142 ORIGIN AND MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF GOLD-BEARING VEINS. 



somewhat similar characteristics, extends some miles to the 

 southward, merging into serpentines, and proving gold-bearing 

 throughout. 



The veins in the diorite consist essentially of quartz, and in 

 some cases they occur in the planes of the rock referred to, but 

 cross-veins are also found upon fissures or joint planes intersecting 

 the others at different angles. The quartz in the vein has a 

 laminated appearance, and contains iron pyrites, galena, gold, 

 and other minerals. The gold occurs in shoots which dip 

 northward, the stone between these shoots being much poorer 

 than that in them. Some of these shoots have been proved to be 

 very rich, yielding as much as ten ounces to the ton of stone. 



The veins of quartz vary from a few inches to three or four 

 feet thick, and some of them dip on their strike (a peculiarity 

 noticed before in Victorian gold-veins) ; they are formed both upon 

 the planes spoken of as likely to be bedding, and also upon other 

 planes that intersect these at various angles and are either due 

 to joints or fractures. 



The sections given (Fig. 31 and Fig. 32) are from two of the 

 principal gold veins or reefs known as the " Muttama Reef " and 

 the " New Year's Gift Reef," but as these two have approximately 

 the same strike and dip in the same direction, as well as being 

 nearly on a line with each other, although over a mile apart, they 

 are most probably the same vein cutting across the country on a 

 bearing of about N.SL with a general dip westward. 



A most peculiar mode of occurrence is that of gold in serpentine 

 in conjunction with asbestos. This is to be seen at Gundagai, 

 some fifteen miles from Muttama, and is a continuation of the 

 same belt of country just described. A vein of foliated serpentine 

 exists in a diorite and serpentine formation, and between the 

 leaves of this vein (for the lode readily splits into thin pieces or 

 laminations) gold is found as thin gilding in patches sometimes as 

 large as a five-shilling piece. I have split the leaves off with my 

 knife quite easily and obtained the gold as described. Lumps of 

 crystallized dolomite occur in the same vein, having the dog-tooth 

 form of crystal, and veins of crystallized dolomite, carrying gold, 

 intersect the serpentine wall in some parts. 



A section of the foliated serpentine vein shows it to be divided 

 into two parts differing in appearance from each other. Asbestos 

 occurs near to this vein, and is said to have gold in it also. 



Quartz veins also are found in the neighbourhood, and some 

 of the gullies have been worked for alluvial gold with success. 



Cross Section of Foliated Serpentine Vein (with pieces of 

 crystallized dolomite) containing gold, is shown in Fig. 33. 



At Solferino quartz veins occur that have been found to contain 

 marvellously rich patches of auriferous quartz. 



