in
parts as shown. I have noticed such an apparent displacement at more
than one point in the whole district under notice, but am not sure
whether it is the result of an actual fault in the country or merely a
change of the drainage from one line to another. The Snow party met
with their gold in solid nugget and tea-lead form at the point of
resistance formed by the ledge, and there is no doubt in my mind that
the big 2,228-oz. lump, found half-a-mile to the south of Snow's claim,
was stored in the first place on a ledge such as that sketched in Fig.
14. As with all layers of slate, there is more than one line of
'drainage in the belt of slate now being followed by the Snow party. To
the east of the indicator being worked is the main channel, containing
wide bunchy quartz such as occurs on the system of lodes where the big
nugget was found. No doubt this formation contains favoured
situations. In fact, as at Dunolly, the whole width of the spread of
its wings and fins of vein stone—really the fall width of the slate
layer—ought to be going through a mill with it. A mill of 100 heads, 12
cwt. each, dropping 120 times per minute, no mercury and no copper
plates, is required here, and then a width of about 60 feet would go
through at a profit, even if it averaged but 1-1/2 dwts. to the ton.
Some of the big stone would yield an ounce per ton, but taken en masse—the
most profitable way to work it—a few dwts. would probably be obtained.
There being wing and other veins associated with it—-"filter packs"
running out from its sides through the lines of gold drains in the
slates—much of the gold which would otherwise have reached and been
stored in the big stone has been retained in nugget form in the wings,
and, therefore, the mining effort to succeed here, and indeed on most
of the formations of the whole district, must be of a very
comprehensive nature, with ore-treating facilities on a large scale.
The points of great accumulation of gold are few and far between on all
fields ; and in a field permeated with wing aurl fin lode occurrences
(side filters to a big filter), favoured situations are less frequent
than wrould be the case in a crack system due to a lesser
twist strain. At Moliagul, as at Dunolly, the systems of cracking have
been charged with golden fluids, and although the " vein-trap "
features in the lode structure are very pronounced, very many favoured
and extensive reservoirs for gold exist in its lines—not so rich,
perhaps, in proportion of gold to quartz, as in some parts of the
State, but rich enough to be worth mining for, especially when the bulk
of the lines— country, veins, and big stone—promises profitable results
by itself.
North
of Snow's area, and still on the system of lodes from which the big
nugget was obtained, mining remains are principally shallow until a
mine known as Donovan's Golden Goose is reached. Here a line of
drainage, in slate associated with dyke material of the elvan class,
contained narrow but rich stone, said to have averaged 5 ozs. to the
ton. The stone is in the form of short " makes " or blocks (about 50
feet in length north and south), and its width varied from a few inches
to 10 feet. The rich stone came from the footwall side—-the side of the
original crack—the enlargements on the hanging wall side being formed
subsequently to the footwall stone, and is said to have followed down
and along it to a " tight part," where it " cut out." The favoured
situation here worked is but one in many on a line of gold drainage,
and it is a pity to see the mine idle and deserted. Here a 25-head mill
is required, and then, instead of carting picked stuff to
