120 
SOUTHERN" AFRICA. 
Near this same locality, a small vein of coal 
has also come to view; it is inconsiderable, how- 
ever, and may rather be taken as the indica- 
tion of larger streams of it being near at hand. 
The mineral that has been already analyzed 
gives the following result: — Colour, dull grey 
" The copper ore is the yellow, and variegated sulphuret. It occurs 
in a vein of quartz, parallel to the stratification of the chlorite schist, 
a rock dipping nearly at the same angle as the limestone, but in an 
opposite direction. 
" The quartz vein is traceable for some miles through the country ; 
now, on the top of the hill, then, .in the bottom of a deep glen, and 
again, on the sides of a ravine. 
" In many of these localities, the pyrites appear in the quartz vein, 
but no where in very great quantities : nor does it appear that there 
is any decided increase of richness with the increase of depth. At 
one spot, viz, " Andrew's Shaft," this certainly does appear to be the 
case, and, it seems to me, that if further examination proves it to be 
so, that there is good prospect of ultimate success in the search. If 
the adit into the lead-hill proves that the ores are richer, when fol- 
lowed to a depth, I shall have better hope of the copper- veins. 
" With regard to the discovery of gold, Sir B,. Murchison says, " that 
gold has never been found in the metallic state, in any quantities 
where there were not metamorphic rocks lying on granite, with a 
strike varying but little from North and South in direction.' ' These 
are what he calls the " constants" of gold. Now there is no granite 
at the Maitland mines, nor, in fact, any igneous rocks of any kind, * 
and the few rocks which, presenting some traces of the action of heat 
at a depth, may be called metamorphic, have been already sufficiently 
explored, to make it very improbable that gold may be found, in the 
metallic state, in that neighbourhood. 
"With regard to the grey sulphuret of copper, in the Western adit, 
I believe it to be a mere concrete manes of copper ore, aggregated 
together in the decomposition of the limestone, through which it was 
originally disseminated in small quantities, as it is now, on the hill 
facing this adit. 
" I have heard it stated, that these Maitland mines mustbe produc- 
tive, because sulphuret of copper is always found in large quantities. 
To those who entertain this opinion, I would recommend a reference 
