Unexplored Districts of Victoria. 65 



country at the sources of the Goulburn, and that at the 

 sources of the Wimmera, still there are very extensive are&s 

 which have been quite neglected, and which are as likely to 

 embrace remunerative gold-fields as any other parts of the 

 country already opened up. I have alread} r mentioned the 

 Delatite, the Kiug, the Holland, the Broken River, the 

 Wonangarra, the Wonongaratta, and the unknown tributa- 

 ries of the Thomson and Macalister, and I would now add, as 

 also worthy of examination, the western tributaries of the 

 Wimmera, the unexamined tributaries of the Richardson, and 

 a large area of country west of the Goulburn. It is unneces- 

 sary to say, that relatively small areas occurring between well 

 known centres of gold-mining industry are yet to be explored, 

 and their treasures concealed in quartz veins and alluvia yet 

 to be brought to light. 



The basaltic rocks, covering as they do a vast area, no 

 doubt, repose on palaeozoic sandstones and schists, and strata 

 belonging to the carboniferous age. To what extent denuda- 

 tion may have affected the latter it is impossible to say, but 

 looking to the physical structure of the colony, we may con- 

 clude, as more than probable, that the northern margin of 

 this great sheet of volcanic rocks, conceals auriferous deposits 

 immediately resting on schists and sandstone, and at no great 

 depth. 



We are not without data from which to judge of the 

 nature of the rocks beneath the basalts and lavas. The 

 workings at Ballaarat afford some, but to my mind a clearer 

 view may be obtained of the structure of this kind of coun- 

 try by an examination of the county of Talbot. At Ballaarat, 

 the little we know has been exposed after infinite labour and 

 cost by the miners ; but at Daylesford, Yandoit, and in other 

 parts of Talbot, natural forces have scooped out valleys clean 

 through basalt, tertiary, and schist, in such a manner as to 

 lower the now existing water courses some sixty feet below 

 the level of the beds of the old streams. The basaltic rock 

 is nowhere very thick, and yet some of the old centres of 

 igneous action are as imposing in appearance there as those 

 in the south-western parts of- the colon}'. Without careful 

 examination, it is however hard to say whether any of the 

 basalt covering the old leads in the Daylesford district is of 

 its natural thickness. We do not know how much of it may 

 have been carried away. 



Without doubt the first attempts to penetrate the western 

 plains may fail, unless there be outcrops of the silurian rocks 



F 



