Ivi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



terests of the colony. Subsequently, also, he detailed his views on 

 the subject at the meeting of the British Association in 1849, and on 

 other occasions. 



Lord Grey, it appears, was of opinion that the discovery of gold 

 in Australia would only be productive of ill effects by deranging all 

 the internal existing relations of the colony ; but had his Lordship 

 felt that confidence to which a prediction founded on such sound geo- 

 logical generalization and such strict analogy as that of Sir R. Mur- 

 chison was entitled, an examination of the reputed auriferous beds 

 would probably have been immediately instituted under agents of the 

 government. The discoveries subsequently made would have been 

 the necessary consequence ; and preparatory arrangements for ex- 

 plorations might have prevented much of the evil which arose from 

 the first announcement of the abundance of gold. It will be well if 

 this should be accepted by our Government as another proof of the 

 importance of a due attention to the suggestions of science. With 

 this neglect on the part of the Government, the discovery of the real 

 value of the Australian gold field was left to be made by Mr. Har- 

 graves, who had acquired a knowledge of gold-digging in California. 

 His experience enabled him to detect immediately the existence of 

 gold in sufficient abundance to render workings for it profitable. 



After this announcement Mr. Clarke published a letter in the 

 Sydney Morning Herald of May 29, 1851, the contents of which are 

 nearly the same as those of the paper recently read before the Society. 

 It was also widely circulated in this country through the medium of 

 The Times newspaper. There is, however, a difference between the 

 letter and the memoir which I think it right to notice. In the latter 

 there are ample references to Sir R. Murchison and others, whereas 

 in the former there are no such references at all, so that the perusal 

 of it might produce the impression that the author not only claims 

 the merit of having inferred from his own observations in Australia, 

 or those of others, the existence of gold in that region, but also the 

 merit of a wide generalization and induction founded on a comparison 

 between the geological phsenomena of Australia with those of other 

 gold-bearing regions, especially that of the Ural. Now this is pre- 

 cisely what Sir R. Murchison had done, and to him alone the merit 

 of this generalization, and of the prediction founded upon it, is un- 

 questionably due. Had the author anticipated the extent to which 

 this letter has been circulated through the medium of the Government 

 Reports and of newspapers, he would have been, I doubt not, more 

 careful to make due mention of the labours and speculations of others. 

 The district of Bathurst lies in a westerly direction from Sydney, 

 the direct distance from that place to the town of Bathurst being 

 about 100 miles. The latter town is situated on the River Macquarie. 

 The valley through which the river takes its north-westerly course is 

 several miles in width, and bounded on the south by a ridge of con- 

 siderable elevation, consisting, like the other mountains of the district, 

 of old schistose rocks traversed by veins or dykes of quartz. The 

 alluvium which occupies the valley ascends also into the gullies and 

 creeks about the foot of the range. It is in this alluvium that 



