) ina letter 
to the S. M. Herald, 15th June, 1858, says p. 55, “It, 2.e., gold, 
is elaborated by vegetable growth in soils where there are no 
pretended geological indications ; it is found occasionally in rain 
water ; it may, for anything I know to the contrary, exist in the 
air, vapourized and afloat, as reguline.” 
Gustav Bischof, in his Elements of Chemical and Physical 
Geology (Car. Soc. 1859, Vol. 111., 534) says: “A silicate of gold 
may be prepared artificially, and it appears that under certain 
circumstances it may be dissolved in sensible amount. The... 
