however, they overflowed at times. The thalwegs of such 

 buried channels are fairly steep, and the bases of the 

 channels are almost invariably covered with coarse quartz 

 pebble "drift." In these "gutters" the principal gold con- 

 tents have been found. Above the coarse basal drifts lie 

 alternating hi vers of sand, lignite, clay, and pebbly sands. 

 At times, as at Ballarat, several distinct basalt Hows are 

 sandwiched with the clay, sand and lignite layers. At 

 limes the upper layers of »day, sand, or lignite spread out 

 almost a mile in width. Above all is a capping of dense 

 basalt. 



Detailed descriptions of these leads have been given by 

 the geologists of the Victorian Survey, by Professor David, 

 by Wilkinson, and the writer ; especially detailed are the 

 descriptions of David and Murray. The list of the principal 

 publications dealing with the "leads" will be found in the 

 list of literature supplied at the end of this paper. 



(c) Height above sea level of "leads."— In north Queens- 

 land the "leads" occur at heights of several thousands of 

 feet. At the Darling Downs a height of from 1,400 to less 

 than 2,000 feet is noted, in New South Wales the Elsmore 

 Deep Leads are 1,800 feet, Guy Favvkes basalts 4,500 feet, 

 Orange Leads 3,000 feet, and Gulgong Leads 1,400 feet in 

 height. At Ballarat and Daylesford the leads are about 

 1,300 (?) feet above sea level. 



(d) Amount of dissection of "leads." and of associated 

 plateau and basalts.— Upon an examination of the plateau 

 surfaces it is noted that the latter have been excavated 

 indifferently in basalts, Mesozoic, and Palaeozoic rocks. 

 Upon closer examination however, the fact is revealed that 

 the plateau surface was first formed, that it was then 

 trenched by streams, that these channels were subsequently 

 filled with rock waste, and that the basalts were poured 



