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Iff! t 4 '6k A''^ u AjiAi-J 3^^V.'^'^^ grcy, brown, and bluish slates, alternatinr, with massive quartzite and gritty sandstones, all traversed by quartz veins, — a series which, lithologically, is not distinguishable from that met with several hundred miles farther N., and noticed as showing an auriferous aspect. The non- discovery of fossils both there and here precludes, unfortunately, the establishment of their true geological relations. The field, as far as opened, exhibits shingly creek deposits, brought down since ages past from the bounding ranges, and which may accord- ingly be divided into recent and older ones. The recent deposits are those shingly drift layers occupying the beds of the creeks, which beds have mostly been washed out several feet deep in the slate rocks ; and as the surface of the latter is generally hard, very uneven, and much jointed and cleaved, the obtaining of the richer wash-dirt is very troublesome, as careful scraping and brushing out of the hollows and cavities — in fact, regular fossicking — has to be resorted to. Regarding the older deposits, they form banks of 6 to above 20 ft. in thickness, composed of clay, sand, shingle, &c., between the main and branch creeks, and are, apparently, the richest in gold. The chief diggings extend for about i mile up a dry main branch of the Ulooloo Creek, running nearly N. and S. in the strike of the rocks —some parties working the creek bed, and others, and they form the greater number, 2 s I* h I! '! ill m : !:! i i 626 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. operating in the adjoining banks of older drift by shafts and drives. There can hardly be a doubt, however, that other branches of the Ulooloo Creek and the latter itself are auriferous, and will soon be attacked. Touching the gold found, it is generally coarse and solid, frequently even nuggety in character, and resembles somewhat that of Daisy Hill, in Victoria. A serious difficulty under which the miners labour is want of water, for the washing-stuff has to be carted a considerable distance to some water-holes in the Ulooloo Creek, and these, it is to be feared, will in a dry season soon give out. Some other water-holes lower down the creek might then, perhaps, be still available ; but the, no doubt, much higher rate of rirtage would greatly affect the earnings of the diggers. Judging from the character of the stuff, it appears very favourable for sluicing or working in the long-tom ; and with plenty of water at command, a con- siderable amount of gold might be produced in a short time by attacking the older creek deposits en masse ; for it seems from the arrangement of the drift, incident to its mode of deposition by floods and creek currents, that not only the bottom layer, but also intermediate higher layers, are very likely to contain gold — a point at present overlooked. As regards older hill deposits, i.e. rounded quartz-pebble [drifts and conglomerates, no evidence of their existence is apparent, nor is there a likelihood of the occurrence of deep leads, except it might be at the point where the Ulooloo Creek passes out of the ranges into the E. plain ; and whether the gold did exist there in large enough quantity to pay for the far more troublesome and expensive modes of working required, is doubt- ful, considering that its higher sources have hitherto not proved rich. The main hope for the permanency of this gold-field lies undoubtedly in the discovery of the quartz reefs from which the drift-gold has been derived, and these have to be searched for in the ranges bounding the main creek and its branches. According to the but slightly water-worn character of the gold found at the present principal diggings, the reefs that there supplied the metal can indeed not lie far off, and the intended prospecting by some enterprising rriners of several well-defined reefs higher up the creek has good chance o," proving successful, more especially as auriferous quar*^' specimens have been found in close neighbourhood to these reefs. The country round the diggings is generally well wooded, and the miner can therefore easily provide the necessary timber for rendering his shafts and drives safe for working. The Northe'ni Territory. — Taking the overland telegraph as a base line, the gold-fields at present known extend from Ae Stapleton to the Driffield, a distance of more than 100 miles in a S.S.E. direction. The main road from Port Darwin to the reefs runs pretty close to the AUSTRALASIA : SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 627 tclcgraph-linc, and the gold-workings, as a rule, are a few miles to the E. or VV. of this road. The width of auriferous country has recently been proved by prospecting parties to be much greater than was formerly supposed, Chinaman's Rush being over 20 miles from the telegraph-line. From this, it will be seen that gold is distributed over a very large area, and wherever slate and quartz are met with, the precious metal is usually to be found in minute grains ; but the rich patches which lure the digger from one country to another are deposited in a very puzzling and uncertain manner. There are no long leads of auriferous drift — most of the alluvial gold being found in short gullies and ravines — so that a great deal of prospecting has to be done before payable ground is usually reached. Occasionally rich pockets are met with, which suddenly reward the miner for months of unremunerative toil ; but the prizes are not Scattered with a too lavish hand, and gold-digging in the Territory, as nearly everywhere else, becomes a matter of working for something like a living. In the rainy season, when water is abundant, the Chinese do a large amount of " surfacing," often washing fine gold out of the earth-bound roots of the grass. During the dry months, many of the more energetic miners stack their wash-dirt, and sluice it when the heavy rains of the following wet season begin to fall. Quartz reefs and leaders are numerous in the following districts : — Stapleton Bridge Creek, Howley, John Bull, Britannia, Fountain Head, Yam Creek, Chinaman's Rush, Extended Union, Union Lady Alice, Pine Creek, Driffield, &c. Some of these may be traced for miles, and many yield payable percentages of gold ; but none has been tested below 200 ft., and only a few have gone down more than half that depth. The proper development of the reefs depends, as with all other industries, on railway communication. When cheap and easy conveyance reduces the cost of carriage and of food, tens of thousands of tons of stone, bearing i to | oz. of gold to the ton, will be manipulated by powerful machinery, and made to pay handsomely. Rich leaders, carrying 10 to 50 oz. of gold to the ton, are occasionally met with, and return large yields of treasure ; but they almost invariably die out, and are, therefore, not to be regarded as possessing the perma- nent value of quartz lodes. The average yield of all the quartz which has been crushed has been about i^ oz. of gold from the ton of stone. Some of the hills are interlaced with leaders and veins that are too thin to work upon separately ; but the day will come when great faces will be opened out, the workmen taking all before them, as at the Black Hill at Ballarat, and the 'ole mass — good, bad, and indifferent — passed through the crushing-mill -vith satisfactory results. Quartz-reefing is now carried on by small parties of working miners, so that there is but little chance of any deep shafts being sunk in order 2 8 2 628 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. I Pi: |j' : 1 '!! I to determine whether the lodes go down and carry gold. It has been suggested by the Chief Warden, on more than one occasion, that the Government should follow the example of other colonies, and offer a substantial reward for the discovery of a payable reef not less than i8 in. wide, at a depth of 300 ft. Should such a thing be found, and further researches demonstrate that the reefs, like those in Victoria, carry gold down to a great depth, new life and vigour would be infused into the mining community, and money would be easily obtained to work the claims on a large and systematic scale. The mining regulations are exceedingly liberal, and the only permit required is a miner's right, which costs 10s. per annum. One man can take up a block of ground, for alluvial digging, 25 yd. by 25 yd. ; and two men can work on a claim 50 yd. by 30 yd. Miners who go out prospecting and find a new gold-field are entitled to take up very large areas by virtue of being the first discoverers. With rejrard to reefing, the regulations are still more liberal, two men being allowed tu hold 200 yd. on the length of the reef by a width of 250 yd. Leases of ground may be obtained for quartz claims and land on which there is deep sinking. These leases give the holders complete security of tenure for 21 years, at a rental of los. per acre per annum. Dams and machinery sites may occupy 10 acres, and J acre is allowed for a residence site. The Warden's c I'np is about the centre of the present known gold-fields. From the report of the Surveyor-general, written at Port Darwin in September 1869, the credit of being the first discoverer of gold in the Northern Territory is given to Litchfield. R. C. Burton subsequently searched for gold under the direction of Goyder, and found fair prospects. In 1880, Price reported that there were about 150 Europeans and 1 500 Chinese on the reefs engaged in mining ; and the export of gold, as far as could be ascertained, was fully 20,000 oz. per year. Nearly half of this finds its way to Hong Kong in private hands, the Chinese being very fond of remitting small parcels by their friends for the support of their families. Several Europeans who stuck to the alluvial have gone away well satisfied with their takings ; and a number of Chinese have returned to their country with a sufficient capital to set them up in business. A new rush has taken place lately on the Margaret river, and there about 400 Chinese are doing well — some very well ; and one reef on the place, called the Twelve-mile Rush, is turning out well, so well, indeed, that the owners have called it Pay-me-well reef, and with good cause, if they get future crushings like their first. In 1 88 1, the arrival of 3000 more Chinese was expected. The rule is that the Chinese population always goes on increasing during the wet )'■ AUSTRALASIA : TASMANIA. 629 season, from November to March, and decreasing during the dry season, from April to October ; but the decrease is small in comparison to the increase, so each year increases the number of Chinese on the whole. The population was given as : Chinese, 3690 ; Europeans, 660 ; Malays, 30. The revenue from miners' rights reached 676/. The amount of gold exported since July i, 1880, was 28,471^^ oz. The discovery of a new gold-field at Bridge Creek came just at the right time, as the question previously was how to tide over the dry season. The last wet season on the gold-fields was the worst ever known, as water was scarce all the season, except during the months of February and March, con- sequently it was a difficult problem how to get through the 6 dry months ; but at Bridge Creek, which is 24 miles from Yam Creek, there was sufficient water to start with. This field has been very successful, although there have not been such heavy finds as at the Margaret ; still, as a gold-field, it is much superior, being of greater extent, and this time the Europeans are securing their fair share of gold. Until next wet season, when water will be plentiful, it cannot be fully developed, nor the full extent ascertained ; but in the meantime it is supporting a population of over 100 Europeans and about 1500 Chinese, and there is a fair pro- spect of its being a permanent gold-field for some time. Another new gold-field, 45 miles E. of Pine Creek, and known as Sanders' Rush, has been deserted for want of water ; but, from various reports, it will be a very valuable field in the wet season, as, during the short time the water lasted after its discovery, a large quantity of gold was raised. These two new discoveries will probably bring a large increase to the Chinese population next wet season. A fair amount of gold was being raised from the other reefs, and one very rich patch at the Margaret yielded 520 oz. pounded in a pestle and mortar from less than a ton of quartz ; and in another reef close by 2 tons of quartz yielded 216 oz. The payment of the 500/. bonus to D. B. Tennant for his discovery of the Margaret had given very general satisfaction. Tasmania. — Gold-mining was more actively pursued in 1878 than ever before. The average number of persons employed in this industry was 1050, the next highest number having been 530 in 1872. The approximate value of mining plant was: in 1878, 46,000/.; in 1872, 19,500/. From alluvial operations, 1 1,462 oz. of gold, valued at 45,750/, were produced, against 4020 oz., valued at 15,768/., in 1871, the highest yield previously. The number of tons of quartz crushed in 1878 was 15.805, yielding 13,787 oz. of gold, valued at 54,250/ ; the average value per oz. was 3/. 1 8s. 8d., and the average yield per ton of quartz, 1 7 dwt. 12 gr. The largest quantity of stone crushed previously in one year was 8516 tons in 1877 ; the largest yield, 11,007 oz., in 1876 ; and the highest average per ton, i oz. 8 dwt. 3 gr., in 1876. The total quantity of gold f'li« 1:^: u i!!'! i'r 630 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUIION. produced in 1878, so far as it could be ascertained, was 25,249 oz., valued at 100,000/. The Commissioner of Gold-fields, in a report (dated 4th September), after referring to the impossibility of ascertaining the exact amount of alluvial gold obtained, and stating that the quantity returned was within the actual yield, thus proceeds : — Since the beginning of this year (1879), two important discoveries of gold in alluvial deposit have been made ; one, near Mount Arthur, named Lisle, and the other at the Pieman river, near the W. coast. At Lisle, mining operations are being carried on in a most active manner, and there cannot be less than 1500 men employed. The gold is in shallow deposit, easily obtained, and is of a good quality. It is roughly estimated that not less than 20,000 oz. have already been procured. As usual, the miners seldom sell more in the colony than provides funds to pay current expenses, and many send large parcels by private hand to Melbourne, where it realizes a higher price. Gold transmitted in this manner is seldom or never entered at the Customs, and the Customs returns of gold exported are therefore no indication whatever of the actual produce of the colony in that metal. On the W. coast a limited number of miners are engaged, principally on the river Pieman, and several hundred oz. of gold of a very superior quality have been procured ; but the almost inaccessible nature of the place, the extraordinarily rough and scrubby country, and the severely wet climate, have prevented any extensive prospecting during the winter months. Several batteries have been erected at Beaconsfield to crush a species of auriferous conglomerate, locally termed " cement," with every prospect of success. No change worthy of notice has taken place in the condition of the mining industry on any of the other gold-fields since the close of 1878. The number of miners' rights issued since ist of January, 1879, is 2300, and there are 2000 men engaged in gold-mining pursuits throughout the colony. The yield of gold from quartz since 1st January, 1879, was 14,500 oz., valued at about 58,000/. Gold was obtained from Fingal in considerable quantities by odd stragglers with very rude machinery for years. A reef was worked by the Fingal Quartz Mining Co., which produced 20, 30, and 40 oz. per week ; but on erecting new machinery the affair failed. West Tamar district. — The geology of the West Tamar district of Tasmania was described by Norman Taylor, in 1 878. Gold is said to have been found in the Middle Arm Creek. The only reefs known to be auriferous are those at Brandy Creek, but at the time of Taylor's visit the only reef yielding good returns was the celebrated " Tasmania." Other reefs struck good payable-looking stone, but had to wait the advent of a long-promised crushing company. :ii; U '..'■ AUSTRALASIA : TIMOR. 631 An Older Pliocene Tertiary drift, derived from the denudation of the Silurian rocks and their contained reefs, covers the entire area of the higher portions of the low country between the two arms, almost com- pletely obscuring the underlying rocks. It also caps the Silurian and serpentine hills up to elevations of nearly 300 ft. above sea-level, between the Cabbage-tree range and Anderson's rivulet. It is very widely spread ; but Taylor has little doubt but that leads would be found, if looked for, in some portions of it. The Italian's and Scotchman's Co. tunnelled into it on a head o*" Brandy Creek, W. of the Cabbage-tree range, and struck a lead with good prospects ; but were driven out by water, " Made hills " occur along the valleys of the Yorktown and other creeks running up into the Silurian and Metamorphic ranges. On the E. side of the Brandy Creek or Cabbage-tree range occur some small leads, consisting of a reef-wash from the Tasmania reef, which probably belongs to the Older Middle Pliocene period. Brown's party were on good gold at a depth of 60 ft. ; while only a', out I J chains to the E. the Grand Junction Co. were down 118 ft. without bottom, showing the existence of a ledge between the two, with a very steep vertical fall. In conclusion, Taylor briefly mentions one or two other occurrences in connection with the reefs of Brandy Creek. Victorian reefs in general run in, or nearly so, the strike of the country ; but here they make an angle of 30° to 40° with the strike, or nearly E. and W. The often- occurring carbonaceous or black schists forming the casings in many Victorian reefs are here represented by a brown, sometimes hard and siliceous, and at other times earthy-looking, light and friable sandstone, containing distinct plant-impressions, in the softer rock sometimes converted into coal. This occurrence has not been hitherto noticed, and is of great interest. This bed is said to form the hanging-wall in con- nection with the " Cabbage-tree " conglomerate of the " Tasmania " reef, and Taylor obtained specimens from their top shaft. The same rock also occurs in the shaft of the Providence Co. on the top of the range. In the Grand Junction Co.'s shaft, on the E. side of the range, it also occurs as boulders in the drift, and contains quartz pebbles, having no doubt been washed down from the reef in Middle Pliocene times. It contains gold in itself, and was being saved for crushing. Is it possible that these carbonaceous selvages to reefs have had any influence on or been the cause of the formation and segregation of gold in the reefs ? Although much has been done by Professor Cosmo Newbery towards a solution of this puzzle, a great deal yet remains to be accomplished before an answer can be given to this important question. Timor. — According to Moor (1837), gold is found in several of the rivers of Timor, both in lumps and dust, some pieces weighing 2 oz. I, I: l!::i 632 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Two of the most productive rivers rise in the centre of the island, and one falls into the northern, the other into the southern, sea. From a superstitious motive, the natives have an objection to any person taking the gold from these rivers, and except in very rare instances, do not ever touch it themselves. On those occasions, they do not presume to remove it until they have sacrificed a human being to the deity of the river, and then take only a very small quantity, never using it in traffic. This is corroborated by Van Hogendorp, in his 'Description de Timor ' (' Annales dcs Voyages,' vi. 280). Victoria. — The following tables representing the development and condition of the gold-mining industry of this important colony are condensed from the voluminous report of its mineral statistics for 1879. Fio. 22. •S^^irrtaad 'KiJdatlm 1*)«» ■SM^ » '5 Ifiwta^ }r\miarmlaU Bi\ddtlij\ Jh- ^ArnHnitt i^inmrnft j«t .i>^ Ontth Sketch-map of Victoria Gold-fields. Estimates of gold raised in Victoria during 6 years : — 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. Exported, according to Customs Returns. Received at the Mel- bourne Mint. Raised, according to estimates of Mming Registrars. Purchased, according tu returns of banks. oz. dwt. 904,154 •.097.644 1,105,115 oz. dwt. gr. 709,914 18 585,852 1 1,068,418 1,077,276 5 5 oz. dwt. gr. 506,145 6 427,878 16 965,760 949,468 12 17 oz. dwt. gr. 508,691 2 290,919 17 809,655 4 16 790,147 8 10 oz. dwt. gr. J46,?.59 10 422,609 14 758,040 15 19 772, J02 15 20 oz. dwt. gr. 214,197 16 495,062 4 758,947 5 n 7J6.'55 7 " il- AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 633 The estimated yield of gold for 1879 is 906 oz. 10 dwt. more than the quantity obtained during 1878. Estimated yields of gold from alluvial and quartz mines, since the year 1 867 : — Year. Alluvial. Quartz. Year. Alluvial. Quarti. oz. oz. oz. oz. 1868 .. 1,087,502 597. 4>6 1874 .. 433.283 664,360 641,806 1869 .. 934,082 610,674 1875 .. 426,611 1870 .. 718,729 585.575 1876 .. 357,901 ■89.754 605,859 1871 .. 698,190 670.752 1877 .. 519,899 1872 .. 639.551 691,826 1878 .. 264.453 493,587 1873 .. 504,250 666,147 1879 .. 293, 3'o 465.637 For the first time during 1 1 years the estimated yield of gold from alluvial mines shows an increase on that of the preceding year, due principally to a better water-supply for sluicing operations, and to the opening up of deep mining ground near Beaufort ; but owing to the exhaustion of the auriferous drifts in the older workings of the gold- fields, it is hardly to be expected that yields from this class of mining will show any lasting improvement. There is still a slight falling off in the yields from quartz mines. The year 1879 shows no alteration in that respect from those that preceded it back to the year 1871, except that the diminished yields of 1879 and of 1878 are comparatively small. It is, however, to quartz mining that we have to look hopefully for future progress, and it is confidently anticipated that the recent dis- coveries of extensive and highly auriferous quartz veins at Baiiarat, in close contiguity to the deep alluvial leads so long and profitably wrought on that gold-field, together with a great improvement in the prospects of vein mining at Maldon and other places, will cause an increase in the yields from this class of mining. Yields of gold from parcels of quartz in the 6 years 1 874-79 : — Year. Crushed or treated. Produce. Average per ton. tons cwt. oz. dwt. gr. oz. dwt. gr. 1874 .. 967,069 9 573,220 17 5 II 20-51 1875 .. 949,468 12 565,561 10 10 II 21-92 1876 .. 1,011,808 4 534.328 6 19 10 13-48 'in •■ 965,573 IS 453,372 19 9 9 9-38 1878 .. 874,717 6 417,306 I 16 9 12-99 1879 .. 849,324 16 372,946 22 8 18-77 Quantities of quartz tailings, mullock, &c., crushed and treated, and results obtained therefrom, during the 6 years 1874-79 : — Year. 1874 .. 1875 .. 1876 .. 1877 .. 1878 .. 1879 .. Quartz Tailings, Mullock, &c., crushed. tons 69.439 3».299 34,028 28,435 38.281 37.301 cwt. O o 7 o 14 15 Produce. oz. 6,866 4,432 3.281 2.938 3.502 3.028 dwt. II IS 10 9 13 o gr. 10 23 22 5 12 21 Average per ton. dwt. I 2 I 2 I I 23-46 19-98 21 49 I -60 19-92 14-96 .■I I !l: M Qkh" I fllll iliJir ■iiiii: 634 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIDUTION, Quantities of pyrites, blanketings, &c., treated during the 6 years 1874-79, and gold obtained : — Pyrites and nianketinns Year. Produce. Average per ton. treated. Ions cwt. or. dwt. gr. oz. dwt. gr. 1874 .. 6,72s IS 18,941 14 13 2 16 7-82 187s .. 7.499 S 18,565 18 2 2 9 12-34 1876 .. 7.057 3 7.359 5 17.538 19 21 2 9 16-93 >877 .. '3.64s 3 S I 16 21-65 1878 .. S.37S 13,589 14 23 13,014 II 8 2 10 13-59 1879 .. S.304 3 2 9 I • 75 During the 11 years 1869-79, 58,040 tons 6 cwt. of pyrites were operated on, and a total yield of 146,905 oz. 8 dwt. i gr. of gold obtained, equal to an average of 2 oz. 10 dwt. 14 •92 gr. per ton. Quantities of vein-quartz crushed, and average yield of gold per ton, during the 6 years 1874-79, in the several districts : — 1874. 1875. 1876. District. Qu.-rtz crushed. Average Y: •'•f;old pe. Quartz crushed. Average Yield of Gold per ton. Quartz crushed. Average Yield of Gold per ton. tons cwt.'oz. dwt. ,r. tons cwt oz. dwt, gr. tons cwt, oz. dwt. gr. Aramt . . 63.757 18 c, 80 75.467 10 17 23-16 88,729 i6 22-47 IJallarat 276,409 16 7 15-88 283,668 12 8 i7'6o 3«S.407 606 14-46 Beechworth 73.125 15' 10 5-26 64,042 4 n 1-93 65,638 12' II 6-6i Castlemaine 156,146 10, 9 16-98 117,504 10 8 4*09 111,716 10' 7 14-4S Gippsland .. 42,234 8; 1 3 1279 43.426 16 I 4 7*94 40,784 6 I 3 J2-58 008 18-66 Maryborough 31.903 009 10-77 33.671 10 13-48 32.605 Sandhurst . . 323.493 14 6-35 331,688 13 609 356,927 10 II 22-86 1877. 1878. 1879- Ararat . . 77,798 13 18 4-04 74.221 14 14 8*67 76,323 9 II 17-73 Ballarat 350.761 006 2069 337,797 6 16-97 346,540 5 6 18-44 Beechworth 64,471 12 10 23-41 54.764 2 10 21-94 55.092 16 10 11-04 Castlemaine 94.463 006 13-90 75.397 6 1-91 75.692 5 18-45 Gippsland . . 35.517 I I 12-24 35.518 I 21-69 26,991 12 I 2 18-66 Maryl)orough 40,409 12 602 38,261 17 10-38 36,603 14 II 22-67 Sandhurst . . 302,153 10 8 19-20 258.758 10 9 20-41 232,081 9 8-09 It will be observed that for 1879, the Gippsland district still holds the first place in regard to high average yields of gold, but the number of tons crushed is small as compared with the quantity treated in other districts. The continuous decrease in the number of alluvial miners has ceased. The number employed in 1879 was 265 more than in the year 1878 ; the number of men enga£ d in quartz mining since the same year has increased 652. The increase in the number of both classes of miners, comparing the return for 1879 with that for 1878, is 917. The number AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 635 of Chinese engaged in mining operations on 31st of December, 1879, was 9110. There is a decrease of 528 in the return for the past as compared with that of the preceding year. Dividing the value of the gold exported and received into the mint amongst the mean number of miners employed in the year 1879, the average per man is "jdl. \s. 2\d, The averages for 6 years are shown in the following statement : — Year. 1874 .. 1875 .. 1876 .. 1877 .. 1878 .. 1879 .. Alluvial Miners. Earnings per man per annum. 58 9 n 5 51 10 47 8 47 3 d. 2* S 7 o\ 6« 48 10 1} Quartz Miners. Karninus per man per annum. Average Karninga |)er man per annum. £, t. d. 183 o 9 182 17 f6o 17 8 9i 139 12 o\ 138 7 118 8 7i 7 C '■ ■*■ 640 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. quartz crushed per head per diem of 24 hours, i to 8 tons ; number of holes per sq. in. in the gratings used, 80 to 800 ; horse-power required to work each stamper, J to i ; quantity of water used per stamp-head in crushing, 1 50 to 25 5 gal. per hour ; quantity of mercury used in the ripples per stamper, 1 5 to 36 lb. ; quantity of mercury lost per stamp- head per week, I oz. According to the Mineral Statistics for 1880, the quantity of gold raised during t!.e year was 829,121 oz. 5 dwt., being 70,173 oz. 19" dwt. more than in 1 879, and larger than any yearly yield since 1 876. The estimated yield from alluvial mines was 299,926 oz., and from quartz mines 529,195 oz. Notwithstanding the further exhaustion of the auri- ferous deposits of the older gold-fields, the estimated yield of gold from alluvial mines shows an increase upon that of the preceding year. This increase is supposed to be due to the opening up of new gold-producing areas, in which the rich deposits have been hitherto hidden beneath deep flows of volcanic rocks. The discoveries in these tracts have been greatly facilitated by the operations of the diamond drills imported and worked by the Government ; the rapid borings through dense basalt by these machines, and the information disclosed by the cores of rock obtained, have given a great impetus to alluvial mining, and have enabled mining companies to determine the downward courses of auriferous leads at distant points, and to sink shafts with precision either upon or in close proximity thereto. The principal increase in the yield of gold has, however, been obtained from quartz mines. An improvement in this class of mining, both in respect to the quantity of quartz crushed and to the average yield of gold per ton, has taken place in the Sandhurst and Castlemaine districts ; but the greatest improvement is visible in the returns relating to the Ballarat district, in which the yields from quartz are shown to be far ii. excess of those of any previous year. The quantity of quartz raised from the mines during the past year is estimated at 968,883 tons 9 cwt, as compared with the estimate of 849,324 tons 16 cwt. for 1879. Of quartz tailings, mullock, &c., there were crushed 29,140 tons, yielding 2357 oz. of gold ; and 8038 tons of pyrites, blanket- ings, &c., were treated, yielding 13483 oz. of gold. The quar!ity of vein-quartz crushed and the average yield of gold per ton in the several districts of the Colony were as follow: — Ararat : quartz crushed, 83,853 tons ; yield per ton, 19 dwt. 15*05 gr. ; Ballarat : 448,841 tons ; 7 dwt. I4"48gr. ; Beechworth : 48,020 tons; 12 dwt. 21 "54 gr. ; Castlemaine: 80,720 tons; 8 dwt. 20*64 gf- J Gippsland : 23,767 tons; i oz. 3 dwt. 11-69 gr. ; Maryborough: 43,587 tons; 12 dwt. Il*l8gr. ; Sandhurst: 239,894 tons; 10 dwt. i8*68 gr. Apart from the large quantities of quartz crushed, these returns show a gratifying increase on the average yields of gold per ton in every mining district except Ararat. The tx I AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 641 numbers of miners employed in alluvial and quartz mining on December 31, 1880, were as follows: — Ararat: alluvial, 2049, and quartz, 801; Ballarat : 4225 and 491 1 ; Becchworth : 3706 and 1347 ; Castlcmainc : 3360 and 1393; Gippsland : 1891 and 470; Maryborough: 5673 and 2154; Sandhurst: 2012 and 4576. Total alluvial miners, 22,916; quartz, 15,652; grand total, 38,568, being an increase of looo over 1879. The number of Chinese engaged in mining operations in Victoria continues to decrease; on December 31, the number was 8486, or 624 less than in 1879. Dividing the quantity of gold exported and received into the Mint among the miners employed in 1880, the average per man in alluvial mines is 49/. 14s. 2d. ; and in quartz mines, 129/. \\s. 'j%d. The approximate area of auriferous ground over which mining operations have extended up to the end of 1880 is 1235 sq. miles ; and the number of distinct quartz reefs proved to be auriferous is 3630. The total area occupied as " mining claims " under the provisions of the bye-laws of the several mining boards was 35,126 acres, and the area held under leases from the Crown was 24,430 acres. In the exploration of the country for quartz veins, shafts continue to be extended in depth throughout the gold-fields. The total quant ity of gold raised in Victoria from the period of its first discovery in 1851 to the end of 1880 is given by two official state- ments respectively as follows : — a. 49,549,051 oz. 16 dwt., value, at 4/. per oz., 198,196,206/. b. 49,646,71702., ,, „ „ 198,586,062/, The table on pp. 642-3 shows the yield of gold from parcels of quartz raised during the ist quarter of 1880 from some of the deepest mines in Victoria, with the depth of their deepest shafts. Victoria auriferous reefs. — The characteristics of the auriferous quartz reefs or veins of Victoria have been carefully studied by William Nicholas, whose observations exhibit many facts of great value. Quartz mining is now the most important branch of gold-mining in Victoria, the yield from the reefs exceeding that from the alluvions by many thousand ounces per annum. Reefs are worked on .several gold-fields at more than 1000 ft. beneath the surface ; shafts, levels, and cross-cuts can be measured by hundreds of miles ; and the outlay of capital necessary to the development of quartz mines can be calculated by millions of pounds sterling. A study of the characteristics of the auriferous quartz veins, and the laws which regulate them, is therefore highly interesting ; and Nicholas for many years devoted leisure time in collecting important facts relating to the strike, dip or underlie, and width of reefs, and the dip of the shoot of gold and quartz in the reefs, in order that he might render quartz mining less a matter of chance than it has been in the 2 T ! J I! i •3 [■Ml Hi : .. ■ \ ii^ 642 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. District, division, and subdivision. Ararat. Ararat div. Ballarat. Central div Southern div Buninyong div Creswick div < Steiglitz subdiv Blackwood div. and Blue Moun- tain S. subdiv. Beechworth. Beechworth div Yackandandah S. subdiv Buckland div < Alexandra subdiv. Gaffney's Creek subdiv Wood's Point subdiv Big Kivcr subdiv Jamieson subdiv Castlemaine. Castlemaine div Fryer's Creek div i Hepburn div Taradale and Kyneton subdiv. Tarrangower div < GiPPSLAND. Mitchell R. and Boggy Ck. sub- div. Crooked R. div Stringer's Creek div Marvqorouch. Maryborough div Amherst div DunoUy and Tarnagulla div. Sandhurst. Sandhurst div Name of company. Heathcote div. and Waranga S. subdiv. Pleasant Creek Oriental . . . . Temperance . • . . New Kangaroo . . Imperial Q. M. .. Port Phillip . . . . New North Clunes Cleary's Freehold Sultan Reform Shackenburg Bros Davis and Co. J. A. Wallace Page and Co. J. Ferguson . . Lauraville Sir John Franklin Londonderry Clancy's Central Wattle Gully. New Era . . Rowe Bros, . . Rising Star . . United Kingdom North British German Reef Galloway Long Tunnel Bristol Hill .. .. Union ueen's Birthday elcome . . . . North Birthday . . W, Garden Gully United. Unity Little Chum . . . . Central Catherine Alabama and But- ler. Name of reef. ( Scotchman's Hat I Cross Scotchman's.. .. Band of ffope StaflTordshire. . Hiscock's Clunes Clunes Sultan and others Reform, Myrtle- ford. Morning Star Tiddlede-addledee Land Tax . . . . Accident . . . . Homeward Bound Ford's Railway Glceson's Lease . . Wattle Gully Ferron's.. Cattle's .. .. , Wilson's.. .. , United Kingdom Parkin's Keef German . . . . Depth at which quartz got. Galloway Cohen's . . ( Western Reef } Eastern Reef Church Hill.. Bealiba . . . . Welcome Bealiba . . . . Garden Gully Garden Gully New Chum . . Catherine Butler's . ft. 1,200 850 I, ISO 400 to 950 278 XI2 Bo to 990 aoo to HOC 140 400 to 7SQ 4SO 60 350 600 340 55 150 200 300 170 350 70 to 400 160 to a6o '95 50IO 500 360 60 '^343 to 623 500 to 550 270 to 300 250 400 to 530 240 200 to 300 75° 800 580 580, 640, 700 450 Quantity crushed. 1,128 1.354 a. 579 1,500 1.753 3,J03 «4.523 2,052 I 1,665 1,430 S03 6,336 1.673 ISO '43 45» 369 4.07a S»8 342 "S 1,710 53 ','56 H.O'S 843 134 '•359 480 Average yield of gold per ton. 1 Width of reef. oz. dwt. gr. 1 I 15 3 t 6 o I 10 19 ft. in. 6 to 13 5 23-'* a to 30 10 o I 13 12 3 to 7 O I 6 in. to loiii.** 6 in. to 6 ft. o 6 15 «4 I 18 3 '58 4 16 7 180 I 10 38 2 4 5 9 a 7 21 35 4 20 150 16 600 039 33 396 10 o 4 ° I o 8 08 o 6 33 irregular" 6 in to 20 ft. 5 to 20 o 4 aa 4 '5 3 16 3 ' 19 12 '7 3 6 13 I 4 »3 o 4 14 o a 20 5 '3 I Q 14 14 4 2 19 X 4 16 I 9 II 6 ai 1 6 I o 7 i6 '4 I to 60 6in.to4ft.'* 18 in. to 4 ft. 3 to 10 I 6 I to 3 o 6 1 Still sinking. s A well-defined lode. * Lode well-defined at 950-ft. level. * Not working at present. > Including pyrites. * This reef was first struck on the surface, and the trial crushing yielded 3 oz. to the ton. 7 Sinking has been stopped for the present for the pur- pose of prospecting at the 900-ft. level. Another plunger has been put in, and there are now four plungers at work in the shaft. B Granite formation. AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 643 Average ' yield ur);uld per ton. 1 Widlh of reef. oz.dwt.gr. I 15 3 I 6 o I I 10 19 ! 042 O 6 21 o s 235 O 10 2^ 400 O 13 12 6 15 1 18 2 4 16 7 1 lo o a 4 5 2 7 21 o 4 20 o 16 o 039 396 20 s a to 30 » 2 to 7 -3B 6 in. to loiii.'^ '■";OT 6 in. to 6 fi. :*M '■"'5 '% • ^^ :^^ 'v^- 10 'ti 4 ■p I o 8 08 o 6 23 irregular" I 6 in to 20 ft. 5 to 20 o 4 22 4 <5 3 16 3 « ig 12 '7 3 6 12 4 23 4 14 2 20 13 I u 14 14 2 ig 4 16 I 9 II '4 6 21 6 I 7 16 I to 60 6in.t0 4ft.'5 I o 6 o I 9 3 o 18 in. to 4 ft. 3 to 10 o I 6 I to 3 o o 6 present for the pur- I. Another plunger • plungers at work in Dip of reef. Dip of quartz. W. 3 ft. in 6 ft. W. 70° E. 66° ( 4 reefs E. 30° ( a reefs W. 30^ W. 15° E. and W. Varies \V. W. 80° S.W. 30° Westerly S.W. 70* Vertical E. E. 36° W.so" W. 60" W.'8o° E. 78° W. 80° W.65O W.35° N.36° E. and W. E. E. N. I in 4 Strike of reef. N. S. N. N. N. E. Varies S. Vertical S.W. 30° N.W. 33° S.W. 70° N. I in 8 8.30° S.4S° N.30° E. and W. S. S. N. and S. N. and S. N. 8=' W. W. 15° N. 8° E. N. 11° W. Northerly N. 10° E. N. 22° W. N.W. 33° N. 52° SV.8 N. 3,° W. N. 27° W. N. 14° W. N. s° E. N. 20° W. N. 12° W. N. 15° W. N.W. 19° N. 12° W. N. 10° E. N. N. iS-^W. N. 16OW. N. i8°W. Name of company. ,Magdala< Newington Prince Patrick . . . . Prince Alfred' . . Cruwn Cross United . . Oriental' South Scotchman's . . Pleasant Creek . . . . Extended Cross R„ef West Scotchman's . . ^Si.Jtchman's United . . Temperance Little Hopewell . . Imperial Q. M Port Phillip New North Clunes . . Sultan Dale and Co. Bigelow and Clingan. New Era Rowe Bros. Eaglehawk Union North British Good Hope'a . . . . J Long Tunnel . . . . tWalhalla I Bristol Hill Union I Queen's Birthday .. (King's Birthday Lansell's 180 . . . . Great Extended Hust- ler's. Carlisle, N. Garden Gully, and Passby United. Great Extended Hust- ler's Reef Tribute. Alabama and Butler. . Name of reef. Band of Hope" Staffordshire Hiscock' ■ .. Clunes . . . . Clunes . . Sultan and others' Excelsior, Woora- gee. Homeward Bound Perron's. Cattle's . Eaglehawk". Parkin's" . Good Hope Cohen's . . Cohen's . . (Western Reef (Eastern Reef Church Hill . . Bealiba' Bealiba' Victoria" HusUer's'7 . . Garden Gully" Hustler's" . . Butler's Reef Depth of shaft. ft. '333 1940 1784 1614 1313 "75 1262 1220 1170 1052 1018 955 520 410 "93 1 105 914 310 450 514 320 1220 500 700 735 615 628 310 254 556 390 1476 1368 1340 1264 570 Depth of deepest level. » Leaders extending 130 ft. W. of foot-wall. '0 A new shaft sunk during the quarter. >' Driving E. to strike the reef. •• Commenced sinking below joo-ft. level. '» Preparing machinery, &c., to drive the No. 4 level. ft. 2002 iS'o 1500 1026 1000 1238 1252 1200 1070 800 1000 950 500 400 logo 1 105 900 180 420 500 '75 lOOO 500 500 723 585 600 300 250 520 233 1200 • 350 854 1200 500 Depth of deepest cross-cut. ft. 2002 1510 ■ Soo 1026 1000 »238 1252 1200 1070 800 1000 950 500 400 1090 1 10s 900 310 SOO «75 1200 500 700 723 585 600 303 350 520 333 1460 1350 1320 1250 500 •♦ Below adit level. " Broken and irregular. " Not sinking. '7 Not sinking. Reef struck at 1240-rt. and 1350-rt. cross-cuts, but shows no gold. 2 T 2 il' m :. liSII; •! «ii; ■iil'^'K 644 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. past. The data collected have been classified under two principal divisions, viz. reefs that occur in Lower Silurian and in Upper Silurian rocks. Strike of reefs. — Of 998 reefs, 841 are situated in the Lower, and 157 in the Upper Silurian rocks. These are subdivided into reefs bearing W. of N. and E. of N. Of those in the first-named class of rocks, 554 had an average strike of N. 20° W., and 117 in the latter had an average strike of N. 34° W. ; whilst there were 287 reefs in the Lower Silurian that possessed a strike E. of N. averaging N. 1 1° E., and 40 reefs in the Upper which had a strike of N. 27° E. From these figures, it will be seen that out of a total number of 998 veins in both formations, 67 1 had a direction W. of N. and only 327 ran E. of N. The variation of these reefs to W. and E. of the true N. point in the Lower Silurian was just one-half that in the Upper Silurian rocks ; or, to put it in other words, in the first-named rocks, the average strike of the reefs W. and E. of N. added together makes but 31", whilst that of those in the second makes 61°. It appears then that the auriferous veins in the Lower Silurian formation are much more nearly N. and S. than those in the Upper. As a rule, the auriferous veins run parallel with the strata in which they are enclosed, and the greater number of the most extensively wrought and richest veins in Victoria strike W. of N. Groups of reefs. — When the reefs on the gold-fields are plotted on a geological sketch-map of Victoria, it becomes manifest that they are naturally divided into seven groups, of which two are important and five of less importance. The two main groups or belts are well defined, have a general direction N. and S., and are in the Lower Silurian strata. The E. one embraces (commencing from the N. extremity and going S.) the undermentioned gold-fields, viz. — Kamarooka, Raywood, Sandhurst, Marong, Castlemaine, Fryer's Creek, Maldon, Newstcad, Yandoit, Tara- dale, Daylesford, Gordon, Blackwood, Ballan, and Steiglitz, at the S. extremity. It contains 774 distinct quartz reefs actually proved to be auriferous. The W. main group or belt comprises — Wedderburn, at the N. end ; Kingower, Inglewood, TarnaguUa, Dunolly, Maryborough, Talbot, Clunes, Creswick, Ballarat, Buninyong, Smythesdale, and Bull- dog, at the S. end. There are 535 known auriferous reefs in this belt. These two great belts are separated by the 144th meridian of longitude on the map of Victoria, and physically by a barren and depressed strip of strata 15 miles in width. Of the five groups of lesser importance, two lie in the Upper Silurian and three in the Lower Silurian rocks. In the first group (which lies E. of the main belts) are the following gold-fields, commencing with the most N. : — Rushworth, Whroo, Coy's diggings, Redcastle, Heathcote, Tooborac, Kilmore, Yea, St. Andrews, AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 645 and Mornington. (Near the last-named place arc 2 undeveloped auri- ferous reefs.) It contains 530 distinct auriferous reefs. The second group in the Upper Silurian contains, beginning at the S. end and going N. : — Stockyard Creek gold-field, Red Hill diggings, Russell's Crcrk, Walhalla, Jericho, Donnelly's Creek, Wood's Toint, Gaffney's Creek, Big River, Jamicson, Alexandra ; and on the N. of the great granite outcrop, Baddaginnie, near which place there are reported to be 6 auriferous reefs which have been but slightly wrought. The auriferous reefs in this group number 323, and the course of the group is N.W. In these two lesser groups, many considerable tracts of Upper Silurian strata intervene between the gold-fields, and are either deficient in auriferous reefs, or the reefs in them are not proved. The third group to the E. is in what is believed to be Lower Silurian rocks, and it is the most considerable of the five smaller groups. Commencing at its N. extremity and running S., it comprises the Chiltcrn gold-field, Beechworth, Yackandandah, Myrtleford, Morse's Creek [Bright], Harrietville, Mitta Mitta, Omeo, Crooked River, and Boggy Creek. This group strikes W. of N., and contains 893 known auriferous reefs. On the W. side of the two great belts, lie the fourth and fifth groups of lesser importance in Lower Silurian strata. The fourth contains St. Arnaud, Stuartmill, Rcdbank, Landsborough, Avoca, Barkly, and Raglan; in which gold-fields, 151 distinct quartz reefs have been proved to be auriferous. The fifth, last, and most W. group comprises the Stawell gold-fields, Great Western, Ararat, and Moyston ; and in this group are 63 distinct auriferous reefs. With the exception of some 10 unimportant auriferous reefs, all that are known to exist in Victoria are included in one or other of the seven groups above described. In Victoria, the veins run at right angles to the main dividing range ; but it will be found that they run parallel with the principal spurs or tributary ranges of the main divide, and by a study of the map it will be noticed that the general direction of these ranges or spurs on the gold- fields is N. or N.W. at about right angles to the main dividing range. For example, in the E. part of Victoria, where the divide bends round to N.E., and is well marked, the groups (as has been noticed) have a course N.W. In the central part of Victoria, where the divide runs almost due E. and W., the reefs in the two great groups or belts run more nearly N. and S. ; whilst in the W. groups, where the divide is low and not well defined, the course of the comparatively important tributary spurs is N.W., and to them the reefs run parallel. Also, several of the groups are more or less separated by low depressed country, in which are the valleys 646 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. I U 'I of rivers : another physical proof that the high lands trend in a N. and S. direction. Cross-reefs. — Auriferous cross-reefs occur in the Lower Silurian formation at Steiglitz, Ovens district, Maryborough, Redbank, Dunolly, St. Arnaud, Heathcote, Pleasant Creek, Grant, and Crooked River, to the number of 61, of which 53 have an average strike of N. 60° W., and 8 have an average strike of N. 74° E. In the Upper Silurian, cross-reefs are found at Rushworth, Whroo, Coy's diggings, and Redcastle, to the number of 24, of which 15 have an average strike of N. 85" W., and 9 of N. 71° E. These figures exemplify that Victoria is not destitute of veins running E. and W., which in other countries is the direction of the pre- dominating strike of mineral and metalliferous lodes or veins. R. A. F. Murray mentions the discovery of 2 cross-reefs at Wilson's Promontory, which have a strike of N. 55° W., and dip S. 35° W., but they had not been proved auriferous. Only one of them, however, had been pro- spected, and that to a slight extent. Krause reported an auriferous cross- reef at Ararat, 18 in. wide, with a strike of W. 30° S. (across the strike of the bounding rock), and a dip of N. 80° ; it was worked to a depth of 240 ft. below the surface, and the highest yield of gold obtained from it was 2j oz. per ton. Dip [Underlie] of reefs. — Of the dips of auriferous veins in 134 instances, 78 in the Lower Silurian had an average of 61° W., and 22 of 62° E. ; and 19 in the Upper Silurian formation averaged 72° W., and 15 had a mean dip of 49° E. Out of the 1 34, 97 dipped to W., and 37 to E. In addition, Nicholas got the direction of the dip, but was not able to obtain the angle, of 41 other reefs situated in the Lower Silurian, 33 of which underlay to W. and 8 to E. ; and also found records of 16 vertical reefs. From the limited data and information gathered, it does not appear that the richness or poverty of auriferous reefs is affected by the variation of the angle of underlie. The greater number of the reefs seem, however, to have a dip of about 60°. The majority of the most impor- tant reefs in Victoria appear to have* a W. underlie, although there are many rich reefs that dip E. Nicholas also mentions that the saddle- formed reefs so characteristic of the master lodes of the Sandhurst gold- field are not confined to that field, but occur also at Clunes, Blackwood, Lauriston, Hepburn, Inglewood, and in the Bonang Range in Gippsland. Shoot of gold. — Respecting the shoot of gold, Nicholas got particu- lars of the dip of 57 " pay chimneys " (as they are called in California) or shoots, 25 of which dipped to N., 28 to S., and 4 were vertical ; the prevailing angle of the N. and S. shoots was between 25° and 50°, The information obtainable under this head is unsatisfactory, as there are apparently but few persons who have thought this subject of sufficient importance to have qualified themselves to be able ta say, even approxi- AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 647 mately, whether the general direction of the shoot of gold is N., S., or vertical. Too frequently, when remarks are made on this subject, in- quirers are checked by finding it stated that the shoot of gold varies. There will probably be some difficulty in defining the dip of the shoot in reefs that contain fine gold evenly distributed ; but in all cases, if a longitudinal or working section were kept, the course of the vein worked out would show the dip of the shoot of quartz, with which the shoot of gold usually conforms. In Nicholas' own experience, he has found that the shoot of quartz is invariably at right angles to the lines of striation on the walls or laminations of reefs, or to the heads or joints in the bounding rocks. In California, it has been observed that the pay- chimneys run with the lines of striation. That the dip of the shoot of quartz or gold should be known, is a matter of the first importance in the working of all mines, and especially to adjoining mines. Width of reefs. — Nicholas gathered the widths of 286 reefs. Of these, 237 were in Lower Siluriap rocks, and 49 in Upper Silurian. He divided these widths into three divisions, viz. (i) under 5 ft, (2) over 5 and under 10 ft., (3) over 10 ft. Of the 237 reefs in the Lower Silurian, 168 were under 5 ft, and averaged 2 ft 5 in. ; 45 were over 5 ft, and averaged 6 ft. 8 in. ; and 24 were over 10 ft., and averaged 29 ft. Of the 49 reefs in the Upper Silurian, 44 were under 5 ft, and averaged 2 ft. I in. ; I was over 5 ft. (or 8 ft. 5 in.) ; and 4 were over 10 ft., and averaged 15 ft. 6 in. From the above figures, it will be seen that the reels in the Lower Silurian are much wider than those in the Upper Silurian forma- tion, and it is found that the thickest reefs have proved the richest and most extensively worked in Victoria. Laminated reefs. — In the catalogue of auriferous quartz specimens (Victorian) in the collection of the Survey department, of 108 of the most important reefs, from which fair samples were obtained, 59 had a lami- nated structure. The same data show that, of the 108 reefs, 48 contained gold in cavities ; 9 specimens only were found to contain gold in the solid quartz ; and in the laminations, gold was observed to occur in 24 reefs. These facts point out that the greater part of the free gold in our reefs is not enveloped in solid quartz, but occurs in a comparatively loose state in the cavities and laminations, with clay-slate, galena, pyrites, and zinc-blende : from which, an inference may be drawn, that the freer are the tailings run off from a quartz-crushing mill from any other substance than quartz, the less is the loss of gold. Dykes. — It is well known that basaltic dykes are associated with the main lodes of the Bendigo gold-field, but they are not confined in this respect to that field. In other gold-mining districts, in the Lower Silurian rocks, they have also been found ; for example, at Castlemaine, a basalt dyke, 2 ft. in width, has been discovered in working the Eureka 648 GKOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Ii|ii lii ' :;t Mir, reef; another dyke, varying in width from 18 in. to 2 ft., has been met with in mining the Shclback reef, Barker's Creek ; and a third, having a regular course, and a tiiickness of 6 to 24 in,, was discovered in the Wheal Terrill mine. Wattle Gully. Murray reports that, at liallarat, a few dykes similar to those found at Sandhurst occur ; Norman Taylor, that black basaltic dykes were <"ound in the Waterloo, Argyle, Albion, and South Scotchman mines al Pleasant Creek. These dykes appear to conform in strike [direction] with the auri- ferous veins with which they arc associated ; they cut through the veins and strata at all angles ; have a tortuous winding course ; occasionally, when they have been intercepted by a reef, they follow its underlie for short distances ; or they are found more frequently to fault the reefs; in width, they arc irregular, varying from 1 in. to 9 ft. 6 in. ; and dykes have been found to split into two or more streams. Some dykes consist of compact hard basalt containing olivine, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish the rock of which they are composed from the newer basalts which arc spread over such large areas in Victoria ; whilst others are decomposed into white, yellow, grey, and speckled brownish clays. By miners, they are now considered certain guides to reefs, and Nicholas pointed this out as far back as 1863. If dykes can be said to have a dip, it is found, in working reefs, most frequently to be opposite to that of the reefs they intersect ; but their general direction will no doubt prove to be vertical. These dykes record, by lines of striation and polished faces, movements on either side of them in the strata. Of auriferous lodes or reefs in other countries, it is observed that the strike most common is N. and S., and that there are a half-dozen mines in which the lodes may be classed as E. and W. or cross-reefs. It is stated, however, that the veins in Minas Geraes, Brazil, strike most frequently E. and W. In Northern Mexico, and in Virginia, Orange, and Buckingharn counties. United States of America, the strike of the veins deviates to the E. of N., whilst those in California, British North America, and Oregon, U.S.A., strike either N. and S. or deviate to the W. The E. and W. lodes are generally poor when compared with the N. and S. The fact noted tiy Henwood, that the veins in Brazil run parallel with the mountain chaii.s. has also been observed to be true in California. The lodes dip both E. and W., and the average dip of those of which the angle is given is 55°. Of 28 veins, 8 under 5 ft. averaged 2 ft. 9 in. ; 3 over 5 ft. averaged 7 ft. ; and 17 over 10 ft. averaged 27 ft. In common with Victorian reefs, these lodes or veins are proved to be ever varying in thickness, to have rich gold-bearing shoots or pay-chimneys, and poor zones, which succeed one another vertically or horizontally ; to be laminated, have slicken- sides, dykes, and slides ; to be nipped out — the walls of the veins coming Hi I ■.i!i ; imm AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 649 together ; and to possess the same mineral composition, consistinjr most commonly of quartz, arsenical and iron-pyrites, galena, zinc-blende, copper-pyrites, silver, antimony, calcspar. With regard to the last- named mineral, in Nicholas' opinion, although it has hitherto only rarely been found in auriferous veins in Victoria, and then mostly in small quantities, it will be found to occur commonly and in quantity as the reefs are mined to greater depths. In support of this opinion, he mentions that the mineral has been found in nearly solid quartz, got from 1687 ft. in depth, in the Magdala mine. Pleasant Creek ; in compact quartz, from 560 ft. in depth in the Victoria reef, Sandhurst ; and it has been observed in quartz from the Garden Gully reef. Hustler's, Brown's ; "lava dyke, " on the Johnson's, at Sandhurst; in a "lava dyke" asso- ciated with the Wattle Gully reef, Castlemaine ; and in all these mines at considerable depth.s. It has also been found (in quantity) in the Shamrock claim, Gooley's Creek, and other Gippsland mines. The calcitc observed in the quartz fr )m the Magdala mine and Victoria reef occurred in thin veins in compact quartz, and was only discovered after careful examination ; in some of the other cases mentioned, it was found in cavities. In the " lava dykes," it sometimes occurs in thick scams. Whether the occurrence of this mineral in quantity in our reefs will have any effect on their auriferous character, is a matter of speculation ; but it is not likely that the reefs will be richer for its presence. It is, however, probable that the reefs will contain more metals and minerals, such as silver, copper, lead-ore, and pyrites. But as calcspar has not yet been found to exist to any large extent in the reefs down to 1000 ft, it is not desirable at present to speculate on its favourable or non- favourable influence on the gold-bearing qualities of the reefs. Calcite is associated with gold in the veins worked in Queensland, Brazil, and Virginia. Passing from generalities, separate accounts will now be given of the most interesting gold-fields, ranging them alphabetically under their districts. Ararat. — According to Krause's report (Oct. 7, 1874), a marked feature, at once noticed by a visitor from the central gold-fields, is the absence of shallow alluvial " ground " in this district — a feature which is certainly not to be attributed to a lesser amount of denudation during Post-Tertiary times, but rather to the character of the denuded material itself. At Castlemaine, Sandhurst, and other fields, the newly-eroded valleys were filled by the detritus of highly auriferous Pliocene gravels, and the abrased caps of rich quartz lodes. On this field, the denuded rocks were Silurian schist, quartz reefs, and, principally, the Upper Newer Pliocene drifts, neither of which appears to have possessed the precious metal in quantity. Except in the immediate proximity to Older in II ■ s liMi- "> i:; ■■li ':■ ' "u > '■I I 650 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Tertiary hills, the alluvium in Ararat gullies and creeks is therefore, as a rule, absolutely barren. From the large extent of country occupied by the drifts of the Upper Newer Pliocene (recent gold-drift), and the equable manner of their deposition, there is little doubt as to their m?,nne origin, and that they have been 16ft by a slowly receding sea. They consist of mixed clay and angular gravel, from a capping to upwards of 100 ft. in thickness, and layers of ferruginous cement, the constituent gravels of which are angular. They first occur at an elevation of iiooft. above the sea, and have their largest extent N. and N.E. cf the township of Ararat, where they cover ''deep ground, at the Lower Wet lead, Sawpit Flat, Three-mile Creek, &c. The configuraiion of the Older Pliocene surface has been greatly modified by the levelling influence of these latter deposits, and a con- siderable breadth of, no doubt, richly auriferous country is as effectually hidden beneath the clay drifts as under the lava plains of the Hopkins farther S. Indeed, observing from a miner's point of view, the search for the deep leads under the drift mantle, while accompanied by the same amount of uncertainty which attaches to the position and mining capa- bilities of the sub-basaltic gutters, is rendered even more difficult by the extra labour requisite in securing the mine against the lat-i al thrust of a permeable stratum. Here and there, where the newer cement rests directly on the bed-rock, it has been removed for crushing ; but the results have in all cases been discouraging to the miner, and it would appear that no gold in workable quantities has been found in any of the Upper Newer Pliocene beds. Most of the " leads " now working in this mining division are referable to the Lower Newer Pliocene (older gold-drift) period. They frequently rise at an elevation of 1250 ft. above sea-level, and have been traced downwards to 800 ft. At their heads, they follow pretty generally the course of existing drainage-channels ; but as the latter gain the low land, covered by newer drift, and the Silurian rock forms no longer the banks of the valleys, then the leads cca^e to conform, and their course is often transverse to existing watershed lines. From the manner of their occur- rence, these deposits are clearly the result of fluviatile agency ; yet the fact of large sub-angular boulders of quartz being found aeposited at the very source of certain leads, where little or no fluvial action can have taken place, tends to show either that they are the denuded remnants of Older Pliocene beds removed from a much higher altitude, or else that the upper valleys of the leads were inlets to a Lower Pliocene ocean. With one exception, the Dividing Range forms the main axis alike for the In ewer Tertiary and the modern drainage systems. On the seaward side are two main courses of aijiriferous leads trending S. towards a junction u-^low the Burrumbecp Preemptive Section. The E. course .1 4 m m AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 651 starts from the valley of the Warayatkin Creek, receives the Mullock Bank, Upper Wet, Ararat, and Kangaroo Range leads, with their network of tributaries, and immerges under the basalt immediately E. of the township of Ararat. The W. course begins under the Main Range in the valley of the Deenicull Creek, and admits the Blackman's, Sydney Flat, Phillips', Gibson's, Cathcart, and other leads. The lower portion of the E. course is covered by basalt ; that of the W. course, by Upper Newer Pliocene drift. On both leads, the miner has encountered such difficulties, chiefly in the excessive influ < of water, as to submit to the cessation of mine work at a compa;atively early stage. It is an im- portant fact, however, that most or all of the main leads have proved remuneratively auriferous up to the time of their abandonment. With respect to this locality, it is, in Krause's opinion, infinitely less a matter of scientific conjecture as to the existence and position of auriferous deep leads, than a simple question of procuring capital for the resumption of mining operations. On the W. side of the Main Range, are principally the Rocky Point, Opossum Gully, and Port Curtis leads, which have been profitably wrought for a length of several miles over a granite bed-rock. In their lower course, the leads are confined within the steep rock_, banks of the present valleys, and as the fall of the latter increases, the older drift has been in places removed by the scour of the modern stream, and re- distributed as a shallow alluvium, which contains the gold so fine and scattered as to become practically unworkable. This is the only instance in which the mining term " lost lead " assumes a geological meaning. Independently of palaeontological evidence, and judging from their physical distribution only, the lowest gold-drifts (Older Pliocene) have always been classed as marine deposits, and "t is impossible to come to any other conclusion when the formation is studied on this gold-field. They occur at uniform levels: first, as outliers 11 00 ft. above sea-level, occupying the crests of isolated hills, often several miles aivander, on either side of the Main Range ; then, as the country falls S. away from the great axis, their atline increases around hills and flanks of ridges ; and finally, at an altitude of 600 ft. stretch in an unbroken gently-sloping plain down to the Wimmera basin. By imagining an inclined plane between the highest point at which the drifts appear at Ararat, and the lowest level to which the Four-post lead at Stawell has been traced — whether this inclination be due to the natural configuration of the surface of the Palaeozoic rocks, or caused by subsequent gradual upheaval, does not matter at present — the geological horizon of the Older Pliocene era is obtained. Five miles north of Stawell, as far as present information goes, are the uppermost beds of the group, consisting of soft, mottled, brecciated sandstones, and ferruginous sand and loam with concretionary ironstone, It: P^..i Hi m P ■■: w,, fh' n f iii i'' i^!:' .i!'C"^:!!;j y Hill ii! 652 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. shelly conglomerate and fossil marine shells (chiefly Astarte and casts of univalves). Below this are well-rounded quartz gravels, conglomerate (cement), and coarse grit — the oldest gold-drift. At Ararat are only deposits of the latter description — the upper beds have either been removed by denudation or (if the declivity pre-existed) were never precipitaed along the shallow margin of the Pliocene ocean. A few miles fartiicr N. of the Stawell leads, beds of marine shells of pronounced Miocene age are said to occur, and this would complete the analogy between the Te'tiaries of these gold-fields and those exposed in cKfif sections near Point Castries, and probably also those of the Moorabool valley, near Maude. The older leacs, though but sparingly represented on the S. side of the Dividing Range, have proved to be exceedingly rich in gold. Bridal Hill, Canton lead, Flint Hill, Union Jack lead. Surface Hill, and Cathcart Hill are the principal representatives of the oldest drift In the neighbourhood of Ararat. The depth of the Flint Hill drift is fron: 20 to 40 ft., and contains gold distributed throughout the whole thickness. The coarse " shotty " gold is usually, but not invariably, on the bottom or bea-rock. Another characteristic instance of the imm^- liai ' ' ysical relation of the Pliocene gold-drifts is offered in the localii; 01 cathcart. This hill is composed of a cemented drift of gravel and metamorphic schist, 30 ft. in thickness, nearly the whole of which is more or less auriferous. It is a noteworthy fact that not a single well-defined quartz reef in the neighbourhood of Ararat has been found payably auriferous at the levels to which they have been tested. The only lodes that have been worked to advantage are those irregular veins showing no defined casings, and the latter much disturbed, and leaving spaces which are filled up with the rubble of the adjoining rock mass. It is, however, necessary to state that in no instance has the depth to which the quartz workings extend been below the level of the older goM-drifts in the immediate vicinity of the reef. These remarl 3 refer simp;y to the reefs within the area of tb S. half-sheet of the survey, and do not apply to the Moyston, Rhymney and Port Curtis reefs. Campbell's reef and Rhymney reef are tolerably well-defined lodes, that have been profitably wrought at 600 ft. and 200 ft. respectively. Both are in metamorphic-schist country. Bourke's reef, although it has proved highly auriferous at a shallower level than the contiguous older leads, is a very irregular flat lode cutting through decomposed granite. A second report by Krause, dated July I, 1875, deals with the N. portion of this gold-field. Examination of the mode of occurrence of the Tertiary and Post-Tertiary rocks in the N. area of the survey did not augment to any great degree the knowledge previously neld. £\\v. It I AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 653 information gained is with regard to the extent of the deposits, affecting the economic bearing of the inquiry. 1. The Warayatkin fluvial leads, in the valleys of the Sawpit Flat and Three-mile Creek, underlie the alluvial flats just mentioned, and trend towards a junction beneath the basalt at the Green Hill swamp. The sinking is principally through clays, partly sandy, partly unctuous and bituminous ; fine su'^-angular gravel of quartz and ironstone containing drift-wood, and layers of plastic clay containing an abundance of nodules of bisulphuret of iron, 4 to 8 ft. thick. The total depth is 90 to 1 50 ft. In the bottom layer of clay, thin patches and streaks of blue iron earth (phosphate of iron) are found. This mineral (vivianite) has been hitherto found in this colony only in conjunction with volcanic rocks, and it is probable that in this instance, too, it has been derived from disintegrated basalt, a flow of which (now covered by the newer clay-drift) extends up the lead-Volley some distance from the visible basalt boundary. 2. The Main Hopkins lead lies under the basaltic plain on the E. side of the river Hopkins, from Ararat to Jackson's Creek, a length of about 7 miles. A union of the Black, Caledonian, and Warayatkin leads probably takes place at or near the Racecourse Reserve. Tributaries join on the VV. from the Kangaroo Range, and on the E. from the valleys of the Gorrinn and Jackson's creeks. The former have been proved to be highly auriferous ; of the latter nothing is known beyond the fact that they rise in Silurian country, which is intersected by quartz ri.efs and capped by quartz gravel-drift not hitherto worked upon. The trunk lead runs S., and most likely passes under the va^'ey of Jackson's Creek, at a point about a mile above its confluence with the river Hopkins. Beyond this place, indications are wanting. The possibility is that the sub-basaltic Silurian rocks at>. auriferous, and may contribute towads the " feeding " of the main drainage channel ; but a glance at the sketch- map shows it to be more probable that from Jackson's Creek for several miles S. the bed-rock is granite. The sinking on to the main lead will be 200 to 300 ft. through basaltic rock, which occurs in 3 or moe layers with intervening thin beds of clay, gravel, and scoriae. 3. The Main Cathcart lead is in the valley of DeenicuU Creek, and under the basaltic flow S. of the Burrumbeep station, along the river Hopkins to Jackson's Creek. The Cathcart having been joined by the Phillips' Flat and Nil Dcsperandum leads, meet probably at, or S. of, the Burrumbeep station. From here, the lead bears apparently to a pomt some 20 chains E. of the confluence of Jackson's Creek and the Hopkins, and thence S. towards a grand junction with the Main Hopkins. The si. '.king on the upper portion of this lead is through 65 to 150 ft. of clay and intermixed clay and gravel ; on the lower course, through perhaps not less than 1 50 to 300 ft. of basaltic rock. •M. I 1 ill; ; |l|:;;l|: w4 : !: I;.4!i ''JM>l:jii:ill!ll f "11 654 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 4. In the Concongclla lead, in the valley of the like-named creek, from Armstrong's to and past the township of Great Western, the strata to be sunk through are alluvial silt resulting from the operation of creeks, and clay and gravel beds 50 to 100 ft. thick resting on granite bed-rock. 5. The granite country lying S.W. and W. of the township of Great Western, between Concongella Creek and the S. spur of the Black Range, and containing the Pliocene drainage deposits from Jonathan Gully and numerous other leads, has received but scanty attention from the miner. The sinking is through granitic detritus, local drift, and clay and gravel beds varying from 20 to 50 ft. in depth, but deepening N. towards the Concongella lead. 6. The Great Western elevated plateau N. and E. of the existing gold- workings is composed of Older Pliocene gravel-drift resting upon decomposed granite. The lead itself has been worked for a length of 2 miles, and a width which exceeds in places 1200 ft. From the alternate dry ■■:!='• ?nd accumulation of saline waters, and the undulations, both longi'. Uy and laterally, of the bed-rock, it seems conclusive that the " lea' ' is simply a depression in a former sea bottom. Similar depressions, filled, no doubt, with auriferous gravels, occur prob?.bly again in other places under the plateau, which extends N. towards the Wimmera river, and offers a highly promising field to the prospector. The gold in the Great Western lead, as in the older drifts generally, occurs in fine scales ; pieces weighing I dwt. are rare, and the largest " nugget " obtained hardly exceeded 5 dwt. With the exception of the Great Western, which is variably wet and dry, all the leads enumerated are more or less heavily charged with drift water, and demand superior skill, appliances, and capital for their proper working. The number of quartz lodes in the Ararat division that have been mined upon at various times is 23. But of these, many have long since been abandoned, and respecting them no information could be obtained, owing to the state of inaccessibility of the deserted shafts and workings. I. Mitchell's reef is a vein 6 to 10 in. thick ; in places, the walls of the looe bulge out to a width of 24 in., and the lode-stuff then occurs in thin bands encasing strings and riders of slate rock. The whole material is removed for crushing, and the miners speak of the reef being 2 ft. wide, which is, of course, not strictly correct, more particularly as the gold seldom enters into the slate here. The greatest persistency, both in thickness and yield, is at the depth of 40 to 60 ft. Elsewhere the gold occurs unevenly, generally very sparingly distributed, or it occupies nests, from which now and then some rich specimens were removed, that led to the sinking of a disproportionately large number of shafts ; but the highest yield obtained has in no crushing exceeded 1 5 dwt. per ton. The greatest depth to which the reef has been worked does not reach to t>ik ."I AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 655 ■4 1 M ■1 the level of the " alluvial " leads in the neighbourhood. Setting aside the disadvantage arising from an undue amou it of dead labour which has to be expended in the working of all small veins, it may fairly be questioned — not only in this instance, but with regard to several other reefs in this district similarly situated — whether the workings should not be carried down at once to a depth below that of the leads within the immediate drainage area, in order to ascertain the character of the stone in country that has not been affected by the receding of mineral waters during Newer Tertiary times. About ij mile S. of the prospecting shaft, the lode is again visible on the surface, and is being worked under the name of Port Fairy Gap reef. Here the stone yields 12 dwt. per ton, at a depth of 30 ft. from the surface. 2. Moore's reef is a collective name given to a series of quartz veins which traverse the low hilly country 2^ miles N.E. of Ararat. The work- ings in claim No. .3 S. show, on a width of 48 in., 3 veins of 5, 9, and 8 in. respectively, separated by soft slate rock, which is again interstratified by numerous auriferous quartz bands. The entire thickness (4 ft.) of stone is being treated under the crushing-mill. There are many other quartz veins in this mine, but no indication of gold in them has been observed. In claim No. i N. 2 groups of veins have been worked upon. The W. group consists of 4 veins, 2 to 8 in. thick, which unite into a tolerably homogeneous lode 22 in. thick at 72 ft. from the surface. It has proved pe.sistent down to the water-level at 120 ft., at which depth work was suspended. The stone has yielded 7 dwt. to the ton. The E. group is represented by 3 veins of 8, 7, and 18 in., separated respectively by 9 in. and 6 ft. of slate. The eastmost vein crops out on the surface, and has yielded in one place 2 oz. 16 dwt. of gold per ton of quartz. At a distance of 30 ft. S. of where the section is taken, the entire thickness of 8 ft. i'' occupied by innumerable veins and bands of quartz, and has been wholly removed for crushing. The enclosed slate bands proved highly auriferous on being washed in the dish. The greatest depth reached on Moore's reef is that of the Noah's Ark shaft, which was sunk to 200 ft., without, however, striking the veins, "x was subsequently connected on the E. with the 80-ft. level of an a jandoned shaft, from which the E. group of reefs was then worked, 3. New Year's reef is a well-defined lode lying about 48 chains W, of Moore's. A single shaft has been sunk. At 25 ft. from the surface, some promising specimens of gold were obtained both from the quartz and slate casings ; but at 40 ft, not a colour was visible, and, without any trial crushing being made, the shaft was abandoned. The quartz, being vitreous, shows a marked difference in appearance from the opaque stone of Moore's and other veins in this locality. 4. Pioneer reef lies still farther W. in the same locality as the two f^',1 11' I 1 tr^i- i,;. f--\ Py:4 II! I'l'' III ■l! I 1 , 1; i ' i "I' if: Hi 656 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. last-mentioned reefs, and presents an accumulation of veins similar io that at Moore's. In the prospecting claim, 4 veins, 30, 7, 22, and 2+ in. thick respectively, were worked at a depth of 170 ft. In a shaft some short distance S. of the prospector's, these 4 veins split up into a net- work of branches, and form, with the included slate bands, a broad " mullock reef " 7 ft. thick. Other irregular deviations from parallelism in the walls of the lode are said to occur in different parts on this line of reef ; but the workings whereby such features are stated to have been disclosed are no longer accessible to examination. 5. Golden Hope reef is situate at the head of California Gully. Two prospecting shafts have been sunk on this reef, which runs in massive slate country. A trial crushing of 20 tons of stone gave an average yield of 3^ dwt. of gold per ton. The quartz is rich in cubical pyrites, and below the water-level this mineral becomes very abundant, both in the quartz and the slate. A small parcel of this pyrites has been treated, yielding at the rate of upwards of 1 3 oz. to the ton. The outcrops of 2 other quartz veins are visible within a distance of 90 ft. W. of the Golden Hope ; but nothing has been done in the way of ascertaining their mining value. 6. Bourke's reef, at Port Curtis, is a flat vein, 6 to 14 in. thick, cutting through granite. It has yielded some exceedingly rich stone, and has been worked to the water-level at 78 ft. The low angle under which the vein dips requires it to be worked like a seam, although the nature of the hanging-wall renders this mode of working very unsafe and costly. With the increasing depth, the rock becomes harder, the stone poorer, and the vein less regular, splitting up into several branches. Morgan's, Amalia, and Honeysuckle reefs, in the same locality, are similar thin veins in g' anite, and where the rock is disintegrated the stone yielded as high as 6 oz. of gold to the ton. The Silurian rock along the granite boundary at Port Curtis is only altered for a limited distance, nowhere, apparently, exceeding 20 or 30 yd. Outside that girdle, the ordinary blue and yellowish-grey clay-slates prevail. It is probable that the jutting portion of granite at Port Curtis is merely completely altered schist, as the grey, granular ternary granite typical of the Lexington area is not met with for 40 or 50 chains from the W. boundary of the strati- fied rocks at Wattle Gully. 7. Rhymney reef offers, up to the present period of mining, the sole instance of a " cross reef" in this division. It is a lode 18 in. wide, bearing W. 30° S. across the strike of the bordering rock, and dips N. at 80°. It has been worked to a depth of 240 ft. The " run " of gold occupies a zone 20 to 40 ft. in width, and was first met with on the cap of the reef close to the working shaft of the Rhymney Co., whence it shoots rapidly W. Outside this zone, the lode contains little or no gold. The 1 AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 657 reef has been cut in several pits E. of the working shaft, but it proved to be barren, and beyond a distance of 200 ft. was altogether lost. The highest yield of gold obtained was 2j oz. per ton. From the discovery of the reef in 1870, till the permanent cessation of work in 1874, the quantity of quartz raised from this lode amounted to 1963 tons, the pro- ceeds of which were 1440 oz. of gold. 8. Eaglehawk is a reef 18 in. to 3^ ft. thick, dips W. at 64", and has been worked to a depth of 240 ft. The average yield of gold has been 4^ dwt. per ton. Below the water level at 115 ft, both the lode-stuff and the encasing blue slate rock are heavily impregnated with iron-pyrites. A laboratory treatment of 6 lb. of pyrites resulted in the yield of 2 dwt. of gold. 9. Campbell's reef, Moyston, is a lode in metamorphic schist, 7 to 15 in. thick, dipping E. 12° N. at 75° to W. 24° S. at 85°. From the discovery of the reef in September 1857, to the last crushing in May 1875, it is estimated that 106,000 tons of quartz, yielding 76,000 oz. of gold, were raised from this lode. In the Kangaroo Co.'s mine, the reef dipped regularly at 79° E. within well-defined walls to a depth of 480 ft. At this level, the lode became pinched, and at 540 ft. the stone died out, although the smooth backs were still clearly defined, and (the " track of the reef") persistently followed on by the miners. At 230 ft. from the surface, a cross-cut was driven VV. for 148 ft, but discontinued on account of the extreme density of the crystalline schists. The quartz in this mine yielded 2 oz. 2 dwt per ton at 250 ft. ; i oz. at 400 ft. ; and only 5 dwt at 510 ft In Morgan's claim, the yield was — at 250 ft., 2 oz. 12 dwt ; at 450 ft, 16 dwt ; and at 510 ft., 6J dwt per ton. In the Invincible Co.'s mine, the lode averages 10 in. thick, and dips 80° E. to a depth of 400 ft., where it changes to 84° W. The best payable quartz was gpt from a "shoot" about 150 ft wide, dipping N. At the lower level, the stone within the shoot yielded 1 3 dwt. per ton, while the quartz raised from outside the auriferous belt scarcely paid the cost of mining and crushing. The Perseverance Co. crushed stone from their 400-ft level which averaged 2 oz. 3 dwt. a ton ; the Extended Southern Cross Co., from a depth of 580 ft, 4 dwt 21 gr. per ton ; and the North Star Co., in one of the most N. shafts on this line of reef, obtained but 3 dwt. 5 gr. per ton. The run of gold evidently shoots N., and, supposing it to be persistent, would be met with in the N. claims at considerably lower depths than have been reached by any shafts in this locality. 10. About 50 chains S. of the original prospecting claim on Camp- bell's reef, and approximately corresponding with the extended strike of the latter, is a lode worked by the Sir George Bowen Co., 6 to 1 5 in. thick. It splits up into various branches in the iQD-ft. level. The shaft of this company is sunk in an elvan dyke (quartz porphyry), the thickness of 2 U II.: i^M '11 'ki ■ illlil I'.:' i'N ■ :ii illii 658 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. which has not yet been ascertained. At the place where the branching off of the vein occurs, the clvanite is closely studded with cubic pyrites, and the quartz leaders streaked with veins of galena. The character of the country is quite different from that of the N. claims, and it seems all but certain that the lode in this mine is distinct from Campbell's. The proper mode of exploring this mine would be to ascertain by E. and W. cross-cuts the extent of the dyke laterally, and the nature of the country adjoining. 1 1. The Silurian ranges at the sources of the Six-mile Creek, in the parish of Bulgana, are traversed by numerous quartz reefs, none of which has hitherto been tested. The apparent absence of faults or splits, the great thickness of some of these reefs, and the persistence and regularity of their strike, distinguish this country from that in which the lodes of the Ararat gold-field proper have been thus far worked. This area recommends itself as a favourable field for lode prospecting. Ballarat. — From R. A. F. Murray's report on the geology and mineral resources of Ballarat, dated Mar. 29, 1873, the following valuable infor- mation is derived. Tertiary Gold-drifts. — Under the term " drift," are here included all detrital deposits of clay, sand, and gravel, water-worn or angular, loose or cemented. In naming the Tertiary gold-drifts, their nomenclature, according to European classification, has been deferred until more extended research shall have brought to light evidence as to the precise periods to which they are referable. There are 4 clearly defined epochs of gold-drift in the Ballarat district, whose relative local positions have been indicated by the names " oldest," " older," " recent," and " most recent," referring to the periods rather than to the drifts themselves. The " oldest " period included the deposit of drifts clearly antecedent to the time at which the lead-channels were eroded to their present depth. The " older " period embraced the deep-lead drifts, those intervening between the lava-flows and the lava-flows themselves, the uppermost lava-flow closing the period. Deposits of " recent " age are those that were deposited immediately after the uppermost lava-flow or ' first rock." "Most recent" drifts are those in recently eroded gullies, or such deposits of clay, sand, and gravel as have accumulated subsequently to the " recent " period. The term " oldest," as applied to the period to which certain drifts more ancient than the deep-lead drifts are referable, is here used relatively, and does not imply necessarily the absence of auriferous drifts of greater antiquity in other localities. Lithologically the principal forms are as follows : — (i) Loose quartz gravel, with well and partially rounded pebbles and boulders ; (2) water-worn and angular gravel and sand, more or less cemented with ferruginous and siliceous matter ; (3) sandy iron- i<:l ■I ijk W iPiii;'''! I' AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 659 Stone, with occasional layers and patches of quartz gravel ; (4) hard siliceous ck, sometimes pure and sometimes enclosing angular or water- worn quartz fragments. These forms frequently blend with one another. Rolled fragments of other rock than quartz are very rare, and the least water-worn pebbles are met with at the more elevated points or margins of terraces where the drift occurs. The first two forms prevail near Ballarat : isolated patches cap various points of considerable, but not the highest, elevation, on either side of the Leigh valley, as on parts of the Warrenheip range to the E., and various points near Napoleon on the W. These patches occur neither on the highest points nor on the lowest spurs of the Silurian ranges, but on those of medium elevation. The northernmost and most elevated appearance of this drift is on the Warrenheip range, outside the E. borough boundary, at an altitude above sea-level of 1750 ft. The least-elevated exposed points on which these vestiges remain are those nearest to the main line of depression, as at Golden Point, Pennyweight Hill, Clayton's Hill, Slaughterhouse Hill, near Buninyong, and the Hard Hills, near Scotchman's. In these localities the gravel is very coarse, and immense rounded boulders of quartz are fre- quent. Some of the extensive " reef-washes " beneath the basalt are of similar character, and are probably of this epoch. Patches occur as terraces on either side down the Leigh valley, S. from Buninyong and on the fall towards Williamson's Creek. It is traceable as passing beneath the Mount Mercer lava-flow along the N. boundary of the latter, and in the natural section on the banks of the Leigh river to within a few miles of Shelford. With the fall of the country, the deposit becomes more extensive, and forms plateaux on either side of the Leigh river near its junction with Williamson's Creek, passing beneath the basalt E. of the latter. It caps the ranges, or is traceable beneath the basalt, from the Leigh river to Meredith, and thence to the ranges around Steiglitz. Plateaux of this deposit exist as far E. as Stony Creek reservoir, and it is probably traceable still farther towards Bacchus Marsh. The third form is most common in these S. localities, and the pebbles are highly water-worn. The hard siliceous rock described as one of the forms assumed by this drift is of great scientific interest, as the solution of its origin will throw light on that ot the gravelly beds. It is met with in detached outliers and small plateaux on the ranges falling towards Williamson's Creek from the W. ; it is sometimes pure, but more frequently contains imbedded quartz pebbles, and is associated with or passes into ferruginous, sandy, and cement layers. Rock of similar character, but pure, occurs in thick beds associated with the marine Miocene strata and older basalt of the Moorabool and Sutherland's Creek, near Maude ; also between Steiglitz and Morrison's and between Meredith and Elaine. Whether these various beds are of 2 u 2 P: ' r .ill :,.:i 660 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. the same geological age is unknown ; their similarity in lithological character is striking. No fossils have yet been found in the siliceous beds, except occasional imperfect fragments of stems, valueless as palreonto- logical evidence. Wilkinson traced a course of drift in the form of a wide shallow lead from near Steiglitz to and under the marine Miocene beds exposed in natural section on the W. bank of the Moorabool river above Maude. He was of opinion that this drift was older than the widespread layers here referred to as " oldest, " and classified the former as Miocene, the latter as Older Pliocene. Their exact relations, however, are not fully worked out, and they may eventually prove to be of the same age, the drift traced by Wilkinson simply occupying a somewhat deeper depression in the Silurian rocks than the adjacent beds. Were this established, the " oldest " could be justifiably classed as Miocene. Dissimilarity in lithological character and unequal degrees of eleva- tion above sea-level are not infallible evidence that drifts are of different epochs. Deposits now in actual progress occupy all elevations, from the sea to the highest mountain slopes, and vary in lithological character with their parent rocks ; but their identity in geological age is indisputable. This has to be kept in view while examining the Tertiaries, especially those not of a decidedly marine character. To arrive at any justifiable conclusions as to the respective ages of the drifts; the siliceous deposits, and the Miocene beds, it would be necessary to investigate closely the connection between the beds from Steiglitz to the Moorabool, near Maude, and the relationship between the Steiglitz drifts, the Bacchus Marsh Tertiaries, and the deep-lying deposits of Lal-lal and Morrison's. The drift traced by Wilkinson was the " non-auriferous Miocene gravel " described in Selwyn's work on the physical geography and geology of Victoria. It was set down as non-auriferous on the ground that no gold was found in the few shafts and tunnels worked by the Geological Survey party. Murray, then an assistant in the party, sank one of the shafts personally, and did obtain the " colour." The same amount of work, with the same result, might be done on any gold-field within a few feet of rich ground. The oldest drift near Ballarat barely yields the " colour " in some places, while in others it is richly auriferous. These differences are owing to causes treated of subsequently under the head of Gold- workings (p. 664). Taking into consideration the modes in which the oldest drift occurs, there is good reason to infer that, towards the close of the period, a valley had been eroded corresponding in outline to that now traversed by the Yarrowee ; that the drift spread almost uninterruptedly from the Warrenheip range to Pennyweight and Clayton's hills, and Golden Point, then the bed of the depression, probably capping a portion of the White- horse Range at the head of Canadian, where occasional rounded pebbles tel'ii AUSl RALASIA : VICTORIA. 66 1 occur in the workings ; that it overspread the area now traversed by the deep leads from Ballarat S. to Scotchman's, Napoleon, and Buninyong, thence down the valley to near Shelford ; that the spread of the drift was wide but shallow down to Buninyong, thence to Hardie's Hill com- paratively narrow, but, farther S., extending over a vast area ; that it also overlaid a wide tract W. and N. from Ballarat, though no exposed vestiges are now identifiable. Marine action on gradually rising land appears to have been the principal force which disintegrated, rounded, and deposited the fragments composing the drift. As the land rose, already existing depression.s — due to the softer nature of a portion of the underlying Silurian — would become deeper and more defined ; the scour in these depressions would increase, and, consequently, the drift would be heavier in their beds, as at Golden Point and other places. No remains of wood appear to have been met th in the gold-workings in this drift, either in the exposed portions, or in such sub-basaltic " reef-washes " as are referable to the same period. The character of the drift is such as would render the preservation of shells or other remains of marine fauna almost an impossibility. The powerful nature of the denuding forces is evidenced by the absence of any large fragments other than quartz, and the quantity of this shows how greatly the Silurian hills must have been denuded below their original height. The theory of marine action is, therefore, based upon the physical conditions under which the drift occurs, and which certainly indicate marine rather than fluviatile agency. Under the term "older," are here included the gutter-drifts, the volcanic lava-flows, and the drift-deposits intervening between the latter. It is evident, therefore, that this period might be subdivided into a number of epochs, each bounded by a lava-flow, but it is preferable, in the present instance, to include them all as a group under one denomina- tion. The lowest of the series is the gutter-drift of the deep leads. It occupies well-defined channels in the Silurian bed-rock, more or less tortuous in their course, with a steady fall towards the seaboard. The drift in contact with the Silurian is generally the heaviest, and consists principally of fragments of quartz, and the more durable varieties of slate and sandstone, intermixed with sand and clay ; rolled fragments of hard cement, probably derived from the " oldest," are also met with. Most of the quartz and other fragments are water-worn, while some are but partly so, or angular. In some places, beds of sand and clay overlie .the gravel ; in others, the basaltic rock is in immediate contact with it. Numerous remains of vegetation occur in the gutter-drift. Large trunks of trees, branches, and fragments of wood, and in some instances trees in situ, their roots imbedded in the ancient soil, and their upper portion enveloped in lava, are met with in the gold-workings. ;l. he It,; : If' k i I Hi" ■''it' , ill >8lWi: ; 'I 662 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. The older drift rarely occurs as a surface-deposit, being generally covered by lava or recent accumulations. Next to the gutter-wash comes the " fourth rock " of the miners, really the first lava-flow, which took its course along the principal lead-valleys, extending a short distance up some of the tributaries. It is confined to the deepest ground, of which It is a sure indication. As far as can be ascertained, the " fourth rock " does not extend farther up the Golden Point lead than the Koh-i- noor Co.'s No. 2 shaft. It overlies the tributary gutters W. worked by the Saints and Winter's Freehold companies, and has been proved by bores to exist in the North Park claim W. from Wendouree, on the supposed continuation of the Inkerman lead ; it is also mentioned as having been struck in the Great North-west shaft. S. from Sebastopol, it appears to maintain its ijosition as the lowest basaltic stratum as far as the Main Trunk lead has been worked, though, as will presently be shown, it becomes the third instead of the fourth "rock." On this basaltic layer are various deposits of clay, sand, and gravel, separating it from the " third rock," or second lava-flow. Experienced miners say that the intervening deposits, though fre- quently thin, are nevertheless distinct, sometimes in the form of an ancient surface soil with remains of vegetation, sometimes consisting of clays, sand, or gravel. The "third rock," or second lava-flow, occurs similarly to the last described, but spreads more widely. Still, being confined between the high Silurian banks on either side of ' :jutters, it does not appear to have been sunk through on the Gold int lead farther up than the Koh-i-noor No. 2 shaft ; but it probably extends considerably farther up the lead than that point, having been escaped by shafts that bottomed at some distance from the lead. This, like the " fourth rock," is overlaid by varying thicknesses of clay and drift. The " second rock " or third lava-flow underlies nearly all the W. plateau, extending over the Gravel Pits lead beyond the present limits of the uppermost flow. It has been struck N. of Mount Rowan in the Rodney shaft, and in a bore at Dowling Forest racecourse over a third and fourth layer of the same description. The " second rock " is over- laid principally by clays, which separate it from the " first rock " or uppermc"^ lava-flow. This latter is the surface rock of the W. plateau from Ballarat westward and northward. Southward it does not appear to have extended farther than Winter's Creek near the Bonshaw shaft. The reasons for this assumption are that, while 4 distinct layers of " rock " or basalt occur in the Prince of Wales claim over the gutter, only 3 are met with in the Bonshaw. The surface fall from the Prince of Wales to the Bonshaw is 71 ft., about the average thickness of the "first rock." From the Bonshaw downwards along the lead, only 3 basaltic layers occur, and it therefore seems probable that the first, second, and third AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 663 " rocks " in the Bonshaw and claims S. thereof are the second, third, and fourth of the Scbastopol plateau. Many of the principal gullies trending from the main divide and its spurs contain the true gutter-drift in the beds of their channels, overlaid by recent accumulations. These were evidently eroded during, if not previous to, the " older " period ; and indeed it may safely be assumed that the physical features of the country at the close of the period differed little from what they are now, as regards the portions that are unaltered by the lava-flows. The physical character of the deep leads and the remains of vegetation found in them, especially the occurrence of trees in situ, are good evidence that before the first lava-flow the country had risen above the reach of marine action. Referring to the theory of marine action on rising land, advanced as the operative force in forming the " oldest " drift, it would appear that, with the rise of the land above sea-level, fluviatile began to take the place of marine action. If, as is assumed, the rise was gradual, the latter agency, in its retreat, did a portion of the work of denuding the " oldest " drift, and wore out deeper channels in the Silurian. As river action came into play, the main vallc were cut deeper, into more tortuous courses, and acquired new tribuL, ries. The oldest drift was removed from all but a few points, and either carried away or re-dc (osited in the gutters or on their banks. The lava-flows exerted an important influence on the physical and geological features of the country. Each successive layer formed a sort of dam, behind which were a ;cumulated thick deposits of clay, sand, and drift. The flow of water over the surface of the basalt caused the deposits on it of clay, sand, &c., and in some places cut fresh channels, usually along its line of contact with the Silurian. In this way, some of the " reef-washes " above the level of the third and fourth " rocks " appear to have been formed. On the Eureka lead, a layer of black clay over the gutter commenced near the junction of Ashe's lead ; at junction of Red Hill lead, and thence to Gum-tree Flat, 2 layers ; thence to Red Streak lead, 3 layers of black clay were met with, until basalt took the place of the upper layer. These appear to have been the surface soils at periods immediately following the 3 lower basaltic flows. The upper- most lava-flow formed a strong dam across the valley traversed by the Eureka, Canadian, and Gravel Pits leads, and that area was probably for some time a lake, until an outlet was cut by the overflowing waters, which gradually eroded the existing course of the Yarrowec. The mode of deposit of the " recent " clays and gravels (subsequent to the uppermost lava-flow) appears to havo been analogous to that of the intercalated layers between the fourth and third, third and second, and second and first " rocks," the result of the temporary damming back caused by the lava. The force of the water-currents being retarded, their 664 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Br '!!*■' ?! beds were f.lled up, nearly to the surface-level of the basalt, with detritus brought down from the neighbouring hills, covering the " older " clays and gravels. Denudation continued the removal of " oldest " and " older " deposits from the higher lands, and re-distributed them in the valleys. The lithological character of the beds supports the theory advanced as to their origin. Clays, sandy deposits, angular drift, and occasionally rounded gravels (the last where " older " and " oldest " have been re-distri- buted), showing little sign of stratification, but intermixed and irregularly deposited beneath a general covering of clay, form tolerably level flats, such as that from Ballarat towards Brown Hill, traversed by the Eureka and Caledonia leads, and the Deadhorse flat, extending from the New Cemetery to Mount Rowan. The capping of gravel and clay on the brow of the hill at the Ballarat Post Oflice is of the " recen'. period, and is evidently the vestige of a continuous deposit connected with the beds on the other side of the Yarrowee. The close of this period witnessed the erosion of the Yarrowee channel at Ballarat to nearly its present depth, the drainr^e-line following the contact of the Silurian and the uppermost lava-flow : a few patches of the latter have been left on the E. side of the river, near Ballarat and Scbastopol. Thence S. the coarse of the river is sometimes entirely through basalt, sometimes along the line of contact with the Silurian on either side. The " most recent " drift consists of loam, clay, and gravel, and occupies the beds of rr>f-'?"<^ly eroded gullies, or forms coverings over " oldest," " older," and " recent " deposits, from the denudation of which it is principally derived. Gold-workings. — The surface workings are usually on the slopes of hills and spurs ; the g(jld is sometimes in the few inches of surface so.'l and angular rubble overlying the Silurian on or near auriferous quarts, veins, as at the Black Hill, Whitchor.se Hill, &c. In ot'ier places, a few scattered rounded quartz pcbbLs .^liuw that "oldest" or 'older" drift once rested on the Silurian, and was removed by denudation, the accom- panying gold, from its superior weight, remaining in the crevices of the bed-rock. Surfacing is sometimes worked on a " false bottom " of clay covering deeper deposits of auriferous drift ; this al.so occurs most frequently in close proximity to quartz veins. At Kitty's, near Napoleon, tolerably large nuggets have been found in clay sevcal feet above the " true bottom." The thicker deposits at the foot of the hills and in the gullies intersected by auriferous lines of reef are frequently gold-bearing from surface to oottom, owing to the proximity of the matrix. It is stated that at Rotten Gully, near the Band of Hope reef. Little Bcndigo, where the sinking is about 70 ft, 40 ft. was payable. The drifts in the upin-r portions of gullies are usuall\- of " recent" or AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 665 " most recent " age ; as they expand into flats, the sinking becomes deeper, and the lead-drift of the " older " period occupies their ancient beds. In working these i<-!ads in wide flats, tributaries have frequently been found of which no surface indications existed. Thus the Caledonia and other leads joining the Eureka in the extensive flat of Ballarat East were discovered from the underground workings of the latter. Occa- sional instances occur in which the head of an " older " lead is above the level of the gully into whicli it subsequently trends. y\s the leads arc followed down, they become deeper, and pass beneath the various basaltic layers. " Reef-washes " are deposits of chift above the level of the gutters, and are of several kinds and geological ages, of which the following are the principal : — (i) " Oldest " drift /// situ, as the Webster-street Freehold " reef-wash " and that S. of the Inkerman lead ; (2) the slopes towards the leads covered with debris from the oldest, deposited during the erosion of .:e gutters ; (3) the ancient .soil on sub-basaltic Silurian slopes and hills, where quartz reefs occur analogous to the surface workings of Whitehorse Hill, &c. ; (4) deposits subsequent to the different lava- flows, usually along their line of contact with the Silurian, from the denudation of which, with its overlying drifts, their material is derived. These occasionally overlie the basaltic layers, b 't do not appear to have been found remunerative when in that position. Leads. — A map of the Ballarat leads at once suggests their true character, viz. an ancient system of rivers corresponding approximately to existing drainage courses. There are 3 great lead systems near Ballarat : the Southern, corresponding to the Yarrowee, the Western to the Burrumbcet, and the Eastern to the Moorabool watersheds. The Southern is the Golden Point system, the main trunk of which is formed at Ballarat by the junction of the United Gravel Pits, Eureka, Caledonian, Canadian, and other leads with the small tributary from Golden Point, whence the main lead takes its name. This lead, fed by its tributaries, the Nightin • . .;i 670 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. that their original matrix is at no great distance. The inevitable con- clusion is that on the character of the quartz reefs or veins in their immediate vicinity depends that of the gravels. This appears to be the true explanation of the barren quality of some of the gravels, such as the " non-auriferous Miocene gravels " already referred to : they have simply been deposited along a line of poor quartz reefs ; and were the Steiglitz gravels prospected on the line of strike of some of the known auriferous reefs, they would in all likelihood be found gold-bearing, if not remuneratively so. The lead s/(?//<9w?«^ the course of lines of auriferous quartz are more likely to maintain a continuous and equal yield than those crossing a number of reefs at various intervals. Gold in quartz veins frequently occurs in " shoots," alternating with barren portions ; this feature also causes variations in the amount of alluvial gold. Believers in the theory of the Western outlet of the Golden Point lead appear to exaggerate the importance of its bearing on the future of Ballarat alluvial mining. That there are leads, and extensive ones, trending W., is beyond a doubt. If the quartz reefs intersected by them are gold-bearing, they will be quite as remunerative as the Golden Point lead would be if it trended W. The character of the quartz reefs is the main consideration ; and a feature in connection with these requires particular notice. This is the occurrence of wide alternate auriferous and non-auriferous (or at least very poor) belts of quartz reefs, noticeable at Sandhurst, Ballarat, and other gold-fields. A great auriferous belt extends from Creswick^ through Ballarat, S. to Scotchman's, Kitty's, and Buninyong. The E boundary of this belt appears to be a little within the E. borough boundary, and is traceable with tolerable clearness N. to Slaty Creek, and S. to the E. of Buninyong. With a few breaks, owing probably to the unequal distribution of the " shoots " of gold in the reefs, all the gullies W. of this line have been profitably worked. E. of the line, most of the gullies, and many of the quartz reefs, ha.ve been prospected from Slaty Creek down to the Warrenheip range, and thence to William- son's Creek, and in no case has more than the colour, or a few specks, been obtained. The auriferous belt appears to narrow and contain fewer " shoots " S., as only a few tributary leads, and very little shallow working, have been found on either side of the Yarrowee S. from the Garibaldi claim. The richness of the Western and Eastern systems of leads will depend, in a great measure, upon the occurrence of barren belts. The workings at Winter's Freehold have proved aurifeious drift coming from the W. — an auspicious indication of the existence of gold-bearing reefs in that direction, and the probable improvement of the gravels, and, in fact, a more prosperous sign than if the main outlet of the Golden Point AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 671 /; lead was W. It is also a favourable augury as to the character of the Western leads, of which the North Park and the City of Ballarat Cos. are the Pioneer claims. Even should these fail to get payable gold, further prospecting W. is highly to be recommended, as another strike of gold-bearing reefs is likely to be intersected on a line N. from Haddon. The depth of sinking W. is not unlikely to decrease, instead of increasing, as the surface fall is considerable. The depth of the main Southern lead at Scotchman's is about 100 ft. less than at Sebastopol, showing the fall of the lead to be less than that of the surface. The same may prove to be the case W. The extension of the main Southern lead will pass through Bell's and probably Graham's properties. In the latter property, the " oldest " drift beneath the basalt has been partially exposed by tunnelling from the W. bank of the Yarrowee. Gold was found in considerable but not quite payable quantity in numerous disconnected " runs " and hollows in the Silurian. The river- bed below has been extensively and profitably worked, and it seems likely that gold-bearing veins may exist in the locality, and that payable work- ings may yet be opened beneath the plains. As long as the bed of the main lead continues to be .'n Silurian rock intersected by auriferous quartz veins, the alluvial gold will continue. The yields from the Leigh Grand Junction claim, though poor, were not of so utterly discouraging a nature as to prohibit further enterprise, and an increase is not less probable than a diminution of yield as the lead travels S. The miner alone can ascertair the true character. As regards the Eastern system, it is known that granite underlies a portion of the basaltic area, and may form the bed of some of the leads. Nevertheless, a large extent of Silurian country is to be expected, and, in so wide an area, the occurrence of auriferous " belts " of quartz reef is very probable. On such occurrences will depend the character of the leads. Deep ground, tributary to the Eastern system, undoubtedly exists beneath the lava-streams N.E. from the Green Hill and S.E. from Mount Buninyong. As no quartz reefs or shallow workings have yet been proved payable near these flows, the auriferous quality of their under- lying drift is problematical. Quartz reefs. — As the alluvial drifts owe their auriferous character to neighbouring quartz reefs, the quality of the former might be considered a fair indication of that of the latter. Such, at first glance, would not appear to be the case at Ballarat, where the quartz workings hitherto have been limited, compared with the alluvial, and the general average quartz yield has been far below that of other districts. That the reefs generally, so far as proved, are as a rule poor, there is no doubt, and the explanation as to the great quantity of alluvial gold is the enormous denudation to which the Silurian rocks were subjected during the 672 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. ft fit. '' " oldest " period, and the concentrating effects of subsequent agencies. The small proportion of quartz to the bulk of the Silurian ."hist, coupled with the predominance of the former in the gravels, indicates the incalculable quantity of quartz that has been broken into fragments and rounded into pebbles, and the still greater amount of shale, sandstone, &c., that has been reduced to silt and sand and carried away to the ancient seaboard. Were all the quartz but slightly auriferous, the amount of gold set free would necessarily be large ; but it has not been uncommon to meet with very rich " shoots " and patches, as well as occasional nuggets, in the Ballarat reefs, so that many such " shoots " may have contributed to the alluvial supply. Although in many cases the great size of the Ballarat lodes compensates for their poverty, and this branch of mining may be said to be slowly but surely progressing, it is complained that the reefs arc not solid and defined like those of Sandhurst, but consist of a number of leaders and veins, and do not partake of the character of true lodes. This certainly is the case with many of the reefs at high elevations, but it also appears that they are best defined and most solid where deepest worked. In the Sovereign and Victoria claims, indications of increased permanence are met with in the deeper levels, and the shaft of the former is to be sunk to 1000 ft. The Burra-Burra reef, below the basaltic table-land, is reported to be solid, of great jize, and to give a payable average yield. The Prince of Wales Co. are working a reef upwards of 600 ft. from the surface, which, with the surface fall, would equal a depth of nea*-''' 900 ft. at the Sovereign claim. The reef is here described as of a permanent and remunerative character. The reef worked by the Temperance Co. at Little Bendigo, is considered by many to bo the only true lode near Ballarat ; it certainly has a more persistent character, and gives a better general yield, than most of the reefs in the district. The Black Hill reef is generally described as showing no characteristics of a true lode. It is composed of a number of " flat leaders," dipping E., confined between well-defined walls, underlying W. The same was the case in the upper workings on the Bird's reef, Sandhurst ; but at a considerable depth, the cap of a solid lode, 35 ft. thick, was struck, and worked with highly remunerative results. The Black Hill veins may similarly develop into a permanent lode at a great depth. If quartz reefs are of subterranean origin, their general increase in size and richness downwards is highly probable. The reefs of Sandhurst are at surface about the level of the deepest workings at Ballarat, as regards height above sea-level, and it is likely that, when the level of the Sandhurst reefs is reached in the Ballarat workings, the reefs of the latter will assume an equally permanent character with those of the former AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. ^72, gold-field. A great tract from Slaty Creek to Scotchman's, with a width of 3 to 5 miles, is open to the quartz miner. The alluvial workings through- out have been highly productive. Special attention may be drawn to the country immediately S. from Slaty Creek ; numerous quartz reefs are exposed by the workings in the beds of rich alluvial deposits, and not a shaft appears to have been sunk to test the former. The figures given by Wood join with the natural indications in predicting a long and prosperous future for Ballarat in quartz mining on the ranges and beneath the basalt. Until recently, no discoveries of dioritc dykes have been made ne. • Ballarat ; ouch dykes, sometimes of great size, traverse the Lower Silurian in many localities, and are not, as many suppose, confined to the Upper Silurian. In the Upper, they are more plentiful, and more frequently accompany or contain auriferous quartz veins. A diorite dyke has lately been struck in the Band and Albion Consols No. 4 shaft, now being sunk for a quartz reef proved in the alluvial workings. The connection between the dyke and the quartz reef is not yet established. Feather- stone, when working in alluvial, drove through what appears to have been a decomposed diorite dyke ; a quartz reef parallel with the dyke traversed the bed-rock about 50 ft. W., and the wash-dirt in the vicinity was exceedingly rich. The dyke has, as far as can be seen in the shaft, a N. and S. bearing. This is worthy of note, as it may lead to valuable discoveries. Few lava dykes like those of Sandhurst have yet been met with ; one has lately been struck in a shaft now sinking for a quartz reef at a depth of 200 ft, 140 of which is through Silurian schist. This is at the W. boundary of the Buninyong Estate. At the Buninyong Estate Co.'s No. 8 shaft, a somewhat unusual occurrence was met with in the workings. From the shaft at a level of 270 ft, a run of wash was followed for a considerable distance S.W. until the fall of the wash caused loss of level ; the bed-rock was the usual Silurian slate and shale. From a depth in the shaft of 340 ft, a drive was put in W. 423 ft, and a S. level was driven thence to meet the continuation of the wash. This drive at 410 ft suddenly entered a mixed mass of clay, angular fragments of Silurian, from a small size up to several feet in diameter, angular quartz, and immense blocks of exceed- ingly hard dense lava, piled on one another or isolated throughout the mass. Some of the Silurian fragments were reddish in colour, as if exposed on the surface ; others were in character like the rock met with in very deep workings. A few isolated nests of quartz gravel were en- countered, and a iay er of basalt resembling a flow was passed through, and dipped under foot S. ; beyond it, the same stuff continued, but with more numerous blocks of lava. Silurian was again struck at 960 ft. from 2 X Ml ■)f-' ;;;^ 674 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 1/ the W. drive. At 460 ft. in the S. drive, another drive W. passed through 150 ft. of the material described into a mass of broken Silurian rubble, containing much water where the drive ceased. A blind shaft was sunk 40 ft. in the S. drive without change. Similar material occurs on the surface by the dam, and thence S. across the road ; it has every appearance of being a volcanic outlet-pipe. Becclnvorth. — The following observations on the deep leads of the Ovens district arc taken from some notes by A. VV. Howitt. The alluvial gold worked in the Becchworth district has been derived from the Silurian strata, and not from the granites. The area of Murray Tertiaries, in which the Ovens and Murray rivers flow and ultimately join, and into which the deep leads have been traced, was probably once a hill country, sculptured by streams in highly inclined strata of Silurian age. Including the whole of the area embraced within the Silurian hills bounding the confluence of the Ovens and Murray rivers, there cannot be less than 500 sq. miles of country which has thus been subject to denudation and erosion, and in which as yet no gold-workings have been sought for. It is quite a legitimate inference that whatever gold was contained in those strata has been deposited somewhere within that area, and in all probability in the drift-deposits of former streams. Were it possible for gold to travel any distance in a horizontal direction under the ordinary denuding and eroding agencies of nature, then it wou' 1 not be possible for man to retain it with the apparatus such as the sluices and boxes which he employs. Many of the operations practised for purposes of mining, are only those used on a gigantic scale by nature. We are now, as it were, but washing up huge natural ground-sluices, and the Tertiary beds of the Murray and Ovens valleys may be likened to an immense tailing-dam, under which other ground-sluices probably are hidden. It is of course not possible to point out where, underneath the over- lying deposits, the ancient water-courses (deep leads) may be situated. There are no sufficient data, nor can any one at present say whether they may be found conjoined in one stream, or following separate courses, such as the Murray, the Ovens, and their confluents do now ; neither can any one forecast whether the gold deposited in that area is much or little, whether it is concentrated in leads or widely spread in drifts. The proper practical investigation of this question would be by carrying out a series of borings on a carefully considered plan, for instance, com- mencing at the N. edge of the trough at Wahgunyah, and skirting the hills to the Springs between Chiltern and Eldorado, thence crossing to Putter's Range, W. of Wangaratta. This would reveal the contour of the bottom, the position of the deep ground, and probably furnish sufficient data as to the payable nature or otherwise of any auriferous deposits '■I I; AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 675 crossed. It would also give a key, not only to the entire valleys of the Murray and Ovens rivers, but also furnish valuable data in respect to other similar localities. The results viewed practically could not fail to be important : if disclosing the existence of payable auriferous leads, the area opened would be immense ; if, on the contrary, the results showed that the ancient stream-beds were non-aurifcrous, or too poor to pay for working, then the result would be so far advantageous that it would prevent a future useless expenditure and loss of capital which might be more profitably employed elsewhere. Howitt thinks that the inferences to be drawn in respect to the area are on the whole favourable. Gippsland \North\ Dargo district. — In numerous places, surrounding the escarped edge of the plateau, in the valley of the Dargo or of the Crooked River, water-worn quartz gravel has been found resting upon the older rocks, and covered by the masses fallen from the basalts. These gravels are generally auriferous to a greater or less extent, and claims have been opened for the purpose of working them. In descending from the Dargo high plains to what is called the Mayford spur, the basalts are found to fall in height in the usual steplike manner, and to cease at about 1000 ft. elevation above the Dargo river, where nearly vertical pale-coloured slates and sandstones, evidently the continuations of the auriferous series of Crooked River, reappear with the normal strike. The dip is here to W. at about 70°. For \ mile or more along the line of contact, a considerable amount of well-rounded pebbles of quartz and sandstone covers the ground. Two claims have been opened here. Several cuts have been taken into the face of the hill, laying open tne gravel beds, the underlying rock, and the overlying thick talus from the basalt sheet. The solid basalt has as yet not been reached. The total thickness of the gravels is 30 to 40 ft. They are mostly rounded vein-quartz and pale sandstone, with a few pebbles of quartz derived from the crystalline schists E. of the Dargo river. The gold is generally fine, and diffused through the gravels in amount sufficient to pay working expenses while prospecting — say at the rate of 30J. per man per week. Between the Silurian bed-rock, and the auriferous quartz gravel, was found a plant-bed, and specimens of the fossils were determined by Professor McCoy as beir.g of Miocene age, one being Cinnainomum polymorphoides. The plants, together with wood which is occasionally altered to lignite, are found in sandy clay, immediately overlying a sand- bed on the rock. The auriferous quartz drifts overlie the plant-bed, and show tolerably regular arrangement, such as is to be seen in eroded beds of river gravel. Here is thus an ancient river-co irse of Miocene times, which was covered over by a flow of basalt. Since th at period, a new valley about 1000 ft. in depth has been excavated to the E. of the old river. Outcrops of similar quartz gravels arc to be met with down the course 2x2 676 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. J ■ 'i lili ■'i 1 ' ■ r ';.l m am !w ■ I jfi! of the Dargo, in that of the Little Dargo, and in the valleys of the Crooked River sources. At the edge of the basalt sheet near Mount Table-top, denudation has completely laid bare the old channel, and the gravels have been washed and concentrated into gullies running towards the Dargo. The workings have laid bare the rim-rock for .some distance, which has a course of about S, 40° W., in the supposed direction of the stream. The width of the channel is here not over 70 yd., and the bed- rock where laid bare shows it to have been rugged and uneven in the extreme. It seems .somewhat difficult to imagine how the gravel can have been deposited with even that regularity which it exhibit.s. The bed-rock is pale-coloured slate and sandstone, dipping S.W. at about 60". The gold found is principally on the fall inward of the rim-rock, on the right side going down stream, and is very flaky and laminated, bringing 3/. igs. 6a' per oz. in Bright. During the two years ending 17th November, 1875, the yield was 154 oz. 2 dwt., but it has sirce fallen off. From the small width of the channel at Table-top, and the diminished body of gravel as compared with that at Mayford spur, this is probably only a branch. The thickness of the basalt at Table-top, which may be taken as a fair average, is not less than 400 ft. On the N. side of this mountain, traces of quartz gravel are apparent, and it is not improbable that the course of the old stream may be here underneath the basalt itself From this point for a little distance, the volcanic rock has been denuded, and the bed-rock of slates and sandstone rises in height. The basalt, recom- mencing (being here distinctly augitic), continues to the summit of the flat ridge separating the Dargo and Cobungra rivers. In descending from the basalt plateau to the Lower Palseozoic rocks, quartz gravels, similar in character to those already described, are found at the contact. The appearances are similar, but on a larger scale. The quartz gravels have been much denuded and concentrated in gullies running down towards the Cobungra river, and have been worked with good results. It seems probable that the auriferous gravels at Mayford spur. Table-top, and at Morris's, are parts of an ancient river, whose course was some thousand feet above that now followed by the existing Dargo. A section taken across the present valley at Mayford would show a profile similar to that shown by the Cobungra. If the conclusions that the present Dargo and Cobungra are the representatives of the Miocene rivers are well founded, it will follow that in both cases the valleys have shifted to the E., and now occupy the place of the former watersheds. The consideration of these Miocene rivers becomes an important one, in view of their auriferous character. Whether the gold-workings in the Cobungra and those in the Dargo form part of one and the same stream. AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 677 or are parts of two distinct streams, affects this part of the question but little. It seems probable that the drainage-areas of the former rivers were essentially those of the existinjr ri\ers : and that therefore, althouj^h the Daryo has cut to the E. into the former divide, the sources of the Miocene Dargo would empty into the Dargo valley, and those of the Miocene Cobunfjra into the Cobun{jjra valley. In any case, whether the drainages have been dist'nct, or whether the stream worked in White's claim communicated with the stream worked at Sinnott's, by way of Morris's, one fact becf'mes clear — that all the " leads " whatsoever must somewhere or other find their exit from under the basaltic sheets into one or other of the great existing valleys. Here is the key to future mining operations. The search for these old streams can only be properly carried out by seeking for their outlets, and working in from such points. In this view, there are no obstacles to the prospecting of these Miocene auriferous deposits by miners, beyond such as have been ordinarily overcome by them ; but as to the results to be obtained, doubts may be felt. The Whites have certainly raised a considerable amount of gold from their claim at the Cobungra, but their workings have as yet been only at the surface. There exist no reasons for concluding that these ancient streams have been more richly auriferous than existing streams in North Gippsland ; and it is doubtful whether in that case the labour of extracting the hard cemented quartz wash by tunnelling would be very remunerative. That wages may be made, and apparently good wages, seems probable from the data procurable. The field for prospecting is tolerably extensive, and in the existing condition of gold-mining it is such places as the Dargo high plains that must be looked to for new ground. At Morris's claim, below Boiler Plain, the richest gold was got in the little isolated remnant of gravel first found, and the gold was here heavy and coarse ; at the workings, where the tunnel advised to be driven by Brough Smyth was put in along the bed of the lead, the gold was found coarse and of a good sample on the high reef on the W. slope of the gutter. Previous to the contractors' commencing the tunnel, the Govern- ment prospecting party commenced a shaft which would probably have reached the deepest ground within 20 ft. of the surface, but on arrange- ments being completed to drive the tunnel to test the same ground, and on finding the tools they then had were insufficient to get through the hard cement reached at 10 ft., they desisted from further sinking. The last 6 ft. of the shaft passed through coarse heavy gravel, and in every dish tried, 20 to 50 specks of fine gold were obtained, and the last, from the cement, was of somewhat heavier character than that washed from the stuff above. The prospects since obtained by the men who drove the tunnel show a still further improvement, though not equal to the prospects reported from the higher reef ; this, however, is by no means uncommon 678 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. .J in r lining exi.erience, as it is frequent both in deep and shallow alluvial Hiining to find the richest deposits of gold on points and slopes of the bed-rock, as well as in the deepest portions of the bed. Many of the creeks and gullies draining the plateaux, though patchy, have yielded good returns belcw where they have cut through the courses of the old gravels ; the Twenty-five-mile Creek, in particular, is stated to have been best close up to the junction of the Silurian and basalt, and was worked until the number and size of the fallen blocks of the latter prevented the diggers from going farther. The general information obtained all leads to the conclusion that the gravels are auriferous throughout, but that, from their great thickness, and the dissemination of the gold through a great portion of that thickness, they can only be profitably worked on a large scale, and by means of an ample water- supply for ground-sluicing or hydraulicing. The latter method will only be available within certain limits near the exposures of the gravels on the hill-sides ; for as they are worked in towards the hills, the enormous thickness of overlying c^ivs and sands, with the basalt above, will be too much even for the Califorman hose to compete with effectively. Ultimately, therefore, the working of the gravel will have to be accom- plished by mean'' of tunnels, near the entrances of which water will have to be conducted in sufficient volume to form powerful sluices, into which the wash-dirt can be tipped as brought out. Even with the short races now in use, an over-abundant supply of water is available during the wet season ; but this runs short during the dry months, so that, to enable regular work to be carried on, races of great length, tapping springs and the heads of constantly running streams, would be ncjc^sary to ensure a supply during the whole year. Subjoined is an estimate of the lengths of the portions of the main lead and its principal W. tributary which remain undenuded S. of the Cobungra, too little being known of the deposits under the basalt of the Bogong plateau to admit of their being included : — Cobungra plateau, 3 rrilcu ; Boiler Plain, i mile ; S.W. side of Table-top, 1 mile ; Mayford spur, i^ mile ; between Pyke's Creek and Little Dargo, i mile ; W. ^•••anch from direction of Thirty-mile Creek, 5 miles — total, 12 miles. Other small leads concealed beneath the basalt might possibly increase the actual length of workable grounu to 20 miles. The width and thick- ness of workable gravel will of course vary greatly, bi I may be estimated at 20 to 100 ft. for thf loimer, and 2 to 10 ft. for the latter. Murray considers that there is good reason for the opinion that fairly remunera- t>- c, and, in places, rich yields, are likely to be obtained, but that, owing to the scarcity ot quartz reefs in the adjacent country, there are no giounds for expecting" that they will approach in value the returns froni the leads of the western gold-fields, which are situated in country AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA, 679 traversed by great belts of auriferous quartz reefs. Assuming the gravel included in the above estimate to afford a fair margin of profit over working expenses, there is certainly a great field open to the enterprise of the mining public. Mitchell river. — The gold-workings are confined at present to the creeks and the older alluvions on their banks. Auriferous quartz-veins have been discovered, and are now being worked, higher up Boggy Creek. The gold found in the creek, where it flows through strata of Silurian age, has precisely the same coarse and nuggety character as that obtained from similar sites at the Crooked, Dargo, and Nicholson rivers. Whm the creek, however, passes from the slates and sandstone with quartz veins to the Mount Taylor porphyries, the character of the gold changes, and is laminated, scaly, and in fine dust. It would be of the greatest interest to the geologist, and of the greatest importance to the miner, were it possible to connect the alluvial gold of Lower Boggy Creek, either with the porphyries or the over- lying Upper Palaiozoic grits and conglouierates, which doubtless have been derived from the waste of older sedimentary rocks bearing quartz veins. Much of the conglomerate consists of hardened slates, sandstone, and vein-quartz. To connect the gold with the porphyries would probably affect the immense area of similar rocks on the Buchan and Snowy rivers ; to trace it to the Avon sandstone would equally affect a very large tract extending N. between the Mitchell and McAlistcr rivers, and in the S. part of which the Freestone and Maximilian Creek gold-workings are situated. No success attended Howii'"'s researches as to the porphyries ; and the small streams and gullies leaaing from Mount Taylor, Mount Look- out, and Mount Alfred are not auriferous, excepting where their lower portions come within the influence of causes which have affected the main stream ; nor hu- any gold been yet found either in the Upper Pa- laeozoic conglomerates, or in the gravel immediately resulting from their waste. But an examination of the distinctive characteristics and fineness of the alluvial gold found in North Gippsland, led him to entertain the belief that within certain limits the physical character of the gold and its fineness remain constant in respect to the geological formation from which it is derived. This is summed up in the subjoined tabulated form. The examples have been selected from a considerable number, so as to compare gold from similar geological formations in localities separated as widely as possible from each other. It appears to him that the following deductions ma)' be made : — I. From the Lower Silurians, the atomic ratio of the gold to silver varies from 22 to i to G to i, and the gold is nuggety, laminated, ragged, and more rarely in scales. 1 ^•^ "* 1 "t ''' 1 Im '!'■* 1 !Mil :'l i '>! '■I-' ;l ?■ in w iil; i 68o GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 2. From the crystalline schists of Omeo (metamorphic), the atomic ratio \ ries from 4 to i to i to i, and the gold found is laminated, ragged, and in scales. 3. From some metamorphic slates and sandstones, the atomic ratio varies from 5 to i to 3 to i, and the gold found is in scales and grains. 4. The more nearly the formation approaches the crystalline schists in character, the more equal the ratio of gold to silver becomes. Table showing Fineness of Alluvial Gold from Localities in N. Gippsland. 9 10 Gold. 64-97 86'a6 86-93 84-96 89-36 91-05 93 "97 94-01 95"" q6-8o 97 "54 94' ij 94"9S 94 "77 Silver. 34 '30 13-14 "■57 14-13 9-84 8-62 5-62 5'^9 4-56 2-70 2-46 5-25 4-85 S'23 Locality. Swift's Creek, Omeo . Dry Gully, Omeo liijj River, Omeo Dargo Flat, Dargo I River. I Policeman's Creek, | D.irgo River. ) Tucker Creek, Went- worth River. Dclegcte River . . Combyingbar Creek, licm River. Shady Creek, Tambo River. Good LuckCreek, Crooked River. Upper lioggy Creek . . Upper Iioggy Creek .. Lower 13oggy Creek . . Lower Boggy Creek . . Geological Formation of Locality, &c. Metamorphic ; mica-schist, gneiss, granite ; pierced by greenstone and felbtone dykes. Ditto ditto ditto Ditto ditto ditto Hornblendic granite, flanked by metamorphic slates and sandstones, passing on either side into Lower Silurian. Lower Silurian Ditto ditto and granite .. .. Ditto ditto Ditto ditto adjoining a granite area. Ditto ditto Ditto ditto Ditto dillo Torpliyry overlaid by Upper Palaj- ozoic shales, sandstones, and grit. Ditto ditto Character of Gold. Ragged and laminated. Ditto Ditto ditto, ditto. Fine, scaly, and in grains. Nuggetyand laminated; Fine and scaly. Nuggety and laminated. Ragged and laminated. Nuggety and laminated. Ditto ditto. Ditto ditto. Fine laminated- Ditto ditto. Examples 4 and 5 connect both series by the physical character of the gold and by the ratio of the metals. The belt of metamorphic slates and sandstones which furnish the examples 4 and 5 flank an area of hornblendic granite, traversed by dykes of eurite, greenstone, and syenite- porphyry. They present in places a marked resemblance in texture to some of the fine-grained examples of gneissoid schists of the Omeo district. On the other hand. No. 14 illustrates a different set of con- ditions, where the Lower Silurian strata are highly silicified, and are cut off by the granite without assuming any of the characteristics of the cry.stallinc schists. In this instance, the gold belongs to the Lc> :- Silurian series, according to its ratio, but departs from the usual charactei of such gold in the district by being fine-scaly. Applying these tests to the examples No, 13 and 14 from Lower Boggy Creek, it would appear that the gold comes within the 1st series. It thus seems to be the more probable conclusion that the gold has been derived from the upper part of the watershed of Boggy Creek ; and the difficulty which may present itself as to the transport of the gold down AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA, 68 1 the rocky and tortuous bed of the stream will probably be met by the assumption that the detrital materials were at first deposited as marine beds on a rocky coast, and subsequently, on the elevation of the coast- line, gradually " ground-sluiced " into the present valley. This assump- tion is not contrary to the facts already stated, nor to the inference to be drawn from them. The extension of the payable gold-workings into the marine Tcrtiarics is a question of great interest and moment. In considering it, these facts present themselves. During the earlier part of the Upper Tertiary period, and during what may be termed the deep-lead epoch, it seems that streams flowed from the mountains much as they do now, but that they emptied themselves into the Tertiary sea, which probably over- spread the area now occupied — for instance, by the Murray Tertiaries to the N. of the mountains, and the Gippsland marine Tertiaries to the S. These streams, or the lower portions of them, are now known as deep leads, such as the Welcome lead at Glenorchy, and the leads of H addon, Chiltern, and Eldorado. Howitt sees no leason to doubt that during the greater part of the Tertiary age, the main drainage features of North Gippsland were much as they now are ; or that, in other words, the river Mitchell followed the same course through the hills that it does now, but at a higher level. He is inclined to believe that the auriferous deposits of Lower Boggy Creek have been rearranged, and the gold concentrated at and since the close of the Upper Tertiary period ; but, if the Moitun Creek beds arc of the same epoch as, or possibly the equivalent of, those at Glenorchy, then there should be fluvial or marine auriferous deposits of far earlier date than those from which the alluvial gold of Lower Boggy Creek appears to have been derived. These deposits, it seems to him, might be found close to the old coast- line, as at the mouths of streams ; but would be now nowhere visible, being covered up by a great depth of marine beds of late Tertiary or Post-Tertiary age. It is also possible that the conditions of the then land may have been such that the courses of the streams extended beyond the present line of hills on to which those marine beds thin out. In that case, auriferous deposits, if they exist, might be found as deep leads ; or otherwise might resemble the beach-workings of New Zealand. It is only by a series of borings that the question can be determined ; but in any case, the results could scarcely fail to be of great interest, and possibly might pr«. ^e of great value. In examining uie country between Clifton and the Nicholson river, Howitt observed, as marking approximately the boundary between the Tertiary and older formations, that there are very widespread deposits of rounded quartz. These not only cover the hills as surface or form beds IWM 682 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. ■in. t i: m m li If in the streams, but in places constitute " made hills." This tract has been but little prospected, and may be indicated as well worth some examination. In older Post-Tertiary times (Pleistocene ?), this tract evidently formed an extensive and shallow land-locked bay, to which Mount Lookout and Mount Taylor on the one side, and the Granite Hill and its connected range on the other side, marked the inlet. The greater part of this area is even now generally filled by Post-Tertiary and Tertiary deposits, among which quartz gravels are often predominant. These quartz gravels have evidently two origins : mainly perhaps from the E. extensions of the Upper Devonian (Iguana Creek) beds, which have now been entirely denuded, but also from the wearing down of the Silurian hills which surround this tract on 3 sides. There arc grounds for the belief that the conglomerate and grits of the Iguana Creek beds are auriferous, and have supplied the gold obtained at Lower Boggy Creek, the Lower Mitchell, and elsewhere. These gravels may therefore be auriferous from this source, or as being directly derived from the Silurian strata. Thus the concentrated deposits from Clifton and the Nicholson would probably ret?.:;i such gold as was set free in the process of wearing down the older formations, whether Devonian or Silurian. The question would be whether the amount of gold has been sufficiently concentrated to pay for working. As yet there are no data to decide this, nor can such data be obtained, except by actually prospecting the ground. The solution of the question is certainly of importance, as the formation referred to extends from Clifton Creek to a distance of some miles beyond the Nicholson river. An examination of it would in fact afford conclusions as to similar formations elsewhere in North Gippsland. Gippsland \Scmth-West\ — According to Murray's report, the quartz workings are as yet few, and in the earlier stages of development. As is generally the case in Upper Silurian rocks, all the known auriferous quartz reefs are associated with dykes of granite, diorite, or rocks of that class, and the long persistent lines of quartz reefs which intersect the Lower Silurian rocks of the Western gold-fields are here wanting. These dykes, which are often traceable for long distances, arc clearly of igneous origin, and intersect the Silurian strata both with and across the line of strike of the latter. The quartz veins traverse the dykes in various ways — vertically, from wall to wall across the dyke ; vertically, parallel to it, cither along the walls or in the body of the stone ; and horizontally, or nearly so, from wall to wall. In exceptional instances, the quartz veins penetrate into the " country " beyond the dyke-walls, and occasionally well-defined quartz reefs cut right across the dykes, passing into the schistose rocks on either side. These forms are also met with in combination, and small strings and leaders of quartz sometimes form a network between the larger veins. AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 683 Portions of the dykes are sometimes devoid of quartz veins ; and another feature is that occasionally, though the line of fissure and walls remain distinctly traceable, the dyke-stone itself is absent, and its place occupied by broken-up rubbly shale or slate, with thin quart/ leaders. The great dyke worked by the Walhalla and Long Tunnel companies exhibits the most extensive dyke workings in the colony, and nowhere else can a finer study of this class of mining be obtained. It runs slightly W. of N., parallel with the Silurian strata, and consists of a hard diorite, more or less impregnated with arsenical and iron-pyrites. Two large quartz lodes, meeting in an apex or cap, and known as the E. and W. lodes, accompany the dyke along or near to and within its walls, while others intersect the body of the dyke, which is also crossed in all direc- tions by small strings and veins of quartz. The apex of the two main lodes, the cap of the quartziferous dyke-stone, and the " shoot " of auriferous quartz, ail din N., the underlie being W. At the lower levels in the Long Tunnel mine, near the shaft, the walls of the dyke continue plainly defined, but the dyke-stone is replaced by soft rubbly shale, with small quartz strings. On driving N. along this " track " of the dyke, the diorite and auriferous quartz lodes arc found to " make " .again, the di.stance to be driven N. from the shaft to strike them increasing with the depth of level. The arsenical and iron-pyrites accompany the auriferous shoot, the proximity of which, the latter especially, is regarded as a sure indication in the two mines referred to. It appears likely that there are several such shoots along this line of dyke, of which that worked in these mines is the most explored, and that they may eventually be found to join in one main body. The quartz mines of Foster exhibit another phase of dyke workings. A large well-defined dyke, which was found in the alluvial workings in the flat below, crosses the W. slope of the Kaffir's Hill, and has been traced for about 4 mile N. towards Turton's Creek. This dyke consists of a soft greyish-white decomposed granite of quartz, felspar, and a little white mica ; its general '^^ uring is N. 5" W., and its thickness varies from a few ft. to nearly 250 ft. The quartz veins in the dyke are nearly horizontal, but curved and inclining slightly W., and one has been proved to extend for a long distance into the W. schistose wall. Their extent longitudinally along the dyke is as yet unproved. The workings of the Golden Bar and No. I S. claims show 3 of these flat veins to exist within the depth already worked — about 100 ft. ; they rarely exceed 6 in. in thickness, and have few small tributary veins or strings ; but from their highly auriferous character, and the ease with which they are worked in the soft dyke-stone, they yield fair returns. In the No. i S. claim, the vein traced W. into the schistose country 684 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Uv^ rn'^l'^ i'-' ■■' liiiS. liii p. attained a thickness of lO in., yielding handsome returns and a number of very rich specimens. It is quite likely that sinking deeper on this dyke will show other flat veins to exist below those known at present. In the Bcnnison Flat claim are 2 quartz veins in the metamorphic schist ; they have a N.E. strike, and both underlie with the strata N.W. Their appearance, and that of the schist, indicates the proximity of a dyke into which they will probably be found to trend. There is every indication of a line of auriferous quartz reef traversing the line of the New Zealand and Cement hills, which has been the source of the gold in the drifts which cap them, and of that obtained in Whipstick Gully. Explorations in search of this line are advisable. The now abandoned workings on the Columbia reef, near Russell's Creek, show the existence of a decomposed diorite dyke. A diorite dyke with slightly auriferous quartz veins crosses the head of California Gully, Tangil, but has not been much worked. At Crossover, the work- ings of the Albion claim are on a quartz reef 6 in. to 2 ft. thick, bearing about N. 20° E., which cut across a micaceous diorite dyke, bearing about N. 70° W. From another shaft, the Happy, on the same line of dyke, another similarly occurring reef is reported to have been worked. In the Albion, the micaceous dyke-stone is in one portion of the workings replaced, between the still continuous walls, by a hard, black, gritty, finely micaceous rock, a hand specimen of which Cosmo Newbery describes as a " dense metamorphic highly siliceous shale." There are many untried dykes to which prospectors might advantageously pay attention ; the best portions of the auriferous gravels of Tangil are in immediate prox- imity to dykes traversing the bed-rock ; and in the scattered shallow diggings between the Tangil and Tarwcen rivers, pieces of dyke-stone are found in the wash-dirt, indicating neighbouring dykes as the source of the alluvial gold, which, by its character, also suggests the same origin. At Turton's Creek, careful prospecting is especially to be recom- mended along a line of dyke which appears to be the only source whence the wonderfully rich yields from the alluvions could have been derived. This dyke crosses the head of all the gold-workings ; no gold has been found in any quantity above it ; and when its course and that of the creek diverge, the quantity of gold in the bed of the latter becomes less and less. The dyke has a N.E. course, and is a dense decomposed doleritic rock, consisting, according to Cosmo Ncwbery's report, "of augite and felspar, yielding, on qualitative analysis, silica, magnesia, iron, alumina, and lime." The dyke is accompanied on its N.W. side by a soft, black, shaly band containing thin strings of quartz. No quartz has yet been found in the dyke itself, though small veins of ca;C'te occur. The black band has been prospected in two or three places, and the dyke was cut and driven into in one place, but unsuccessfully. The m AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 685 evidence is nevertheless very strong in favour of the source of the alluvial gold being in or connected with the dyke ; there is no other apparent matrix, and similar dykes cross Livingstone Gully, a tributary of Turton's Creek, at the heads of various small alluvial workings. There are also in Livingstone Gully loose blocks of an extremely hard siliceous dyke-stone which Cosmo Newbery describes as " a dense siliceous elvan, containing magnetic and copper-pyrites, some portions consisting of nearly pure silica in the form of chalcedony." Howitt, who examined a specimen microscopically, believes it to be " truly a siliceous dyke, con- taining some iron diffused in an amorphous state." A miner acquainted with New South Wales gold-fields assured Murray that he had seen similar stone in that colony highly auriferous. The alluvions in this part of Gippsland consist of shallow workings itx old gravels on hills, as at Kaffir's and New Zealand hills at Foster ; river, creek, gully, and high bank or terrace workings, where the deposits are the result of recent geological action, and the gold has been either derived from immediate erosion of local matrices during such action, or from the denudation and re-distribution of more ancient drifts ; lead workings in gravels referable to the Miocene and Pliocene drift periods, of which some are above and some below the level of existing drainage channels. The principal river-workings are in the Tanveen and Tangil rivers, in both of which the richest deposits of gold were found below where old gravels had been denuded, as at the mouth of Langridge's Gully, on the Tarween, and immediately below the tunnel cement work- ings on the Tangil. There are numerous other workings of greater or less extent and richness throughout the district, as Crossover, Deadhorse, and Livchorse gullies, Russell's Creek, Turton's Creek, and others of less note. As regards leads, the oldest is that referred to as occurrmg beneath older volcanic and lignite, at the head of Langridge's Gully, W. of the Tarween river. This lead is narrow but well defined as far as followed ; its presence is an indication of the existence of other similar leads beneath the neighbouring volcanic areas ; fragments of dyke-stone in the gravel indicate neighbouring auriferous dykes as the probable source of the gold. The Tangil lead is, at its upper portion, near the township, consider- ably above the river level ; the actual head of the lead, which once pro- bably extended as far back as that of the present river, has been removed and its course obliterated during the erosion of the latter. Having a more rapid fall than the river, the lowest workings, those of the Pioneer claim, are 60 ft. from the surface, and somewhat below the river-bed, and there is every prospect of a gradually increasing distance between the two levels. The further course of the lead, traceable by the .J,l ■'- r. ' Mf 1 ■■ Jl i' 686 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. overlying volcanic rock down to the Haunted Hill, is likely to be auri- ferous for that distance, though to what extent will depend on the character of any dykes or quartz veins that have been denuded in or near its channel. The Foster lead, which underlies the alluvial flat of Stock- yard Creek, is 30 to 60 ft. in depth from the surface, and consists of the usual clay, drift, and gravel deposits, which are newer than the gravel cappings on New Zealand and Cement hills, coloured as Older Pliocene, though the age of both is doubtful. The excess of water and want of machinery have hitherto prevented its continuation from being properly prospected far below the township ; but the rich yields already obtained are surely a warrant for the outlay of capital for this purpose. From the great size and defined character of the granite dyke, whence the alluvial gold has evidently been derived, it seems likely to continue S. for a great distance farther than already traced, and to have other "shoots" of gold-bearing stone. Should the lead, therefore, continue along the dyke, it is very likely to renew its auriferous character as it passes such shoots, and even if not, there are other lines of auriferous quartz likely to be intersected. In considering the prospects of Western Gippsland as a mining district, the marked difference between the Lower and Upper Silurian gold-fields should be kept in view. The Lower Silurian rocks of the great Western gold-fields are traversed by wide belts of auriferous quartz reefs, many miles in length, in which the lodes and veins are large and persistent, and though they also contain their gold in "shoots" and patches, these are not far apart, and a little gold exists through the whole body of quartz. Consequently all leads, creeks, and gullies, within such belts, contain auriferous drifts, and when they run parallel to, or cross and recross a single line of reef, or cut a number of reefs and veins at short intervals, the supply of gold has been found continuous. In Murray's report on the geology of Ballarat, the difficulty with which any but very fine free gold can be moved by water was advanced as a reason for maintaining that the quality of wash-dirt must depend chiefly on the character of the local auriferous matrices. The concentrating re-distribution of old drifts has, in some cases, caused the conveyance of associated gold some distance from any apparent matrix, and much gold has evidently travelled a long way while attached to quartz or clay ; but this would only partially affect the auriferous character of a drift. In country, therefore, where the quartz veins are small and few in number, and the shoots of gold, though rich, at wide intervals and of small surface extent, the gravel in leads, creeks, and gullies may be expected to be of corresponding character. In Upper Silurian rocks, such as those of Western Gippsland, no large belts of quartz reef have yet been proved. A few small lines of quartz reefs, traceable for compara- AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 687 lively short distances, or lines of dyke with auriferous quartz veins in widely separated shoots, are the usual features of Upper Silurian quartz workings in general, and those of Western Gippsland are no exception to this rule. Some of the shoots arc of great richness, and, in some instances, are now being traced to considerable depths, as at Walhalla, though they only recur at wide intervals on the surface ; and the alluvial workings, though exceedingly rich in patches, cease to be remunerative when followed far from the perhaps solitary reef or dyke whence the gold was derived. In the case of Western Gippsland, it can only be pointed out that, wherever Silurian forms the bed-rock, there is a chance of alluvial gold- workings of limited extent being found in the creeks, gullies, and gravel cappings. The country between Foster and Cape Liptrap, and from the Tarween to the Thomson, comprises many wide unprospected areas, in which there is hope of finding gold, though extensive tracks are likely to be barren. The dykes and quartz reefs already proved gold-bearing are of such a character as to justify energetic labour in tracing the auri- ferous shoots downwards, as it is highly probable that they will increase in size and richness with their depth from the surface. In fact, it may be said that the mining future of this part of the country depends on the success of deep-lead mining. Each isolated alluvial working may be regarded as evidence of a neighbouring auriferous matrix, for which diligent search should be made. The advisability of this search is recog- nized by most of the miners in such places ; but the majority of them are not in a position to undertake prospecting work, which does not afford a hope of speedy returns. Among the areas recommended for prospecting, those occupied by Mesozoic rocks are not included. There are certainly places where, in quartz gravels resting on them, fine gold has been obtained, and, as reported, in some cases almost in payable quantity ; but such gold must have travelled with the gravels for long distances, as there are no quartz veins whatever discoverable in the Mesozoic rocks, nor are there indica- tions of lodes or veins of other minerals likely to be auriferous. To Murray's knowledge, the South Gippsland Ranges have been very much prospected during the last 2 years, and the unvarying answer to inquiries made was, that no fresh outcrops of Silurian, like that at Turton's Creek, could be found, and that no gold could be obtained except in the vicinity of some of the quartz gravels, and then only in minute quantity. Pre- cisely the same results have been obtained under similar conditions by prospectors in the Mesozoic ranges of the Cape Otway district. The search for other outcrops of Silurian in the South Gippsland Ranges would not be hopeless, as many tracts, much greater than that occupied by the Turton's Creek outcrop, are unexplored ; but it would appear 688 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. ■:i f :s^S' hopeless to prospect unless such outcrops arc discovered. It is quite likely that the Mcsozoic beds may be auriferous at their contact with the Silurian, but whether payably so must depend on local conditions ; also that the dykes and quartz reefs on the Silurian may eventually be worked beneath the Mcsozoic. The assumption of the non-auriferous character of the latter is based not on geological age, but on the absence of any mineral veins in which gold or other metals might be expected to occur. Stawell gold-field. — According to Norman Taylor's report, dated Dec. 14, 1875, this district is alone in the extraordinary complications and want of regularity in the occurrence of its reefs. There are two main lines of so-called vertical reef — the Cross and the Scotchman — running in the strike of the country about N.W., and dipping or underlying at various angles from 60" to 90° S.W. They have also a dip in strike N. at about the same angle as the Flat reef. Besides these, are the Upper and Lower Flat reefs, at right angles to the last and possibly connecting them, as well as other flat reefs to the E. again of the Scotchman's vertical reef. These flat reefs should more correctly be called cross reefs, as they cross the strike of the country. Indications of faults are not uncommon, throwing the upper portion of the vertical reefs off to the W. ; these n ■ • locally termed " slides " and " floors " ; they come in from the S.W. iu an angle of about 45°, with a N. and N.E. dip. "Breaks" in the reefs are also frequent, and are pro- bably lines of fault — the quartz is fractured, and the angular pieces are cemented by carbonate of lime, derived from the water which flows through the interstices, and which is, in some places, in great quantity. A similar break is met with in the cross-cut in the E. workings (646 ft.) of the Albion Co., where the breccia is cemented by secondary pyrites. Another peculiarity is the manner in which the reefs wedge or cut out, new " slabs " of stone making in one or other of the walls. This also is probably due to a line of fault. The upheaval of the mass of intrusive granite to the S. has probably caused these lateral faults or slides, and the same forces which operated to cause them, possibly also at the same time caused the fissures, since filled by the flat reefs, which were again faulted at a later period. Taylor concludes that the granite is an intrusive mass, as it sends veins into the adjoining schists, and contains schorl or tourmaline, a mineral containing boracic acid, and a product of igneous agency. The vertical reefs are, as a rule, much poorer in gold than the flat reefs, and all are poorer in depth than they were in the old surface workings. This is due most likely to the decomposition of the pyritous schists above the water-level, and the liberation of their con- tained gold, to be afterwards acted upon by other agencies, and collected by segregation into the reefs. AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 689 690 GEOGRAnilCAL DISTRIBUTION. m\ The schistose rocks here arc much decomposed to some depth, and arc converted into l '^ 694 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRTIiuTION. occur. The reefs, however, underlie to the N. very quickly and irregularly, whilst the strata are nearly vertical. A transverse section would show the dip of the reefs to be broken like a series of steps. There are about 40 reefs which, by reason of their E. and W. strike, may be called cross- reefs, as they run at right angles to the prevailing strike of the auriferous reefs in Victoria. They are characterized by very rich patches of golden stone. The go'd in the reefs which run N. and S. is evenly distributed, and the reefs dip both E. and W., but do not show evidence of " saddle '' formation. The veins range in thickness from 6 in. to 6 ft. Taisle of Quartz Reefs near Rushworth. N.imc of Reef Perse jiance . . Nut'f.ety Soul a Devon .. Sout'i Nuggety Scrub ■•frenchman's . . Lclipse Mongolian Main Gully A hern's Mousey's .. Lancashire Charcoal . . Welcome .. Belfast .. .. Sons of Freedom Luna East Nuggety .. Union Westiakc ., .. Specimen Hill .. DuwJojj's . . Dunloj 's .. Result or Black lloi)e of Denmark Scandinavian .. West Growler's Corrol)ore(! Forlorn Hope .. Anstead's .. Schles wig- Holstein Black Joe's Cumberland Growler's .. Crocker's .. Chinaman's Fossil Diamond . . Cockatoo . . Erin-go-Bra!^h . . Camp Ilit-or-Miss J. O. R (iood Luck Bowman .. Strike (magnetic). Dip. Width. Depth uf shaft. ft. in. ft. E. and W. N. , , 573 N. 88° E. N. 2 to 3 N 88° E. N. , , , , N. 87° E. 3104 . , N. 87° E. N. N. 82° E. , , 6 240 N. 82° E. , , , . ,, N. 82° E. .. , , N. 82° E. , , , , ,, N. 79" E. , , ,. N. 79° E. N. , , . . E. and W. , , , , N. 78° E. ,, E. and W. .. , , , , N. 74° E. , , .. E. and W. ^ , , , E. and W. N. , , , , E. and W. , , , . E. and W. , , ., N. and S. E. , , F. and W. N. , , , , E. and W. N , , N. and .S. W. 2 •• E. and W. , , 6 14s E. and W. , , . . E. and W. 7 to 17 130 F. and W. E. and W. .. 1 oto 6 6S E. and W. , , ^ , E. and W. 5 200 E. and W. , . , , , , E. r..id W. , , • • N. and S. R. , , E. and W. .. , , E, and \V. , , E. and W. , , !•;. ami W. , , , . E. and W. N. , . E. and W. 6 170 K. and W. , , , , E. an.l W. , , 6 170 E. and W. . , I 6 20 E. and W. J , 2 30 v.. and W. AUSTRALASIA : VICTORIA. 695 There has been but one deep shaft sunk on a quartz reef, and that reached a depth of 573 ft. It is situated on the Nuggcty reef This shaft was sunk by the Persevenncc Co., who obtained 9 oz. of gold to the ton at 330 ft. in depth ; i oz. to I oz. 5 dwt. to the ton of quartz raised from 450 and 460 ft. ; i oz. 15 dwt. 18 gr. of gold from 651 tons got from 510 ft in depth ; and good yields from various other considerable depths. Scarcely a shaft has been sunk below the water-level on any of the other reefs, although many of them have proved very rich above that level. The quartz of the veins above the water-line is of a dull vitreous appear- ance ; the natural fractures of the vein-stone are more or less covered by ferruginous clay and oxide of iron, which latter is at times a full inch in thicknc<^, and very little pyrites is visible. Galena occurs in small quantities with fine gold in the solid quartz in the Doctor's reef at the White Hills. 7'he auriferous reefs at Whroo, in general terms, may be said to differ but little from those at Ru.-hvvorth. The only noticeable exceptions are :he Balaclava Hill veins, the Albert reef, and the Stockyard reef In each of these lodes, the occurrence of antimony veins, or the association of antimony ores in the auriferous veins, is a marked feature. Tai!le ov Reefs near Wiiroo. Name of Reef. Prince of Wales Victoria Carr's .. .. Johnson's .. Albert . . . . Ilappy-go-Lucky King David Stociiyard.. Mulaklioff.. .. Balaclava .. Peep-o'-.Oay Anglo-Fr-'nch .. Scctciiman': Woodward's Blacl- Je.ry': .. .. Welch s . . . . Rose of Denmark Strike N. N. N. N. N. N. N. N. N. N. N. N. N. N. E. E. N. r:. E. (magnetic). Dip. 88° E. 87° E. 45" 87° E. N. 87° E. 87° E. N. i and S. W. 78° E. 59° E. 38° W. 20° W. j N. anil } W. 15° E. 1 65° E. and S. N. W. 25° W. anil W. E. and W. 60° ■md S. ,. and W. N. 60° and W. N. Wdth. It. o 6 o 6 o 12 t'l to in. 6 o 6 o I o Depth of shaft. to Broken veins o " 6 Not known * o o 6 o 8 o 200 200 i'40 180 450 200 130 150 180 220 50 300 40 * Xelwurk of quartz veins and spurs as much as t'x> ft. in width has hcen broken and crushed. iiS< 4-j ^g^'iiiJil JW 'i. WI I m m >»(.' n 696 GKOGUAPIIICAL DISTRIDUTION. Tablk of Rkeks at Coy's Dicginc.s. Name of Kccf. Coy's Ilit-di-Miss Murray* London lUackwall Hyron Hick's Wilionie (Siioinsi-y Morning Star . . Inifcr* ^VIlistIer's Wluic Elephant All)ion Bailey ami Mason's.. Myers and Fyplo's .. Taylor r.nd Murray's Liverpool Corbelt and O'Brien's Strike (iiuignciii). Dip. \Vi N. S2^ E. N. 07" I-:. N. 2° W. N. 2" W. N. 2" \V. N. 24° W. N. N. N N. N. 32'' 4f 4.S" and N.W N.W and and and and and W. W. W. \V. S. w. w. w. w. \v. w. w. w. w. K. \v. ft. o I I o o I I o o o o I o o to II 6 o o o S 3 3 o 2 2 l>c|>th uf slialt. ft. 220 185 170 >7S 90 149 95 70 90 130 90 * These ([iiart/ reefs conlaiii antiniony. TAni.K SHOWING AVKRAGE YlKI.D OK GOI.P KROM PARCELS OF QUARTZ CRUSHED DURIM; 10 YKARS ENDED 1S76 IN THE WaR'.NGA NoRTH SUBDIVISION. Year. Tons cru.slied. Total proJucc. Average yield per ton. Ions cwt. 0/. dwt. gr. 07. (hvt. gr. 1867 14,760 9221 18 12 119 1868 14,854 6.(34 16 8 15-93 1869 10,029 5631 3 16 II 5-51 1S70 IS, HI 6824 13 6 9 o"78 1871 9, 001 4732 I 21 10 9*85 1S72 7,803 3113 2 7 23-50 1S73 8,321 3341 18 20 8 0-78 1874 5,058 37.;7 17 6 14 18-72 1875 2,442 2654 7 4 I I 17-74 1S76 2,307 10 2371 14 I I 13-36 VVkstern Australia.— According to Brown's report (1873) on the geology of that portion of the cohony lying S. of the Murchison river, and W. of Ksperance Bay, gold ha.s been found in small quantities at I'eterwangy, on the Irwin river, and at several other places all over the colony, but as yet not in payable quantities. At I'eterwangy, it occurs in alluvial detritus, the bed-rock being a quartzosc granite (with no mica), pierced by grccnstonc-trap tlykes; these are overlaid towards the lower ground by beds of nodular ironstone, sandstone, and grit. The difficulty encountered in sinking through the overlying deposits, and the expense, have hitherto prevented the deep ground being tested. To prove the ground, a series of shafts would have to be sunk through the hard sand- AUSIKALASIA : VVKSTKKN AUSTRALIA. 697 ■ s stones, fjn'ts, &c., on to the ^^ranitc ; these would show whether old water- courses existed on tlie bed-rock, and whether tliey contain wash-dirt. The formation does not resemble any auriferous formation that Hrown had ever seen, antl, owin^ to the hardness of the ^rround, it is likely to be a lon^ time before it will be tested. The result of the prospecting^ operations which he superintended there was the discovery of a few colours of ^old in quartz in f^reenstone. A shaft was also sunk 47 ft. through .sandstone and hard grit, without reaching the bed-rock. The influx of water prevented any greater depth being reached. The country which he thinks most likely to be auriferous has in many places bed-rock and quartz veins identical in character and position (with regard to the granite) with the auriferous rocks of Victoria. It is highly probable, that as we hear of gold being found at Port Darwin and other places to the N.K. in South Australian territory, the auriferous country may extend into this colony. The following list includes most of the places which arc likely localities for gold : — Murchi.son river, near the Great Hend ; Tallering district ; Weld Range ; Blue Mountains, and eastward ; Stirling Range ; Mount Barren and ICyre Ranges ; Phillips and Jerdicart rivers. As these localities are, most of them, at a distance from settlements, and difficult to reach except in favourable .sea.sons, pro- specting them would cost much time and money, unless indeed a surface examination was alone made, by washing the drift material in the beds and banks of creeks and guUie.s. Malcolm Fraser, E.sq., Surveyor-General of the colony, in forwarding a copy of the geological report from which the above information is gathered, very kindly adds : — " A somewhat extensive search v/as made, following on the publication of this report, by three parties of miners who came, subsidized by this Government, from Victoria. There were no good results, although the colour has been got at the places indicated on the map. " I have had some experience myself in gold-field.s, and feel rather astonished that payable gold has not been found in the reefs. As yet they have all proved barren, although numerous samples have been analysed in Victoria, and some crushed there, besides a good deal crushed in this colony in a 5-stamper battery that was obtained from Ballarat. "The little scaly gold that was found at Peterwangy in 1870 was got in shallow paddocks, No lead was ever found, and wages could not be made at it." 698 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. fa- EUROPE. . AUSTRO-HUNGARY.— Dr. Soetbeer gives the following table of the relative gold-production of Austria and Hungary in the years 1860-75 • — Year. Austria. Hungary. Total. lb. lb. lb. i860 39'S 3151-2 3190-7 1861 417 3134-5 3176-2 1862 42-6 34J7-3 3459-9 1863 3i'3 2996 • 2 3027-5 1864 51-2 3546-8 .•?598- 1865 53-4 3594-5 3647-9 1866 48- 3229- 3277- 1867 47-6 3654-6 3702-2 1868 42-8 3321-4 3364-2 1869 32- 3114-7 3146-7 1870 32 "2 2964-7 2996-9 1871 17-9 2784-3 2802 - 2 1872 19 -2 2868-3 2887 -s 1873 106 2466-8 2477-4 1874 29 '2 2582- 2611-2 1875 29- 3153-9 3182-9 In 1862, the gold-yield of the various districts was : — Tyrol and Salzburg, 42*7 lb.; Neusohl [Beszterczebdnya], 665*3 lb.; Kaschau, 15 "3 lb.; Nagybdnya, 71 '7 lb. ; Oravicza, 23*9 lb. ; Zalathna (Transyl- vania), 2350*3 lb. The total gold-production of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the years 1493-1875 is stated by Dr. Soetbeer in German weights and values, which may be translated as follows : — Periods. No. of Years. Total. Annual Average. lb. lb. £ 1493-1520 28 123,200 4400 279,000 1521-1544 24 79,200 3300 209,250 1545-1560 16 35,200 2200 139,500 1561-1580 20 44,000 2200 139,500 I581-160O 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1601-1620 30 44,000 2200 139.500 1621-164O 20 44,000 2200 139,500 164I-1660 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1661-1680 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1681-1700 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1701-1720 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1721-1740 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1741-1760 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1761-1780 20 44,000 2200 139,500 1781-1800 20 56,320 2816 178,560 1S0I-1810 10 21, 120 2112 133,920 181I-182O 10 22,000 2200 139,500 1S2I-1830 10 24,970 2497 158,332 1S31-1840 10 35.750 3575 226,687 1841-1850 10 42,900 4290 272,025 1851-1855 5 19.525 3905 247,612 1856-1860 5 17,160 3432 217,620 -4 m ii m m m \ '■ : ',"M. .1 1. p liiit;,i. H EUROPE : AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 699 Periuds. No. of Years. 1861-1865 1866-1870 1871-1875 I493-185O I851-1875 1493 187s 5 5 5 358 25 Total. Annual Average. 383 lb. lb. C i8,S90 3718 235,755 18,150 3630 230,172 15.345 3069 194,602 Total prodiictlun. 924,160 lb., value 58,631,850/. 88,770 „ ,, 5,028,800 1 ,013,430 lb., value 64,260,650/. The production of gold-yielding ores in 1875 w iioi metric centners (of iiO;^ lb.), value 11,500 florins (of \s. i.-*!^ K^ ^A i< iL ^ ^ H 1.0 ^K£ m 1.1 ?.'"ia Uft lyi „U |K6 < 6" ► ^ ^ v. >>.^ ^VIV'*' Hiotographic Sdences Corporation ^■H WR* M.4IN STMIT Vvtfi^^TM.N.Y. MSM (716) •72-4503 '^ (^ H 700 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. H The surface-mining measures in work in 1878, stated in i H (of ID "76 sq. ft), for gold, silver, and copper, were : — sq. metre: n County Mining District. State. Private. Hungary — Neusohl Nagybanya Zalathna Grand total in 1878 ,. „ in 1877 .. sq. m. 575. 464-2 119,8400 sq. m. 89,196-9 26,866-0 391.879-4 695,304-2 695,304-2 507.942-3 340,124-3 M The true mining measures in work for the same period and same 1 n metals were : — 1 County Mining District. State. Priv.->te. Hungary — Neusohl Buda-Pest Nagybdnya Orav'cza Szepes Iglo Zalathna Grand total in 1878 .. „ „ in 1877 .. More in 1878 .. Less in 1878 .. sq. m. 35,084,848-7 8,611,761-0 568^045-8 1.738.385-4 sq. m. 18,147,179-5 1.507.349-5 9,609,891-0 8.892,438-6 7,984.338-8 8,639,826-6 46,003,040-9 46,048,087-2 54,781,024-0 52,181,600-2 45.046-3 2,599.423 " i It may be approximately said that the chief places where gold is 1 worked in the Austro-Hungarian empire are (i) Zalathna, in Tran- 1 sylvania, and the streams fed from the neighbouring hills ; (2) the 1 Schemnitz and Kremnitz district, in Hungary proper ; (3) Pribram and I j Joachimsthal, in Bohemia. Nearly 1 50,000 tons of auriferous and argen- il! tiferous ore is raised yearly, affording 60,000 to 70,000 oz. of gold and II about 1,500,000 oz. of silver. Of the total gold, 54 per cent, is produced , in Transylvania, and 44 in Hungary. 1 Boliemia. — The gold-mines and -washings of Bohemia were alluded to by Agricola already in 1546, especially those at Teschelwitz, Eule, Stechowitz, and Pless. Bohemia, in 1870, produced 156 cwt. of gold-ore. In the sixteenth century, under Friedrich III., there ws a not un- important mining industry in the neighbourhood of Alt-Albenrcut, and a small quantity of 22-carat gold was produced, but it has been declining ever since. Another locality is named Goldbriindl, to the N. of Griin, near the Saxon border, where grains of gold are found. la the li so-called Goldau, S.W. of Unter-Rothau, gold has been procured for 70 H or 80 years. It is also evident that between 1575 and 1600, besides EUROPE : AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 701 silver, copper, &c., gold was obtained in the district of Graslitz. Traces of it have likewise been met with in the neighbourhood of Gotteshab and Flatten, and between Joachimsthal and Arletzgriin. At Eule, about 12 miles from Prague, gold-mining operations were abandoned for a considerable time, owing to the great diflficulties of working, but were resumed in 1864, after the completion of an adit level. Besides their local importance, these workings also present points of general interest. The gold is found in lodes and small branches, varying from i in. to several ft. in width, which occur in a crystalline clay-slate bordering the granite. The vein-mass is arranged in a banded form, and is priixipally composed of quartz, less frequently of calcspar, and still less frequently of chlorite. The veins are also sometimes filled up with clay intermixed with fragments of the neighbouring rock. The only ores occurring are iron-pyrites, with its products of decomposition, and native gold. This latter is found finely disseminated through the large compact masses of quartz, in grains in the smaller quartz branches, and in a laminated or crystalline form in the decomposed quartz ; accompanied, in each case, by the products of the decomposed iron- pyrites. There is an intimate connection between the occurrence of the iron-pyrites and that of the gold ; and the former is not only contained in the lode, but also in the country-rock. The gold is mostly found in the branches at their points of contact with branches of quartz. According to Posepny, the central gneiss of the Hohen Tauern (apparently embracing the Rhaetian and Noric Alps), and the later crystalline schists which flank it, are traversed by auriferous veins, which are mostly true " deep-fissures." The filling or vein-material is not always distinctly arranged, as in the typical fissure-veins of banded structure ; but this is a peculiarity in the gold-quartz veins of other regions of similar country-rock. The vein-material consists chiefly of quartz, deposited from aqueous solution, and the products of friction between the vein-walls. The quartz, as is everywhere the case in the gold-bearing veins which traverse the crystalline schists, is permeated by little cracks or veinlets, which are filled with quartzose cement, usually of dark colour, and sometimes show gold, or sulphurets of other metals. This marbled or ribboned quartz is familiar to gold-miners in California also, as a favourable material. Among the minerals are schcclite, molyb- denite, stibnite, and even (very rarely) true silver ores. But all these occur comparatively seldom. The principal ores arc the sulphurets of iron, copper, lead, and zinc; gold exists in the same veins, and often intimately associated with these minerals. In his discussion of the auriferous character of these deposits, Posepny makes two principal groups of gold-occurrences, distinguished, in his view, by the methods of treatment they require rather than by a & a ,.; 702 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. W. real difference in the chemical condition of the gold. The first group comprises the gold which can be won by crude amalgamation, and which is generally termed " free gold." But his Freigold is that only which is visible to the naked eye ; the rest of this group constitutes his class of " mill-gold " {Muhlgold). The second group comprises the gold which escapes amalgamation. Here also he makes two classes : the " pulp gold" {Sch/ichgold), which is found in the heavy parts of the pulp or tail- ings ; and the " ore gold " {Erzgohf), which is not crushed in the battery at all, but, occurring in the more massive sulphurets, which are sorted out by hand, is sent with these to the smelting-works. Bosnia. — According to Lieut. Arbuthnot (1862) Tahir Pacha, the Governor of Bosnia, was about this time informed of the existence of some gold-mines near Travnik, and ordered Hadji AH to obtain samples for transmission to the Porte. This he did, taking care to retain all the valuable specimens, and forwarding those of inferior quality, which, on their arrival at Constantinople, were declared worthless. No sooner was this decision arrived at, than Hadji AH imported the necessary machinery and an Austrian mechanic, to separate the gold from the ores, and in this way amassed immense wealth. Carinthia. — Strabo (bk. iv. c. vi. § 12 : Bohn's library, i. 310) says Polybius tells us that in his time the gold-mines were so rich at Aquileia (at the head of the Adriatic), but particularly in the countries of the Taurisci Norici (comparing ancient and modern maps, these people seem to hav2 occupied Carinthia and Styria), that on digging 2 ft. below the surface, gold was found, and the diggings generally were not deeper than 15 ft. In some instances, the gold was found pure in lumps about the size of a bean, and which diminished in the fire only about \ ; and in others, though requiring more fusion, was still very profitable. Certain Italians aiding the barbarians in working the mines, in the space of 2 months the value of gold was diminished throughout the whole of Italy by \. The Taurisci, on discovering this, drove out their fellow-labourers, and only sold the gold themselves. Now, however, the Romans possess all the gold-mines. Here, too, as well as in Iberia [Spain], the rivers yield gold-dust as well as the diggings, though not in such large quantities. Prof. H. Hofer, of Pribram, has compiled the following estimate of the gold-production of Carinthia : — Periods. No. of Years. Total. Annual Average. lb. lb {. 1 1493-1520 28 .. .. 1521-1544 ^f S.26S 219 13.919 1545-1560 16 7,700 484 30,550 r I561-1580 20 8,360 418 26,585 i 1581-1600 20 3,355 165 10,636 i t I60I-162O 20 363 17I 1,157 i EUROPE : AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 703 These figures would necessitate a proportionate addition to Dr. Soetbeer's comprehensive table on pp. 698-9. Hungary and Transylvania. — The chief gold-producing centres of Hungary and Transylvania are (i) Zalathna and Abrudbdnya, with the neighbouring streams, (2) Kremnitz, (3) Schemnitz, (4) Nagybdnya, (5) Felsobdnya, (6) Zips, and (7) the Bannat. Agricola speaks of these miles in the sixteenth century as having been worked over icxx) years, which would date them back to the sixth century, while other accounts give the eighth century. They have continued to be exploited to the present with apparatus of the most primitive simplicity. Trajan allowed the Dacian gold-mines to be worked by a sort of joint-stock company {collegium aurarionun). Between the first Punic war and the Emp're, there was an immense production of metal, great waste in the extraction, and consequent exhaustion of the mines. This the emperors tried to remedy by taking the mines into their own hands to work ; but this applied only to those already opened : they allowed private adventurers to discover and explore new ones. From the silence of the later historians, it may be inferred that mining in the Roman empire declined rapidly after the third century, and ceased entirely after the barbarian invasions in the fifth century. It would seem from some of Pliny's remarks, that the ancient form of the modern hydraulicing, so extensively carried on in Spain, was not unknown in Hungary. Chalmers (1880) remarks that for a century and a half, Transylvania became to the Romans what Mexico afterwards was to Spain. Much of the gold that glittered on the tables of the wealthy patricians, or adorned the reigning beautibs at the gladiatorial shows, was dug from the hills of Abrudbdnya, or washed from the sands of the Aranyos and other streams. During the culminating epoch of Roman luxury, Transylvania was regarded as a vast treasure-house to be ransacked for wealth. The old traveller Clarke (181 8), alluding to the Wallachian Gipsies, says they are not an idle race ; they ought rather to be described as a laborious people ; and the majority honestly endeavour to earn a liveli- hood. It is this part of them who work as gold-washers. They have great skill in finding the metal. Their implements consist of a board 2 or 3 ft. wide, and 4 or 5 ft. long, with grooves cut transversely ; and it is edged on both sides with a wooden rim : woollen cloths are some- times spread upon this board, which being held as an inc'i' 'd plane, the sands of the river are poured, mixed with water, upon it ; the weightier sediment falls into the grooves, or it is retained by the cloth, which is afterwards washed in a water-cask ; and then, by a common severing-trough, the sand is separated from the gold. But they are often skilful enough to collect auriferous pebbles, stamping them, and washing the powder. The surface of the plains consists of sand and 704 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. pebbles, containing gold. Fig. 23 shows the Gip.sies practising their art. Generally they sell the gold thus found, in the form of dust ; but some of them, who have been accustomed to work as blacksmiths, have ingenuity enough to smelt the gold into sm.all ingots, using for that purpose, little low furnaces, and blowing the tire by portable bellows, made of buckskin. The construction of these bellows is as simple as it is ancient : they are made by fixing an iron air-pipe into the skin of the neck of the animal, and by fastening 2 wooden handles to that part of it that covered the feet. Baron Born, describing the iron-works of the Wallachian Gipsies, cites a mineralogical writer of the name of Fig. 23. Hungarian Gipsies Washing fok Gold. Fridwalsky, who, in proving their antiquity, tells of an inscription found near Ostrow, relating to a collegium frabrorum, adding, that probably " the denomination of the Poita Ferrea, given to a pass on the Turkish frontier, is hence derived. " The officer of the Customs had a few of the ores of gold, from the Boitza mines ; and particularly that extraordinary and rare association of the native gold with crystallized sulphuret of antimony, then peculiar to the mines in the neighbourhood of this place. The mountains of Boitza are connected with r. chain that stretches on both sides of the river Maros, the Marisus of Strabo. From this place, as far as Deva, EUROPE : AUSTRO-HUNGARV. 705 they consist of syenite-porphyry (the saxnm wetallifcriim of Born), covered with limesconc, slate, or sand. The principal mire of lioitza is worked in a variety of the syenite-porphyry, differing from the common variety, in having large pieces of felspar scattered through its substance. The uppermost gallery, when Baron Born visited these mines, was excavated in limestone, which is superincumbent on the porphyry ; but the deeper gallery ran in sandstone, until it reached the argillaceous rocks. The veins and fissures consist of the sulphurcts of zinc (blende) and lead (galena) containing both gold and silver. Some specimens exhibit the native gold, adhering, at the same time, to the zinc and to the lead. A cwt. of the ore of lioitza, after stamping, yields 8 lb. of metallic powder, containing 2 to 6 jerman oz. of silver ; and, as all the silver of Transylvania and Hungary contains gold, that of Boitza averages 2 oz. of gold to every I lb. of silver. A Wallachian, whose name was Arminian John, came to Clarke's father, then possessed of a rich silver-mine at Csertcs, telling him that as he constantly observed a flame issuing from, and playing upon, a fissure in the Nagyag forests, he was of opinion that rich ores must be hid under ground. His father drove a gallery in the ground which the Wallachian had pointed out. The work went on some years without any success ; but at last the adit hit the rich black and lamcUated gold-ores, which were first looked upon as iron-pyrites. Soon after, other fissures were discovered, all running parallel to each other, in the direction of the valley of Nagyag, from S. to N., and dipping from W. to E. The veins break ofif as soon as they reach the red slate with which all the valleys are covered. When Born visited Nagyag, the mine had only been worked to the depth of 60 fathoms : its depth is now 1 50. The mountains are entirely composed of porphyry, covered with red clay, or red argillaceous schist, and sandstone. The vein-rocks consist of red felspar and white quartz, of that kind which is vulgarly called "fat quartz." The richer ores are laminary, splendent, of a dark-grey colour, approaching to black, and in some instances quite black. The lamcllne may be separated with a needle ; and they are malleable and ductile in a certain degree. There is also here found a very rich kind of ore, which is finely woven into the texture of a reddish felspar, resembling the arsenical white ore of Saxony. Among the rich ores, native silver sometimes occurs, mixed with gold. Another variety is called, by the miners, " cotton ore " : it consists of little native silvery-gold grains, in tellurium, adhering to an argillaceous matrix. But in all the richer ores (which are so productive of precious metal that the smallest particle being placed, with a little borax, upon the tube of a common tobacco-pipe, and submitted to the blow-pipe, becomes 2 / 7o6 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. easily reduced to a bead of pure gold), not a particle of native gold can be discovered, even by the aid of the most powerful microscope. From the resemblance of its laminary form and splendent grey colour to anti- mony, it was at first considered as an ore of that metal ; and for a long time, under the names of auriim problematicum and aiirum paradoxuin, it puzzled all the chemists of Europe. Sometimes an effect of crystalliza- tion has given to this laminary substance a rude resemblance of Hebrew characters ; and to such appearances the name auriiiii graphiciiin was given. When Klaproth detected, in the analysis of this ore, the presence of a new metal, and bestowed upon it the name of tellurium, its real nature became more fully developed. The Gipsies of the Bannat get their livelihood, like those of Wallachia, by rambling about as blacksmiths and musicians. In winter, they cut .spoons, ladle.s, troughs, and other implements of wood. During summer they go nearly naked, and are then employed in washing gold from the sand of the rivers and plains. Their manipulation has been fully described by Francis Dcmbsher, in an appendix to the Letters of Born to Fcrber : its very simplicity denotes its antiquity ; and it is probably practised now, by these Gipsies, as it was by the Romans in the same country. It consists in nothing more than pouring the sand, mixed with water, over an inclined plane, the heavier particles of the gold remaining upon the surface, while the lighter siliceous particles and impurities are washed away. This, in fact, is the plan pursued in the great washing-houses at Schemnitz, only upon a larger scale. Some- times the inclined plane is covered with woollen cloth, to which the gold adheres : wanting the cloth, the Gipsies now and then use, for the same purpose, the more ancient substitute of a fleece. The manner of collecting gold-dust in sheep's fleeces, upon inclined planes, is represented in the ciu'ious old work of Agricola. In the rivers of Colchis, the custom is still retained of placing sheep-skins in the beds of the Phasis, and other auriferous streams, to collect particles of gold : hence the dedication of such fleeces to the Gods, and the fabulous history of the Argonautae as far as it related to the golden fleece. The more common manipulation among the Gipsies of the Bannat is very like that of Wallachia, already described. It is performed by mci.ns of a plank of lime-tree, 6 ft. in length and \\ in. in thickness. At the upper extremity, is a small trough ; and across the board, are lo or 12 grooves or furrows cut in the wood. This plank is elevated at one end, at an angle of about 45°. The sand is put into the trough, at the upper end ; and thence, by plenty of water, washed down the sloping of the board. The gold-dust falls, during this process, into the higher grooves, whence it is scraped or brushed oflT. It might be supposed that a great deal of gold is lost by this careless method of i EUROPE : AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 707 collecting it ; but long experience has made the Gipsies very expert : they know how to distinguish the richer from the poorer sands ; and a careful examination of the sand, after they have washed it, proves that hardly a particle of gold escapes them during the operation. The families supported by gold-washing are very numerous ; but the gains of each are vory inconsiderable, being barely sufficient to excite their industry, although the value of many thousands of florins of gold be annually produced in this manner. The auriferous sand is not only taken from the beds of the rivers, but likewise from the banks, and even from pits in the adjacent ground. These pits are commonly 4 ft. or more in depth. In digging them, the workmen find 4 strata. The first is a stratum of vegetable mould ; the second, loam, and an alluvial deposit of pebbles ; the third consists of the auriferous sand and pebbles ; and the fourth of slate, clay, marl, and coal. The auriferous stratum is constantly parallel to the bed of vegetable mould, and the coal as constantly lies below it. The gold obtained by washing is always native, and in the form of a fine dust ; the sand containing it is also mixed with black and splendent particles of highly magnetic iron, garnets, and mica. The inhabitants consider their mine of Bakabanya as ranking next in importance to those of Cremnitz, not only for the gold it annually yields, but also for the silver. In the tellurium mine at Nagyag, occur some instances where the ores of gold do not contain silver ; otherwise it might be stated as a general observation, applying to all the mines, whether of the north of Hungary, of the Bannat, or of Transylvania, that every ore containing gold, contains also a certain portion of silver. This was also stated by Prof. Passern at Schemnitz, and by others acquainted with Hungarian mines, as an observation admitting of no exception. And every mineral considered as an ore of silver, how- ever pure the silver may appear, is also said to contain gold ; even the richest sul)>hurets of that metal, called \itreous and ductile silver-ore. The ore dug here consists of clay and ochreous quartz. It is richer in gold than that of any other mine in all Hungary ; but it does not hence follow that this is the most productive mine. Owing to the rich quality of the Bakabanya ores, they have a method of estimating their value which reverses the method of calculation used at Schemnitz. The ores of the latter are called silver-ores, those of the former, gold-ores. The miners of Schemnitz calculate that one mark of their silver contains so many derniers of gold : those at Bakabanya, that a certain weight of their gold contains so many lotos of silver. The mountain itself is an abutment of argillaceous schist, dipping into the great plain which extends towards Tyrnaw, and to the Danube. 2 z 2 7o8 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Crcmnitz is the oldest mining town in all Hungary. Clarke was conducted to the vein of gold-ore in the principal mine, by levels kept everywhere clean and dry. The miners were then employed in digging this ore ; and had laid open a very rich part of it. It consisted of white quartz, containing auriferous silver-ore, and auriferous pyrites. The latter, when properly stamped and washed, yielded 2 to 3 drachms of gold in the hundred. The direction of the vein was N. and S., being at the same time inclined from the W. towards the E., according to an angle which varies from 25° to 30° and 40°. Like many of the Hungarian auriferous ores, this consists of clay, quartz, galena, and the oxide of iron, traversing a porphyritic rock beneath a stratum of slate. There are several mines at Cremnitz, some belonging to individuals, others to the Crown. Cremnitz is the oldest of all the towns where there are mines : and of the 7 famous mining districts — those of Schemnitz, Crcmnitz, Neusohl, Konigsbcrg, Bakabdnya, Libeten, and Tilu — Crem- nitz, although not the mo.st abundant in precious ore, is said to be the richest. Its deejDest mine has been worked to the depth of 300 fathoms. All the metallic veins of Schemnitz extend N. and S., their inclination or dip being from W. to E., at an angle of about 60°. They run parallel to each other. The principal veins are 6 in number; but there are many smaller ramifications from these, which often prove very rich. The house or lavatory for the ores consists of a series of washing- ^ns, ranged one below another, from the roof to the floor of the build- ing, having iron sieves at the bottom, increasing in the width and coarse- ness of their texture, from the lower to the higher sieve; the highest sieve is wide enough to let stones of a certain size pass through, while through the lower sieves nothing passes but gravel, and ultimately nothing but sand. A wheelbarrow, filled with the waste of the mines, is emptied into the upper trough and there washed. All the stones that do not pass through the first sieve arc then taken to the first table to be examined, and the ores picked out ; those that are caught by the second sieve, to the second table ; and so on with the rest. In this manner, an immense quantity of discarded ores, that were cast away when mines were less economically worked, are recovered and prepared for smelting. But the sand which ultimately escapes through the lower sieve is directed with the streams of water through channels, until it is made to fall over inclined planes covered with woollen cloths ; and thus a very consider- able quantity of wash-gold is arrested in its progress by the cloths, in the same manner that the Gipsies of Transylvania and Wallachia obtain gold-dust, by washing the sands of their rivers. Salzburg, — The gold produced in Gastein and Rauris formerly EUROPE : FRANCE. 709 possessed some importance, and Noric gold was known to the Romans. The industry reached its maximum in 1460-1560, when the yearly yield is supposed to have been about 4000 marks (2472 lb.) gold and 8000 marks (4944 lb.) silver, in Gastein alone. At Kauris, the gold occrs in quartz veins traversing gneissic rocks. It averages 8 dwt. pet von. Formerly, there were gold-washings in the Siechenbach and Salzach, and many other streams in Salzburg, enumerated by Poscpny, which yielded, in 1600-99, 1^.977 lb. of gold; and in 1700-96, 38,480 lb.; total, 57.457 lb. Styria. — According- to Strabo (bk. v. c. i. § 8 : Hohn's library, i. 319), the country of the Hcneti was bounded by a river which flows from the Alps, and is navigable for a distance of 1200 stadia, as far as the city of Noreia (the modern Fricsach in Styria). This place contains five stations for gold-washings. Tyrol. — The Tyrolese gold-workings are at Zcll, in the Zillerthal. The metal occurs in quartz veins, traversing chiefly clay-slate, and is present in the proportion of about 9 dwt. per ton. France. — Peuchet (1805) says that there arc no valuable gold-mines in France, but that certain .ureams roll down grains of gold 18 to 22 carats fine, e. g. the Rhine, Rh6ne, Doubs, Ccv.c, Gardon, Ariege, Garonne, Salat, and Tarn. This gold cannot be taken into account in estimating the national wealth, but gives a profit to those who wash the sands for it. Debombourg (1868) gives the following details of gold in France. It is found chiefly in the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Cevennes ; and the water-courses from these mountains are constantly bringing down particles of the precious metal, disaggregated from the rocks. Probably there does not exist in the whole country more than one real vein of gold, that in La Gardette (Is^re), discovered in 1700, and worked, up to 1 841, at an expense infinitely greater than the produce. The principal gold-bearing rivers of the Alps arc the Rhine, the Rh6ne, and the Arve ; of the Pyrenees, the Ariege, the Garonne, and the Salat ; of the Cevennes, the Ardeche, the Ceze, the Gardon, and the Herault. The Rh6ne brings down not only gold-dust but nuggets, as it did even in the Celtic period, when the inhabitants found the shining metal on the river- banks amongst the sand and pebbles. The auriferous wealth of that river preserved its importance for a long period, and gave rise to a branch of industry called that of the " Orpailleur.s," those engaged in which the edicts of Louis XI. and Louis XIV. term " Cueilleurs de paillettes d'or." There were orpailleurs at Rache-de-Glun, La Voulte, St. Pierre-de-Boeuf, Condrieu, Givors, and Mirabel. In the Michaille and a part of the Gex district, the people were accustomed, when the water was low, to seek gold-particles on the banks, whore they usually ' \ : 710 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. found them with little trouble. In 1809, a field labourer at Tronquoy, near St. Ouentin, struck with his plou^dishare a large mineral mass which he thought was iron. Me took it home, where for 20 years it served as a support to his pot-au-fcu, in the fire-place. One day he discovered some yellow streaks in it, and he said to himself they might possibly be copper. A coppersmith, to whom he sold it for 2 francs, could never succeed in melting it, and at last he took the mass back to the peasant from whom he had bought it. A dispute arose, which the Juge de I'aix directed to be deckled by an expert in chemistry. The latter declared that the article which the seller would not receive back was pure gold, and worth 30,000 francs. The buyer thereupon reclaimed his property, but the other contested the claim, and the case subsequently went before the Civil Tribunal, which awarded the nugget to the finder. Engelhardt observes that Julius Coesar found the inVabitants of Gaul possessed of great wealth, and m the time of Augustus it paid con- siderable quantities of gold into the Roman treasury. Strabo (bk. iv. c. i. § 13 : Bohn's library, i. 279) says "the Tectosages dwell near to the Pyrenees, bordering for a small space the N. side of the Cevcnnes [between Lodeve and Toulouse ; it must be remembered that Strabo supposed the chain of the Cevenncs to run VV. and E.] ; the land they inhabit is rich in gold." And again (bk. iv. c. ii. § i : Bohn, i. 283-4), " Here is the gulf which, with that on the coast of Narbonne, forms the isthmus. Both these gulfs (of Gascony and Lyons) go by the name of the Galatic gulf. The former gulf belongs to the Tarbelli [who occupied the sea-coast from the Pyrenees to the Lake of Arcachon]. These people possess the richest gold-mines ; masses of gold as big as the fist can contain, and requiring hardly any purifying, being found in diggings scarcely beneath the surface of the earth, the remainder consisting of dust and lumps, which likewise require but little working." In his history of Rumilly, F. Croisollet records that about the year 1770 a gold-seeker named Cocrair met with his death in the cavern which bears his name, and which is situated at 6 kilometres (3J miles) W. of Rumilly, on the territory of Moye, and on the flanks of Mont- Clairgeon (Haute-Savoie). A stream, on whose banks the sand is mixed with grains of gold, traverses the bottom of this cavern at a depth of about 33 metres (18 fathoms). This auriferous sand was the aim of the unfortunate man's repeated descents into the cavern, which ultimately resulted in his being entombed there. The gold-washing seems to have been neglected ever since ; but the cavern was visited by a party from the Alpine Club of Rumilly on August 20 and 21, 1875, and an account published by A. E. Gallet. / ^ EUROPE : GERMANY. 711 Germany. — Dr. Soetbeer gives the following figures concerning the gold-production of Germany : — lb. 1849 . • 5-72 1859 1850 . ■ 8-36 i860 I8SI . . 20-68 1 86 1 1X52 . . 2992 1862 •853 • . 42 90 1863 •854 • . 28-38 1864 185s ■ . 34" 54 1865 1856 . ■ I9"^4 1866 'in • • 3234 1867 1858 . • 33-44 lb. 45-10 94-60 62 - 70 21-56 loi -20 92-62 77-88 23 1 ■ 22 186-56 1868 1S69 1870 I871 1S72 1873 1874 •875 1876 lb. 253-22 1 73- So 149-82 181 06 720-50 639-00 803 -22 731-06 618-86 The gold occurs in the lead- and copper-ores in very minute quanti- ties. In 1866, the auriferous ore raised amounted to 310,133 lb., value 141,791 thalers\ of this, 661b. came from Hanover, 96301b. from Prussia and Brunswick, and 234,502 lb. from Saxony. The lead-mines of Wiesbaden gave I57'46i lb. <.r gold in 1874, and 202*425 lb. in 1875. Clausthal gold in the same year was 64-479 lb. from Lautcnthaler, 40-394 lb. from the Altenhaur Hutte, and 22*975 lb. from Halle. The Oberharz raised 257-186 lb. of g'ld in 1874, and 116-405 lb. in 1875. The gold produced in Prussia, which is a very small quantity, is obtained by an interesting process invented by Guttler, of Reichcnstein, in Silesia. He impregnates the peroxide of iron, obtained in roasting the arsenical gravel, with chlorine gas, extracts it with water, and precipi- tates the gold with hydrosulphuric gas. The precipitate of sulphide of gold is roasted, again extracted with hydrochloric acid, and smelted with borax and saltpetre. Guttler obtained in 1859 a mining licence for the whole district of auriferous sand in Lower Silesia, at Goldberg and Lowenberg, where, in the ninth and tenth centuries, gold-mining was in a flourishing condition. This auriferous sand contains only a small quantity of gold, — 0-0016 per cent. — but extends over some 20 German sq. miles. The Rhine. — The Rhine is notoriously auriferous in Baden, Bavaria, and part of France. Several essays have been written upon it, the latest and most complete being Daubree's (1846), from which the following notes are condensed in translation. Between B^le and Bingen, the Rhine winds through a wide deposit of gravel, composed of very various rock-debris, part of which appears to come from the Vosges and Black Forest, but a large part, including the schistose quartz, is of alpine origin, while some is from the Jura, and a little from the volcanic Kaiserstuhl. Gold is exploited in some parts of the Upper Rhine, above Constance, as between Coire and Mayenfeld ; in the neighbourhood of Waldhut, not far from the confluence of the Aar, the metal has been extracted from the bed of the river at various times ; but it is especially from Bdle to Mannheim, a distance of some 1 50 miles. 712 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. that the Rhine is regularly auriferous. Thurneisser also cites Mayence as one of the places where gold-washing was conducted. In the vicinity of Istein, ♦^^hcn in the neighbourhood of Nieffcrn on the left bank, and of Petit-Kcmbs and Rheinwillcr on the right, gold-washers are met with at intervals. Near Nambscim, Gcisswasser, and Vieux-Brisach, the gravel is sometimes quite rich, but very irregularly so. It is chiefly lower down, about 62 miles from Kale, that the workings have always been numerous, and they are particularly concentrated from a few kilometres above Kehl, to Daxland, near Carlsruhe. The washers make a preliminary test of the gravel by rudely panning Fig. 27. »!'<««':«« ■ « Fig. 28. ^mmmmm^mi^i^smmmm^ Rhine Gold-deposits and Washing Apparatus. a sample, and if they find as many as 10 or 12 " colours " in this way, they reckon to earn about i^/r. (iS^-) by their day's labour. The method of panning has nothing singular about it ; the instrument used is made of wood, charred black on the inside to facilitate discovery of the gold- grains, and of the shape indicated in Fig. 24, measuring about 16^ in. in EUROPE : GERMANY. 713 total length, 4^ in. in width at the mouth, and ^ in. deep in the dish. The apparatus employed in washing the gravel has not varied from that described by Heberer in 1582, and illustrated in Fig. 25. It consists of an inclined table about 2 yd. long and i yd. wide, covered with a cloth made of long-stapled wool, set at an angle of 10° to 12°. At the head of the table is a sieve or hurdle made of osiers, the orifices in which are not more than | in. in diameter ;. when this is filled with gravel, the operator washes it with water from a hand-bucket till all the smaller material has passed through the interstices, leaving the stones exceeding J in. in diameter, which are then thrown out. The fine sand and gold- grains remain for the most part caught in the wool, while the stones cither roll away at once or are brushed out. When this has been done several times, the blanket is removed from the table and washed in a tub of clean water, by which the sand and gold-grains are dislodged from the fabric. This mixture of sand and gold is generally carried home to be separated, which is effected in the wooden boat-like vessel, termed a Schiff in Seltz and a Sass in Baden, shown in Fig. 26, and measuring about 4 ft. 6 in. long and i ft. 6 in. deep. The cloth used on the table is that known locally as drap de Souabe • or Schwabentuch, and is the same as the Tyrolese and the German waggoners used for cloaks. It endures about i year, if turned when the first side is worn out. The grains of gold are driven with some force by the water into the meshes of the cloth, and sometimes even completely through, in which case they are arrested by a second cloth of cotton or linen, on which the blanket rests. This duplicate cloth is only neces- sary below the hurdle : the greater part of the gold stops at the lower edge of the grating. A man working 1 2 hours a day can treat about 4 cub. yd. in this manner. About 10 per cent, of the gold is lost in ordinary gravel at this stage ; it might be diminished by reducing the angle of the table, but that would also lower the daily outturn. The gold collected subsequently in the Schiff is amalgamated with about \ its weight of mercury. With regard to the distribution of the metal in the gravel banks, this follows certain rules which appear to be well understood by the gold- washers, (i) The most highly auriferous spots, termed Goldgriinde, are those formed by the re-distribution of gravel banks or islands, as indi- cated in Fig. 27, thus : A is a bank of poor gravel, the portion A' of which has been carried away by the stream and formed into a bank B, whose richest spots will be ^ ^ ^, the gold always being found where the largest and heaviest stones have rested. (2) Spots behind artificial ob- structions in the river are often rich. (3) Banks re-formed in the midule of the river far from their source arc generally poor. (4) Sometimes in the poorest deposits occur comparatively rich strips, due to local re- 714 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 'A, arrangement after or during the formation, occupying the down-stream edge of the bank, as shown in Fig. 2& : m u p is a poor bank, termi- nating in a rich patch at/ r, just above the water-line, (s) Not a trace of gold can be found in the fine sand. The proportion of gold is greater according as the river has fallen more slowly. According to Daubree's researches the maximum and minimum gold-yield may be stated thus : — Quantity of Gravel. Depth of Deposit. Volume washed per 9 hours. Weight of Gravel. Yield of Auriferous Sand. Gold in I cub. ft. Yield of Gold. Value of Gold per 9 hours' work. First Second Third (average^ worked) . , / Fourth (poorest^ worked) . . / in. S-8S 2-73 3-51 10-92 cub. ft. 121 118 114 109 lb, 13,662 13.205 12,826 12,236 lb. 22 21 IS 2i 11-72 0-61 gr. 15-59 6-75 3-6i 0*22 J. d. 8 9 3 7 2 li The gravel at d, Fig. 27, is no longer payably auriferous. It is not only in the bed of the Rhine, that gold is met with ; it occurs in the gravel at various points distant 5 or 6 miles from the stream, and appears to be generally disseminated throughout all the alpine gravel constituting the plain of the Rhine, as well as in the ancient alluvions of the river, and in those of the 111, which are similar. But the proportions are too small to admit of working at a profit by existing means. The average assay of the Rhine gold is o • 934 gold and o • 066 silver. Dobereiner found 0*00069 of platinum. Daubrde estimates the total production at 40,000 to 45,000 /r. (1583/. to 1786/.) per annum, divided among about 500 gold-washers. Greece. — The islands in which the Greeks carried on gold-mining operations included Thasos, Cyprus, and Siphnos [Siphanto] ; to these, Tournefort adds Naxos, stating that the natives " pretended " that gold- and silver-mines existed near the castle of Naxia. Rawlinson (Herodotus, ii. 57 ; Thalia, iii. 57) says that lead was still abundant in Siphanto in the time of Tournefo'-*", hut the gold- and silver-mines had failed before the time of Pausanias. The words of Pausanias (bk. x. c. xi. : vol. iii. pp. II 5-6) are, "The island Siphnos had gold-mines; and they were ordered by Apollo to send a tenth of the produce of these mines to Del- phos ; in consequence of which they built a treasury, and sent with it a tenth of the produce of their mines. Afterwards, however, through their immoderate desire of accumulating wealth, they neglected to send the tenth of their riches to Delphos ; and in consequence of this their gold- mines were destroyed by an inundation of the sea." Laurent (Herodotus, 1' EUROPE : GREECE, ICELAND, ITALY. 715 i. 225 : Thalia, iii. 57) says, " The affairs of the Siphnians about this time were in the most flourishing state : they were the richest of the islanders ; having in their island, mines of gold and silver, so productive, that out of the tithe of the coin accruing from them a treasury is dedicated at Delphi, comparable to the richest. They divided among themselves, every year, the product of these mines." Col. Leake says that Belon, who visited the mines of Sidherokdpsa in the middle of the sixteenth century, asserts that he found 500 or 600 furnaces in different parts of the mountain, that besides silver, gold was extracted here from pyrites, that 6000 workmen were then employed and that the mines sometimes returned to the Turkish Government a monthly profit of 30,000 ducats of gold. ICEL -ND. — The suspected occurrence of gold in Iceland is thus alluded to by the editor of the present work in a previous volume on that island. " A lump of mineral carelessly gathered by one of the members of our expedition on the brink of the Kettle crater, showed, on analysis by Mr. White, of Finsbury, the following composition ; — Silver Gold 14 oz. 14 dwt. per ton of mineral, o t, 9*19 >i » " The mineral was a brownish-black colourer!, vesicular, cindery, easily powdered mass, and was generally suppose-^ to be a sample of palagonite conglomerate, which had been subjected to great heat sub- sequently to its deposition. In the crevices and cavities of the mass, the precious metals were found native." Unfortunately, diligent search failed to procure a second specimen, which is the more to be regretted, as it leaves a doubt resting over the genuineness of the first, while if duly authenticated, it would be evidence of the actual formation of the metal within almost historical times. Italy. — According to Strabo (bk. iv. c. vi. § 7 : Bohn's library, i. 305), the country of the Salassi (in ancient Gallia Transpadana, in modern Piedmont) contains gold-mines, of which formerly, in the days of their power, they were masters, as well as of the passes. The river Doria Baltea (ancient name Duria) afforded them great facility in obtaining the metal by supplying them with water for washing the gold, and they have emptied the main bed by the numerous trenches cut for drawing the water to different places. This operation, though advantageous in gold-hunting, was injurious to the agriculturists below, as it deprived them of the irrigation of a river, which, by the height of its position, was capable of watering their plains. This gave rise to frequent wars between the two nations ; when the Romans gained the dominion, the Salassi lost both their gold-works and their country ; but as they still possessed the mountains, they continued to sell water to the public con- i! i I ij ; 7i6 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. tractors of the gold-mines, with whom there were continual disputes, on account of the avarice of the contractors, and thus the Roman generals sent into the country were ever able to find a pretext for commencing war. Again (bk. v. c. i. § 12 : Bohn, i. 325) he says the mines of Cisalpine Gaul (which included modern Piedmont and Lombardy) are not worked now so diligently, because not equally profitable with those of Trans- alpine Keltica and Iberia ; but formerly they must have been, since there were gold-diggings even in Vercelli, near to Ictimuli [probably Victi- moloj, both which villages are near to Placentia [Piacenza]. And (bk. V. c. iv. § 9 : Bohn, i. 368), Pithecussae [Ischia] was very prosperous, on account of the fertility of the soil and the productive gold-mines. Pliny (bk. iii. c. 24 : Bohn's library, i. 257) declares that in abundance of metals of every Kind, Italy yields to no land whatever ; but all search for them has been prohibited by an ancient decree of the senate, who gave orders thereby that Italy shall be exempted from such treatment. But it is diflScult to say what is the exact force of " parci" here; whether in fact it means that Italy shall be wholly exempted from such treat- ment, as an indignity offered to her soil, or whether her minerals were to be strictly kept in reserve as a last resource : Ajasson, in his translation, seems to take the former view ; Littre, the latter. According to Giulio Axerio, the mountains of Valsesia and Ossola yield gold. The precious metal is found in auriferous iron-pyrites, in the native state, in quartz, and also associated with copper-ore. By washing the solid residuum of river and mountain torrents, sufficient is produced annually to prove that " golden sands " are not quite a fable. About 60,000/. represents the annual value of the gold of Italy, which is extracted by the amalgamation process. Tapt. Smyth (1828), alluding to the tradition of gold in Sardinia, explains the name Luogo d'Oro as a corruption of Luogo Doria. But the argentiferous galena mines are renowned, and probably some gold is extracted from these ores. Hartmann, in i860, placed the yearly gold-production of Italy at about 220 lb. ; Roswag made it 418 lb. In 1868, the official estimate of the gold-yield of Mont*^ Rosa and Corsente was about 94^ lb. A British Consular Report fir 1877 states the value of the gold extracted at 257,400 lire (10,188/. 15^.), and of iron-pyrites, 78,520 lire (3108/.). Through the very kind instrumentality of Commander Felix Gioro- lano. Chief Director of the metallic mines of the kingdom, the author has been furnished with a special report on the gold-workings of Italy in 1882, illustrated by the accompanying sketch-map. Fig. 29, which may be translated as follows. Gold-veins exist in several localities in northern Italy, especially in the W. Alps, in the neighbourhood of the Simplon, Monte Rosa, and EUROPE : ITALY. 717 Mont Blanc, as well as at several points in the Ligurian Apennines, N. and N.E. of Genoa. But these veins are of no great richness, their total yield having rarely exceeded 2 lb. of gold daily, and being generally below that figure. The m >st extensively worked veins are in ^' '°' ^9- the before-mentioned groups of the W. Alps, especially in the valleys descending from Monte Rosa and the Simplon towards the E. into the basin of the Toce, and thence into the La JO Maggiore. They are th' . valleys of Antigorio, Antrona, Anzasca, and Toppa or Marmazza. Also at Alagna, at the head of the valley of the Sesia, on the S. foot of Monte Rosa. The veins in these valleys consist of numerous threads of iron-pyrites and quartz, traversing quartzites and mica- schists passing into gneiss. Their general direction is N. and S., or N.N.W. and S.S.E. The gold is usually dissemi- nated invisibly in the iron- pyrites, and is rarely to be seen in tiny grains in the white quartz, as in some of the veins in the Val Toppa. The ores accompanying the auriferous pyrites are copper-pyrites, mispickel [arsenical pyrites], grey copper-ore, galena, and blende. Their proportions vary with the locality : sometimes the mispickel is very abundant, as in the mine called Cani, the ore from which is treated at the Battigio works, Valle Anzasca. Occasionally, native gold is found in the beds of copper-pyrites at Ollomont, in the valley of Aosta, but in very small isolated patches of no permanence, while the veins of the Monte Rosa valleys, however vari- able in richness, have a ce-' ain continuity. The gold-yield of the pyritous ores is not commonly very high. The richest reaches 2J to 3 oz. per ton, but i^ oz. is considered a high figure, and it often descends to 13 dwt. or less. It is sometimes worked at a profit when even lower than this. The gold gained by amalgamation contains about 25 per cent, of silver. Sketch-map of Italian Gold-fields. i I ^ 718 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. The veins have been an object of exploitation for a very long time. Formerly, the Government itself worked some mines, as those of Alagna, in the valley of the Sesia, where is a group of very interesting veins ; but it has generally been left to private enterprise. According to the mining laws of Upper Italy, mines, being considered res Jtullius, are the object of concessions, granted gratis by the Government to those willing to take them, precedence being given to the discoverer. More than 60 localities are known where operations have been undertaken, generally on Government concessions; but a great part have been abandoned. There remain about 26 concessions in force, but the number of mines actually at work is not more than 5 or 6. As a rule, in former days, operations were conducted on a very modest scale. The ore was first pounded under stamps, then amalga- mated with mercury in little mills established on the water-courses of the neighbouring valleys, and capable of treating 120 to 132 lb. of pyrites per 24. hours. But at Pestarena, in the Valle Anzasca, was a considerable undertaking, with an adit cutting several veins, and a works of some importance. During the last 20 years, the small isolated exploitations have given place to larger works by their combination. Two English companies have acquired these rights and conducted operations on a grand scale with improved means. The Pestarena United Gola-mining Co. (Taylor & Co.) took the mines of Valle Anzasca and Val Toppa, with their reduc- tion-works at Macugnaga, Pestarena, Battigio, and Fomarco, at the Pi^- di-Mulera. The other, called the Val Antigorio Gold-mining Co., took those in the valleys farther E., with the works at Crodo. These com- panies have established wire-rope tramways for the economic transport of the ore across the valleys and spurs to the works. The latter are provided with powerful crushing apparatus and mills, capable of treating II 00 to 1320 lb. of ore per diem. The production of these mines has nevertheless always been very modest. The official statistics of the resident engineers, perhaps a little below the mark, but always sufficiently near, for many years past show a mean total rarely exceeding 440 lb. annually of gold of 75 per cent, fine- ness, and sometimes less than that. Since the operations of the two before-mentioned English companies, the production has increased a little ; 2^ to 3^ lb. daily has been spoken of, but even that has not been continuous, and an annual yield of 660 lb. seems to have been seldom reached. Meantime some mines have been abandoned, as that of Cani, with the works at Battigio, in 1875 ; the Antigorio Co. has closed the Crodo works, and a part of its territory has passed to the Pestarena Co., which continues working on a mediocre scale. It nevertheless would seem not a bad enterprise to resuscitate the mines of Alagna. EUROPE : ROUMANIA. 719 In a valley of the Ligurian Apennines called Val Corsente, between Alexandria and Genoa, in the arrondissement of Novi, exists a group of auriferous quartz veins traversing serpentine rocks, which have been experimentally worked. A reduction-works has been erected at Casa- Icggio, near the said valley; but the production of this locality has always been very trifling, and operations are now suspended. Mention may also be made, though rather as a matter of curiosity, of some nuggets of crystallized native gold found some years since in the copper- pyrites mine of Monte Loreto, above Sestri-Levante (E. Ligurian Riviera). One of these nuggets weighed several lb., but it was quite of isolated occurrence, and similar finds have not recurred. In Upper Italy, gold is also found in the form of small grains and spangles in the ancient alluvions covering the foot of the W. Alps, where exist the veins already described. They are, especially the valleys of the Oreo, the Dora-Baltea (valley of Aosta), the Scsia, and the Ticino, descending from the Graian and Pennine Alps, which possess auriferous alluvions. There are reasons for believing that the ancient or deep alluvion, which is found beneath the level of this part of the valley of the Po, at the foot of the W. Alps, is in places rich in gold. There exist historic traditions leading to the conclusion that at the time of the Roman Empire, considerable works were here carried on. In the plain stretching E. of the Dora-Baltea are traces of these operations, even adits driven in the alluvion. An ancient document speaks of thousands of workmen (slaves) who mined gold in these regions. But to-day there is not a single work in progress. There exist also alluvions of some importance in the before-mentioned valley of the Corsente, and in that of the Orba, which receives this torrent : alluvions which bear also evidences of ancient work ; but their riches, which seem sufficiently small, do not encourage modern enterprise. Alluvions containing metalliferous sands belong in Piedmont to the owner of the soil. As to the beds of rivers, permission is given to search and wash the sands, under regulations for preventing damage to the public water-supply. At present, however, no undertaking of importance is on foot. A few individuals only, armed with a wooden bowl, occasionally wash the sands of the before-named Alpine rivers, extracting a meagre return, the total annual value not exceeding a few thousand francs. ROUMANIA. — Gold is found in most of the rivers flowing from the Carpathians, but chiefly in the Olto and Ardgeche and their tributaries. These placers were formerly worked by state slaves, and the proceeds belonged to the reigning princesses. Vein-gold is found in the mountains of Ardgeche, Rucar, Tergoviste, Bacau, Niamtzo, and Suciara. Some 720 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. very coarse alluvial gold from Roumania was shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Russia in Europe. — In 1874, gold-washing was begun on the tribu- taries of the Tana, in the district of Uleaborg, where 400 lb. of the precious metal was obtained in the following year, the process employed being modelled after the Californian sluices. The country where the gold was obtained forms part of Russian Lapland, between the 70th parallel and the Arctic Circle, a region unsuited by climate and nature for the development of mining industry, and difficult of access, owing to the want of roads, from the towns of Torncii and Kola, about equidistant from the placers. At first, experiments were made for transporting supplies to the prospecting parties of gold-seekers by means of reindeer, but these were found too costly. Whenever diggings were opened on the Tana and Ivalo, the yield proved disappointing ; while in Finland (see p. 724) the search was altogether unsuccessful. It is, however, premature to conclude that rich deposits of gold are not contained in Finland and Lapland, which may be only awaiting a fortunate, or perhaps a more experienced, discoverer. Where the granites of Finland border on the governments of Archangel and Olonetz, they are associated with crystalline schists, and these probably contain gold. In the district of Kem, at Voitsk, on the Vyg, a river flowing through Lake Vyg before emptying into the White Sea, auriferous quartz was found in veins crossing the talcose schists. But the attempts to work the mine, though repeated for several years, failed, and in the end it was abandoned, in 1794, after having produced 169 lb. of the precious metal. This was the earliest of the gold dis- coveries in Russia. In the Olonetz government the search for gold has been hitherto unsuccessful, notwithstanding the extensive crystalline azoic fDrmations which should contam gold ; and the same may be said of Kola, the borders of the governments of Archangel and Olonetz with Finland, the Timan range. Cape Kanin, the Kalguief Islands, Vaigatch and Nova Zembla, among the least visited parts of the solitudes of Northern Russia. The granites of Olonetz lie generally in a north-east and south-west direction, parallel with the water-parting of the rivers flowing into the Baltic and Arctic seas. Servia. — According to Paton (1845), the lessees of the gold- and silver-mines of Servia, as well as the workmen of the State mint, were Venetians. Spain. — According to Strabo (bk. iii. c. ii. § 3, 8 : Bohn's library, i. 214, 219-20), there are copper and gold about the Cotinae [Cotillas, or perhaps Constantina, near Almaden]. These mountains are on the left as you sail up the river Guadalquiver. Turdetania is intersected by EUKOl'E : RUSSIA, SKRVIA, SI'AIN. 721 the Guadalquiver, and contains the towns of Cordova in Andalusia, Cadiz, and Seville. It abounds in metals. Gold is not only dug from the mines, but likewise collected, sand containing gold being washed down by the rivers and torrents. It is frequently met with in arid districts, but here the gold is not visible to the sight, whereas in those which are overflowed the grains of gold are seen glittering. On this account, they cause water to flow over the arid places in order to make the grains shine ; they also dig pits, and make use of other contrivances for washing the sand, and separating the gold from it ; so that at the present day more gold is procured by washing than by digging it from the mines. The Galatae afllirm that the mines along the Kemmenus mountains [Cevennes] and their side of the Pyrenees are superior; but most people prefer those on this side. They say that sometimes amongst the grains of gold lumps have been found weighing y lb. : these they csWpalce; they need but little refining They also say that in splitting open stones they find small lumps resembling paps. In the beds of the rivers, the sand is either collected and washed in boats close by, or else a pit is dug to which the earth is carried and there washed. Certain of the copper-mines are called gold-mines, which would seem to show that formerly gold was dug from them. Pliny (bk. xxxiii. c. 21 : Bohn's library, vi. 99-104) gives a more detailed account. According to him, " gold is found in our own part of the world ; not to mention the gold extracted from the earth in India by the ants, and in Scythia by the griffins. Among us, it is procured in three diflerent ways ; the first of which is, in the shape of dust, found in running streams, the Tagus in Spain for instance, the Padus in Italy, the Hebrus in Thracia, the Pactolus in Asia, and the Ganges in India ; indeed, there is no gold found in a more perfect state than this, thoroughly polished as it is by the continual attrition of the current. " A second mode of obtaining gold is by sinking shafts or seeking it among the debris of mountains , both of which methods it will be as well to describe. The persons in search of gold in the first place remove the segutilum " (Ajasson remarks that the Castilians still call the surface earth of auriferous deposits by the name of segttllo), "such being the name of the earth which gives indication of the presence of gold. This done, a bed is made, the sand of which is washed, and, according to the residue found after washing, a conjecture is formed as to the richness of the vein. Sometimes, indeed, gold is found at once in the surface earth, a success, however, but rarely experienced. Recently, for instance, in the reign of Nero, a vein was discovered in Dalmatia, which yielded daily as much as 50 lb. weight of gold. The gold that is thus found in the surface crust is known as tahitiiim, in cases where there is auriferous earth beneath. The mountains of Spain " (we learn from Ajasson that numerous pits or 3 A 722 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. shafts are still to be seen in Spain, from which the Romans extracted gold. At Riotinto, he says, there are several of them), " in other respects arid and sterile, and productive of nothing whatever, are thus constrained by man to be fertile, in supplying him with this precious commodity. " The gold that is extracted from shafts is known by some persons as canalicinm, and by others as caualicusc " (both meaning " channel-gold ") ; " it is found adhering to the gritty crust of marble " {tnarmoris glarea, under which name he no doubt means quartz and schist), "and altogether different from the form in which it sparkles in the sapphirus of the East, and in the stone of Thcbais and other gems, it is seen interlaced with the molecules of the marble. The channels of these veins are found running in various directions along the sides of the shafts, and hence the name of the gold they yield — canaliciuvi " (channel-gold or trench-gold). " In these shafts, too, the superincumbent earth is kept from falling in by means of wooden pillars. The substance that is extracted is first broken up, and then washed ; after which it is subjected to the action of fire, and ground to a fine powder. This powder is known as apitascudes. " The third method of obtaining gold is by the aid of galleries driven to a long distance ; . . . these mines are known as artngice" (deep mines in Spain are still called arriigia, a term also used to signify gold beneath the surface) ; ..." in this kind of mining, arches are left at frequent intervals for the purpose of supporting the weight of the mountain above. In mining either by shaft or by gallery, barriers of silex are met with, which have to be driven asunder by the aid of fire and vinegar ; or more frequently, as this method fills the galleries with suffocating vapours and smoke, to be broken in pieces with bruising-machines shod with pieces of iron weighing 150 lb. : which done, the fragments are carried out on the workmen's shoulders, night and day, each man passing them on to his neighbour in the dark, it being only those at the pit's mouth that ever sec the light. . . . When these operations are all com- pleted, beginning at the last, they cut away the wooden pillars at the point where they support the roof : the coming downfall gives warning, which is instantly perceived by the sentinel, and by him only, who is set to watch upon a peak of the same mountain. By voice as well as by signals, he orders the workmen to be immediately summoned from their labours, and at the same moment takes to flight himself. The mountain, rent to pieces, is cleft asunder, hurling its debris to a distance with a crash, which it is impossible for the human imagination to conceive ; and from the midst of a cloud of dust, of a density quite incredible, the victorious miners gaze uijon this downfall of Nature. Nor yet even then are they sure of gold, nor indeed were they by any means certain that there was any to be found when they first began to excavate, it being quite sufficient, as an inducement to undergo such perils and to incur EUROPE : SPAIN. 723 such vast expense, to entertain the hope that they shall obtain what they so eagerly desire. " Another labour too, quite equal to this, and one which entails even greater expense, is that of bringing rivers from the more elevated moun- tain heights, a distance in many instances of 100 miles perhaps, for the pur- pose of washing these debris. . . . Then, too, vallics and crevasses have to be united by the aid of aqueducts, and in another place impassable rocks have to be hewn away, and forced to make room for hollowed troughs of wood ; the persons hewing them hanging suspended all the time with ropes." When the water reaches the level ground, trenches have to be dug for its passage, which are lined with planks and covered at the bottom, at regular intervals, with a layer of itlex, *' a plant like rosemary in appear- ance, rough and prickly, and well adapted for arresting any pieces of gold that may be carried along. . . . The earth, carried onwards in the stream, arrives at the sea at last, and thus is the shattered mountain washed away, causes which have greatly tended to extend the shores of Spain by these encroachments upon the deep." Whether shafts or galleries are used, the gold obtained is pure gold, and is often found " in lumps, sometimes exceeding 10 lb. even. The names given to these lumps zx&palagcB diX\6 palaciirnce, while the gold found in small grains is known as balncc. The ulex that is used for the above purpose is dried and burnt, after which the ashes of it are washed upon a bed of grassy turf, in order that the gold may be deposited thereupon. Asturia, Ga'iaecia, and Lusitania furnish in this manner, yearly, according to some authori- ties, 20,000 lb. weight of gold, the produce of Asturia forming the major part. Indeed, there is no part of the world that for centuries has main- tained such a continuous fertility in gold. I have already mentioned that by an ancient decree of the senate, the soil of Italy has been pro- tected from these researches ; otherwise, there would be no land more fertile in metals. There is extant also a censorial law relative to the gold-mines of Victumulae, in the territory of VcrcelliE, by which the farmers of the revenue were forbidden to employ more than 5000 men at the works." Livy mentions that the gold of the splendid ornaments of fine gold worn by the Roman matrons, came from the district of Tamaya, in Spain. Recent attempts have been made to discover the mine whence it came, and an old shaft was found, which, when cleaned out, laid open extensive Roman galleries. A lode of ferruginous conglomerate, 32 in. wide, was discovered, containing visible gold, and samples are said to have given by assay, 22 to 24 oz. of gold per metric quintal (less than 2 cwt). Cardonne informs us that " The mines of gold and silver which existed in Spain were a great source of wealth to the Arabs ; they 3 A 2 I i i 724 GLOURAI'HICAL DISTRIHUTION. employed a large number of workmen, and extracted a great quantity of those metals." The chief mines of the Arabs appear to have been in the province of Jaen, where, even now, on the hills, more than 5CX) shafts may be seen. Piquet says that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the province of Santander was known to contain mines of gold, the localities of which are mentioned in the archives of Simancas. According to Laur's report, Post-Tertiary extinct river-beds, like the dead-river deep leads of California, cover many sq. leagues in Spain, in some places capped by volcanic rocks. Samples were taken from 2 districts : — C<5n6s, in the hill which separates the Rio Daro from the Rio Genii; and Huetor, on the plateau between the valley of the Genii and that of Monachil (in and around the town of Granada). The deposit extends far to the N. of the Nevada of Granada, as well as E., W., and S.W., lying on the lower part of the slopes of the hills, and underlying the more recent deposits of the plain of the Vega. Roswag states the yearly gold-production ot Spain at a maximum of 7CX) lb. Sweden and Norway. Lipland. — The history of the Lapland gold-discoveries is as follows, li. ""Cy, the Swedish engineer Dahl, while exploring the district of Lap^ arken, on the borders of Russia, came upon auriferous alluvions in the river Tana. Crossing into Russian territory, he discovered gold along the right affluents of this river, and on the Ivalo, discharging into Lake Ehnareh, and ultimately falling into the Arctic Sea. Two Californian miners extracted 60 oz. of gold here as the result of a summer's work in 1869. The official statistics of the yield of the 8 years' washing in Finnish Lappmarken are : — 1870 . oz. . 615 1874 . oz. • 72s 1871 . . 1822 1875 . • 546 1872 . . 1770 1876 . . 318 1873 . . 1030 1877 • . 224 This gives a total of 7050 oz. The relative proportions from different streams were : — 6388 oz. from the Ivalajoki, 566 oz. from the Palsioja, 86 oz. from other little streams falling into the Ivalajoki, and 10 oz. from the Luttajoki. The largest nugget yet found weighed about 65 gr. Switzerland. — Switzerland possesses no gold-mines nor -washings at the present moment, though it would appear that much of the alluvial gold worked in the streams just over the border in France (p. 709) and Italy (p. 715) is really derived from a Swiss source. Formerly small quantities were found at the foot of Mount Calanda, close to Feldsberg, near Chur, enclosed in schistose quartz and calcspar. Remunerative washings used also to be carried on in both the rivers Emmen, and in the Reuss, as well as in the Rhine, near Bale. * \ EUROPE: SWEDEN AND NORWAY, SWITZERLAND, TURKEY. 725 Turkey in Europe.— According to Strabo (fragment 33, 34: Bohn's library, i. 512), "There are about the Strymonic Gulf other cities also, as . . . and Datum, which has an excellent and most productive soil, dockyards for ship-building, and gold-mines. There are numerous gold-mines among the Crcnidcs, where the city of Philip now stands, near Mount Pangneus. Panga;us itself, and the country on the E. of the Strymon, and on the VV. as far as Pceonia, contains gold- and silver-mines. Particles of gold, it is said, are found in Ptvonia in ploughing the land." The Abbd' Bartholemy places the date of Cadmus' first working of the gold-mines in Pangneus at 1549 B.C. Philip of Macedon worked them in 358 B.C., and derived most of his treasure from them. The yield of Thracian gold in his day has been estimated at lOCXD talents a year, equal to 340,0CK)/. or to 5,000,000/., according to the value given to the talent. Herodotus says (bk. vi. c. 46-7 : Rawlinson, iii. 436-7), " They were masters of the gold-mines of Scaptd-Hyle, the yearly produce of which amounted in all to 80 talents." Scapt6-Hyle is said by Stephen to have been a town upon the Thracian coast, opposite Thasos. It was probably near Datum, to which its gold-mines seem sometimes to be ascribed. The wife of Thucydidcs was, we are told, a native of this place, and the owner of some of its mines. Thasos is said to have been called Chrysa by the early Greeks, on account of its gold-mines. Also, "These Phoenician workings are in Thasos itself, between Coenyra and a place called JE.x\yrdi, over against Samothrace : a huge mountain has been turned upside down in the search for ores." That is on the S.E. side of the island. Coenyra .still remains in the modern Kinyra. The site of ./Enyra cannot be fixed. Again (bk. vii. c, 112 : Rawlinson, iv. 93), "with the long high range of Pangaium upon his right, a tract in which there are mines both of gold and silver." The whole region from Philippi and Datum on the E. to Dysorum on the W. was most rich in the precious metals. Aristotle relates that after heavy rains " nuggets " of virgin gold were often found of above i lb. weight. There were two — one of 3 and one of 5 lb. — in the possession of the Macedonian kings. And (bk. ix. c. 75 : Rawlinson, iv. 433), " in a battle with the Edonians near Datum, about the go'd-mines there, he [Sophanes] was slain." Datum or Datus was a Thasian colony on the coast of Thrace, lying between Abdera and Ncapolis. The battle here mentioned was fought about the year u.C. 465, on occasion of the first attempt which the Athenians made to colonize Amphipolis. Pisistratus, when he obtained possession of Athens, was in receipt of funds from the country itself and " from the Strymon river " (Clio, i. 64 : Laurent, i. 31). The country between the Strymon and Nestus abounded in mines of gold and silver. Nestus is in long. 24° 40', lat. 4l^ A river of Thrace, it comes from the E. extremity of Mount Scomius, I I I I I Ml n ii :H 726 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. S flows between Mounts Rhodope and Pang.xus and falls into the ^gean at 60 miles from the mouth of the Strymon, called by the Turks Cara Soui". Strymon, long. 23" 50', lat. 40° 50', a river of Thrace, rises in Mount Scomius, and falls into a bay of the JEgean Sea, of which the modern name is Contesa or Orphani. A German mining engineer named 1' ischbach. in the Turkish service, gave Davis (1879) an interesting account of his discovery of the ancient gold-mines, worked by Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great, some 7 to 8 hours from Salonica, on the river Kilik. There was a great number of chambers connected by galleries, many of which were so low and narrow that they could only be explored by crawling. He had observed in one place a rich vein of silver, which the old miners had neglected : they must therefore have found something more precious ; but he could discover nothin;^ except oxide of iron, mixed with an earth ; he had tried some of this with mercury, and obtained a small quantity of gold, enough to " pay " ; but the Turkish Government refused to give a concession for working the mine. Fischbach thought the old miners worked in a rough and wasteful way, by washing the mineral, and gathering the gold as it was precipitated down the course of the stream, so that much must have been lost. As the part of the mainland opposite Thasos was famed in ancient times for gold-mines, Tozer (1869) inquired whether any minerals were discovered at the present day ; all, however, that he could learn was that quartz is found all about Cavalla, and that therefore it is likely enough that there is gold, but that no traces of mines had been discovered. On the slopes of Olympus, in the vale of Tempe, an English company has for many years been engaged in mining operations, chiefly among the silver- and gold-depos'ts. A celebrated Russian writer says the Pactolus would pay to work now, if not as great as it did to Croesus, yet in quantities that would astonish the world. Woodward ( 1 873) says that no ores of any kind are known at Despoto- Dagh, save small quantities of gold which are washed out of the alluvium near Balukkioi. He adds that gold in small quantities is obtained by washing near Slatica. United Kingdom. — Gold and silver are enumerated by Strabo (iv. 279) among the products of Great Britain. The Romans were acquainted with this, and our precious metals proved one incentive to their ambition in effecting our conquest. Thus Agricola, in his oration to his soldiers before the battle of the Grampian Hills, excites them to victory by reminding ^hem " Fert Britannia aurum et argentum, et alia metalla pretium victoriae." On their first landing in Britain, the Romans found the inhabitants in possession of gold and gold coin. But Murchison has expressed a belief that " in our own country, as in many others, the EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 727 quantity of gold originally imparted to the rocks was small, and has to a great extent been exhausted." Modern ofificial statistics of the total gold-production of these islands are : — Year. Oz. £, Year. Oz. ^ i 1861 2784 10,816 1869 18 62 1862 5299 20,390 1870 191 750 1863 552 1.747 1871 1864 2887 9.991 1S72 .. 1865 1664 5,824 1S73 .. ,. 1866 743 2,656 1874 385 1540 1867 1520 5,890 1875 579 2105 1 868 1612 3.522 England. Cornwall. — Pennant (1810) observes that gold is to this day found in Cornwall, mixed with tin and other substances. The largest piece then discovered was equal "" weight to 3 guineas. He thinks it probable that it was Cornish gold which proved the lure to the Romans, for it was impossible that they or the Phoenicians could have been ignorant of it. Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart. (181 8), describes a piece of gold found in streaming for tin, in a moor near the church of the parish of Ladock. The specimen of gold intermixed with quartz appears to have formed a part of, and to have been broken off from, a lode ; pieces of quartz inter- mixed witl- jold have no been frequently found. In streaming the moor from S. to N., the gold, probably washed down by the river, was not found to the N. of a certain line ; the lode therefore must cross the valley near this line, above which no gold was found in an E. and W. direction. Pattison (1854) remarks of the parish of Davidstowe, in the north of Cornwall, situated at the edge of the granitic boss of Roughtor, that the Devonian rocks are here traversed by siliceous bands in the form of veins of coarse quartz. These are subordinate quartzose portions of the slate rocks, not cross-courses or strings, but metamorphic conditions ac- companying fissures in the line of the bedding and strike, and attended with the segregation or addition of various minerals. They were produced by a cause affecting apparently the whole mass. The veins are variable in character as regards the admixtures present with the quartz. Trappean matter is often visible, usually mica, rarely pyrites. In some places, the quartz is much intersected by ferruginous partings and hollows ; these contain " gossan," varying in colour from light pink to dark red-brown. It is these gossaniferous pSrtions in the vicinity of trappean matter which have been found to be auriferous. In the summer of 1852, from a portion of a quartz vein at Davidstowe, he -; Mi 728 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. obtained a trace of gold. Other samples have given 1 1 oz. 13 dwt. 8 gr. of gold per ton. Devonshire. — In Devonshire also, the red and brown gossans contain a percentage which some think will pay the cost of extraction. The Britannia gossan from Devonshire yielded by experiments in 1853, 1 3 dwt. and i oz. o dwt. 20 gr. per ton. The Poltimorc gossan has given 17 to 32 dwt. per ton, and other Devonshire ores 9 oz. to the ton. Lancashire. — The geological features of the Australian gold-fields have been declared similar to the quartz veins in the Silurian rocks of Seathwaite, near Broughton-in-Furness, in this county, which are auriferous, and which have several times been proposed to be wrought for gold. In Australia, as well as in Lanca.shire, the quartz veins are in Silurian deposits in the vicinity of granite ; in the latter county, near the granitic district of Ravenglass. The size of the quartz veins here has prevented their being wrought with success. Somerset. — Stoddart has described (1876) the unusual occurrence of the presence of gold and silver in a sample of Carboniferous limestone taken from a quarry in the neighbourhood of Clevedon. He remarked the absence of sulphur and silica, which so often accompany gold- deposits. Analysis gave : — silver, '0023 ; gold, a trace. The amount of silver varies from 94 gr. per ton to nearly i oz. ; the gold from 3 to 5 gr. per toh. Worcester. — At Bromsgrove Lickey, near Birmingham, has been found (1864) siliceous rock impregnated with the precious metals, and it would appear from some accounts that the only difficulty is the treatment which the rock should be subjected to, to obtain profitable results, as samples of ore taken out of a .stone-pit by the roadside going up the hill were found to contain both gold and silver. Ireland, — Towards the close of 1796, gold was accidentally discovered in the Ballinvalley — since called the Gold Mine — brook, a tributary of the river Aughrim, which rises on the E. slope of Croghan Kinshela, and falls into the Avoca at the Wooden-bridge. Several hundred peoi)le dug and .searched for gold in the banks and bed of the stream, thus collecting a con- siderable quantity, for nearly 6 weeks ; the Government then took posses- sion, and carried on the working with some little advantage until 1798, when their works were destroyed by the rebels. In 1801, proceedings were resumed at Ballinvalley, and examinjitions were commenced at Croghan Moira, Ballycreen, and Jkillynaca[)ogue. At Croghai Moira, gold was obtained, tliough in very small quantity ; at Ballycreen, iniimte particles of gold were found ; in Ballynacapogue brook, small particles of gold were obtained, but as the re-opened stream-works became less productive, and as the other localities had afforded very little gold, operations were dis- continued in 1802. Since then, the neighbouring cottagers have obtained EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 729 a little gold from the refuse of the Government works and the beds of the streams, but scarcely sufficient to afford them the means of subsistence. In several other parts of the district, S. of the sulphur-course, particles of gold have been found ; but they have not tempted the discoverers to extend their operations. The detrital matter is, for the most part, shallow enough to be conveniently wrought by open-cutting ; although in one instance at least, its depth is so great that it has been worked, in shafts sunk to the rock ("shelf") and by drifts (levels) extending along its surface, more cheaply than by the removal of the whole ovcrburthen. The deposit consists, in great measure, of gravel, shingle, boulders, and angular blocks of various slates, mixed, here and there, with pebbles of granite, and smaller quantities of many other earthy sub- stances, as well as with masses of several ferruginous minerals, some amount of tinstone, small fragments of sundry other ores, and gold in minute proportions ; all imbedded in sand and clay, the debris of neigh- bouring rocks. Some of the earlier nuggets weighed several oz. apiece ; but, even then, most of the gold consisted, and now the v/hole consists, of scales and granules of merely a few gr. each. In many of the speci- mens, however, metallic threads interlace a matrix of wolfram, or of brown iron-ore. Whether the masses are, large or small, of auriferous matrix or of pure metal, mostly they seem to have suffered great attrition ; yet amongst them, small well preserved crystals of gold have been sometimes obtained. The gold procured by Government ranged from 2l8 to 21J carats fine. It is believed that the peasantry collected during tne 6 weeks in 179C, about 800 oz. of gold ; the Government, from 1796 to 1 8o2, obtained 944 oz. 4 dwt. 15 gr., value 3675/. js. wld. ; from 1857 to 1862, the Carysfort Mining Co. extracted about 85 oz. It is impo.ssible to ascertain the amount secured by the cottagers since 1802. At liallymurtagh, gold is associated with the earthy brown iron- ore which abounds in the upper portions of both the sulphur-courses ; but the only reliable analysis shows that it averages less than i^ oz. (o "000010 per cent.) to the ton of veinstone. The more deeply-seated pyritous parts of both formations arc also auriferous, but in a still smaller degree. In 1854, a considerable quantity of gossan, carefully selected from shallow parts of the Great North sulphur-course in Ballymurtagh, was submitted to operation in 2 machines then newly invented for washing gold. The results reported to have been obtained were — in the first machine, at the rate of 17 dwt. 12 gr. (o* 000027 per cent.) of gold per ton of ore ; in the second machine, 7 dwt. 12 gr. (o'ooooi i per cent.) of gold per ton ; another experiment in the second machine gave more than I oz. per ton. The Directors of the VVicklow Copper Mines Co., having little confidence in such conflicting results from the very same I, ii '9 H I E^K i H 1 1 730 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. t; ■*■ ore, placed other samples of it in the hands of Prof Apjohn, whose analysis showed much smaller proportions of gold than the lowest of those reported by the machinists. Gold is sprinkled through the iron- pyrites in both the sulphur-courses ; but the proportion is even smaller than in the gossan. Gilbert Sanders has remarked in the gold-valleys of Wicklow a close geological similarity to those of New Zealand. The drift-gold, however, of which there is plenty, nad not yet been clearly traced to any one of the quartz veins in Croghan Kinshela mountain, neither by the Carysfort Mining Co., nor when Government formerly worked the district. Mag- netic iron appears also in Wicklow, as at Auckland and elsewhere, with the gold-rocks. Dr. Haughton states that Croghan Kinshela, on the flanks of which are the gold-streams, is a granite mountain of an extra- ordinary diversity of composition. Scotland. — The most complete and scientific account of the gold- fields of Scotland is given by Dr. Lauder Lindsay, who, while visiting, in 1 86 1, the auriferous districts of the province of Otago, New Zealand, was much struck with the similarity, as respects physical geography and geology, between that country and many parts of Scotland. It occurred to him that, in so far as the physical conformation obtained, and the same geological structure existed in many parts of Scotland, there should be a co-equal diffusion of gold as respects at least its area, and he proposed to himself to determine how far this suggestion or belief would be borne out by actual investigation. Since that period, he has given all the attention that opportunity permitted to the subject of the diffusion of gold in Scotland, both as regards its area and quantity. In 1863, he paid a special visit to the Leadhills district, which, some centuries ago, yielded to systemr'-ic working upwards of half a million's worth of gold, and which, regarded by the test of its then productiveness, is fairly entitled to the appellation of a " gold-field." In order to com- pare the Scottish gold and gold-rocks with those of other auriferous countries, he made a special examination of the International Exhibition of 1862, and of all the museums accessible to him in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. His general results or conclusions are : — 1. That gold is much more extensively or generally diffused in Scot- land than has been supposed. 2. That the area of diffusion, and the extent to which it occurs, can only be determined by systematic investigation, equivalent at least to the " prospecting " of gold-diggers. 3. That hitherto, and with certain limited and local exceptions, there has been no such systematic prospecting in Scotland ; and 4. That there are indications, if they do not always amount to proofs, of the existence in Scotland both of auriferous quartzites — that EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 731 is, of gold in situ — and of auriferous " drifts," using the term " drift " in its most comprehensive sense. Before making general observations on the Scottish gold-fields, or comparing them, as regards their richness or extent, with those of other auriferous countries, which are better known. Dr. Lindsay gives briefly the principal results of his observations and inquiries at and concerning what he denominates the Crawford or Leadhills " gold-fields "; the whole of that moorland and hill region of the southern highlands — Upper Clydesdale — the southern extremity of Lanarkshire, variously known as Crawford, Crawford Moor, or Crawford-Lindsay, which includes the dis- trict now known as the Leadhills, and forms the watershed of the 4 great southern rivers (the Clyde, Nith, Tweed, and Annan), has repeatedly, and in various ways, proved to be more or less auriferous. Calvert prospected the whole Leadhills district, and found gold in every gully and valley. Griffin also prospected the whole district with the similar result, that he found gold in dust or grams "everywhere." But long prior to tl.^ir modern system of prospecting, some of the Leadhills valleys were the scene of the far-famed alluvial washings under Sir Bevis Bulmcr in 1578-92, and it was from the produce of such washings that the Scottish Regalia were fashioned in 1 542, and Kings James IV. and V.'s celebrated bonnet-pieces corned. Bulmer's chief washings are said to have been in the valley of the Elvan, and he is also represented as having washed the whole bed of the Glengonner water. But vestiges of ancient " diggins," precisely similar to those of Otago, are to be met with in many parts of the Leadhills district. For instance, Lindsay found the haugh or " flat " on the banks of the Glengonner water above Abington and immediately below Glencaple Burn, covered with a series of quartz-like mounds, exactly resembling those with which he was familiar in the famous Gabriel's Gully at Tuapeka in Otago, and which are said really to mark the site, or one of the sites, of Bulmer's celebrated workinp;s. It was the gold-prospecting in this district, it is said, that led to the discovery of the lead, which has proved so much more permanent a source of prosperity to the district, to which it has, moreover, given its distinctive modern name of late years ; and at present gold is systematically collected by the Leadhills miners chiefly in certain localities, viz. in the Windgatc or Windygate Burn, in Langcleuch Burn, in Bellgall Burn, in the whole course of the Elvan and Glengonner from the Clyde to theit* source. The gold occurs chiefly in the gravelly clay, locally known as " till," as this coats the flanks of all the Leadhills valleys ; but it is also to be found in the shingle, gravels, or clays of the stream-beds. Several of the miners have considerable 'eputation as skilful and successful gold-finders, and their practised eyes are constantly finding gold in both i; 732 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. i • localities, the hill-sides and the stream-beds. This gold is invariably known as " drift " or "alluvial " gold. There is no present local evidence of the existence of auriferous quartzites. But in 1803, the late Prof. Traill of Edinburgh found gold in a vein of quartz in situ at Wanlock- head. All the gold belonging to this district which Lindsay has seen is of a granular or nuggety character, and quite comparable with the usual produce of Otago, or other auriferous countries. Some of the nuggets found in former times, and preserved in the cabinets of local proprietors, are of considerable size and value. The cabinet of the late Lord Hopetoun contains two — one of them weighing 2 lb. 3 oz. = 27 oz., or 1 2,960 gr., which at the current price of gold in Australia, 4/. per oz., is worth 108/., collected, it is said, about 1502, prior to the systematic workings of Bulmer ; the other, weighing i oz. id dwt., or 720 gr. The first would appear to be by far the largest mass of native gold ever found in Scotland. Since, however, systematic gold workings on a large scale were discontinued, the size of the Leadhills nuggets has been much smaller, the largest seldom now exceeding 2 or 3 gr., though they are frequently found of that size. Just previous to Lindsay's visit in the autumn of 1863, a nugget of 30 gr. had been found, and another single nugget, whose weight he failed to ascertain, sold for 25^. at Abington. More generally the gold occurs here as rough granules, coarser and larger than those constituting what could properly be called " dust," and of this considerable quantities are frequently collected in limited periods for special purposes, such as marriage gifts or jewellery, to or for the local proprietors. Thus, in a fortnight in 1862, 975 gr. were collected for the Countess of Hopetoun, and on another occasion 600 gr. in 6 weeks by 30 men at spare hours, 1 5 working in the forenoon, and the other half in the afternoon. About Abington, in 1858, similar quantities were collected under similar circumstances, to furnish marriage jewellery for Lady Colebrookc. Between May and October 1863, three miners in the intervals of leisure from their usual work, collected for Dr. Lindsay 33 gf-* which they found in the "till," about 40 yd. above the bed of the stream, half-way down the Langcleuch Burn, between Leadhills and Elvanfoot : their charge was 20s., that is, at the rate of about 1 5/. per oz., or y^i. per gr. During the last 5 years, the price of crude gold in Australia and New Zealand has averaged 3/. 17^. 6d. to 4/. per 07., so that the Scottish diggers obtained for their produce nearly 4 times as much as the New Zealand or Australian diggers got for theirs. The price appears at first sight to be extremely and disproportionally high ; but the cases are by no means parallel ; for in the case of the Leadhills gold, the collection is made to meet demands for cabinet specimens, or for jewellery materials, under circumstances quite exceptional. The Lead- hills miners collect their gold mostly to order ; it is thus at once disposed EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 733 of, and hence gold is seldom to be found there for sale, or only in very small quantities. On one occasion Lindsay was offered a sample of 140 to 160 gr. for 5/., that is, at the rate at which he purchased his smaller sample, but the miners rarely have so much in their possession unsold. In the summer of 1862, by way of holiday work, the miners frequently collected quantities of 1 5 to 54 gr. The able-bodied Lead- hills miner never, however, gives up !ms usual labour, at which he earns i^s. per week, for the mo e precarious gains to be derived from gold- finding. To gold-seeking he devotes only his spare hours, his holiday time, or his periods of sickness or debility. Th'^ director of the mines at Leadhills has such an opinion of the abundance of the gold, the facility with which it may be collected, and the probable remuncrativencss of the gold-working, that with a favourable lease of the ground, he and many others would at once combine to commence systematic operations. Other local authorities are, however, much less sanguine of profitable results from working the gold on a larger scale, or by whatever means, though there is unanimity of opinion as to the general prevalence of gold, and its easy accessibility, throughout the district. The method of collecting gold by washing at Leadhills is essentially that employed in the early history of gold-diggings in all auriferous countries ; but there can be no doubt that collection would be facilitated, the produce increased, and the remunerativeness of the operation improved by the application of the most modern machinery now used in countries where gold-mining has long been a settled industry. The Scottish gold-fields may be divided geographically or topo- graphically into three — the Northern, Central, and Southern. 1. The Northern comprises the greater part of the counties of Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, and Argyle, north of the Caledonian Canal. It occupies the longitudinal axis of the northern peninsula of Scotland, is second in size only to the central area, and has yet almost entirely to be explored. 2. The Central lies between the Caledonian Canal and the valley of the Tay ; includes a great part of the shires of Inverness (southern half), Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine, Perth, Forfar, Argyle, Stirling, and Dum- barton. It is far the largest of the 3 areas. Like the Southern gold- field, it forms a transverse belt across Scotland, and much of it remains to be explored. The Southern comprises great part of Dumfries, Kircudbright, Wig- town, Ayr, Selkirk, Peebles, and Lanarkshire, and includes more par- ticularly parts of the districts of Nithsdale, Annandale, Eskdale, Ettrickdale, Tweeddale, and Clydesdale, and the Lammermuirs (in Had- dington and Berwick). It is the smallest of the 3 areas, but it is the best known, and, so far as ascertained, the richest. ;r-;f < ' I 734 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Geologically, the area of these 3 great gold-fields is that occupied in Scotland by the Lower Silurian strata and their drifts. These strata are divisible, however, only into 2 great groups, viz. the Southern, corre- sponding to the Southern gold-field as above delineated, characterized by the greywackes of the Southern ; and the Northern, comprising that above described as the Northern and Central gold-fields, characterized by the micaceous schists of the Grampians. At many localities throughout the area which Dr. Lindsay assigns to the Scottish gold-fields, actual finds of gold have been made in recent or former times, and this is one of the strongest arguments for their thorough exploration. Of such gold-finds, the following will suffice as illustrations : — 1. Northern Gold-field. I. Sutherlandshire. — Helmsdale water. A nugget found here in former times weighed 10 dwt., or 240 gr. IL Central Gold-field. 1. Perthshire. — (A.) Breadalbane, area of LochTay, and head-waters of the Tay. A nugget found in former times weighed 2 oz., or 960 gr. Sir James Simpson was shown a specimen of gold, with its matrix (quartz), by the late Marquis of Breadalbane, from Lyndrum. In 1861, Prof Tennent of London found gold in quartz, associated with iron- pyrites, at Taymouth. (B.) Upper Strathearn, area of Loch Earn, and the head-waters of the Earn. Glen Lcdnoch (Ritchie) ; streams falling from the north into Loch Earn (Ritchie) ; Ardvoirlich, south side of Loch Earn. (C.) Glcnalmond (Mercer) ; Glenquoich and other valleys of the Grampians. 2. Forfarshire. — Clova district, areas of Angus, Edzell, and Glenesk. 3. Aberdeenshire, area of the Dee, Braemar, Invercauid, coast about Aberdeen, and in the sea-sand. In New Zealand, and other auriferous countries, gold is very com- monly associated with magnetic-iron sand, containing or not, titanium and other minerals, or with iron sulphides. It is of interest to know that the sands of the Dee, which consist mainly of the debris of granite and gneiss, contain considerable quantities of magnetic-iron sand and iserine, with which are associated smaller amounts of titanium, uranium, and arsenic. The gneiss of Braemar often contains much magnetite in place of mica (Nicol), while iron or oxides or sulphides are common in all the schists and granite of Aberdeenshire (Nicol). 4. Argyleshire. — Dunoon. EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 735 III. Southern Gold-field. 1. Head-waters of the Clyde, including the Ech, Crawford Moor or Leadhills district ; Elvan water, Glengonner, Glencaple, Winloch, Short Cleuch, Lamington Burn. 2. Head-waters of the Tweed ; Manor water, which flows north to the Tweed ; Mcggat water, which flows south to St. Mary's Loch ; other feeders of the Yarrow and Glengaber. There are traces of prospecting and digging in former days in Mcggat water valley, similar to those which occur in Leadhills. In the British Museum, Lindsay saw two specimens of Twccddalc gold, the one nuggety, and in quartz, a very rich sample, the other granular rather than nuggety. Griffin prospected St. Mary's Loch district, and found gold in dust or granules everywhere. 3. Head-waters of the Annan, Mofifatdale ; streams falling into Moffat water; Hartfell range, about Dobbs Linn, several small finds of gold were made in the summer of 1863, and one small nugget, weighing about 6 gr., was exhibited in Mofiat {Scotsman, Aug. 10, 1863). Speaking in greater detail of the Fifeshire gold-diggings of 1852, Dr. Lauder Lindsay says the Lomond gold-digging mania occurred in May 1852, and lasted about a month. There was a daily average of 300 diggers — at least 5000 to 6000 in all. Many of them were coal and iron miners, who were earning 1 5 j. per week or upwards, and who had thrown up their employment to embark in the alluring lottery of gold-seeking. The excitement extended over an area of 20 miles, including the opposite shores of the Forth and Tay. The origin of the mania was the statement of a convict, a native of Kinnesswood, who wrote from Australia to the friends he had in the Kinross-shire village, that he had often seen gold at home in the lime-quarries above Kinnesswood, in the Bishop's Hill, similar to what was being dug in Australia. At this parti- cular time, the public mind was in a condition of great excitement, pro- duced by the brilliant auriferous discoveries in California in 1847, inten- sified and revivified by the no less splendid results of gold-digging in Australia in Sept. 1851 ; added to which, there were certain floating local popular traditions or proverbs which gave a spurious weight or significance to the convict's rash and inconsiderate assertion. The centre of attraction to the Fifeshire diggers — the chief scene of their labours — appears to have been a quany of Carboniferous limestone, known in the district as the Clattering, or Clattering Well. This quarry is situated right above the village, and north-west of Kinnesswood in Kinross-shire, " about a gun-shot back from the brow of the Bishop's Hill," near its summit. Its locality is on the south base of the West Lomond Hill, overlooking Loch Leven. Superjacent to the limestone, which is richly fossiliferous, is a bed of ochre, abounding in globular masses of iron- 736 GEOURAPHICAL DISTRIDUTION. pyrites, known to the quarrymen as " fairy balls," from the size of a fist to that of a man's head. Incredible as it may appear, these iron-pyrites were dug out and carried away in large quantities in the mistaken belief that they were lumps of gold. Alluding to a sample of Sutherlandshire gold found at Kildonan, Dr. Lauder Lindsay compared it with (i) those of many hundred speci- mens of native gold which he had opportunity of examining from all the principal auriferous countries of the world, of whose characters he made memoranda at the time, and (2) with those of the gold specimens in his private cabinet, minerals from (a) New Zealand, (6) Nova Scotia, and (t) Scotland (Lcadhills) ; and, as the result of the comparative examina- tion, states his opinion that the Kildonan gold is of average quality, and that in particular, it so closely resembles gold he brought from the famous Gabriel's gully, in Otago, New Zealand, in 1862, that it is indis- tinguishable therefrom by the eye, even aided by the lens. It may be safely accepted as proved, he says, that the Sutherland gold now being obtained is of excellent quality. What has yet to be proved is the amount in which it occurs ; and this can be done only by experienced gold-miners — by shaft-sinking and quartz-crushing — by co-operation of labour and investment of capital. The Kildonan gold he has seen is mostly in the form of flattened nuggets, of small size, smaller than those in his cabinet from Leadhills. The size of individual nuggets is of little consequence, compared with the total amount distributed in drifts or quartzites ; for in the latter, gold may be present in amount that will pay extraction when it is, nevertheless, invisible to the naked eye. A specimen of gold, consisting of " dust " and " grains," from the Kildonan Burn, Sutherland, examined by David Forbes, gave the following results of two separate analyses : — Gold 81 -M Silver 18-45 Silica (quartz) . . 0*44 lOO'OO 81-27 18-47 0-26 ICWOO The largest particle weighed 4* 6 troy gr. A specimen of alluvial gold, in " grains," procured by Alexr. Grigor, from the estuarine mud of the river Molyneux, Otago, New Zealand, bore a very great resemblance to the Kildonan gold. P. G. Wilson says (Feb. 1869), that the gold which has yet been found is in small grains. A few nuggets have occurred weighing i, 2, and 3 dwt., and one has been got of 5 dwt. ; but the largest quantity is in dust, with pretty much magnetic-iron dust. According to Thost (i860), at Loch Earn Head, several galena- veins, of inferior importance, have been discovered in a stratum of calcareous schist. Their outcrop is overlain by gossan, in which particles of native EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 737 gold appear to have been found. Certain it is that arsenical pyrites, which was at one time met with as an accessory mineral, contained 6 oz. of gold per ton. William Cameron (1870), pointing out the chief geological features of the Sutherlandshire gold-fields, says that, with the exception of certain strips and peaks of Old Red Sandstone, large-grained granite, and Oolite, the whole of the country immediately surrounding the diggings consists of metamorphic Lower Silurian rocks. No discovery of gold in situ has yet been achieved, so that the question as to what is the true matrix of the Sutherland gold is somewhat perplexing, and is exciting amongst geologists a considerable degree of interest. The drifts in which it is found are various, fine-grained gold and even small nuggets having been obtained in various strata, from the bed-rock to the roots of the heather. It exists in bands of black ferruginous drift, almost of the nature of cement, containing washed boulders of gneiss, granite, and schists. There are occasionally two distinct bands of this drift, with intervening beds of sand, drift, or felspathic clay, the lower one, which is always on the bed-rock, containing very large unwieldy boulders. Gold was found in some half-dozen of the tributaries flowing into the UUie from the north. Mining operations, however, had been con- fined chiefly to the Kildonan, the Suisgill, and the Torrish, — the i.vro former being the more favourite grounds. Respecting the origin of the gold. Sir Roderick Murchison takes us to the grand central plateau of Sutherland, whilst Campbell of Islay, who has written a pamphlet on the subject, hesitates whether to travel a little farther, and carry us to Lapland and the Polar regions. Sir Roderick attributes the gold to the abrasion of the granites and metamorphic Lower Silurian rocks, in the interior, which have been carried by glacial action down the E. slopes of Sutherland and deposited in straths and valleys, such as those of the UUie and its burns, the Kildonan, Suisgill, Torrish, &c. ; whilst Campbell points to the fact of gold being found in Unst in Shetland, and in river- drifts in Scandinavia and Lapland, — and, referring to data collected by himself and others respecting the curves of the glacial flow, suggests the possibility of the gold being brought by icebergs and glaciers from these Boreal regions. The Rev. Mr. Joass is inclined to infer that the granite may yet be found to be the matrix of the gold, and remarks that the material in which granular gold occurs, namely, the detritus, is not neces- sarily far travelled, for it includes boulders of apparently local origin. Cameron, whilst admitting all conclusions as yet to be more or less conjectural, is inclined to agree with Joass in ascribing the gold to a local origin, and probably to a granite matrix. With respect to the question as to whether the Sutherland gold-fields would pay to work, Cameron 3 B 738 GKOGKAnilCAl, DISTKIDUTION. says, upon the whole, whilst doubting the desirability of these fields for individual labour, he was disposed to believe that with united enterprise and combined labour and capital, and with systematic and economical working, which would be vastly aided by the great natural advantages of the country, satisfactory results would be obtained. Prof Ileddle (1880), in dealing with the geognosy and mineralogy of Scotland, having himself no means of sifting from the many reports in newspapers the true from the false as regards the finding of gold in the streams of Caithness, applied to Dr. Joass, of Golspie, and found that his experience was confined to an unsuccessful search in the Duke of Portland's land, and in the neighbourhood of the Scarabins, while he indicates reasons for receiving with caution and doubt all reported finds. Prof. Heddle then wrote to Dr. Lauder Lindsay, who has long taken an enthusiastic interest in the matter, and from him received the following list of reputed finds according to the newspapers of 1869-70, especially the Northern Ensign (Wick), in March and April, 1869 : — 1. In the beds, over the banks of the Beriedele water, throughout its course, down to the sea-beach. 2. In the Ord Burn, "in fair paying quantities." 3. In the Ansdalc Burn, in fair paying quantities. 4. On the Braemore estate (Sir Robert Anstruther's), through which the Beriedele flows. 5. On the Langwell estate, on the flanks of the Scarabin Hills, by Gilchrist, the originator of the Kildonan diggings of 1869. 6. In the Langwell water. 7. In the Dunbeath water, and 8. In the Burn of Hasten 9. In the Lathcrnwheel Burn. 10. Various localities, the parish of Lathern : " existence proven." 11. In the Thurso river, at various points, such as Weydale, Acharvadale, Halkirk, the Glut. 1 2. In streams rising on Braemore. 13. In Strathmore, on Sir J. G. T. Sinclair's property. Special references to the Caithness gold-localities are to be found in the Northern Ensign of Feb, 4th, March 4th and 2Sth, and April ist, 15th, and 22nd, all 1869. In Nov. 1870, Sir J. G. T. Sinclair wrote to the Northern Ensign, about gold that had been found on his property at Strathmore. Several other newspaper correspondents describe the Caithness gold, comparing it with that of Kildonan ; but they do not give their names, so that the only " authentics " that can be cited in connection with Caithness gold are Gilchrist and Sinclair. Dr. Lindsay thus reduces the " authentics " to two, and, as it is very r.ukorK : unitf.d kingdom. 739 improbable that Sir J. G. T. Sinclair personally found or even sought for gold, it is probable that the " find " was of the same character as the other "newspaper" ones. So that the flanks of the Scarabins would seem to stand as the only indubitable Caithness locality. French (i8So) says that the alluvium over an area of about 50 sq. miles around Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, is auriferous. In many places, the precious metal may be rendered visible after 15 or 20 minutes' washing with the primitive wooden trough employed by the local gold-seekers. Frequently nuggets have been found weighing from i to 4 or 5 dwt., and these are often either contained in pieces of loose quartz, or have quartz fragments attached to them ; there are therefore good reasons to believe that the gold found in the stratum of red clay lying immediately above the rock has been derived from the numerous quartz-veins which traverse the district. It is a rather remarkable feature of the Leadhills district that the lead and gold-bearing ground is bounded on four sides by particular forms of silica. On the S. boundary, Lydian stone occurs in great abundance. On the N., at Abington, red jasper prevails ; towards Crawfordjohn, on the W., agates and cornelians are found, — these arc sometimes of great beauty ; and on the E., near where a specimen of pasty silica was found, chalcedony is often met with. Wales. — According to Ansted, there can be little doubt that gold has been obtained in former times by washing the sands of several of the rivers that come down from the slate rocks in part of Wales. The Romans got gold from quartz lumps in slaty rocks at South Gogofan, about 10 miles W. of Llandovery. They also appear to have ground down the iron-pyrites of the same district, which they afterwards washed for gold. But it was not until 1843 that the Cwmheisian mines near Dolgelly, in Merionethshire, were first noticed by Arthur Dean, as con- taining something like a complete system of auriferous veins. An account of this discovery was communicated at the meeting of the British Association at York, in 1844. Since then, the mines have been partially worked. The Mowddach Valley and some of its small tribu- taries close to the town of Dolgelly, contain the chief mines that have been found to possess any quantity of gold. The metal occurs as usual in a native state, but is found in veins and flukany cross-courses, parallel and at right angles to the porphyry range, which here runs N. and S. through Merionethshire. The nearest fossiliferous rocks are the Lingula-beds of the Lower Silurian series, and the veins usually occur in underlying metamorphic schists. The matrix of the veins is quartzy, and the associated minerals are either galena and blende, or iron- and copper- pyrites. In addition to the gold in the vein-stone, minuLc particles are disseminated through the pyrites. Ansted noticed particularly that ;,r tt *'i 740 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. wherever any gold was present in veins, more or less magnesian mineral (generally chlorite or steatite) is found in the immediate vicinity. At the time of his visit, one of the strings of gold-bearing quartz in chloritic schist was opened, and he obtained from a few =.»ecimens of quartz, struck off whilst he was underground, very distinct threads and grains of gold, the general yield of the small quantity thus removed being at the rate of 60 oz. of gold to the ton of matrix. Further researches, however, failed to discover any q aantity worth working. At Clogau, not very far off, other auriferous specimens, far richer, were obtained a year or two after his visit. Generally, it may be said that the gold-districts of Wales are limited to those places where the rocks are not only schistose but chloritic or steatic. They present a very marked resemblance to those of other countries where gold occurs more abundantly, but more especially to those of the S.E. states of N.America, where almost all the indications of the associated rocks and minerals are precisely similar. No doubt in former times, when nearly all the rivers of Western Europe brought down appreciable quantities of gold, or at least when the accumulations of ages were still untouched, the Welsh streams, as well as the German, French, and Spanish rivers, were rich in golden sands. These have long since been removed, and in Ansted's opinion, " at the present price of labour, and with the extreme irregularity of distribution that seems always to obtain wher-; native metal exists, it is almost a hopeless chance to expect profit from mining or reducing establish- ments on a large scale." The gold-bearing district of Merionethshire, lying between Dolgelly and the Mcelwyn and Manod range, N. of Festiniog, was made the subject of a long report by Ramsay, in 1854, from which the following notes are taken. N. and W. of the lower part of the river Mov.'ddach, lie the lower portion of the Lingula-flags and the Cambrian rocks. The latter consist of the coarse, thick-bedded, grccni^h-grey grits of Barmouth and Harlech. These grits are overlaid by that part of the Lower Silurian rocks known as the Lingula-flags, which here consist mostly of blue slaty beds, generally more or less arenaceous, and partly inierstratified with courses of sandstone. Both Cambrian and Silurian rocks have been penetrated by numerous greenstone-dj'kes. Many of them are of a light-grey colour and highly calcareous. Others assume the colour and texture of ordinary greenstone. Some of them are magnetic. Among the Cambrian sandstones, they run in all directions, sometimes with, but more generally across, the strike. In the Silurian region, they usually run more or less parallel with the lines of bedding. In the hard and solid Cambrian sandstones, the fractures into which they were injected were capricious and irregular ; while in the Silurian shales, they have EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 741 more frequently been intruded between the beds. Some of them fill cracks which pass into lines of lode. The country in which the Dol-y-frwynogr mine lies is interesting. A mass of very felspathic greenstone here breaks through a low part of the Lingula-beds. Three of the lodes yielding copper lie on its E. slopes ; and a very little gold was detected in one of tnem, in the year 1836, by O'Neil. For 4 or 5 miles N. of this area, several other lodes occur in the Lingula-flags and their associated traps, on the banks of the Mowd- dach and the Afon-wen. The Cv^mbrian grits, dipping E. at angles varying from 40° to 60°, are overlaid conformably by slaty beds of the Lingula-flags, traversed by greenstone dykes on the hills immediately N. of Pigswcli. They are succeeded by a mass of intrusive greenstone, which is bounded on the N. by an E. and W. fault and lode on the N. part of Moel-Hafod-Owen. From this point, the greciistone passes S., with 2 interruptions, by Tyn-y-Ben-rhos to Moel Cynwch, about 2 miles farther S. E. of this greenstone are a set oi rocks which possess a very peculiar Hthological character, and which occur very sparingly elsewhere, either among the Lingula-flags or in any other geological area in Wales. It is in a lode traversing this " country " that the most important of the gold discoverie? has been made. The rock comi.iences at what may be called the S.W. angle of Moel-Hafod-Owen, above Buarth. The same E. and W. fault that bounds the greenstone, limits it on the N. A line of fault drawn S. thence to where the brooks join, nearly opposite Dolaii, forms its E. boundary so far. Thence, the Afon-wen forms, its boundary for nearly i^ mile S. It is not improbable that this may also be a continuation of the same line of fault. The boundary-line then crosses the strea.n, and still passes S. to the ground that lies between Cefn- mawr, and the precipitous rocks that overhang Mowddach above Dol-y- clochydd. The rock itself is one of those problematical masses to which it is difficult to give a definite name. In some places it is so hard and massive, that a hand-specimen is difficult to distinguish from some of the felspathic trap-, of the neighbouring country. Even then, how- ever, it is more or less flaky, and constantly passes into a talcose rock, which in places at the surface and in the lodes decomposes into a kind of talcose unctuous clay. In many places, it graduates in the line of strike into ordinary slaty rocks, which then become largely interstratified with it. As it runs S. it becomes more and more slaty and sandy, and passes by degrees into rocks possessing all the characters of the Lingula-flags of the district. On the E., it is bounded by slaty Lingula-flags, on which rests the greenstone mass of RhobcU-Fawr. Several lodes occur in this country in the neighbourhood of Dol-y-frwynog and Cwm Eison. The gold at Cwm Eisen was discovered in 1843, by Arth r Dean. It has been several times worked, but never with a steady prolit. The gold is m i]' I: i ■ ' M -m i rrSr-Si J|f!L mm 11 JL 742 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. i' found in a branching lode containing lead. Its principal branch runs N.E., and is mostly composed of exceedingly hard quartz, which crosses the river ab-)ut i mile above Rhaiadr Mowddach. When Ramsay inspected the geology of this country in the spring of 1853, the most remarkable and promising lode was the new gold-lode at Dol-y-frwynog. It runs about W.N.W. and E.S.E. in the low ground S. of Moel-Hafod-0 ven on the E. watershed. It is principally com- posed of a white saccharoid quartz, irregularly traversed by numerous small loose joints. Chlorite, decomposing talcose matter, and pink carbonate of lime are intermingled with it. In parts the quartz assumes a semi-granulated aspect, profusely intermingled with soft, unctuous, decomposing talc. It is largely charged with iron-pyrites. As a rule, the substance of the lode is easily shivered into fragments, a great advantage both in the original working of the lode and in subsequent operations. On examining a heap of quirtz which lay at the mouth of the shaft, and turning over a few pieces, Ramsay readily saw with the naked eye, gold in small flakes and grains, irregularly disscraiPi ted through the quartz. In a more select heap of quartz, on all i\j pu . , it was distinctly visible to the unassisted eye ; and one mass in j-.;xitiL.aiar, heavier than a strong man could lift, was literally spangled all across its surfaces with rich gliit'iring gold. Gold has also been detected by Byers in the matrix of th<; copper-bearing lodes about a mile farther S., and in the West Dol-y-frwynog lode these occur in the same talcose rock. On the banks of Afon-wen, about a mile above the bridge, are some ruins of buildings, and below them, close to the river, the remains of charcoal-ashes and bits of bones, mostly covered with herbage. This place has a very singular, and, in conjunction with the gold discoveries, a very significant name, which it has maintained from time immemorial, expressive of gold having been melted or worked there. This name, Merddyn Coch'r aur, signif^js "tlie ruini. of red gold." The t/adition is, that the Romans formerly worked gold there. Ramsay states on the authority of Byers, that in several spots in this neighbourhood where quartz-lodes occur, associated with copper, blende, lead, and talc, there gold has been found, instances of which he cites as occurring at Tyn-y-llwyn, near Moel Ispri, and other localities, prin- cipally in the Lingula-flags between Tyn-y-groes and the Mowddach, towards Barmouth, all in the area containing lead- and copper-lodes. It is also stated that gold has been detected in several other places N. of Cwm Eisen ; as, for instance, at Pcnmacn, and at Gelli-gain, about 3 miles S.S.E. of Trawsfynydd ; also in the Newborough mine, in an E. and W. lode immediately N.E. of Manod, and on the S. side cf Moel wyn, in blende and gossan. The whole of these lie either in the Lingula- EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 743 flags or in the beds immediately adjoining above or below ; and they lend some additional evidence to the views that have often been promulgated by Sir Roderick Murchison. Whether all the reports in circulation of the occurrence of gold be actually true or not, it is at all events a fact that at Dol-y-frwynog it has been found in an unusual quantity, and also that its existence is certain in various other places. If in the lodes a considerable amount be scattered through the country, then Ramsay would expect that gold would be detected by washing the marine drift that rises on the moun- tains of North Wales to a height of over 2000 ft. In this drift it might in places be somewhat concentrated, partly by an ancient natural process of sea-shore washing, and partly by the more modern action of rivers, as in the case of the stream-tin of Cornwall, and of the gold in the superficial deposits of the Ural, of Australia, of California, and in those of Canada, some years ago discovered by Logan. Gold, in appreciable quantities, was, indeed, found by washing in the bed of the Mowd- dach, in the summer of 1852, by the Hon. Fred. Waipole and Sir Augustus Webster. Ramsay thinks it probable that in this river attempts might probably be most successful immediately bclov/ the con- fluence of the Mowddach with Afon-wen, and in places in the bed of the Wen, on the E. and S. watershed of the range of hills that runs from Tyn-y-Ben-rhos N. towards Moel-Hafod-Owen. In favourable apots, it might be well worth the pains to wash the detritus on the Mowddach between Dol-fawr and Gelli-gamlyn, and in the bed of the Wen from thence to Dol-y-frwynog. This opinion is founded on the fact that the talcose rocks which the Dol-y-frwynog lode traverses lie on the E. watershed of the above-mentioned range ; and, if gold lie in them elsewhere in any parallel quantity between Moel-Hafod-Owen and the lower part of the Llanfachreth valley, then it might be expected in the detritus in the bed of the stream oi the Dolan and the Gelli-gamlyn, nearly opposite to which, streams that traverse the talcose rocks empty themselves into the Mowddach. Readwin observes that gold has been found in the mines known as Vigra, Clogau, Caegwian, Wellington, Victoria, Lachfraith, Cambrian, Prince of Wales, West Prince of Wales, Glasdin, Tyddyng-wladis, Dol-y-frwynog, North Dol-y-frwynog, Cwmheisian, Bcrthllwyd, and Cacr- wernog. He himself found gold in quartz, carbonate of lime, slate, chlorite-schist, blende, galena, copper-pyrites, iron-pyrites, tctradymite, and bismuthine ; and of its occasional occurrence in extraordinary rich- ness in the Clogau, Cambrian, and Dol-y-frwynog mines, he possesses remarkable proofs. To his own knowledge, so recently as 1856, as much as 14^ oz. of gold were obtained from 100 lb. weight of quartz, taken from the Clogau mine, and many samples of 141b. weight from •f \i 744 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. the Clogau and Cambrian mines have yielded in the proportion of I to 10 oz. to the ton of quartz. Following is a statement of the return of gold from the Clogau mine : — 1861. Ore crushed. Pure Gold. i86a. Ore crushed. Pure Gold. January February March April May June July August September . . tons cwt. 2 28 Hi 40 i8i 38 5 24 18 32 4 28 2 13 6 61 2 S4 18 S8 SJ 75 4 02. 63 I89J i6if i8ii 142J 2571 144! 304 358i 363 546 January February .. March April May June Total .. .. tons cwt. S3 7 67 IS 71 i8 62 13 88 14 72 13 oz. 400 463 S29i S66i 759 641 417 tons. 3360 October November .. December .. 1863 .. 2886 oz., value io,8i6/. I7f. Total . . .. 455 tons. 2884 1878 •■ 697 oz 45 oz. 16 dwt. V, i said to have been got from a parcel weighing less than I ton. Alluvial gold is found in the river Mowddach, near Dolgelly, from Rhaiadr Mowddach down to Cummer Abbey — a distance of fully 6 miles — gradually becoming less coarse as the river descends. According to David Forbes, the Clogau lode occurs in the Lower Silurian Lingula-beds, close to their junction with the Cambrian strata of the Geological Survey; it runs about 18° N. of E. and dips at an angle of 88° to S., cutting through both fossiliferous strata and the intruded diabases, which are described as greenstones in the Survey ; and it is, consequently, of later geological age than both these rocks, and is not improbably yojnger than the Silurian formation as a whole. The explorations appear to indicate that the lode is more auriferous at the parts where it cuts through the Lingula-beds, with their accompanying diabases, than at greater depth where it traverses the Cambrian grits. Among the a*, -essory minerals found in the lode are tetradymite, iron- pyrites, chalco-pyrite, galena, chlorite, calcite, dolomite, chalybite, and heavy spar, which, as well as the gold, are distributed very irregularly in the quartz. When the quartz contains calcite, dolomite, and chalybite, or includes fragments of neighbouring clay-slate, it is regarded as likely to be more auriferous than when the lode consists of quartz only. When isolated fragments of the slate are found in the quartz of the lode, the gold and other metallic minerals are commonly found adhering to, or ciystallizing on their under surfaces, which may have arrested these minerals in the act of being carried into lode-fissures from below with the stream of liquid quartz. The specific gravity of one specimen of gold EUROPE : UNITED KINGDOM. 745 was found to be 17*26, and 2 analyses showed the percentage com- position of gold 90, silver 9*25, the remainder being quartz. Another alloy, lighter in colour and probably richer in silver, is sometimes met with in the lode. A specimen of the dust washed from the bed of the Mowddach near Gwynfynydd, 8 miles from Dolgelly, contained small, flattened, elongated spangles of gold, the largest having the size of a pin's head, accompanied by abundance of fine, black sand, supposed to be magnetite, but found to be titanoferrite, together with some small particles of quartz, slate rock, mica, iron-pyrites, and galena. The gold was found to have a specific gravity of 1 5 * 79, and the following composition : gold, 84 ' 89 ; silver, 13*99 ; iron, 0*34; and quartz, o 43. Several spangles had a peculiarly rich yellow colour, due to a thin film of sesquioxide of iron adhering to their surface. ( 746 ) CHAPTER II. n |i j I ' GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE AND MINERALOGICAL ASSOCIATION. It is probably no exaggeration to say that preconceived notions and hasty theories concerning the formation and geological age of gold have done more to retard the gold-mining industry than to advance it, and that many of the most important discoveries of recent years have been in direct opposition to the dicta of the greatest authorities. This, indeed, is hardly surprising when we reflect what a very small proportion of the earth's crust has ever been examined at all, and observe the absence of uniformity among geologists even in the names bestowed upon the rocks that have been examined. In the belief that our knowledge is still quite inadequate to account satisfactorily for the manner in which metalliferous veins are formed, and to define the laws which govern their formation, no attempt will be made in this volume to promulgate any new theory on the subject, nor to give precedence to any one in particular of the existing theories. The half-dozen most recent opinions of men best entitled to discuss the question will be concisely stated, so far as they deal especially with gold ; and this will be followed by a full yet simple categorical statement of the geological formations in which gold has been found, incorporating all details of scientific or industrial value ; as well as with a similu.' account of the various mineral associates of gold, especially with a view to elucidating the character of the association. It is believed that by thus confining remarks to a clear arrangement of ascertained facts, this chapter will be found much more valuable for purposes of reference, and may form a foundation on which to build other facts as acquired, and thus pave the way for future theories and deductions. Origin and Formation. The first notable recent attempt to explain the origin of auriferous quartz veins was Henry Rosales' prizc-cssay, written for the Victorian Government, in 1 860. It is substantially as follows : — "Auriferous quartz lodes are unlike most other lodes, which are 'crevices more or less vertical, caused by contraction during drying, or by metamorphism, or by mechanical disturbance of a rock, this crevice having been subsequently filled up.' They are in their origin anterior to ORIGIN AND FORMATION, 747 all those forces, some of which accompanied the eruption of granitic rocks, and which have been thoughtlessly applied by some to explain the origin of quartz lodes. The fact that the quartz lodes are of an earlier date than the granite, forces a further investigation of the subject to a remote period of the earth's history, when the granitic rocks, not yet having made their appearance, tl'e Cambro-Silurian beds were still undisturbed in their original horizontal position. The Cambro-Silurian n system of Australia presents a scries of coarse- and fine-grained sand- stone, containing few marks of slaty structure ; slaty sandstone of-^ different colours, alternating with bands of slate of perfect cleavage, also of^ different colours, but generally exhibiting a greenish hue, and white when^ decomposed. Organic remains seem to be of rare occurrence in this'/ ^ formation. This far and widely spread Palaeozoic series of rocks — the / 'i waste and refuse of the primitive cooling crust of the earth's surface,/^ was deposited slowly, gradually, and without interruption in horizontal/^ beds, which thus attained the enormous thickness they now present^ during that protracted period, when peculiar cosmic and telluric agencicsyj all as yet singularly averse to organic life, were at work. While, how-/ ever, there are no apparent signs of mechanical disturbances during the long period that elapsed from the cooling of the earth's surface to t'-^.e deposition of the Silurian and Cambrian systems, it is to be presumes that the internal igneous activity of the earth's crust was in full force, so that on the inner side of it, in obedience to the laws of specific gravity, chemical attraction, and centrifugal force, a great segregation of silica in^ a molten state took place. This molten silica continually accumulating,^ spreading and pressing against the horizontal Cambro-Silurian beds / during a long period, at length forced its way through the superin-' cumbent strata in all directions ; and it is abundantly evident, under the' conditions of this force and the resistance offered to its action, that the line it would and must choose would be along any continuous and slightly inclined diagonal, at times crossing the strata of the schists, though / generally preferring to develop itself and egress between the cleavage /i planes and dividing seams of the different schistose beds. Thus were // formed in a more or less horizontal position, in all directions, innumer- '/ able flakes and extensive sheets of quartz rock, apparently interstratifi-// cations as regards their strike, but only apparently such, for they /; distinctly traverse and intersect the underlie of the slate rocks, being f, ■ thicker between the schistose planes, and narrower when intersecting/' them. From the quartz rock started quartz veins, some (/3) running \ almost parallel with, and others (7) perpendicular to its position, while \ other veins (8) shot out in capricious planes and directions. These veins or leaders all thin and run out in comparatively short distances, especially such veins as cut across the slates at the line of the greatest HP m 748 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. n i' / resistance. Simultaneously with the upheaval by the granitic rocks of the Cambro-Silurian slates in average meridional line, the approximately horizontal main quartz belts were upheaved and placed on edge along with the schist strata by this general disturbance. It is in consequence of this change that the quartz belts are apparently interstratified, while in reality, they are merely intersecting. The positions having been altered, what formerly was or approached the horizontal, became perpen- dicular, and vice versd, so that horizontal sheets of quartz reefs which had been forced between the schistose cleavages and different strata, appeared as almost perpendicular quartz lodes, their strike being con- formable to the general meridional bearing of the schist, and the coin- cident line of upheaval, their underlie intersecting that of the slates to the E. or to the W., the veins (/S) which ran parallel, following the main course of the quartz rock, the perpendicular veins (7) becoming hori- zontal or flat, while the other veins (8) would take their respective analogous positions. In the same manner, the horizontal sheets of quartz rock, when upheaved in the medial line of action, would show along their approximate meridional line a varying shoot to the N. or to the S. ; a N.E, or N.W. horizontal development of quartz rock would thus necessarily, when upheaved, have its shoot northerly, while a S.E. or S.W. stretch would present a southerly shoot, and a lateral upheaval would, of course, reverse the above order. In quartz lodes where there is no noticeable or well-defined shoot in either direction, it may be inferred that their original development was indifferently either N., S., E., or W. ; and this is precisely the appearance which auriferous quartz lodes present in nature to the miner and geologist ; they form innumer- able more or less perpendicular quartz dykes and extensive quartz rock belts which strike, but with few exceptions, in an approximate meridional line, thus disclosing to view, on a gigantic scale, that remarkable parallelism which, after all, is but a natural feature necessarily consequent on the almost unvarying strike above alluded to. These auriferous quartz lodes intersect the strata of the slate rocks, and are cased with walls of slate and sandstone ; they have quartz veins issuing from Ih.^m in various directions across the country as leaders, flat veins, &c. They sometimes form themselves into irregular masses of veins, at other times they appear as massive bodies of quartz rock which dwindle into strings that serve as the connecting links with some other quartz blocks. These facts go to show that the quartz lodes when forcing their egress often disturbed, fissured, and rent the enclosing schists, the openings so effected being instantly filled by the quartz stone, thus giving rise to those capricious irregular or zigzag shapes vulgarly termed E. and W. veins, &c., which are frequently met with in underground workings. "But there are other than the cosmic and geological conditions ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 749 tr mentioned which prevailed at the time of the origin of quartz lodes, and the ' also equally indicate the plutonic character of this dyke formation. ,'' Under this head is to be reckoned the occurrence of felspar in quartz** veins, for it is an established scientific fact that mica, felspar, and '" amphibole or augite, are all minerals none of which can be formed apart ♦'" from igneo-chemical action. This single fact would alone go far to * indicate the originally molten state of the silica of quartz lodes. ^ Another argument to the same end may be drawn from the fact that the auriferous quartz lodes have exercised a manifest metamorphic action on the adjacent walls or casing ; they have done so partly in a mineralo- gical sense, but generally there has been a metamorphic alteration of the rock. Hence it is that in the immediate contact of the quartz lodes the schist or fragments of it are generally more or less micaceous or altered into their laminae of mica, crystalline laminae of nacrit or of chlorite, which has invariably tinged the adjoining quartz with a green colour. Among these minerals is one at times disintegrated which shows the cleavage of orthoclase. There are but few minerals found at the contact of the schist and quartz rocks. This, however, is only natural, for the interchanging rocks were of simple chemical composition. The meta- morphic influence exercised by the quartz rocks on the bordering strata is very striking, though it is not easy to distinguish it all over them ; it is pre-eminent in the mining district of Tarrangower, where all the quartz lodes are separately checked and walled by distinct accompanying strata of dark siliceous schist or Lydian stone, evidently slate and sandstone schists hardened by the metamorphic action of the quartz lodes, in the same manner as when acted on by igneous or volcanic rocks, apparently changing the physical conditions without altering the chemical quantities. This metamorphic action is observable in the Tarrangower district for many miles. In the Bendigo district, the metamorphic action is also to be seen, quartz rock belts being often carried in between hard fer- ruginous schists which, however, are generally disintegrated, and do not therefore present any very prominent metamorphic features. In the Ballarat district, the metamorphic action of the quartz lodes may also be detected, although the rocks there are even more disintegrated than at Bendigo ; it is not very easy, therefore, to distinguish their mineralogical composition with any tolerable degree of accuracy. The hard, compact, partially disintegrated strata of Ballarat, which separate the quartz belts from each other, may be considered to correspond geologically with the metamorphic siliceous slate of Tarrangower. The same metamorphic action can be traced throughout the districts of Amherst, Avoca, Cres- wick, &c. Another reason for the igneous origin of the auriferous quartz lodes consists in the mechanical disturbance caused by the protrusion of the quartz lodes themselves. It is to be constantly observed that the 750 GEOLOGY AND MINEKALOGV. m ■ strata of the schistose rocks are more or less contorted — that their underlie is variable to the E. or to the W. — that fragments of them arc entangled in and metamorphosed by the quartz lodes, and that in con- sequence the adjacent ' country,' to use a mining expression, is frequently broken up into fragments, forming a breccia of commingled slate and sandstone, whilst the quartz lodes and veins traverse the same country intact and unbroken. The inevitable inference is that the disturbance was caused by the forcible protrusion of the quartz lodes. From the above facts and deductions, it can therefore be maintained that the gangue of the auriferous quartz lodes is of igneous origin, and not the result of the gradual deposition of quartz from a siliceous solution. In addition to the positive arguments already adduced, which base them- selves on geological observations, there are also negative ones, the result of scientific deductions, which lead to the same conclusion. Starting from the established fact that silica is soluble in water and watery vapour, during its separation from alkalies, the first considerations which present themselves are in reference to the supply of the great quantity of alkaline silicates, which at that time could only be of a felspathic nature. How under the then existing circumstances could the enormous quantities of water or water-vapours, requisite to dissolve the immense mass of quartz which was to form the innumerable quartz lodes now existing, continuously find their way into the bowels of the earth ? The number of these quartz lodes could hardly be attributed to aqueous agency, as a solution contains no intrinsic forcing power, and could there- fore have but comparatively few outlets. More than this, the felspathic rocks having been deprived of their alkaline silicates to form silica, there would remain an immense bulk of clay, and the disposal of this residuary mass is not accounted for in any way. It is another weighty consideration also, that the formation of quartz iodes by the deposition of silica, from an aqueous solution, would necessarily involve the production of hydrous silicates, zeolites, hyalite, opal, &c., which are always present in the deposits made by siliceous thermal springs, as in the ' geysers ' in Ice- land, and indeed in all volcanic eruptions in which there were aqueous vapours : it is so in basalt, &c. These are all minerals which authenticate the presence of water-vapours at the time of their formation, and are to be found in the gangue of many metalliferous lodes, as at Andreasberg ; Stronsian, in Scotland ; Ciclowa, near Oravicza, in the Bannat ; Huelgoet, in Brittany; Kongsberg, in Norway, &c. The quartz lodes of this country show a character quite distinct from that just now referred to ; for nowhere are the hydrous silicates, or the other minerals named, to be detected in them ; and it is therefore to be inferred that their non- existence demonstrates the impossibility of the origin of quartz lodes being due to an aqueous solution. j-aJrryi^ ORIGIN AND FOKM^'^ION, 75' "The next question is as to the metalliferous character of the quartz lodes. There are but few metals or metallic minerals to be found in them : they are gold, iron, and arsenical pyrites, the last two in some instances in great quantities ; copper-pyrites, zinc-blende, galena, molyb- denite, pharmacosidcrite, hematite or glaskopf, and malachite ; the last three, however, are oxygenated, and are therefore to be looked on only as minerals of secondary formation, the result of the disintegration of the primitive minerals, which are arseniurets and sulphu'-ets. "These minerals r ascended simultaneously with the quartz ;^nd the contemporaneous /} formation of the quartz gangue, arseniurets, and sulphurets implies , -the forcing up of these minerals in a sublimated state. The heat of the ■t-A^^rru /f5i<:^ijjolten siHca would necessarily'volatllize the gold as a vapour of purple 7' ^ decomposed, at a much less temperature than gold, air being excluded. They are found decomposed only near the surface. Thus the p iTrplc'fume s^o f metal! Fc gold and sublimated vapours ''• of the arseniurets and sulphurets of other metals, entering the quartz^ gangue, permeated it as gaseous vapours, forming veins, shoots and^ streaks, interlacing the gangue in the direction of its stretch, penetrating f- also into the recesses of the quartz veins and leaders, the gold being pre- *■ cipitated in gold-leaves, film, &c., on comparatively cold bodies, such as^ the sides of the lodes, or entangled pieces of schist, and accompanied by::^ the sulphurets and arseniurets. The sulphurets, arseniurets, and others volatile metals influenced the volatilization of gold, and in this way xt-f- was carried into and lodged in the crevices, joints, and sides of the lodes,/;; where it could not have reached unless accompanied by the sulphurets *■ and arseniurets. Hence we find gold in its metallic state mixed > mechanically with iron- and arsenical pyrites ; sometimes it is even per-'^i ceptible to the naked eye, at other times it is not ; and it is also founds? mixed with galena and zinc-blende. Indeed it is scarcely possible to findl^ either of these two minerals without at the same time finding gold in* contact with them. Of the minerals enumerated, iron- and arsenical ,5, pyrites are found in large quantities in the quartz gangue ; but copper- pyrites, galena, and zinc-blende, are seldom found, and then in insignifi- ^ J.'Luo. cant quantities. It is to be remarked that the affimty'of these diff'erenlf'^'f^fj^' *, minerals is according to the following scale — first, galena, then and\ (L.yrrvuA'C^^ almost if not quite equally, zinc-blende, arsenical pyrites comes next, and 1^ O/W'T^^ iron-pyrites follows ; and therefore gold is contained in the gangue along the shoot of these metalliferous ores ; but where the gangue is far apart from the metalliferous indications, it is generally barren. On this theory, it is not difficult to account for the flat leaders and the running out of the quartz stretches, now the caps of the reefs, being often richer than the rest of the gangue, or to account for the poverty or richness of lA* !.; p:*, 752 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. reefs, when they suddenly become contracted for a certain length, con- formable to the greater or less opportunity offered to the gold to pre- cipitate according to the physical circumstances, such as mechanical impediments, change of temperature, &c. " It has been attempted to explain the origin of gold as being the result of precipitation by iron from its solution, under the influence of electricity. Without entering into the chemical part of this theory, it may be sufficient to remark that the theory in question is one-sided, only accounting for the formation of gold, but not of the sulphurets which would be decomposed. Strictly, then, the simultaneous deposition of gold, sulphurets, and arseniurets, goes to prove chiefly that a very feeble electrical agency was at work ' 1 the formation of the quartz lodts. However, it was owing to the subsequent electrical influence, at first an electro-chemical one evolved by the disintegration of the primitive minerals, that even remote substances were decomposed, and that new combinations were formed — the secondary minerals, such as cube ore, pseudomorphous hematite, &c. ; their elements being transferred by electrical currents even through moist non-conducting solids, and in some cases during the process they were deprived of their chemical properties, or in other ways influenced by electric agency. It is to the action of these currents of electricity, whose intrication Fox has so well described, that the present^ partiallyor enti rely disintegrated state of the upper '-^vels of the quartz lodes is chiefly to be attributed. From the igneoi qfin of auriferous quartz lodes and metallic ores, it would be correctly . ..^ed that the gangue would exhibit a fiomogeneous" character ; this, however, Sn.'ry.a. Ift^ci. ^g j^Q^ always the case, although it is so generally. Where it is not so, it is no doubt due to the subsequent reopening of the gangue fissures, more recent protrusions of quartz rock having almost disconnected the more ancient veins, or else formed a new body in their midst, and so giving to the whole, for some distance, a flaky, laminated, or seamy appearance, which is greatly increased by entangled schistose fragments and veins of metallic substances, either decomposed or otherwise. But that order of deposition of different substances, corresponding with the faithful parallelism from the sides of the lode towards its centre, cannot be found, though it is a remarkable feature in many veins containing carbonates of lime, iron, &c. Werner first called attention to this striking arrangement, of which Weissenbach has given numerous examples, and which was evidently caused by the agency of water. Thence it is that \ the seamy appearance in some portion of the quartz lodes does not point ■ to the conclusion of an aqueous origin, for it is irregular, however apparently otherwise at first sight, as it does not fulfil the above-described conditions of_parallelism. In some districts the quartz lodes have been fhi^^9^riJ- ■ . disturbed by felspathic or igneous rocks, forming dykes of a more recent d^- trr- .ri <»''' ,• ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 753 J*"' epoch. Hitherto the ftlspathic dykes of Rendigoand Maryborough have '> received the most attention ; in the former district, they arc found at ^ times traversing the quartz lodes, following their strike, or faulting them \/}. and in other cises, separating their course from them, they crop out on thc-^ surface. They are greatly disintegrated, so much so that it is not possible ^ at present to give their mineralogical composition with accuracy, or to determine their geological age beyond what has been already advanced. They do not seem to contain zeolites, but appear to be intimately connected with the subsequent changes in quartz lodes, such as the re- opening of the quartz veins, and also the occurrence of large masses of arsenical pyrites, which, and it is a most interesting fact, as it shows the connection of this metalliferous ore with heat, contain a fclspathic -. mineral, as already stated. In the latter district, they have been called , « I 'quartZ'^porphyi% and seem to be of precisely the same character as those , J^*^;^^^^'^ of Bendigo; they disturb and are connected with the quartz lodes in a Jt'^ aH'^' similar manner, and are in a state of partial disintegration ; their minera- (>| ' logical character may be somewhat different, as their name — quartz- .^porphyry — indicates. It is, nevertheless, probable that both these igneous r :ks are contemporaneous. At Ballarat no igneous dykes have been yet observed, either on the surface or underground ; thus disturbances as 'faults' are of rare ocmrrence ; up to the present time, none of any consequence have been found, and it is a remarkable fact, also, that arsenical pyrites has not been found there, cither in small or large quantities, as at Bendigo, Tarrangower, &c. In the sandstone walls of a very few quartz lodes, the empty impressions of arseniurct of iron have been found. Would the absence of igneous dykes not seem to pre- suppose that the quartz lodes have not been reopened, and that, therefore, arseniuretted masses of auriferous character could not have been injected ? And might not the comparative poverty of the Ballarat quartz lodes be also thence presumed ? From what has been stated as to the theory of the igneous origin of auriferous quartz lodes, it may be logically deduced that the presence of sulphurets and arseniurets in a quartz lode is an empirical test of its comparative auriferous character ; that the appearance of igneous dykes in connection with quartz lodes, and contemporaneous with those mentioned, would give a more auriferous stamp to any district ; and that auriferous quartz lodes are to be expected, intersecting the schistose formation, at any depth. The last statement is borne out by the following considerations : first, it can be easily imagined, if the enormous abrasion be taken into account, how deep the present surface with its yet auriferous quartz lodes, must have been under that which existed before abrasion took place ; again, the granite which simultaneously upheaved the Cambro-Silurian and auriferous quartz rocks, disturbed the thick schistose formation with such gigantic force 3 C II jli lill 'ijjrt M« V *riiitn m 754 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. t " that it contorted and placed the beds on edge, thereby causing enormous convulsions and faults, on a scale too grand to be noticed by the miner ; and it is evident that in some instances strata of the schistose and quartzose formation which, before the upheaval of the granite, were far below the formerly existing surface, have been disclosed by that upheaval, and that these strata contain quartz lodes in no wise less auriferous. It may, therefore, be maintained that to as great a depth as the quartz miner can ever penetrate, he will find auriferous quartz lodes, and that deeper still there are others equally auriferous." Another view of the question is taken by Richard Daintree, in his report on the geology of the district of Ballan, Victoria, 'm_i866, when discussing whether the drifts underlying the old amygdaloid, jf Bacchus V^^'^^^^^V Marsh are theoretically likely to contain drift-gold. Tae problems ^*^2^^^X--^((,rtt proposed for solution were " (i) the age and origin of quartz reefs, (2) n^^-*^ and whether the gold is contemporaneous with their formation. To answer the fir«t question, in regard to age, he sought sections where strata of determined age containing quartz reefs are seen overlaid unconformably by other sedimentary strata of known age. Such are to be found in the Werribee gorge, where the quartz strings and reefs traversing Silurian slates, &c., cease abruptly at the junction of the ' Lower Mesozoic,' from which '.nay be inferred that these quartz reefs at least were formed prior to the superincumbent strata. In Gippsland, again, Upper Devonian con- glomerates, with their associated claystones and sandstones, enclosing Lepidodendra, &c., are barren of quariz reefs, while the Silurian on which they rest have reefs well defined." He then quotes Hartt, on the " Cold of Nova Scotia of pre-Carboniferous age," as follows : — 'At Corbitt's Mills, about 4 miles N. of Gay's river, Colchester county. Nova Scotia, auriferous clay-slates of the same character as those of the other gold-districts of the province, are overlaid urxonform- ably by nearly horizontal beds of grey and red conglomerate, grit, and sandstone, of Lower Carboniferous (probably lower coal measures) age. At the mills, these last are only a few feet in thickness. They in turn are overlaid by a mass of drift, and by beds of stratified sand and clay of variable thickness. As to the Carboniferous age of the con- glomerate and sandstones there can be no doubt. They cannot be Silurian, for they overlie unconformably rocks of this age. They are totally unlike any Devonian rocks occurring in the province, while they agree perfectly with the Lower Carboniferous conglomerates and sand- stones of the Carboniferous basin on the margin of which they lie. They contain i few ill-preserved fossil plants like those found in similar Carboniferous beds. Between the Carboniferous and the Drift the only formation occurring in Nova Scotia is the New Red Sandstone, to the rocks of which the beds under consideration bear no resemblance. They iV,. ORIGIN AND FORMATION. /55 • y cannot be of Drift age, for their fragments form rounded boulders in that deposit They show no signs of having suffered metamorphism. The lower part of the beds of conglomerate or grit, at their junction with the slates, is richly auriferous, the gold occurring principally in the form of flattened scales, sometimes ^ in. in diameter, disseminated through the rock. I have seen many fragments of the conglomerate, not i cub. in. in size, on the surface of which 20 or 30 scales of gold could be counted with the naked eye. Gold has been washed from the drift overlying the conglomerate. The source whence thf^ gold was derived was doubtless quartz veins in the clay-slates. Only one vein, about ^ in. thick, has been discovered beneath the conglomerate. It is richly auriferous, and has a strike of about N. and S., and a dip of 70° E. Non-auriferous quartz veins are very numerous in the slate hills of the vicinitv. That this vein is older than the Carboniferous strata is plain from its endii.g abruptly at .i2 junction with the slates. From the above facts, I think there can be no doubt that the gold of Corbitt's Mills is of pre-Carboniferous origin, and since the gold of that locality was derived from strata precisely similar in character to those of the other gold-regions of Nova Scotia, and which strata are but the reappearance northward of the gold-bearing rocks of the gold-fields of Renfrew and Oldhain, and of the metamorphic band of the Atlantic coast, I think that the pre-Carboniferous age of the gold of Nova Scotia is clearly indicated. It is a very generally accepted theory, propounded by Sir Roderick Murchison, that whilst gold is confined to Lower Silurian strata, it did not make its appearance therein until just before the time of the Drift. As the gold of Nova Scotia was probably introduced into or assumed its present form in the quartz veins at the time of the metamorphism of the Silurian rocks, which metamorphism was pre-Carboniferous, I have doubted the correctness of this theory. The occurrence of gold in the Carboniferous rocks of Corbitt's Mill shows that it is not to be applied to the province of Nova Scotia.' " On Keelbottom Creek and Star river, tributaries of the Burdekin river, in the district of North Kennedy, Queensland, is a great thickness of Devonian rocks, resting on, and no doubt the c. use of metamorphism in, underlying gold-bearing ^.leiss, mica-schists, and hornblende slates. These are associated wit;, very thick beds of quartz rock, rarely with quartz reefs ; thoagh traversed with innumerable thin strings and veins of quartz, such reefs and veins never pass into the Devonian series. Although the gold is most abundant in the loose drift resting on the metamorphic rocks, still, where Devonian conglomerates occur, more or less alluvial gold is found in their debris, even where an outcrop of meta- morphic rocks 1 many miles distant. The geological survey of California has ascertained ' that a large portion of the auriferous rocks of California * c 2 i 'K: 756 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. li. I'i J I consist of metamorphic Triassic and Jurassic strata.' It is evident that the reefs in these rocks are more recent than those of Hartt in Nova Scotia, or than those of the Werribee gorge, or the Upper Burdekin. " No subject has perhaps been more discussed than the formation of mineral veins ; laying claim to no original ideas on the subject, I shall simply bring forward the published statements, which most coincide with the results I have arrived at by independent observation. I had long ago come to the conclusion, that most, if not all, the gold in the quartz reefs was derived from the rocks in which these reefs occur. That the strata themselves received their supply of gold at the period of their deposition from the ocean in which they were deposited. That organic matter, and the gases generated therefrom on decomposition, sulphuretted hydrogen, &c., were the cause of the precipitation ; and that the amount of metallic deposit was in proportion to the amount of organic matter deposited with the oceanic sediment. That subsequent plication and desiccation of the sediment caused fissures, into which the mineral waters percolating the boundary rocks flowed and were decomposed, and their mineral contents were precipitated, possibly by magnetic currents, thus causing mineral veins. " Sir W. Logan says : — ' The observations among the gold-bearing rocks of the Southern S tates seem to show that the precious metal was originally deposited in the beds of various sedimentary rocks, such as slates, quartzites, and limestones ; and that by a subsequent process, it has been, in some instances, accumulated in the veins which intersect these rocks. The formation of these veins would seem to be subsequent to the Silurian period.' " Again, T. Sterry Hunt says : — ' The reducing power of organic matter is further shown in the forma- tion of metallic sulphurets, the reduction of sulphates having precipitated in this insoluble form, the heavy metals — copper, lead, and zinc — which, with iron, appear to have been in solu*:ion in the waters of early times; but arc now, by this means also abstracted from circulation, and accumulated in beds and fahlbands, or by a subsequent process have been re-dissolved and deposited in veins. All analogies lead us to the conclusion, that the primeval condition of the metals and of sulphur was like that of carbon, one of oxidation ; and that the vegetable life has been the sole medium of their reduction.' " And as a corollary to the same ideas, expressed in different words, the same author says : — ' The intervention of intense heat, sublimation, and similar hypotheses, to explain the origin of metallic ores, we conceive to be uncalled for. The solvent powers of solutions of alkaline carbonates, chlorides, and ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 757 sulphurets, at elevated temperatures, taken in connectirn with the notions above enunciated, and with De Senarmont's and iJaubree's beautiful experiments on the crystallization of certain mineral species in the moist way, will suffice to form the basis of a satisfactory theory of metallic deposits.' " Having now considered the age and origin of quartz reefs, let us turn to the other question of contemporaneity of reefs, and their associated gold. Let us first consider if solution and re-precipitation of gold is still gomg on. We can then better form conclusions on this subject. In testing a solid mass of iron-pyrites, given me by the Director of the Geological Survey, gold was found throughout. The mass retained the structure of a tree-stem, and was a replacement of the organic structure by pyrites, and had been taken from the Ballarat drift. The same experiment on another tree-stem, taken from the same drift, was repeated by Newbery, the Geological Survey analyst, with a liko result. Unless this gold was carried in a soluble form into the pores of the wood, and there precipitated with the pyrites, it would be difficult to account for its presence. Foord, the well-known chemist and metallurgist of Melbourne, has repeatedly informed me that, in operating on the St. Arnaud silver-ores with hyposulphite of soda, and precipitating the dissolved metals from the solution, he had usually found that an appre- ciable amount of gold had been dissolved with the silver, indicating that in that mine, at least, gold may exist as an ore. " Whether this fact points to the real solvent of the gold and silver precipitates, from their first storehouses in the sediments to their accumu- lation and re-precipitatinn as metal in the reefs, is worthy of consideratior ; certain it is, that whi fnund in the sediments themselves, the noble metals are usually assoc; ■ J with sulphur compound ir^ in-pyrites, &c., and there is no reason why hyposulphites of thi- alkalies should not be formed in the mineral waters percolating thesi strata. At the same time, it is possible the St. Arnaud case may indicate more the possibility of gold as a chloride combined with chlorobromide of Ivor. " In whatever direction we look for the cai:^c of the original precipi- tation and re-solution for after-deposit in mineral veins, we must never lose sight of the fact that the first agent must have been potent to pre- cipitate both gold and silver, and the second to r< dissolve the united precipitates, as no gold has yet been found in n't- unalloyed with silver. That sulphur compounds have played an impoi lant part in the reactions which we have endeavoured to explain is evidenced by the fact that scarcely ever has pyrites taken from the Silurian slates of Sandhurst, Maryborough, and other localities, failed to yield gold. " It is a point of great interest to determine the constituents of Victorian mine-waters, as tending to throw light on such questions as i 01 m I M \ !■ y 'i% iii ' 758 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, these introduced, and as to whether the large nuggets found in the drifts have been built up by continuous aggregation of precipitate from mine- water. Microscopic examination of thin sections of such nuggets should be obtained. It should also be ascertained if they enclosed foreign material. That the waters percolating our drifts have, in many instances, a strong solvent action on some metals and metallic oxides, we have constant evidence in seeing the blue slates of the 1 ill-slopes, where covered with drift in the valleys, converted into white pipe-clay. Was this solvent carbonic acid, or have we at times a stronger acid in operation capable of acting on silver, and so affording a reason for the fact that the alluvial gold of a district usually assays higher than the reef-gold cf the same district ? " Sufficient evidence has, I think, been shown, that, up to com- paratively recent times, solution and re-deposit of gold and silver have taken place ; although the main concentrated deposit occurred with the accumulation of the quartz itself, in the reefs, still much of the ' casing ' gold on the walls of reefs may be of subsequent deposit. If, then, it is a logical deduction from what has preceded, that auriferous quartz reefs have derived their minerals from the bounding rocks, and that auriferous quartz reefs may be of all ages, how shall any one assert that drift-gold may not be found in any sedimentary deposit, derived from rocks traversed by auriferous quartz reefs ? At the same time, it is likely to be rare that workable gold-deposits will be found in any marine beds derived from pre-existing rocks, unless entirely made up of the debris of such auriferous rocks. The Nova Scotia Carboniferous conglomerates answer this condition, and are worked, according to Hartt, to a profit. In Victoria, no strictly marine sediment has \rp*- been found to contain workable gold-drifts. All our lertiaries in which marine fossils have been found, also the ' Lower Mesozoic ' of Bacchus Marsh, and the Mesozoic carbonaceous of Otway, Cape Patterson, &c., are composed of sediments of various rock formations. We have as yet no evidence to prove that any workable auriferous drift deposit, of Victoria, has been swept by either of the oceans which deposited strata containing marine fossils in other localities. This seems also to be the case in Califcnia. Whitney, says : — ' The vast Tertiary formations on the flanks of the Sierra Nevada, so important as being the locality of the hydraulic mining operations, are not of marine origin, as has been so often asserted. ... In the first place, these deposits are not of marine origin, as is proved by the fact, that, although frequently found to contain impressions of leaves, masses of wood, and imperfect coal, and even whole buried forests, as well as the remains of land animals, and, occasionally, 'hose of fresh water, not a trace of any marine production has ever been found in them.' " ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 759 The next important contribution is Wilkinson's paper on the Theory of the Formation of Gold-nuggets in Drift, written in 1866. " It has hitherto been a moot question, and one which has elicited no small degree of discussion, respectin;^ the occurrence of larger nuggets of gold in the drifts than have yet beuii discovered in any quartz reef; and that alluvial gold is generally of a higher standard than that obtained from the reefs. '' Many theories have been introduced to account for these phenomena : among them is one which does not appear to have received that amount of attention it evidently merits. I allude to that advanced by Selwyn, the Government geologist, suggesting the probability of gold existing in solution in the mineral water permeating the Silurian rocks and the gold- drifts ; and that this water in its passage through the drifts, became by some unknown means decomposed, influencing the precipitation of the gold, which concreted, so to speak, around the most congenial nuclei presented to it, such as the particles or pieces of reef-gold existing in the drifts, or any other metallic substances for which it had an affinity. " Daintree, formerly of our Geological Survey, had on one occasion prepared for photographic use a solution of chloride of gold, leaving in it a small piece of metallic gold undissolved. Accidentally some extraneous substance, supposed to be a piece of cork, had fallen into the solution, decomposing it, and causing the gold to precipitate, which decomposed in the metallic state, as in the electro-plating process, around the small piece of undissolved gold, increasing it in size to 2 or 3 times its original dimensions. " Considering this accidental experiment of Daintree's as in some measure bearing out Selwyn's hypothesis, I was indi'ced to make a few simple experiments. " Using the most convenient salt of gold, the terchloride, and employ- ing wood as the decomposing agent, in order to imitate as closely as possible the organic matter supposed to decompose the solution circu- lating through the drifts, I first immersed a piece of cubic iron-pyrites taken from the coal formation of Cape Otway, far distant from any of our gold-rocks, and therefore less likely to contain gold than other pyrites. This specimen (No. i) was kept in a dilute solution for about 3 weeks, and is.completely covered with a bright film of gold. I afterwards filed oft* the gold from one side of a cube crystal to show the pyrites itself, and the thickness of the surrounding coating, which is thicker than ordinary note paper. If the conditions had continued favourable for a very lengthened period, this specimen would doubtless have formed the nucleus of a large nugget. Crystals of gold have been found to contain nuclei of brown iron-ore and undccomposcd iron-pyrites. " No. 2 specimen contains iron-pyrites, and was immersed in a solution 'ilil 76o GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. li fii I--' 1 of about 4 gr. of the chloride of gold to i oz. of water ; in a short time, however, it was found that in such a strong solution, the pyrites began to decompose ; but after diluting to about 2 gr. to i oz. of water, this decomposition apparently ceased, and metallic gold deposited wherever a particle of the sulphide existed, alike in crevices as on the surface of the quartz, and also in a remarkable mammillary form. This was in the solution for a week. "No. 3 contains iron-pyrites and galena, on both of which the gold has deposited, so that I cannot now distinguish one sulphide from another. It remained in a solution of i gr. of chloride to i oz. of water for 8 days. " Nos. 4 and 5 are similar specimens to the last mentioned, the same strength of solution being used ; but they were only dipped half-way into it, so that the immersed part coated with gold may be compared with the other half on which the pyrites remains unaltered. " I may here remark that a weak solution produces more perfect results than a strong one ; with the latter, the sulphides are partly decomposed, and the gold is covered with a dark-brown powdery film, as observed in some of the above specimens. This film does not prevent the growth of the gold in the solution, and it may easily be rubbed off. " Nos. 6 to 13. — Iron-, copper-, and arsenical pyrites, antimony, galena, molybdenite, zinc-blende, and wolfram were treated in the above manner with similar results. " Brown iron-ore and quartz covered with peroxide of iron were also tried in the same way, but the gold was deposited only as a fine metallic powder. " In the above experiments, a small chip of wood was employed as the decomposing agent. In one instance I used a bit of leather. All through the wood and leather, gold was disseminated in fine particles, and when cut through, the characteristic metallic lustre is brightly reflected. "The first six of these sulphides were also operated upon simply in the solution without organic matter, but they remained unaltered. " Iron-pyrites was tried with metallic copper, zinc, and iron as decom- posing agents ; but metallic gold was deposited only as a fine powder, which settled at the bottom of the vessel. " From these experiments, it would appear that organic matter is the necessary chemical agent to decompose a solution of the chloride of gold, in order to precipitate the gold as a coherent coating around a nucleus presented to it ; and that so far as we have yet tried, iron-, copper-, and arsenical pyrites, galena, antimony, molybdenite, blende, wolfram, and metallic gold, constitute especially favourable nuclei to demonstrate this chemical reaction. ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 761 " Organic substances, such as fragments of wood, roots of trees, &c., exist abundantly in the gold-drifts. It remains therefore a point of great importance to decide whether gold is actually in solution in the meteoric water circulating through our rocks and drifts. I am not aware of direct experiments having been made to solve this question, but that gold will most probably be found, is indicated by analysis made by Daintree (already quoted on p. 757, line 10). " I referred to the mammillary form the gold assumes in No. 2 specimen, which appears to be analogous to that presented by the surface of nuggets. Analogy, however, though generally a truthful guide, if relied upon too implicitly in outward semblances, may lead to erroneous conclusions. Nevertheless the striking similarity in the surface of the artificial production to that of the natural gold is a point worth noticing. For if the form of the latter is the result of abrasion of its surface by the material carried along by the streams that once swept down the courses of our old ' leads,' then our analogy will not hold good. Yet when we have no evidence of the existence of such large nuggets in the reefs, and this theory introduces a means of producing results like those in nature, we are justified, in the absence of such evidence, to attribute these results to analogous causes. Otherwise to what origin shall we ascribe the pre- sence of gold in pyrites that has been formed in wood imbedded in the auriferous drifts, and the fact that sometimes gold encloses a nucleus of brown iron-ore &c., unless it was deposited from solution ? " That golu may be greatly purified by dissolving and reprecipitating it, is strong evidence in favour of the theory attributing to a similar cause the greater purity or higher standard generally of alluvial than reef gold. " It would be premature for me to speculate further on the hypothesis of the growth of gold — the formation of nuggets in the drift, on which the above recorded few simple experiments may perhaps throw some light — until the result of more comprehensive and systematic experi- ments which are now being conducted by Newbery are known. In con- clusion, I beg to acknowledge my indebtedness for some points in the foregoing to a Report on the Minerals of Victoria, just completed, by G. H. F. Ulrich, of the Geological Survey." The experiments just alluded to are those described by Prof J. Cosmo Newbery, in his paper on the Introduction of Gold to, and the Formation of Nuggets in, the Auriferous Drifts, written in 1868. He says : — " Before describing my experiments and their results, it may be well for me to give an abstract of the arguments used for and against the denudation theory and in favour of what seems to some a rather ludicrous idea — the growth of nuggets in the drifts. " Through the kindness of Mr. Ulrich, I have been able to read the '■' • >¥' ■Ml'il : : ll 762 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. latest ideas of the eminent chemical geologist, Prof. BischofT, from whom I shall freely quote. " That some portion of the gold found in the drifts has been derived from the quartz reefs at the same time that the reefs themselves were formed, there can be no doubt ; but the absence of large nuggets in the reefs and the marked difference that exists between much of the drift gold and that from the reefs, tends to make us believe that some portion of it had some other origin, or was transferred from the reefs to the drifts by some means other than denudation. Even if we admit that the large nuggets may have been derived from the reefs by denudation — (for there is a theory that the reefs were much richer in the portions removed to form the drifts, than they are as they now exist) — we must remember that the nuggets consist of nearly the heaviest known matter, offering but a very small surface of attack, when compared with the other materials acted on by the same force and at the same time ; it therefore appears strange that these heavy masses should be found at such great distances from any known reef, as nearly all the large nuggets have been. Another point which attracts attention is, tiiat they are sometimes found in the sand overlying the gravel, which is quite inexplicable, if they ever were in motion with the rest of the drift, which usually has a regular arrangement from top to bottom : first clay, then sand, and fine and coarse gravel. " These objections to the denudation theory are not easily explained away. And then comes the great fact that gold is contained in the iron- pyrites which is found in the drifts, assuming the ""orm of roots and branches of trees, and also replacing the carbonaceous matter of the other drift-wood. Every sample of this pyrites that has been examined has been found to contain gold : in some instances, in a quantity equal to 40 or more oz. per ton, and this in samples in which no particles could have collected in crevices or cracks. "This proves that gold did exist in the meteoric waters which deposited the pyrites in Tertiary times. " Based on these arguments, Selwyn, some years ago, advanced the hypothesis, ' That nuggets may be formed and that particles of gold may increase in size through the deposition of gold from the meteoric waters percolating the drifts, which water, during the time of our extensive basaltic eruptions, must have been of a thermal and probably of a highly saline character, favourable to their carrying gold in solution.' " As Ulrich points out in his essay on the Mineralogy of Victoria, this view of the character of the meteoric waters in earlier times receives aid from the fact that on our western gold-fields only, where tremendous basaltic eruptions have taken place, all the large nuggets have been found, while on the eastern and northern fields, where basaltic rocks are ! ill ! lLi»»M ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 763 wanting, or only of very limited extent, the gold is usual'y fine, and nuggets of more than i oz. in weight are very rare. " That gold does exist in solution in some saline waters of the present day has been proved by several analyses ; and Daintree fo- nd gold in solution in water taken from a mine in this colony. " Further proof of gold having been in solution at a comparatively recent date, I found when examining the pebbles of the Miocene drifts ; they are chiefly quartz, and are coated over with manganiferous brown iron-ore, in which I found gold, though I never could detect any in the pebbles when their surfaces were carefully cleaned. " What the gold salt was, whether a chloride, silicate, or sulphide, we have no means at present of ascertaining. And as it may have been in the same solution that deposited the pyrites, which probably contained its iron in the form of protocarbonate with sulphates, it was not easy at first to imagine any ordinary salt of iron ; but this I find can be accom- plished with very dilute solutions in the presence of an alkaline carbonate and a large excess of carbonic acid, both of which are common con- stituents of mineral waters, especially in Victoria. This is true of chloride of gold, and if the sulphide is required in solution, it is only necessary to charge the solution with an excess of sulphuretted hydrogen ; in this manner, both sulphides may be retained in the same solution, depositing gradually with the escape of the carbonic acid. " Prof Bischoff has suggested the occurrence of sulphide of gold in meteoric waters, and by experiment he found that 't was slightly soluble in pure water. Once formed and present in the water, it is, like all other gold salts, easily decomposed. In an experiment I have made, the sulphide of gold was held in a solution by a small quantity of an alkaline bicarbonate. A cube of iron-pyrites and a chip of wood were introduced, and in a few days small irregular grains of metallic gold were deposited on the pyrites. " What part the organic matter took in the reaction is not clear, but the gold was not deposited without it. " In Chas. Wilkinson's paper (see pp. 759-61), a series of experiments are described in which gold was deposited in the metallic form upon a nucleus, from a solution of the chloride by the reducing agency of organic matter, the nuclei being either gold itself, or iron-, copper-, and arsenical pyrites, galena, zinc-blende, sulphide of antimony, &c. Organic matter has long been known as an agent for precipitating gold in the metallic state from its solutions. " Rose states that oxalic acid precipitates it in metallic laminae. This I have tailed to produce. When boiled with a solution of chloride, I got purple and red precipitates ; but when allowed to remain at the temperature of the air for some hours, a film of gold floated on the n ti-'.? i (I* It m *' 764 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. surface of the liquid, and the bottom and sides of the vessel were gilded. Tartaric, citric, and other organic acids have much the same effect. With wood, bark, charcoal and like substances, the reduction is much slower. No carbonic acid is seen rising, and the gold is deposited in the pores of the reducing agent, if the solution is dilute. But it was not known until the experiment of Daintree, and the following ones made by Wilkinson, that this deposit would take place on a nucleus, and be continued as long as gold remained in solution. If this action went on in the drifts, it would account for the greater purity of the gold and for the nucleus of brown iron-ore so often found in nuggets and crystals. Strong solutions of gold immediately began to decompose the pyrites, and interfere with the regular deposition of gold. By a strong solution, I refer to one containing more than i gr. of chloride of gold to i oz. of water. A weaker solution than this also decomposes the pyrites, but so slowly as not to interfere with the deposit taking place regularly ; all the other sulphides are also decomposed. In the experiment in which galena was used as a nucleus, this decomposition was best marked. Some- what more than a year ago, I placed a cube of galena in a solution of chloride of gold, with free access of air, and put in organic matter : gold was deposited as usual, in a bright metallic film, apparently completely coating the cube. After a few months, the film burst along the edges of the cube, and remained in this state with the cracks open, without any further alteration in size or form being apparent. Upon removing it from the liquid a few days ago, and breaking it open, I found that a large portion of the galena had been decomposed, forming chloride and sulphate of lead, and free sulphur, which were mixed together, encasing a small nucleus of undecomposed sulphate of lead. The formation of these salts had exerted sufficient force to burst open the gold coating, which upon the outside had the mam miliary form noticed by Wilkinson, while the inside was rough and irregular, with crystals forcing their way into the lead salts. " Had this action continued undisturbed, the result would have been a nugget with a nucleus of lead salts, or, if theie had been a current to remove the results of the decomposition, a nugget without a nucleus of foreign matter. If, instead of galena, we had had a piece of pyrites to start with, the decomposition would have gone on in the same way, but the result would have been brov/n iron-ore in place of lead salts. This decomposition gives a ^/ery simple means of accounting for the oxide of iron, so often found in the nuggets and crystals of gold, the latter especially, as shown by the experiments of the late Dr. Becker, by cutting them in halves, and by their established low specific gravity, and their loss in weight suffered in smelting. " Finding the brown iron-ore of the Miocene drifts contained gold, I ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 765 was led to suppose that though I could not make gold deposit on it, I might succeed in making them deposit together, which was the case. I arranged a mass of sand, with chips of organic matter in it, in a vessel, and slowly filtered through it a dilute nearly neutral solution of sesqui- chloride of iron, containing a few drops of chloride of gold, and as it passed through repeated the dose. This continued for some weeks without any appreciable change taking place ; but after some months, thin bands of hydrated sesqui-oxide nf iron began to form across the mass about the centre, parallel with the surface. As they increased in size, they assumed a botryoidal appearance, like the ' ferro-manganese ore ' which occurs in the quartz reefs, and in many parts were coated with a bright film of metallic gold. Every further addition to the mixed solution produced another layer of oxide and gold, so that in time it appeared stratified. If the gold had been continued alone after once having started its deposition, the result would have been the same as in the case of the decomposition of pyrites. On the other hand, if the iron solution was in :>, excess after a deposit of gold had been formed, it would have produced "^ what is so often found in the alluvial workings, a nugget coated with^ iron-ore, commonly known as ' black gold.' "^ " This mixed solution is one which we should not expect to find in nature, but there is no difficulty in supposing the transfer of gold with iron that would deposit as oxide, even, if we need to introduce carbonic acid. If a solution of sesqui-chloride of iron and chloride of iron are heated together, the whole of the gold, in a very finely divided state, with a portion of the iron as sesqui-oxide, is deposited in a brownish- yellow precipitate. " Though the processes I have described will account for the forma- tion of nuggets, it does not account for the appearance of gold in pyrites. I have examined about 100 samples, in none of which do I find any tendency on the part of the gold to assume the form of a coating, it being usually in irregular grains, and small octahedral crystals, seldom to be detected, even with the aid of the microscope, until nearly all the pyrites has been oxidized and decomposed. In a few exceptional cases, pieces have been found projecting ; but all tends to prove the priority of the deposition of the gold, and that instead of pyrites having formed a nucleus for the gold, the reverse has in the majority of instances been the case. "It may also have been the first to deposit in the drift-wood, for in ^ all the experiments by Wilkinson and m;i self the organic structure *^ became so impregnated with gold that when ignited (so as to burn off 55 '^^ " would appear that nuggets of gold could not well be formed in this^ u^>^ manner. " In our mineral sulphurets, however, we have agents which are not only capable of reducing gold and silver from solution, but besides are capable of locating them when so reduced in coherent and bulky masses. " I may state that their nuclear action upon gold depositing from ^ solution by aid of organic matter was suggested by Wilkinson, while « their competency to reduce the gold from solution without addition of -jL organic matter was shown by me ; thus the aggregation of the nuggety ^v forms of gold from solution becomes a still more simple matter, only one ^ reagent being necessary, so that there is a greater probability of such jf depositions obtaining than were a double process necessary. " Knowing the action of sulphides, the manner or the mode of forma- tion of a portion at least of these nuggets seems apparent. Conceive a stream or river fed by springs rising in a country intersected by auriferous reefs, and consequently in this case carrying gold in solution ; the drift of such a country must be to a greater or lesser extent pyritous, so that the debris forming the beds of these streams or rivers will certainly contain nodules of such matters disseminated, or even topping them in actual contact with the flow of water. " It follows then from what has been previously affirmed, that there will be a reduction of gold by these nodules, and that the metal thus reduced will be firmly attached to them, at first in minute spangles isolated from each other, but afterwards accumulating and connecting in a gradual manner at that point of the pyritous mass most subject to the current, until a continuous film of some size appears ; this being formed, the pyrites and gold arc to a certain extent polarized, the film or Ui . '"Uir but connected mass of gold forming the ncga .ive, and the pyrites aie positive end of a voltaic pair ; and so a jcording as the polariziition is advanced to completion, the further deposition of gold is chatiged in its manner from an indiscriminate to an orderly and selective deposition concentrated upon the negative or gold plate. " The deposition of gold being thus controlled, its loss by dispersion or trom the crumbling away of the sustaining pyrites is nearly or quite /I ), II ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 771 prevented — a conservative effect, which we could scarcely expect to obtain if organic matter were the reducing agent. " Meanwhile there is a gradual wasting away of the pyrites or positive pole, its sulphur being oxidized to sulphuric acid, and its iron to sesqui- oxide of iron or hematite, a s\ ibstance very generally associated with gold-nuggets. According to the original size of the pyritous mass, the protection it receives from the action of oxidizing substances other than gold, the strength of the gold-solution, length of exposure to it, and rate of supply (velocity of stream), will be the size of the gold-nugget. " As to the size of a pyritous mass necessary to produce in this manner a large nugget, it is by no means considerable. A mass of common pyrites (bisulphide of iron) weighing only about 12 lb. is com- petent for the construction of the famous ' Welcome nugget,' an Aus- tralian find, having weight equal to 152 lb. avoirdupois. " Such masses of pyrites are by no means uncommon in our drifts or the beds of our mountain streams. The general velocity of the current flowing over such pyritous matters would in all probability be such as would prevent the development of any crystalline form in the gold thus deposited, as we know very well that for such development motion is unfavourable. The form most likely to be assumed by these deposits then would be the mammillary, precisely that in which our nuggets as a rule occur. " Upon this mode of accounting for the presence of large nuggets in our drifts, their occasional great superiority in point of size to any auriferous mass as yet found in our reefs, and their superior fineness to such reef-gold, admits of easy explanation. " Firstly, as regards their comparative size, if we only admit that reef- gold is also deposited by pyrites, and if wc assume that the strength of the gold-solutions forming these varieties of gold respectively was not greatly different, it is only reasonable to suppose that the gold-masses formed in this manner in drift would attain the greatest dimensions, for in the first place this gold in depositing would certainly aggregate more, as the pyrites in the drifts or river-beds would be less continuous and more sparsely distributed than that in reefs. " Further, the supply of gold to pyrites lying in these drifts or river- beds (and so exposed to rapidly changing waters) would be far more copious than to pyrites cooped up in a rocky fissure, and so in contact only with water .tagnant or nearly so. " And, scCv,i.o.y, as regards the generally superior quality of these nuggets to gold found in the reefs, it will, I think, appear from the following considerations that such a difference in favour of drift-gold is to be expected. " I have previously shown that silver is deposited with greatest 3 D 2 ir' > I '■ i w^- hi m im "^ m 772 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. ).:;,ni rapidity and certainty upon pyrites from solutions which arc alkah'ne from presence of the fixed alkalies or alkaline earths, and that as such solutions are passed from this condition to an acid one, the silver present in them is retained in solution ; any gold, however, that may be mixed with such silver is deposited upon this reducing agent, no matter which of these conditions the solvent is in. /ji^/i/eW' " Now this alkaline 'condition is precisely that in which, as far as we can ascertain, our lodes or rocks must have been at the time of the deposi- tion of the gold and silver now found in them, and this alkalinity would especially manifest itself in those reefs which traverse rocks of a basic nature, such as diorites or serpentines : hence, by the way, the large proportion of silver alloying the gold found in these reefs, as compared with that alloying the gold found in the lodes of our schists or older formations. " But though the waters percolating our reefs must be to a more or less extent of an alkaline nature, the drainage waters issuing from them will lose a portion of this alkalinity as they are exposed to the air, or to the products of decomposing organic matters, from having absorbed a quantity of carbonic or other acids (sulphuric, humic, &c.), thus in some measure, according to the distance such waters have travelled from their springs, will their condition be changed until their alkalinity may give way to neutrality, or even acidity, either of which conditions is, as I have stated, uiifavourable to the liberal deposition of silver along with gold from such waters. Hence it is apparent that from the instant the waters percolating rocks or lodes leave them to form springs, &c., they are continually passing from 'a favourable condition to one eminently unfavourable for the deposition upon pyrites of what silver they may contain. Consequently the deposition of gold from solution being as we know unaffected, or but slightly so (comparatively), by the condition of the solvent, the great purity of gold deposited from these surface waters is explained. " The above explanation of the greater purity of our alluvial or drift gold over gold found in the reef is, I think, much more plausible than that which attributes this difference to the interaction of solutions of gold upon the auriferous masses transported from the reef, whereby the silver of these masses is replaced by gold and so removed, leaving the mass correspondingly richer in gold. That this process can be continued until our largest auriferous masses can be thus affected throughout appears to me impossible when we consider the imperviousness of such metallic mas.ses to liquids, and how nearly the atomic volumes of gold and silver approximate. That a superficial change, however, in this direction may occur is by no means improbable, but such would escape detection unless it were especially sought for. Thus the hypothesis advanced by Selwyn ORIGIN AND FORMATION. 773 as to the manner in which the nuggets of our drifts may have been formed receives support upon all those points which appear of any importance. "That nuggets of some size may, however, be in a few instances transported bodily from these matrices into the drifts or water-courses is by no means improbable, but in this case they would, I thuik, partake of the usual quality of the reef-gold of the country about, and so would be inferior in this respect to gold formed in the manner above described. " Whatever may be the origin, however, of any particular nugget, or of nuggets generally, when we consider the auriferous nature of many mine-waters, also that of sea-water, together with the decomposing and aggregating action of metallic sulphurets upon the gold of these waters, we cannot avoid the conclusion that gold is now being deposited and aggregated in many of our drifts, and that such depositions have been going on from remotest times. " In conclusion, the questions as to the source of the gold of our nuggets, the nature of the agencies by which it is dissolved, and the precise chemical state in which it exists in our auriferous waters, are subjects which it is not incumbent upon me to discuss here. I will, however, take leave to make a few observations upon them now. " As regards their source I think this is rather in gold as disseminated in certain of our slates, sandstone, or schist rocks, than in that of our reefs. " In reference to the nature of the solvent, I have shown that sul- phuretted hydrogen attacks gold at ordinary temperatures, forming a sulphide of the metal, and we know that all the sulphides of this metal we have to this time formed are soluble in alkaline sulphides ; therefore, as both these agents are generally present in waters situated at some depth in our rocks, we may very reasonably suppose that a portion, if not all, of our gold has been brought into solution by these agents. "The state to which such auriferous solutions might pass when exposed to air and carb^'Ic acid is not easy to determine, but of this we may be certain, that it could not well be one unfavourable to the exercise of the reducing properties of metallic sulphurets upon the gold compound present in them." In more recent laboratory reports, Cosmo Newbery returns to the subject of the deposition of the gold in veins. He says : — " The main practical interest in this subject is the attempt to discover some of the natural laws by which the deposits of gold and auriferous minerals in the quartz lodes and auriferous strata have been governed, and by so doing to aid the mining interests of the country. Most geological observers arc agreed that our auriferous deposits are of aqueous origin ; in fact that is the only way of reconciling the various phenomena. ' ^l I. lAi Ml ^1 I n m n i ''^ \ < m '1 ' * 3 ' * r *= M V 774 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, And observations have proved that gold is deposited in and with recent mineral formations. The first question is — What sort of a solution is necessary to carry the gold and associated minerals, and have we in the natural waters of the mines this necessary solvent ? This fluid must have the power of holding a number of minerals in solution at the same time, in such a manner that they may be all deposited together, or at any rate holding certain elements or compounds which, by reacting on minerals already deposited, will produce the minerals as we find them. " H. Miiller, in his description of the ore deposits of Freiberg, notes that the deposits of ore vary with the rock through which the lode passes, and Von Cotta has adopted the term ' ore-carriers ' for those rocks exerting a favourable influence on the deposit of ores. He remarks that, although the lodes are not always rich while passing through the rocks conducive to the deposit of ore, and indeed are very frequently barren, still when the lodes do contain ore it is only when in these rocks. This all points to these rocks either supplying the waters with their mineral contents, or exerting some influence to make them deposit what they held. " Ulrich has on several occasions drawn attention to the necessity for the study of the rocks through which the quartz reefs pass, and the probability of the ' shoots ' of gold being in some way connected with the nature of the wall-rock of the vein where the shoot occurs. He says that, although Victorian reefs on casual observation appear to be layers running with the strike and in the bedding of the Silurian rocks, closer examination shows that this is not the case — they are a variety of layer lodes. The greater number certainly lie within the line of strike, but uncurlie at varying angles through the bedding of the rock, a feature which results in the ' reef pajsin