C.— 13. 
12 
In Greek's and Duffer’s Creeks the auriferous wash being worked is, for the most part, such as 
mignt be considered under this head ; but not wholly so, for there are workings at high levels on the 
side of the range towards Stony Creek and Fox’s that show the “ Old-man bottom ” is being worked 
in that direction. 
In the Kapitea Watershed the upper portions towards the Loop-line Eoad on the one hand, 
and the track from Whiskey Creek, on the Kawaka, to Greek’s on the other, have been but little 
explored, and certainly not sufficiently prospected, and it is not till nearing the Greenstone-Hokitika 
Eoad that distinct alluvia, due to the present action of the stream, begin to be met within the 
main stream or in Little Kapitea Creek. At Italian Gully and Callaghan Hill, the gold-workings, 
whatever they may have been, are not now in modern creek-gravels. Following down Kapitea Creek, 
considerable areas of worked ground are met with, showing the former importance of mining in the 
modern gravels and bed of this stream. 
On the south side of the Teremakau Valley, regard must be had to the workings in the 
Seven-mile Creek, Scot's Creek, and some other creeks within the Taipo Valley, a tributary of the 
Teremakau. Neither the Little nor the Big Wahinuinui proved gold-hearing' — at least, not sufficiently 
so as to attract a mining population — and this may be said also of all the recent alluvial deposits in 
the Teremakau Valley above the Taipo Junction. 
In Donegal Creek, a quarter of a ?nile on the Kumara side of the junction of the road thence 
with the Christchurch-Hokitika Eoad, gold-workings were for a considerable time carried on 
in creek-wash derived from glacier debris, and “ Old-man bottom,” showing in the banks of 
the stream. These workings were not in gravels brought down by the Teremakau itself, the gravels 
of which apparently remain barren of gold till passing opposite Dillmanstown, and at the junction 
of the Greenstone. 
On the south-western bank of the Teremakau, between Kumara and the mouth of the river, 
there is a considerable extent of bush-clad plain, gradually sloping towards the sea. As the 
Teremakau has cut its way to the sea at a considerably lower level than this plain, though the 
surface of it may be recent gravels, the high level prevents them being considered under this" head, 
except it be some reconstructions of the gravels along the banks of the lower part of Hughie’s 
Creek. On the northern side of the Teremakau Valiev there are no gold-workings east of the west 
margin of the granite mountains at the source of the Big Hohonu or Greenstone Eiver. In the 
Greenstone Valley, a quarter to half a mile wide, the low banks have been worked for gold from the 
junction with the Teremakau to Maori Point and Harrison’s Terrace, and in some of its tributaries 
like workings have been, as, for instance, Little Fuchsia Creek. Workings are now carried on for 
the most part at higher levels. 
In the New Diver Watershed the recent alluvia of almost every creek have been worked for 
gold, and of the Eutherglen district, within the watershed of Saltwater Creek, the same thing may 
be said. The various lesser streams and gully-creeks need not, therefore, be here more closely 
described. 
In the Cirey Valley, below Brunnerton, there are no gold-workings in the low grounds along the 
river-banks. At the upper end of the Brunner Gorge there are workings on the banks of the liver, 
and again at intervals gold has been obtained up to the junction of Ford’s Creek and the Blackball 
Creek with the Grey Eiver. At one place a considerable amount of plant has been erected for the 
working of the low-level river-gravels close under the terrace. In Langdon’s, Euby, and Nugget 
Creeks, and the beds of several other streams draining from the eastern slopes of the Mount Davy 
Eange, the modern alluvia have been worked for gold since the earlier discoveries made in the 
Grey Valley, and, by a limited population of miners, are still being worked. In all of these creeks 
the wash and gold is in part derived from cements at the base of the coal-measures, but in greater 
part from the denudation of a narrow belt of gold-bearing slate and sandstone country, which, in a 
wedge-shaped area, is prolonged along the middle lower slope of the Mount Davy Eange nearly to 
the right-hand branch of Ford’s Creek. 
In Ford’s Creek gold-workings have been carried on in both branches, and a large area on 
the south-west bank of the left branch has been worked, chiefly by Chinamen. No part of Ford’s 
Creek drains from slate country, and none of its gravels are due to the action of the Grey Eiver. 
Its gold is of such a quality that it cannot have had the same source as that found in the Blackball," 
and it remains, therefore, but to infer that the gold of Ford’s Creek has been derived from 
the conglomerates at the base of the coal-bearing series, which, as a coarse breccia-conglomerate, 
has a large development within the watershed, and of which much detritus is mixed up with the 
slaty portion of the gold-bearing w T ash. 
In Blackball Creek all the wash of the valley may be considered recent. It is wholly derived 
from the slates and sandstones of the Maitai series, that form the neighbouring part of the Paparoa 
Eange, and which within this watershed are impregnated with quartz reefs, some of which are of 
considerable dimensions. The inference usually made, that the gold comes from this reef, is thus 
evidently correct, as there are are no other than auriferous Maitai rocks in that part of the valley 
where the chief workings are carried on. J 
In the valley of the Roaring Meg there is an alluvial flat near the source of the stream which is 
known to be gold-bearing ; but in this very little work has been done up to the present time, it 
being thought necessary to bottom the alluvial deposits in the flat, where the ground is likely to ’be 
deep and wet. From a study of this during the past year, it appears that this upper basin of the 
Soaring Meg has at onetime been a lake, which filled in to the level of the outlet, had then laid over 
the lacustrine deposit an overlaying stratum of river-shingle, which, resting on the false bottom of 
the lacustrine series, are the only gravels that are likely to be worth prospecting. As this area of 
unworked ground lies directly in the line of the Upper Blackball and Moonlight Diggings, and has 
derived its gravels from the same rocks (the Maitai series, impregnated with quartz reefs)” it is fairly 
reasonable to expect within this workable deposits of gold. After the Meg leaves the ranges it 
