43 



extent, for at a distance of about 3| miles from tlie granite 

 country at its nortli- eastern boundary, and at the fountain 

 head of the river a syenitic granite again obtains, with small 

 quantities of tin ore in the bed of the streams, and in the 

 gullies, but with hardly any traces of Gold associated. All 

 along the course of the river, from the fording place on the 

 Black Boy track, Gold can be obtained in the drift at a mean 

 depth of four feet from the surface, but those who worked 

 the river bed in places, and its tributaries, failed to make it 

 pay, notwithstanding that the Gold is coarse as a rule, pieces 

 having been obtained of several pennyweights. As it is 

 almost impossible to wash a dish of dirt and not get several 

 specks of Gold, I am of opinion that the failure to make the 

 alluvial operations remunerative is to be ascribed more to 

 the mode of working, and the appliances employed, than to 

 the poverty of the washdirt. This alluvial Gold has been 

 derived from veins and lodes which traverse the hills near 

 their base in conjunction with the granite, for at the base of 

 these hills the palaeozoic slate and sandstone appear to have 

 no great thickness. In many places where trenches have 

 been cut through these sedimentary strata in searching for 

 quartz lodes, the granite, in a much decomposed state, has 

 been reached a.t a few feet. The slate and sandstone in the 

 hills is ramified by a reticulation of small quartz veins and 

 strings, many of which are rich in Gold, and as a consequence 

 the surface of the country is covered to a considerable extent 

 with detached fragments of quartz. In the Scamander 

 Company's claim a rich vein of auriferous quartz has been 

 exposed. It tra^verses both granite and slate (See specimen 

 No. 1). The quartz is highly charged with arseniurets and 

 sulphurets of iron, and frequently with galena, which is 

 argentiferous. The granite in this locality has, without any 

 doubt, been erupted subsequent to the deposition of the 

 stratified formations reposing upon it as elsewhere in Tas- 

 mania, although I am aware that one observer, a.t least, 

 entertains an opposite view with regard to the granite in the 

 Ben Lomond district. The fact of the quartz reefs traversing 

 both granite and overlying sedimentary formations, is, to 

 my mind, of exceeding interest, inasmuch as it affords proof 

 that such lodes or reefs having a subsequent origin would 

 imply a greater antiquity for the granite of this part of the 

 island than I was inclined to ascribe to it. As far as my 

 observations have extended, and which have been conducted 

 on three different occasions, I find that the quartz lode is 

 smaller or " pinched " where it traverses the slate " country " 

 than the same vein is where it runs through the decomposed 

 granite. In the Scamander Company's shaft, which is down 

 about 30ft. in soft, decomposed granite (See specimen No. 2), 



