the
foot-wall side, the silver proportion being greater in the hanging-wall
stone. In wing veins the gold is said to be purer, thus making it
appear that
only
in main channels does the silver show in quantities. 1 could not
observe any difference in the appearance of the slate layers to account
for the difference in the purity of the gold, though some minor
situations on a lode contained gold valued at about £4 per oz., and
other situations in a lode of the same group contained gold of value as
low as 10s. per ox. There are several cross lodes passing through the
West Queensland area intersecting the more nearly north-and-south
lines. They are worthy of more attention than has been bestowed on
them, and the West Queensland proprietary might reasonably sink a main
shaft a little south from the present workings, on the formation now
being worked by tributers near the surface.
East
of this area, the Queeuslander Company owns a large area, and has a
shaft down 200 feet, operating on a large cross lode ; and I noted that
the manager, Mr. IT. Mcliostie, who has charge also of the company's
ten-head mill, situated near by, is driving along its line to the point
where a wide belt of gold-slate cuts into it. A great amount of surface
work has been done on the formations of the locality and many rich
patches have been located, but nothing noted as to the relation the
surface outcrops bear to the system of favoured points on this main
line of drainage. The cross lode, it is said, has yielded, from above
the lOO-ft. level, about 4,000 tons, averaging 7 dwts., at £3 17s. 6d.
per oz. The features here and the past yields warrant sinking a main
shaft much below any present workings.
To the north again we find the remains
of a mine known as the Comstock, where is to be seen a battery-sand
heap of some 200,000 tons, most of which came from outside prospectors.
There is a big shaft down to 300 feet. The value of the bullion
obtained was as low as 7s. per oz. A well-defined cross lode intersects
the main line, and rich patches have been obtained at the junction.
This
is another of the instances in which valuable deposits of gold have
been met with at the point of intersection of the gold-slate layers (so
called " indicators ") with the wide and the narrow channels in slate
known as cross lodes. A Mr. Alfred Jeffrey has erected a little mill on
the area, and hopes to be able, before long, to add a small steam
plant, that he may test the formations at greater depths. The gold here
varies, as stated, from 7s. to £4 per oz., and the purest is said to
have been taken from the cross lode at its junction with the eastern
lodes of a group in shite running to the northwest. As at the West
Queensland, the group opened has three lines, one of which is very
wide; and between this wide formation and the eastern one, is the lode
which contains the most silver—the main channel evidently of the
group—known as " the silver lode." The group occupies the eastern slope
of an arch, as at the West Queensland (also on the same system, no
doubt), and this is another point worthy of attention.
As
showing the fineness of the gold in this silver lode, I was informed by
Mr. Taylor, a shift boss in the Lord Nelson mine, that he had crushed
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