May 24 , 1858 .] 
AUSTRALIA— GOLD PRODUCE. 
315 
their imbedded organic remains. These veinstones (the reefs of the 
miner), which are rarely more than a foot or two in width, have 
here and there yielded a good deal of gold near the surface, and 
hence numerous shafts have been imprudently sunk deep into them. 
Many of the operators have already found to their cost that these 
sinkings are profitless, either by the diminution of the ore or by the 
expense and difficulty of extracting it. In truth, the result, as far 
as the present trials go, seems to justify my former inferences as 
based upon the experience gained in other gold bearing countries. 
The report of the mining companies of Victoria is to the effect that 
already ten of the shafts which had been sunk into the solid rock 
had been abandoned, and that enough had been already done to 
vindicate the old scientific inference, that in a general sense 
(though there are exceptional cases) deep mining for gold in quartz 
rock is profitless. 
Very different, however, is the produce derivable from the au- 
riferous debris. For, although many of the old diggings have, as I 
anticipated, also been exhausted, or the materials which filled the 
natural troughs and depressions worked out, Mr. Selwyn points to 
considerable tracts of country over which such auriferous debris will 
yet be found to extend, whilst he regrets that he is unable to define 
the probable range and limits of such detritus from the want of any 
accurate geographical maps. In reference to all the yet unexplored 
tracts through which it is believed the gold detritus may extend, the 
geological surveyor naturally calls for the same sort of detailed map as 
that which represents the gold bearing region near Mount Alexander 
as trigonometrically surveyed by Mr. W. S. Urquhart, and brought 
out by Mr. Arrowsmith on the scale of 3 inches to 2 miles. 
Referring you to what I said last year respecting the time which 
may possibly elapse before all the gold shall cease to be profitably 
extracted from the rich heaps which are more bountifully spread out 
in Victoria Land than in any known part of the world, I repeat my 
conviction that, whether in a quarter of a century or more, the period 
will soon be roughly and approximately estimated (i.e. so soon as the 
geologist is furnished with good maps) when the exhaustion of the 
great produce of Victoria shall take place. Whether the existing 
causes of the decline in produce, including a deficiency of water for 
the works, be or be not of a temporary nature, it is a matter of fact 
that the amount of the past year has been below the average of the 
preceding years. 
