190 
THE GAPSTED GOLD-FIELD, NEAR PALMERSTON. 
By E. J. Dunn, E.G.S., Director, Geological Survey. 
At Stony Creek a considerable amount of alluvial gold mining has been 
carried on. About half-a-mile east of the railway line is an interesting 
remnant of a high level Tertiary lead. It appears to correspond to the 
Newer Pliocene age. A few thoroughly rounded pebbles of quartz occur 
in the conglomerate but they are rare; most of the pebbles of quartz are 
either subangular or but half rounded, and many are angular. The highly 
rounded examples have no doubt been derived from a higher pre-existing 
Older Pliocene deposit. The soft sandstone and slaty pebbles and boulders 
are well rounded, some of these latter weigh up to' 2 or 3 cwt. each.^ The 
gold isi not verv well water-worn; this hill has been sluiced for many 
years and occasional rich patches have been found, and it is still being 
worked. 
At the north end of this hill a newer lead has been worked, and the 
bottom is about 60 feet lower than on the bottom on the hill. The 
material and the gold of the Newer Pliocene lead have been re-arranged to 
form the material of this lead, which is probably Post Pliocene in age. 
It is, however, not cemented into conglomerate as in the older lead. This 
latter lead may be classed as of the same age as the terraces that fringe the 
hills in this neighbourhood. 
Still later are the recent gravels derived from materials that have been 
supplied by the Post Pliocene and Newer Pliocene leads. These gravels 
occur along the beds of the present water-courses and in the flats at lower 
levels than the terrace material. This recent gravel has been largely worked 
for gold, and some of this gold has doubtless been deposited first in the 
Older Pliocene lead that once ran through the valley but that has been 
quite removed, then it was deposited in the Newer Pliocene lead of which 
a remnant occurs in the capping of a hill previously referred to, afterwards 
it was deposited in the Post Pliocene lead, and last of all it reached the 
recent gravel. The gold of these gravels has certainly been derived from 
rocks that were at a much higher elevation than the present surface, and as 
the belt of auriferous rocks bearing productive reefs begins at the reservoir, 
the gold probably has been brought from that neighbourhood. 
Auriferous Reefs. 
The belt of reef-bearing country extends on its west side to the top of 
the reservoir, and easterly it is about 1 mile in width. The principal reefs 
within the watershed so far worked are the Home Rule, the Dublin, the 
Juvenile, the Wallaby, the Wombat, and none of these have proved to be 
of any great extent or to be very rich. It appears quite likely that the rocks 
at a higher level were a richer zone, and that these supplied the gold for 
the auriferous leads, and that the reefs in the present surface rocks are in a 
lower and poorer zone. 
At Buffalo Creek, about 4J miles in a direction a little east of south 
from Myrtleford, is Mr. J. Pauli’s small battery for quartz crushing worked 
by a water wheel. 
Twenty chains westward from the battery the Northampton Reef cuts 
through slaty country. Strike of reef north and south; dip east at about 
60 deg. The quartz is up to 7 feet thick in places. A crushing of 100 tons 
taken from the outcrop yielded about 1 oz. per ton. The shoot of gold 
pitches south, and a shaft was sunk to intersect it, but the gold had fallen 
off and nothing is at present being done on this reef. About 3 chains 
further up the gully a spur is being worked in very favorable) looking 
greenish-grev slate, there are other spurs here carrying gold. Soil is of 
red colour. 
