April r, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Balient points on the characteristics and history of a 
substance and a pursuit, round whish cluster more 
of romance and vicissitude than is connected with 
any other material substance or human enterprize. 
The subject is practically inexhaustible, and we hope 
to return to it in future issues. 
Since writing so far we have seen a letter ad- 
dressed to the Australasian on "Gouj and where 
TO FIND IT," by Mr. 0. P. Nicholls, an educated 
and observant writer, who has been a practical gold 
miner. It commences thus : — 
Fascinating as all inquiries are into the origin of things, 
none are more so than the investigation of the origin of 
metals, more especially that of gold. Writing from memory, 
and therefore not giving quotations, I may say that there 
is good authority for affirming that gold is as widel 
disseminated over the world as any other metal, if not more 
so. I have seen as fine and rich quartz specimens from 
Wales as any in Victoria. Gold has been found in the 
Wicklow mountains, Ireland, on the Duke of Sutherland's 
estate in Scotland; and Hungary, Austria, Spain, Russia, 
Mexico, California, and several other counti ies, not to speak 
of Africa, have or have had their gold-fields. Silver can be 
extracted from the ocean, and gold has been found in the 
roots of the violet and the vine, and sometimes traces have 
been found of it under such conditions as lead to the 
conclusion that it must have been in the form or condition of 
vapour. 
When attention was drawn to gold about a quarter 
of a century ago by the operations of Australian 
diggers in the sands of the Maha Oya, at Nuwara 
Eliya and elsewhere, we republished a pamphlet by 
Professor Hopkins of Cambridge, in which the theory 
was propounded, not that gold was found in the 
roots of trees, but that the precious metals 
aggregated round the roots of trees and finally 
took the place of the roots, as particles of ordinary 
mineral matter replace wood in the so-called "petri- 
faction" process. This aggregation and replacement 
must be regarded as processes subsequent to the 
deposition of both .quartz and gold from water (should 
that theory be tenable,) and subsequently also, per- 
haps, to the tearing, disintegrating and finally aggregative 
effects of floods. But we are now dealing with 
phenomena of comparatively moderen dates in geologi 
cal history and action. The mention by Mr. Nicholls 
of gold in a state of vapour reminds us of the 
theory of what we may call original deposition on 
our globe, and which recommends itself to our reception. 
We are justified by analogy in supposing that this 
planet was once what the sun seems to be now, 
it mass of gases gradually cooling and solidifying. 
The gases, in the caso of our earth as of the sun, 
included those of the heaviest metals, gold amongst 
tin in. As the cooling and solidifying processes went 
on, it is to be presumed that the various metals 
agglomerated and settled in masses or strata, 
according to certain laws of affinity, attraction, 
bftgnetiam, heat and pressure. The question then arises 
how much of the gold on the surfacn of our globe is 
in »>t it, as deposited during the cooling process per- 
DApt millions of ages back in time ; or whether the 
whole of it has not been displaced by forces of tire 
|ad water: volcanic action and furious water floods ; 
again to form and aggregate under the influence of 
magnetic and tie (amorphic agencies? The enquiry is 
not only onrinns in itself and in a purely scientific 
point of view. There is a practical aspect of the 
question : that of the artificial production of 
gold. The transmutation theories of the dark agee 
were deservedly laughed at, because they were not 
founded on a knowledge of the true laws of matter 
and the right application of those laws. But, look- 
jug at the advances made in the manufacture of 
r ubies and even the diamond, he would be a bold 
man who ventured to assert that science may not 
yet discover an effectual and cheap mode of compelling 
the earth to release her stores of diffused gold, as 
well as inducing the sea to give up her wealth of 
silver. At present the problem is how to discover 
aggregations of gold in other minerals or rocks, in 
such quantities and conditions as to yield appreci- 
able returns for the labour and cost of mining, crush- 
ing, amalgamating, etc.. Mr. Nicholls points out that 
but a small proportion of practical miners are able 
to give much help in soloving the problems at issue. 
Mr. Nicholls seems justified in his blame of the 
Victorian Government for undervaluing their own 
great staple. He writes : — 
A reference to the Intercolonial Exhibition essay on 
mining and mineral statistics, 1866 and 1867, is worth any 
one's reading, who is interested in the subject, as it brings 
all the known information up to date under review, and 
suggests one great defect of the late Exhibition which, so 
far as it was possible in an essentially gold-mining country, 
kept that industry in the background, and did in no way 
help to add to the mining and mineral statistics of 1866-67. 
The mighty intellects occupied in turning us into a nation 
of farmers without capital and manufacturers without coal 
could afford to despise an industry that had made Vic- 
toria what it is, and employed and sustained, directly and 
indirectly, 60,0U0 or 70,000 families, producing four millions' 
worth of raw material, of which three millions was distri- 
buted in wages and payment for tools and machinery, and 
the balance in dividends. The essay referred to will show 
that there are many modes of the occurrence of gold that 
were not generally accepted, and, when we remember that 
lollhts 
IS it 
the i 
Lnbbi 
base 
kuowns ? Evan Hopkins says mud, recognized 
ly molten lava. It does not matter much, 
ly it flowed out of the bowels of the 
spread over plain and valley, thousands, 
llious of years ago, filling in the ancient 
rivers, covering table-land and mountain, 
ing from us of today the leads, and 
golden lodes of not only a time before 
in, but probably before man was. The 
time is one of the puzzles, the slowness of 
i, the difficulty of comprehension. Sir J. 
s us geologists must recast their theories, and 
n a solid world, and the latest theory of vol- 
canic hills is that the bed rock is not thrust up, making 
a hill, but that the ashes and lava from the rent in tin- 
earth's surface are gradually piled up and rounded as we 
see here in mauy cases. But, as in most other things, 
nature does not work in one way only, and whilst in 
Mount Greenock we have a hill , of that character referred 
to, so in Wombat-hill, Daylcsfnrd we probably have an 
instance of where the bed rock was raise. 1, and the column 
of lava burst through the golden lead, and puzzled the 
miners for many a long day before they Dieted up the 
continuation ou the opposite side of the solid pipe or 
column of basalt that had been the out How of molten lava 
or overwhelming mud. Spring-hill, Oreswick. may be another 
instance of the thrusting up of the bed rock, whilst 
Moorookyle and others on the Smeaton Plains may have 
the deep leads Underneath then' On disturbed, 'I'll. M facts 
or supposed facts lend to lie- inference Hint wheu we find 
quartz pebblei on or near these basaltic hills, as at Mount 
Hollowhack, in the l>owliug Forest estate, the volcanic 
