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claim, Mount Wheeler, is a speciality hitherto unobserved, where the gold is 

 absolutely quarried from the rock-mass, and there is no appearance of vein-stone 

 in any way different to such rock-mass. On crushing and washing it yields, 

 besides tine gold, chromic and titanic iron sand, so does (with the exception of 

 the fine gold) all the serpentine from Mount Wheeler to Maryborough. At 

 old Cauoona, the evidence is all in favour of the same mode of development 

 of the precious metal as at Block's claim. The bed-rock is serpentine — there 

 are no quartz reefs, but where a matrix is found adhering to the alluvial gold 

 it is serpentine, and, in addition, chromic iron sand is abundant in the 

 drift. A fragment of mineral which appears to be decomposed serpentine, was 

 lately forwarded to me by Mr. Josephs, the well known assayer, of Gympie, 

 which was coated with carbonate of copper, and the locality from which it 

 came had been taken up for copper mining, yet this, on assay, had yielded 

 more than forty ounces to the ton. It may therefore be fairly concluded that 

 serpentine rock may for the future be considered a field for the prospector, 

 whether it be associated with quartz or not." 



" These various novelties," adds Mr. Dainti'ee, " in the occurrence of gold, 

 enlarge considerably tlie supposed mineral areas of Queensland, and will lead 

 to the cai-eful prospecting of country which the Southern miner at all events 

 would previously have passed over, and may in course of time, as our 

 miners find their way South, lead to the opening up of gold fields where the 

 surface rock formation has hitherto been considered unfavourable to the 

 occurrence of the precious metals." 



Another quotation from this report, as showing a very great similarity to 

 the Dun Mountain, and Wairoa Districts ; Mr. Daintree, in describing Mount 

 Wheeler, says : — " Chromic iron and chromic ochre are distributed over this 

 serpentine country, and with a small proportion of titanic iron form the black 

 sand so troublesome to the diggers. Very numerous outcrops of copper ore 

 have been discovered in this district, which may be divided into three classes : 

 — first, those derived from the decomposition of their pyritous veins, carrying 

 a small amount of copper, which by decomposition and re-precipitation has 

 impregnated the joints and cavities of the boundary rock to varying depths 

 with earthy blue and green carbonate. This class of vein is, however, generally 

 represented on the surface by a hard iron band, stained and coated with copper 

 ore, but is more worth prospecting for gold than copper." 



On this similarity I may remark, that it was the discovery of these iron 

 copper-stained bands by Mr. Travers, on the Dun Mountain, led, as you are 

 aware, to the formation of a company for prospecting and working the supposed 

 copper lodes which the district contained. These iron copper-stained bands 

 were first prospected by Mr. Wrey, and subsequently followed up by driving 

 on their course, sinking by shafts, and cross driving, under the direction of 

 Mr. Hackett, but without any result, except the picking out, now and again, 



2 p 



