auriferous alluvial deposits in the world; the gold occurs in the tertiary alluvial deposits, and in conglomerates in the coal measures the precious metal has also been found in paying quantities. At Clough's Gully the conglome rate is being worked and yields from 1 to 15 pennyweights per ton, and nuggets of 5 ounces are occasionally found.

Queensland.-The colony of Queensland lies to the north of New South Wales. Here thirty-one hundred square miles of auriferous alluvial and quartz ground were worked upon in 1876. The gold-fields occur on both sides of the main dividing range which separates the eastern and western waters, and on the spurs of the range which forms the water-shed to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Charter's Towers fields are situated about the centre of the eastern portion of the colony. There are several small alluvial deposits, but the principal industry is that of gold-quartz mining.

In the Gympie district extensive quartz-mining is carried on, and some alluvial gold has been found in the Marengo gullies.

Gold quartz is mined in the Normanby region, but alluvial gold is sparsely distributed, the deposits not paying the cost of labor.

South Australia.—In South Australia gold is found in nearly every part of the colony, but the deposits are of very limited size. The bed of the river Torrens has yielded small quantities. The deposits of Barossa are said to resemble geologically and topographically Bendigo and other Victorian fields where the basaltic lava is absent. The principal deposit is probably of older pliocene age. The main lead in Spike's Gully shows a drift varying from twenty to a hundred feet in depth. In this drift, which consists of quartz pebbles, boulders, and ferruginous conglomerate, the gold is water worn. The topography of the country is favorable for the construction of reservoirs at small expense, and sluicing could be

introduced without difficulty. The Echunga fields were discovered in 1852, but gave employment to a small number of gravel-miners only. Cement-crushing has been carried on in this district, but with little success. The Ulooloo gold-field contains some auriferous deposits composed of clay, sand, and shingle, forming banks of from six to twenty feet along the Ulooloo Creek. Water, however, is here very scarce.

In the northern territory, which extends from the Stapleton to the Driffield rivers, the auriferous deposits have been explored for a distance of about one hundred miles in length by twenty miles in width. There are no drift deposits. The alluvial gold occurs in small gullies and ravines, and occasional rich pockets are found.

New Zealand.-Gold was discovered in New Zealand in 1842. The alluvial deposits occur chiefly in the South Island, in the districts of Otago, Westland, and Nelson, where mining operations are carried on over an area of almost twenty thousand square miles. The detritus is found in the beds of the rivers, in large deposits of gravel from three hundred to five hundred feet deep, and in the sands along the sea-shore. The gold-drifts in Otago rest on the denuded surface of the parent rock, while in the Westland district they lie on tertiary rocks of marine origin. Fully two-thirds of the gold returned from this country is obtained from alluvial mining. The extent to which work is carried on may be judged from the fact that the miners have constructed over five thousand miles of water-races, with attendant tail-races and dams, at a cost approximating £300,000; this is independent of the government water-races and dams, which have cost £450,000.

Ground-sluicing is practised, and in some instances hydraulic mining has been introduced with heads of water from eighty to one hundred feet. The government has a tunnel eleven feet by seven feet, five thousand seven hundred and forty-four feet long, in course of construction,

having already built the open Sludge-channel, eight miles long, at Naseby. Besides these several tunnels have been built by private individuals.

At Gabriel Gully, Tuapeka, where the grade is very light, the hydraulic elevator is said to be working succesfully; and in the river Clutha dredging machines are at work on the auriferous deposits. North of Charleston, on the coast-line, the beach sands which contain gold are worked by a colony of Shetlanders.

Extensive sluicing operations are carried on along the banks of the Molyneux, Kawarau, and Shotover rivers. At Tinkers and Drybread Diggings forty sluice-heads of water, with one hundred and thirty feet head, conducted through forty-five hundred feet of iron piping, are used to hydraulic the gravel. The depth of the deposits on the so-called Maori bottom approximates thirty feet. The resources of the province in auriferous drift are very great. Ulrich considers part of the old Clutha Lake basin where Bendigo Creek enters, and along the foot of the range upon which Bendigo reef occurs, as especially worthy of the attention of the drift-miner. Miller's Flat, between Arrow and Queenstown, a supposed old riverchannel, is also considered rich.

The Thames field, on the east side of the Hauraki Gulf, is a narrow strip of land twenty-five miles long and from two to four miles wide. The gold in this district is obtained chiefly from quartz reefs. In Tapu district gold is found in considerable quantities in the decomposed soil on the slopes of the hills. It is usually flaky and not at all

water-worn.

In Westland district the mines are classed as cement and alluvial workings. The cement is from one to six feet in thickness, and consists of quartz gravels which are found in connection with the coal series. The gold occurs in the lower portion of these beds. Alluvial workings are met with in all gullies cut in the auriferous series, but the gold is generally coarse. In the con

glomerate formation the gold is caught in the brown sandstone bottom over which the conglomerate lies.

In the glacial drifts extensive claims have been worked and large quantities of gold have been obtained. These deposits are interesting, inasmuch as they derive their gold, in all probability, from the slates of which the glacial drifts are composed.

The black-sand beaches are composed of crystals of magnetic iron ore, which are found disseminated through the chloritic schist. The gold which is associated with the sand is supposed to have been derived from the Maitai slates, brought down in immense quantities by glaciers. This district includes the gold-fields of Wakamarina, Queen Charlotte Sound, and Wairau valley.

Extensive sluicing is going on at present in Wakamarina district. The ground is spotted and the gold is distributed unevenly. The Queen Charlotte Sound field is a quartz-mining district. The Wairau valley is an alluvial deposit, and is a comparatively new district. Gold occurs in almost all the gullies on the north bank of the Wairau River. The gullies are all very narrow. of the claims have proved very rich.

Some

Canada.-In Canada gold is derived from the degradation of the upper Silurian and Devonian rocks. The Geological Commission, as early as 1852, determined the existence of auriferous alluvions extending over an area of more than ten thousand square miles. The principal deposits explored have been in the province of Quebec and in Nova Scotia. As notable may be mentioned the workings along the Chaudière River and its tributaries, the Du Loup and the Gilbert. Extensive deposits occur also to the southeast of the Notre Dame Mountains.

Small local deposits of high value have been worked, giving rise to great expectations, but as a whole the results have been unsatisfactory.

British Columbia.-In British Columbia gold was

discovered in 1858 on the Frazer River, above New Westminster, causing a great excitement and a “rush" of prospectors. San Francisco was nearly depopulated by the exodus, and it is estimated that one-sixth of the voters of California moved to the new placers. Gold was traced three hundred miles up the river to Cariboo. On the Peace River, two hundred and fifty miles still further north, gold was found. In 1872 discoveries in Cassiar district, eight hundred miles north of Victoria, caused the "Stickeen River rush." The Frazer River deposits were remunerative only to a limited extent and were soon worked out. In all the localities in this country the workings have been principally confined to shallow placers and river-bars, which are soon exhausted; but at Cariboo there are channels beneath the beds of the present water-courses. Shafts are sunk from the surface to the auriferous channels through a covering of clay and gravel. The bed of the ancient stream, when reached, is followed by drifts. While handsome returns have been occasionally made (in 1861 nearly a million of dollars were extracted), the expenses of working, there being much water to contend with, are so large that the operations have almost entirely ceased. In the more northerly districts the climate presents great obstacles and work can be carried on only during a few months of the year.

In Vancouver Island, in the Leech River district, gold has been found in a small area some twenty miles from Victoria.

Lock* estimates that from 1858 to 1880 (twenty-two and a half years) gold of the value of $45,140,889 has been extracted from (principally) the alluvions of British Columbia.

United States of America.-Outside of California (which will be treated in the following chapter), up to the present time, the alluvial deposits worked have been prin

*"Gold," p. 38.