Rocks and Ore Occurrences. 5 



manifestly the remains of the old sandstones, and the andalusite 

 schist that of old shales ; the partings between the two classes of 

 rocks are still quite distinct. It may be here noted that the 

 quartzite forms the hanging wall of the reef whilst the schist 

 footwall has been distinctly affected and attacked by the tilling 

 of the reef. Tliis reef is from six inches thick up to one foot six 

 inches thick, and in the Lone Hand mine, where the author 

 was able to examine it, had shown an almost continuous " shoot " 

 of auriferous stone for three hundred feet, with values varying 

 from a few pennyweights up to several ounces of gold per ton. 

 One interesting feature here, as in the case at the Lightning 

 iCreek, is the pai'allelism of the auriferous deposit to the old 

 bedding planes, but the case under notice shows in addition the 

 controlling action of the hard quartzite beds upon the direction 

 and concentration of the deposits, deposits doubtless initiated 

 along the planes of weakness due to the dissimilar characters of 

 the beds of schist and of quartzite and accentuated by meta- 

 somatic action when once started. The holocrystalline rocks at 

 •the ends of the beds have doubtless also acted as controlling 

 factors, limiting the extent of the deposit, and it must remain for 

 the present an interesting speculation as to how far gold was 

 derived from them. Although there have been prospecting 

 operations in many parts of the field, yet the useful deposit 

 appears to lie wholly in the two reefs to which reference has just 

 been made. 



There are a number of small, rich deposits at Scrubby Creek, 

 near Tallandoon, that from the description given to the author 

 may well correspond to the occurrence at Mount Elmo, but these 

 he was unable to visit. Some of the specimens showed however 

 galena to be present in the lode fillings. 



At a point about three miles nortii westward of Lockhart's Gap 

 there is another auriferous deposit of considerable extent lying 

 not in a lode but in a band of holocrystalline metamorphic rock, 

 showing idiomorphic quartz crystals and pegmatitic growth with 

 'the other constituents. It carries iron pyrites and free gold, the 

 -latter sometimes to a sufficient extent to make it a valuable gold 

 ore, and its pre.sence is itself sufficient to account for the fine 

 alluvial gold along the creeks now being sluiced below it, just as 

 in the case of the deposits at Lightning Creek. 



