12

Geological Beports.

stone’s, and therefore no cross-fault has been proved. It wasassumed, and it is evident, that there is deeper ground to thesouth-east of the prospecting shafts, and, however the auriferousarea is terminated, the northerly dip of the bottom under the cementmust be very abrupt. The results of prospecting the deep groundproved that the wash was not rich enough to induce those engagedin it to continue the work. Gold is, however, being obtained fromthe cements in the western side of the area, and one or two partiesare engaged sluicing the old tailings and the rewash of the cementitself; but on the whole Wetherstone’s as a field for mining appearsto be in a very backward state.

Quoting from Mr. Cox’s report on the cement deposit at Wether-stone’s, already cited, he says :—

“ Passing over the ridge between Gabriel’s Gully and Wether-stone’s no cements are met with until after crossing the summit;hut, on the spurs falling into W T etherstone’s, beds or benches ofcement have been found which yielded in some cases a considerablequantity of gold, while in the gullies below them no gold was to befound. This fact would point to more than one rearrangement ofthe beds since the gold was originally deposited in the cements.At Wetherstone’s the cements appear again, covering a considerablearea of ground, but lying much lower than the Blue Spur; and,although a large amount of work has been expended by differentprospectors in sinking shafts on the various claims, there wouldseem to be a tendency to wait until Messrs. Brown and Gascoigne’sclaim, which is further on than any other, has been proved beforeany large expense is undertaken by the others in erecting crushingmachinery.

“ At the claim above cited a battery has been erected, and themine prospected by several shafts sunk at intervals from the edge ofthe flat, where the cement commences, up to the battery, it beingonly a very short distance beyond this, in the direction of the BlueSpur, before the schists make their appearance, rising into a spurwhich separates Wetherstone’s from Gabriel’s Gully.

“ The result of these shafts has been to show that the cement atthis point runs in a trough, the first shaft bottoming at 10 ft., andthe others at various depths up to 60 ft.; and Mr. Gascoigne informsme that in all probability the greatest depth reached in this claimwill be 100 ft,

“ The cement has been traced all through the flat towards Law-rence, and at a place called the Mound a shaft has been sunk to adepth of 500 ft. through these cements, but has not received furtherattention since the bottom was reached, so I infer the results obtainedwere not so satisfactory as could be wished. ... At places the