Notes on the Gold-field of Ballarat. 415 
the length that it has been traced. The Eepublic (C) 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- 
sions 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, occasionall}^ 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 
