re than very partially, in matral science; but of the common tory, they were as capable of

we fail to see any reason for leaving them to fall into error in that quarter, very weighty considerations suggest the imen as we are now, and while portance of their being secured against it.

From the London Quarterly.

GOLD IN ITS NATURAL SOURCES.*

not about to treat of gold as | vailed on some of these points. These auri sacra fames, or after the opinions, however, are scarcely known to a prize-essay against covetous- the general public, nor should we be able our aim will be to bring be- to conceive of the wide and gross ignoreaders in one view what we ance of the mass of people on such matenabled to learn from many ters, if we did not see how extensively specting the natural sources of certain companies just expired have been geological and mineralogical able to win golden opinions from all sorts which appear to govern its de- of men. Of these companies we shall d the mode of its occurrence, have a word to say at the end of our paith its geographical distribu- per. It is singular that, out of the nuous parts of the world. It is merous recent travelers' books on the the last few years that opin- Californian and Australian discoveries of of scientific name have pre- gold, scarcely one that we have seen has much scientific information of value. It will be as well, too, to indicate the probable limits of auriferous repositories, so that men may at least know in what kinds of places gold may be found, and where it will certainly not be found. To this we shall add some notices of the modes of extraction from the soil and the rock, and the most reliable statistics of the actual produce of gold in our day, especially from Australia and California. In the present paper, we shall confine our observations to gold, only referring to silver in some statistical statements of the returns of the precious metals collectively. Incidentally, we shall glance at some topics of special interest.

on the Production of the Precious the Depreciation of Gold. By M. ALIER, Translated by D. FORBES 1. London. 1853.

and Gold; or, Two Years in Vic

WILLIAM HOWITT. Two Volumes.

been living at the time, he might for Dr. Conquest's prize, since, in compter on gold, he speaks thus: "Oh! gold was clean gone! Would God bly be quite abolished among men, s it doth, into such a cursed and exafter it-if I may use the words of I writers-a thing that the best men

proached and railed at, and the only

it for the ruin and overthrow of man

blessed world was that, and much is wherein we live, when, in all the en men, there was no coin handled, e traffic was managed by bartering gware for ware, and one commodity the practice was in the time of the Homer, a writer of good credit, doth

And first, it will be interesting to learn how far gold was known to the ancients, and whence they gathered it. Gold, being always found in its native or metallic state, and being remarkable for its beau

would attract the eye | all his drinking-vessels were of gold, and
eated and thoughtless all the vessels of the house of the Forest of
-r metallic substances Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of
ould offer no positive silver: it was nothing accounted of in the
e, and would therefore days of Solomon, and the King made sil-
rvation. In its super-ver to be as stones in Jerusalem.

, borne as they have
valleys, and dissemin-
ticles amongst rolled
he curious would soon
ering scales and par-
ere summer heats, by
r, rendered those beds
iver channels, and the
-rrents, dry paths for
gratory man. In the
ore, of man's progress,
e standard of his social
it is to too great an
The sacred historian,
river Pison, (probably
serves that it encom-
and of Havilah, where
he gold of the land is
ons gold (chap. 28:
mes in one chapter;
us, that the earth hath The wealth of the Romans was im-
ase which shows that mense, as may be inferred from some his-
with the distribution torical incidents. When Cæsar was killed
nd soils. It does not in the ides of March, Anthony owed
this period gold had £320,000, which he paid before the Kal-
money, and we find ends of April out of the public money, and
passing from hand to squandered (according to Adams) more
›ut when, after his tri- than £5,600,000. Cæsar himself, before
Job was restored, we he set out for Spain, was in debt to the
in addition to the cat-extent of £2,018,000. Lentulus possessed
h his visitors brought £3,229,166. Claudius, a freedman, saved
so brought an ear-ring £2,500,000. Augustus obtained from the
g the early use of this testamentary dispositions of his friends
ornaments. We also (some people will leave their fortunes to
re that gold must have their Sovereigns) no less than £32,291,666
hin plates at a very sterling. Tiberius left at his death the
he ark of shittim wood enormous sum of £21,796,875, which Ca-
ld, both on the outside ligula is said to have squandered in a
were also the staves, single year. Vespasian estimated at his
th its staves, the altar accession that the money which the main-
tenance of the Commonwealth required
ancient times we re- was £322,916,000. Up to the time of
gold was accumulated Augustus, the wealth of the world ap-
The reign of Solo-peared to flow into the treasuries of Rome,
the first of these pe- when the production of gold from the
rew King selected in Roman mines in Illyria and Spain sudden-
adred and three-score ly ceased, and for a long period the world
Kings 10:14, etc.,) received no new accession of metallic
ecture to amount in wealth. Jacob, in his History of the Pre-
£300,000. The ships cious Metals, has computed the quantity
ught from Ophir 450 of gold and silver in the Roman Empire
190,800. His throne for several years, and shows the rate of
d with the best gold; | diminution to which the enormous wealth

Ninus, the founder of Nineveh, and
Semiramis, the founder of Babylon, had
abundance of gold and silver. The wealth
of Croesus, who lived about 540 years be-
fore Christ, is proverbial, and the presents
which he made to the temple of Delphi
amounted to 4000 talents of silver and
270 talents of gold, nearly equal to
£3,000,000 sterling, if our notions of the
value of the ancient talent be correct. In
a story of Herodotus, Pythias is men-
tioned as entertaining Xerxes and his
whole army, and as stating that he was
possessed of money which is estimated at
£3,600,000. In the time of Ptolemy Phi-
ladelphus, as we are informed by Appian,
the Egyptian treasury contained no less
than £178,000,000. This was obtained
by collecting with an armed force all the
silver and gold of the people.

3.

ustan period was subject. The those of the Uralian chain, afforded a ounts are as follows:

GOLD IN ITS NATURAL SOURCES.

ched Spain. Up to produce of American greater than £52,000.

From Mexican mines...
From Peru, Columbia, Chili, and
Buenos Ayres...

Add for contraband.

[July,

£364,847,739

273,293,356
68,323,339

Total from Spanish America.. £706,464,434
Total from Portuguese America 80,000,000

ere wrecked, and little | stated, the gross amount from Peru, Co-
lumbia, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, which was
(for the same period) £273,293,356. This
again would, if increased by the amount
Etez acquired Mexico, of the contraband trading, viz., £68,223,339,
at Chalco presents amount to more than £340,000,000. Thus,
,000 sterling. When then, the gross product of the Americas
he oath of fidelity to from 1700 to 1809, inclusive, would stand
,000 in gold into the thus:
- and Bernal Diaz re-
Tenochtitlan, £80,000
of the Spaniards. Pi-
ru in 1527, and in the
elapsed between that
overy of the mineral
America forwarded to
gold every year. Thus
-ld in the sixty-three
-ed the discovery of
to £17,058,000 ster-
as calculated that the
er coin in Europe, at
ar 1599, was in value
00. The entire supply
e during the century
O was obtained from
ted, in the one hundred
00 of precious metals.
3,000,000 were sent to
ds, India, and China;
that £60,000,000 of
in decorating churches,
namental purposes. If
owed for the loss by
., then the amount of
Europe in 1699 was

Grand total from the Americas £786,464,434

ig.

The gold-dust of Africa, with the gold and silver of Europe, may be estimated at the annual value of £900,000. The annual value of the precious metals from Spanish and Portuguese America being about £7,000,000, (according to the above view,) the annual increase of the wealth of Europe, during the last century, was at the rate of £8,000,000, as nearly as we can arrive at it.

teenth century, the silver was still mainly Americas; the great Valenciana producing per annum for forty t of Zaccatecas adding t: these sources were, iling toward the end detailed list of these Humboldt, in periods 1700 to 1809. The he whole time of 110 183. Such is the sum m the several mints. added the gold and ich did not pay duty, er channels, equal to total amount would £364,847,739. This 1 average product of rmore, we must add from Mexico, as just

It is not an easy thing to estimate the produce of the precious metals since 1810; but, from the calculations of M'Culloch, who relies on the authority of Humboldt, we may estimate the annual produce of the American mines as equaling £8,700,000. In 1840, the American mines were estimated to yield a produce equal to £5,600,000 per annum.

As we have thus arrived at our own days, let us turn aside for a time from mere statistical statements, and, before we return to figures, look at the geological occurrence and geographical distribution of gold.

Gold is found, as to geological position, in the primary groups of rocks, including the "transition strata " of earlier writers; which, as they contain the oldest organic remains, have been recently denominated "palæozoic." This series constitutes the dorsal spine of the great mountain chains of both the Old and New World. There are, however, vast regions, amounting, perhaps, to three fourths of all known lands, where no such rocks appear. Experience has shown that it is only in the palæozoic group of rocks, as above defined, (including certain associated igneous