Show SOURCES OF PLACER GOLD press times rawhide nev an old time prospector residing in rawhide gives the following valuable information to the press times which will undoubtedly be of interest to those who are seeking the precious yellow metal A glance at the grain of placer gold reveals many interesting phenomena one is astonished at the soft velvety appearance examine a well worn piece of gold with a powerful glass the tiny sweat holes or indentations reveal the true reason nature is very stubborn about giving us pure gold but she is determined to alloy every piece with silver or other metals to greater or lesser degree varying according to the time of exposure since leaving its elemental bed in the vein herein has the up to date prospector learned some valuable lessons contrary to the general belief that gold is absolutely unaffected by oxidation it actually changes not alone in structure but color through contact with the elements it has been the writers extreme good fortune to labor two seasons with a pioneer in the work he had occasion to prospect in a particularly good location from a small placer field up to a known source of the deposit it has been found by examination with a strong microscope that a piece of gold fresh from the vein is not only rather lustrous probably 4 due to the silver alloy present but that it is also rather clean cut and of a crystalline structure As the gold begins to be washed away from the vein a sort of dullness characteristic of all gold begins to appear while the color assumes a slightly reddish cast bisect it with a sharp instrument being careful to break it the rest of the way and examine the familiar hackley fracture will appear appeal completely around the periphery but the lively appearance will be sustained by the protected metal within the farther away one gets from this sou source ace the deeper will become the alteration till at last it has become complete in this connection no mention has been made of the rounding off of rough edges a well ve 11 known fact in addition to all these signs however there is another guide for the pan tracer the presence ot of very fina f ine particles of gold in panning this is what prospectors call the drag an infallible sign that the vein is only a few feet away the presence of large nuggets usually indicates small rich ore shoots flakes of gold old are rarely found in other than fissure veins except those of a small round character with frayed edges resembling the teeth of a circular saw this is a pretty certain indication of a large ore shoot in porphyry wire gold is only found in irregular bunches or pockets gold panned from small seams in porphyry is usually much smoother and more regular in form than that tha 1 found within hard quartz much of the gold in the porphyry districts of nevada is in this form |