he northern declivity of the East Law,
which yielded also a considerable proportion of silver, and which was
abandoned only because of the high tax government had put upon the
latter metal. Then came the ready query: That since there is silver in
these hills, why not also gold, seeing they frequently go together?
Then it was found that the mineral formations in which this metal
occurs are the crystalline primitive rocks; and with these the Lomond
Hills were held to correspond. Then it had been told them, that in
days of yore shepherds had found pieces of gold while tending their
flocks on the hills, and that gold had been frequently met with in the
whole district of country between the Forth and the Tay. Last of all
came the testimony of a man who had returned to the neighbourhood from
California, and who assured them, that the substance they submitted to
his inspection was in all respects similar to that which was dug out
of the hills in the gold regions of America. Singularly enough, though
they did not reflect upon the facts, this man had returned home as
poor as he had departed, and manifested no desire to accompany them to
the new El Dorado at their doors. Other persons were meanwhile pushing
inquiries in a more certain direction, and subjecting the supposed
precious treasure to infallible tests.

The chief centre of attraction is a partially-wrought limestone
quarry, known by the name of the Sheethiehead, right above the village
of Kinnesswood, and about a gunshot back from the brow of the Bishop
Hill. It is surrounded on all sides by immense heaps of debris, which
has been repeatedly dug into during the last thirty years by
geologising students, in search of fossils connected with the
carboniferous system, and who must have frequently met with the
substance which has caused all this excitement, but never imagined it
to be gold. The face of the quarry, to the depth of twenty feet from
the top, is an accumulation of shale or slate, lying in regular
layers, and easily broken. It has been turned to good account of late
in the manufacture of slate-pencils of superior quality. Among this
shaly accumulation, there are frequent layers of a soft, wet clay or
ochre; and it is in this that the brilliants which have dazzled the
imagination of so many are chiefly found, and which, accordingly, are
frequently thrown out among the debris, of which it comes to form a
part. In this quarry, then, and in the heaps around it, hundre