> 21 July 1963 (Sunday)
Beautiful morning, country in good condition. Bob Fallon at Crossing Inn, knew Blatchford, spent time in old days as his agent in 1923,4, 5 shipping fossils from the Crossing soak for him, does not recognise the ...tothere(?) . H.C. Branby is gardener at the inn, will meet him later Arthur left with truck to get back to Derby by lunchtime. Will ask Bill to send a wire first thing in morning to let me know what to do tomorrow about going out. Fallon says that Blatchford spent most of his time in this area & would not be surprised if the ..notothine(?) came from here. Mr Branby says that a large bone was found between Rundles Bore and Tuber Creek - Mr Pat McDonald Chief Dogger from Wyndham - collected the bone from a native boy who took him to the site, carried in flower pots. (South of Christmas Creek). B. says good "concrete" exposures on the "Leopold" road at 12 mile gorge. Through the gap there a number of creeks, mayor of Christmas Creek is Don Laidlaw - could be helpful. B. told me that he had picked up an "oyster" in the Erskine Ra. Showed him the labyrinthodont fossils I collected - he is not sure but thinks they are the same. Will keep his eyes open.

Eric turned up in Land Rover and we drove down to Gorge, past homestead turnoff then straight on to antcamp hills down the main road then turned left through the antcamps and on to Virgin Bore, from there S.E. about 2 miles down an abandoned fence line to camp at a low outcrop. Toombs & Ken in good order, excellent collections : a beautiful fauna(?) with Arthrodius, Antionals(?), Palaeomiscids, Dipnoi (but these are a mess and could well be something else) Goniatites, small molluscs, Eurypterids & ? (the curious undeterminable things that have puzzled me in previous collections).

Drove out to a locality nearby where there is an aboriginal stone arrangement(?). Ken has collected surface artifacts and I photographed. Went over to the "Amphitheatre" in the Emanuel Range, found a beautiful little fissure fill in a cave (collected)and then another outside (found by Ken Haigh) - this had much more phreatic banding etc. Then on way back Toombs and I had a good look at the floor of the amphitheatre and concluded that the whole is a valley fill which contains shales, conglomerates, sun cracked mudstones and the local cement bedding & inclusions (?) are of the biostromal limestones of the range as well as sandstone pebbles which look as though they could be derived from the Permian (like the hills near the homestead) - collected samples of the fill.

Ken B. collected bats Taphozous in a cave and is also having success with Sminthopsis in a creek near the camp. fat tailed - pale with interorbital(?) stripe well marked. Drove back to camp, photographed the collection of Toombs etc. and then back to the Crossing where I gave the boys dinner. Toombs will be in Perth .

> 22nd July (Monday)
Going to be a hot day.

Ken, Eric and Harry Toombs turned up and we drove out to the exposure of probable Fairfield beds some 10 miles from Fitzroy Crossing along the Derby Road. It is a pit in the topof a little rise where a bull-dozer has pushed up the surface into heaps for road metal etc. Excellent inbatelsintes(?) fossils esp. brachiopods. I found part of the tentacles of a crinoid.Brypzoa also v. common. We collected a good series and I made arrangements with Toombs for him to take the lot. Have the material sorted and send half to us. I must make sure that Errol White adds this material into our agreement.

Got back to the Crossing, found that Bill and Alex had turned up so took Toombs & Eric up for a flight to have a look at Gogo - Bill went with Ken to collect some more fossils from Fairfield Beds (Brachiopods, coral ?). Had lunch at the Crossing then got aboard for flight to Kununurra.

Filmed some Gogo country, Leopolds not as rough as I could have expected, Durack Range very sparse savannah. Filmed Geikie Gorge and surrounding country then nothing until North of Pompey's Pillar from 9,000 ft. Coming into the Ord, fantastic rough country. Some stills taken, wrong height to take cine, still very open savannah, extremely broken rock piles (1545 over main road) Took a lot of film and photos of Pompeys Pillar area Kodachrome II-18, Film no.2 - 60 ft. Argyle Downs turning down over Ord River, still taken looking south, photos of gullying at Ord. Arrived at Club and got accommodation, not good - in undercroft.

> 23rd July (Tuesday)
Kununurra 0800 hrs take-off for Wyndham, some film at S of Ord soon after take-off - co..ing (?) a metre but at 32 frames at f8. Exposed the last five feet coming into Wyndham. Have decided - if not too rough - stick to 32 frames exposing us for 1/80 sec.

Wyndham. Take-off 09.15 hrs, bearing 335* for Cape Ruthieres, The patch of Trop. David Woodland at Crater(?) Valley is densely differentiated from the air. Trees are spaced as in savannah but there seems to be little cover between them. Few steep valley bottoms are densely wooded, particularly in the northern slopes.

09.45 Abreast Buckle Head coming up for Mt. Casuarina will turn over Berkeley River (full of water) for photography.

09.55 back to Casuarina on coast again.Photography with all cameras: Kodachrome II finished cue 3 18ft., - Photos of Cape Ruthieres Ektachrome 16. King George River - also deep gorge10.05 hrs. Le Sueur Island has a reef with breakers on eastern side about 1 island's width off shore. 1010 SE of Cape Londonderry v. dry sparse woodland, deep river gorges with dense woodland along foot of breakaways. Ektachrome S. into one of the inlets E. of C. Londonderry, 3 bays east of C. Londonderry excellent mangroves. Photo Stewart Islands, coming in over Pago Mission, photography Ekta & Cue 10.25. 10.35 on ground at Kalumburu, photography with Ektachrome on way.

Father : Sang
Father : Rasendo (or Rosendo)
Brother: Augustine - Brother Andrew ?

Says that Athol's material was collected from 2 main localities : from the rocky hills near the camp and the rest from the deciduous woodland and the airstrip which I photographed on the way in.

Went for a walk with the Father Superior, drove out W. past the airstrip into "Sandstone Country" where he says that the "ringtail" lives in the rocks [short tail as big as a cat] other animals are Squirrel [flying possum].  large grey kangaroo, little rock wallaby, larger rock wallaby & porcupine. The larger masses of sandstone blocks look identical with the Alligator River situation found by Dahl. the Black Pigeon with white wings is very common also. cf. Dahl. The little rock wallaby comes down to the "parent" country - seats v. common in like country. Marsden Creek in this country poorly vegetated (see photos of the "island"). Walked back to Mission then through it onto the black soil of the "Basalt" country. This is typified by good grasses growing right up to the roots of the trees, big trees, no Cypress pine. He says that the most characteristic animal of this country is the large red kangaroo (probably antilopine?).

15.35 Take off. cine 25, Kodachrome III 13 timed over basin of filmed area to give good pictures of sandstone country, then on to junction of Carson and King Edward rivers, filmed there. Up to Mt. Connelly, basalt savannah well spaced trees, entered reserve area, did some filming on way in but kept b&w in reserve - finished b&w. Turned west at Banjo Creek and then made a swift run back to the Ord. Finished the cine film with a shot of the high cliffs on the far side of the Pentecost(?) across the Forrest River. Kodak II of Wyndham from above the Leake Hills. 16.45 Shot of the hills KII last on film between W. & IC. In to land 17.05 hrs.

> 24th July 63 (Wed)
8.00 hrs Kununurra take off due west for Parry Creek where it crosses the Turkey Creek Rd in order to get photographs of Rogers loc.

New films in all cameras, took 3 b&w, 7 Kodachrome IIof the point where P. Creek crosses the old road. Sandstone country, trees fairly widely spaced except along the creek itself, a bit of a gorge but no real rock piles.

Wyndham. Photo of town coming in of Ken High - of town from Warf.

Take off for Prince Regent Rd. :10.30 b&w 4 Kodachrome II 11, cine none taken. have decided to expose B&W at 500th on the metre for the rest of the trip.

11.00 Junction of Gibb & Drysdale Rds, trees well separated, well watered with creeks but sparse vegetation along banks. Mt Hann area: E. of Mt Hann, entered Prince Regent River area about

11.30 and flew down the river, filming all the way. Because of the sun it was necessary to turn up river for each sequence. There were three major ones:
   (1) in headwaters
   (2) about  mid-river
   (3) tidal sandbanks area with ...ment of mangroves (4) final sequences at mouth of river. These were taken on the beginning of reel[5]. In all cases I changed films in the course of the river. Flew over Kuri Bay system settlement

12.15, took B&W. 12.25 flew over Montgomery Islands, very different in climate from the others which are rocky with woodland or savannah, they have low topography with no rocks, grasslands and mangroves. Over Koolan Is, filmed over Watjulin(?)

12.45 photos & film. All the country here is quartzite hills with sparse tree cover river valleys with mangroves. At higher levels the ..ion valleys seem to become fairly ......ble woodlands. Entrance to King Sound v. sudden vegetation transition S. of Saddle Hill filmed, and also edge of Stokes Bay,

13.05 Point Torment, the centre of Point Torment very different scrub steppe.

13.10 Derby. Had luck in Derby team found that the fuel leads to the starboard engine was worn through where it passed through the main span and a bad petrol leak had developed. New part from Perth needed to go into Broome by B..... truck.

> 25th July 1963 (Thursday)
Our wedding anniversary, sent a telegram to Margaret & letters to her and the children. Drove out to Lighthouse Point to try to see the dinosaur tracks but sea too high, Brown sandstone at lower levels & exposures of flint bedded sandstones with fine cross-bedding at higher levels but strata are horizontal [sketch], on top of this are some channel deposits full of rubbish obviously eroded into the sandstone. This rubbish appears to be solifluxion debris. Above this is a complex ..... with some plant fossils which seems to be heavily ferruginized with fine recognizable sandstones(?). Plant fossils collected from the upper horizons of the of the unferruginous Brown sandstone. Above the base of the uppermost channel deposits and also 1 spec from the ferruginized horizon [sketch].

Alex arrived at approx 11.30, Take off Broome 12.30 hrs, over airfield 12.32 1500ft., 138*, 12.38 over coast. Firestreaks very visible in the Pindan (classified in A.A.R. as Scleropoly(?) 1 serufs(?) several). 12.50 Sandhills coming in but still reasonable vegetation, tracks out here. Excellent E/W track 12.55. Low E/w sandhills of low white(?) parallel, 1300 hrs. clipe(?) ornne(?). Sandhills about 200* apart.

1300-1310 hrs photography in circ. 90/ft, all cameras(?) used / taken at about 3-400 ft. 13.25 flew between 2 series of salt lakes or clay pans. Probably Cudmalgarra clay pan and Chingal Mudduge spring in the Eastern side, no-name on the west. These are interdural , still due some sparse vegetation.

 Photo of chain sandhills 13.30 at 4,900 ft.

Crossing Cardy Biddy springs at 13.40 this is clearly an old river system II to the Fitzroy and De Grey, outcrops numerous. From what I have seen on this flight I suspect that the thinness of the vegetation on the southern edge of the Basin is due to the fires. Where fire streaks are present clues are blown out but not otherwise. In bed of Cardy Biddy R. quite dense patches of sturdy timber - looks a bit like Callitris from the air.

13.45 Sandhills now over vegetation badly fire streaked for some reason this is scored as Sclerophyll low tree savannah but it looks the same as the other.

13.55 Slightly bigger trees coming into the picture between the scrub.

13.58 Creeks with denser vegetation along their banks but hardly nack(?)west

14.00 Cross telegraph line took colour & b&w of creeks (b&w too flat, did not come out)

14.05 peneplain with breakway and dense "eucalypt" cover in valleys, presumably the Jurassic means you can see across the De Grey & Oakover.

14.10 Photos / colour of the De Grey. 1 at campsite (Carlindie(?) Creek) passing over Carlindie Stn strip. Photo of the De Grey from 5000. Finished off cine on it as well, end of reel.

14.22 photos coloured and b&w of Bamboo Creek. Country here is crossed with ranges which seem to be Oglaes(?) All around essentially trimodia steppe with vegetation in the creeks & washes(?).

14.35 Flying Marble Bar area, photos, colour & b&w of river and town. Searched for the "Marble bar" & found it upstream from the town in the edge of the hills.

14.45 set course for Wittenoom, rough range country with rounded spinifex covered hills, vegetated creeks in the larger valley bottoms. Very rough but essentially an old surface with little in the way of Breakaways.

14.50 Shaw R.. Hamersleys in sight in the distance. From Marble Bar onwards there is not really very much essential change in the country.

15.03 Turner River in Abydos Airstrip to the west of us. The granites are clearly visible and rise isolated out of the flat plain,Photographs from 6000ft, colour & b&w. The plain of the Turner R. is a wide arc and separates the Marble Bar hills from the foothills of the Hamersleys but they seem to run together to the east of our track.15.10 Coming up into the spinifex covered hills of the edge of the tableland. Tableland is savannah.

15.20 Swamps in Mulga Downs filled.15.25 Landed Wittenoom. Const. Tom Marshall correspondent of Glen Storr. Snakes. : Jack Flood Health Dept.; Bill Flynn, Tom McLeod, councillors, and town clerk Frank Shehan.

Went up into W. Gorge past old mine workings to rock falls around the Eastern Wall after Gorge branched off to West. Found various concretions and ripple marks but no fossils I could recognize. Photographed 2 lots & collected a small ancredin (?) to bring back to show to Neville and Dorothy Beeck to check whether it was these that they had seen. Tom Marshall drove Alex, Ken and myself up. Spent the evening with the council talking about Town & Reserve Planning.

> 26th July 1963 (Friday)
Ready for take-off at 08.00 hrs for Millstream & then Barlee Ra. Route: Swamps over Mulga Downs, film - Millstream via Karijinji(?) film - Mt Hubert area, then Mt Flora & due south to the ...., then direct course to Carnarvon.>  

Take off 09.25 hrs : Start of new reel : filmed range then the vegetation about the Mulga Downs swamps. Over Coolawanyah homestead at 10.55 hrs. Much of the flood plain of the river is bone crusted((?) sand with spinifex and sparse trees. Large patches of snakewood distributed in it. To the east of Coolawanyah the country becomes more broken with low rounded hills & minor breakaways. These hills have well vegetated valleys. 10.00hrs. Fortescue bearing much one district - still reticulated in a flood plain but this is much more restricted. Karijeanje Creek and homestead now visible ahead. Crossed over Karijinji homestead and coming up for Millstream. Local flying at Millstream, filmed and stills b&w & colour. Interesting how local & small the cajeput(?) forest is when flown over as compared with the impression of vastness which one gets clearing or .... through it.

10.35 Centre of Hamersley S.C., Silver Grass Peak. Film, & b&w & KII.

10.40 District creeks flowing S. i.e. now in watershed of Ashburton.

10.45 Country below ironstone sand gently rolling with isolated minor changes, vegetation patchy spinifex. 10.50 Stuart homestead with Boolaloo homestead in distance. Ashburton coming up. Very green, full of water, good trees along its course that spread out at intervals to form patches of woodland. S. of Ashburton across the river from the homestead several Depuch type hills, black, should be v. important for Rock wallabies & Aborignal carvings. 10.58 Mt. Florrie in distance 1 colour photo of rusty(?) lumpy(?) red hills. 11.05 - 10 Flew straight down Koolchabinna Creek through gorge Filmed - 50 ft. then took b&w & colour stills, started new cassette. Bearing throughout approx S, country largely spinifex s laffe(?) with some scattered trees, and concentrating along watercourses very rough terrain with scree slopes.

11.20 Maroonah homestead. We seem to have crossed the transition   between Sclerophyll shrubs savannah with Sclerophyll hammock grassland and Sclerophyll shrubs savannah with arid scrub - patches of which I take to be mulga seem to have become quite common but nowhere near enough to be called mulga country.

11.30 Williambury Homestead mulga thicker, photos c. & b&w. colour was a claypinit(?), b&w by homestead.

11.38 Crossing Minilya river sth branch, great line of circular clay pans filled with water, breakaways of Permian marine(?) series.

11.40 Breakaway of lighter colour in front, probably the beginning of the Cretaceous Peneplain with good onteritized tops(?).

11.48 Sand dunes (fixed) trending N.W./S.E. Photo KII, high clouds, also b&w, approx from Watermelon Creek, vicinity of Mardathuna H.S. Out of the port side we can see the change in direction of the sand hills to E/W in the vicinity of Binthalya H.S. The whole country is studded with clay pans filled with water, mulga now the dominant vegetation.

11.55 Film of this. 12.00 Flying parallel to Gascoyne enormous areas of flooded claypans on either side of the river. All this makes me suspect that a slight rise in rainfall in W.A. would fill great areas of marshes. Carnarvon visible on the horizon through cumulus. 12.05 Descended through cloud,

12.06 Crossing main road just north of Gascoyne Bridge, landed Carnarvon.

13.58 Take off for Bernier. 11 goats south of hisp, at least 1 kid, 25, 5, 13, 1+1, 1, 20, 20, 5, 20, 35, 5, 20, 35, total estimate 130, very rough estimate kids about 1 in 12. Flew total length of Dorre, no goats seen. Dead whale with blue marker south of Castle point. 14.35 Dirk Hartog Cape Inscription, vegetation down to large bloomt (?) on W. coast essentially as in B & D. Some small animal tracks seen, no sheep yet.

14.40 Goat or sheep seen, sheep and a well in the middle of the island

14.43 Sheep 14.48 Extensive sand drifts threatened(?).

14.53 over south passage, Edel Land peninsula, fixed sandhills of the B & D kind of vegetation, similar low scrub. Filmed & took Kodachrome just north of extensive sand drifts.... are crossed at

15.00 Tall scrub in valleys

15.04 Finished with shot of cliffs of Edel Land. Climb to 1500 & set course for mouth of Murchison

15.34 Descending to Murchison  mouth. Flew around, filmed until film ran out. Can't help feeling disappointed with it - so small after Prince Regent ![nature reserve] Kodachromes and last two of (1) Kalbarri town site (2 ) Rocky beach just south of the mouth. Hill River district - all swamps are filled and abundant water, one can easily .... & show a favourable ... could be created here for R. fisciges(?).

17.22 Alkimos hard aground, waves breaking against here too. Wanneroo area extensive lakes, rain squalls over Perth. 1730 Landed Perth.
 ...

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....