MoKay.—On Gold in the Mackenzie Country, Canterbury. 481 
Art. LXXV.—On the Occurrence of Gold in the Mackenzie Country, Canterbury. 
By Avexanper McKay, of the Geological Survey Department. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 4th August, 1877.] 
Ir is noteworthy that above a certain point no workable deposits of alluvial 
gold have hitherto been discovered in the valley of the Waitaki River, or in 
any of the several rivers which, making junction near the south-eastern 
corner of the Mackenzie Country, are thence in their further course known 
as the Waitaki River. 
If the abundance of quartz in a river bed ,be an indication of its 
auriferous character, some of the western tributaries of the Waitaki should 
long ere now have been famed for their rich deposits of gold, but as yet the 
finds have been few and of little value. Not that the district has been 
neglected by prospectors, for, ever since the Lindis rush, gold in the Mac- 
kenzie Country has been the dream of many a miner on the Otago gold- 
fields; and scarcely a year passes without another attempt being made to 
discover payable gold in this district. 
Further, on the breaking out of the West Coast goldfields a constant 
stream of miners from the inland districts of Otago reached the Canterbury 
Plains, and so the West Coast by the shortest, but also the most difficult 
route, leading through the Mackenzie Country. It was thus to be expected 
that in a country where one class of indications were eminently favourable 
a considerable amount of prospecting should be carried on. 
The Coast was, however, too powerful a magnet to be counteracted by 
the simple chances of finding gold in a district where possibility was the 
only inducement held out, and consequently we find that disappointed 
diggers returning from the West Coast were those who first applied them- 
selves to the prospecting of the Mackenzie Country. 
These, badly equipped for such an undertaking, and generally without 
sufficient means, naturally could not devote much time to the work, and 
therefore could not, under the circumstances, bring their labours to a 
satisfactory conclusion. 
This resulted in their again seeking the goldfields of Otago, where the 
favourable accounts carried by them induced others better prepared for the 
work to join them, and so, in the favourable season, prospecting parties 
made their way along most of the rivers and large creeks in the western 
part of the district. 
The severity of the winter months generally compelled the return of 
these expeditions with no other results than a confirmed belief in the 
auriferous character of the district ; the amount of gold obtained being 
generally yery small. But though the same party seldom returned, next 
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