Professor Ansted's Gold - Seeker's Manual is not only a •work for
the time, but for all times ; for when has the day dawned upon civilized society that gold was not considered a precious metal ? In a certain sense the book may be considered a compilation; for the matter is rarely original, but drawn from a variety of sources. Its use and application is that of a master. Mr. Ansted takes a review of the gold districts of the world, marking whence the metal comes and the geological features of the districts in which it is found. He then subjects California to a similar survey, and gives a variety of directions for rough modes of testing gold and separating it from the grosser substances with which it is intermixed; exhibiting the practice in various districts, especially Brazil, which seems to approach the nearest to the method best adapted to California. He then considers the probable influence of this dis- covery on the commercial value of gold, and the prospects of California as a gold-producing country. The last he considers considerable, though not so full of promise as many suppose; the actual influence of the Cali- fornian discovery on the value of gold throughout the world, he thinks likely to be slight, judging by analogy and science. The settlement of California he deems the most useful consequence of the golden discovery.
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