34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 29, 



From the admixture of the quartz-grit (Specimens F.) with partly 

 decayed vegetation, which did not extend into the adjacent clay, it 

 might be inferred that the layer had been the detritus of the bed of a 

 a small rill, the hollow of which had been filled by a subsequent slip 

 of clay from the hill above. Although the fragments of auriferous 

 quartz (Specimens G.) in the layer were perfectly sharp in their 

 angles and presented no appearance of having been rolled, yet, on 

 examining the rock above, scarcely a trace of gold was found. Eighty 

 feet lower down on the hill-side traces of gold had also disappeared. 

 The deposit was entirely local. 



Around the spot where the gold lay, and imbedded in the clay, 

 are large boulders of quartz (Specimens H.), the rounded shapes of 

 which bear evidence to their having been much rolled. Specks only 

 of gold are found about them. The crystallization of the quartz (Spe- 

 cimens H.) in these boulders is more perfect than in that containing 

 gold. In the latter (Specimens G.) the quartz has a crumbling ap- 

 pearance, as if decomposing. It is possible that one of these boulders 

 was originally a fragment from an auriferous quartz-vein on the moun- 

 tain above. Its breaking up might have resulted from frosts, and from 

 the action of the water of the hollow into which it had rolled on a stone 

 rendered less adhesive by the crossing and recrossing of scales of gold 

 through its substance. 



The gold is most abundant in the upper part of the valley of the 

 Kapanga, where the stream-bed is narrowed in to a breadth of about 

 25 feet by the steep sides of the ravine. Lower down, where the 

 valley expands, the gold is so diffused over the soil of the flats as not 

 to pay for working. In the mud-flat where the Kapanga flows into 

 the harbour, specks, or what is termed the " colour," may be ob- 

 tained by careful washing. 



The Mataawai Stream. — The Waiau stream flows from immediately 

 under the main range in a north-westerly direction to Coromandel 

 Harbour. One of its tributaries, the Mataawai, intersects the range 

 in its course at a low level, and reveals a dark grey slate-rock. Gold, 

 ramified through rounded pebbles of quartz (Specimens I.), was 

 found in considerable quantities during the last summer, in the cre- 

 vices of the slate-rock, below the gravel of the stream-bed. Several 

 specimens weighing about 4 oz. and b\ oz. were washed, and one was 

 obtained of the weight of 7f oz. All the gold and auriferous quartz 

 (Specimens I.) in this stream present a rounded surface, such as 

 would be caused by long-continued attrition. 



The Karaka. — The Karaka stream, midway between the Kapanga 

 and the Mataawai, also partly intersects the main range, and, like the 

 last-named stream, exposes the grey slate. In this stream only 

 grains of gold have yet been found. 



Other localities. — The places already mentioned, together with 

 the granite coast at Otaki and the Manai Creek, where gold has also 

 been " prospected," are on the western side of the main range. On 

 the eastern it exists in the Arataonga and Makirau valleys, and at 

 Kuatunu, under Mount Kenny, 20 miles from the central range. 

 " Prospects" of gold have also been washed on the mountains of the 



