328 Reviews — Bendigo Oold-Field Registry. 



II. — The Bendigo Gold-field Eegistry : comprising Introduction 

 for the Year, Comparison of Yields, Digest of Dividends, Table 

 of Depths, Progress and Present Position of the Chief Eeefs, 

 and Lists of Companies, Terms, etc. By J. Neill Macartney. 

 With Plans, by H. B. Nicholas, C.E. Also Notes on the 

 Bendigo Gold-field (Illustrated), by W. Nicholas; and a 

 description of Fryer's Creek Claims, with Plan. Second year. 

 Melbourne, 1872. 8vo., pp. 120. London : Trubner and Co. 



THE discovery of Diamond-fields at the Cape and the rush in that 

 direction, together with the development of Iron-mining at 

 home to an almost unparalleled extent, has, for a time at least, 

 diverted a large share of public attention from the Australian gold- 

 fields, which nevertheless are still being carried on with great energy 

 and no little success. 



The Bendigo gold-field is a good illustration in point. 



" The yields of 1871 are ii^i excess of 1870, and the spirit of specu- 

 lation, which was considered to have been well nigh exhausted in 

 the formation of 300 companies, is more vigorous than ever. During 

 the past ten months of 1871, 765 companies have been registered in 

 over eighteen million shares." 



Ul) to November, 1871, the total number of registered companies 

 was 1310 ; an estimate of a few selected mining claims in Garden 

 Gully Stock shows a value of over £2,000,000 ; whilst the whole of 

 the Bendigo mines are valued by the author at £10,000,000. 



An abundant supply of water appears to be greatly desiderated, 

 but the want is likely to be met by a Bill now before the Legislature 

 by which the Waterworks Company will disjDOse of their works to 

 the City Council, who are prepared to bring in a good supply from 

 the Coliban. 



The article on Quartz Eeefs contains some excellent advice to 

 miners, but it is chiefly based on the admirable work by Mr. E. 

 Brough Smyth (see Eeview in Geol. Mag., 1869, Vol. VL, p. 459), 

 entitled " The Gold-fields of Victoria." 



Mr. E. B. Smyth was mainly instrumental, by his evidence laid 

 before the Colonial Legislature, in checking the idea that quartz- 

 reefs diminished in richness as their depth increases. Mr. Smyth 

 submitted tables and statistics, proving that there was no diminu- 

 tion of gold in the reefs of this colony from the surface to 400 feet 

 in depth ; and in his later work, above quoted, he affirms that there 

 is no diminution in the richness of quartz-reefs at 700, 800, or 900 

 feet beneath the surface. Many of the examples of this successful 

 deep-mining are to be found in Bendigo. 



The book is principally occupied with maps and plans of the 

 claims, etc., which it is beyond our province to notice here. 



The principal interest arises from the evidence it affords of what 

 may be done by skill and practical experience when aided by 

 capital. Without the vast amount expended on machinery, these 

 intractable reefs of quartz would never have yielded up to the miner 

 their safely-bound and often widely-diffused auriferous treasure. 



