430 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 
must sooner or later claim the attention and serious consideration 
of mining men and those dependent upon the production of gold. 
It is abundantly evident that the time has arrived when the future 
prosperity of the field must depend upon the successful development 
of new ground, and in order to accomplish this, we must possess 
an intelligent knowledge of the structure or arrangement of the 
gold-bearing rocks, and the character of the reefs. When we are 
in possession of these, as well as the experience accumulated 
during twenty years of successful mining, we will be in a position 
to direct prospecting operations so that they may be conducted 
in the most favourable places, and the money devoted to this 
purpose expended to the best advantage. 
With this object in view, in the beginning of September of 
this year, I commenced a detailed survey of the line of section 
extending across the field from Tararu to ‘Hape Oreek, the results 
of which are embodied in this paper. 
General Structure. 
The rocks of this goldfield, as disclosed by the above line of 
section which supplies the key to their structure, divide themselves 
into three distinct formations as follows :— 
1. Slaty shales and silicious mudstones. 
2, Felspathic and tufaceous sandstones, passing into 
breccias, with gold-bearing veins. 
3. Coarse volcanic breccias and tufts, with coal and coaly 
shales at base. 
The slaty shales and associated rocks form the old floor of the 
district, upon which rest unconformably the two succeeding 
formations, between which no marked break or unconformity 
exists. Between Shellback and Hape Creeks, these younger 
formations are arranged as an anticline, the dome of which, 
formed by the coarse volcanic breccias and tufts, has been largely 
denuded, thus exposing the gold-bearing series below. Near the 
core of the anticline, which is situated between the Saxon mine 
and the old Queen of Beauty shaft, the strata are inclined at 
high angles, being much disturbed, but towards the sides of the 
anticline they are lying flatter, the dip varying from 30 to 50 deg. 
Section from Bonemill Creek to Hape Creek. 
The first rock seen on this line of section after passing Bonemill 
Creek is a tough grey-coloured felspathic rock, containing nests 
and disseminated grains of iron pyrites. It decomposes to a 
great depth from the surface into a rusty-coloured tufaceous- 
looking rock. It is intersected by a number of parallel joints, 
sometimes showing slickensided surfaces. The joints run 
N.N.E.-S.8.W., and are almost vertical. 
