The thin gold films are evaporated in an ultrahigh vacuum system onto clean and air‐contaminated rocksalt crystals at liquid‐nitrogen temperature. The structure and orientation of the deposits are investigated with an electron microscope. The changes in film topology during the warmup to room temperature, caused by surface diffusion, can effectively be prevented by covering the films with a carbon layer immediately after their deposition at 80°K. Comparison of stripped carbon‐covered films with those examined by transmission through thinned‐down areas of the rocksalt shows that the stripping causes only minor changes in film topology. Changes in structure and orientation of the gold films with varying substrate temperature are investigated over a wide range of temperature. The results are discussed with respect to the work in the epitaxial temperature region.