Mines and Mineral Statistics, 
123 
yield was 7 dwt. 14 grs. per load, and tho total produce of the 
alluvial mines 47,868 ounces 2 dwts. 22 grs., the increase being 
considerably in excess of 100 per centum on tlie production of 
1873.” 
It has been the experience in IS'ew South Wales and in 
Anctoria, that the productiveness of these auriferous leads depends 
much on the underlying geological formation. Alluding to 
this tact, in reference to the tertiary drifts in Tictoria, Mr. 
A. 11. C. Selwyn, late Director of tho A'ictorian Survey, and now 
Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, states — “ That 
though they are richly auriferous when chiefly derived from and 
resting directly on tho Silurian rocks, they gradually cease to bo 
so wheu they become underlaid by rocks newer than Silurian ; 
and thus the' points at Avhich the respective leads will die out and 
become unprofitable will probably be determined by the position 
in the several districts of such lines of junction.” {Notes on the 
Fhjfsical Geoffraphjf, Geology, and MineraJoyy of Victoria). In 
New South AV ales, Lower Palaeozoic arc the underlying formations- 
for several hundred miles westward from the Cordillera ; and as 
the conformation of the country is not unfavourable for the 
continuation in that direction of the known old leads, we may 
reasonably infer that their development is at the present day 
only in its infancy ; and that as many of these ancient river-beds 
will be found to unite and increase in size the further westward 
they are followed, the scope they will afford for future miuing 
enterprise will be practically unlimited. 
From these auriferous leads vegetable fossils have been obtained, 
including trunks and branches of trees, with leaves and fruits. 
Specimens of the latter, obtained by Mr. Farr, Mining Eegistrar, 
Bathurst, I lately submitted to Baron Ferd. von Mueller, C.M.G., 
Government Botanist of A^ictoria, who has very kindly favoured 
me with the following descri])tion of tliem, which Avill be read 
with interest, inasmuch as the Baron shows that, amongst these 
fossils he has not only identified species characteristic of the 
upper pliocene auriferous leads in Victoria, but has also discovered 
a new genus — “ JRhyiidocaryon.” 
Wiytidocaryon . 
“ Fruit spherical or slightly ovate, not distinctly dehiscent, one- 
seeded, with an oblique basal or slightly latei'al attachment, 
woody or bony, externally wrinkled and somewhat tuberculate. 
Septum large, placcnta-like, erect or slightly ascending from the 
bottom of the cavity, consisting of two portions, which are smooth, 
turged, oblique, ovate, or sometimes broadly clavate or roundish, 
always more or less contracted at the base, mutually connate at 
the middle, rounded at the edges, broadly adnate to tjbe lateral 
parts of the cavity, free from its summit. Seed cylindrical, bent 
