CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE OF SOME GOLD NUGGETS. 259 



On the CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE of some GOLD 



NUGGETS from VICTORIA, NEW ZEALAND, and 



KLONDYKE. 



By A. Liversidge, m.a., ll.d., f.r.s., 



Professor of Chemistry in the University of Sydney. 



[With Plates X. - XIII.] 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, November 1, 1899.'] 



In a previous paper on the crystalline structure of gold and 

 platinum nuggets, 1 an account was given of some nuggets from 

 New South Wales and West Australia: since then some nuggets 

 from other widely separated localities have been obtained and 

 sections cut from them, and reproductions of photographs of some 

 of the typical sections accompany this paper, so that they may 

 be compared with the preceding series. 



Victorian Nuggets. — Several nuggets from Victorian alluvial 

 gold fields were kindly obtained for me by Mr E. Barton, Deputy 

 Master of the Royal Mint, Melbourne. Of the sections prepared 

 two are illustrated herewith as being typical. 



The nugget, (Plate 10, fig. 1) from Gippsland, was dark in colour 

 from the presence of ferruginous matter filling up the pores and 

 cavities. The nugget was flattened in form, with approximately 

 parallel sides as if it had been formed in a narrow fissure, and was 

 about one-third of an inch in thickness. As will be seen from the 

 section the surface fissures and pits do not pass into the substance 

 of the nugget in any well defined way, although the interior also 

 shows numerous pits and patches of ferruginous matter; the dark 

 appearance of the section (fig. 2) is largely due to the numerous 

 granules and patches of ferruginous matter ; although this foreign 

 material looks as if it were present in great quantity, the amount 

 is really not great, and the quality or assay value of the Gippsland 



1 Journal Royal Society of N, S. Wales, 1897. 



