44 



Auriferous Districts of 



: 



It. 



to certain fixed points, where the Meridian is coincident with the 

 mountain strike, or where points of divergence in drainage are 

 coincident with well marked geological structure ; and of these 

 there are several distinct examples observable on the chart. 

 According to these views, then, it was to be anticipated that, (as 

 I have frequently stated, and as is generally known), a consider- 

 able Auriferous region would be found to exist near or about the 

 144th and 145th meridians, and from about the 17th to the 19th 

 parallel, because in that region the Greological structure and the 

 other physical features of the country point to a combination of 

 circumstances of a convincing kind. In 1861, in reporting to 

 His Excellency Sir Gr. Bowen on the collection made in Mr. Gr. 

 E. Dalrymple's expedition to ascertain the mouth of the Burdekin 

 Eiver, I especially mentioned the country along the 147th and 

 148th meridians. 



It is chiefly of the more Westerly portion of these tracts that 

 I have to speak this evening, and in so doing I propose to lay 

 before the Society the results of an examination of a considerable 

 part of them, communicated by a friend who fully enters into my 

 views, and whose reputation and long experience entitle him to the 

 highest respect. I mean Mr. Bichard Daintree, lately employed 

 on the Greological Survey of Victoria. 



Under the date of 23rd July, he addressed me in the following 

 terms : — 



" As news of the progress of Northern Queensland gold-fields 

 must have a special interest with you, their first prognosticator, 

 I will endeavour to give you an idea of what is going on ; and if 

 you think it worth printer's ink, ' interpolate' and publish it 

 with your own remarks." 



This is my justification of the present paper, and of my mode 

 of dealing with the communications of my friend Mr. Daintree. 



In reply to inquiries of various correspondents and applicants 

 in person relating to the Peak Downs district, I long ago advised 

 them to carry their investigations towards the North- West, into 

 and beyond the scrubs of the Suttor Eiver, under the conviction that 

 between that river and the heads of the Lynd there would be 

 found an extension of the auriferous region. And this advice has 

 been found to be in accordance with the results. 



It may be proper to give a general Geological sketch of the 

 structure of that part of the country which is under discussion. 



It will, then, be seen that in about 18° S. and between 144° and 

 145° E. the Burdekin and Lynd rivers of Leichhardt head in a 

 granitic range striking about N.N.E., the latter flowing to N.W., 

 and the former South-Easterly. This river flows through a tract 

 of country occupied by granite, pegmatite, gneiss, talc slate, mica 

 slate, and limestone, with quartz veins, porphyry, and basalt ; 

 being overlain by deposits of conglomerate and sandstone, which 



