1?0 
While the presence of Glosiopteris was relied upon as an infallible indication that 
the beds in which it occurred were of Palaeozoic age, the above, of course, were ran 
the oldest known auriferous drifts in Queensland, and were supposed to have derived 
their gold from the denudation of a land surface which existed in 
times. Mr. Bands’ recent discovery of Olossopleris in the Upper Cretaceous Desert 
Sandstone gives, however, a new signification to the argument derived from preBenc 
of that plant. The beds in which it occurs — at least when it is unaceompanie y 
fossils-may be of any age from the Lower Bowen to the Desert Sandstone. 
The same remarks applv to certain deposits in New South Wales described 
as quoted below by the late Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, Government Geologist, as thei 
supposed Carboniferous age depends solely on the presence of Olossoptens. 
“North of Gulgoiig, at Tallawang, the coal measures cover a large extent oi 
country, their lowest beds having been found to be payably auriferous. repor e 
interesting discovery to you in November last, stating that during my examina 
the Tallawang Gold Pield Beserve I observed the important fact that the ^Id foiin 
the Tertiary alluvial deposits at the old Tallawang and Clough » Diggings ^ 
been chiefly derived from conglomerates in the coal measures. 
are associated with beds of sandstone and shale, containing Glossoptcn^ the 
characteristic of our coal measures. At Clough’s Gully the J 
worked and yields from 1 to 15 dwt. of gold per ton, while we gMn„ 
5 oz. have been obtained from it. Several hundreds of tons of the conglomerate (loc. 7 
termed cement) have been crushed, but as the yield is said to have been 
variable, work has been stopped, and the ground is now held under lease. _ 
however, a few miners still at work in the adjacent claims, and J took the 
of purchasing from one of them a sample weighing 1 oz., of the gold which 
crushing by hand out of hard cement. The gold is coarse in size, remarkably scaly, a 
waterworn. I hope to secure for the Museum of Mines some samples of the con 
glomerate containing gold. Mr. B. McKay, of Clough’s Gully, gave me one sma 
piece showing coarse gold. . . .„iar.Hty 
“ This is the first time that gold has been noticed as occurring in payable fluanti ^ 
in the coal measures of this colony, and it is not unwor% of remark that we e 
possess one of the most ancient auriferous alluvial deposits in the world . 
At Blair Athole Station, ten miles north-west of Clermont, m a well six y 
deep, a seam of coal, together with yellow and grey 
grained fissile sandstone and shale, were met with, dipping at 10 to S.E. Erom r 
Downs Telcaram of 1st March, 1873, we learn that the seam was about six ^eet tl 
and at a depth of about seventy feet from the surface, and that aimther seam, 
thick, lay about three feet below it. In a bore sunk by the Peak Downs Copp 
Company, a hundred yards from the Blair Athole well, a four-feet seam of coal was m 
with at one hundred feet. . i . • i s89 
Prom the Pealc Downs Telegram of 30th November, 1889, we learn that in i 
another shaft was sunk seven hundred yards distant from the well, in whic was 
following section : — 
Surface . 
Sandstone 
Shale 
Sandstone 
Coal 
Feet. 
5 
80 
7 
3 
5 
* Ann. Report Dep. Mines, N. S. Wales, tor 1876 (1877), PP. 173, 174. 
