120 
GEOLOGY. 
of the Aorere, over the Whakamarama range, a great difference 
in the character of various parts of the chain was clearly 
visible. The chain divided by the Kaituna exhibited at its 
southern extremity quite the same aspect as the granitic moun¬ 
tains observed all over the country; whilst north of that river a 
stratification, with rugged, precipitous sides of the hills, precisely 
like that seen in the Papahaua chain, was visible ; and it appeared 
to me that some of those strata consisted of conglomerates. 
Knowing that small beds of an earthy graphite had been found 
in the northern part of the chain, and judging from the boulders 
which I had an opportunity of examining in different rivers flow¬ 
ing from this chain, I came to the conclusion that a coal-field 
would be found here; the importance of which, considering its 
vicinity to Kelson and to the Strait, could not, if it were dis¬ 
covered, be over-rated. Kot having time to search the chain 
in order to satisfy myself of the justness of my deductions, 
I hoped that I would obtain some information respecting it from 
persons in Kelson who had visited it; and I was not a little 
delighted at being shown by Mr. II. Curtis, to whom I mentioned 
my notions on the subject, a piece of beautiful black coal, which 
he had himself found near one of the rivulets flowing into the 
Aorere river; so that the existence of valuable coal in the Wha¬ 
kamarama range is so far proved. 
GOLD. 
I have omitted in the foregoing geological notes to treat of the 
gold-bearing deposits, and of the localities in which this precious 
metal is to be found, preferring to treat the subject separately, 
and I shall now proceed to offer some remarks on' this important 
matter. 
When Sir ^Roderick Murchison examined, in 1844, the specimens 
of rocks brought to England by Count Strzelecki from the 
eastern chain of Australia, he observed a striking resemblance 
between them and the rocks in the auriferous Ural mountains 
m Russia, whence he had shortly before returned. Kot only 
was their mineral character the same, namely, silurian rocks, 
partly metamorphic and associated with younger plutonic rocks, 
but the chains also corresponded m their meridional strike 
and in their altitude. This great geologist came to the con¬ 
clusion that the Australian mountains, and their detritus accumu¬ 
lated in their depressions and upon their slopes, would, like the 
Ural chain, contain gold; and he did not hesitate in recommend¬ 
ing to the miners in England, of whom many were then without 
occupation, to emigrate to Australia, and dig for this precious 
metal. 
A lew years afterwards gold was found in Australia; but it was 
