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



having proved troublesome, and I have heard since I left that five 

 nuggets, weighing 96 grains, have been obtained. 



I cannot anticipate any great success for the diggers, as the only 

 primary sources of gold in the valley appeared to be the two dykes 

 above described. The result of my inquiries is the conviction that 

 the gold may be found in small vems over a large extent of country, 

 that no large or rich veins have yet been seen, nor do I think that 

 such exist. I cannot agree with my friend Mr. Bain in thinking 

 that the gold has been conveyed from a distance, for the reasons 

 above given. I believe too that gold in masses of 50 grains' weight 

 is never transported by water so far as 100 miles from its source. 



It has been mentioned, that, though the ranges of mountains in 

 the Dicynodon-strata of the Colony take a north-easterly direction, 

 yet no distinct lines of igneous action can be referred to diiferent 

 dates. In the Sovereignty, on the contrary, it appeared that the 

 meridian- dykes were decidedly the more ancient, as, wherever I had 

 an opportunity of examining them, they were distinctly cut through 

 by the north-easterly ones ; and, though there were some dykes 

 which seemed to take directions which were difficult to refer to either 

 of these systems, I thought that most of the igneous rocks in the 

 country might be referred to two sets. 1st. A northerly or meridian- 

 directed set, which form the centres of many ranges of hills and moun- 

 tains extending from the Stormberg westward for some hundreds of 

 miles, running in their northerly course to Horrismith at least, and, 

 according to some accounts, to Megalies-Berg. The Wittebergen and 

 Koesbergen belong to this system. 



2nd. A north-easterly set, crossing the others, and in the Sove- 

 reignty giving ranges subordinate in size to the last, but to the 

 eastward greatly larger, so as to give their direction to the Quath- 

 lambo or Draakenberg. I find great confusion in the diiferent 

 maps of this region, some making the main range of the Quathlambo 

 to take a north-easterly course, though others make it take a bend 

 northward about the lower third of its course ; some of the names 

 too (such as the Wittebergen) are applied to two or three ranges 

 in different places, and taking different directions. Mr. Bain 

 tells me that the geology of the Draakenberg is the same as that 

 of the Sovereignty, viz. horizontal Dicynodon-strata, pierced by 

 syenitic dykes. This I know to be the case in the Wittebergen and 

 Stormbergen, which are in reality its southern terminus. But the 

 Orange, Caledon, and Kraai rivers have in their beds pebbles which 

 can belong to no such rocks as they pass in the lower part of their 

 course. A trader told me that he had seen them in the river 200 miles 

 above Aliwal, but had never seen the rocks they came from. They 

 are masses of amygdaloid, with a red or brown-red coloured felspar 

 basis, with crystals of a circular zeolite (stilbite, I presume). There 

 are no such rocks in the Cape Colony. Whether with this change 

 of igneous rock might exist greater metallic deposits in these regions, 

 can, I imagine, only be determined by inspection. 



The Umyinvost or St. John's River would, I think, be a good 

 point of departure for an expedition to explore the Quathlambo. I 



