1872.] GKEGORY TIN DISCOVERIES IN QUEENSLAND. 3 



tin-ore are distributed is that comprised by the watershed of the 

 Severn river down to Ballandean Station, with the exception of 

 about six miles of the extreme southern head of Quart-pot Creek 

 and Accommodation Creek, both of which have hitherto not been 

 found to yield payable ore. 



The richest deposits have been found in the stream-beds and 

 fluviatile flats on their banks, the payable ground varying from a 

 few yards to 5 chains in width, occasionally broken by rocky bars ; 

 but even in these instances large deposits are frequently lodged in 

 the pockets and crevices between the granite boulders. The aggre- 

 gate length of these alluvial bands may be taken as about one 

 hundred and forty miles on the Severn waters, with about thirty 

 more on the tributaries to Pike's Creek. 



A very careful inquiry and personal examination of a number of 

 the various workings that have been commenced within the last few 

 weeks establish very fair data upon which to estimate the pro- 

 bable yield of ore. This may now, with a tolerable degree of cer- 

 tainty, be stated at an average of ten tons per linear chain of the 

 Creek beds. In some instances it has been found to extend to 

 thirty tons per chain ; but allowing for frequent interruptions by 

 rocky bars, it will be safer to adopt the first-mentioned yield as a 

 fair standard upon which to base an estimate of the amount of 

 mineral that it is probable will be raised within the next few years 

 from alluvial working alone. 



Of the stanniferous lodes or veins it is impossible at present to 

 speak with any degree of certainty ; the two principal ones as yet 

 discovered are near Ballandean Head Station, and at an outlying 

 reef of red granite rising up in the midst of metamorphic slates and 

 sandstone at a spot known as the " Red Rock," and situated about 

 six miles apart in a north and south direction ; the other crosses the 

 Severn several times at the point where the tin was first discovered 

 and the land selected by Messrs. Greenup and others. 



These lodes or veins have as yet been but very partially tested ; it 

 would therefore be premature to give any decided opinion on them ; 

 they may, however, prove the source of an amount of wealth the 

 production of which would extend over many years. 



There are also a number of smaller lodes or veins, some of which 

 I have not been able personally to inspect ; the most promising 

 appear to be on Law's Gully, on the claims of the Blue-Mountain 

 Mining Company, as well as on Quart-pot and Sugar-loaf Creeks : 

 they run in parallel lines bearing about north 50° east, commencing 

 from near the boundary of New South Wales opposite the Ruby- 

 Creek digging in that colony, and again near the Broadwater at a 

 spot about a mile south-east from the junction of Hardy's Gully. 

 This lode can be traced with interruptions all the way to the head 

 of Spring Creek, a distance of nine or ten miles. 



In describing the mineralogical character of the rocks generally, 

 I cannot do better justice to the subject than by quoting from some 

 valuable notes kindly furnished me by our well-known and talented 

 geologist, Mr. D'Oyley Aplin, whose views on this subject coincide 



b 2 



