President’s Address. 
21 
with by Mr. Daintree, within little more than a mile of 
Mr. Lyons’ homestead, at Ballan. A party of miners have 
been tunnelling this lower basalt under Mr. Daintree’s direc- 
tion, with a view to drain the water from the superincum- 
bent drift, to enable them to work it more conveniently 
and economically. This basalt rests on the Bacchus Marsh 
sandstones, which again repose on lower Silurian beds. Of 
the age of these drifts all that can be said is, that they were 
deposited anterior to the basaltic lava, which now covers so 
wide an expanse of our western plains, and the older basaltic 
bottom on which they rest is merely a local feature. 
Another peculiar geological feature discovered is the 
occurrence of horizontal undulating auriferous quartz veins 
traversing a broad dyke of greenstone, at Wood’s Point ; 
these have already, by their rich returns, conferred a wide- 
spread celebrity on the principal so-called “reef” there, the 
“ Morning Star.” This and other quartz reefs at Wood’s 
Point have been made the subject of a special report to the 
Government. 
The work at present in hand by the Geological Survey is 
more of an exploratory character. One party of a field 
geologist, Mr. Taylor, with a topographical surveyor and 
three men, has just been dispatched to examine the hitherto 
almost ixnknown country lying between the Snowy River 
and Cape Howe. The party was instructed to proceed in 
the first instance to Twofold Bay by sea, and thence to the 
Genoa River, to examine its valley and tributaries, informa- 
tion having been sent to the Minister of Mines, that gold 
had been lately found in the crevices and ledges of rock in 
the bed of that river. A letter recently received from Mr. 
Taylor states, that gold in small quantities has been found 
within a few miles of the river by a settler there, and that a 
considerable extent of country east of that river is occupied 
by drift that appears likely to prove auriferous; and further, 
that he has met with what appear to be Silurian rocks, and 
that Granitoid rocks are also abundant. 
Another party, consisting of four men, is about to examine 
the Cape Otway ranges and district. 
There will thus be henceforward no portion of Victoria 
of any considerable extent quite unvisited and unexplored 
by the Geological Survey Staff, although, as regards a 
thorough examination and mapping, by tar the larger 
portion of the Colony must long remain uncompleted for 
want of topographical surveys. 
