134 



QUEENSLAND GOLD DEPOSITS. 



will be found, where one would naturally expect them, for 

 mechanical reasons, that is, on the upper side of the nips or 

 pinches, in the direction from which the flow came, where the 

 current of matter has been checked. 



Some time ago, whilst in the neighbourhood of Kilkiven, I 

 visited a reef that had been worked for some years with vary- 

 ing results, the outline of the hanging wall, when measured by 

 a straight edge, and offsets, exactly corresponded with the foot 

 wall lift. Bin. on the line of the reef and 3ft. 4in. below, so 

 that one side of that reef had launched endways lift. 6in,, and 

 dropped 3ft. 4in.; there was consequently no difficulty, after 

 seeing where patches had been found, in deciding where patches 

 would be found in future. 



The oxide of iron cement, or as the Cornishmen call it 

 " Gossan," which occurs in many leefs, has never been sub- 

 jected to a temperature higher than boiling water, the " burnt " 

 appearance being the result of chemical change. 



Copper, galena, and antimony deposits contain gold, in 

 proportion to the nearness to the direction of the aforesaid 

 magnetic line, but always on a spur or part of a range that is 

 running in that direction. 



A great deal of the gold obtained on the Palmer and 

 Hodgkinson gold fields, comes out of the conglomerate, which, 

 at one time, overlaid the vertical slate formation, to the extent 

 of 100 square miles. Detached blocks of this conglomerate are 

 scattered all over the Cook District gold fields, and most of the 

 large nuggets which were found there, were attached to or 

 associated with quartz of a rose pink colour, which colour 

 does not exist in any of the reefs of that neighbourhood. 

 This enormous mass of conglomerate is very difficult to account 

 for, but underneath the conglomerate, the old water courses, 

 eroded out of the " slate formation," can be seen tilled up with 

 a drift, in which there is no gold, totally distinct in 

 character from the cemented conglomerate overhead. The face 

 of the wall of conglomerate, in some cases, is 100ft. in height, 

 and the time necessary to accumulate such a mass can hardly be 

 estimated. Detached caps of conglomerate may occasionally be 

 seen on the tops of peaks, corresponding in general level with 

 the main mass. 



In the Cook District an extensive lava stream has flowed into 

 the old bed of the Normanby River, as mentioned in my article 

 on "Springs and their origin" (pp. 28). This stream might 

 be 50 square miles in area, and appears to average about 40ft. 

 in thickness as far as I could judge, by driving an iron 



