PROGRESS OF MINING AND GEOLOGY IN QUEENSLAND. 373 
who swarm around it on all sides in the hope of picking up some 
portion of its outstretched arms, or of being wet with the spray by 
which the mountain was impregnated. 
The yield of gold for the quinquennial period 1880 to 1881 was 
Yalued at £ t, 897, 378, showing the serious reduction of 28 7 per cent, 
from that of the previous similar period. Coal yielded £200,117, or 
an increase of 80 per cent. Copper fell to £106,708, being little more 
than one-fifth of the former yield. Tin, £921,332, or an increase of 
20 per cent. Silver and lead ores, which had previously been barely 
touched, now yielded £11(3,931 ; and other minerals, £90,929 ; giving 
a total of £5,866,395, or a decrease of 23 per cent. 
The only addition to the list of minerals produced during this 
period was opals, for which the sum of £1,900 is credited in 18S2; but 
although various kinds of precious stones have been discovered from 
time to time, it does not appear that the search for them has ever 
been systematically prosecuted. The production of silver had been 
previously commenced, as samples had been obtained and exported, but 
during this quinquennium it became a production of importance. 
This ore appears variously as galena, lead, and silver, and as silver ore ; 
probably it was galena in all cases, which is not valuable here for its 
essential metal and metalloid, lead and sulphur, but generally contains 
the accidental mineral silver, and is payable or otherwise according to 
the quantity contained in the ore. 
In connection with the production of gold a difficulty was met with 
in the North which had not been seriously experienced further south. 
It was found that a large quantity of gold was being lost owing to the 
difficulty of manipulating the complex ores which abound at liavens- 
wood and other places. But science and the mechanic arts have done 
much to remedy this defect, and the science and genius of the initiated 
are still being brought to bear on the difficulty, as there is ample room 
for improvement both in the art and science of treating such ores, 
which are common both in the Central and Northern districts. 
With the declension of the alluvial yield at the Palmer and the 
undeveloped condition of Mount Morgan at the close of the fifth 
quinquennial period, our yield had suffered a serious reduction, but at 
this time the tide turned. The year 1885 gave an increase over the 
yield of 1881, and a further increase occurred during every year of 
this sixth quinquennial period, until the output culminated iu the last 
year (1889) in the highest we have yet had, and in placing Queensland 
at the head of the Australian colonies as a gold producer, the quantity 
obtained during that year being 739,103 oz., of the value of 
£2,586,860, and the total during the five years ending with 1889, 
2,298,608 oz.,of the value of £8,015,126 sterling, or an increase of 83 
per cent, over the production of the previous similar period. Coal was 
valued at £528,996, or an increase of more than 160 percent. ; copper 
at £51,768, or a trifie over half that of the former period ; tin, 
£887,809, showing a decrease of 4 per cent, ; silver, £302,11 5, or an 
increase of 105 per cent.; and other minerals, £111,183, being an 
increase of 55 per cent.; making a total of £9,959,997, and an increase 
of nearly 70 per cent, on the former period ; the production of 
bismuth being the most important addition to the list during that 
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