The
concentration of the Egerton gold is the result of the same general
cause as was at work in all gold-fields, there being a difference only
in the structural arrangement of the most favoured parts, as a result
of a different kind of cracking producing a different system of
obstructive points to circulation. No two fields are alike in cracking.
The
line of greatest strain along the area worked by the Egerton and Black
Horse Companies is marked by the presence of a vertical lode which has
a width varying from about 1 foot to 1 inch. It is one of a series of
so-called verticals, some of which are wider, some narrower, than the
one mentioned, and whose general relationship to each other and to the
wing formations of quartz is shown in sketches in Fig. 1 ; the angle of
the win g lode structure to the vertical differing considerably as we
go north on the part of the lode system opened. South, at a point known
as the Rose workings, and north for 1,000 or 1,200 feet or more, the
line of the greatest strain applied in the cracking of the rock beds
has resulted in storages of
quartz
pitching to the north along a floor, somewhat as in Fig. 3. The only
part of what is said to be a continuation of this floor to be seen at
deep levels is exposed at 1,108 feet from the surface in the late
Egerton Company's shaft, it having pitched down this distance from its
surface outcrop 1,200 feet or more to the south. It was met with in
workings from the Rose shaft at about 300 feet from the surface,, and
then worked up its pitch to its outcrop south. This Rose shaft was
ultimately taken to a depth of about 800 feet. A shaft, known as the
Sister Rose, .was subsequently sunk north of the Rose, to a depth of
about 950 feet. The floor with its quartz formations was cut in sinking
at about 600 feet from the surface, and works were extended north to it
from a level opened at 800 feet. In consequence of meeting with a
displacement a little below this level, due to one of a series of
breaks running north-east in the country and underlying at about a
right angle to the pitch of the floor carrying the quartz;, the
management got into trouble, and I was informed that nothing had been
done from the Sister Rose shaft to trace this floor of qnartz to
further depths on its pitch to the north. A new shaft was put down GOO
or 700 feet to the north and a little west of the line, at a point not
far from the first place opened on the Mount, known as the Quarry Shaft
works. This shaft is down 1,700 feet from the surface, and, as stated
above, the downward continuation of the floor with its quartz is said
to be identical with the floor met with in the works here at the
1,108-ft. level. I am of opinion that this floor is only one in a
series of such floors underlying to the north-west, other members of
which should be met with if
