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parallel, while the cross courses are due to a latter intrusion of granite, masses of 
which stand out as bold, bare, isolated hills. 
The country is of comparatively slight elevation, consisting of low, thickly 
timbered hills, flats, and clay-pans, or lakes, the reefs for the most part appearing 
on the low ridges, but in some cases they are also visible on the edges of the lakes. 
The rocks are chiefly hornblende schists, but micaceous, chloritic, and talcose 
schists also occur, while both to the East and West metamorphic and intrusive 
granites appear, and occasionally trap dykes are found. 
The Eastern is the main bne on which the principal mines are situated. It 
is of a large size, and the quartz is thoroughly mineralised, but does not contain 
any minerals which will interfere with the abstraction of the gold. 
The general description of the lode mass is, a large inter-bedded lode, well 
formed in the deeper ground, between two good walls, striking a little to the West 
of North, and dipping at an angle of about 80 deg. to the westward. 
This mass varies in width from 5ft. to 30ft., but it rarely consists entirely of 
stone, especially in the larger portions, where a series of lenticular masses of quartz 
are met with, the rest of the lode being composed of broken country intermixed 
with smaller veins and leaders of quartz. These quartz masses often extend along 
the line of reef for 100ft., and are generally the richest portion of the lode, and 
are sometimes met with on one wall and sometimes on the other. 
The stone is of a highly mineralised character, containing a small quantity of 
galena, pyrites and chlorite, the latter often giving the stone a greenish appear¬ 
ance. 
These reefs are often a good deal iron-stained at the surface, with red clay 
partings and walls, the foot wall being well formed, whilst there is at the upper 
part of the lode no hanging wall, but the reef splits up into numerous veins and 
leaders, which strike away into the country. The rich portions run in well-defined 
shoots, but it is also rich enough in gold throughout the reef to pay if worked on 
a large scale. 
At the Northern end of this line the reef seems to split into two branches. 
In the Eastern one there is a great deal of serpentine, which is often very rich in 
gold. The stone from this line, when crushed, has always averaged one ounce to 
the ton of stone, so they have proved so far payable. 
The ferruginous line contains a large quantity of jasper, and some very rich 
specimens were found at the surface, but nothing much has yet been done to test 
this line in depth. 
The Western line is evidently a decomposed dyke, and in one place contained 
some very rich stone in patches for a considerable depth, but little has been done 
on it yet. 
Large quantities of rich specimens were found along these two last mentioned 
lines at the start of the field, but the claims were abandoned either for want of 
funds or through bad management; they should, however, be well worth 
prospecting again. 
Blackbokne’s. 
This is situated on comparatively high ground about five miles to the South- 
Eastward of Southern Cross, and is close on the edge of the large belt of granite 
country. 
The reefs here dip to the Eastward, or in the opposite direction to those on 
the other parts of the field. They are small but very well defined, and carry gold 
through the stone in defined shoots. 
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