io8 
Mines and Mineral Statistics^ 
in order to verify tliis liave hitherto failed. As before mentioned, 
the ■weather was too -wet to allow mo to make a proper search 
myself ; in fact, it 'was only with very great difficulty that one could 
get about at all in the then state of the country. The weather 
Avas so thick from tlie pouring rain and constant mists that but 
meagre and unsatisfactory glimpses were obtained even of the 
country’s general aspect. Xearly the whole of the basin seems 
to have been originally more or less covered Avith drift, parts of 
it having since been removed by denudation. 
Running into the valley are various S2)urs of trap, Avhich 
a^iparcntly cover 23ortions of the drift ; but at present this is only 
a conjecture, since the Avorkings haA^e not yet been carried on 
sufhciently far to show w^hether this be the cascornot, neither by 
tunnelling under it nor by sinking shafts, but I hope soon to 
rceeiA'e information upon this head, for wlien on the spot I sug- 
gested that a shaft should be sunk, Avhicli Avill decide the question. 
Hliould the drift be proA'od to pass under the tni}>, the known 
diamond-bearing area Avill be greatly increased. The probabilities 
are in favour that it does. 
Both the traj) and the drift have undergone much denudation. 
The drift is said to be traceable along the course of the river 
for some (130) thirty miles. 
The drift is the forsaken bed of some river, and in all proba- 
bility that of the Horton. 
The rock ujioinAdiich the diamond drift rests, or the “ bed rock” 
of the minerals, is an argillaceous shale. OutcrojDS of this are 
seen in one or two jdaccs, bxit no good section is shoAA'u. 
In other parts of the ground Ave see a compact, rather small- 
grained silicious brccciated conglomerate, strongly agglutinated 
together by a ferruginous cement ; occasionally the pebbles 
incorporated in this conglomerate are of rather large size. 
In one part of the field the junction of the conglomerate with 
the argillaceous shale is clearly shoAvu in the cutting formed by a 
small gully. 
Both the shale and conglomerate beds appear to have undergone 
much disturbance ; and at this ^^articular spot diamonds are said 
to be plentiful on the conglomerate but not on the shale. The 
surface of the shale is here free from drift, but the conglomerate 
does not appear to be quite free from it. The miners regard the 
conglomerate as being of itself diamond-bearing, but this has not 
been put to any absolute proof. 
Up to the present all the diamonds have been found within a 
foot or so of the surface, in tact just at the grass roots. In no 
case have the AAmrkings been carried to greater depths than tAvo 
or three feet ; in some parts examined the drift itself is not thicker 
than that. 
