NOTES AND QUERIES. 



159 



from Beauvais, in France, analysed by Berthier, is also of a honey yellow colour, 

 and found in chalk. It occurs lining small cavities, and in veins, sometimes in 

 little reniform masses, and with a resinous or waxy lustre ; the analysis is as 

 follows : 



S Al fl Fe Ca C 

 Woolwich.— 20.50 31.34 42.91 0.31 1.92 2.73=99.71.— A B. Northcote. 

 France.— 21.90 29.20 44,20 Clay 4.7 = 100.— Berthier. 



J. R. G. 



To the Editor of t/ie (jteologist. 

 Sir, — I beg to inform your correspondent, G. S., that it is in the Dolgelly 

 district of North Wales where auriferous minerals have been chiefly discovered, 

 and where the geological conditions are said to be analogous to those of some other 

 gold- producing countries. Gold has been found in the mines known as Vigra, 

 Clogau, Cacgwain. ^Yellington, Victoria, Lachfraith, Cambrian, Prince of Wales, 

 \Vest Prince of Wales, Glasdir, Tyddyngwladis, Dolfrwynog, Xorth Dolfrwyuog, 

 West Dolfrwynog, Cwmheisian, Berthllwyd, and Caegwernog. I have myself foucd 

 gold in quartz, carbonate of lime, slate, chlorite schist, blende, galena, copper 

 pyrites, iron pyrites, tetradymite, and bismuthine; and of its occasional occurrence 

 in extraordinary richness in the Clogau, Cambrian, and Dolfrwynog mines I 

 possess remarkable proofs. To my own knowledge, so recently as 1856, as much 

 as 14^- ounces of gold were obtained from lOOlbs weight of quartz, taken from the 

 Clogau mine, and many samples of 14ibs. weight from the Clogau and Cambrian 

 mines have yielded in the proportion of 1 to 10 ounces of gold to the ton of 

 quartz. Hitherto the attempts to extract the gold on a commercial scale have not 

 proved successful. This does not obliterate the mineralogical facts. Whether 

 gold exists in remunerative quantities in the rocks of this district, although it 

 may not be actually visible, remains still undetermined. Perhaps it does not ; but 

 this point, however, is not proven. 



Yours, &;c., 



T. A READWIN. 



4 St. George's Square, Pimlico, 20th March. 



Gold in Wales. — G. S. (page 116.) — The gold in North Wales is found chiefly 

 in Merionethshire, at several places near Do'gelly, principally at Cwm-y-swm, 

 Clogau, and Dolfrwynog ; it occurs in a granular and ce'lular quartz, Avith much 

 mica in fine scales, and stained brown by peroxide of iron, at Cwm-y-swm and 

 Clogau, with galena, blende, and copper-pyrites, very finely dis.<3£minated. j ho 

 whole district consists of a quartz and mica-slate rock, with sometimes thin layers 

 of clay-slate, and the quartz in veins, from a quarter of an inch to several feet in 

 thickness, and generally much decomposed and ferruginous, and no doubt often 

 auriferous. I received three or four ounces from Dolfrwynog a few years ago, as a 

 specimen, it was washed from the pulverized rock ; it is always of a pale yellow 

 colour, and the particles are more or less mixed with quartz. The specimens I 

 had were worth about £3 8s. per ounce. — J. R. G. 



We were aware of the paper read on November 19th, 1856, by Professor J. 

 Morris, before the Geological Society of London, and published in the Thirteenth 

 Volume (1857) of the Quarterly Journal of that Society, as well as of Mr. 

 Northcote's article on the composition of Allophane, in the Thirteenth Volume of 

 the Philosophical Magazine. We were also aware of several papers on the second 

 point — that of gold in Wales. But we left both questions open, in the expectation 

 that some of those scientific geologists whom we know possess information 

 respectively on these subjects would kindly add something new to the general 

 stock of knowledge. 



We would further take this opportunity, while thanking Professor Ansted, Mr. 

 Readwin, and J. R. G. for their notices, to add, that, although in most cases, 

 unless for some such special reason as that we have mentioned, we answer the 

 queries in the same number in which we print them, we do so only to give earl}' 



