The Mossbauer absorption in Au has been measured at 4°K for the 77-kev gamma ray emitted by Au 197 nuclei embedded in gold, platinum, stainless steel, iron, cobalt, and nickel. In each case, a Doppler-shift curve was measured to find the effective width and the chemical shift. The recoil-free fractions, /, are obtained with the aid of a straightforward analysis, which incidentally shows the errors that can be made in / if the chemical shift and effective width are not taken into account. The observed recoil-free emission fractions were found to be approximately 0.06 (Au), 0.34 and 0.14 (Pt), 0.24 (steel), 0.32 (Fe), 0.27 (Co), and 0.35 (Ni). The relative / values are correct; the correct absolute / values might require a multiplicative correction factor that could be as small as 0.53.Relatively large / values were obtained when the Au 197 radioactive nuclei were in high Debye-temperature lattices composed of light nuclei. Particularly low / values were found when the largest radiation-damage effects were expected.The observed chemical shifts were (in units of 10~6 ev): <0.13 (Au), 0.26 (Pt), 1.3 (steel), 1.4 (Fe), 1.3 (Co), and 1.1 (Ni). These chemical shifts give information more directly interpretable than, but related to, the optical-isotope and isomer shifts and the Knight shift; the magnitudes of the shifts measure directly either the depletion or the enhancement of electron density at the radioactive nuclei in the different lattices.Zeeman splittings of the nuclear energy levels caused by local magnetic fields at Au had relative magnitudes of 1.0: 0.43: <0.10 for Fe, Co, and Ni lattices. If the magnetic moment of the 77-kev excited state in Au 197 is 1.6 nm, the local magnetic fields in Fe and Co were 282 and 122 koe, respectively.