/(PRIL If 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
901 
sulphide of silver. If the silver is in sufficient quantity 
to be worth extracting it is termed argentiferous.] 
No. 8. — A dirty white quartz, compact in texture, 
full of cavities with crystalline quartz. A little 
mispicked occurs. No gold is visible to the naked eye but 
slight specks show with the aid of a magnifying glass. 
Yield 60z to ton. Depth 240 ft.; above sea-level 
1080 ; locality Ballarat. 
No. 9. — A whitish looking quartz, somewhat glassy, 
with auriferous pyrites, a few specks of mispickel 
occur, Gold is not visible. Yields 18dwt. to the ton 
and was taken from a depth of 1,200 feet at 300 ft. 
above sea-level. Locality, Cluucs. 
No. 10.— A white quartz stained reddish by iron. 
A little chlorite is present. It has a curious maiuimi- 
lated quartz surface on ono side with an iron casing 
below. There is a peculiar tinge of iron which is very 
common in Ceylon quartz. Gold is distinctly visible. 
Depth (iO ft. at 2080 above sea-level. Locality Daylesford. 
No. 11. — Quartz of a milky white character with a 
slate-wall. Gold is distinctly visible on this sla'y-wall 
along with a little auriferous pyrite. Depth GOO ft. at 
1,200 ft. above sea-level. Locality, Blackwood. 
No. 12 — Dirty white quartz with a beautiful mass 
of rock crystal, the crystals being a double hexagonal 
pyramid. A little arscno-py rite is present but gold 
is not distinctly visible. Depth 300 feet at 1, 150 above 
sea- level. Locality, Ballarat. 
Nos. 13 and 14.— Beautiful, white, milky qunrlz with 
auriferous p'vrites, blende and galena Free gold is very 
distinctly visible in both specimens along with the 
blende. (14 is a very rich specimen). Depth 450 feet 
at 400 above sea-level. — Locality Maldon. 
[Blende or bbick jack crystallizos mostly in dodeca- 
hedrons ; it is usually black or brown. Composition is 
sulphide of zinc.] 
No. 15 — A whitish quartz much stained with iron, 
causing it to look reddish. Gold is distinctly visible on 
the iron ore studded all over its weathered face. Depth 
80 feet at 1,400 above sea level. -Locality Ballarat. 
No. 16 —A bluish glassy quartz; very cavernous. Gold 
is distinctly visible in the caverns and on other parts. 
Depth 1)00 "feet at 00 below sea-level. Locality Stawell. 
Chief points noticeable in collection : — 
1 . The great density of the quartz. 
2. The compactness of the quartz except in 6 and 7 
which show that compactness is not a necessary 
characteristic. 
3. The general association with other metals. 
4. The colour of quartz is nil in determining gold. 
If need not look warm, as has often been stated, for 
11, 12 and 13, as far us general appearance goes a> e cold 
C(J decidedly hungry, de6titute of caverns and destitute 
of other minerals. White is the prevalent color in this 
collect ion, stai cd variously wit'l iron. 
5. The quartz being in crystalline condition is not 
a sign ol its containing no gold. Sec No. 12. 
6'. The visibility of gold is worth nil for Nos. 1, 5 
and 8, are rich in gold. It has recently been stated 
that aseaycr.s are of no use. We aro told wo must be 
able to see and judge by the eye as to whether a quartz 
reef will pay and that it is a poor tale to have it 
test' d. However such statements are not worth much. 
If we see the gold and know that it extends in the 
jmaitz, we t. en know without assay that it will pay 
aud it* extraction mny b» at once begun with. 
Assaying of fair samples is very necessary. There is 
not anfflohnt sight-evidence in many varieties <>t 
quartz to warrant gold being therein paying quantity. 
Even the rough amalgamation p'n. e-*, m> commonly 
ami by the neinri Lb unreliable where the gold oooun 
with pyrites. Nor cm tho amalgamation process be 
successfully nied for its extraction in inoli eutt,e.f, l 
I three samples of auriferous pyrites were operated 
npon not long ago. 
(a) From Siberia which contained lOOgrams to the ton. 
(6) Venezuela ,, 300 
(c) California ,, 150 ,, 
The first yielded all its gold by amalgamation. The 
two others, both in the raw state aud after roasting, 
yielded only insignificant quantities. From further ex- 
periment, it was iuferred that the presence of antimony 
and arsenic prevent, amalgamation. 
the " Chlorine process " or by the still better method de^ 
vised by Mr. W. A. Dixon. See " Directions for extract- 
ing gold, silver, and other metals from pyrites. Pro- 
ceedings of the Royal Society, vol. 20. " 
Ceylon quartz is rather too g assy in appearance 
and from many localities is destitute of metal of 
any kind, or having caverns either empty or filled 
with earthy matter. The pyrites are of too brassy a 
nature. However, we have quartz partaking of the 
character of Nos. 6 and 16 in Hewaheta and Kamboda. 
A somewhat sim lar quartz to 10 aud 15 occurs in 
Balaugoda aud the district, around. 
In the Nawalapitiya district, we have a quartz 
partaking of the nature of 11, 12, 13, but no metal 
is visible. The mineral galena, mispickel aud bleude 
have not been recorded up to the present time as 
occurring in this island. 
Mr. Dixon, we know, has judged rightly in stating 
that the mere colour of quartz is no certain criterion 
of its value. We took with us to Melbourne a 
specimen of gold-bearing quartz from the Alpha Mine 
in Southern India, aud, judgiug by what we hud seen 
in Dewalah, we expected to find the specimens of 
J Australian gold-bearing quartz sent to the Melbourne 
Exhibition full of pyrites and rusty coloured. Some 
such quartz we did find exhibited, but the leading 
specimens (some of them immense blocks) were pure 
white, shading away to grey. A person acquainted 
with only the surface quartz of Devalah would 
certainly never have suspected the existence of 
gold in pure white and occasionally crystalline 
quartz. The uneducated eye, therefore, is here at 
fault, but the merest tyro soon leurns the valu e 
of " Black Jack," or blende as an indication of the 
presence of gold, equally with mundic (iron or ar- 
senical pyrites) and galena. Blende, Mr. Dixon ex- 
| plains, is a sulphide of zinc, while galena is com- 
posed mainly of sulphide of lead ; sometimes rich in 
1 sulphide of silver. We suspect that neither " black 
Jack" nor galena exist in Ceylou, any more than 
the special " Lower Siluriau " elate formations so 
I strongly iusisted on iu Victoria. But "mispickel," 
1 which Mr. Dixon describes as arsenical iron pyrites, 
I ought surely to exist. The first great revolution in 
the search for gold was the discovery that hundredi 
aud even thousands of feet below the alluvials of 
Mount Alexander, Bendigo, Ballarat, Arrarat, and 
[ other once rich but entirely or partially exhausted gold 
fiehls and underlying enormous mas-sea of tho basaltic 
I rock known locally as " bluo stone," vast stores of 
the precious metal lav hidden, It is found cither in 
»Uu in tho old quartz and elate formations, or washed 
into tho channels of ancient rivers, sent underground, 
" where Alph tho sacred river rau, " by volcauic 
convulsions. Cold ban been certainly found down to 
2,000 feet, and, as n shaft at Stawell has penetrated 
' to 3,000 foot aud will probably go deeper, it is im- 
