St. Landry Democrat

Large Quantities of the Precious Metal Found in Wales.

The London St. James' Gazette has created a great sensation by publishing a careful story from Wales giving the particulars of great gold discoveries there. It says that if the anticipations at present formed of the discovery are realized it will prove of the greatest importance not only to Wales but to the whole country. The gold has been found in the Mawddach valley, about five miles from Dolgelly, Merionethshire. One of the hills, the Cader Idris, has been pierced and a lode of quartz extraordinarily rich in gold has been found. There is every indication of the presence of a gold-bearing strata of almost indefinite extent. The fortunate owner of the property is William Pritchard Morgan, of Bryntirion, Dolgelly, and of Queen Victoria street, London. Morgan has had long experience in gold mining in Australia, and about four years ago he got the impression that gold probably existed in the place where it has now been found. Having made some experiments, he decided four or five months ago to begin systematic operations. He engaged 100 men and set them at work to bore into the side of the hill, about half-way above the level of the river which flows through the valley, and after penetrating about 150 feet they came upon a vein of quartz, in specimens of which gold could be plainly seen. They had struck the lode diagonally and have now been carried across it for a distance of eighty feet. The lode was found to be twenty-five feet thick, and there are 100 feet of it above the level of the boring. To what depth it may descend into the heart of the hill is not known, but it is reported that the deeper they go the richer the ore becomes. Besides this lode another of sixty-six feet in thickness has been found, and there are good indications of a third. The first lode has been so thoroughly stripped that about 15,000 tons of ore are actually in sight. Morgan has already stacked about 2,500 tons ready for treatment, and of this a great part is estimated by William Crookes, F. R. S., to yield six ounces to the ton from the stone already tested. The lowest calculations point to an average of two ounces to the ton, which would quite justify the opinions expressed as to the magnitude of the discovery. The region over which the gold-bearing quartz is believed to extend has an area of two or three miles, but as gold has for generations been found in the beds of Welsh rivers and in pockety form over large areas of the principality, it is probable that deeper and systematic working, as in Mawddach valley, would yield equally surprising results elsewhere. As to the future of this undertaking, it may be said that upon Morgan's property forty-two lodes are distinctly indicated, and that upon his operations down to the present he has spent between $15,000 and $20,000. Finch Hatton, who has visited the mines, says that he was struck with the appearance of the country as a gold-bearing one. In Queensland the discovery of such a field, he says, would have been made long ago, and had it taken place in the colony 50,000 men would have been on their way to it by this time. The gold is found in Wales, as in Queensland, at the junction of the Cambrian and Silurian period, that is, of igneous and aqueous rock. No opportunity will be offered to the public of investing in the new enterprise.