South
from the Fentiman's, and to the west of this line of formations, is
situated the Golden Bell Consolidated mine. This is an English company,
with Mr. W. Baxter in charge. He has the main shaft sunk to a depth of
450 feet. The channel of fracture passes down between arches of the
corrugated rock layers somewhat as in Fig. 18.
This
line of lode is associated with a great width of gold-slate drains. The
shallow portions of its " makes " of quartz are said to have been very
rich in gold. Old works are to be seen along the line, in the vicinity
of the present shaft, from which the richest gold-bearing ore has been
mined. The present company was formed to test the lower portions of
this channel, and, at the time of my visit, cross-cutting was in
progress from the bottom of the shaft in search of the formation. As
far as I could see, the rich occurrence met with near the surface
occupied a slope in the fracture, where it curved from a westerly "
underlay " round to an easterly "underlay." This position, being more
nearly horizontal than the channel below it, offered great facility for
deposition. Hence the richness near the surface. The main shaft is down
450 feet. I could hear nothing concerning the pitch of the line of
favoured situations as met with near the surface. All prospecting
companies ought to learn as much as possible about these features as
near to the surface as old works allow. A little mill for sampling
purposes is required here.
I
have been through the field and its mines, and must now sum up. The
great mass of the sedimentary rock layers of the Maldon gold-field
appears to have been corrugated in a very uniform manner. These layers
are composed of mud and sand material, and, by some means or other,
they became permeated with iron, lead, zinc, bismuth, gold, and other
minerals, all more or less associated with sulphur. The original
thickness of this sedimentary formation may have been about 3 miles. If
so, fully three-fourths of it has been removed by the wear of ages. The
greater part of this thickness must have had a very high temperature
for a long period of time. Below this region the dry heat forced up
innumerable jets of molten material from the granite through fractures
in the corrugated mantle of sedimentary rocks above it. Hence the
occurrence of dyke material all through the field. The watery fluids in
the mineral-soaked layers of country gravitated towards and into the
lines of least resistance to the force of gravity. These were down the
lines of fractures throughout the sedimentary formations, and were
created as their corrugation was in progress. These fractures received
the fluids from
