well as in its texture, with that one which has been just described. In this specimen, at its superior surface, there are, as Mons. Guettard observes is sometimes the case, four openings; and the pedicles, as well as its lateral processes, which appear like roots, seem to have been formed with a great degree of luxuriance. A very perfect fossil of this kind, and similar in its substance and texture to the alcyonia, which have been just described, but of a dark red colour, where it is not invested with its cortical part, which is of a grey colour, pervaded by a slight tinge of red. The pedicle, and the opening at the superior part, are here very perfect. Slight traces of lines, passing from the pedicle to the opening, are discoverable on this specimen, and, doubtlessly point out the arrangement of fibres. by which the animal was enabled to draw in and eject the water which supplied it with food. This fossil, I have reason to believe, is English." ION NATIVE GOLD DUST FOUND IN THE Department of LA LOIRE. [From a Paper of M. Giulio in the Journal des Mines, vol. xx.] "I T has long been known that a great number of rivers and rivulets carry with them particles of native gold, of larger or smaller size; that, independently of the places where this metal is found in its matrix, it is disseminated in grains in their sands, as those of the Rhone, the Arriége, and the Cèze in France, and with us in those of the rivers Loire, Balthée Cervo, Elbo, Mallon, and Orba, and of the rivulets Oropa, Orémo, Evançon, Vison, &c. It is equally known that there are persons who make it their whole business to search for this gold, who are called in the language of the country, arpailleurs, orpailleurs, or paillo teurs. Mineralogists are not agreed respecting the origin of these gold grains the older mineralogists, and Brochant among the moderns, maintain that this gold is washed This river carries along gold, which the people of "the country observe only below "the bridge down to the Po: "which confirms the opinion held by the people best acquainted "with the natural history of the country, that it is from the gul"lies and hills that this gold dust is washed down into the river by "the rapidity of the water during "storms. This valuable metal "does not come from the high "mountains, since none is found "above the bridge; but it origi"nates from the washing of the "red earth, of which most of "these hills and plains are com"posed, and which in stormy "weather is carried down into "the principal river." I do not mean to enter into the question at large. This I leave to the learned, whose chief study is the improvement of the science of mineralogy. My inductions go no further than the small number of researches I have made; yet I think." I may venture to say, from the observations I am about to present to the reader respecting the locality and situation of the native gold dust in the commune of St. George, that such dust is not always washed down from mines in the mountains by rivers. And if such were the primitive origin of their dissemination amid the strata, it certainly could have happened only at some very remote period of the grand disruptions that have taken place on the surface and exterior of the strata of our globe. But these revolutions, of which we have no records, are buried in the night of time. For we shall see that strata which furnishes gold dust are found at a considerable depth in some kills, equally remote from mountains capable of furnishing it, and from rivers that could force it from its native situation. It could, I very positively asserted that it therefore, have mingled in them "occurs in all the little rivulets beonly at a remote period, when the "tween Valperga and Rivara. I strata of the hills assumed the ar-endeavoured to discover whether rangement they have at present, "all the waters rise sufficiently namely at the time of their formation. " Mr. Balbo agrees with M. de Robillant respecting this species of native gold, in his learned Memoir on the auriferous sand of the Orco. Every one," says he, "knows "that gold dust is collected in the "Orco. But I do not believe it is "equally known, that gold is found "not in the bed of the river alone, "but to the distance of several "miles, every where mingled "more or less with the sand. It is ་་ near to each other to lead us to "suppose that they equally derive "their gold from the same mine, as This has been the opinion of se veral naturalists of our country, it is in this way that the vulgar and I should be guilty of injustice "and even most of the learned, geto them, if, in collecting fresh "nerally account for the gold found proofs tending to support their hy-in rivers. But I was completely pothesis, I omitted to mention their valuable works. Accordingly I shall quote Mr. de Robillant, who, speaking of the gold dust found in the sands of the Orco, says very "convinced that the waters of "which I speak arise from diffe "rent heights at some distance "from one another; so that, as "we cannot suppose all these places "places to contain mines, from "which the gold may be derived, "we must necessarily admit that "the particles of gold are not "separated daily by the action of "the water, and carried along by its streams, but that the water "finds them in the soil itself over "which it flows. And it is fur"ther confirmed by the observa "tion, that the auriferous strata "disappear as we proceed up the "Orco; that we find them at "furthest only as high as the "bridge; that above this all traces "of them are lost, though this is "very far from the springs; while "as we descend into the plain "these strata are every day expo"sed by the action of the water, "and particularly in floods." In a second part I shall speak of the theory proposed by M. Napion, in his Memoir on the mountains of Canavais, who having observed that all the pyrites of those mountains are auriferous, attributes the particles of gold to their decomposition or attrition. This is the opinion of our worthy colleague, Dr. Bonvoison. The observations I am now about to communicate appear to me still more decisive than the proofs alleged by these authors; and if the earths of which I shall speak do not furnish so large a quantity of gold dust, they afford indisputable proofs that the gold certainly does not proceed from any mine traversed by water, at Jeast in the present day. In the north of the commune of St. George, in the circle of Chivas, in the department of the Loire, we find fertile rising grounds and hills almost wholly covered with vineyards, which continue till we come to the highest of them, the bill of Macugnano, part of which is cultivated, part covered with wild chesnut trees; a distance of about three miles. In our progress from the outer and upper surface of these hills to the bottom of the valleys, which inter sect them in different directions, we find in general three very distinct strata. The upper stratum is for the most part argillaceous, as it furnishes an excellent earth for making bricks and tiles. The thickness of this stratum varies in different places from three or four feet to twenty-five or thirty. The second stratum, which stretches likewise horizontally beneath the stratum of clay, is a few feet thick. It is composed of a considerable portion of sand, of gravel, and of pebbles of different natures, argil laceous, calcareous, and quartzose. Of these I shall speak more particularly in the second part, as well as of the fragments produced by their being broken or decomposed. The third or lower stratum, which forms the bed of the valleys, and of the rivulets that run through them in rainy wea ther, is composed in great measure of the fragments of the argillaceous and calcareous stones of the second stratum. The rains have gradually produced little gullies in dif ferent directions; which by the falling of fresh rain, and the quan tity and rapidity of the water, have in the course of time been extended and converted into valleys, more or less broad and deep in different places. Part of the water of several gullies accumulates, particularly in one valley, where during storms and long rains it forms a torrent, called in the country the Merdanzone. Now the gold dust is found chiefly among the sands of this torrent, and of the small lateral rivulers that that flow into the Merdanzone or other similar valleys. Does this gold proceed equally from the different strata I have mentioned above, or from one of them only? I first examined the brick earth (that of the upper stratum) in different places and at various depths: I also examined considerable depositions of this earth accumulated in the shallow valleys but I never discovered the smallest particle of gold in it. The searchers for gold know this so well by long experience and a great number of fruitless trials, that they never pay any regard to this stratum. It is the stratum beneath the argillaceous composed of gravel, sand, micaceous and calcareous stones, in which the particles of gold are found. Of this I have convinced myself by several trials: and though, in general, if equal quantities of earth be taken from this stratum, and from the bed of the torrent or rivulets flowing into it, the latter will yield most gold, it seldom or ever happens that no gold is found in the former upon trial. The particles of goid obtained from the auriferous stratum itself, which have not yet been rolled along with the sand by the rains, have a duller and deeper yellow colour than those collected in the bed of the torrent or of the rivulets, which are of a more shining yellow, no doubt in consequence of the attrition. They are generally found amid a sand that is more or less fine and blackish, and apparently of a siliceous and ferrugi nous nature. The earth of the same nature, which reaches to some distance, equally contains gold. Thus a brook that runs on the east of the commune of Aglie, between the mansion and the park, and receives the rain water that washes down an earth composed of different strata of the same nature as those of the auriferous hills of St. George, equally rolls along particles of gold disseminated beneath the argillaceous stratum, which in some places is of very considerable thickness. Between fifteen and twenty years ago several persons in the commune of St. George made it their principal employment to search for gold in the sand of the torrents and rivulets that I have mentioned. This they did particularly after or during heavy rains, and after storms. The quantity of gold they collected in a day was very variable. Sometimes each of them would gain eight or ten shillings a day,, at other times scarce a fourth or fifth of this sum. The size of the particles too varied much, from an almost invisible atom to the weight of nine or ten grains or more. They were afterward sold to merchants, who sent them to the mint. I do not speak here of gold dust disseminated in arable land. Earth of this kind in the territory of Salussole, as I am informed by my colleague, Giobert, contains particles of gold. The earth of gardens is known to contain them. It has been proved in our days by the experiments of Sage, Berthollet, Rouelle, Darcet, and Deyeux, that there are particles of gold in vegetables. Berthollet has extracted about 2.14 gram. (33 grs.) from 48900 gram, or a hundred weight of ashes. Gold has not yet been found in the arable land in the environs of St. George, but only in the stra tuma tum beneath the clay, the surface of which is cultivated. The auriferous stratum, as I have observed, is more than thirty feet deep below the argillaceous stratum in some places. We have nothing to do here with particles of gold mixed with the surface mould by the decomposition of plants, or which plants have derived from the earth. I have no doubt that the particles of gold found in the environs of St. George have the same origin as those met with from Pont to the entrance of the Orco and of the Mallon into the Po, from Valperga and Rivara, to Aglie and St. George's; as well as of those which Dr. Bonvoisin observed in the environs of Challant in the valley of Aoste. The famous piece of native gold preserved in the arsenal was found there. In that space, pieces of gold of the weight of a louis have sometimes been found; and other pieces are mentioned of the value of more than 100 livres (4l. 3s. 4d.). Probably the gold found in the earth in the valley of Brozzo, and in other places, has the same origin. My conjectures on this subject shall be proposed in the second part of this memoir, where the nature of the earths and stones of the auriferous strata, as well as the nature of the land in which they are contained, shall be entered into more at large." ACCOUNT OF THE MERINO SHEEP LATELY PRESENTED TO HIS MAJESTY. [From a Paper of Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart. &c. &c. inserted in the Com. munications to the Board of Agriculture.] A CONSIDERABLE part of sheep are in motion, unless he be Estremadura, Leon, and longs to the flocks. the neighbouring provinces of Spain is appropriated to the maintenance of the Merino flocks, called by the Spaniards Trashumantes, as are also bioad green roads, leading from one province to the other, and extensive resting-places, where the sheep are baited on the road. So careful is the police of the country to preserve them during their journies from all bazard of disturbance or interruption that no person, not even a foot passenger, is suffered to travel upon these roads while the The country on which the sheep are depastured, both in the southern and the northern parts, is set out into divisions, separated from each other by land-marks only, without any kind of fences; each of these is called a Debesa, and is of a size capable of maintaining a flock of about a thousand sheep; a greater number, of course, in the south country, where the lambs are reared, and fewer in the north country, where the sheep arrive after the flock has been culled. |