23 
CHARTERS TOWERS AND CATE GOLD EIELDS. 
These goldfields, although both geographically and geologically distinct, arc 
generally grouped together. They have for the greater part of their existence been in 
le charge of the same Warden, and the returns from each have not always been kept 
separate. The Capo, although at one time a rich alluvial field, has of late years 
iminishod in relative importance, so that at the present day its output does not 
seriously afEect the total yield of the two fields. 
In Dain tree’s Eeport on the Cape Eiver Diggings, &c.,* it is said that payable 
go a deposits were “confined to the south-eastern outcrops of a vast thickness of schistose 
rocks developed on the ‘Cape’; the north-western extension of the same having failed to 
yie d the precious metal in remunerative quantities to the prospector.” The metamor- 
divided by him into Upper, Middle, and Lower. The Upper is composed 
o ard quartzites and silicified mica slates. The Middle consists of soft thin-bedded 
fflica slates, with occasional bands of silicified mica and hornblende schists. In the Lower 
u division, laminated granite, and mica- aud hornblende-slates are interstratified ; and it 
IS in this portion of the series that transmutation of the schistose rocks is most marked, 
ec , near the junction of the schistose and granite rocks, so great has been tbe 
eration that it is difficult to say where the schists end and the granite commences, 
n , . fossils have yet been, or are likely to bo, met with in these beds on account 
metamorphic character throughout. The only assertion to be made in regard 
leir age is, that rocks of a similar character further north are unconformably 
over aid by others containing abundance of Upper Silurian fossils.”! 
d map attached to the Eeport the metamorphic rocks are provisionally 
^(Usse as “ Lower Silurian.” The Eeport further mentions that where elvan or 
dykes traverse the metamorphic rocks the richest gold deposits were always 
Rd • In some cases there was reason to suspect that “ the rich quartz veins were a 
con inuation to the surface of the elvan veins themselves.” 
- Hands, in a recent Eeport, J to which the reader is referred for a description 
0 various reefs and leads, refers to these schists as follows : — 
Cape Eiver G-old Field comjirises a scries of schists and quartzites of vast 
c ness, extending for a distance of over 50 miles in length, with an average of about 10 
width. Ihe schists ‘ strike’ about W.N.W. aud E.S.E., and have an average 
the ° 30 to 35° to the S.S.W. As there is no sign of folding or repetition of 
5- t^°r dip continuing throughout, this would give a thickness of between 
®dcs of these rocks ; nor is this even their entire original thickness, for to the 
uorth-north-cast their place has been taken 
lero traces of the original schists. 
by intrusive granite, leaving only here and 
‘ stril ’ schists in reality extend to a much greater distance in the direction of their 
arc t covered with basalt. For instance, just north of Lolworth there 
The ‘ inliers ’ of schist, aud the same rock crops out at Cargoon Station, 
senar^r^^ Woolgar Gold Field are probably a continuation of the same series, 
qJ ir y layer of basalt, aud they are probably continuous with the schists 
far i ^tl ' Hiver, separated only by beds of overlying ‘Desert Sandstone.’ How 
opposite direction— to the east-south-east— they extend it is impossible to say, 
as the country is all a large alluvial flat. 
* Brisbane : by Authority : 1868. 
overlaid Broken River, where rocks of a siinihir character are 
Bevoniaij onna i y by a limestone charged with fossils. The fossils, however, turned out to be 
+ On the Cape River Gold Field. Brisbane : by Authority : 1801. 
