218 
GOLD AT MOUNT MORGAN. 
of the mine in which he was working, and was much 
surprised at receiving shortly afterwards £1 per acre for 
his selection, £640 in all. This took place in 1888, and 
in 1885 a tenth share was sold for £81,000, while the 
unfortunate original owner was employed as ostler at a 
wayside inn on the way to Rockhampton. 
The hill itself is 1,225 feet above the sea, and the actual 
height of the summit above the level of the river bed at its 
foot is 521 feet. The manner of working is simply that of 
quarrying off the crown of the hill to a depth of about eighty 
feet, while a second quarry, 250 feet lower down, is cut in a 
different sort of deposit, which, however, is also richly 
auriferous. The upper part of the hill is composed of the 
dark rock previously mentioned, while lower down the mass 
is white and as porous as pumice stone ; indeed, it was sold 
in Rockhampton for scouring doorsteps and hearths. Inter¬ 
mixed with this white porous stuff are masses of brilliant 
colours, crimson, violet, green, and in the cavities, or some¬ 
times little caves, which are met with in the workings, 
stalactites and stalagmites are met with, only siliceous instead 
of composed of calcite, like those with which we are familiar. 
It is stated that some of the cavities, although quite free 
from stalactites, have yet the stalagmite bosses on the floor. 
According to Mr. R. L. Jack, the Government Geologist, 
the “country rock” in the immediate vicinity of Mount 
Morgan consists of a quartzite full of minute crystals of iron 
pyrites, various ashy and siliceous rocks, shales apparently 
hardened by heat, and a few belts of serpentine. Cutting 
through these rocks are numerous dykes of rhyolite, and of a 
diabase in an advanced state of alteration. There are also 
quartz reefs which contain a fair amount of gold. 
He says further:—“After a careful study of the whole 
formation, I have come to the conclusion that nothing but a 
thermal spring in the open air could have deposited the 
material under consideration. The frothy siliceous sinter 
agrees in every respect with the deposits of New Zealand and 
Iceland geysers, and of the still more wonderful hot springs 
of the Yellowstone National Park. The frothy or cavernous 
condition of the siliceous sinter of Mount Morgan may be 
accounted for by the escape of steam, while the silica was yet 
(after deposition on the evaporation of the water) in the 
gelatinous condition so frequently observed in the deposits of 
hot springs.” Further: “ The gold and, to some extent, iron 
may have been dissolved out of the iron pyrites of * some of 
the reefs of the district,’ the gold possibly by chlorine, 
produced by the contact of hydrochloric acid derived from 
