OF CORNWALL. 215 
fhillings, or fifteen pennyweights and fixteen grains, brought him 
in the latter end of September 1756. The dimenfions "of this 
piece of gold may be feen Plate xxi. where Fig. xxv fhews the 
thicknefs, and Fig. xxvi the fide-view or width of this piece of 
pure gold ; and from the comprefled fhape, Fig. xxv, it appears to 
have come from a vein half an inch wide at a medium. On each 
fide it has a light-brown, fatty earth, which is the only impurity it 
is mixed with. It was found in the parifh of Creed, near the 
borough of Granpont. 
That gold lies fometimes fo intermixed with tin was not unknown 
to the ancients ; Pliny (lib. xxxv. chap, xvi.) gives us a plain ac- 
count of thefe metals being found together in the fame manner as 
we find them now in Cornwall, the tin in calculi , (that is, fmooth, 
pebbly ore) of the fame gravity as the ore of gold *, and feparated 
by fearfing. cc Separantur canijlris ,” fays he, (not caminis y as in 
fome editions) that is, by bafkets of the lame nature and ufe as our 
fearces. Befides this detached gold, gold is alfo immured, if I may 
fay fo, in tin ; the tin-cryftals, Fig. xx, xxi, and xxn. Plate xx. 
have not only jlammulce or fparks, but alfo ftreaks of gold ; gold 
has the fame appearance fometimes in foreign parts. « At Wun- 
fiedel, in the margraviate of Baireuth in Germany, tin-grains of 
various colours, holding particles (Jlammulce) of native gold, are 
not uncommon h .” 
This late difeovery of gold in Cornwall is therefore neither with- sect. in. 
out former precedents, nor at prefent of any great importance ; it Difcoveries 
is in its infancy, though known one thoufand leven hundred years ^er atten r " 
fince ; and, if purfued, will at leaf! gain my countrymen the credit tion. 
of induftry, if it fhould not produce the profit which induftry de- 
ferves. Some circumftances in this difeovery, however, may well 
claim our farther attention. Firft, This gold found in the parilhes 
above-mentioned, is always intermixed with grains of tin -ore, which, 
by their roundnefs and fmoothnefs, fhew that they have been wafhed 
down from the neighbouring hills. Is it not likely then that the 
fame hills contain gold as well as tin, each in their mineral ftate ? 
for native gold fixed in the ftone, and veining it, as well as in lepa- 
rate grains, is now found in Cornwall ; and native metal is but the 
accidental defecation of the ore by fubterraneous menjlrua . In 
America gold is found in veins ’ as other metals are found here with 
us, and it is moft likely that the gold-duft found in Africa and Afia, 
in the fands of brooks and rivers, all comes from the veins in the 
hills adjacent, though not worked by the ignorant Moors and In- 
* Tin purified is the lighteft of metals, but in 26, 1755. 
the ore the heavieft. * Alonzo Barba of Oruro mines, page 75. 
h Letter from Mr. E. Dacofta, F. R. S. June 
dians. 
