in the temperature—granite decomposes.
We noticed that one of the constituents of
granite—felspar—was a comparatively
earthy-looking mass, in which the other matters
seemed to be embedded. In the
decomposition of granite, this felspar is the first
thing to give way; it becomes friable, and
rains or rivers wash it down. Capital soil it
makes. When the constituents of granite
part in this way, quartz is the heaviest, and
settles. Felspar and the others may run
with the stream, more or less; quartz is not
moved so easily. Now, as our neighbours in
America would put it, " that's a fact; " and
it concerns our gossip about gold.

Below the oldest rocks there lie hidden the
sources of that volcanic action which is not
yet very correctly understood. Fortunately,
we are not now called upon for any explanation
of it: it is enough for us that such a force
exists; and thrusting below, forces granite
and such rocks, (which ought to lie quite at
the bottom), through a rent made in the
upper layers, and still up into the air, until,
in some places, they form the summit of
considerable mountains. Such changes are
not often, if ever, the results of a single mighty
heave, which generates a great catastrophe
upon the surface of the earth; they are the
products of force constantly applied through
ages in a given manner. In all geologic
reasoning we are apt to err grossly, when
we leave out of our calculation the important
element of time. These lower rocks —then,
these greenstones, porphyries and granites,
sienites and serpentines—thrust themselves
in many places through the upper strata of
the earth's crust, in such a way as to form
mountain ranges. Now, it is a fact, that
wherever the oldest of the aqueous deposits
—such as those called clay-slates, limestones,
and greywacke sandstones —happen to be
superficial, so as to be broken through by
pressure from below, and intruded upon by
the igneous rocks, (especially if the said
igneous rocks form ranges tending at all from
north to south,)  there gold may be looked
for. Gold, it is true, may be found combined
with much newer formations; but it is under
the peculiar circumstances just now
mentioned that gold may be expected to be found
in any great and valuable store.

In Australia, the gold discoveries, so new
and surprising to the public, are not new to
the scientific world. More than two years
ago, in an " Essay on the Distribution of Gold
Ore," read before the British Association, to
which our readers will be indebted for some
of the facts contained in the present gossip,
Sir Roderick Murchison "reminded his
geological auditors that, in considering the
composition of the chief, or eastern, ridge of
Australia, and its direction from north to
south, he had foretold (as well as Colonel
Helmersen, of the Russian Imperial Mines)
that gold would be found in it; and he stated
that, in the last year, one gentleman resident
in Sydney, who had read what he had written
and spoken on this point, had sent him
specimens of gold ore found in the Blue
Mountains; whilst, from another source, he
had learnt that the parallel north and south
ridge in the Adelaide region, which had
yielded so much copper, had also given
undoubted signs of gold ore. The operation of
English laws, by which noble metals lapse to
the crown, had induced Sir Roderick
Murchison to represent to Her Majesty's Secretary
of State that no colonists would bestir
themselves in gold-mining, if some clear declaration
on the subject were not made; but, as no
measures on this head seemed to be in
contemplation, he inferred that the Government
may be of opinion, that the discovery of any
notable quantity of gold might derange the
stability and regular industry of a great
colony, which eventually must depend upon
its agricultural products." That was the
language used by Sir Roderick Murchison in
September, 1849; and in September, 1851, we
are all startled by the fact which brings
emphatic confirmation of his prophecy.

But it is not only about the Blue Mountains,
and in other districts, where the gold is now
sought, that the geologic conditions under
which gold may be sought reasonably, are
fulfilled. Take, for example, the Ural Mountains.
In very ancient times the Scythian natives
supplied gold from thence; and gold was
supplied also by European tribes in Germany
and elsewhere. Most of those sources were
worked out, or forgotten. Russia for centuries
possessed the Ural, and forgot its gold. Many
of us were boys when that was re-discovered.
The mountains had been worked for their
iron and copper by German miners, who
accidentally hit upon a vein of gold. The
solid vein was worked near Ekaterinburg—a
process expensive and, comparatively,
unproductive, as we shall presently explain. Then
gold being discovered accidentally in the
superficial drift, the more profitable work
commenced. It is only within the last very few
years that Russia has discovered gold in another
portion of her soil among the spurs of the Altai
Mountains, between the Jena and the Lenisei,
and along the shores of Lake Baikal. This
district has been enormously productive, and,
for about four years before the discovery of
gold in California, had been adding largely to
the gross amount of that metal annually
supplied for the uses of society. The extent
of this new district now worked is equal to
the whole area of France; but all the
gold-bearing land in Russia is not yet by any
means discovered. The whole area of country
in Russia which fulfils the conditions of a
gold-bearing district is immense. Eastward
of the Ural Chain it includes a large part of
Siberia; and also in Russian America, there
is nearly equal reason for believing that
hereafter gold will be discovered.

Before we quit Asia, we may observe, that
the Chinese produce gold out of their soil;