HINTS TO GOLD SEEKERS.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 603, 24 January 1852, Page 2

HINTS TO GOLD SEEKERS.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE ADELAIDE OBSERVES. Sir — The search after gold appears to have become so inviting and universal since the late discoveries in California and New South Wales, that I am induced to offer through your columns a few remarks for the benefit of those "who, having no knowledge of mineralogy or geology, rush madly onwaid in search of the precious metal, and only discover their error after loss of time and money, when told that " all is not gold that glitters." Almost every one has heard that gold is usually found in connection with quartz. Several persons have called on me with Specimens of it, and also calcareous spar and carbonate of lime, containing beautiful crystals of iron, and copper pyrites, and almost every other brilliant mineral which at all approaches the colour of gold. I will endeavour to enlighten enquirers by showing the difference in weight, &c., between gold and the minerals which are so often mistaken for it, so that they may almost at first sight and touch be able to ascertain if their golden dreamt will be realized or not. The positions in which gold is found are nests, beds, and veins ; the latter being the original. It is disseminated throughout various rocks, such as granite, syenite, green-stone, clay-stone-porphyry, trachyte, the chrystalline slates and tiansition, strata, and commonly with quartz and oxyde of iron. In the Carolinas, Peru, Mexico, Brazils, and many other countries it is found mixed with other metals, viz., platinum, iridium, magnatite, &c. The crystals of gold are generally cubes and regular octahedrons, but are small. It is also found in capillary, wire-like or mosslike forms, and frequently in particles so minute that they can only be discovered by pounding and washing. It is of various colours, brass-yellow, i greyish-yellow, and greenish-yellow, depending upon the nature of the metal with which it is alloyed ; for it is not always found pure. It fox*ms an amalgam with mercury, and is easily separated by it from the pulverized ore. The amalgam is then compressed, and the remaining portion of mercury sublimated in the usual way. Now I would advise the man who is determined to be a gold- seclter to pay attention to the following facts: — That gold is more than twice the weight of native copper, nearly four times as heavy as iron pyrites, and eight times heavier than yellow mica. If he will then exercise his judgment, after having a knowledge of these facts, he may save himself many a sore-footed journey and terrible anxiety. ! Let him search the beds of rivers near hills < which are composed of crystalline slates, quartz, and oxide of iron. If there ever has been gold in those hills, he will find indications of it in the gullies and streams ; but if not satisfied with small particles which have been washed from their original positions, and would wish to discover the source from whence they came, he may search the hills, and will probably find veins or crystals between the layers of quartz and oxide of iron, or deposited in crevices or heads of the slates. It must not be- supposed that I lay down for a rule, that, because of the existence of these minerals or rocks, gold must necessarily be found there. Gold is soluble in nitro-muriatic acid (aqua vegiti), but nOt in muriatic, nitric ov sulphuiio acids. Until within the last five or six years, the proportion of gold found in the sands of rivers or in the rock has been small. In the ores of Eaminelsberg, near Goolar in the Hartz, it is one part of gold in 5,200,000 parts of ore. The sands of the Rhine contain only one part in 8,000,000,000,000 on the average. It is therefore too poor to work. Those sands that are usually washed for gold contain 13 to 15, and rarely 60 to 70 parts in 100,000,000. (I do not include California or New South Wales.) I In Siberia the sands contain 10 times and in Chili 37 times as much gold as these in the Rhine, and the single particles are from 200 to 400, or even 1,000 times lai'ger than in that river, where 17 to 22 only weigh a milligramme, or 1,100 to 1,400 one grain troy only. That we have gold in South Australia there can be no doubt, and the main deposit may be only found accidentally. If men are determined to risk their health and even lives by searching for it, lot them do so here, for they can get rid of both at a much cheaper rate than at Bathurst ov California. R. Y. Rodda.