Notes on the Gold-field of Ballarat. 



415 



the length that it has been traced. The Bepublic (G) have 

 got wash dirt at their shaft, on what I believe is called the 

 Wheat-sheaf lead (1) ; and the Durham Company (B) are 

 working wash dirt in their ground, I suppose on the same 

 lead from which the Essex (A) have been getting their gold 

 for some time. As my sketch is from recollection, it can 

 only be an approximation to correctness, or scarcely so. 



" And now as to the theory in your letter about the forma- 

 tion of the gold-field of Ballarat and other gold-fields, I 

 think, by pipeclay, you mean what miners here call reef, 

 below which no gold has ever been got. I think it quite 

 possible that this may have been an ancient sea-bottom, but 

 think also that when it was elevated, by whatever convul- 

 sion, and exposed to wind and rain, that it would waste 

 down very rapidly, as it does now when exposed to the air. 

 Gold is so very heavy that it only travels a very little way, 

 and needs a considerable declivity to do that. 



Fig. 4. — Diagram showing section of a gutter with level shelf on one 

 side, on which gold is often found. 



" The leads with sloping sides (which indeed all of them 

 have of course), but with long sloping sides, have most gold 

 in them. 



" Many reefs at sides of the gutters pay well for working, 

 especially if they have a formation, such as I have shown in 

 sketch fig. 4, with level places on the side, occasionally the 

 larger pieces may roll down into the gutter, but these shelv- 

 ing places catch a deal of gold, and are consequently worked 

 by many companies after the lead is exhausted. Therefore, 

 I think, that by the wearing of the beds of these old rivers, 

 the quartz veins and quartz reefs, through which they forced 

 their way, supplied the gold which is in their bottoms 

 or gutters, or leads as they are now called. One theory 



