a subsequent letter, of September 11, 1878, in which it is further stated: "We have no authority to give away any (quartz) containing visible gold." Specimens containing such gold "mostly vary from £10 to £50 in value."

Very different was the action of Capt. Acheson, proprietor of the gold works near Woodenbridge, county Wicklow, Ireland. That gentleman not only sent a courteous letter giving full details concerning his operations, but he was kind enough to forward a sample of their produce in the form of shotty gold resembling that of Leadhills and Kildonan.

Writing from Dublin in September 1878, Capt. Acheson says:-"I am sorry that I was not at the Wooden Bridge when you were there, as I should have had much pleasure in showing you what is to be seen. The works I have been engaged on are being closed up; which, although not profitable, afforded valuable information as to the origin of the gold. . . . The largest piece" (nugget) "I got was of 11 oz. . . . It is generally accompanied by rounded masses of magnetic iron and black sand, with tin ore, samples of which I send you. . . . I have opened new workings higher up near the mountain" (Croghan Kinshela), "which appear promising. . . . Should you be in Ireland again, I shall be happy if you would visit the" (new) "works."

...

Explanation of Plate.

Fig. 1. Medal-made for me in 1870 by Mr P. G. Wilson, Court Goldsmith, Inverness, one of the largest buyers of Sutherland gold in 1869. Its actual diameter is 4 inches, its weight 4 oz. avoirdupois, whereof only 5 dwt. are copper alloy, added for jeweller's purposes, to render the surface hard enough to bear engraving. It consists virtually of "real Sutherland gold," specially bought for the purpose by Mr Wilson.

Fig. 2. The Martin Nugget, found at Leadhills, Lanarkshire,* and presently in the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh. The plate shows its more convex and irregular surface, with its two embedded pieces of ferruginous quartz (which in the nugget itself are of a deep rusty-red tint).

Fig. 3. The Gilchrist Nugget, found at Kildonan, Sutherlandshire, in 1869, and now in the Cabinet of the Duke of Sutherland at Dunrobin. The drawing is taken from the model made for me in 1874 by Mr Wilson (of Inverness).

Fig. 4. A flattish nugget-of the "Pepita" character-collected for me at Leadhills, in 1863, by Leadhills miners, and forwarded through the good offices of the late Mr Noble of the Hopetoun Arms Hotel there.

* The date of the find is not given by Dr Porteous in his account of it in the "Treasure House," p. 51, but he informs me in a recent letter it must have been 20 years ago.

Fig. 5. A very angular nugget, collected in the same locality at the same time by the same party of miners, and transmitted through Mr Noble. Usually the Leadhills and Wanlockhead nuggets are much smaller than the one here figured, though equally angular or irregular-about one-fourth the size of this one or smaller.

Fig 6. Nugget with embedded quartz, the latter being more rounded than the gold; another of the specimens collected under Mr Noble's auspices at Leadhills.

Fig. 7. Rounded fragment of quartz, streaked with gold, all the gold being, like the quartz, much waterworn; found among a series of nuggets collected at Kildonan, Sutherlandshire, in 1869, for which I was indebted to the good offices of Mr Wilson (of Inverness), and of the then indefatigable Secretary of the Geological Society of Edinburgh-G. A. Panton, F.R.S.E.

Fig. 1 is less than the actual size. Figs. 2 and 3 are about the actual size. Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7 are somewhat magnified-the better to show their form and character.

Such nuggets frequently weigh from 10 to 100 grains, and are large enough to be used as the centre-pieces of brooches and breast-pins by the jewellers of Inverness and Glasgow-as illustrated by figs. 8 and 9, which represent Kildonan nuggets of their actual size, and in their native state.

Prof. Maskelyne, Director of the Mineralogical Department of the British Museum, was kind enough in April 1878 to give me authority to have drawings made of the Scottish gold specimens under his charge, including the Wright specimen.

Prof. Archer was good enough also in April 1878 to grant a similar permit as regards the Scottish gold exhibits of the Museum of Science and Art-including the Gemmell specimen.

And Dr Grierson of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, offered in July 1877 the use, for publication, of a coloured drawing by himself of the first fragment of the Gemmell find that was presented by Gemmell to the public; which specimen was for a time exhibited in the Grierson Museum at Thornhill aforesaid.

But, after a good deal of correspondence with these museum authorities about native gold exhibits in our public museums that might be worth figuring, it did not appear to me necessary or desirable for my own purposes to figure any of them except the Martin Nugget, which apparently deserves what I have herein endeavoured to give it a portrait, as well as a short biography. With that single exception (fig. 2) all the specimens or objects figured in the plate or their representations are in my own private

cabinet.

* Vide "Scottish Naturalist," vol. iv. p. 359.

IV. On the Phenomena and Geological Teaching of the recent Great Flood in the Devon Valley. By FREDERICK SMITH, F.G.S., Dollar.

(Read 17th January 1878.)

The phenomena of the Flood in the Devon Valley of the 28th of August last year (1877) appear to me to be so pregnant with suggestions of geological import, that I have presumed to place a description of the flood before you, with some remarks on the relation of the flood phenomena to certain deposits in the Valley of the Devon.

At 7.30 on the morning of the flood it became so dark that I could no longer see to read, and laid my book aside. It had previously thundered; immediately after which phenomenon the rain came down as I had never witnessed it before. At 7.45 I heard excited voices at the railway station near by, and immediately left the house to behold a most astounding scene. A river four feet in depth was running as a branch from Dollar Burn down the railway cutting, but where the burn usually runs under the railway, a terrific appearance was presented. The bridge had become blocked, and the water coming against the obstruction, rose into the air as from a volcano, tossing trees and boulders about like straws. I then came near to the burn, which was going along in a series of great leaps, and although the water was as high as my head above its banks, it swerved neither to right nor left, but went straight on like a dart to the bridge. The water was perfectly thick with sediment, and dark in colour. The ground around trembled as by an earthquake, while every now and then mighty boulders were brought into collision with a noise like distant cannon. Whilst looking at the mad stream, I saw a chair come down and smash to pieces against a post. With this foreboding of evil I hurried up-stream towards the village, and on facing the hills I noticed that streams of water were running upon them in all directions where streams had never before been seen by living men; there was indeed quite a network of streams, the time being about 8.10. But I was informed by several trustworthy witnesses that at 7.30, or thereabouts, the hills appeared as though covered with snow, the apparent snow being one almost unbroken sheet of water that was foaming down the declivities of the hills. I now reached the special scene of disaster, viz., the washing down of the houses. These houses were of stone, and were swept away by being undermined, for the water was sweeping out to right and left in great curves, eating away the ground, which was largely composed of big boulders, in a fearfully rapid manner, so that the onlookers