83 
quartz is commingled with slate. The country-rocks dip east at 80 deg., 
and pitch to the north. The reef crosses the country-rocks, and dips west. 
The thickness of the reef is i ft. 6 in. At 46 feet from the surface 
the reef is 10 feet to the east of the shaft, and from 2 to 4 feet thick. 
At the bottom level the reef is just broken into on the eastern side of 
the shaft. Some payable crushings are said to have been taken from 
this mine. 
Half Moon Reef. 
About 200 yards to the “west of the South New Year’s Venture is the 
Half Moon reef, which has been worked for a length of several hundred 
feet by means of shafts. 
Dairy Flat 'Reef. 
Half-a-mile to the west of the South New Year’s Venture mine is the 
Dairy Flat reef, also worked for a considerable length. 
New Year’s Venture Extended Mine. 
This mine lies b mile to< the south of the South New Year's Venture, 
and its workings are the most southerly on this belt of country. A shaft 
has been sunk 30 feet deep in the top of a ridge, but so far no gold has 
been got in the quartz spurs cut through. The country-rocks appear to 
dip a little to west. Quartz veins occur on the surface in several places. 
The shaft appears to be near centre-country, and it should be continued 
to 100 feet, and then cross-cuts should be made to the east and west. 
[Report sent in 1st N ovember, / 905 .] 
THE WATCHEM NUGGET. 
(NO. 3 ON LOCALITY MAP.) 
By E. J. Dunn , F.G.S., Director, Geological Survey. 
About 8 miles S.E. from Watchem, and near the eastern boundary of 
the Water Supply Reserve, and within mining lease No. 5145, Mary¬ 
borough, there is a ridge which trends away in the direction of Mt. Jeffcott. 
On the north-eastern side of the ridge, and well sheltered from the south 
and w r est, is a spot where the sand was removed by the wind during the last 
drought, leaving a bare spot about half-an-acre in area strewn with 
numerous quartz chips, pieces of white quartz, &c. Before they were re¬ 
moved there w 7 ere also stone tomahawdcs, mealing stones, Sec., such as are 
usual in the vicinity of the camping-places of the blacks. 
About a chain to the north of this bare patch, and in a hollow 7 , is another 
smaller bare patch, and there the nugget w r as found. Water is always ob¬ 
tainable in soaks close by. There is an excellent outlook over the surround¬ 
ing plains, and the spot was an ideal one for a blackfellow’s camp, and that 
it was a favorite spot for this purpose is testified to by the great numbers 
of chipped stone fragments that are scattered around. 
Mr. Colbert’s son, Frank, sixteen years of age, was riding over the 
ground on 18th August, 1904, when he saw 7 something yellow on the ground 
which he at first thought was 'a fragment of an old straw 7 hat. He dis¬ 
mounted and picked it up, and saw that it was a nugget of void. (See 
plate.) 
The nugget w r eighs 41 ozs. ; it is of irregular form, well water-worn, 
and the quartz and ironstone that occur as streaks in it are wind-worn. The 
gold is of great puritv. Some of the bits of quartz and ironstone that w r ere 
in the nugget w'hen found have been detached. Besides the nugget one or 
