Norman Taylor — The Cudgegong Diamond Field. 447 



oxide of manganese. In one of the drives they cut through what 

 appears to have been a portion of a large tree, lying horizontally in 

 the cement on the " bottom," — the wood itself had entirely dis- 

 appeared, and nothing but a hollow casing or shell of oxide of iron 

 remained, — this was internally longitudinally striated, and was 

 composed of several coats. On the inside were some peculiar 

 metallic efflorescences presenting the appearance of small round 

 black velvet buttons, composed of confusedly foliated plates of a 

 substance, which, when rubbed, assumed the metallic appearance of 

 graphite, and soiled the fingers. Fragments of drift wood had been 

 found on the bottom ; not silicified like that derived from the 

 Carboniferous rocks. The gem-stones can be traced most thickly 

 in slightly cemented (by silica) flesh-coloured veins. The total thick- 

 ness of the drift is 24 feet, and the bottom dips westerly. On 

 driving northwards the bottom rose and fell again, and the diamonds 

 became scarce. 



Adjoining the above claim was another, belonging to Messrs. Scott 

 and Allen, which was 54 feet deep. The ferruginous " cement " in 

 this claim inclosed abundance of pleonaste, zircon, sapphire, and 

 topaz, with small fragments of brown ferruginous wood, like that 

 occurring in most of the Tertiary cements in Victoria. The "cement" 

 forms but a very small proportion of the drifts, and occurs in irre- 

 gular thin veins, sometimes fine- and at others coarse-grained. 

 Other shafts were sunk west and east of these rich claims, but un- 

 successfully, as they did not appear to possess the few bottom feet 

 which contained the diamonds. To the north of this, and on the 

 river-side of the northern horn, another shaft yielded a very heavy 

 drift, giving an average of one diamond and five pennyweights of 

 gold to the load. The basalt increases in thickness to the west at 

 Hassall's fence, whilst the drift diminishes ; a shaft there passing 

 through 32 feet of basalt, and 15 feet of drift. Messrs. Cooney and 

 party had, up to April, 1870, obtained over 1000 diamonds, and 

 Scott's party about 700. The lease of the former party had then 

 been proved for a distance of 300 feet along their main drive (N. 35° 

 W.) with a breadth of over 100 feet. A washing of 33 loads yielded 

 306 diamonds, weighing 74| carats (largest If carats). They have 

 washed from 1 to 15 diamonds to the load, but the average was 

 about 5, with 3 dwts. of gold. A washing of from 12 to 15 loads 

 of Scott's gave at the rate of 8 diamonds and 3 dwts. of gold to the 

 load. The small quantity of gold obtained is due to the fact of the 

 diamonds not being on the bottom, while the gold is, and conse- 

 quently, a thickness of as much as 5 and 6 feet of wash dirt had to 

 be taken out, thus reducing the gold per-centage. The southern face 

 of the northern horn is very shallow ground. 



The basalt runs westerly through Mr. Hassall's fence and into his 

 paddock, where it is concealed by alluvial soil, and nowhere crops 

 out again. The diamond ground was supposed to run in that direc- 

 tion, but, being private property, it had not then been prospected. 



Between this and the river, — which, after running a mile westerly 

 from the " Eocky -ridge," turns abruptly to the south, and keeps this 



