342 A. LIVERSIDGE. 
masses, nearly equal in weight to the largest nuggets, have been 
met with in veins, and probably will again ; the gold found in 
alluvial deposits may represent the contents of hundreds of feet 
(in height) of vein stuff which has been removed by denudation. 
The vein-stuff removed by the miner is infinitesimal in com- 
parison with the amount which has been removed by geological 
agencies, and if we could by any means make a fair comparison 
between the two, we should probably find that the proportion of 
large masses met with in veins is not unequal to that found in 
alluvial deposits. 
After answering the arguments brought forward to show that 
nuggets have had a different origin to vein gold, many reasons may 
be brought forward to show that nuggets have been derived from 
veins.. It has already been pointed out that all the large nuggets. 
have had more or less quartz attached to them, which shows that 
they have either been set free from quartz veins or else that the 
two substances had been deposited together in the alluvial, and as. 
we have no proof of quartz, 7.¢., of the particular kind associated 
with gold nuggets, being deposited otherwise than in reefs, the 
latter explanation is hardly tenable. 
Many of the water worn quartz boulders, pebbles, and sand 
found with gold are admitted to have come from gold bearing 
rocks and reefs, that being so, why should we seek for another 
origin for the associated water worn pebbles of gold ? 
Further if it be contended that all the large nuggets have been 
formed in sitw, from gold in solution, then we may ask, what has. 
become of the large masses of gold which must have been set free 
from the veins by denudation? Masses, which we know must 
have been comparable to the largest nuggets, for several such 
have been mined, and as Prof. Whitney has pointed out,—why is 
alluvial gold not found as plates and strings if it has been deposited 
in situ? 
There is no doubt in my mind, first that gold is present in 
meteoric waters, although, as already stated, no absolute chemical 
