THE ENGLISH CALIFORNIA. 
447 
liave not been obtained as a ride by gold-minings but from the 
surface. As might be expected, the finds have been most abundant 
in the creeks, gullies, and gutters of the now familiar mining 
lano’uaq-e. But the drifts of Australia differ from those of 
Russia in being of a more remote age, although still considered 
to belong to the Tertiary period ; and, indeed, Mr. Selwyn, the 
colonial geologist, has pointed out gold-bearing superficial drifts 
of three different stages or ages lying above one another, the 
oldest or lowest containing cones and traces of vegetation 
allied to that now prevalent hi the country. But I have said 
enough to show my readers the usual disposition of the 
auriferous strata, and the conditions under which they are prac- 
tically useful ; and we will now come nearer home, where we 
find the gold in its original matrix in the solid rock ; but, un- 
fortunately, none of those fabulously rich reefs for the treasures 
of which so many people are annually risking their fives. And 
yet I do not know that I should say unfortunately, for if we 
have not the gold (which is limited and capricious), we have 
abundance of what is to us and the world in general, far more 
valuable — minerals, in the shape of non, tin, lead, and copper, 
which not only create a steady market in themselves, but are 
the means of employing tens of thousands in the manufactures 
to which they give rise. 
Every tourist in North Wales knows the lovely little town of 
Dolgelly, with the mighty mass of Cader Idris, at whose base 
flows the noble estuary of the Mawddach, dividing it from the 
great block of Merionethshire hills, stretching southwards from 
Harlech to Barmouth, the craggy fthinogs, Craig-y-dwrg, and 
the broad slopes of the Llawlech, forming altogether a singular 
chain of mountains abounding in wild scenery that deserves to 
be more sought after than it is by the traveller. On the eastern 
side of this range is the wooded valley of the Cayne and Cam- 
lan, with their magnificent waterfalls, the most attractive lions 
of the Dolgelly neighbourhood. 
Now this great Llawlech block is composed of a mass or boss 
of Cambrian rocks, which, in geological sequence, occur at the 
very bottom of the Silurian series, and are unfossiliferous, or 
nearly so. On each side of this Cambrian boss are layers of rock, 
known as Lingula flags (so called from containing the Lingula, a 
minute fossil shell), which, by a phenomenon known as an anti- 
clinal line, are thrown off on each side, just as the coats of an onion 
might be. Above these Lingula flags are other Lower Silurian 
strata mixed up and interbedded with igneous rocks, such as 
porphyry, greenstone, &c. Here, then, we have the very sort of 
district which, as we have seen from Sir Roderick’s observa- 
tions, gold affects — a district of primary traversed by eruptive 
or igneous rocks ; and here, accordingly, gold is found in about 
