According to many prospectors, all rivers and streams are gold deposits that may be compared to immense sluice boxes in which the heavier particles have been retained and the lighter ones washed away, while nature has been carving out the river basins with all the forces at her command, presenting a final clean up the contents of an immense mass of material. During this process a portion of the finer gold has been carried down the stream to flatter regions by the strength of the current, but the coarser has been retained, probably not far from its source, the extent of the deposit varying considerable with the character of the bottom of the channel, the bowlers in which act the part of riffles or lining in the artificial sluice box.
It is interesting to mention that on entering the water their destiny depends on the depth of water and the velocity of the stream. If the latter is great, the finer particles, which even is still water descend to the bottom very slowly and are in some cases swept away with the sand on their seaward journey, only the heavier pieces reaching the bottom, where they will continue to sink into the river bed by their superior weight as long as the surface is very soft or slightly agitated. The less velocity, the smaller will be the amount swept away.
In cases where the gold has not been much subjected to the action of water for continuous periods, it may retain its crystallized or angular form, and this is usually an indication of the vicinity of a vein, especially if portions of quartz are still attached to the specimens. The smoothing and flattening of nuggets and grains of river gold is probably due to a large extent, if not altogether, to the impact of heavy rocks and the polishing action of sand and gravel as they are swept over it in the river bottom, just such as material polishes and wears away the angles of bowlders or solid masses projecting from the bottom of the stream. It does seem probable that the coarse gold has ever traveled very far from the point where it first found lodgment in the river, but the very finest particles may be transported many miles. Gold derived from the alteration of auriferous pyrite or arsenopyrite may be excessively fine that it will never find a lodgment on the bottom until the sediment with which it is mixes reaches quiescent or perfectly tranquil waters.