40 
Yields up to 2J oz. to the ton have been obtained, and the two last 
crushings gave—• 
25 tons for 32 oz. 15 dwt. 
30 tons for 48 oz. 7 dwt. 
The present party have earned only about £11 per man for their six months’ 
work, for after paying heavy expenses in putting up the whim and sinking 
a main regulation shaft there was little profit left from the crushings. At 
present the water can be kept down by a few hours’ baling with the tanks 
each day. 
[20.8.08.] 
UNEXPLAINED NOISES IN THE DAYLESFORD DISTRICT. 
By W. H. Ferguson , Assistant Field Geologist. 
In the Daylesford district sounds resembling explosions, which could not 
be traced to any mining or quarrying operation, are said to be heard at 
intervals. When at Shepherd’s Flat, Yandoit, and the Pickpocket Diggings, 
between Clydesdale and Newstead, I made inquiries as to whether the sounds 
were heard at these places, and, being assured that they were, several people 
w T ere asked to point out the direction from which the sounds appeared to 
come. Compass bearings were then taken to the points indicated. One 
bearing was taken at Shepherd’s Flat, one at the village of Yandoit, 5 miles 
to the north, and one at the Pickpocket Diggings, about 3 miles further north. 
The bearings intersect within a circle of 50 chains in diameter in the eastern 
portion of the parish of Campbelltown. 
The sounds are described as resembling thunder or the explosions made 
in blasting rocks ; they may occur singly, or two may be heard in rapid 
succession, and more frequently in wet than in fine weather. They have 
been heard at intervals for a number of years, and a resident of Yandoit 
informed me that the noises are there known as “ Pat Hanley’s guns,” as a 
land-owner of that name at one time lived near where the sounds are sup¬ 
posed to originate. 
The noises are said to come from a portion of the Yandoit hills known 
as the Stony Rises, near a branch of the Green Gully Creek. The residents 
are of the opinion that the sounds are caused by explosions of gas, and state 
that birds and rabbits which were supposed to have been suffocated by gas 
have been found dead in hollows of the ground. 
This portion of the parish of Campbelltown was not visited, but an 
inspection of the geological map of the parish shows that basalt has flowed 
down a branch of the Green Gully Creek, and remnants of the flow exist as 
a series of low hills. These trend down the creek, which may have been 
eroded along the strike of the Ordovician rocks, or possibly along a fissure. 
Noises like those described by the residents of the district have been heard 
in many places in other countries, and are now generally known as 
brontidi (like thunder) ; in India they are known as barisal (guns), 
in Mexico as bramidos (bellowings), in Italy as marina (sea shore). In 
some instances they precede earthquake shocks or volcanic eruptions ; in 
others they increase in frequency and then gradually die out without any 
earthquake or volcanic disturbance. It is not certain that these Yandoit 
noises are really brontidi, but it is not at all improbable that they are. The 
bearings taken indicate that the noises proceed from a part of the parish 
