37 
I have been more fortunate in other departments 
of my inquiry concerning the distribution of Gold in 
Perthshire ; and the results I now embody in a series 
of propositions—illustrated in such detail only as at 
present appears desirable. 
I. Gold ornaments of pre-historic age, and 
PRESUMABLY OP NATIVE PRODUCE AND MANU¬ 
FACTURE, ARE OCCASIONALLY DUG UP WITHIN 
THE COUNTY. 
Not long ago one such ornament—found in a rail¬ 
way cutting in the Athole district—was exhibited to 
the Antiquarian Society, Edinburgh, by Sir Joseph 
Noel Paton. The late Mr McCulloch, the Curator of 
the Museum of the said Society, wrote me—A new 
one has just been added to the Museum. It is called 
an ear-ring, and was found in a short stone coffin in 
digging near Dunkeld. It is 54 inches long, and when 
spread out measures I 4 inches in breadth. The pro¬ 
jecting piece in the centre went through the lower 
portion of the ear. ” Possibly the ornament exhibited 
by the celebrated Painter and that described by Mr 
McCulloch are the same ? Gold was wrought as early 
as the Stone age in Scotland : on which subject those 
interested may consult Professor Daniel Wilson’s 
‘‘Pre-historic Annals of Scotland,” Colonel Forbes 
Leslie’s “Early Paces of Scotland and their Monu¬ 
ments,” or Burton’s “ History of Scotland ” (vol. iv.) 
In his “ Handbook of the Industrial Department of 
the International Exhibition ” of 1862, Hunt states 
that in the 5th and 6th centuries the Celtic tribes 
worked some districts of Scotland for gold for the 
manufacture of collars and helmets to their chiefs, 
and for bracelets or other sorts of ornaments. Hardy 
in his “Legends respecting Huge Stones”—to wit 
the so-called Druicbcal monuments—shows that 
hoards of gold are occasionally found concealed about 
their bases. Thus he describes the blasting of one 
of these stones near Haltwhistle, on the Northumber¬ 
land border— “ On clearing away the earth and 
fragments that resulted from the explosion, there was 
revealed a cluster of urns, closely packed together, 
.containing gold.^'‘ Again, “ in 1824 a gold sceptre or 
