262 
course) in the adit. No. 14 intersects the lode line almost vertically under 
the south end of the quarry. At this point several feet of quartz was cut, 
and was driven on for a few feet north, and a rise put up to the quarrv 
workings. The reef has not been driven on south. 
This embraces the full amount of work done on the Royal Standard 
line of reef below the surface. 
During the last twelve months, Messrs. Clarke and Mackey have 
trenched the outcrop of the reef for about 10 chains south of the quarry 
and opened on quartz at various points. A trial crushing from a 20-ft. 
shaft returned 4 dwt. of gold per ton. In addition, at about 100 feet 
south-east from the rich quarry, a shaft was sunk to a depth of 20 feet 
and then connected by shallow adit, which was driven west across the 
beds. This discloses an eastern dipping leg 5 feet in thickness and some 
smaller stone on the western leg. A trial crushing from here returned 
4 dwt. per ton. 
The other adits in the Royal Standard range have cut eastern side lines 
known as Mulholland’s, the Oriental, and the Strap and Buckle. The last 
is next to the Royal Standard reef. 
I have not at hand the records of gold yields from these reefs, but 
Mulholland’s is said to have returned as much as 20 oz. per ton, the 
Oriental 2 oz. per ton, and the Strap and Buckle (from large stopes) 15 
dwt. per ton. 
The beds are yellow phyllitic clay-slates of Ordovician age; sandstone 
is represented only by a very few small bars about 1 inch in thickness. 
These have been subjected to great lateral pressure, which, in such 
homogeneous beds, has produced a. high degree of cleavage; the bedding 
planes being represented by lines of colour, at times discernible with 
great difficulty. The beds have been bent into anticlines and synclines, at 
least four of the former occurring between Standers’ Creek and the top of 
the range. The average strike of these folds is N. 40° W., and the 
general pitch about 15 0 N. 
An exhaustive examination of the sections disclosed in the adit tunnels 
indicates that the auriferous reefs enumerated above are closely associated 
with the lines of anticlinal curvature, and I am convinced that, if the Royal 
Standard reef and its associated side lines? which range up to 8 feet and 
10 feet in thickness, are to be again placed upon a profitable footing, it 
will be by applying to this field the experience gained in the development 
of the saddle reefs of the Bendigo gold-field. 
As regards the rich reef worked in the Royal Standard quarry (which 
was one of the series of western legs), I am satisfied that the shoot of gold 
was practically exhausted in the upper workings, and that prospecting 
operations should be directed towards ascertaining if there is a recurrence 
of surface conditions in lower saddle reefs, and not, as has been the 
case in the past, on. the assumption that the reef was dislocated, or the 
shoot of gold diverted. 
In my opinion, there is ample justification for further developing these 
lines of reef. The most suitable adit for this purpose is the one lowest 
down the Strap and Buckle gully. This should be extended west under 
the Strap and Buckle reef and Royal Standard workings, and then con¬ 
nected with the stopes of the former by a rise in the anticline, and with 
the latter by a rise in the anticline to No. 14 adit level. 
The distances to be driven, and heights of the rises, are indicated on 
the plan of my underground survey of the mines.* 
* This will be issued with the Memoir on the district. 
