SIR RODERICK MURCHISON'S LATEST CONCLUSIONS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 23, 18 July 1868, Page 5

SIR RODERICK MURCHISON'S LATEST CONCLUSIONS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD.

(Prom the " Quarterly Journal of Science.") More than twenty years ago Sir Roderick Murchison made a great stride in advance o^ other geologist* by showing that in certain cases the mineral riches of distant lands may be predicted by means of geological data. la the year 1844, having recently returned from, the auriferous. Ural Mountains, he examined, a collection of rocks from Australia, and from there similarity with those occurring in the Russian range, he expressed his surprise that " no gold had yet been detected" in the Aus.* tralian "Cordillera," The fact that gold had been detected (the discovery being then unknown in Europe) is the strongest possible proof of Sir Roderick's induction being, in a scientific sense, a real discovery; while the memoirs which he published on the subject in the years 1844 6 testify that his comparison ot the two regions was not a mere haphazard surmise, but the result of a scientific conipari-. son of tlie rocks, uud the earnest belief of a geologist in the method and principles of his, science. The principles as to the distribution, of gold in the earth's crust, upon whicii SirRoderick then relied, have since undergone alteration, but only to show ihat gold is somewhat more widely distributed than vuis at that time .-uppused. In place of the lower, silurian deposits being the only matrix in which gold is found in situ, which was Sir Roderick's original induction, we now know that they are but the chief depositories of tho precious metal. No one, however, acknow-. ledges this extension of our knowledge of the. possible sources of gold more freely than tha. author >f "*>iiuria;" and as the subject ia one. of great economic importance, we quote bia. most recent conclusions (p 472) :—: — 1. That looking to the world at large, tho. auriferous veinstones in the lower siluriao, rocks contain the greatest quantity of gold. 2. That where certain igneous eruptions, penetrated the secondary deposits, the latterhave been rendered auriferous for a limited dis-_ tanco only beyond the junction of the two. rocks. 3. That the general" axiom before insisted: upon remains, that all secondary and tertiary, deposits (except the auriferous, detritus in, the latter) not so specially affected never contain gold.