Angular distribution and kinetic-energy spectra of fragments, and cross sections for fission of gold with 68 to 124 Mev C/sup 12/ ions were obtained by observation of the fragments in two types of detectors (gas scintillation chambers and silicon p-n junctions). From the parameters used to fit the angular distributions to the theoretical curves of Halpern and Strutinski, the average excitation energy of the fissioning nucleus at the time of fission was obtained. This quantity is approximately 25 Mev, which is nearly independent of bombarding energy, suggesting that fission is preceded by the emission of several particles from the compound nucleus. The fission cross section increased from a value of 100 mb at 68 Mev to 1.28 b at 124 Mev. Over this range of bombarding energies, the total fragment kinetic-energy release rose from 142 plus or minus 6 to 146 plus or minus 6 Mev. At all bombarding energies, the variation of laboratorysystem kinetic energy of the fragments with laboratorysystem angle indicated full-momentum transfer by the bombarding purticle to the fissioning system. (auth)