The Hodgkinson Goldfield,, Northern Queensland. 5 



After crossing the Mitchell, the road traverses the plain 

 for about three miles, and then commences to ascend a 

 granite range. This is another spur from the divide, and 

 the Mitchell passes round its northern end, so that it is 

 crossed quite unnecessarily. The explanation of this is, 

 that when the Hodgkinson Goldfield was explored, it was 

 reached from Cooktown; and then a further exploration 

 was made to find the sea coast and some more convenient 

 port of shipment than Cooktown. The object of the 

 explorers was to reach the coast in the straightest possible 

 line, and thus they passed over many ranges which a better 

 acquaintance with the geographical structure of the country 

 will enable them to avoid. 



The character of the range is exceedingly bold and pic- 

 turesque. Huge boulders and bare surfaces of granite are 

 very conspicuous. The crossing-place is over 2000 feet 

 above the sea level ; but to the south it rises to a height of 

 between 3000 and 4000 feet. To the north-west, dark 

 masses of still greater elevation are seen ; but they are 

 divided from this track by the valley of the Mitchell. The 

 whole of this granite series, with numerous spurs, offshoots, 

 and isolated ranges, belong to one formation, which probably 

 has its greatest height in the Peter Botte Mountains, half- 

 way between Cooktown and Port Douglas, and fifty miles 

 from the coast at Cape Tribulation. 



In ascending the range the cuttings made for the road 

 enable one to see very good sections. The metamorphic 

 character of the granite is beautifully shown. Slates, with 

 a vertical dip, clothe the sides of some of the spurs. They 

 are seen to pass gradually into schist, highly contorted, and 

 then into gneiss, and finally into the hard, compact blue and 

 grey granite of the range. Here and there are seen sections 

 of granite, with small patches of slate, not completely 

 transmuted, lying in the mass. It is thus abundantly 

 evident that this granite is only the altered slates. It may 

 be that the strata thus transmuted are a portion of the 

 formation at the Slate Range and the auriferous slates of 

 the Hodgkinson field. This cannot be asserted positively, 

 though it is extremely probable. Remembering this, and 

 that the reefs at Charters Towers and Ravens wood are both 

 found in syenite, there is no reason why these immense 

 formations at the Hodgkinson should not be auriferous also. 

 In the transmutation of the stone from slate into granite 

 many quartz veins are found ■ but I am not aware of any 

 reefs, properly speaking. 



