232 GOLD 



fourth among the gold-producing states of the Commonwealth. 

 The chief gold-mines are those of the Cobar field. 



4. Queensland. Gold is widely distributed in Queensland. 

 The principal mines are at Gympie to the north of Brisbane, 

 Charters Towers south-west of Townsville, and Mount Morgan 

 south-west of Rockhampton. 



New Zealand. The chief gold-mines are in the districts of 

 Auckland, West Coast, and Otago ; the production is not so 

 great as formerly, but gold is still an important article of export. 



Gold is also found in Tasmania, at Beaconsfield, on the 

 north coast, and in some districts of South Australia. 

 South Africa. 



1. The Transvaal. About thirty-five miles south of Pretoria, 

 rising above the high, treeless, grassy plateau, extending due 

 east and west for about eighty miles, is a low range of hills 

 known as the Witwatersrand, i. e. the White Water Ridge. 



At both ends the Ridge or Rand curves southwards towards 

 the Vaal, in the west towards Klerksdorp, and in the east past 

 Heidelberg. For fifty miles along the northern rim of this 

 basin the rocks contain gold. Its presence was discovered in 

 1885 by a man working on a farm in the district, and soon the 

 usual ' rush ' of gold seekers followed. They pitched their 

 tents and tied up their wagons on the spot where Johannes- 

 burg now stands. The town was laid out towards the end of 

 1886. 



The rock in which the gold occurs is a conglomerate of sand, 

 and clay, and quartz. The w r hite lumps of quartz resemble the 

 almonds in almond toffee, and hence the ridges or reefs are 

 known as banket reefs, banket being the Dutch word for 

 almond toffee. 



The gold is distributed uniformly throughout the sand and 

 clay, and is in such minute particles that it is invisible to the 

 naked eye, yet the quantity obtained is so enormous that 

 Transvaal gold is the most important of all the products of 

 South Africa. No other country in the world produces so 

 much. 



