Notes on the Gold-field of Ball ar at. 
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 
The Great Redmi Extended 
Comjoany. 
Surface soil, 
1st bhiestone rock. 
Greenish clay, . 
2d bluestone rock, 
Eed and black clay, 
3d bluestone rock, 
Red clay, . 
Drift, 
4th rock. 
Clay, . . 
Headings and drift, 
Reef, . 
ft. 
5 
82 
8 
82 
40 
35 
5 
35 
30 
5 
12 
12 
351 
Great Republic Com- 
pany. 
Surface soil, 
1st rock, 
Brown clay, 
2d rock, . 
Fine sand, . 
Yellow clay. 
Fine sandy drift, 
Clay and drift, . 
ft. 
3 
130 
18 
30 
12 
12 
12 
53 
Nelson Gold Mining Com- 
paoiy. 
Gutter reached at 262 
Surface soil, 
1st rock, 
Marly clay, 
2d rock. 
Mainly clay, 
3d rock, 
Sandy drift, 
4th Rock, . 
ft. 
5 
80 
10 
95 
8 
100 
8 
80 
Wash dirt, 386 
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 ii) 
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 sliall 
send a specimen of it), in which, in certain parts of this 
