20 ANNITEESAET ADDEESS. 



reaping the first-fruits. This also has placed my endeavours to 

 work out the wide field of inquiry on independent examination ; 

 although my deeply lamented friend Sir Roderick Murchison was 

 opposed to its value, expressing his hope that our population 

 " would not be so fooKsh as to mine in the rock for gold," alleging 

 that gold was not found in depth, an opinion which, when 

 adopted by some leading Professor in a neighbouring Colony, led 

 to much hindrance in the progress of gold production. 



As a rich reef has been recently struck at a depth of 800 feet, 

 in Yictoria, the views of the shallow-reefing theorists will have to 

 give way. 



It was very strange that so talented and practical an authority, 

 and who so thoroughly understood the value of indications ofiered 

 by certain rocks, should have undervalued the working in rock 

 formations in comparison with alluvial deposits, of which he 

 foresaw and foretold the evanescent character. 



Now and then we hear of fresh alluvial diggings, such, for 

 instance, as those at Gulgong, which are in an extension of a 

 field proclaimed many years since ; but experience has shown 

 that an increased and increasing resort to the crushing-mill is 

 influencing the minds of the mining community. 



That gold production is on the increase no one can doubt ; and 

 if prospectors will but go out into districts that abound not far 

 from the vicinity even of gold fields, where no pick or spade has 

 been employed, new ground will assuredly be found where 

 " reefs," as they are called, meet the eye of the traveller at almost 

 every tui'u, and where there is every legitimate reason to infer 

 that some will be productive. 



It is not too much to say that, no sooner are we ofi" the Carbon- 

 iferous areas rich in coal and its associated minerals, than we are 

 in a region in which are tracts where gold and copper and lead 

 abound. And passing from the sedimentary to the plutonic 

 rocks, we can discover granites which, however barren externally, 

 are withiu frequently charged with the valuable ore of tin. So 



