Miscellaneous. oon 
Barcoo River, enable me to remove all prima facie objection to a 
statement made by the late Mr. Commissioner Mitchell, and quoted 
by Sir Thomas Mitchell, that he had found a particle of gold in the 
neighbourhood of Mount Abundance. What I procured came from 
that neighbourhood. These facts prove, however, that a view I have 
always entertained is a right one, namely, that gold was not intro- 
duced into the quartz reefs so lately as the Tertiary epoch; for we have 
quartz pebbles with gold in rocks of Secondary age. And though 
the distinct period in which those Secondary formations of Queens- 
land were deposited is not yet satisfactorily made out, yet from the 
the occurrence of Belemnites and Ammonites in the same beds with 
the gold-bearing quartz pebbles, we know that if not Cretaceous, they 
are probably Jurassic, or possibly Triassic. 
That in the Carboniferous formation gold should occur is, there- 
fore, less and less surprising. Indeed, the question admits now of no 
doubt whatever. For in New Zealand one of the Nelson gold-fields 
is along the Waimangaroha River; and that river not only rises in 
the Carboniferous formation (which is based on granite), but runs 
altogether through a coal-field; and this was reported to the Nelson 
Government by Mr. Clouston in September 1862. Sections across 
the gold-field show no interpolation of intermediate formations. 
Further, Mr. Gould has reported to the Tasmanian Government, that 
he had actually found a particle of gold in @ coal-seam; and this he 
exhibited to the Royal Society of Tasmania. Perhaps this was set 
free by the decomposition of bi-sulphuret of iron so common in coal, 
and a source of gold in older rocks. 'To say, then, where gold may 
not be found is very difficult. 
Further, I would now mention what, to many of your readers, may 
appear extraordinary. It has been impressed upon the public mind 
that, some fourteen years ago, gold was found in New South Wales, 
on the strength of convictions that the rocks in California producing 
gold in abundance were the same as those in which it was looked 
for in this colony. 
The American Government, wishing to set at rest doubts that 
have occurred as to the age of the Californian gold-rocks, sent out 
lately Professor Whitney to report on the geology of California. 
As his report has not yet been published, I cannot refer your 
readers to the book itself; but I mention, as derived from a not less 
direct channel, these facts. He discovered that very little if any of 
the gold of California belongs to the Silurian formation; that it is 
found in very considerable abundance in the Trias; but that the 
greatest amount belongs to the altered rocks of the Cretaceous epoch. 
So that, in fact, the wonderful riches of California are derived chiefly 
from formations above the Upper Silurian, whilst here the Lower 
Silurian rocks are the chief sources of supply. 
The Tertiary and Pleistocene drifts are common to both regions. 
These very recent discoveries are no doubt suggestive, and will, 
perhaps, be turned to account. 
GoOLD-FIELDS IN New Zeatanp,—No mining news of any espc= 
