108 
prospects in the creeks of this neighbourhood, and as very little pro¬ 
specting has been done, further attention might well be bestowed on this 
tract, as both gold and tin ore occur in the locality. 
\Refort sent in nth December , 7905 .] 
SOME GOLD MINES AT TANJIL. 
(no. 14 on locality map.) 
By E. /. Dunn , F.G.S., Director , Geological Survey . 
At Tarijil the country-rocks are of Silurian age. The beds consist of 
silicious sandstone of varying degrees of fineness, mudstone, and clayslate. 
The beds are bent into a series of anticlines and sync lines, and dip east or 
west, the strike being a few degrees W. of N. Although this structure 
prevails and saddle-reefs probably occur, apparently no effort has been made 
to prospect the anticlines. 
Dykes of diorite are numerous, and thev appear to correspond in a 
general way with the strike of the Silurian beds, or, in other words, to fol¬ 
low the axial lines of fold in the stratified rocks. They are generally 
associated with quartz veins, which are found either in the mass of the 
dyke, or on one or on both walls. Such quartz veins have been proved 
auriferous in several instances; but the dykes have apparently been worked 
only to a limited extent, and none of them appear to have had a thorough 
trial. 
Quartz veins and reefs are common in the Silurian beds, but they do 
not seem to have been worked very extensively. In fact, Tanjil in its 
early history was an alluvial diggings, where gold was obtained in fair 
abundance and with little effort, and up to the present time practically all 
the attention of the miners has been confined to alluvial mining, and the 
sources from which the alluvial gold was derived have not been vigorously 
sought for. 
The Silurian rocks are covered by beds of silicious conglomerate, loose 
sandstone, gravel, clay, &c., and also by lava flows of older volcanic age 1 — 
basalt of very dense character that covers the older Cainozoic leads. 
Examples of this occur in Morrison’s paddock about a mile to the south of 
Tanjil, where basalt covers grey silicious rock and conglomerate. Cement 
lead and Moonlight lead, both in Morrison’s paddock, belong to this 
Older Tertiary, and good yields of gold were obtained from the gravels 
and conglomerated gravels of this age. Moonlight lead was opened up 
by means of a Government grant of ,£500. 
Newer Tertiary leads were worked close to Tanjil, and a little to the 
west of it. About a mile further up the river, a lead of the same age and 
^probably the continuation of the Tanjil leads, was worked in Dawson’s 
Gully with payable results. In the small gullies on the northern side of 
Tanjil, boulders of intenselv hard grey silicious rock and conglomerate, that 
have been thoroughly rounded and even half polished, are found. They 
have, doubtless, been derived from a still older lead, and were again worn 
down in the Newer Tertiary river course, and then finally once more de¬ 
nuded and left with recent drift in the gullies where they now repose. The 
material is identical with that covered by basalt in Morrison’s paddock. 
At Tanjil and nearly on a level with the river bed a lead is now being 
