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reefs. This opinion is confirmed by the fact that the channels 
in the lower portion of the alluvium called the “ wash-dirt,” 
in which alone the gold is worked, are uncoriformable to the 
present surface, and run in many cases, especially at Ballarat, 
in a totally different direction from the existing schistose hills. 
In this quartzose and slaty detritus, at the depth of often 
three hundred feet below the surface, the remains of the 
ancient Australian vegetation are found in large quantities, 
the gold occurring in small grains in the lowest portions of 
the deposit. A singular widely extended bed of recent basalt 
covers the country for several hundred square miles near 
Melbourne and Ballarat, the elevated cones of several extinct 
volcanoes being visible from both places. This coating of 
basalt has to be penetrated before the auriferous drift can be 
worked, and for some time the existence of gold deposits 
below the basalt was unknown. 
At Ballarat there occur also several of the auriferous quartz 
reefs, which are being worked with great success, regular 
and well organised companies raising the quartz for the 
crushing and amalgamation processes. Specimens showing 
the character of the quartz reef in various positions, as also 
specimens of the silurian schist which had been more or less 
altered by the action of the quartz, were exhibited. 
Other interesting gold-producing localities in Victoria and 
New South Wales, viz., Tarrengower, Adelong, Braidwood, 
&c., are next described ; the general geological features 
being the same, and bearing out Mr. Jevons’s idea, that all 
the gold is derived from the granite quartz reefs. 
At the close of the Paper the Author considers the impor- 
tant question of the probable future yield of gold to be 
expected from Australia. He believes that no more very 
large or rich fields of alluvial gold will be discovered in 
Victoria, but that the present “ gold-drift ” has by no means 
been worked out ; so that when capital and more complete 
mechanical appliances are l)rought to bear upon the ground 
