2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 1, 



was obtained from it. A pit was sunk in the centre of a large shal- 

 low valley, and some gold was found at a depth of 1 5 feet in the 

 gravel. 



These accounts excited great interest in the colony. Mr. Bain 

 happened to be on the frontier at the time, and a deputation waited 

 on the Governor in Graham's Town and suggested the propriety of 

 sending him to the spot, to report on the alleged discovery. His 

 Excellency, however, appears to have doubted the truth of the re- 

 port, and declined detaining Mr. Bain from his duties ; he accord- 

 ingly returned to his post in the western districts. 



Gold in small quantities continued to be found; and some nuggets 

 reaching this place, with greatly exaggerated accounts of the success of 

 the diggers, caused great excitement, particularly among the younger 

 and more unstable part of the community. Several clerks gave up 

 their situations to repair to the " diggings," and many rash specula- 

 tions were entered into. Merchants and tradesmen raised the price 

 of their goods. An affidavit from a person in Smithfield who has 

 some local reputation as a chemist, to the effect that he had examined 

 some mineral containing 20 per cent, of copper and 10 per cent, of 

 gold, occasioned still more interest, for it was stated that the mineral 

 in question was to be obtained in waggon-loads quite near the 

 surface. 



Under these circumstances the desire for more accurate informa- 

 tion gained ground, and a subscription was set on foot, by the mer- 

 chants and others in this place, for raising the means of sending some 

 person or persons, possessed of some geological and mineralogical 

 knowledge, to the spot, to report on the truth of the accounts re- 

 ceived, and to discover, if possible, what probability there might be 

 of gold or other metals being found in such quantities as to make 

 mining profitable. The choice fell on myself, a medical practitioner 

 known to have made geological collections, &c., and Mr. Paterson, 

 the editor of one of the local papers, not a geologist, but a man of 

 general intelligence. We left this on the 27th of March last and 

 arrived in Smithfield eight days after. 



I presume that the writings and map of my friend Mr. Bain* have 

 made you familiar with the geology of this country, more especially 

 with that interesting formation the " Dicynodon strata," which will 

 ever be associated in the minds of geologists with his name. This 

 singular series of strata of enormous extent, probably exceeding three 

 times the area of Great Britain and Ireland, and perhaps thousands 

 of feet in depth, yet apparently presenting evidence of lacustrine origin, 

 is penetrated everywhere by dykes of igneous rock, varying from less 

 than a foot to some hundreds of yards in breadth ; sometimes of a com- 

 pact basalt-like character, at other times (in the larger dykes) like 

 coarse granite, or composed of hornblende and quartz with felspar 

 (syenite) or zeolite. Yet, excepting near the western border of the 

 Zeurbergen Range, the strata are rarely disturbed more than ten 

 degrees from the horizontal plane, and even such disturbances 



* Forming a part of the 7th vol. of the Geological Transactions now in the 

 press. — Ed. 



