A table giving the weight of the largest masses found in the principal gold-producing countries is added to this article. For most of the items respecting the nuggets from California, I am indebted to the reports of Mr. H. G. Hanks, the State Mineralogist of California, and for those of New South Wales to the reports of Prof. A. Liversidge. Cabarrus County, in North Carolina, has furnished some large specimens of gold from the Reed placer washing, on Meadow Creek. One mass weighing about thirty-seven pounds troy (twenty-eight pounds avoirdupois) was found there in the year 1803. The first piece of gold was found in the year 1799 by a boy named Conrad Reed. In 1824 a nugget weighing sixteen pounds was found, and in 1835 another weighing thirteen and one-quarter pounds, besides several smaller nuggets weighing from one to nine pounds, the total weight of nuggets being one hundred and fifteen pounds avoirdupois. The largest mass is described as shaped like a smoothing-iron. In Georgia some large masses have been found in the Nacoochee Valley, White County, figures of which of full size are given in the Mining Magazine.* The largest mass weighed 387 pennyweights, the second in size 115 penny weights, and the third 3.59 pennyweights. A figure of the 387 pennyweight mass of full size is annexed. (Fig. 54, p. 593.) At the celebrated Loud deposit, in Lumpkin County, Georgia, the largest mass ever taken out weighed 737 pennyweights; several have been found which weighed from 150 to 177 penny weights. List of some of the principal California nuggets. 1854 1854 Carson Hill, n. Angel's camp quartz vein, 195 pounds, 4 pounds quartz. Willard claim, west branch of the Feather; weight 54 pounds be. 1862 West branch Feather, near Magalia. (Morrison.). 1865 West branch Feather, near Magalia. Shasta County. Banghart mine, Mad Mule cañon, crystalline. (Cooper.) 532 10,000 00 426 8, 006 00 263 4,893 00 93 1,757 00 140 2,605 00 107 2,000 00 94 1,770 00 146 2,716 00 1,596 17,655 00 Mining Magazine, second series, Vol. II, p. 265, 1861. Date. List of some of the principal California nuggets-Continued. Locality. Nevada County. Weight. Value approximately. Garden Valley. Found by Samuel Treeworgee 1867 1860 Spanish Dry Diggings, Pennsylvania seam, 2 pounds.. 1865 Spanish Dry Diggings. Grit claim, dendritic gold (Fricot's specimen). Pilot Hill. Bowlder of gold quartz.. 1854 Spanish Dry Diggings, near the Grit seam. (Texas & Jacobs) 1848 Wood's Creek, below Sonora 1,250 00 4,700 00 525 00 Tuolumne County. 900 Knapp's Ranch, east of Columbia. A slab-shaped mass, 14" x 9" x 5", Gold Hill, near Columbia In Russia, according to Sir Roderick Murchison, the very heavy pépites or lumps of gold, evidently portions of very rich vein-stones or nests of ore, have been found around the zavod of Zarevo Alexandrofsk. At the time of his visit the pepites weighed 24 pounds 68 zolotniks. Others had been found weighing from 13 to 16 pounds, Russian. After Sir Roderick left Russia, about 1843, a nugget was found at this locality which weighed 78 English pounds. This is doubtless the same specimen usually described as weighing 96 pounds troy, which is preserved in the Institute of Mining Engineers at Saint Petersburg. Kok *Russia in Europe and the Urals, I, 489. scharof no doubt refers to the same specimen in his work* on the minerals of Russia when he describes a nugget found in 1842 weighing 2 poods, 7 pounds, 92 zolotniks (Russian), or 88 Russian pounds. In his Mineralogy of Russia he gives a figure of the remarkable mass weighing 56 zolotniks, deposited in the Museum of the Mining Institute at Saint Petersburg, and already referred to in this article, page 576. An outline copy of one of the figures is here given. SOUTH AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA. According to Dana, Mineralogy (5th edit., p. 8), nuggets of gold 1 to 50 pounds in weight were taken from a mass of rock which fell from one of the highest mountains in Paraguay, South America. Date. List of some of the principal nuggets found in New South Wales‡ and Victoria. Locality. Weight. Approximate value. NEW SOUTH WALES. 1851 Meroo Creek, 53 miles from Bathhurst. One weighed 70 pounds | avoirdupois and gave 60 pounds troy of gold. The other two weighed about 60 pounds each, and from the three 106 pounds troy were taken 1851 Meroo Creek, another nugget, 30 pounds 6 ounces. 366 1852 Meroo Creek, 1 nugget. 157 1852 Meroo Creek, 1 nugget. 71 1852 Bingera 26 Buwanding, n. Orange, mixed with quartz and iron pyrites, gross 1, 286+ 4,389 8 10 1852 Meroo Creek, "king of the water-worn nuggets 1851 Meroo Creek, 24 No. 1. The Brenan nugget measures 21 inches in 1880 Temora, 99 ounces, 84 ounces, 76 ounces, 72 ounces, 68 ounces, 64 ounces, 63 ounces, and one of 59 ounces 1 dwt., and several others during the same year + The Russian pood =36 pounds 2 ounces avoirdupois, and there are 96 zolotniks in a Russian pound Compiled from "The Minerals of New South Wales," by Archibald Liversidge, F. R. S., 1882. List of some of the principal nuggets fouud in New South Wales and Victoria-Continued. "Blanche Barkley Nugget," with 6 ounces quartz, weighed 146 1, 722 |
