nearly tlie whole of the beds pyrite crystals may be found, either sparingly 
or in fair number. Many of the slates are spotted and show considerable 
signs of alteration in their structure. They contain great numbers of very 
small crystals forming dark blotches, and in some cases the main portion of 
the rock is arranged in more or less parallel layers giving it almost the 
appearance of foliation of chloritic and magnesian schists. The weathered 
surfaces of the rocks with pyrite crystals have innumerable small pits formed 
by the decomposition and washing out of the mineral. The spotted sand¬ 
stones, also, are interesting, and though the rock does not show evidence of 
alteration to such a large extent as do the softer slates, still it has been altered 
nearly to a quartzite. 
The beds strike regularly from N. to E". 20° W., and dip E. toN.70° E. 
at from 35° to 86°. The greatest dip appears to occur towards the 
eastern reef. The quartz forming the reef is chiefly of the white opaque 
variety, and in the main portion is almost entirely free from minerals of any 
kind or laminations of rock. Towards the walls, however, in many parts 
there are thin partings of various slates (mineralized and barren), together 
with laminas of minerals, consisting principally of pyrite and galena. A little 
fine gold and zinc-blende are also distributed through the quartz, and gold 
along the planes of the laminae, and also in the quartz. All through the 
reef at the lower levels there are numbers of vuglis ranging from a few 
inches to a few feet in extent. They usually contain quartz crystals, kaolin, 
pyrite, silica, and magnesian compounds. Some of the crystals are attached 
to the main quartz mass, and are either quite clear and clean on the sur¬ 
face, or coated with layers and bunches of pyrite in very small crystals, 
and with red mud stained by oxide of iron—a ferruginous bauxite. Other 
crystals lie completely buried in the mass of silica, magnesian compounds, 
kaolin, and clay, and are thickly coated with pyrite. The formation of the 
pyrite appears to be in progress at the present time, for in almost any part 
of the walls of the drives in the three lowest levels, and in the vughs, there 
is a very thin film of shining metallic mud covering the quartz, quartz 
crystals, and containing rocks. There is a fair quantity of mineralized 
water coming out of an overhead vugh in the south end of the drive at the 
610-ft. level, and it appears to be highly charged with sulphates of iron 
and magnesia, &c., thus probably supplying the elements necessary for the 
formation of pyrite and the magnesian minerals. Analyses are being 
made* of this water, the red mud on the walls, and the loose material in 
the vughs, to see if gold and the other elements are contained therein. In 
many places, also, of the drives, and in some of the vughs, there is a thin 
efflorescence of what is probably epsomite (sulphate of magnesia), and 
a single crystal of dolomite (carbonate of lime and magnesia) was found 
on quartz in a vugh. The quartz in some parts of the reef is greatly 
broken by small horizontal, transverse, oblique, and longitudinal 
joints ; in others it is considerably splintered and crushed. The joints in 
other places run longitudinally for some distance, making fine planes, and 
giving the rock the appearance of having a number of distinct walls. 
Again, in the upper levels it divides up into what may be termed splices 
about 1 foot thick, with thin partings of clay (pug) between. The strata 
in the mine are greatly jointed in some parts, the joints simulating, respec¬ 
tively, cleavage planes and hanging walls very closely when conforming 
in dip and bearing to them. 
About' 100 feet east of the shaft of the old Goldsborough mine a very 
fine example of dark carbonaceous slate containing large single crystals 
* See Appendix. 
