66 Unexplored Districts of Victoria. 



in some of the modern valleys, of which we yet know 

 nothing. The forces which have operated to give their pre- 

 sent physical character to the exposed hills and valleys of 

 the silurian rocks were at work, and had fashioned the 

 country which is now covered with solid waves of lava, and 

 perhaps the most enthusiastic miners would stop, if they 

 should chance to come upon a valley filled in with some five 

 hundred or six hundred feet of blue-stone ; but if they 

 happened to commence their work over some old dividing 

 range, as has often happened at Ballarat, they would the 

 sooner reach the schist in which they could mine with 

 greater facility. I only repeat what has been said by the 

 ablest authorities in the country, when I express the opinion 

 that many rich and extensive leads of gold will probably 

 be found in the northern parts of the great western 

 plains. 



It is quite beyond the scope of this short paper to suggest 

 the mode of search in this kind of country, but I believe 

 boring and sinking shafts should follow and not precede 

 exactly such a careful and minufe geological survey as has 

 been made by Messrs. Ulrich and Aplin, of a great portion 

 of the County of Talbot. 



But little is known relative to the tertiary rocks which 

 occupy so large an area between the silurian belt and the 

 river Murray. What is known would lead to the belief that 

 many of the beds of rounded and angular quartz which in 

 part compose these rocks, will well repay the labours of the 

 gold miner. 



Probably the country north of Huntly, and west of the 

 Campaspe, and that north-west of Barnawartha, close to 

 the Murray, will be first explored for gold. 



It is in the area of the colony that we may probably hope 

 to find salt-beds, and valuable deposits of sulphate of lime. 



Rich veins of iron-ore occur in the Castlemaine and Sand- 

 hurst districts, and with abundance of wood the most suit- 

 able for charcoal, in close proximity, these in time will be 

 profitably worked. 



The metalliferous veins at Reedy Creek will probably yet 

 be explored for silver, and the reports of Mr. Mining Registrar 

 Raven, published as far back as August, 1 860, show that 

 St. Arnaud will probably be as attractive for its silver mines 

 as it is now for its gold. 



The granites of the Beechworth district, to whose compo- 

 sition special attention was directed by the jiu'ors in Class 



