108 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



bullup rocks along the divide between Ryan's and Fifteen-Mile 

 Creeks. It is along this ridge that the Benalla to Middle Creek 

 track runs. Ryan's Creek debouches into the flats from a narrow 

 gorge over a series of small falls, which allow the character of the 

 rock to be distinctly seen as a flesh-coloured, reddish-yellow, and 

 greenish-grey quartz porphyry. The first two varieties decompose 

 into a light yellow and white clay, and the last to a distinct brick 

 red, which forms the rich soil of this district. In the darker 

 varieties especially the alteration of the felspar may be clearly 

 noticed, and extends for about a quarter of an inch from the 

 surface. Dispersed through the lighter varieties are small patches 

 of the common (iron-alumina) garnet. These probably exist in 

 the others also, which contain besides small crystals of biotite and 

 radiating clusters of black tourmaline. An interesting feature of 

 all the rock is the peculiar semi-crystallized character of the 

 quartz, many of the pieces terminating in well-defined hexagonal 

 pyramids. For some distance along the divide the rocks are of 

 a markedly fragmental character. The fragments are dark- 

 coloured and embedded in a matrix of fine-grained dark grey 

 and white felspar porphyry. In other places again, as at Puzzle 

 Gully, it may be called a grey granite, since there is a con- 

 siderable quantity of biotite present, mostly in small crystals. 

 The felspar here is very glassy, and until considerably weathered 

 is not easily distinguished from the quartz. 



The auriferous deposits being worked to any extent are at 

 Puzzle Gully, Webb's and Middle Creeks. The former place is 

 an exceedingly interesting one, and embraces a length of some 

 three-quarters of a mile. On the gentle slope from the south 

 into Dogwood Creek, a tributary of Ryan's, there is an extensive 

 series of shafts from 5 to 16 feet deep, following numerous small 

 "leads" varying from 6 inches to 2 feet thick. The general 

 trend of these "leads" is in a north-easterly direction. They 

 contain fairly water-worn pebbles of quartz and the local rock, 

 with occasional large boulders of the latter. Overlying this is a 

 deposit of red loam from 8 to 12 feet thick, with decomposing 

 fragments of the surrounding rocks and also small angular pieces 

 of quartz. The " washdirt," chiefly of quartz fragments and red 

 clay, averages only a few inches in thickness, and lies on a pipe- 

 clay bottom. The gold is coarse, shotty, and little worn, and 

 the whole deposit indicates a very small amount of transportation. 

 While examining one of the shafts, a two and a half pennyweight 

 piece was picked out of the wash and handed up for inspection. 

 It was found on the lower side of a large boulder. Across the 

 creek, on a small rise on the northern slope, are great quantities 

 of gravels almost wholly made up of quartz pebbles, and lying at 

 an elevation little lower than the highest portions of the plateau. 

 This area is held by a co-operative party, who have driven a 



