400 Norman Taylor — The Cudgegong Diamond Field. 



the Eoyal Society of New South "Wales on the 7th December, 1870 ; l 

 and to incorporate with it a series of my own papers (of which the 

 above was merely a summary), which appeared in the "Sydney 

 Morning Herald " previously to that date. I shall confine my 

 remarks to the mode of occurrence of the diamond in New South 

 Wales, as the late Bev. W. B. Clarke has, in his valuable and 

 interesting Presidential Addresses to the Eoyal Society of New South 

 Wales in 1870 and 1872, almost exhaustively treated the subject, 

 as far as regards our present knowledge of the occurrence of the 

 diamond all over the woi'ld. 



Professor Liversidge, successor to the late Professor Thomson, 

 of the Sydney University, also read a paper before the Eoyal Society 

 of N. S. Wales on 1st October, 1873 (reprinted in Mines and Mineral 

 Statistics of N. S. Wales, 1875, p. 104), giving a short description 

 of the Bingera Diamond Field, in the New England District of 

 N. S. Wales, which was discovered some years after its predecessor 

 '• the Cudgegong," to which I shall allude further on ; as also to my 

 late colleague Mr. C. J. Wilkinson's (now Government Geologist of 

 N. S. Wales) Eeports on the discovery of diamonds in the Tin deposits 

 of Borah Creek, a tributary of the Gwydir Eiver, and elsewhere. 2 



Diamonds were accidentally discovered on the Cudgegong river at 

 Warburton or "Two-mile-flat," 19 miles north-west of Mudgee, 

 N. S. Wales, during the gold rush to that locality in 1867. They 

 were scarcely noticed at first, but, at last, several stones were sent 

 to Melbourne jewellers for their opinion, which, ultimately, led 

 to a company being formed to systematically work the deposits. 

 Operations were commenced in July, 1869, — numerous private parties 

 of miners taking up the search at the same time. A large number 

 of diamonds were obtained, although, in most instances, unfortu- 

 nately, the expense of sinking through considerable thicknesses of 

 solid basalt, the small average size of the stones obtained, cartage to 

 water, and effectual washing, were drawbacks which rendered the 

 search generally unprofitable, and stood in the way of successful 

 investment. 



During several months' i - esidence in the district as manager of one 

 of the companies (after the abolition of the Geological Survey of 

 Victoria in 1868), and afterwards as a working miner myself, I 

 made a thorough geological examination of the country, and the 

 results then obtained are embodied in the following description. The 

 plan and sections I had made were unfortunately lost after my 

 departure from the district. 



Before describing the nature and contents of the diamond drifts 

 (for they have never been found in these Colonies in any matrix of 

 greater age than our Tertiary drifts), it will be well to give a brief 

 sketch of the geology of the Cudgegong Eiver Basin, and the neigh- 

 bourhood more immediately surrounding the diamond district. This 

 will assist in any inferences regarding the original sources of the 



1 See Trans. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales for 1870, pp. 94-106.— E. E., jun. 



2 See Mines and Mineral Statistics of N. S. Wales for 1875, pp. 77-80.— 

 E. E., jun. 



