22 
Mines and Mineral Statistics. 
coarse pipeclay, overlying a 6-fect stratum of wliat may be 
termed incipient lignite. Under tliis lies a stratum of pipeclay 
some 12 feet thick ; and immediately beloAV that is the wash-dirt, 
vai'ying in depth with the conformation of the bed rock, some- 
times running out and sometimes reaching a depth of 12 feet, 
the average being some G or 8 feet. This work has ])aid in the 
old time from £10 to £20 per man for sluicing. What I have 
termed incipient lignite is a bed of vegetable matter, mainly 
leaves, which, speaking geologically, is a comparatively recent 
deposit, for some of the blocks which have been exposed to the 
atmosphere for several years can be opened out with the point 
of a knife in perfectly single leaves, something after the same 
manner that a single hop flower can be opened out from the 
closely pressed mass of flowers on the covering lieiug removed. 
AV^hen fresh from its place of deposit, the block has all the 
appearance of eannel coal in a first stage of formation, having 
the peculiar conchoidal fracture of that mineral rather than the 
longitudinal cleavage of the shales. This being the history of 
the country, the prospects of remuneration from the wasli were 
so good that a few influential genblcmcn in Sydney joined 
together to test it by systematic working. A tunnel 6 feet high 
and 7 feet wide has been driven some ‘350 feet into the hill. A 
line of tramway has been laid down— the tunnel being wide 
enough for two lines when the second is required- — and the wash 
Avill be run out in trucks to be shot into hoppers of a crushing 
mill of 40 stampers. This mode of treatment is adopted on 
account of the Avash-dirt being of a character to resist the action 
■of shiiciug, Avbilst the richer portion of it — that lying on the 
bed rock — is agglomerated into a hard and compact cement which 
nothing but a stamping battery can break up. The tunnel has 
been driven under the wash, so that all that Avill be required will 
be to sto2)e it down into the trucks, and run it away to the 
machine. By the saving of labour thus effected, and the quantity 
of Avash that can he treated, it is estimated that eA' en as Ioav a 
yield as 4 dAvts. to the load Avill return a handsome diAudend. 
ilills of a precisely similar formation to that I hav'e described 
come down as short spurs from the southern face of the main 
range (the SiiOAvy Mountains) for a length of 30 or 40 
miles. They are all basaltic ; many of them table- topped, and 
they have been proved, in seAnral instances, to have the same 
kind ot auriferous Avash underlying the pi])cclay and reposing on 
the bed rock. Thus, if the AAnrking of this tuunel should prove a 
success, there is a certainty that, in spite of the inclemency of 
the^ district, tunnel claims Avill be taken up by many others 
besides the present investors. 
The Iviandra alluAual workings extend in a direct line north 
and south for a distance of some 30 miles ; the auriferous 
