60 
hood. This channel was discovered in 1857, by some miners, 
who, while running a cut in a ravine, found the bed rock 
dipping down, and after following it as far as they could 
in the cut, they went off some feet, and sunk a shaft, 
which in 65 feet struck a rich stratum, which paid 100 
dollars a day per man. The existence of a channel being 
proved, the outcroppings of the vein rocks at the ravines, 
and on the hill sides, showed its course, and it was claimed 
for miles." . . . " In the spring of 1851 three French- 
men found an extremely rich old channel high up on the side 
of French Hill, north-east of the town of Mokelumne Hill, 
and in a few days they took out 180,000 dollars worth of 
gold ; one piece weighing eleven pounds. The old 
channel at Springfield was discovered in 1852 in a shaft (only) 
eight feet deep, on a flat from which the basalt had been 
washed away."* In view of such discoveries in California, 
and a similarity of structure of our hills, and ravines here, 
capped with lava or basalt, and containing substrata of alter- 
nate series of quartz gravels, sand, and pipeclay, I have 
repeatedly urged search for gold in drifts in the sides and 
bed of the Bacchus Marsh valle}^, as also the valley of the 
Moorabool, and others. But the head of the department of 
Mines replies, that as yet certain fossils are unknown in 
the vicinity, and until these are discovered, it would be 
premature to anticipate payable gold ! In the doubt thus 
promulgated, mining energies evaporate. The worker cannot 
afford to prospect unadvisedly, the capitalist disowns such 
enterprises, and mining languishes. Even with the great 
aid proposed of a large parliamentary subsidy, the experience 
of results from official prospecting is far from encouraging. 
But if attention be now devoted to questions as to the 
physical agencies resulting in modifications of the structure 
of the earth's crust, and deposit of the weightier particles 
of matter in the furrowed channels of ancient valleys, and 
retention there under subsequently deposited agglomera- 
tions of earths, — the precipitated sediment from a super- 
incumbent ocean, until re-excavated by renewed aqueous 
action, and here and there deposited in other channels, the 
general course of which (when not diverted by obstructing 
escarpments of rock), being of an approximately north 
and south trend — it must be admitted that Victoria pre- 
sents an almost unlimited scope for mining energies, and 
enterprise, with largely payable results in prospect. Mining 
enterprise has disclosed the fact of there having apparently 
* "Resources of the Pacific Slope." 
