Geology of Castlemainc, &c., zvitJi List of Minerals. 11 



Mi\ J. A. Panton. then warden of the Bendigo goldtield, shows 

 that he was one of the earliest to point out the same fact. Mr. 

 Wm. Nicholas, F.G.S.,* has worked these bands out in great 

 detail ; and Mr. Reginald Murrayf follows out the same 

 princijDles. Both of these gentlemen have, since then, repeatedly 

 called attention to these facts as an aid to future mining opera- 

 tions. In the Castlemaine district the main auriferous band 

 strikes through Fiyers and Chewton, and is approximately on 

 the same strike as the richest portion of the Bendigo field. In 

 the former district the band is seamed with reefs that have 

 yielded almost fabulous quantities of gold, and most of the 

 auriferous gullies head to this line. The chief apparent 

 exceptions to this last fact are those gullies which receive the 

 drainage of gullies cutting through the older gravels. As we go 

 westward from this line, and travel over higher beds, the rich 

 reefs grow fewer and fewer, and we have no well-marked lines 

 like the one mentioned. When we reach, what Selwyn states to 

 be the highest beds of the district, on the meridian of Muckleford 

 Creek, the quartz-reefs are ajiparently more numerous than ever, 

 but the richly auriferous country-rock is not there to feed tliem, 

 and they are barren. The quarter-sheets show that nearly every 

 gully in this locality was carefully searched for gold by the 

 survey party, but without result, and this for miles to the north 

 and south. Since then the Mining Department has, by a care- 

 fully chosen series of bores, tested the deep ground of Muckleford 

 Creek, but with a like negative result. | In the Lancefield rocks 

 again, no gold occurs. It appears then, that the auriferous strata 

 of our lower silurian rocks begin above the base of the apparently 

 thick T. fruticosus zone, and range, at any rate, as high as Fhyllo- 

 graptus does, but probably no higher. That the recurrence of 

 the auriferous bands across the colony is due to the recurrence of 

 the same sets of beds, is so very probable, that the idea is the 

 common property of geologists, but no attempt has, I believe, 

 been previously made to show hew these beds might be distin- 

 sruished. 



* Prog. Rep. Geol. Surv. Vic, vol. iv., p. M5. 

 t Geol. and Pbys. Geol. Vic, p. 157. 

 X Aun. Kep. Sec. Mines, 1890. 



