STANNIFEROUS DEPOSITS OF TASMANIA. 93 



top, 20 miles from the north-west coast, in an easterly direction. 

 Both of these localities are granitic, and furnish ruby tin, but in 

 quantities that leave it doubtful whether they will pay to work. 

 At Wombat Hill the tin ore is extremely fine, and is associated 

 with considerable quantities of chromate of iron and titaniferous 

 iron sand ; while at Mount Housetop, not only the two latter 

 minerals largely exist, but also pleonaste. 



3. George's Bat, East Coast. 



In the month of October last I visited the east coast of Tasmania 

 in search of tin ore deposits, being led thither by a knowledge of 

 the fact that a large extent of granite-bearing country extended 

 in a belt, with but few interruptions, for a distance little short of 

 100 miles on this side of the island. From Schouten Island, 

 where a very coarse granite, containing very large crystals of 

 felspar, rises in bold lofty hills, I found this rock to occupy nearly 

 the whole of the coast line. Here and there depressions, a short 

 distance inland, are occupied by carboniferous deposits, as for in- 

 stance, at Bischeno and on Schouten Island itself. Upon reaching 

 George Bay I found the granite to assume a rather finer grained 

 character, and very much less micaceous, the gravel formed by the 

 decomposition of this rock furnishing small grained ruby tin ore 

 in small quantities wherever I tried it near the sea-coast. At a 

 distance of 10 miles inland, in a north-westerly direction from the 

 bay, I found the granite covered up by altered palaeozoic rock 

 rising in hills of considerable altitude, and these in turn become 

 covered with greenstone ; the intervening country being occupied 

 by low undulating hills of granite, thickly covered with gravel and 

 pebbles of decomposed granite, the whole of which is stanniferous; 

 the ore almost invariably being associated with sapphires and 

 zircons, which, however, are too small to have any mercantile value. 

 At the head of a rivulet the source of a fine stream, known as the 

 Golden Eleece, I discovered tin ore in highly payable quantity, 

 extending over a considerable area. This locality forms the scene 

 of operations of the Euby Tin Mining Company, and is only 5 miles 

 from the place of shipment at George's Bay. The country is 

 openly timbered with peppermint trees, and is frequently marshy. 

 The depth of wash-dirt ranges from 1 foot to 8 feet, the maximum 

 being for the most part on the hill tops, which are frequently small 

 plateaus. This stanniferous district extends in a south-easterly 

 direction as far as Ealmouth and the Mount Nicholas Eange. 

 More recent discoveries show that tin-ore-bearing country obtains 

 at a greater distance in the north-westerly direction, as for instance, 

 at Boobyalla, Mount Cameron, Mount Horror, and in the Einga- 

 rooma district or Gould's new country. Scarcely a day passes 

 without tidings of fresh tin ore discoveries being made in this 

 part of the island. 



