Notices of Memoirs— H. P. Woodward — Telluride Deposits. 551 



case, little or no gold upon the surface was discovered, clearly 

 l^roving that no denudation lias taken place since tlie gold-bearing 

 portions of the lodes were uncovered. One of the chai-acteristic 

 features of the Western Australian goldfields is the almost total 

 absence of alluvial deposits containing gold. Those surface patches 

 which have been worked owed their origin entirely to atmospheric 

 agencies, which have also often altered the rocks and lodes to 

 a considerable depth from the surface. Another peculiarity of the 

 Ilannan's field is the scarcity of quartz and absence of well-defined 

 quartz veins, thus proving conclusively that the surface gold, which 

 shows no sign of water action, is derived from the weathering in situ 

 of belts of country rock traversed by small but rich veins. 



The lodes, when opened up in the decomposed zone, do not 

 exhibit the general characteristics of true fissure veins, since they 

 rarely have defined walls or slicken-sides to prove that any sliding 

 action has taken place, and when they have, such walls are of 

 limited extent. Moreover, it does not follow that all the material 

 which appears to be lode matter between such walls, or between the 

 points at which the solid blue country is met with, is all ore. 



The whole lode formation has a banded or schistose appearance 

 and is mostly of a brownish colour, due to the presence of hydrated 

 oxides of iron ; and it is soft and greasy to the touch, owing to the 

 fact that it consists largely of hydrated silicates of alumina and 

 magnesia. 



Small decomposed quartz veins, which are often ferruginous, 

 intersect the lode mass, and it is where these are met with that 

 the lode is found to be richest, all the coarsest gold being associated 

 with the quartz. When these veins are entirely absent, little or no 

 gold is met with ; and when it does occur, it is in a very finely 

 divided state disseminated throughout the entire mass. 



At the surface, the lodes apparently run in a more or less 

 north and south course ; and since there is not a continuous outcrop, 

 an individual lode cannot be traced with the slightest degree of 

 certainty for any great distance. This is further rendered difficult 

 by the fact that several of these lodes are often met with close 

 together, and following apparently the same course, or nearly so, as 

 the lode which it is desired to follow. 



There appear to be few continuous lodes, most of them proving to 

 be lenticular. These lenticular masses are found to lie one on 

 another in splice fashion ; therefore, when one pinches, if a cross-cut 

 is driven east and west, one or more lodes are almost certain to be 

 cut at no great distance from that which has pinched ; but although 

 such lode or lodes may, to all appearances, contain similar material, 

 it does not follow that it will be as rich in gold. The rich ore 

 appears to run in well-defined shoots, which dip to the south, 

 varying in width from a few inches to several feet, and in length 

 up to several hundred feet ; the entire mass of which mostly goes 

 from 3 to 4 ounces, whilst large portions are often as rich as 

 from 10 to 20 ounces. 



This decomposed zone in the lode varies in places from oO ftet 



