McTvAY. — Oil Gold in Ihc ISlachenzii' Couiilnj, Caulerhnry. 481 



Art. LXXV. — On the Occurrence of Gold in the Mackenzie Country, Canterbury. 

 By Alexander McKay, of the Geological Survey Department. 

 {Read before the Wellington PJdlosophical Society, ith August, 1877.J 

 It is noteworthy that above a certain point no workable deposits of alluvial 

 gold have hitherto been discovered in the valley of the Waitaki Eiver, or in 

 any of the several rivers, which, making junction near the south-eastern 

 corner of the Mackenzie Country, are thence in their further course known 

 as the Waitaki Eiver. 



If the abundance of quartz in a river bed be an indication of its 

 auriferous character, some of the western tributaries of the Waitaki should 

 long ere now have been famed for their rich deposits of gold, but as yet the 

 finds have been few and of little value. Not that the district has been 

 neglected by prospectors, for, ever since the Lindis rush, gold in the Mac- 

 kenzie Country has been the dream of many a miner on the Otago gold- 

 fields ; and scarcely a year passes without another attempt being made to 

 discover payable gold in this district. 



Further, on the breaking out of the West Coast goldfields a constant 

 stream of miners from the inland districts of Otago reached the Canterbury 

 Plains, and so the West Coast by the shortest, but also the most difficult 

 route, leading through the Mackenzie Country. It was thus to be expected 

 that in a country where one class of indications were eminently favourable 

 a considerable amount of prospecting should be carried on. 



The Coast was, however, too powerful a magnet to be counteracted by 

 the simple chances of finding gold in a district where possibility was the 

 only inducement held out, and consequently we find that disappointed 

 diggers returning from the West Coast were those who first applied them- 

 selves to the prospecting of the Mackenzie Country. 



These, badly equipped for such an undertaking, and generally without 

 sufficient means, naturally could not devote much time to the work, and 

 therefore could not, under the circumstances, bring their labours to a 

 satisfactory conclusion. 



This resulted in then- again seeking the goldfields of Otago, where the 

 favourable accounts carried by them induced others better prepared for the 

 work to join them, and so, in the favourable season, prospecting parties 

 made their way along most of the rivers and large creeks in the western 

 part of the district. 



The severity of the winter mouths generally compelled the return of 

 these expeditions with no other results than a confirmed belief in the 

 auriferous character of the district ; the amount of gold obtained being 

 generally very small. But though the same party seldom returned, next 



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