1869.] ULRICH " NUGGETTY REEF.'' 335 



Magnetic pyrites. Scattered through the quartz in small patches ; 

 not found in crj'stals as yet. 



Co2D]jer-pyrites. Like the former, but rather more rare. 



Galena. Yerj abundant, finely disseminated, and in patches ; but 

 seldom, and always imperfectly, crystallized. 



Zinc-hlende. Finely disseminated and in small patches, generally 

 in connexion with galena ; not yet observed crystallized. 



Maldonite, Bismuthic Gold. Generally in the neighbourhood of 

 the granite -veins, and often a few inches deep in the granite 

 itself, specks of a soft malleable ore occur, having a pinkish 

 silver- white colour, with a brilliant metalKc lustre when freshlj'- 

 broken, but tarnishing gradually when exposed to the atmo- 

 sphere, becoming first of a dull copper- colour, and ultimately 

 quite black. Of this rare ore only a very small quantity has yet 

 been available for blowpipe experiments, by which I determined 

 it to be an alloy of bismuth and gold, and for an assay, made by 

 Mr. Cosmo Newbery, which showed its composition to be 64-5 

 gold and 35-5 bismuth, agreeing closely with the formula Au"^ Bi. 

 Being, as a natural product, quite new to science, it is pro- 

 posed to name this alloy " Maldonite " after the locality of its 

 occurrence. It is softer than pure gold, fuses more easily before 

 the blowpipe on charcoal, and, whilst turning to a bright gold 

 bead, imparts to the chacoal the yellow coating of bismuth. It 

 shows no trace of tellurium, sulphur, &c. Cleavage apparently 

 cubical ; very sectile. It is no doubt the ore that gave rise 

 to the frequent admixtures of bismuth in the gold of the 

 ISuggetty Reef. 



In addition to the different ores just mentioned, which, with the 

 exception of the " Maldonite," appear to increase in quantity be- 

 neath the water-level, there occur frequently in the quartz, and not 

 at all confined to the neighbourhood of the granite-veins, irregular 

 patches and imperfect crystals of bluish and greenish-white felspar 

 (oligoclase) and of silvery white and black mica; also, scattered 

 through the reef, narrow veins and small lumps of a white kaoHnic 

 clay. 



In conclusion, it may not be out of place to remark that the 

 surface- workings on this interesting reef present a glaring in- 

 stance of misspent labour and capital, due no doubt to the dislike to 

 cooperation, often noticed among the miners in the early times of 

 the Victorian gold-fields. Bunning up the steep slope of the hill, 

 called Mount Moorul, the main portion of the reef in strike, and 

 considerably over 100 feet in dip, might easily have been worked 

 by one main shaft, in connexion with a tunnel starting from a 

 deep gully that runs alongside the reef. Instead of this, however, 

 at least a dozen costly shafts have been sunk, out of which the quartz 

 had to be raised by windlass or horsewhim, to be directly shot down 

 again by means of shoots to the bottom of the before-mentioned 

 guUy, whence it was carted to the crushing-machines in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



