96 
The Collie Coalfield is about 25 miles from the Collie bridge, on the South- 
Western Railway, or 40 by road by Bunbury ; would have to hire trap and horses 
at Bunbury. 
Prospecting. 
Prospecting in an almost unexplored country like Western Australia is not 
by any means the pleasant work some people suppose it, for although, as a rule, 
there are no hostile tribes or wild beasts to be encountered, every man carries his 
life in his hand, and is always haunted by the most frightful death of which so 
many poor fellows perish, namely, want of water. 
The greatest difficulties to be contended with may be put down as, want of 
topographical knowledge, great distances to travel, the scarcity of water and horse 
feed. 
Before shirting on a prospecting trip it should be ascertained that one of the 
party possesses a good knowledge of the general character of mineral country, 
is acquainted with a few rough tests, and has a knowledge of the different ores, 
whilst another should be a good busliman. 
Xu prospecting a new country the prospector must divest himself of all the 
popular theories he has learned on another field, and be prepared to find the 
conditions under which the minerals exist apparently quite different. After 
finding a likely-looking belt of country, he should prospect it, and if he finds the 
obiect of his search, no matter if the lodes do not dip or strike in the direction he 
considers they should, or the rocks and vein stuff are not quite to Ins taste, he 
should give it a thorough trial before he condemns it, as no two districts in the 
world are precisely the same. This is particularly striking m this Colony, so much 
so in fact that the diggers have formed a theory that it has been turned upside 
down. 
Alluvial. 
In prospecting, the greater specific gravity of the metals over earthy matter is 
taken advantage of, for, in the first place, Nature will have roughly sorted the 
heavier material from the lighter, the streams leaving the heavier near the lode, 
whilst the lighter they will have carried further. Then, again, the heavier will be 
found deposited in the pockets and on the bottom of the stream beds, whilst the 
sand and clay will overlie it. 
Although particles of most metals are found in the alluvium, only gold and 
tin have been worked at a profit, so we will confine ourselves principally to the 
consideration of these two; but should particles of other ores or coal be discovered, 
they should be traced up to their source. 
The prospectors will first, then, look for a promising belt of mineral country. 
These are generally broken and rough or open alluvial flats, with here and there 
low outcrops, the rocks being clay slate, sandstone, quartzite, schist, &c., with 
quartz and ironstone veins and igneous dykes. 
The quartz reefs should be well defined, and should not be of a highly 
crystalline or glassy nature, but from dead white to blue, iron-stained, gossany, 
and containing 0 specks of other minerals, with lines in the stone which follow the 
strike of the reefs. 
In such country as tliis the stream beds which cut across these reefs should 
be tested for gold. This is done by sinking small boles until the “ wash dirt” (a 
oravelly deposit), which rests upon the “bed rock” (slate, Ac.), is reached, when 
a sample should be tried from the bottom and from the crevices in the slate. 
The dirt, when first introduced into the dish, is puddled and washed until the 
whole is free and the water remains clear, all the clayey matter having been washed 
away. Then the dish is again filled with water, and agitated with a circular 
