26 



gradually merges into a town as wealtli succeeds wealth, and 

 afterwards into a city, witli all the comforts of life, and the 

 culture of the civilised world. 



For such a comparatively sparsely inhabited country as Tas- 

 mania, nothing then could be more advantageous than a large 

 develoj^ment of its gold -mining industry. True, she has other 

 minerals in abundance besides gold ; but no other metal 

 presents such attractions to the ordinary miner. For in 

 alluvial mining, the gold can be won without costly appliances 

 and with merely unskilled labour. Any man who can handle 

 a pick and shovel can go gold mining, and provided he 

 " prospects " in " auriferous " country success is not unlikely 

 to attend him. And so it is important to know by what in- 

 dications country shows itself to be auriferous. In this con- 

 tinent gold is widely disseminated over a vast extent of 

 country, and almost every day- fresh deposits in newly pro- 

 spected districts are being discovered, as is lately instanced 

 by the recent finding of gold in the interior of New South 

 Wales, near its N.W. corner. 



The aspect of auriferous country somewhat varies in 

 different districts. Usually one sees groups of rounded hills, 

 gentle undulations, and broad valleys between the hills, with 

 creeks and rivers here and there. The soil is generally ex- 

 cellent, as is evidenced by the large forest trees and abundant 

 grass - 



Upon going over this country and examining the hills and 

 outcropping rocks, one almost invariably finds the same 

 characteristic features. The rocks are usually of a slaty char- 

 acter, tilted up into a more or less vertical position, and with 

 a strike approaching N. and S. Close by are seen plutonic 

 rocks, as granite, diorite, porphyry, etc., which are evidently 

 the cause of the vertical position of the slates by in- 

 trusive action. Besides the slates, we find hills composed 

 almost entirely of conglomerates, with beds of limestone and 

 sandstone interspersed ; and here and there we come upon 

 long, low, narrow, rounded ridges, covered with dark rich 

 soil, gently rising from its bed. These prove to be of vol- 

 canic basalt, which has flowed down the ancient valleys and 

 watercourses from some Pliocene crater. Everywhere strewn 

 around we come upon boulders of quartz of various sizes, 

 which have become detached from the parent rock, lying hid- 

 den amongst the slates and granites. 



The shaly rocks are found to vary in character, according 

 to their position relative to the j^lutonic rocks. Some are soft 

 and argillaceous, or of a sub -crystalline nature ; others have 

 become hard and silicious from the infiltration of silica in a 

 state of solution through their substance. Others, again, 

 are of a more crystalline character, and are called micaceous. 



