CARBONACEOUS DEPOSIT, BEACONSFIELD. 325 



a large quantity of broken country rock, filling a somewhat 

 wide lode channel. In places great holes were found still 

 existing between the fallen blocks, and in many of these 

 loose gravel and sand derived from the disintegration of the 

 softer conglomerates were lying, evidently carried there by 

 subterranean waters flowing with some relocity. In the 

 western end of the Tasmania mine a somewhat similar state 

 of things occurs. One of the underground captains, in 

 describing the condition of the country, said that the rock 

 appeared just as if it had been blown up by a heavy 

 explosion of powder and allowed to settle down again. As 

 already remarked, this fractured state of the ground is very 

 apparent in both the places where the carbonaceous matter 

 has been found, it being generally impossible to obtain either 

 the strike or dip of the strata with any certainty. In other 

 parts of the workings where undisturbed country is gone 

 through the strike and dip are very regular and easily 

 measured. Even in these, however, it has been shown by 

 mining works that water percolates with unusual rapidity 

 and ease. For example, when a diamond-drill bore was 

 being put down in the Phoenix Company's section, about 

 150 feet away from the nearest workings of the adjacent 

 Tasmania mine, it was found impossible to keep the bore full 

 of water, even with two pumps constantly throwing it in, 

 and this, too, when the bottom of the bore was nearly 250 

 feet below the level of the water in the mine, and when it 

 was tubed down all the way. The water escaped through 

 the porous jointy rock at the bottom of the bore faster than 

 it could be poured in, and none of the usual expedients for 

 closing the interstices in the strata were of the slightest use. 

 The same difficulty was experienced in getting the water to 

 the surface in another diamond-drill bore, executed by the 

 East Tasmania Company, which was distant about 840 feet 

 from the Tasmania mine workings, even when at a depth of 

 400 feet below these, and with the bore tubed throughout. 

 The Tasmania mine is, in fact, now draining the whole 

 district for a long distance round, numerous wells and springs 

 which were formerly permanent having gone dry since the 

 pumps began to work. The shafts of the West Tasmania, 

 Moonhght, and Little Wonder Companies are down some 

 90 feet below sea level, yet are usually quite dry, any water 

 that gathers in them in wet weather draining away through 

 the ground. Some months ago when, owing to various 

 causes, the lower levels of the Tasmania mine were flooded, 



