THE GEOLOGT OP NELSOX. 
30 
Bide of tlie valley ; the only traces of gold found on the 
western side are on the Kaituna stream, but not indicating 
any rich deposit on that side, which, as fertile agricultural 
land, must be left to the farmer. You know that all the 
tributaries of the Aorere river proceeding from the Haupiri 
range, as, for instance, Appoo’s River, the Slate River with its 
different branches, the Boulder Rivers, Salisbury Creek, and 
also the Parapara River, which proceed northwards from the 
same range, have been more or less successfully worked by 
various parties of diggers. The rounded nature oi the gold 
particles shows that the gold has been brought down by water ; 
and the fact that the heaviest gold is found in the upper parts 
of the streams, points clearly to the mountains as the source oi 
the metal. 
But it would be improper to speak about an Aorere gold¬ 
field, if the gold were confined to the deep and narrow gorges 
of the streams, cut down into the clay-slate rocks. 
The whole region of the eastern side of the Aorere valley, 
rising from the river bed towards the steep sides of the moun¬ 
tains at an inclination of about eight degrees, and occupying 
from the Clarke River towards the south, to the Parapara on 
the north, a superficial extent of about 40 English miles, is a 
gold-field. Throughout this whole district, on the foot of the 
range, we find a conglomerate deposited on the top of the slate 
rocks, reaching in some places a thickness of twenty feet. 
Pieces of driftwood changed into brown-coal indicate a probably 
tertiary age of this conglomerate formation. Where a ferru¬ 
ginous cement binds the boulders and the gravel together, this 
conglomerate is compact; in other places only fine sand lies 
between the larger stones. Quartz and clay-slate boulders are 
the most commonly met with. This conglomerate formation 
' is not only cut through by the deep gullies of the larger streams, 
but in some places washed by the more superficial action of 
occasional water, and so divided into parallel and rounded 
ridges, of which that portion of the district called the Quartz 
Ranges is a characteristic example. This conglomerate 
formation must be regarded as the real gold-field, prepared in 
a gigantic manner by the hand of nature, from the detritus of 
the mountains, for the more detailed and minute operations of 
man. 
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