FINENESS OF GIPPSLAND GOLD. 



333 



Almost every gold-bearing reef has arsenical pyrites in abun- 

 dance, and in many instances this mineral is studded with free gold. 

 As might be expected, minerals arising from arsenides, as pharma- 

 cosiderite, scorodite, and erythrite, are alwaj's present near a shoot 

 of gold. Ordinary pyrites and marcasite, as well as pyrrhotite, also 

 carry gold, whether found in the strata or in the reef. Pyrites in 

 a vein of carbonate of lime at Long Gully gave a yield of over loz. 

 per ton. 



Zinc blende (sphalerite), or black jack, is always looked upon as a 

 most favorable accompanying mineral, and in many instances .specks 

 of gold may be seen through it. 



While all the oxidised and hydrated ores of iron derived from 

 pyrites carry gold, in the Omeo district the gold occurs at the 

 surface in a honey-combed iron-stained quartz, the gold being left 

 in the cavities when the accompanying minerals were dissolved 

 out. In that district a comj)aratively large amount of galena 

 occurs in the reefs, and it probably has a lowering influence on 

 the fineness of the gold. As rarer occurrences gold is found in 

 wolfram in Swift's Creek, in bismuth at Wombat Creek, and 

 probably in many other minerals not yet investigated. 



As a general rule the fineness of alluvial gold is determined by 

 that in the existing reefs, and the fineness is fairly constant for 

 each creek ; yet in one place I am familiar with, viz., the Sons of 

 Freedom line of parallel reefs at Boggy Creek, the gold in the reef 

 deteriorates as you go away from the porphyry, while the alluvial 

 gold is constant in fineness. 



The following table will show the decrease in fineness : — 



