Gold in British Guiana. 275 
the sides of the hills being covered with angular and 
rounded quartz pebbles similar to those I had seen pre- 
viously at the savanna of the Pacaraima." " Ocean 
placers" are of considerable importance in New Zealand 
and in California and Oregon — old sea beaches contain- 
ing the auriferous black sand existing at distances of 50 
miles from the coast line, and often at considerable eleva- 
tions, and in such a position as to show that their eleva- 
tion must have1)een very gradual. 
The gold obtained from the placers of this colony is of 
all degrees of fineness, from flour-gold which floats on 
water, to nuggets of many pounds in weight. The largest 
nugget obtained hitherto, was found last year at Canawa- 
rook by the LUCKIE Syndicate, and when sold in London 
it realized the sum of one thousand and sixty-seven 
pounds. As might be expected from the various con- 
ditions under which the metal occurs, the gold from 
different fields varies slightly in quality, the preponder- 
ance of rocks of basic composition in Potaro leading to 
its gold having a rather large proportion of silver in alloy. 
With regard to the yield of gold from the placers, I 
shall quote an authoritative statement from the Official 
Report of the Commissioner of Mines. M From several of 
the best paying placers the yield is equal to 1,000 ounces 
per month, and returning a clear income to the fortunate 
proprietors of forty thousand pounds per annum. Com- 
pared with other gold producing countries, the richness 
of our alluvial workings shows very favourably, as the 
following statistics indicate. The average yield of all 
alluvial wash-dirt, excluding cement, raised in Victoria 
to the end of 1887 was I dwt, Il grains per ton, on 
an output of 13,392,842 tons." In British Guiana no 
