108 
coal and that no more coal has been found by excavating to a depth of 
4 ft., also furnish .strong reason for douhting the authenticity of 
the alleged occurrence, which should not he regarded seriously in the 
absence of further strong direct evidence. 
[29.1.13.] 
MATEIX EEEE, McIXTYEE’S. 
B^y E. J. Dunn, F.G.S., late Director, Geological Survey. 
The site of McIntyre’s diggings is 2^ miles south f rom Eheola, formerly 
the scene of the famous Berlin rush, and a noted locality for large nug¬ 
gets, two of which (the largest found) each weighed over 68 lbs. These 
were obtained immediately below where the rich shoot now being 
worked on the Matrix Eeef cropped out at the surface. McEvoy and 
his two mates are said to have secured over £20,000 worth of gold from 
the outcrop of the shoot of gold. 
The country rock consists of highly altered, fine nodular schist and 
other beds that have been changed through the proximity of granite. 
This rock crops out a few chains east of the workings on Matrix Keef, 
and would probably he met with in from 300 to 400 ft. below the 
workings. The strike of the schist, &c., is about X. 25° W., and the 
dip, on the east side of the fault, where a quartz vein occurs, is easterly 
at from 75° to 80°. 
The prominent feature at this locality is that one of the beds in the 
schist is an indicator; it is about half-an-inch thick, and alongside of 
it is about half-an-inch of quartz. The indicator under the lens appears 
to he a fine siliceous sandstone, through which fine crystals of iron 
pyrites were thickly disseminated, represented now by casts with some 
ferruginous matter. The indicator is of bluish-grey colour. Along the 
course of the indicator all the gold obtained so far has been found 
where it is intersected by a fault dipping west at 45°. The fault is 
filled by u quartz vein from 1 in. to 12 in. thick, and the gold is in 
this vein at and near where it intersects the indicator and along the 
line of intersection. The pitch of the intersection of the quartz vein and 
indicator is northward about 5° at the mouth of the tunnel and 10° 
near the present north end of the tunnel. This angle of pitch was 
set out by the writer for Messrs. Snow and Couchman, and it has been 
driven on for 400 ft. by Dr. McDonald and O’Brien’s party, and several 
patches of gold have been obtained amounting altogether to over £4,000 
in value, won by two men in about three years. The last crushing just 
completed returned 435 oz. smelted gold from 57 tons of quartz. 
The workings on the Matrix Keef show the exact conditions under 
which the large nuggets were formed, and the success so far obtained 
should stimulate further search for other rich indicators and for further 
gold shoots on this one. 
From the position in which the alluvial gold and nuggets in Xo. 1 
and Xo. 2 Gullies were found, it is evident that there are other shoots 
along this line that have supplied gold abundantly to the alluvial 
ground. One shoot should be sought further north than the one being 
worked, and another further south above the school-house in Xo. 1 
Gully. It is also noticeable that going south from the school-house the 
continuation of the Matrix Eeef strike skirts the alluvial ground which 
runs toward'^ the St. John’s patch, the alluvial appearing to originate 
along that line. ^ 
