334 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 



The last sample represents the average of fifteen assays from the 

 Monte Christo mine. That reef is interesting, because it contains 

 cerargyrite and embolite in many intersecting clay seams. I found 

 that when these were dissolved out with thiosulphate of soda, a 

 small quantity of gold coidd always be obtained from the filtrate, 

 as well as a considerable amount of lead. 



The gold in this mine varied from a greenish-white alloy to one 

 that did not contain more than 1 per cent, of silver. Beyond this 

 boundary the gold increases in fineness, rising suddenly to 94 per 

 cent. 



It would thus appear that there is a well-defined belt of 

 auriferous country having a low standard gold lying parallel to 

 the intrusive igneous rock, and about four miles distant from its 

 outcrop. 



The alluvial gold table, on the other hand, shows a fineness from 

 94 to 97. 



As a general rule I find the gold is better in quality when from 

 slate, or a rubbly reef, than from solid quartz in the same neigh- 

 borhood. 



With regard to alluvial gold, it is ni}^ belief that it has all been 

 derived in this district from pre-existing rocks. Pieces of clean, 

 rounded gold, before the blowpipe, will give a fine white ash of 

 silica ; nuggets, with all their mammillary excrescences, are rarely 

 without attached pieces of gangue, and when cut in half seem to 

 be composed of strings and branches, pounded and battered into a 

 rounded shape, while their mammillar}" form is dvie to erosion and 

 not growth. The wearing down of a soft material like gold, when 

 in a gravel wash, must be enormous, and but a small fraction can 

 exist of that derived from ancient strata. In rivers and creeks 

 where the gold has travelled — as the Mitchell, Tambo, and Lower 

 Boggy Creek — the gold has the appearance of bran, so scaly and 

 flaky is it. 



Gold which is ragged with quartz attached may often be traced 

 to some reef higher up the stream, thus showing its derivation. 



From one creek, the Five- Mile, gold crystals may be obtained, 

 principally having the forms of octohedrons or rhombic dode- 

 cahedrons. 



With regard to the fineness, the following table Avill show that 

 of the least variable creeks and rivers in the district, large 

 variations occur in the Livingstone Creek and its branches within 

 short distances, and as my information was incomplete about these 

 I have discarded the results obtained. 



With regard to the oxidisable matters, and substances other 

 than gold or silver, silica is the main ingredient ; in some samples, 

 Merrijig, a trace of bismuth existed, and a small quantity of iron ; 

 copper was present in every sample, and lead occurred in that of 

 Long Gully. 



