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VI. — Remarks on the Australian Gold Fields. 

 By W. S. Jevons, 



Eead November 15th, 1859. 



/. TJie Geological Characteristics of the principal Gold 

 Districts. 



To prepare the way for some general conclusions as to 

 the geological source of gold^ I shall commence with brief 

 descriptions of those more important gold-producing locali- 

 ties which I lately enjoyed an opportunity of visiting. 



Bendigo. — The celebrated Bendigo consists of a long 

 shallow valley — say ten miles long, and from one to three 

 miles wide. On both sides it is distinctly bounded by 

 hilly ranges of moderate and rather uniform height, from 

 which spur-ranges often advance towards the middle of 

 the valley, while corresponding gullies^- or smaller valleys 

 run up a short distance into the surrounding country. 

 The ranges are entirely composed of a rather soft schis- 

 tose or slaty rock, varying in colour from red to yellow, 

 and decidedly belonging to the Silurian era, but the strata 

 are cloven, here and there, by remarkable walls or dykes 

 of quartz rock, usually called reefs, which always run in 

 a nearly north and south direction, independently of the 

 form of the ground. The quartz is often of a pure milk- 

 white colour, but also, in parts, contains considerable 



* Gully is an universal term in Australia for any Jiolloio, whether it be a 

 precipitous raviue of great size or a trifling inequality of the ground. 



