Unexplored Districts of Victoria. 63 



Ovens and to the Wangaratta, are auriferous, it is but 

 reasonable to conclude that its tributaries also flow over gold 

 bearing rocks. There are also the head waters of the Wan- 

 gangarra, the Wonongaratta, (on which Howitt found 

 the Crooked River gold fields) several tributaries of the Thom- 

 son (on which the Jordan gold-field is situate), the King, 

 the Holland, and the Broken River, whose sources are as 

 completely unknown to the inhabitants of Victoria generally 

 as is the Nile or the Zambesi. 



Some years ago, I ventured to recommend several a rties 

 of miners, who had the necessary means at their disposal, to 

 explore the head waters of the river Yarra and the tribu- 

 taries of the Thomson. I did not do this without data. I 

 had previously carefully examined the maps prepared after 

 infinite labour by Mr. Hoddle, formerly Surveyor-General 

 of this colony, and by Messrs. Tyers and Wilkinson, and 

 the conclusions I arrived at after examining their charts and 

 ascertaining from two of them the nature of the rocks, have 

 not been faulty. Gold, as you are aware, has been 

 found at Hawthorn and Icy Creeks, and at Jordan, and I 

 believe these localities (rich as some of them are said to be), 

 are the least important amongst those likely to be found and 

 worked, north, west, east, and south of Mount Baw Baw. 



I do not come here, however, to offer for your considera- 

 tion my personal views, or to force on you my own convic- 

 tions, I come prepared rather to point out vast areas of the 

 colony which are at present wholly neglected by the miner. 



For a long period I have collected from various sources a 

 vast number of facts relative to the nature of the rocks of 

 this country. I have been in communication with many 

 well-informed gentlemen in the colony, and they have kindly 

 afforded data from which I can for the first time, I believe, 

 submit something like a fair statement of the areas occupied 

 by the more important strata. 



Rough measurements give the following results : — ■ 



Square Miles. 



1. — Granites and other plutonic rocks 2,500 to 3,000 



2. — Sandstones, claystones, and slates 

 belonging to devonian, and upper 

 and lowSr silurian age - 25,000 



3. — Carboniferous rocks - 3,000 



4. — Basaltic and volcanic rocks - 10,000 



