24 AI^NIVERSART ADDEESS. 



Meroo, wMlst on the soutL. of tlie Turon, granite occupies a 

 tract some miles in extent. Eventually the wliole of this large 

 tract -will be found productive. 



At Canoona and Mount "Wheeler, in Queensland, the mother 

 rock is serpentine. At "Wentworth, near Orange, the gold was 

 found in abundance between serpentine and basalt. I can only- 

 express astonishment that no wider area has been taken up in that 

 district, for there is every reason to suppose that the whole of 

 Frederick's Valley is auriferous, and the operations have not been 

 extended to the hills on the east of the valley.* 



The first gold I ever saw in Australia I procured from granite 

 ia 1841, and within the last four months, I have had the opportu- 

 nity of ascertaining that fine gold is procurable from granite for 

 several miles in that region. 



Bathurst Plains are a wide area of granite, and yet, after rain, 

 gold may be, and has been, collected from the surface within the 

 bounds of the city itself. 



At the Junction Mine, on the Belubula, the gold is found in 

 heds of ferruginous reticulated quartz and in the midst of altered 

 slates, sometimes prismatized, and in decomposed diorite, which 

 is traversed by hard dykes and diorite bands. 



At Brown's Creek, not far from the granites of Cowriga Creek, 

 a still more remarkable case occurs, where, I think, there is little 

 doubt the chief agent has been a hot mineral spring, in conjunction 

 Avith diorite eruptions. Such springs have also operated at the 

 Forest E-eefs, — a gold field about midway between the Canobolas 

 and Mount Lachlan, at the back of Carcoar, in the very heart of 

 a country occupied by igneous formations. There, and in other 

 fields along the same auriferous band, following for many miles 



* As appears by a letter io. tlie Sydney Herald of June 7, 1872, this expres- 

 sion of my conTictions led to a searcli for reefs at the head of the valley, as 

 stated by the writer, Mr. Xewmau, who thus, in four days time, discorered 

 auriferous indications of some promise, realizing on the fii'st trials, gold at the 

 rate of from 112 to 672 ounces per ton. 



At Sally's Flat also, between Sofala and Tambaroora, a reef was opened in a 

 similar way, and another at Wiagdon Hill, between Sofala and Bathurst. 



