CHAPTER II

GOLD PROSPECTING

(ALLUVIAL AND GENERAL)

Ignorance of prospectors--Chapter specially addressed to the inexperienced--Valuable finds mostly accidents--Best way to obtain elementary knowledge--An assaying experience--What a prospector should know--Usual geological conditions of most minerals--Unwise to follow theories blindly--Instances of unlikely occurrences of gold--Importance of examining outcrops--Curious matrices for gold--Alluvial and reef gold--Hints to prospectors--Prospecting for alluvial gold--Tin dish--Dry blowing--Size of prospecting shaft--Intricacy of deep leads--How to recognise true bottom--Gold bearing “gutters”--Difference in working shallow and wet ground pp. 13-21