Notes on the Gold-field of BcdJarat. 



411 



junction with the Eureka lead which rises up in the ranges 

 at Little Bendigo, and collects many small leads on its way 

 down. When joined, these leads, or rather the lead, takes 

 its course away towards the high land on which the town 

 is built, and winds away below the town as far as it has 

 been traced into the Koh-i-Noor Company's ground, where 

 it is at this present time almost incredibly rich. 



" After following the lead up to the edge of the basaltic 

 plateau, or, more correctly speaking the sloping ground, on 

 which Ballarat is built, and driving as far as they could 

 drive, it became necessary to sink shafts in the bluestone, 

 and as the farther in the plateau the rock became deeper, 

 the companies amalgamated, and conducted their operations 

 on a larger scale than they had done in their shallow sink- 

 ings. From Mr Davidson, mining surveyor, I obtained the 

 following report of the various strata met with in sinking 

 the shafts of 



Great Republic Com- Nelson Gold Mining Com- 



pany, pony. 



ft. ft. 



Surface soil, . 3 Surface soil, . . 5 



1st rock, . . 130 : 1st rock, . . .80 



Brown clay, . . 18 Marly clay, . . 10 



2d rock, . . . 30 2d rock, ... 95 



Fine sand, . . .12 Marly clay, . . 8 



Yellow clay, . . 12 3d rock, ■. . .100 



Fine sandy drift, . 12 Sandy drift, . . 8 



Clay and drift, . . 53,4th Eock, ... 80 



The Great Redan Extended 

 Company. 



ft. 



Surface soil, . . 5 



1st bluestone rock, 82 



Greenish clay, . . 8 



2d bluestone rock, . 82 



Red and black clay, . 40 



3d bluestone rock, . 35 



Red clay, ... 5 



Drift, ... 35 



4th rock, . . 30 



Clay, ... 5 



Headings and drift, . 12 



Reef, .... 12 



Gutter reached at 262 



Wash dirt, 386 



351 I 



By these you will see that the sinkings vary considerably. 

 The Extended has got four rocks or beds to cut through, 

 the Nelson four, and the Eepublic only two. Some com- 

 panies have got three rocks, others only one, according to 

 their position. You will observe, in the sinking of the 

 Great Extended, that the lowest part of the sinking is in 

 reef. Well, this reef is what they never go below, in 

 alluvial gold mining ; it is always the bottom — the surface 

 of the reef, is the bottom. It is a soft clayey slate (I shall 

 send a specimen of it), in which, in certain parts of tin's 



