GEOLOGY GF NORTH GIPPSLAND, VICTORIA. 37 
for this paper; but I may remark that my inquiries into the source 
from which the alluvial gold has been derived have, so far, shown 
that the auriferous character of the formations will have to be ex- 
tended from the Silurian to the very highest Paleeozoic groups with 
which we are here acquainted. 
At Tabberabbera alluvial goldis worked where the “ bed-rock”’ is 
Middle Devonian and the overlying strata Upper Devonian. At the 
Lower Mitchell River the whole of the strata are of the latter age. 
At lower Boggy Creek the bed-rock is quartz-porphyry overlain by 
Upper Devonian ; but in this instance, as I have indicated elsewhere*, 
the gold may have been derived from the detritus of the Silurian 
hills higher up the stream. At Maximilian Creek the lowest strata 
of the upper part of its course are probably Middle Devonian 
overlain by Upper Devonian, and in the lower part entirely the latter. 
My inquiries are at present not sufficiently advanced to enable me 
to speak decidedly ; but, so far as they go, the conclusion seems very 
probable that the gold has been derived from the narrow quartz veins 
of the Middle Devonian shales, slates, and quartzites, or from the 
quartz-conglomerates of the Upper Devonian, which have certainly 
been derived from older and probably auriferous strata, or from the 
narrow quartz veins which here also intersect the conglomerate and 
sandstone. <A fragment of quartz containing gold has been given to 
me which is said to have been taken from such a quartz vein in the 
Iguana-Creck beds of Maximilian Creek. Ifthis can be satisfactorily 
substantiated great light will be thrown on the subject. I hope 
before long to be able to seriously attack this important question. 
GENERAL SUMMARY AND CoNncLUSION. 
In the preceding pages I have attempted to give, as shortly 
and as clearly as I could, an account of the physical geography and 
geology of North Gippsland, so far as my inquiries have made me 
acquainted with the subject. I may briefly sum up the conclusions 
which it seems to me may be arrived at, and which I believe to be 
warranted by the facts stated. 
In glancing backwards through the dim geologic ages the earliest 
record of the past which we can discern is the great Silurian series. 
Whatever formations of prior date there may have been, on which 
the ‘* 35,000 feet” of Silurian f slates and sandstones reposed, no 
trace whatever, it would seem, now remains of them. ‘The natural 
forces (dynamical, hydro-plutonic, whatever they may be termed) 
which compressed and folded the strata, which caused them to be 
metamorphosed, partially absorbed, or even invaded by the granites, 
no doubt also completely obliterated all those older rock masses on 
which the Silurian reposed, and from the wearing of which those 
Silurian strata were formed. 
* Report of Progress, Geological Survey of Victoria, No. 2, p. 70. 
t ‘Making due allowance for this repetition of the same beds at the surface, 
the total vertical thickness of the series can scarcely be estimated at less than 
35,000 feet.” —A. R. C. Selwyn in “ Notes on the Physical Geography and Geology 
&c. of Victoria,” Intercolonial-Exhibition Essays, 1866, p. 11. 
