Norman Taylor — The Cudgegong Diamond Field. 407 



It may be the surface outcrop of the Gulgong deep leads. The 

 river now trends to the south, through large alluvial flats (un worked) 

 intersected by numerous backwaters or old channels. Turning 

 westerly we pass a red rocky bank composed of grey calcareous 

 grits containing minute Crinoid stems (Upper Silurian?). Some of 

 the grits are much indurated, and the red colour of the rise is 

 due to the contained lime. The river-bed has rocky bars crossing it, 

 where the main range has been cut through, composed of fine- 

 grained grey grits, flinty shales, and thin-bedded red sandstone — all 

 vertical. To the left is the northern extremity of the " scrub lead," 

 which has here run to surface. At the head of a gully are two 

 parallel quartz-reefs in finely micaceous red sandstone. On the 

 right of the river is a low bank showing occasional outcrops of 

 vertical coarse yellow sandstones and grits, covered by an old 

 shallow river wash. A large open alluvial valley joins the river 

 from the north, having at its head, three-quarters of a mile up, a 

 small deposit of river drift, in which a few shafts have been sunk, 

 some having bottomed on greenstone, which crops out at the foot of 

 the ranges. The river-bed is much contracted by the proximity of 

 the ranges, which touch it on the north side. Some workings have 

 been carried on in the ordinary river drift along the south bank. 



We now leave the river, and, following the road southerly, pass 

 the " scrub lead " on the left, and Miller's Claim on the right. This 

 claim is 25 feet above the river-level, and has yielded a good many 

 diamonds. It differs altogether from the other leads, with the ex- 

 ception perhaps of part of Buckley's (see on), and is evidently 

 newer than the drift underlying the basalt, from the fact of its 

 lower level, and its containing pebbles of basalt derived from the 

 waste of the protective basaltic covering of the older drift. The 

 peculiarity, in this claim, of the bed which contains the gem-stones, 

 may possibly arise from the decomposition of boulders of greenstone 

 and basalt, the former being the bottom rock, which has produced 

 a pure white clay, apparently a hydrous silicate of alumina, etc. It 

 adheres strongly to the tongue, and contains small quartz pebbles, 

 rounded pieces of basalt, blue sapphire, ruby, black pleonast in great 

 profusion, and some wood tin. It is also veined throughout with 

 some bluish opaline mineral (probably phosphate of iron). This 

 bed varies from one to four feet in thickness ; and between it and 

 the bottom there are two feet of red sandy drift. A newer river 

 wash, containing pebbles of Carboniferous conglomerates, and mixed 

 with the former, rests on this bed. This, with the alluvial covering, 

 is about 12 feet thick. The diamonds in this drift may have been 

 washed out of an older once-existing deposit, as the unusual ac- 

 cumulation of greensand, at this spot, renders probable. The " scrub 

 lead " is apparently a mixture of recent river wash with the older 

 denuded leads. 



We next come to Buckley's hill and lead. Shafts were sunk 

 here in the newer drift at depths varying from forty-three to 

 sixty-five feet. The wash dirt was exactly similar to that at 

 Miller's, but gem-stones were not so plentiful. A few diamonds 



