valve, probably a variety of this specimen. Spirifer, sp. ind.Fig 9 - Dorsal valve of an alate SpiriferBulletin 27Plate 111 - Spirifer avicula G.B. SbyFig 1 - Internal cast of the united valvesFig 2 - Internal cast of the pedicle valve.Informs that the valve of the large Spirifer, Plate X, Fig 1 is missing. This may have gone to the Supreme Court.

the report for 1889 was ready, and send out the two together.  Somewhat
late in the year this has been done, but the delay was due, it is said, to
the amount of work the new Electoral Act entailed upon the Government
Department.

The reports, revised and extended by information since obtained, are those
which have from time to time appeared in the newspapers, and embraced the
various geological expeditions undertaken by Mr H. P. Woodward into
different parts of the colony during the years 1888 and 1889.  Side by
side with these are number of papers, full of most important and
interesting information.  The first is a historical account of the
geological work done by Mr Woodward's predecessors and others up to the
end of 1887.  Up to that date, we are told, "very little had been done in
the way of a systematic geological survey... but when the enormous area of
the country, and the fact that geologists have only been engaged for short
periods arts [sic] taken into consideration, both the quantity and as well
as the quality of the work done by them is highly creditable."  Following
upon this is a description of the geological configuration of Western
Australia.  The sketch, for want of space prevents it from being more, is
well compiled, and conveys a mass of information to readers which,
although it is not all new, is almost as interesting as if it were.  There
is one little statement, however, which may not meet with general
acceptance, namely that (speaking of cereals) "on the hills to the east of
Perth nothing is thought of a crop of 40 bushels to the acre."

The next part is a paper on the geognosy of the colony.  Mr Woodward here
gives a most valuable and instructive description of the physical
geography of Western Australia, commencing with King Sound in the extreme
north, and taking the reader all along the western and southern coasts of
the colony until the eastern boundary is reached.  First, one is invited
to look upon the King Sound country, with its large undulating plain of
sand, sandstone, and alluvial, which Mr Woodward conceives to belong to
the Mesozoic, rather than the Tertiary, age, as Mr E. T. Hardman supposed.
 Then comes the Leopold range of hills, from 1,500 feet to 2,000 feet
above the sea level, and formed of the oldest rocks known in the district,
namely, quartzites, altered grits, schists, and gneiss, and flanked on its
south-western face by limestones of Carboniferous age.  Passing onwards,
the gold bearing country is reached, the Great Autrim Plateau lying to the
Eastward, and extending into the Northern Territory.  This is of great
interest, as the plateau is the only great lava flow known in Western
Australia.  Both to the north and south of this table land, the Devonian
and Carboniferous rocks are well-developed, but on following the Ord River
further north, the crystalline rocks again outcrop at Mount Pill and the
Carr-Boyd Range.  South of the district stretches the Great Sandy Desert,
and inland plateau, believed to be about 5000 feet above sea level.
Several large rivers have their sources on the western edge of this
plateau, and their action upon the rocks form deep gorges, through which
the waters flow upon "flats bounded by rough sandstone ranges, and on the
deep ravines through broken hills of schists, slates, sandstones,
quartzites, conglomerates, and amygdaloids containing trap dykes, into
large alluvial plains, with here and there bold, massive hills of
amygdaloids and small peaks of quartz, granite and ironstone around which
soft calcareous slates often rise to the surface but never from hills much
above the level of the plain."

The amygdaloids in many places of this wild country, which we are told,
extends to the sea coast where they are mostly fringed with mangrove
swamps, "split up into rough blocks which became red or black on the
surface, and then present the appearance of a huge heap of stones, without
a trace of soil or vegetation.  They contain vast numbers of agates,
calcite crystals, and other enclosures so that it would be advisable to
prospect streams running through them for precious stones."  Further to
the south-west the rivers rise in a large range running N.W. and S.E., and
rising to 2,800 feet above the sea level.  This section of the country has
not yet been examined geologically, but it is reckoned to belong to
Carboniferous or Devonian age.  The coast ranges are next described, as
far as Nickol Bay, and these, it is said, rising about 700 feet above the
sea, are rough, broken hills, composed of hornblende schists, quartzite,
conglomerate, shales, limestones, amygdaloids, with diorite, granite,
actinolite, and tourmaline dykes, and tourmaline dykes [sic], and lodes of
ferruginous copper ore and ironstone, quartz and jaspery veins."  The
galenas, which have been shown to be rich in silver — and cupriferous
gossans of the district are pronounced well worth testing.  With regard to
the gold in the district, that lying in the reefs is associated with
sulphide of antimony, which, in some places, is so abundant that it would,
Mr Woodward, says, be well worth starting some auriferous antimony mines.
The description of the country downwards as far as the Murchison, calls
for little comment.  Many of the hills in the ranges of crystalline rocks
where this river rises, "are capped by horizontally embedded sandstone
intersected by numerous quartz reefs.  They are surrounded by large
alluvial flats of red clayey loam and sand, which are broken in places by
bald red granite hills, evidently intrusive, which appears to extend in
lines or belts across this part of the country."  The whole course of the
river lies, we are told, through country of nearly the same character, and
at it lower bend, the formation contains the mineral lodes, of which the
best known is the Geraldine lead mines.

The Victoria district, situated at the head of the Murchison and
Arrowsmith rivers has been the great centre of the mining interests of the
colony, most of the work done up to the present having been in that
portion lying between Geraldine and Geraldton.  "The country consists of a
series of flat-topped hills or table-lands, and clay, sandstones, and
limestones of Cretaceous and Oolitic age.  These, in many places, are
covered by sand-plains.  Where streams occur they have cut through the
newer rocks, removing large portions and exposing the crystalline rocks,
of which granite is the most abundant, the others being chiefly mica
schists, gneiss and quartzite, with numerous dykes of diorite, granite,
and felstone."  It is in this country that the rich lodes of lead and
copper occur, and may be traced for several miles by means of their clay
ironstone caps.  Numerous quartz reefs are found as cross courses, and at
the point of intersection the two lodes have always proved extra rich,
although the reefs themselves do not carry any metal.  "The most
remarkable thing about this district," observes Mr Woodward, "is the
finding of lead so abundantly in such a highly altered country, and this
can only be explained on the assumption that the infilling of the lodes
took place at a date more recent than that of the metamorplism of the
rocks."  Further east, the Mesozoic rocks are well developed, forming a
great, sandy table-land, 40 miles wide through which the Greenough River
has channelled a course exposing their sections and also a series of
Carboniferous rocks beneath them.  This river rises far to the eastward
among the crystallines and granite hills and alluvial plains of the
Murchison, and before emptying itself into the sea at Champion Bay, its
valley expands itself into a wide alluvial flat, between two lines of sand-
covered, limestone hills.  About fifty miles from the coast, the Irwin
river rises in the crystalline range of hills of which Peterwangy is the
highest.  As in the case of the Greenough, the Carboniferous series are
exposed by the action of the river cutting through the superincumbent red
clay, clay ironstone and ferruginous sandstone, the series being
represented by beds of clay, claystone, micaceous clays, limestones,
sandstones, and shales with gypsum, iron pyrites, and coal seams.  This
series is believed to be of considerable thickness, as there is a steady
dip throughout towards the N.E.  Lower down the river, where the clay beds
at the bottom of the series appear, "the valley opens out into large flat,
surrounded by broken flat-topped hills and undulating country of Mesozoic
age, the surface being covered with sand all the way down to the coast."
The coast-line from the Murchison to the Moore river is described as
consisting for the most part of Tertiary and Recent deposits, the salt
lagoons and swamps being separated from the sea by sandstone or limestone
of varying height up to 300 feet.  A series of flat-topped ranges, rising
600 ft. above the sea, run parallel to the shore, and are built of
horizontally bedded sandstone, ferruginous claystone and mottled limestone
containing Mesozoic fossils.  Further south the country is slightly
altered, and fossils of Cretaceous age are found.  Here numerous
stalactitic caves and underground watercourses exist.  Inland, between the
Yarra Yarra Lakes and the south branch of the Irwin called the Lockier
river, there are long ranges of crystalline rocks in which rich patches of
mineral lodes occur, but owing to the expense of cartage they have not
been worked up to the present.  A little further eastward there is another
low range of similar rocks, named the Herschel Range, which Mr Woodward
says is evidently the northern extension of the Darling Range, and extends
from the lakes just named northward to the Murchison.  It forms the
Eastern boundary of the Carboniferous and Mesozoic rocks, but it is
impossible to say at present whether the deposits with which it is capped
belong to the same series.  "Eastward of this an undulating and gradually
ascending plane is found, broken here and there by hills and also by
alluvial flats upon which lie ranges of crystalline rocks having numerous
quartz reefs.  A remarkable feature of the flat other large masses of
granite rising, sometimes, to considerable elevation above the surface."

"The central and eastern districts embrace the coast line between the
Moore and the Murray Rivers, and include the Darling Range."  The
formation comprises "a range of cliffs of coralline and shelly limestones,
calcareous sandstone containing Recent and Tertiary shells, and where the
rivers have removed these beds, large drifting hills of marine sand
occur."  A white silicious sand proved, a short distance below, to be a
compact red sandstone destitute of organic remains, overlies these
formations, and beneath this are found calcareous sandstones and gritty
conglomerates, or as near Perth, oyster beds and other estuarine deposits,
proving it to be of very recent date.  "Immediately underlying these coast
beds, and running in a parallel line between them and the Darling Range,
are beds of clay, supposed by Mr Gregory to be of Cretaceous age, and to
be an extension to the south of the beds of this age, which are exposed at
the Moore River, and extend as far south as Gingin.  On the Western edge
of this clay chalybeate springs rise.  A trial bore in this formations
struck, at a depth of 170 ft., a stratum of black shale containing
fragments of coal or lignite, and a great deal of iron pyrites.  Overlying
this clay and resting against the foot of the hills, are beds of white
sand, ferruginous conglomerates, and decomposed rock debris, in which have
been found many pieces of different ores and fragments of garnets and
other crystals."  Continuing his description of the Darling Range, Mr
Woodward says that "flanking the main granitic range a beds of clay slate,
mica schist, and flaggy sandstones, which, near the Murray, dip 60 deg. to
70 deg. to the W. and strike 10 deg. E. of N., while on the Canning the
strike is N. and S. and the dip vertical.  To the north these beds change
into micaceous sandstones, containing quartz veins, numbers of which,
together with diorite and porphyry dykes, occur along the western face of
this range and are often associated with metallic ores, though none large
or rich enough to pay have at present been found."  "This range, which
rises to 1,800 ft., is principally composed of hard crystalline rocks,
e.g., granite, syenite, porphyry and gneiss, containing numerous dykes of
granite, diorite, serpentine, quartz veins, and ironstone lodes, covered
for the most part with cappings of red clay and clay ironstone which in
places rest on large deposits of very pure kaolin, ferruginous sandstones,
grits and conglomerates, nodular clay ironstone and sand, sometimes as
much as 40ft in thickness, and as high as 800ft above sea level."  In the
absence of sufficient data to confirm the opinion that the beds are
Devonian, they may be considered provisionally as Mesozoic.  The character
of the rocks change on penetrating well into the range, but they are still
traversed by numerous quartz reefs and ironstone lodes.

At the north bend of the Avon, veins of quartz, and rich lodes of magnetic
iron yielding iron of great purity, are found.

To the eastward, we are told, the country is chiefly a large undulating
plain of sand, but "more to the east the sand almost entirely disappears,
giving place to large clay and loam flats with bold bare and red granite
hills and extensive red clay alluvial plains, with salt and gypsum
deposits which continue to about 119 degrees East longitude, when a line
of low ranges makes its appearance containing numerous quartz reefs and
ferruginous lodes, some of which have proved very rich in gold.  The
country here is a good deal broken and of comparatively slight elevation,
unlike most of the interior, which is a high table-land, and this may be
the result of extensive denudation arising from the fact that most of the
drainage of a large portion of the interior passes over this area, which
would also account for the ridges of the older rocks beneath being exposed.

"A marked feature on the S.W. coast is the chain of tidal lakes and inlets
and swampy alluvial deposits which follow the coast, sometimes connected
with the sea, and others separated by the sand-hills.  The bars across the
mouths of most of the rivers keep them fresh for a great part of the year,
although they are not running rivers, but merely estuaries with the waters
standing at sea level.  There is plenty of evidence to prove that this
coast is rising rapidly, in addition to the fact that many old colonists
remember when land at Fremantle, now quite above the water level used
daily to be covered by the tide."

"The south-western division is almost identical with the foregoing until
Bunbury is reached."  Between Capes Naturaliste and Leeuwin, there is a
line of range of crystalline rocks rising parallel to the Darling Range
and flanked towards the sea by limestone cliffs.  Between the ranges, a
distance of some 30 miles, is a stretch of country consisting of sand,
loams, clay and gravel, in which lignites of good quality have been found.
 "This southern portion of the Darling Range is of a highly crystalline
character, the rocks being mostly granite and gneiss with dykes of diorite
and feldspar, and quartz veins, all of which, as in the northern section,
are capped with deposits of clay, clay ironstone, and sandstone."

Columnar basalt makes its appearance at Bunbury, and events in places as
far south as Cape Beaufort.  "From this point to Albany the coast has bold
granite headlands, indented by a number of inlets into which the rivers
draining the South coast flow, often forming large alluvial deposits... "
North of Albany stands the Stirling Range, about 50 miles long, running
east and west, and attaining its greatest elevation in Kyenerup, a peak
3,500 feet above sea level.  The rocks "consist of quartzite, sandstone
ferruginous slaty sandstones, and slate, with quartz reefs striking east
and west, with a variable dip.  The country between this range and Albany
is entirely granite, large masses of which rise through the sand, with
which a good deal of it is covered.  At the foot of the Stirling Range
gold has been found, which gave a good return on assay, but was not worked
at a profit."

Eastward the coast presents a series of bold granite headlands as far as
Cape Arid, overlaid by fossiliferous Mesozoic rock, which extending far
into the interior, disappears beneath Giles' Great Victoria Desert.

"From Cape Arid to the boundary of the colony, a great mass of limestone
rises, presenting an almost vertical face, from 300 to 400 ft in height,
to the Great Australian Bight....  This great table-land extends some 200
miles into the interior: it has no rivers, but the rainfall soaks into the
porus [sic] limestone, and is discharged at the base of the cliffs.  The
rock is very interesting from a geological point of view, being very
largely composed of fossils."

GEOLOGY.

The next part of the report consists of a highly interesting description
of the geology of the colony.  Hitherto, Mr Woodward says, it has
generally been imagined that the formations to be found in Western
Australia were limited in number, and that the rocks were for the most
part either granite or sand; but that this was quite erroneous he proves
by furnishing a table of strata, showing the various formations now known,
and which, he says, will probably be much extended when all the country
has been thoroughly examined.  Following upon this is a description of the
characteristics of each geological period as far as at present known.
Thus, under the heading of "Recent and Tertiary Rocks," are described the
alluvium of lake basins, river valley gravel and estuarine deposits, sand
plains, raised beaches, ancient river gravel and lake basins (in which at
Bridgetown, it is reported, bones of the Diprotodon, a gigantic fossil
animal closely related to the kangaroo, have been found), limestones and
clays of various formations.  In describing the cretaceous beds, which are
well-developed in the flat-topped coast range from Gingin to the
northward, Mr Woodward refers to a very singular agency which is at work
altering the appearance of the country.  He says, "Both here, and in other
places, a great deal of work is done, vastly altering the appearance of
the country, by what may appear to many people at first sight to be a
perfectly ridiculous agency, viz., the white ants; but after passing over
the plains, or through the thickets, where their hills are so numerous
that it is difficult to drive amongst them, the immense amount of their
work can be better appreciated.  The clay cemented with resinous matter
with which they build their nests is as hard as brick, and when these fall
to pieces they form clay flats almost impervious to water, and so hard
that it will bear a great deal of traffic without being cut up.  The work
of these insects can be studied in all stages, first in the thickets where
they are commencing work, then in the more open country where they have
got the upper hand of the timber, next on the plains where half the hills
will be found deserted, and lastly on the clay flats where they have
almost entirely disappeared, and the scrub has begun to grow again.
Another remarkable thing about these nests is the amount of iron they
contain, for when a tree has been burnt in which they have built a nest,
there will be found at its base a mass of iron clinker, looking just as if
it had come out of a furnace."

The Palæozoic or Primary rocks described, are the Carboniferous, Devonian,
Silurian, Archœean and Metamorphic, and the Igneous rocks (volcanic and
plutonic) are also dealt with.  The next annual report will, if possible,
contain a list of the minerals and fossils of the country.

MINERAL WEALTH, &C.

Following upon the geological sketch is an account — partly historical,
and partly descriptive — of the mineral wealth of the colony.  Both have
already appeared in print, in another form.  "Every day," Mr Woodward
says, "news of fresh discoveries of gold and other valuable metals is
coming in.  There are, however, two great obstacles standing in the way of
these discoveries being immediately turned to account, viz.: — Want of
capital, and the construction that has been put on the Mining Regulations.
 Of these the first will be removed as soon as the out. side [sic] mining
world is assured of the genuineness of these finds, and that there is
really a good field for investment here; and the second as soon as the
Government strictly enforces all its regulations, as up to the present it
has been too lenient, and of this advantage has been taken, to the
detriment of the real interests of the colony, both in the floating of
companies, and by the holding of areas without fulfilling the labour
conditions."  The mineral deposits described are gold, lead, copper, tin,
iron, antimony, zinc, manganese, mica, asbestus [sic], kaolin, coal, and
graphite.  In conclusion of this part of the report, Mr Woodward says,
"sufficient evidence has now been brought forward to show that this is
decidedly a mineral country, and when we take into consideration the vast
size of the colony and the small number of inhabitants, and consequently
the small amount of prospecting that can possibly have been done up to the
present, there cannot be any doubt but that many more, and, perhaps, far
richer deposits of valuable minerals, may be found; but as we have already
discovered more than we can at present use, what is now needed is the
incoming of enterprising people with money from other parts of the world
to assist in developing this known mineral wealth.  It is often asked by
persons in other places, why, if we have such wonderfully rich deposits,
we do not work them all ourselves instead of offering them to others, and
to this the answer is that as there are not sufficient people here with
money to work more than one or two mines efficiently, while at the present
time they are trying to develop a hundred, and as a natural consequence
failures are occurring on every side."

A summary of work done in 1888 and 1889 follows, and this consists of the
reports which has been forwarded from time to time by Mr Woodward to the
Government, and which have appeared already in the newspapers.

Mr Woodward proposes issuing a geologically coloured map of the whole
colony at the end of the year, as by that time he hopes to have examined
most of the settled country.  For information of the interior he will have
to depend upon that which can be gained from reports and maps of explorers.

In the preparation of his report and in his work of the past two years, he
has, he says, being greatly assisted by the work done by his predecessors,
and amongst those mentioned are Messrs. A.T. and F.T. Gregory, Messrs. H.
Y. L. Brown, E.T. Hardman, and H.E. Victor, Rev. C. G. Nicolay, and the
late Mr W. Knight, while the department of the Surveyor General, both
under the late Capt. Roe, and present head, the Hon. John Forrest, has
done much in elucidating the Geology of this immense country.

Alluvial gold was first found on the Ashburton River, at the beginning of
this year, about 14 miles S of the tree marked 45 (triangle), in a creek
flowing down a gorge, about 200 feet deep, between steep cliffs of clay-
slate capped by almost horizontally bedded limestones.

These clay slates dip at a high angle to the N.E.  They are intersected in
places by small quartz reefs or leaders, in many cases ferruginous, but up
to the present none of them have proved to be rich in gold.  The capping
limestone (dolomite) and the underlying shaley, sandstone, and limestone
beds are probably a northern and eastern extension of the carboniferous
formation so largely developed on the Lyons and Gascoyne Rivers, there was
yet no fossils have been found by which their age can be definitely fixed.
 The beds dip at an angle of 20 deg. S, resting unconformably upon the
upturned edges of the clay-slates, and along the line of junction many
strong springs arise.  To the S these limestones form a large flat-topped
range or table land, and owing to their dip they completely cover the clay-
slates in this direction, even in the gullies and the stream beds, which
are here at a comparatively high elevation.

There cannot be the least doubt that the gold in the gullies has been
derived directly from the mineral veins in the clay-slates, for it has
never been found in those gullies where the slates are absent, and the
overlying formation is not of highly mineralized character.  The mineral
veins must be of great antiquity as they must all have been formed prior
to the deposition of the superincumbent carboniferous rocks, for in no
case do they extend beyond the line of junction.

It is rather remarkable, that there are no conglomerate beds in this
district at the junction of these two formations; the limestone for the
most part resting directly upon the upturned edges of the clay slates.
Should any such conglomerates or detrital deposits be discovered, they
should be prospected, as it is highly probable they were proved rich in
gold.

The gold in this field is very pure, and free from quartz and ironstone.
All the larger pieces were of a flat bar shape, owing to their having been
formed between the slate ledges by the slow accumulation of fine gold,
which has been joined together by the gradual accretion of the minute
quantities held in solution by the water.  The largest nugget weighed
about 6 lbs.  It is estimated that from 9000 to 10,000 ozs. have been
taken from these diggings.  The run of gold in the main gully extended for
over one mile in length, the most of the gullies N. and S. for a distance
of about 5 miles along this line have proved rich.

There is plenty of water on this field.  Owing to other discoveries that
be made lower down the River, there are present only about 60 men working
here, who are all getting enough gold to pay their way, and most of them
must be doing pretty well, as they are nearly all old hands, who would not
stop and work for nothing.  It is admitted that any one can get half an
ounce of fine gold a week anywhere, and that it would be considered a bad
week, unless, what is called, a "speck" weighing a few ounces were found.

Whence this gold is derived it is impossible to say without carefully
mapping and prospecting the area, but it is highly probable that it
results from slow accumulation from poor quartz and ironstone reefs,
though in some cases it may have been washed from older "leads" and
conglomerate beds, which, if they existed, must have followed the present
courses of the creeks, for no traces of such beds are now to be seen.  The
deepest sinkings on this field are from two to three feet.

THE "SOLDIER'S SECRET" OR MIDDLE CAMP.

This field is situated about 20 miles N.W. of the former and about 14
miles up the Mount Blair Creek.  It is very similar in formation to that
of the Top Camp, except that the flat topped limestone hills are two miles
to the S.  The gullies run between steep clay slate hills and carry gold
for distances of 200 to 400 yards.  The gold is much finer.  It is
estimated that 1500 ounces have been found up to the present.  The
diggings cover an area of about 5 square miles.  Messrs. Cook & Green have
sunk a well in the bed of the Mount Blair Creek where there is a good
supply of water.

To the N.W. of the Camp there are the remains of an old lead crossing some
low hills, where fine gold occurs everywhere on the surface and in pockets
on a false bottom of travertine limestone.  In the wash a great deal of
ironstone, some magnetic, is found with the gold, but, as at the Top Camp,
very little quartz.

Some large quartz reefs cross this line of country, forming high hills,
but it is not at all probable that they carry gold; the smaller reefs and
ferruginous veins are far more promising.  The largest pieces of gold
found on this field weighed about an ounce, but larger may have been found
and not reported.

THE DEAD FINISH.

This field is situated on the north side of the river, about 5 miles north
of tree marked 35 with a triangle, and 6 north-west of Gregory's Deep
Creek.  This patch of country is not nearly so hilly as the other fields,
and there is much more quartz, from which it is probable that the gold has
been derived, for it has been found in the gullies up to, but not higher
than, the quartz reefs.  These diggings are the "stand-by" for any man who
is penniless, for he can be certain of enough gold to pay his way at these
workings.  The gold is mostly nice and shotty, in character; a piece about
8 oz in weight has been found.  It is estimated that about 1000 oz. has
been obtained.  There are seventy men now at work.  Unfortunately water
has to be carted about six miles, and the gold is not found so easily as
in some the other diggings [sic].

THE GORGE.

These diggings are situated a little to the south-west of the Dead Finish,
but on the other side of the river.  Some nice nuggets were found, and a
rush set in, but the extent of country was neither large nor rich enough
for a number of men, so has been nearly deserted, but the few remaining
must be getting gold or they would not stop.

MOUNT MORTIMER DIGGINGS.

These diggings are situated about 7 miles S.E. of the hill marked on the
new maps as Mt Dawson, but which has always been known in the district as
Mt Mortimer.

The country here is slightly different from the upper fields, as the clay-
slates are often replaced by sandy slates and ferruginous sandstone beds,
and is generally harder, while the gullies are not so steep.  The
"sinking" is, as a rule, deeper, and being so much harder a claim takes
longer to work out.

In one gully a quantity of large pieces of gold were found, the largest
weighing 56 ozs., but in the other gullies the gold, as a rule, is not
found in large pieces, and is generally associated with a good deal of
ironstone; indeed, the latter is often included, so that the lumps have to
be crushed in order to separate the gold.  The nearest water is 5 miles
distant, but in spite of this there are about 200 men camped here, mostly
doing well, but as a claim takes a month or six weeks to work out, they
cannot make money so rapidly as a where they have only to rake out the
slate bars with a pick.

It is believed that about 2000 ozs. have already been sent away from this
field, as the claims are not yet half worked out, it will probably yield a
large quantity of gold.

GENERAL REMARKS.

An auriferous belt of country extends from Hick’s on the Ashburton ,
following this river in a S.E. direction for about 150 miles.  It is
bounded on the S. by the Baxter Range and a flat-topped table land, which
follows the main course of the river at a  distance of 14 miles to its S.
To the N. it extends across the Ashburton and Harding Rivers to Mount Wall
and De Courcey Range, i.e., a distance in a northerly direction from the
river of 20 to 30 miles, which gives an auriferous area of about 10,000
square miles.

The rocks are identical with those of the auriferous areas of the other
colonies, and entirely different from anything in this colony, to the
South of this district.  The river follows the strike of their out-crop,
and their dip is mostly to the E.  They consist of clay and chloritic
slates, sandstones and quartzites (the slates being often of the cleavable
kind used for roofing purposes), they are intersected by numerous quartz
and ferruginous lodes, which have often highly altered the slates in which
they occur, and these whitish and highly mineralized portions of the
country should be prospected.  There is a most promising tract of this
class between the Dead Finish and Gregory's Deep Creek.

The general features a high slate ranges to the S., backed up in the
distance by flat-topped ranges.  Large alluvial planes following the river
chiefly on the N. side, with here and there are low isolated slate hills
rising up through the plain, and some miles away to the N. slate ranges
again recur.

Up to the present very little prospecting has been done, as only the rich
patches in the shallow ground are considered worth troubling about, and as
there is no protection for the finder of a new field, the two or three
prospectors who have made such discoveries will not attempt to work them
till more men leave the field, as at the present time if one of the
prospectors lays in a large stock of rations, or is missed for a few days
he is at once tracked up by about 100 men, at which kind of work a large
number of men seem to spend their time.

In the large planes of the Ashburton there are sure to be some very rich
deposits of gold found, but as the prospecting will be most expensive
work, no man will undertake it, unless he be granted a protection area,
until the course of the leads has been ascertained.

Taken as a whole this is a most promising tract of country and will,
without doubt, prove a rich and lasting goldfield, but it is highly
probable that before this is proved that everyone may leave the field
under the impression that all gold is worked out, when they have scratched
all they can from the slate bars of the small gullies in the ranges, but
there will still remain that which will yield the best returns, viz: the
deep ground as yet untouched.

This field, as far as it has been worked, has been the most productive in
the colony, for about 15,000 ounces have been raised since January, and it
is only during the last three months that many men (600) have been on the
ground.

CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PRROPERTIES.

Gold is always found in the native or metallic state, but generally alloyed with silver, copper, or iron, and although one of the most widely distributed and earliest worked metals it is comparatively rare, owing to the fact that it mostly occurs in small quantities requiring a great deal of labour to win it. It has been always highly prized owing to its beautiful colour, the ease with which it can be worked, the fact that it does not tarnish when exposed to the action of air or water, and so far it has been almost universally adopted as the standard of exchange.

In the early part of the 4th century the Alchemists spent their lives in seeking what was called the Philosophers stone which would give them the power of melting the baser metals in certain proportions, and thus transforming them into gold. It has now been generally decided by chemists that it is an element, or in other words that it cannot be split up into any more elementary substances, neither can it be manufactured. In the pure state its specific gravity is very high, being [figure unclear] times as heavy as water, which physical character is taken advantage of in separating it from other minerals, for beside platinum and two or three of the very rare metals, an equal bulk of it is heavier than any other substance.

This metal melts at 2000deg. Farenheit, [sic] and can also be volatilised at very high temperatures. In the pure state its colour and streak (a mark made by it on porcelain) is a deep golden yellow, but in the finely divided state it is either red or black, whilst by transmitted light it is green. It is the most malleable and ductile metal, as a grain of it can be beaten out large enough to cover 54 ¾ square inched of 1—280,000th of an inch in thickness, whilst Faraday calculated that the gold from four sovereigns, if drawn into wire, would be long enough to reach round the earth at the equator.

It does not readily enter into chemical combinations with the other elements, and when it does the resulting salts are very unstable being decomposed when brought in contact with other metals, metallic salts, organic substances or by exposure to the action of light and air. It is not acted upon by any simple acid, but is dissolved by chlorine in solution or by nitro-hydrochloric acid forming auric chloride, one of its most stable salts.

Pure gold is so soft that it can be scratched by the finger nail, therefore it has to be alloyed with other metals to increase its hardness, silver or copper being the most generally employed. An alloy it must be understood is not a chemical compound, as no chemical action takes place, but simply a mixture of two or more metals in any proportions, the English gold standard being an alloy of 11 parts of gold to one part of copper, but as this is not hard enough for jewelry the proportion of copper is greatly increased. The fineness of those alloys is spoken of as so many carat gold. Pure gold is expressed as 24 whilst in lower standards the number of parts of pure gold in the 24 is mentioned, a sovereign is 22 carat or 22 parts gold and 2 copper.

As gold used in jewelry is mostly of certain standards as 22, 18, 15 or 12 carats it is not necessary to melt it up to tell its fineness, but this can he done by marking with it on a black basaltic stone (called a touchstone) then treating the mark with dilute nitric acid and comparing it with golds of known standards similarly treated.

Gold also has the property of forming an amalgam with mercury at ordinary temperatures, when it forms a soft slimy mass in which the gold and mercury are found to be perfectly mixed This affinity of mercury for gold is taken advantage of in its extraction.

For testing the presence of gold in very minute quantities the mineral is finely pulverized and agitated with an alcoholic tincture of iodine, into this solution a piece of filter paper is dipped and then burnt, when if the colour of the ash is purple, it indicates the presence of gold; but this should be confirmed by evaporating the alcoholic tincture to dryness and treating the residue with nitro-hydrochloric acid, and again evaporating, dissolving the residue in water, and dropping in a drop of a mixture of stannous and ferric chloride, when a deep purple colour will be seen (Purple of Cassius), which confirms the presence of gold.

Gold may be distinguished from iron pyrites, copper pyrites, and mica, by the ease with which it will cut with a knife. Iron pyrites, being as hard as quartz, will not cut; copper pyrites will cut, but it yields a greenish powder ; whilst mica splits off in shining scales. Another method, where the specks are too small to try the with a knife, and acids are not at hand, is to make the stone red-hot, and either let it cool or drop it into cold water, when the iron pyrites will turn red, the copper black, and the mica lose its lustre, whilst the gold will remain unaltered.

There need be no fear of melting the gold, as it requires a much higher temperature than that of an ordinary fire. Gold, besides being valuable as a medium of exchange, is one of the most useful metals. For jewelry it cannot be surpassed, owing to its beautiful colour. the fact that it does not rust, and the ease with which it can be worked. It is also used largely for plating and gilding, in both of which processes gold leaf was originally used, but now it is found much more economical, when the article to be plated is metal, to deposit a thin coating of gold from solution by means of an electric current, by which a very thin film of gold can be evenly deposited over a large surface.

Gold is used also for colouring glass, the beautiful reds called ruby glass being due to the pretence of it in small quantities. In photography it in also of great value, owing to the permanency of the beautiful tones that can be obtained by replacing the silver in the original print with it, and a great variety of shades are produced, varying from black, blue, pink to brown, according to the salt used in the solution.

ITS OCCCURRENCE.

Gold, as was before said, is always found in nature in the metallic state, but mostly alloyed with small quantities of other metals. It was formerly supposed to be always associated with quartz which was considered to be an indication of it, but this idea has exploded, as it has now been found with calcite, serpentine, diorite, and granite, and associated with the ores of lead, iron, antimony, copper and tin.

It is true certainly that quartz commonly occurs with it, but the white quartz reefs which were
first worked are now not thought so much of as the more mineralized veins. Although always found in the metallic state it is highly probable that it also exists in nature as a sulphide, but as this salt is so unstable it would be decomposed before this could be determined.

Gold occurs in nature in two forms namely alluvial gold and reef gold, in the former state it is found in the stream beds and deep leads and has been derived directly from the reefs by the weathering action of the stream, the gold being left behind at the bottom of the gully owing to its great specific gravity, whilst the lighter minerals have been washed away. Reef gold occurs in veins, lodes or dykes, the term reef or vein being used to describe a lode where there is a predominance of an earthy mineral, lode where an ore or metallic mineral is in the larger proportion, and a dyke when it owes its origin to plutonic action and is infilled from below. These reefs and veins mostly occur in the older Palaeozoic formation, the rocks being generally clay slate or schist. Veins are fissures or faults which have been infilled by mineral matter in solution, either from small cross fissures and leaders, or directly from the side of the vein itself, which has been mostly the case in this colony where, as a rule, the reefs have one good wall coated with a greasy impervious caseing, whilst on the other side the country is much broken, and many small veins and leaders or feeders strike away from it into the country, and the rock on this side being as a rule more pervious than next the good wall.

Although only found in workable quantities in the mineral veins amongst these older rooks gold occurs in minute quantities throughout the whole geological series, and the sea water in some places contains an appreciable quantity of it in solution. It was upon this fact that the theory of the latteral infilling of mineral veins was based, as previously the presence of gold could only be accounted for by the theory that all reefs were filled from below, the vein stuff which carried the gold being thrown up in a molten state. But now that we know that gold is soluble under certain conditions, it is highly probable that highly heated water, charged with certain salts, might have dissolved the minute traces of gold from out of the rock through which it passed, depositing it in the fissures.

In what state the gold was when in solution it is impossible to say, as we have no means of experimenting with it, at enormous temperature, and under the tremendous pressure that existed when it was deposited; but it is highly probable that it was in the form of a double sulphide. The silica was also probably in the form of soluble silicate, whilst the other metals would be in the form of sulphides. The water charged with the mineral matter would gradually find its way into these fissures, on the sides of which it would deposit the mineral in layers, which would cause the banded appearance which is so commonly met with in veins, whilst owing to the peculiar physical character of minerals which, when deposited from solution, sort and arrange themselves, the gold, instead of being all through the stone in an inappreciable form, would be deposited in smaller or larger specks or particles according to the richness at the time of the infilling solution.

ITS EXTRACTION.

To extract gold the stone must first be pulverized. This is done either by batteries or mills, the former of which although a very rude contrivance is found to answer the purpose better than any more complicated machine.

A battery consists roughly of a number of pestles or stampers (generally five) working in a mortar or box into which a stream of water is conveyed by a pipe, and the stone fed in from the back whilst at the front there is a fine wire grating or screen through which when fine enough the stone is carried by the water on to the table. This is an inclined board with amalgamated copper plates and a number of troughs filled with mercury, whilst at the lower end of the table are blankets; owing to the greater density of the gold it sinks into the mercury, or when in very fine particles is caught by the amalgamated plates, whilst the blankets catch the coated gold which will not amalgamate and other ores which may be rich in the precious metal.

Mills are of various patterns, but the general principle on which they work is to grind the stone with mercury which amalgamates with the gold whilst the earthy minerals are worked away as sand and mud. The amalgam resulting from both these processes is heated in a retort, which drives off all the mercury, leaving behind a spongy cake of gold, which is then melted and cast into ingots. The blanket sands are generally roasted and ground with mercury, when the resulting amalgam is treated as above.

In other processes, like the chlorination, the stone is first pulverised and then put into vats. These vats are closed down and charged with chlorine gas which attacks the gold, forming a soluble chloride. When this part of the process is complete it is dissolved out with water from which the pure gold is precipitated. This process is largely used when the gold is very finely divided, as at Mount Morgan, but it would not pay where the simple modes of extraction suffice.

Alluvial gold is mostly found associated with a more or less free wash or dirt (pay dirt) in a gutter at the bottom of a stream bad or lead (old watercourse), but sometimes it is cemented by lime, magnesia, silica or iron, which makes it impossible to work without first crushing it, whilst at other times the wash contains so much stiff clay that it is necessary to puddle it before it can be washed.

There is very little trouble as a rule in working alluvial ground, except in places like Victoria where the leads are covered by basalt often of great thickness, and the gold can be easily separated from the dirt by either washing or dry blowing. The washing is done in many ways, the principals of which are the sludge, the cradle, and the dish. The first of these consists of a long inclined box open at the lower end with a false bottom and ban or ledges, called a Long Tom, through which a stream of water is run and into which the dirt is thrown, the whole being cleaned up at certain intervals when the gold is found under the false bottom and ledges, whilst all the stones and rubbish have been washed out at the lower end.

A cradle is a box on rockers with a coarse screen at the top on which the dirt is put, water in small quantities poured over it and then rocked, which sifts out the coarser stones, which are thrown away, whilst the finer pass over a number of inclined boards with ledges in the inside of the cradle and finally, minus the gold, are discharged from a small shoot at the bottom. In this, as in the sluice, the gold is found along the ledges of the inclined trays.

The dish most commonly used in these colonies is round with a flat bottom, sloping sides and a little groove on one side to prevent the gold running away with the water and sand. Into this dish the dirt is put with water, the gold being settled to the bottom by a peculiar circular motion. The dish is then inclined and partially submerged in water, by which the lighter material is washed off until only the gold in left.

Dry blowing is only resorted to when water is very scarce. This consists of a winnowing process. First one dish is placed upon the ground in as windy a place as possible, then another is taken full of dirt and poured into the first from as great a height as the blower can reach. After this has been repeated several times and the larger stones picked out, the reduced quantity of heavy material is treated in one dish, from which it is thrown into the air in a particular manner after being first shaken in the pan. When this is sufficiently reduced it is finished by picking out or blowing the small remaining stones away from the gold which is then fairly clean.

AURIFEROUS BELTS OF THIS COLONY.

There are four auriferous belts in this colony, the first of which runs nearly North and South, about 200 to 250 miles from the coast in the southern portion of the colony, and it is on this belt that Yilgarn and the Murchison goldfields are situated.

In the Ashburton the belt runs North West and South East, but is probably the extension of  the Yilgarn belt, which ends at the head of this river. The Roebourne belt strikes East and West along the North West coast from the Nicol River to the DeGrey River, disappearing beneath the sandy tableland to the eastward. The Kimberley belt strikes in a North East and South West direction, and is very probably the extension of the Roebourne belt, re-appearing on the North-Easterly side of the sandy tableland. These belts carry gold for a great length, the reefs as a rule are of great size and very rich, and wherever they have been tested they have proved to be good.

A large quantity of stone has been crushed from the different fields, which has averaged 1oz. to the ton of stone, whilst alluvial patches of great value are still being worked. Gold mining here is in its infancy, not yet being ten years old ; but as during this time it has made great progress, especially during the last year or two, there is every prospect that this colony, before long, will be one of the chief gold producing countries of the world.