A VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN GOLD FIELDS.
FROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER>
No. 2.
Having endeavoured in a former communication to give a general description of the Adelong,
above ground, we will now ascend the low range to the left of the mountain valley, and, crossing the great
reef at an elevation of about 400 feet, continue the ascent about fifty feet higher to the summit of the
range, which, expanding to the westward, falls with an irregular declivity to the creek at its base. On that
side, at least 1000 feet below the crest, the summit presents the appearance of an undulating patch of
table land, broken by masses of gneiss and granite, which intrude amidst a wreck of the silurian deposits,
altered, metamorphosed, or decomposed, in accordance with their constituents, and the varied degrees of
hydrous and igneous action to which they have been subject; those on the western side being for the most
part arenaceous, while those on the eastern slopes are of a more argillaceous character, both containing a
large proportion of carbonate of lime.
On the western descent the Victoria reef intersects the range longitudinally, and on the eastern slopes the
great reef, stretching north and south, pursues a similar direction. The distance between these two reefs is
about half a mile, and in the intervening space numerous small parallel veins or leaders of quartz have
been opened and prospected. The dip of these veins is slightly to the west -- they varied from three
to nine inches in width; all were found intersecting vertical strata of the clay slates, more or less
decomposed, and modified, -- and these in their turn are inverted by granitic masses, varying in their
character and constituents. Some of these veins are within 200 feet of the great main reef; all were proved
to contain gold, but none were found to be sufficiently auriferous to repay the cost of working by the
process now in use. These poor lodes will, therefore, continue in abeyance until science and experience,
going hand in hand, have done their work, and substituted mechanical power and chemistry for human
labour and ignorance.
In the Adelong range it appears probable that the detrital and sedimentary formations, resting upon a mass
of ancient igneous products, themselves of varied geological ages, have been upheaved, tilted, and
inverted by an intrusion of granite; which, disrupting, and in some degree' altering, the older products,
has separated the vertical schists at the planes of their stratification, filling up every fissure, and
enveloping many of the strata, while others have been forced upwards and have disappeared. A close
examination of this range will enable you to detect many strata of the schistose formations nearly vertical,
and in regular sequence with the granitic masses; in other spots fragments of the schists will be found
surrounding an ancient boss of distorted rock, which has been thrust upwards through them. That the
range has attained its present elevation by a succession of granitic upheavals and intrusions, occurring
after long periods of quiescence, is well exhibited at the north-eastern extremity of the great reef hill, where
three separate actions can be distinctly traced. Here blocks of granite weighing hundreds of tons are
exposed by denudation, resting upon others of a different age and character; some upheaved at an angle
of 45 degrees, with their lower ends imbedded in the supporting moss, appearing as if they had become
partially fused by the contact.
All the schistose rocks present an appearance of intense compression, and are moulded to the surface of
the granitic or porphyrytic walls, and altered according to the varied components of the slate; some are
deprived of a great portion of their silica and lime, and so much decomposed, that they will not
bear removal, but fall into fragments at the touch -- others are indurated and silicified. The altered
sandstones are seldom found at a greater depth than forty feet, while the lower edge of the argillaceous
schists has not been reached by the deepest shafts.
We will now return to the crown of the reef, where its course may be traced by the line of tents erected over
the shafts, extending about half a mile down the northern slope, and something more than a mile in
a southerly direction, across the eastern descents; there are various undulations in its course as it crosses
three or four slight spurs in the hill, caused by unequal accumulations prior to the latest granitic
irruption. The fissure in which the reef is formed, pursuing the line of least resistance, has followed the
course of a vertical stratum of argillaceous schist, having a slight dip to the westward at the surface, but,
chiefly owing to its having passed through a variety of igneous products of an ancient date, it becomes
more irregular as it descends. The reef, widest at the crown, gradually contracts as it approaches the base
of the hill on either side, until from a breadth of six feet it diminishes to three inches.
The surface reef was not exhibited in the gross for more than about three hundred feet from the crown
on the southern slope, with the exception of a few out-crops at long intervals; on the northern slope, it
did not exceed a hundred feet from the crest. The crown claims were exceedingly productive from the
surface, yielding in some instances fourteen ounces to the ton of quartz. The miners also obtained from
twelve to twenty ounces of gold to the load of fifty buckets from the debris of the reef by washing, and the
tailing from these washings, nearly given away, afterwards produced eleven ounces to the ton by
crushing. At a depth of forty or fifty feet, the colour of the quartz changed from a yellowish cast to a deep
blue; and, passing through the altered sandstones, it entered the true granites. Large quantities of mundic,
with metallic sulphurets and arsenites, now appeared; and the yield of gold, although still considerable,
became less abundant, the lode varying with the character and constituents of the granitic walls.
Occasional patches of pure white quartz were sometimes dis-covered on one wall and sometimes on the
other, and occasionally extending across the fissure to the depth of several feet; in these, the mundic and
metallic sulphurets nearly disappeared and the lode became barren, until, the walls altering, the quartz
again became a greyish blue, mundic and the sulphurets reappeared, and with them the reef resumed its
auriferous character, varying, however, at every foot with the modification of the slates.
As the shafts went down the yield rather diminished, until at a depth of from 130 to 100 feet the lode in
those claims that had been most productive in their yield of gold exhibited a tendency to become white, the
metallic sulphurets decreased, and gold ceased to be obtained in payable quantities. The lode may again
become rich or poor, according to the description of granite and slate forming the investing rock, or the
walls of the fissure ; but it is probable that it will eventually run into pure white silica, devoid of sulphurets,
and, as far as metals are concerned, unproductive.
About a quarter of a mile from the crown of the range, on the outside, the surface-rock undergoes
a change, and the granites below are of a different description, being either darker and of a finer grain,
or coarse flesh-coloured. Here for the next 500 yards, although a little surface quartz was obtained
that paid for crushing, it soon ran out, and at a depth, varying from 80 to 175 feet, to which
numerous shafts have been sunk, the reef has not been discovered. Small veins of auriferous quartz, from
two to four inches in width, constantly present themselves, traversing the slate. It is possible that the
miners are not here sinking on the true reef, but through a neighbouring parallel stratum of slate, separated
by a thin block of intrusive granite. Proceeding downwards for the succeeding 800 yards, the granites
again change; and the reef resumes its character, but at a diminished width. The claims beyond this patch
extend for nearly half a mile further; and here the formation again alters, and although a line of shafts have
been sunk to depths varying from 180 to 60 feet, a payable reef has not been yet struck.
On the north side of the crown the highest claims have been amongst the most valuable on the reef, but as
they descend the hill they become less productive, and the width of the lode rapidly decreases until
it approaches the base, where there is a decided change in the slates and granites. The last fourteen
or fifteen claims, although the shafts have reached a depth of from 60 to 130 feet, have not yet
bottomed upon a reef.
Of about eighty companies working or claiming upon this lode, twenty-one have done well, and
many individuals have retired with an independence; twenty have not cleared their expenditure,
exclusive of the loss of their labour, and thirty-nine have obtained nothing. None of these companies
have been at work less than fifteen months, and many have been sinking without cessation since June,
1857.
In very many of the shafts and drives the works are carried on night and day; when the reef was
first opened the labour was performed chiefly by the associated proprietors, with the assistance of
hired men, the wages being at the rate of £4 per week. The claimholders subsequently found it to their
interest to carry on their operations by means of half shares, one-half of the net proceeds being
appropriated to the owners of the claim, and the remaining half equally divided between the men employed,
who themselves form working companies. This system has operated beneficially for the working men and
the proprietors, but to the prejudice of the storekeepers and other tradesmen, who find it necessary in
consequence to give an extended credit, and are occasionally subjected to heavy losses.
The produce of the great reef up to the present date at a rough estimate has been calculated at
about twelve thousand tons of auriferous quartz, which, at an average of five ounces per ton, gives sixty
thousand ounces of gold, amounting in value at £3 12s. 6d. per ounce to £217,500. Of this a large
proportion has reached Sydney by escort and private hands. Much has passed into Victoria, and no
inconsiderable amount is still retained in the locality.
Many of the best claims have changed hands, and £3000 has been refused for thirty feet on the reef,
from which gold to the value of several thousand pounds sterling had been already obtained.
It is remarkable that in quartz yielding from seven to 8 ounces to the ton, the gold is often
barely perceptible, and in much that produces as high as five ounces, it cannot be observed even by the
aid of a powerful lens.
We will now proceed to the claims. The first on the crown of the reef is at present the property of Baker
and Company. The depth of their double shaft is 180 feet. The upper portion of the lode was from three to
four feet in width, and at the bottom of the shaft it has increased to five feet. This claim was rich from
the surface, and in going down the first thirty feet a large quantity of gold was procured from the
decomposed quartz and sulphurets in and near the reef, averaging fourteen ounces to the fifty buckets. To
the depth of fifty feet, the walls were found to consist of a porphyritic sandstone intersected by joints filled
with argillaceous matter. In passing through this formation the quartz had a yellow tinge, with traces
of chlorides and sulphur; it was associated with fragments of silicified schist, and the reef was enclosed
in a casing of argillaceous slate, varying in thickness from two to eighteen inches, sometimes soft
and friable, at others indurated, silicified, and intimately blended with the walls. In such conditions it
contained iron pyrites and other metallic combinations, chiefly sulphurets of arsenic and antimony.
Evidences of intense compression were also frequent, by which it had been reduced to minute fragments,
which were subsequently re-cemented by the silica by which it was invested. At the depth of sixty feet
the altered rocks were found reposing upon a flesh coloured granite, becoming grey and then blue as they
descended. The yield of gold became somewhat less abundant, the quartz assumed a bluer shade
approaching that of granite, the schists here and there disappeared from the walls and were found
shattered in the body of the lode, occasionally mingled with fragments of granite, and in the interstices of
these blended masses were accumulations of metallic sulphurets and gold, which were probably
deposited by vapourised metals and minerals which, rising with the gasses, evolved from the depths of the
fissure to a , temperature which, although high enough to enable them to act upon the adjacent granitic
masses and fuse a portion of the silica, was sufficiently loose to permit them to form combinations, in
accordance with their respective affinities, upon the walls or other surfaces.
It is not uncommon to find the greatest proportion of sulphurets, oxides, and reduced metals in a
lode attached to or blended with the casing, and it is possible that the semifused masses of granite and
slates found within a quartz reef have been detached from the walls of the fissure by the exuding silica. The
quartz in the great reef exhibits an appearance of ha vin g been formed by a succession of layers or
strata parallel to the walls, and the inner edge of each layer is more or less distinctly defined by a line of
fragments of either slate or granite-the latter having been in a state of partial fusion. At other places this line
may be traced by a vein of metallic sulphurets, particles of gold, silicates, and earthy oxides, produced
by decomposition.
It would appear here that the vapourised minerals and gasses percolating the granities had set
certain chemical agents at liberty, which, uniting with the vapours and sublimations floating in, the
fissure, caused a deposit or precipitate of one class of metallic and mineral combinations, while it repelled
others. These combinations would vary with the components of the various rocks forming the walls. Certain
elements will continue in a state of vapour at a temperature in which others will consolidate, and it is
probable that silica, by the aid of the solvents by which it is ever surrounded, may be one of these. From its
universal diffusion at the greatest known depths, it will continue to sublimate long after others known to be
less abundant have ceased. A series of similar actions would produce like results until the filling of
the fissure was complete, and the supply of oxygen necessary to produce combustion is cut off or
interrupted.
That the constituents of the walls have much influence upon the metals and sulphurets to be found in the
quartz lodes is evident from the fact of its frequently having been discovered that, while the quartz resting
against one is rich in metals, that against the other is pure, and nearly barren. The quartz filling deep
fissures will be found to vary with each successive change of the investing rock, and small veins and
leaders will often be discovered to be metaliferous when the main reef is unproductive. This has probably
arisen from the varied formation of the rocks through which the minor fissures have been formed, and
through which the vapours and gases have percolated.
Gold can be rendered soluble and volatilized by the agency of sulphur, borox and potash, or soda,
all volcanic products, and the two latter important constituents of granite. It can be again precipitated, and
reduced by a proto-sulphate of iron, supplied by iron pyrites, a constant accompaniment of gold in
the matrix. Much of the gold in the quartz procured from the Adelong reef appears in the form of a
yellow powder, intermixed with sulphurets on the quartz, and in this precise form it would be precipitated
from a solution.
Cross sections of a few of the quartz lodes or reefs, with their investing rocks, selected from some of
the varied metalliferous districts in New South Wales, carefully described as they descended foot by
foot, with an analysis of the formations passed through in the descent, would be of great value to the
mining interest. There have been many theories and speculations propounded, based upon no sufficient
data, but such a work has not been yet attempted. If a granite pebble could write its history, what man's life
would suffice to enable him to read-to follow it in its varied migrations during the lapse of a thousand
ages through the incandescent fires of the new born earth, the ocean's depths, and the wreck of
continents?
We will now return to Baker and Company's claim in which we had reached a depth of sixty feet. We
had entered the granites and found them sometimes lined with a soft olive coloured slate; at other times
with an indurated black slate, and again reached spots where that formation had disappeared entirely
from the walls and was only present in the body of the reef, and portions of the granite, were found to be
soft and partially decomposed. Here the mundic made its appearance in large masses, presenting a very
beautiful variety of metallic crystals, before it became tarnished by exposure to the atmosphere.
This mundic is of three varieties -- the first, copperish red, consisting of nickel, iron, copper, lead arsenic,
sulphur, and cobalt; the second of a lighter shade, a compound of nickel, iron, antimony, and sulphuret of
lead; and the third a silver white, a combination of nickel, iron, cobalt, and arsenic, the latter constituting
three-fourths of the whole; for 120 feet, through various shades of granite, at one time soft, at another hard,
with occasional patches of pure white quartz adhering to one or other of the walls, the reef continued with
varied degrees of rich- ness, until at a depth of 180 feet it exhibits a tendency to become white, contains
less metallic sulphurets, and is less productive of gold.
About 600 tons of quartz, the produce of this claim, has been crushed, the average produce being about
seven ounces per ton there are about 250 tons at present, partly at the crushing machine and partly piled
at the mouth of the shaft, which are expected to maintain the previous average.
The next claim in succession to the southward is thirty feet on the reef, the property of Mr. T. Shannon this
has been considered to be the richest and most valuable on the lode; from the surface to the point where
it entered the true granites it has proved very productive, yielding in some instances thirteen ounces to the
ton, and gold was obtained from the debris to the extent of twenty ounces to the load ; the slates have been
discovered to be removed to a considerable extent from the walls of this part of the reef, and as it
descended the fissure became gradually wider, until it has now attained the width of about seven feet, and
the quartz extends from wall to wall. The general character of the lode here is the same as previously
described, and at a depth of 185 feet the sulphurets have partially disappeared, and the quartz has
changed, becoming white and less auriferous. About 6OO tons of quartz from this claim have been already
crushed, producing an average of eight ounces to the ton, and it is said that gold to the value of £18,000
has been already secured. There is now be- tween 650 and 700 tons of auriferous quartz piled upon the
claim, estimated to yield seven ounces to the ton. This claim is amongst the best worked on the reef, and a
horse whim transfers much of the labour from the biped to the quadruped.
We now proceed, to the next thirty feet on reef worked and claimed by Mr. William Williams this claim
resembles its neighbour both in the richness of the lode and the large quantity of gold found in the debris.
About 700 tons have been crushed, the average produce of which was about seven ounces The slates are
here more abundant; the width of the reef ranging from four to nine feet; at a depth of 120 feet the white
quartz is making its appearance and reducing the profits of the proprietor, which he contrives to diminish
still further by roasting his quartz and sublimating his gold; this gentleman is the owner of a crushing
machine in the neighbouring valley
We next reach the claim of Messrs Fallon and Bunn who, to their original grant of eighteen feet on the reef,
have lately added ten feet, at a cost of £360, purchased from Mr. Bullock, who retains his property in 80
tons of quartz at the mouth of the shaft; it is anticipated that this lot of quartz will produce about five ounces
per ton; the united claims have already yielded about 600 tons of auriferous stone, the average of which
has been about six ounces per ton. The slates are still present; the character of the lode is the same, and
at the depth of 130 feet it maintains a width of nearly three feet. The hill here falls with a sharp descent of a
few feet, and we reach the claim of Messrs Cowan and Co. 53 feet, purchased recently from Messrs. Vicq
and Co., for the sum of £2400. The new proprietors have about fifty tons of quartz raised, expected to yield
seven ounces per ton; the former owners crushed about 600 tons, averaging seven ounces. The reef here
contracts, but at a depth of 140 feet still maintains its colour-mundic in abundance -- and is auriferous
character. The quartz raised from this claim displays a more decided appearance of consecutive vertical
deposits, or consolidations, than that higher on the reef; the mundic and silica being exhibited in alternate
layers, through large blocks.
The following claim is that of Mr. Hood 20 feet who not long since purchased 10 feet on the reef being his
late partner's interest in thee claim, for £600. About 230 tons of quartz have been raised from this claim, the
yield of which was about 51/2 ounces per ton. Although the reef is here comparatively narrow, at a depth of
13 feet it is still productive.
We aro now at the claim of Messrs. Iredale and Company, 20 feet, by purchase from Lind and party, at the
cost of £1000. There are about thirty tons of quartz at the mouth of the shaft and prior to the sale the late
proprietors raised 157 tons of quartz which, on crushing, produced 830 ounces of gold. Satisfied with their
gain, these men -- Norwegians -- have gone to Melbourne, with the intention of returning to their native
land. In this claim, at a depth of 135 feet, the reef, although narrow still presents a promising aspect.
As there are fifty claims still lower down, some of which require a particular notice, I will conclude
by correcting an omission in my last, describing Adelong on the surface. I omitted to state that the
Reverend Mr. Fox, a clergyman belonging to the Church of England, and the Reverend Mr. Fitzgerald, of
the Scotch Church, both stationed at the Tumut, frequently perform divine service at the Adelong. A Roman
Catholic clergyman has also visited the locality twice within the last six months, so that there is not that
spiritual destitution in the district that I was led to believe. I have to repeat, however, that there are no
schools.