THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1950, 5 April 1875, Page 3

THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD.

The following letter appeared in the Melbourne Age:— Sik,—After many years of investigation, I have come to the conclusion that, although heat may have had some share in the production of native gold, electricity either per se or in combination with analogous agencies, must have had moref. For instance, some rocks of crystalline limestone in France, being repeatedly struck by lightning, were found to be covered with a layer of silver, which must have developed from a base A beautiful experiment,, first tried by Mr Cross, shows this : " Place on a boara a mass ©f moist pottery clay, mixed with metallic particles very minute, in the form of a metallic oxide. Divide the clay in two parts by a knife; bring them together till they touch. On sending an electric current through the whole mass, in the cleft is formed a metallic deposit, a miniature vein. M. Becquerel has tried with electricity the argentiferous soils of rarious countries, and large ingots of silver were thus drawn irom them, and of great purity." There is much of this in the article from which I extract, but this is sufficient. In Ure's dictionary, article Gold : " Gold | is found only in the metallic slate, sometimes crystallised in the centre and its derivative form; al^o, in threads of various size, twisted and interlaced into a chain of minute octahedral crystals. It predominates to such a degree as to constitute veins by itself; it is fither disseminated or impasted in stony masses, or spread out in thin grains on their surface, or implanted in their cavities, under the shape of filament or crystallised twigs." Alluvial nuggets, :of course, are disintegrated from these. Hitherto, it ieems, no ore of gold is found, but there must be a metallic base from which it has been developed. I quote Ure again: — " In the Andes of Chili some silver mines are explored which afford ores of an earthy or ferruginous nature^ mingled with imperceptible portions ot ores with a silver base, called pacos. The mines of Cero are actually the richest in all Pern: The ore is an earthy mass of a red colour, containing much iron, constituting what they call pacos. Near Clausthal, Hartz (Germany), a certain ore of red oxide of iron occurs, above most abundant deposits of ores of lead and silver; whence named the iron hat. It appears tie iron, ore, rich in silver, worked in America, named pacos, has some analogy with this substance." Now, it is singular that when I sent home about a half ton block of iron to the JataV exhibition in London, from the "Iron Hill," at Penrice's near Angasion, in* South Australia, I found that this iron.apparently died out a few feet in depth, and I '.found Sunder it some ores agreeing exactly with the foregoing descriptions, and a specimen being assayed gave 3dwts to sdwts gold, and about the same of silver, per ton; yet. on pounding and washing it Tery carefully, I could find no appearance of native gold even with a lense; hut I firmly believe.had I inserted a lightning rod in the ore, and a charge of electricity should have traversed it, the metal would have appeared. I have a specimen of silver ore from Eea del Monte, Mexico, showing, crystals of argental gojd imbedded, and the stone is identical in appearance with some obtained from this same iron Ml. It is also singular that in South say at Mount Rufus, Waukaringa, and the' Victoria mine near Adelaide, solid iron ores are found richly impregnated with gold. I saw a specimen of haematite or kidney iron from near Gummeracha, quite plated over as it were with gold. The Viscount Canterbury s nugget 'of "Victoria was found where "quartz and ironstone boulders were; found in the neighbourhood of the nugget,; some as large as the precious lump itself;; but strange to say, the colour was not tobe found in the washdirt surrounding it. Cavities and hollows were numerous, filled with a. ferruginous clay, containing much,fine gold, and a very little quartz." Deeson and Oate's Welcome Stranger nugget was found where "they pointed out tons a peculiar kind of red clay, similar to half-burned brick, which they regard as indicative of gold, and which has always been associated with their; larger finds, particularly so with the; the immense nass of gold found by them." Now, Ihow do we know but that in Victoria some of these earthly! may not contain gold, although invisible to the eye, and which could be extracted under a suitable process? I shall be happy to show my specimens and explain these matters to the best of my ability to anyone interested^ As it seems there is an idea abroad that the gold in Victoria is falling off, I can only say that there is an immense quantity in South Australia which only wants capital and enterprise to developeit. IJhfortunately, some of our richest gold districts are oh the land of private individuals, who refuse to allow the working of it. Some of the richest and most peculiar gold specimens

in the vrorld have been found in SouthAustraHa, and of this I speak with certainty. I have not the least interest in South Australia, but I can safely say that ifc is the richest mineral country in the whole globe. I could not explain these matters in a shorter letter, and so must apologise for its apparent length, my object being to throw out any information which might be useful to the public. Henkt Marshall. 54 Park-st. East, Emerald-hill. January, 1875.