1096 Marvels of the Universe 
As details of the habits of these lizards appear to be lacking, it must suffice to add that the 
inflatable throat-fold of this species, like the frill of the Frilled Lizard, is strictly comparable to the 
so-called hood of the cobra. 
GROWING GOLD 
In the early days of gold-washing, the miners always kept a sharp look-out for 
(a3 
nuggets ’’ among 
the sand and gravel in which they got the pay-dust. The fine, flattened particles were quite 
evidently deposited by the river, which had carried this gold from the exposed and weathered surface 
of the original vein ; but the only explanation possible to account for the heavy masses of gold, 
Photo by} i (IW. Saville Kent. 
THE BEARDED LIZARD. 
A native of Australia which has a strongly-developed transverse fold of the skin on the neck, which it is in the habit of 
inflating in such a manner that it terrifies predacious birds and other enemies. 
) 
ranging from a few ounces to several pounds in weight, was that they had “ grown’ in the pockets 
where they were found. Although comparatively rough and apparently water-worn on the outside, 
the nuggets were certainly not carried down by the stream which laid down the gravels; but the 
fact that the nugget-metal was always purer than the reef-gold and, unlike it, highly crystalline in 
structure seemed to prove the truth of the old miner’s saying. Many organic salts found naturally 
in the earth are capable of dissolving gold, and this solution would be robbed of its gold by contact 
with quite a number of minerals, such as iron pyrite. The examination of a large number of 
Australian nuggets has led to the conclusion that they have not been built up of concentric 
coatings round a nucleus, and although they possess a crystalline structure like fused gold, they 
have not been so formed; but rather deposited from solution in pocket-like cavities in the rocks 
where the chemical constituents favoured this precipitation. 
