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it ia a well mixed heap ; and this I imagine would be the case with a gradual 

 denudation or deposition from the surrounding ranges of these basins, had such 

 denudation been precipitated into ■ stagnant water, such as a lake would 

 represent. Each mass or particle in falling would be pi-ecipitated irregularly, 

 and present a homogeneous appearance ; but tijoon placing a further quantity 

 on the heap, and playing water on it for a time — performingiithese last two' 

 operations many times, and again cutting the heap in two — it will be seen that 

 the parts influenced by the active water bear a distinct pattern. It will be 

 stratified or appear in bands, and so agree with the deposits I have alluded to, 

 which uniformly present this appearance of active acpieous action. 



It is so at the upper terraces on the Shotover ; at the big beach in the 

 Queenstown Basin ; the banks of the river at Cromwell, 75 feet deep to the 

 present water level, bear the same appearance ; and it is again repeated in the 

 diift cut through by the Molyneux, through the Dunstan and Teviot Basins to 

 the Beaumont, through the length of the Manuherikia Valley, and, I presume, 

 down the Strath Taieri or Taieri Valley, though down this I have not been ; 

 at a considerable elevation up the spurs at Hyde Diggings, and at Dunstan 

 Creek, at which latter place, in the claim of the Mountain Race Company, 

 these bands, sometimes two or three feet thick, are elevated from the j)lain at 

 an angle of about 45 degrees. The conclusion I came to after my hurried 

 inspection was, that at one time there had been an outflow towards the 

 Canterbury Province. But from a later upheaval, which would be shown in 

 all likelihood by basaltic formation in the neighbourhood, these bands have 

 been transferred froDi the level position in which I imagine they had been first 

 formed, to their present position. This conclusion may be erroneous, as, whilst 

 inspecting this claim in the depth of winter, two years since, a snow storm 

 with fog came on, that compelled us quickly to return. An intelligent, and I 

 may add very active, storekeeper, who was my guide, informed me that the 

 deeper they went the better gold they were finding. It was a hurried inspec- 

 tion, and as hastily formed an opinion. The greatest elevation of the part of 

 this ground worked was about 70 feet ; below this depth they could not get a 

 fall for their tailings, unless at considerable outlay in extending their tail-race. 

 Within a few miles of the Woolshed, by Tokomairu'o, at a new claim opened 

 among the rounded hills, I found the same sign of active aqueous action. 



At Maruwhenua, I am informed, the drift lies in distinct bands. At 

 Dunstan, when the Fortuna Mining Company sunk to a depth of 109 feet 

 without bottoming, and abandoned on account of the West Coast rush, tbe drift 

 Avas found in bands. At Black's No. 3, very rich payable dirt was found at a 

 depth of about 150 feet. At Mount Ida, in the Hogburn, a shaft was abandoned 

 after sinking about 80 feet ; at Waitahuna, the same, after sinking about 

 100 feet, not reaching, in either case, a proper bottom. At Wetherstone's Flat, 

 at 432 feet, no result has been obtained, some asserting one thing and some 



