64 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



conglomerates, of morainic character in the higher parts of the valleys. 

 Jn the embouchures of the rivers there are generally bars or delta-like 

 accumulations of more recent drift. The prospecting of the terrace- 

 drifts for gold and tracing the gold to its original deposits (quartz-reefs) 

 was the main object of the large prospecting party previously referred 

 to. 



Coming now to the peridotite and serpentine rocks, the following 

 extracts are of importance. The Chief Surveyor*, Mr. Gerhard Mueller, 

 in his report of his explorations*, states on this head as follows : — "The 

 most remarkable feature about the district appears to me to be that of 

 the Olivine Bange on the East of Cascade River. It is a red and 

 violet looking mass, and, from about 1,000 feet above the river, devoid 

 of almost every vestige of vegetation. It is of the same formation 

 of which the Cascade Plateau and a great part of the country of the 

 Gorge and Jerry valleys consist. The Red Hill (5,000-6,000 feet) 

 itself is olivine- rock, whilst the spurs running therefrom are a sort of 

 greyish slate with grey granite belts here and there through them. An 

 extraordinary red granite belt is seen in the Jerry River a little above 

 the proposed road-crossing. The olivine formation is traceable as far as 

 tha Humboldt Mountains; the last indication of it I saw on the low 

 saddle, from which the Barrier and Olivine Branches (Creeks) and the 

 Hidden Falls Creek rise; the extent of it there does not exceed a couple 

 of acres, but is very marked and distinct." In a letter to me, August 

 1st, 1889, Mr. R. Paulin, in explanation of his sketch-plan, states : — 

 "The Bed Hill formal ion (olivine and serpentine) occurs all over the 

 parts I have marked with red lines. The Red Hill and Olivine Ranges 

 are for the most part bare of timber, and the formation is very 

 conspicuous, owing to the burnt-brick colour which the rock assumes 

 where exposed to the atmosphere. Both the Olivine and Hope Ranges 

 are very much broken and shattered, containing no mass of rock that 

 has not cracks in all directions. This is not so much the case in the 

 Red Hill Ranges." 



From these extracts it will be seen that the rocks under notice 

 compose, in the region of the Awaruite discovery, a complex of high 

 massive ranges, the most prominent of which are the Red Hill and 

 Olivine Ranges, and which comprise an area of about 25 miles in length 

 north and south, and 16 miles in width east and west. The rocks, 

 however, doubtless extend (probably wilh interruptions and for certain 

 much contracted in width) much further southward, even beyond the 

 point Mr. Mueller u\< ntions near the Humboldt Mountains (about 6£ 

 miles S. by W. from the junction of the Barrier Creek with the Pyke 

 River). What leads to this conclusion is, that Messrs. Henderson and 

 Butement saw conspicuously bare and red-coloured mountains and 

 ridges (like those of the Red Hill Range) further southward, near 

 Lake Harris Saddle, the wateished between the Route Burn (a tributary 

 of the Dart Biver falling into Lake Wakatipu) and the Hollyford 

 River; and that they found boulders of olivine rock and serpentine in 

 one of the creaks rising near that saddle and falling into the Hollyford 

 Biver. Still another important proof is that at the head of the Caples 



* Report on West Coast between Cascade Plateau and Jackson's River on the 

 North, and Lake M'Keirow and Hollyford Valhy on the South ; in the "Report of 

 the Survey Lepaitrr.ent of N.Z. for the year 1883-84," p. 73. 



