GOLD.
Zahab, ARAB. Zar, Puus.
Geld, . . DAN., SWELL Zia°, POL.
Goud, DUT. OirO, ORTO, . . . PORT.
Or, FR. SOI0t0, Ito& Zabab, . . . . Suvarnam, . . SANSK.
Sona, HIND. Ponnoo Tam. Oro, . . . . IT., SP. Bungarroo, . . . TEL. SOI, Aurum, . . . LA'P. Altin , TURK Amas, Kanchana, MALAY.
Gold is almost always found native, but seldom perfectly pure, being alloyed with minute quan tities of other metals, which sometimes consider ably affect its colour. Sometimes it occurs in combination with silver, constituting electrum ; with tellurium in native tellnrium ; with silver and tellurium in graphic and yellow tellurium ; and with lead and tellurium in foliated tellurium. A native amalgam of gold has been found in California, especially near Mariposa, and in Columbia ; and an alloy of gold and bismuth in Rutherford County, North Anierioa. It sometimes occurs in small quantities in metallic sulphides, as in galena, iron pyrites, and copper pyrites, and is occasionally alloyed with palladium.
The finest native gold from Russia yielded—gold 98.96, silver 0.16, copper 0.35, iron 0.05 ; sp. gr. 19.099. A 'gold from Marmata afforded only 73.45 per cent. of gold, with 26.48 per cent. of silver ; sp. gr. 12.666; 8 to .1 is the most common ; 12 to 1 also is of frequent occurrence. Copper is often found in alloy with gold, and' also rhodium. A rhodium gold from Mexico gave the sp. gr. 15.5 to 16.8, ancl contained 34 to 43 per cent. of rhodium. Iron and copper pyrites are often mistaken for gold by the inexperienced in ores ; but gold is at once disfiguished by: being easily cut in sizes, and flattening under a hammer. Pyrites, when pounded, are reduced to powder ; iron pyrites are too hard to yield at all to a knife, and copper pyrites afford a dull greenish powder. Moreover the pyrites give off sulphur when strongly 'heated, while gold melts without anN such odour. Native gold is to a large extent obtained from alluvial washings. It is also found disseminated through certain rocks, especially quartz, gneiss, and talcose rocks, and it is often contained in pyrites constituting the auriferous pyrites ; the detrit'us affording gold-dust bas proceeded from some gold-bearing rocks.
Gold is mentioned as an article of the eastern commerce of ancient times. In the Bible (1 Kings ix. 28), about 1000 B.C., Solomon king of Israel made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And these ships brought.gold, silver, and precious stones from Ophir and Tarshish in such quantities, that king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches. Silver was so plentiful at his court, that it was accounted nothing of. The king's clrinking-cups were made of pure gold, and his shields were covered with beaten gold. It has never been settled where that Ophir and Tarshish were situated, but we are distinctly told that the navy of Tarshish brought gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks ; and it has been surmised by some writers that Tarshish was either China, or some islands in the China Seas. Ophir has been variously supposed to have been some district or port in the Red Sea, on the cast coast of Africa, or on the Malabar coast or coast of Malacca. Some Portuguese historians have supposed that it was Sofala, or some other place near the mouths of the Zambesi, on the east coast of Africa. The Tarshish fleet is, however, said to have arrived at Ezion-geber only once every three years, from which we may fairly infer that the voyage was a considerable one, or that the ships had to go with the S.W. monsoons, and return with the N.E. winds, or that they made a trafficking voyage from one place to another, until the cargo was sold and another shipped. Ships or boats coasting from the Red Sea to the mouths of the Zambesi would scarcely take three years for a trip. Ezion-geber, on the shores of the Red Sea (1 Kings ix. 26), is a little port at the head of the Elamitic or eastern gulf of the Red Sea.