McKay.—On Gold in the Mackenzie Country, Canterbury. 483 
rocks reaching, at high levels, to the axil line of the range, but the 
numerous streams flowing west and south from thence in valleys and 
mountain gorges of great depth have in many cases removed the higher 
rocks, and now bring down the waste of the underlying auriferous schists, 
which, in the case of the Ahuriri River, is carried to its junction with the 
Waitaki, there being no lake, as in the other cases, to intercept it, or if 
there ever has been, it has long since been filled up. 
Thus there is a marked difference between the shingle now filling the 
river beds and that derived from the same geographical position before the 
higher rocks had been removed; morainie accumulations, both lateral and 
terminal, being remarkably deficient in auriferous material, as are the rivers 
below the outfall of the lakes. 
It will thus be seen that the localities likely to yield gold in any quantity 
are those rivers and creeks the sources of which cut deep into the auriferous 
rocks, but this being the case it is often very difficult to find gold even then, 
as the sources of the rivers are often nothing more than a tremendous 
aggregation of fallen rocks, many of them exceeding the contents of this 
room. There is scarcely an intermediate condition between this state of 
things and an open river bed, in which a hole cannot be sunk more than a 
few feet without finding that the bottom cannot be reached on account of 
water. 
Though gold is to be found in many ereeks which do not expose the 
schistose rocks, and from one of these the gold now shown was obtained, 
as a rule it is otherwise. Its mode of occurrence was very peculiar, and 
deserves some notice here. It comes from the first creek above Lake 
Ohou, coming from the west, but gold in quantities more than a mere colour 
is confined to about a mile of its course only. It is not surprising that 
it should disappear in the flat shingle beds near the lake, but its remark- 
able disappearance above a certain point as the creek is followed up remains 
to be explained, as there are one or two small flats and terraces which are 
quite as likely as those in which the gold is found. 
There are two explanations of this. One is that the gold is derived 
from the destruction of an old lake terrace, cut through by the creek. But 
as this is not a solitary example of such action, why, I ask, is there no 
gold at the same relative point in other cases. The other explanation 
is that the gold is derived from the rocks of the neighbouring range which, 
a little above the occurrence of the gold, are composed of comparatively 
loose conglomerates which might be the matrix of the gold. Another 
solution might present itself, namely, that the gold is derived from a dyke 
of igneous rock ‘which here crosses the creek, and is exposed over a con- 
siderab 
le surface of the —— i et paca ccmad a smooth 
