This
report is a continuation of the series of special reports on the
"Victorian gold-fields, by Mr. Wm. Bradford, the object of which was
explained in the preface to Bulletin No. 2. This report deals
especially with the Stawell Gold-field, but it includes some account of
the mining area in the western Pyrenees.
The
purpose of these reports is threefold. They are a contribution to the
geological structure of the mining fields ; they give some account of
the mining at present in progress; and they are also educational. The
working miners have excellent opportunities for adding to our knowledge
of ore deposits ; but their observations are too often lost, because
they do not know how to interpret what they see. Hence this series of
reports is written in the language current amongst miners, and,
accordingly, some of the technical terms are not always used with the
meaning for which most geologists use them. It is hoped that Mr.
Bradford's suggestions as to the origin of our ore deposits will rouse
a wider interest in this problem amongst the men who have the best
chance of solving it. If so, they will strike a blow at the maxim—"
Where it is, there it is "—that fatalist creed which has had such a
baneful influence on Victorian mining.
J. W. GREGORY.
4th August, 1903.
