5: 
been a succession of surfaces, each displaying a layer of 
mould, or surface soil, apparently the last slowly deposited 
sediment from a volume of superincumbent water, hold- 
ing earthy matters in suspension. Each successive surface 
must have had its own channels of river flow. Thus leads may 
bo discoverable at each level of these successive surfaces, 
though widely separated as to their position and trend in an 
extensive ancient valley, from the locality of present pros- 
pecting shafts and drives. Hence propriety of extended 
boring operations, as the preliminary to sinking shafts. Mr. 
JR. Brough Smyth, in his recent " Progress Report," page 12, 
observes that "at Freestone Creek, Glpjps Land, the miners 
have fottnd gold in the bed of the stream which intersects 
rocks marked on the maps as of upper palsBo2oic age, and 
heretofore regarded as non-auriferous. " It is a great mistake 
to sink through superincumbent strata past the indications of 
former surface levels, each having its own system of water- 
shed, and deposit of disintegrated formations, and their 
water-rolled gold, without an effort to trace such ancient 
channels, solely because geologists, in face of the fact that 
water-worn gold, and our heaviest nuggets have been found 
within a few inches or feet of the Surface soil, affirm that 
certain layers of rock must be passed through. The "worked- 
out" block claims on Ballarat should be tested at new levels, 
by bores every 50 or 100 yards, from west to east of their 
areas before being abandoned. The first bores J would advise 
being put down only to the depth of 120 feet, a by no means 
expensive operation. 
To quote from my pamphlet of 1868,* " The discoveries in 
and adjacent to the great Ballarat valley, are but in their 
commencement. If the great interest of mining in these 
colonies, as the chief attraction to population, the proper 
source of revenue, and dispenser of wealth, and prosperity, 
— as well to the future nations, of which the early colonists 
are but the nuclei, as to the commerce and industrial pro- 
duction of the world, — receives its due share of legislative 
support ; and research be directed upon scientific principles, 
and by adequate appliances, — which may henceforth exer- 
cise the engineering skill of the world to profit — there need 
be now no limit to the wealth realizable from shallow or 
deep leads. Boring operations . . . arc especially 
indicated." 'Tis strange that seven years should elapse since 
these sentiments were published, before the Legislature are 
moved to duly subsidize mining explorations by boring. 
• " Auriferous Drifts in Australasia." 
