52 Auriferous Districts of 



by me, which are in the fullest agreement with the previous 

 notices of Leichhardt, Kennedy, Gregory, and others. 



Now, regarding the features just enumerated, it would natur- 

 ally be expected that gold should exist in this region, and there- 

 fore I long ago marked it on the map as an auriferous region. 



The strike of the rocks in this region appears to have a trend 

 to the eastward, according to the observations of Mr. Gregory ; 

 and this is confirmed by Mr. Daintree, who remarks as follows : — 

 " The watershed between the Einnasleigb and the Burdekin, with 

 several of the upper Burdekin branch creeks, afford rock sections 

 similar in every respect to the Cape diggings. As the main strike 

 of the formation is north-easterly, and mica schists are said to 

 crop out on the coast at Endeavour Biver, and again on several 

 parts of the Louisiade Archipelago, I think that we may safely 

 infer that auriferous tracts are continuous throughout, sometimes 

 hidden by basalt, sometimes by large tracts of a horizontal 

 sandstone series of unknown age, as on the upper portions of 

 Leichhardt' s Lynd." 



Perhaps these inferences may be modified ; but I have always 

 expected another gold-field in the north, about the 144th meridian, 

 on the heads of the Mitchell waters, and the Kennedy Biver : 

 nor is it unlikely that at the back of the east coast there are 

 patches of Auriferous country as far as 13° S. Mr. Dalryinple 

 writes in 1860 : — " During my expedition last year I found con- 

 siderable tracts of country in the neighbourhood of Leichhardt's 

 and Bobey's ranges, bearing auriferous indications of a very 

 marked description. . . . The appearance of the country to 

 the south-west and south of port Denison leads me to anticipate 

 auriferous indications in that neighbourhood also. The Eev. W. 

 B. Clarke has long pointed to this region as the seat of the future 

 gold-fields of the north, and my observations certainly give addi- 

 tional probability to the speculation, that here will the future 

 develope the principal Auriferous deposits of Queensland." 



The formations about Endeavour Biver are grey granite, schist, 

 talc slate, with quartz and flinty slate abutting on the granite ; 

 hornblendic granite occurring in the Turtle Islands, off the coast, 

 and in Lizard Island ; whilst to the North of Endeavour Biver, 

 west of Cape Elattery, a table-land comes in, with a trend to 

 S.TV. by TV., and from 500 to 600 feet high. The coast about 

 Cape Grafton consists of grey granite and a tourmaline rock of 

 granitic character. Northward, in Trinity Bay, contorted talc 

 schist with quartz veins occurs, dipping 60° to S.TV. This gives 

 a strike about N.N. TV. Mica slate, contorted, occurs in the 

 Barnard Islands to the South. Granite also occurs at Cape 

 Melville and at Cape Direction, with flinty rock at Cape Sidmouth, 

 and trap between it and the mouth of the Kennedy, both occurring 

 with granite. Quartz also occurs abundantly in the neighbour- 



