Knowing the geology of the Ural Mountains thoroughly, and having paid much attention to those parts of them where gold is found, Murchison was impressed, when he read of the nature of the Australian Alps, that they ought to be auriferous. In 1845, and 1846, Murchison spoke and wrote on this subject, and kept on directing the attention of the colonists to the necessity of searching for the precious mineral. In 1846 Murchison advised the unemployed tin miners of Cornwall to emigrate and dig for gold in Australia. In 1847 a Mr. W. T. Smith, of Sydney, acquainted Murchison that he had discovered gold, and a Mr. Phillips, of Adelaide, wrote announcing the same fact. Finally, in 1848, Murchison impressed on Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the colonies the necessity of having Australia surveyed, for the purpose of gold finding. Three years afterwards a Mr. Hargraves came forward as the real Simon pure, and was acknowledged by the ignorant legislature of New South Wales as the discoverer of gold in Australia. Count Strzelecki, a geologist, sent Murchison specimens of rocks from Australia, and positively found gold, not by inference, as in Murchison’s case, but in reality. But at the request of the colonial authorities it was kept a secret!!! The Rev. W. B. Clarke, F.R.S., a capital geologist, found gold in places, and settled what rocks it was in. This was in 1841. So that Murchison, although not the first discoverer, or the first who inferred the existence of gold in the Australian rocks, must have great credit given to him. Twenty years had passed away since Murchison sold his horses and gave up fox hunting, and he had done more than any man to establish the grand features of the outside structure of the earth, and to prove the succession everywhere of the same great formations. He was knighted in 1846, an honour which was appreciated in those days, but which is not compatible with the proper simplicity and nobility of science at the present time. Everybody was glad of the honour being given, and received by Murchison, and “Sir Roderick,” for the future came as aptly to the thoughts of his friends as “Mr. Murchison” had done of old. There is no doubt that at this time this experienced geologist believed that great lapses of time had occurred, involving great distinctions and new creations between the successive geological formations, that great changes had happened, universally, in the physical geography of the land and sea before a new formation was produced, and that the vast majority of fossils found in one were not recognized in a succeeding formation. He believed much in grand and sudden catastrophic changes in nature. The presidency of the British Association was given to the new scientific knight, and he worthily occupied the chair at the meeting at Southampton in 1846.