42 
in Pertlisnire, as Calvert has it. If gold has been 
found there, it must have been in the sands, which 
constitute the finest of the debris of the Highland 
rocks, washed do^^n by the Tay : and it must have 
.occurred as dust, or ver^" fine gTanules—for only in 
this condition could it be carried by water so far from 
its place of origin. There is, however, no improba- 
bihty as to the occurrence of gold in the sands at the 
mouth of the Tav. Gold occurs in the sea sand at 
t/ ^ 
Aberdeen :* as well as on the coasts of ISTew Zealand, 
hTova Scotia, Africa, and other auriferous countries. 
Birkmyre in his Record showing generally the 
date of discovery ill Victoria and other countries of 
the most remarhoMe specimens of Native Goldf Lc., 
published in the Catalogue of the Victorian Exhibition 
(at hlelbourne) of 1861 —mentions a nugget “ found 
in Breadalbane, Perthshire, Scotland,’’ vrhich weighed 
2 oz. (960 grams). This nugget, at the current price 
of gold in Australia (£4 per oz.), would be worth £S 
sterhng.d 
There is only one descriptive Handbook of the Na¬ 
tive Minerals of Scotland — viz., the ‘‘ Manual of. the 
IMineralogy of Great Britain and Ireland” by Greg & 
Lettsom (1858). It contains several errors, espe¬ 
cially as to the names of localities; and its whole- 
account of the native gold of Scotland is at least 
most meagre and defective. As regards Perthshire, 
it mentions (p. 236) that “at Turrich, in Glen Coich, 
near Amelrie,” a nugget — now in Mr Greg’s collec¬ 
tion — weighing? 2 oz. 1 dvrt., was found thirtv vears 
O 7 V t/ 
* Tin's I state on fturhority of Caiitain Leask, of the Aberdeen 
iship, ’* Granit-e City,” who told me in 1S62, that many years ago 
a huge wooden shed—Ftii! standing—was erec*'ed for the extrac¬ 
tion of gold from the sand of the shore on the Links between 
the moutbs of the r)on and Dee. The operation was undertakeu 
purely as a scientinc experiment—publicly reported to be the 
I esult of a wage) — with, no prospect or hope of profit or remu¬ 
nerativeness. It was said that only a sovereign worth of gold 
was extracted in twelve months ! The sand in question is 
doubtless the result, of the disintegration of the Highland 
granites and Lower Silurians ; and I have little doubt is capable 
of yielding gold in much larger quantity than this—though 
not perhaps in amount to “ pay ” extraction. 
t This is probably the nugget immediately hereinafter mentioned 
as occurring in Mr Greg’s collection. 
