134 Reports and Proceedings. 



fully distributed. Ballarat has hitherto been the richest alluvial 

 gold field ; the phenomenon of gold in the matrix, however, he said, 

 was much more interesting, and far more worthy the consideration 

 of the Geologist than its presence in alluvial deposits. Quartz was 

 the true matrix of gold. He had heard of its being found in sand- 

 stone, slate, and granite ; but had never seen an instance of this, 

 except when these rocks were somehow associated with quartz. The 

 qiiestion as to how far gold may be profitably sought for in the 

 matrix is of great importance. Sir Roderick Murchison, in his 

 " Siluria," inclines to the belief that gold only exists in payable 

 quantities on or near the surface ; that the search for it in deep 

 lodes will be unprofitable, and that it is* only in the detritus of 

 denuded hills, containing auriferous rocks, that it can be profitably 

 worked. In reference to the preponderating richness of alluvial 

 drifts, however, Mr. Cameron said that it must be borne in mind 

 that when the denudations, which supplied these drifts, took place, 

 a large proportion of the detritus was probably carried away for 

 miles, whilst the gold, from its superior gravity, remained in the 

 nearest depressions, where these drifts were also deposited, so that 

 the present proportions of gold and drift afforded no correct index 

 of the proportion v\^hich that gold orginally bore to the rocks in 

 which it was held prior to the formation of these drifts. Any 

 conjecture, therefore, as to the amount of gold still remaining in 

 its native rocks, based upon the nature of its alluvial deposits, must 

 be manifestly unreliable. In reference to the non-success of deep 

 quartz mining in other countries he could offer no opinion ; but in 

 Victoria the reverse (where a fair trial had taken j)lace), was generally 

 the case, and the instance of non-success due more to the imperfect 

 nature of the search than to the non-existence of the gold. Of the 

 thousands of shafts that have been sunk in Victorian quartz reefs, 

 perhaps not a dozen had been sunk to the 400 feet level, and at 

 least three or four notable instances of success in sinking to that 

 depth could be selected from the Bendigo district alone. He be- 

 lieved that the auriferous reefs of Victoria would, if properly 

 prospected at these depths, prove, in many instances, quite as 

 remunerative as on the surface ; and experience seemed to show 

 tliat in .all quartz reefs there were rich and poor levels alternately, 

 and that where the surface veins had become exhausted it would be 

 found that, by sinking still farther, the unproductive region would 

 be passed, and that another, and perhaps another, series of rich 

 veins be struck. He detailed the appliances now in use in Victoria 

 for extracting gold from quartz, which were both extensive and 

 very perfect; and, alluding to the various histories of discoveries 

 of gold in this country, he thought it not improbable that, with 

 these improved aj)pliances, the gold mines of Britain might yet 

 be worked to advantage. 



II. — The second monthly meeting of this Society was held on 

 Thursday, February 1st. Edward A. Wunsch, Esq., one of the 

 Vice-Presidents, in the chair. 



