266 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION C. 



in all directions and rapidly dying out. The idea that these small 

 branching viens were leader's from large and well-defined lodes 

 has been disproved in many cases, but there is evidence to shew 

 that occasionally they lead into large veins of nearly barren 

 quartz called " buck-reefs."* Of this I shall speak again, at 

 present I merely wish to point out that in a large majority of 

 cases these so-called leaders have led to nothing. In the Thames 

 district, gold is very widely distributed. On the first opening of 

 the fields the ground was taken up en ■masse, as in an alluvial 

 field, and not upon supposed lines of reef only. This is apparent 

 in the map which accompanies my Report of 1868-9, in which I 

 say that of 1200 claims thus taken up at hazard, about one-half had 

 found gold. Most of these claims have turned out too poor to 

 pay for working, but the fact remains that gold was found in 

 them. Some of the larger lodes are merely country rock infil- 

 trated with silica, and have no defined walls. Such were the 

 Golden Ci-own, the Shotover (Hunt's), and the Middle Star.f 

 In 1871 the country rock on the south side of the Shotover was 

 crushed for a distance of sixty feet from the lode, and yielded 

 from 5 dwt. to 8 dwt. of gold to the ton. The Golden Crown Co. 

 has also crushed part of the spur belonging to them with fair 

 results. These cases might be explained by supposing an outward 

 infiltration from the lode, but it is very doubtful if these lodes are 

 of such a character as to allow us to suppose that they were 

 part of extensive fissures filled from below. 



The third argument in favour of the origin of the gold- veins by 

 lateral segregation is that, speaking roughly, the amount of gold 

 in the veins varies with the state of decomposition of the country 

 rock, the veins in decomposed rock being richer than those in 

 undecomposed rock, as 1 shall presently bring evidence to prove. 

 At Puriri the gold was in small irregular veins in decomposed rock 

 and they stopped altogether when they approached the boulder- 

 like undecomposed cores.;}: If the gold had come up from below, 

 we can see no reason why it should specially aftect the decom- 

 posed rocks. 



The fourth argument is taken from the very recent origin of some 

 of the gold viens. This might be inferred from those cases, like 

 Puriri just mentioned, where the decomposition is evidently due 

 to surface weathering, and the gold-veius appear to have been 

 formed pari passtt with the decomposition. But stronger evidence 

 was found in the old Star of the South No. 2 Claim, which was 

 situated on the spur facing Shorthand, between tlie Karaka and 

 Hope Creeks. Here irregular veins of quartz occurred at the 

 junction of the face of the rock with slipped ground, due evidently 



* Cox, Reports Geological Explorations, 1882, p. 25. 

 f Reports Geological Explorations, 18C8-9, p. 24. 

 I Reports Geological Explorations, 1868-9, p. 35. 



