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ngth. These gullies in some spots are narrowed by the converging 
hills meltimes expand into open slopes or flats. Here the gold i 
commonly found, at from 10 to 29 feet beneath the surface, ina reddish 
or yellowish clay, lying either upon the fundamental rocks, in the 
chinks of the vertical slate, or else upon a thick tenacious white or 
yellow clay, known. by the miners as “ Pipe Clay.” This is sometimes 
of unknown depth, and sometimes passes imperceptibly into the vertical 
laminge of soft micaceous slate. In some of these gullies there is a 
cantinuous line of workings half a mile in length, The richest deposit 
1 
Sure to the air. [t is remarkable, that these gullies are, with scarcely 
aN exception, on the south side only of the valley. 
3. The.third kind of deep workings are those on the sides and crests 
of the low rounded hills or acclivities at the sides of the auriferous 
‘gullies. [tofien happens that the widih of an auriferous gully is con- 
tracted before it falls into the main valley by spurs from the lateral 
hills, which, protruding from either side, form a kind of gateway to the 
gully, la such localities the gold deposit was found to continue across 
the gully up tu the foot of these enclosing hills, and thence up their 
Sides to the rounded crest, where the rich field commonly ceases. In 
the gully below, the gold-bearing deposit may be ata lerable depth, 
tthe crest of the hill it will also be deep ; but intermediately, at the 
foot of the hill, the **holes’’ will be perhaps only two or three feet deep, 
or the gold may if this intervening space be scattered in the surface 
Sfavel ; so that a section through the hill and gully below would exhibit 
The alluvial strata on the sides and tops of these hills have a general 
Conformity to the present surface, but are extremely irregular, so that 
WO pits, a few yards apart, may present two totally different sections ; 
‘sses of a conglomerate of fragments of lava, trap, and quartz, im- 
i . i ich ** Kke 
bedding rounded pieces of gold. At these workings the rich * pock 
Sal gold were commonly associated with a bluish clay, running in 
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