21 
as it were, a peninsula extending soiitli-eastward from the north-west corner of the 
Colony, and projecting into the Cretaceous rocks of the Kolling Downs Formation. 
In the neighhourhood of the Mount Douglas gold-miues the country is studded with 
rugged knohs of granular quartzite, which may represent the discharge pipes of thermal 
springs. The held is intersected with enormous siliceous veins like those of the 
Hodgkinson Gold Field. A few small isolated tah'olands of the Desert Sandstone 
attest the former extension of that formation. 
The gold-mines have been worked in a desultory and unsatisfactory manner, for 
which the position of the field is no doubt in large measure to blame. The Gilded E.ose, 
on Fisher’s Creek, in a country-rock of flaggy talcoso sandstones and shales, has been 
®ost persistently worked. The reef is bighly charged with pyrites. The carbonates of 
copper in the Homeward Bound and Flying Dutchman lodes contain a good deal of 
gold. In the Uncle Tom, on Bumpkin Gully, the gold is associated with quartz, 
carbonate of lime, and carbonate of iron. In the Mary Douglas, at the Top Camp, 
rich deposits of gold, associated with native bismuth, have been obtained from quartz 
coated with botryoidal and stalagmitic masses of glossy-black limonite. Within the last 
cw Weeks, much excitement has been created by the discovery of tho Last Call Mine, 
near the Soldier’s Cap fa Desert Sandstone tableland), to which the Goldflold AUarden 
^fers as follows, in a Eeport to tho Minister for Minos, published in the Brisbane 
Courier * ; 
“ On two occasions I visited the mine and found by careful testa the whole body 
0 conglomerate extremely rich, the prospects I took giving on my first inspection from 
_ oz. to 12 oz. from the heap at grass and in the lower workings in bottom of shaft, and 
in the faces of tho drives and crosscuts overhead, and at foot the prospects were really 
endid. Assay.? made from stone taken from a leader ninniug through the great bulk 
c the deposit gave startling results — ^far too good to anticipate anything equal in the 
average of any mine yet found. The main body of this singular deposit is a granular 
< roonate of lime with a considerable proportion of micaceous sandstone and some oxide 
c iron (miners’ black sand). The largest of the gold consists of line hair-like threads, 
^t exceeding half-an-inch in length, diminishing in size to the smallest speck of dust. 
quantity of specular and red hematite iron ore is also obtained, caiTying a large 
percentage of gold similar in quality to that in the limestone, but the thread filaments 
lire absent. The area of the lease is 6 acres, and although considerable preliminary 
Work has been necessary, such as sinking wells, timbering, road-making, &e., good 
progress has been made in the mine. The shaft has been sunk 38 feet, and drives put 
in north and west, and about 100 tons of crushing stuff paddocked. With a view to 
est the capabilities of their property, tho owners purpose sending a few tons to the 
™ae line at Soldier’s Cap, and probably 2 tons will shortly he in transit to Charters 
owers for treatment. Two iiidcpendont tests from hulk made in Sydney gave over 
oz. of gold and ncarljr 8 oz. of silver, and one in Charters Towers, in which no gold 
Was visible, gave 69 oz. gold and nearly 12 oZ. silver. From the leader before mentioned 
• weight of stone when reduced yielded 1 oz. of excessively fine gold. The various 
oases adjoining No. 15 have struck nothing as yet; but at greater depth I consider 
d'ffl^ sontb, and No. 18, on the west, the best properties, although it is 
1 cult to predict whore tho nm in, ay extend, as the whole of Martin’s Creok formation 
presents something unique in mining, and is certainly puzzling to the devotees of old 
Biining legends.” ^ ^ 
The gullies and fiats radiating from the Mary Douglas Hill have yielded rich 
uvial gold, all heavy and luiggetty, and frequently so coated with iron oxides that the 
* 3rd .Time, 1891. 
