NICKEL-IRON ALLOY AWAEUITE OF NEW ZEALAND. 623 



spurs from the high ranges do not directly dip steep into the ocean, 

 massive deposits of sandstone and shale and in some cases limestone, 

 of probably older Tertiary age, overlie the old rocks along the coast 

 to pretty high up the easy slopes of the spurs ; whilst down the main 

 river-valleys, mostly on both sides, descend extensive high terraces 

 of boulder-drift and hard conglomerates, of morainic character in 

 the higher parts of the valleys. In the embouchures of the rivers 

 there are generally bars or delta-like accumulations of more recent 

 drift. The prospecting of the terrace-drifts for gold and tracing 

 the gold to its original deposits (quartz-reefs) was the main object of 

 the large prospecting party previously referred to. 



Coming now to the peridotite and serpentine rocks, the following 

 extracts are of importance. The Chief Surveyor, Mr. Gerhard 

 Mueller, in his report of his explorations *, states on this head as fol- 

 lows : — " The most remarkable feature about the district appears to 

 me to be that of the Olivine Eange on the East of Cascade River. 

 It is a red and violet looking mass, and, from about 1000 ft. above 

 the river, devoid of almost every vestige of vegetation. It is of the 

 same formation of which the Cascade Plateau and a great part of the 

 country of the Gorge and Jerry valleys consist. The lied Hill 

 (5000-6000 feet) itself is olivine-rock, whilst the spurs running 

 therefrom are a sort of greyish slate with grey granite belts here and 

 there through them. An extraordinary red granite belt is seen in 

 the Jerry Eiver a little above the proposed road-crossing. The 

 olivine formation is traceable as far as the Humboldt Mountains ; 

 the last indication of it I saw on the Cow Saddle, from which the 

 Barrier and Olivine Branches (Creeks) and the Hidden-Falls Creek 

 rise ; the extent of it there does not exceed a couple of acres, but it 

 is very marked and distinct." In a letter to me, August 1st, 1889, 

 Mr. E. Paulin, in explanation of his sketch-plan (p. 624), states : — 

 " The Red-Hill formation (olivine and serpentine) occurs all over 

 the parts I have marked with red lines. The Red-Hill and Olivine 

 Ranges are for the most part bare of timber, and the formation is 

 very conspicuous, owing to the burnt-brick colour which the rock 

 assumes where exposed to the atmosphere. Both the Olivine and 

 Hope Ranges are very much broken and shattered, containing no 

 mass of rock that has not cracks in all directions. This is not so 

 much the case in the Red-Hill Ranges." 



From these extracts, together with Mr. Paulin's plan, it will 

 be seen that the rocks under notice compose, in the region of the 

 Awaruite discovery, a complex of high massive ranges, the most 

 prominent of which are the Red-Hill and Olivine Ranges, and 

 which comprise, according to Mr. Paulin's plan, an area of about 

 25 miles in length north and south, and 16 miles in width east 

 and west. The rocks, however, doubtless extend (probably with 

 interruptions and for certain much contracted in width) much further 

 southward, even beyond the point Mr. Mueller mentions near the 



* Report on West Coast between Cascade Plateau and Jackson's River on the 

 North, and Lake M'Kerrow and HoUyford Valley on the South ; in the ' Report 

 of the Survey Department of N.Z. for the year 1883-84,' p. 73. 



