GEOLOGY. 
121 
not until 1851 that gold-mining began on a large scale in that 
colony, the efiect of which has been to convert a country then 
inhabited only by a few farmers, squatters, and convicts, into an 
emporium of wealth, and to raise it in a few years to a position 
without precedent in history. 
Had Sir Hoderick Murchison received the specimens which he 
examined from the eastern meridional central chain of this Island, 
instead of from Australia, he would have pronounced the same 
opinion, based upon his deep knowledge of geology, which, 
although the newest, is perhaps, in many respects, one of the 
most important sciences; a knowledge of which is requisite for 
the sound development of the natural wealth of nations. It 
is true we have not yet found any fossils in these slaty rocks, but 
I am convinced that they will be found, and will demonstrate that 
these strata are of the same geological age as those of the Ural 
mountains and the Australian Alps. Here, as there, their meri¬ 
dional strike is very little disturbed by eruptive rocks; here, as 
there, the altitude of the mountains is between 6,000 and 7,000 
feet; here, as there, large quartz veins traverse the slaty rocks; 
and nature has here, perhaps, to a greater extent eveu than in 
Australia, done the work of crushing, in the process of denuding 
the uppermost parts of the lofty ridges where the vein stones 
were probably most highly charged with gold. 
The luxuriant growth of the Hew Zealand vegetation, together 
with the absence of roads, has at present confined the work of 
gold mining to the boundaries of the gold-fields; but it has been 
proved by a few adventurous men, who have penetrated more 
deeply into the now inhospitable mountain regions, that the 
detritus becomes richer in gold, which itself becomes coarser, as we 
ascend the river courses. We may therefore infer that, were 
the rich tracts lying in the depressions or on the slopes of the 
chains, and which cover hundreds of square miles, opened to enter¬ 
prise, a rich reward would be the result. 
As in Australia, the gold is found here in a loose conglomerate 
or drift, with small seams of lignite (as, for instance, in Golden 
Gully, Massacre Bay), of two different tertiary ages ; and also in 
the recent alluvial drift, which, however, is generally poorer in 
metal. 
In order to ascertain the existence of gold in the country tra¬ 
versed by me, I first washed in the Rivers Roto-iti and Roto-roa, 
before they unite; and although we only collected sand from 
under and between the huge boulders in the river bed, we found 
nearly in every dish a few specks of very fine scaly gold. This 
fact was interesting indeed, because, until then, it had been 
thought that the gold in Hew Zealand was derived only from 
metamorphic or silurian slaty rocks; but here we had a proof 
that it was also diffused in plutonic rocks. It could, in fact, only 
have been derived from the decomposition of granite, because 
