104

COLONIES ANGLAISES—NOUVELLE-GALLES DU SUD.

Class I.

Mining andMetals.

1, The Southern ; 2, The South-Western ; 3, The Western \and 4, The Northern District.

1. The Southern is chiefly confined to the basin of theShoalhaven River, between the parallels of 35 degrees and36 degrees south, on the eastern side of what is sometimescalled “ The Coast Rangé.” The whole of the aifluents ofthis river, from east and west, supply more or less gold;and the rich Gold Fields of Araluen are, although on thehead of the Moruya River, only separated from the watersflowing to the Shoalhaven by a distance of less than threemiles. The principal north-flowing streams of the countyof St. Vincent, which joins the Shoalhaven, are also auri-ferous. The gold is found chiefly within that part of thecounty which exhibits the presence of abundant hornblendicgranite and associated metamorphic schists.

2. The South-Western District embraces the north-flow-ing affluents of the Murrumbidgee between the CoastRange and the meridian of 147 degrees east, and also be-tween the parallels of 35 degrees and 3G degrees. Coupledwith the preceding district, we thus have an area of 4000square miles in which gold is generally scattered in thesoil; and in which the Yass River is known to containmuch gold, and the Adelong River has been worked for aspace of nearly 30 miles, from its source to its junction withthe Murrumbidgee. Although, at present, other aifluentsin this district have not been worked, it is not doubted thatthey would be found equally rich. The specimens from theAdelong diggings show that the principal rocks are igneous.The conspectus of that field is interesting, as exhibiting arelative proportion between the distances from the head ofthe creek and the amount of gold procurable.

3. The Western District comprises the Abercrombie antisome other heads of the Lachlan River, together with theTuron, the Pyramid, the Meroo, the Cudgegong, LewisPonds, and various other affluents of the Macquarie River ;the area being not much less than 9000 square miles—inwhich occur the vorious rich and extensive fields fromwhich so many and so different specimens of gold andalluvia are now exhibited, and of which the geologicalstatistics are given in the following details. There is everyreason to believe that other localities besides those nowworked in this district will be hereafter proved to beequally prolific. The writer has examined the detritus ofthe basin of the Upper Bogan River, and finds that it isrich in the peculiar minerals which distinguish the knownGold Fields; umd amongst them he found gold, as well astin and magnetic iron.

4. The Northern District may be considered as em-bracing, 1st, the Gold Fields along the Peel, the Mac-donald and other sources of the Namoi ; 2nd, that along theUralla, or Rocky River; and 3rd, that along the BingeraCreek—the two latter being the upper portion, and onemain a'fluent of the Gwydir River. In this district thereis an area of about 5000 square mites in which gold hasbeen found distributed in a great variety of places, and inwhich it is prolific at the head of the Peel, on the Uralla,and for fifteen miles along the Bingera and neighbouringcreeks. These waters, their dividing ranges, and thestrike of the formations, run all nearly N.W., or aboutN. 30 degrees W. The chief auriferous region lies alongthe 151st meridian, and between the parallels of 32 degreesand 29 degrees S. The gold of the Uralla is found over,and in the detritus of, hornblendic granite; that of theHanging Rock and Peel, as well as that of Bingera, isassociated with the transmuted members of the base of theupper or the top of the middle palaeozoic groups, withwhich serpentine, charged with chromate of iron, is inclose connection, and which have been, doubtless, affectedby diorite or greenstone.

Besides these fields which are being worked, there is adistrict more northerly than they, along the 152nd meri-dian, and between the parallels of 30 degrees and 29degrees S., and which is watered by the north-flowing headsof the northern branch of the Clarence River, but whichhas not yet been wrought, except experimentally, owing tothe abundance of water. This district comprises the countryabout Mount Mitchell and the “ Rocky River ;” and thegold is found in association with granite, of the same cha-racter as that which constitutes the principal formation onthe other “ Rocky River,” or Uralla, near Armidale. From1000 to 1200 square miles in this district may be consideredas exhibiting the presence of gold, associated, as in othergranite regions, with garnets, sapphires, and tin ore.

In the more southern counties of Maneero, between theparallels of 36 degrees and 37 degrees S., and between theAlps and the Coast Range, and for half a degree on eachsideofihe 149th meridian, there are also minor Gold Fields,

not yet worked, along the Deleget and Bendoc Rivers,which flow north to the Snowy River; on the Eucumbene,which is the chief branch of that river; and on the variouswaters flowing from the western side of the Coast Range tothe Upper Murrumbidgee, as well as from the eastern sideof that range to the coast of the county of Dampier. Thereare also little tracts auriferous on the waters of the Mac-intyre River, the Condamine, the Brisbane, the Mary, theBurnett, and the Fitzroy, at the hack of Port Curtis.These are mentioned to show that gold is dispersed in somequantity over all the older portions of the colony, through-out thirteen degrees of latitude and four and a half degrees ot-longitude , or more than 200,000 square miles of country.But the chief productive sources at present known are onLewis Ponds Creek (as Ophir); the Turon (as Oaky Creekand near Sofala) at Tainbaroura; Pyramid; Louisa Creek ;the Mereo and its tributaries ; Burrendong and Muckerwa;at Tuena, on the Abercrombie (all to the westward ofSydney): at Araluen, on the Morula; and at the Mon-garlow, a tributary of the Shoalhaven ; at Adelong, a tri-butary of the Murrumbidgee; at Hanging Rock, and forsome miles below, on the Peel ; at the Uralla, which isat the head of the Gwydir ; and at Bingera, which is anaffluent to that river.

No mention has been made of the Tumut, the “ Crack-em-back,” or the Wollondilly ; but gold is known to existin these rivers, and has been procured by various persons,as well as in other places not alluded to. To complete thestatement respecting the almost universal occurrence ofgold, it may be mentioned here, that it has, within a fewweeks, been found in Gipps’ Land, so low down as thecrossing place of the Tambo River, and at the tidal junctionwith the water of Lake King, within less than 25 miles ofthe sea.

Without, therefore, wishing to assume that all parts ofthe country are equally rich, or to raise expectations whichmay never be realised, it may fairly be stated that, whenconsidered in relation with the known Gold Fields ofVictoria, with which there is a clear connection along theAlps, the whole of the region of “Australia Felix” andNew South Wales Proper is auriferous towards the sourcesof the great rivers flowing in the basins of the Murray andDarling; and that some of the region also is auriferous,which lies to the seaward of the mountain chains whencethose waters rise. It is worthy of remark, that the waterswhich flow northerly or north-westerly are almost invariablyfound to traverse the principal tracts of auriferous country.

Sir T. L. Mitchell and Mr. Stutchbury have reported tothe Government on the Western Gold Fields ; and the Rev.W. B. Clarke has reported on the Northern and SouthernDistricts, and generally on the geology of about 108,000square miles of territory.

Drift Deposits dug through, in sinking for Gold, onthe Turon River,

(These deposits, along with the corresponding specimens ofgold, have been furnished by William Johnson, Ksq.,Gold Commissioners, Sofala.* They have been examined,and their mineralogical character determined, as under,by the Rev. W. B. Clarke.)

Paterson's Point .

1. Gravel; red micaceous slate; breccia of quartz, trap,

ironstone, abraded.—2 feet thick.

2. Conglomerate of green jasper, ironstone, sandstone,

greenish quartz; green, hard chlorite-slate, contain-ing gold, cemented by ironstone, and rounded pebblesof gold, &c.— 6 indies thick.

3. Greenish trap, with gold in blueish mud.—6 inches to

1 foot thick.

4. Bed rock, with particles of gold.

Golden Point.

1. Yellowish-brown clay, with fragments of slate and trap ;

magnetic iron.—5 feet thick.

2. Yellowish-brown clay; sandstone; quartz; magnetic

iron.—15 feet thick.

3. Puddingstonc; grit; trap; sandstone, cemented by

felspathic paste.—3 inches to 5 inches thick.

4. Round grit; coarse sand and magnetic iron ; with gold.

—12 inches to 15 inches thick.

5. River shingle; trap; sandstone; quartzite, with gold.—

12 inches to 18 inches thick.

6. Bed rock, greenish and b(ue-grcy diorite.

* The intrinsic value only , of this and the following collections ofgold having been paid hv the Commission.