oct— mar. 1858-59.] other portions of the Ceded Districts. 291 



The water thus occurring, and in considerable quantity, was a 

 source of much inconvenience to me in endeavouring to examine 

 the ore " in situ," as it would also be in any subsequent mining 

 operations and much increase their cost, especially as the nature of 

 the ground offers little or no facility for assisting the drainage of 

 under ground works by means of an adit level. 



On my arrival at Coilcontla in the beginning of January, I found 

 the water in the lead pit standing at between two and three feet 

 only beneath the surface of the ground. I therefore availed myself 

 of the little fall in the surface of the valley and cut a small channel, 

 by which I was enabled to lower the water surface five feet and 

 proceeded thence by such Native appliances as the district afforded 

 to lift out the remaining water to examine the ground from whence 

 the ore had been procured. 



Upon reaching the bottom of the pit and clearing it of the rub- 

 bish that had accumulated I found the ore to occur in a well mark- 

 ed vein capable of being distinctly traced as far as I was able to lay 

 bare the enclosing rock from the surface sand with which it was 

 covered; about 12 feet of this sand here covers the rock, this and 

 five feet in depth of the vein or rock had been previously excavated, 

 no doubt for the purpose of obtaining the mineral it contained. 



At the extreme north corner of the pit, the vein has a width of 2 

 feet 9 inches, thence southward it rapidly increases within 2 or 3 

 feet of distance to a width of 4 feet and continues to expand throw- 

 ing out numerous threads or pipe veins, the main one becoming 

 less rich in ore and eventually towards the south corner totally de- 

 void of it ; in the opposite direction the vein appears suddenly to 

 contract to a few inches only in width, my excavation there did not 

 reach the same depth as where the vein has its greatest width. 



The vein generally is well defined by its walls of clear amethyst 

 quartz, it does not however contain metal throughout even the short 

 length I was able to examine it ; thus in the upper part at the north 

 corner of the well these walls enclose a white China clay only. 

 The gangue enclosing the metal is a blueish quartz, compact but 

 exceedingly full of joints and fissures at which the stone is colored 

 with oxide of iron resulting from its decomposition ; it is on this 



