ON GOLD AND SILVER. 523 



electricity to quartz-crushing. At the Phoenix Quartz-miuing Company, 

 Otago, water power is used to drive two Brush dynamos, each transmitting 

 36 horse-power to the stamps two miles away. This is said to work 

 well, and if fully successful here will doubtless be turned to good and 

 profitable account in other places where the water power is not conveniently 

 situated for crushing.' 



In Tasmania gold was discovered in 1852, and quartz-mining began 

 in 1859 ; but the yield must have been small, as in 1866 the production 

 was only 348 oz. It varied up to 11,107 oz. in 1876, falling to 5,777 oz. in 

 1877. The discovery of the Lisle alluvial deposits raised the yield to 

 25,249 oz. in 1878, which increased to 60,155 oz. in 1879. This was 

 the maximum year. The yield had declined to 41,241 oz. in 1885. 



Taken on the average of the twenty years 1806-85, the alluvial gold 

 has been only 33 per cent, of the total amount, the Lisle and West Coast 

 districts (both entirely alluvial) together producing 20 per cent, of the 

 total amount. In 1885 the alluvial gold was only 19 per cent. The 

 average value of Tasmanian gold has been 31. 18s. per oz. 



The gold yield of Tasmania is small, but is subject to less fluctuation 

 than other goldfields ; its present yield is more than two-thirds of its 

 maximum. This steadiness is due to the large proportion of vein gold. 

 Unless the accounts of the newly discovered ' Iron Blow ' are grossly 

 exaggerated, we may expect that the yield of vein gold will now 

 increase. 



As regards Australasia, the general result may be stated as follows. 

 Although Victoria still holds the first place, and may do so for some 

 years to come, there is some probability of it being deposed from this 

 position of honour in favour of Queensland, the vein gold from which is 

 increasing in amount, and is likely to do so still more. With a probable 

 increase in New Zealand, and much placer gold still unworked in 

 Victoria, it is likely that the total produce of Australia will, for some 

 time to come, not fall below 5,000,000Z. per year. 



A fact of some interest, and not yet explained, is the decrease in the 

 fineness of Australian gold as we pass from south to north, due to the 

 increased amount of silver in it. The same thing occurs in New Zealand. 

 This generalisation, however, does not hold in North Queensland. Apart 

 from the Mt. Morgan deposit, which is remarkably pure and is in every 

 way exceptional, we find that the gold of North Queensland is finer than 

 that in the south of the colony. 



Canada. — The chief gold-producing districts are British Columhia — 

 almost entirely alluvial, and Nova Scotia — almost entirely veins. Alluvial 

 gold has long been worked in Quebec, in the Chaudiere valley, but no 

 serious attempt has yet been made to work the quartz veins which 

 are known to exist here in the Silurian rocks. Grold occurs in the 

 gravels of the Saskatchewan, and is apparently most abundant near 

 Edmonton. As no gold has been found in the streams coming from the 

 Rocky Mountains the origin of the gold must be looked for elsewhere; it 

 is supposed to lie in the great drift deposit which forms the prairies, and 

 which has been largely made of the waste of the Archaean rocks to the 

 N. and N.E. Near the Lake of the Woods auriferous quartz veins 

 occur, but only near the contact of the Laurentian granitoid gneiss 

 with intrusive schistpse hornblende rocks ; bosses of intrusive granite 



' Bejjort [to New Zealand Parliament! on the Mming Indmtrii of Kov Zealand, 

 1887, p. 83. 



