"out of a face;"
the surface has been rooted up by the Celestials from one extremity to the other, but the water has seldom permitted them to get more than three or four feet in depth, and far below that the golden deposits will be found on the north side, from Spring Creek to a point nearly opposite Galeanti's stores; some of this ground may have been worked, but enough remains to pay for turning over the whole, provided always that the under-current can be subdued. The banks have produced payable gold for a few yards into the point, when the rock rises, and beyond this the surface has been found rich until it reaches an elevation of 180 feet, about 500 yards back from the river; a large water wheel and a small tram-road, now idle, are indications of the extensive works formerly carried on. At present a party of Chinese are at work on the bar, and about twenty European miners find employment on the banks and in cutting away old pillars -- all can make wages when the frequent floods admit of their working. The banks on either side are sprinkled with tents and huts, each in its cultivated enclosure, where corn, potatoes, and pumpkins may be seen in great perfection. The frequent thunder showers this season have driven the diggers so often from their claims, that they have had ample time to devote to garden culture. Below the Sheep-station, Bathurst Point, on the south bank, comes next in rotation. Here the river narrows and pursues its course for two miles along the base of steep ranges on the north bank. The bed of the stream was formerly rich, and tents three deep, interspersed with public-houses and stores, extended along the south side. Of the busy thousands that thronged the margin of this part of the river, no other trace is to be found than deserted shafts and cuttings, nearly hidden by rank weeds and monstrous thistles, with an occasional hut that once did duty as a tavern or store, in the last stage of dilapidation and decay. Here and there a pair of Chinamen may be observed at their favourite occupation -- washing the drift. The descents from the southern table land as they approach the river are long and regular -- trappean dykes form many rounded knolls and parallel ridges, with intervening depressions and gullies, nearly all of which are untried. Gold can be obtained universally, in small quantities, from the surface, and it is probable that the trenches and water courses at the foot of the mountains would repay the labours of the prospector. An Irish party, of six, have been ensconced amongst the southern ranges for some time. They occasionally put in an appearance when they are in want of supplies, but their whereabouts is a mystery which the most curious have been unable to unfold. These descending ranges are crossed in a S.E. direction by many fine quartz reefs, and it is possible that, by following up one of these, their El Dorado might be discovered, in some of the hills, creeks, or gullies, falling from it. Crossing the ridges and entering a gorge between the mountains, I found that the ranges here have a general north and south direction, the formation presents no new feature, except that the clay-slate is coarser, and the seams of quartz less frequent, but when they do occur they are much larger, with occasional masses, from which leaders branch off; as I advanced into the deep wooded recesses, all traces of the digger were left far behind, the mountains became higher and more broken, and assumed the most fantastic shapes, tremendous masses of rock towering upwards, pierced the blue vault of heaven, and threw a perpetual shadow over the gloomy chasm at their base, where black and noxious weeds hid the trickling stream stealing along until it collects its clear waters in a little rocky basin from which it leaps headlong over a slippery ledge into an abyss from whence it soon emerges, and is to be seen winding through the narrow flats and round the green slopes far below, like a silver thread glistening in the sunshine, half an hour's rain would convert this gentle stream into a roaring torrent undermining rocks, and uprooting and driving before it gigantic trees to be hurled over the falls and dashed into a thousand splinters. As it was, no sound broke the frightful solitude -- not a zepyhr was abroad to disturb a single leaf; the stately gums drooped under the fierce rays of a noontide sun that licked up every particle of moisture; the birds hid themselves in the undergrowth of the forest and were silent, and the stillness of death reigned everywhere. The sound of my own footfall seemed painful, and I could proceed no further. Retracing my steps, I made the best of my way out of this glen of horrors, and was not relieved from the sombre feelings by which I was oppressed until the distant tinkle of horse bells aroused me to a consciousness of having again reached the abode of man. Making the best of my way back to the Turon, followed it down to the spot where low but steep schistose ridges impede its westerly course, and turn it again to the northward, forming Patterson's Point. This point once formed part of a lofty-clay slate range, long since swept away by the waters from the eastward, and the mountains now rising precipitously in the rear, present many evidences that the river once flowed round their rocky base, and over what now forms a plateau, elevated 180 feet above the present channel. The surface and detritus here are much the same as on the auriferous summits of an equal elevation as far back as Ration Hill, with the exception that the water-worn boulders are larger and more numerous, while the gravel is less in quantity, indicating the vicinity of ancient-falls or rapids. On the summit of the plateau good surfacing has been and is still found, and the steep banks have been very productive, and now yield a fair return for the labour expended upon them. Under the shelter of the point a large bar has been formed; it has been frequently worked, and is still a favourite spot with the Celestials. A portion of the river bed was formerly in the hands of the Messrs. Eaton, who spared no expense in their operations. The ground was irregular and patchy, and under some of the rocks large deposits of gold were found; but as a whole it did not repay the outlay, this is another proof that falls once existed near the bend of the river. The remains of a large quartz reef, crossing the stream in an oblique direction to Patterson's Point, has been denuded, but is now covered by refuse from shafts and tunnels; it is possible that it formed the last obstruction to the stream, and somewhere in its neighbourhood the richest and deepest bed claims will be discovered. Patterson's Point boasts of two stores, and the wreck of two public-houses, with a few European families and a small encampment of Chinese. The settlement has nothing attractive in its appearance. There are one or two puddling machines on the margin of the river, and the inhabitants are much disheartened by the frequent small floods which have so often driven them from their claims during the last season. The geological features of the country now undergo a change. Trappean dykes disappear, and are re- placed by quartziferous schists, similar in formation and character to those to be found on the Upper Turon. The ranges on the north bank now recede for a considerable distance, and, again returning, stretch away far to the southward in the direction of the Bathurst Plains. The river follows the base of these mountains, and making a detour of several miles returns with them, approaching to within 300 or 400 yards of Patterson's Point, thus forming an immense peninsula. Here it has forced a passage through a mountain of clayslate, a vertical section of which, at least 500 feet in height, stands on the south side, is of a pyramidical shape, and a commanding feature in the wild and savage scenery with which it is surrounded; while, on the north bank nothing remains of this mountain but its base, the inferior portion of which is covered with water-worn boulders and red and yellow gravel to the depth of from eight to twenty feet. The river now, as if unable to contend with the mighty obstacles that impede its progress, flows back towards its source for about a mile, when again repelled by the towering bluffs and precipices to the eastward, and reinforced by the waters of the Crudine, it makes a sharp turn, has cut away the opposite side of the pyramid, and forcing a passage through the lofty schistose ranges, annihilating mountains in its course, pursues its journey towards the setting sun. The river here, in a course of five or six miles, does not advance more than a few hundred yards to the westward; and in forcing its way for that distance, has destroyed the greater part of a mountain range. The section of the clayslate pyramid presents unmistakeable evidence of the action of running water on its smooth precipitous sides, some hundreds of feet above the bed of the river; and it is equally certain that the low flat-topped ridges, forming the Peninsula between Patterson and New Zealand Points are the base of a range which, at a remote date, formed a barrier to the waters from the upper country, and must have raised the bed of the river 200 feet. At that elevation it would have flowed over Ration Hill and all the auriferous plateaus between that locality and Patterson Point: the character of the detritus resting upon the schistose bed rock forming these plateaus is conclusive of the fact, a surface consisting of red trappean loam and gravel brought down from the table lands (since the removal of the mountain barrier), resting upon a substrata of gravel and water worn boulders, varying in depth from 10 to 40 feet. As the barrier said before the action of successive floods, the bed of the stream sank also, making its way to the base of the northern ranges, and thus by slow gradations acquired its present level. It is possible that during the existence of this barrier range the river took a more southerly course through the mountains, and that large alluvial deposits of gold now lie buried in its ancient channel in the valleys covered by landslips and debris from the high lands. This is a dry un- interesting subject to the general reader, but it is one of primary importance to the gold prospector, as in the ancient and obliterated channels of auriferous streams the heaviest deposits have been found. This has been the case in Russia, California, Victoria, and all gold-producing countries, of which numerous instances might be quoted. A study of this subject would possibly be the means of discovering new leads of gold on the southern bank of the Turon from the gulf to New Zealand Point or the Little Wallabys. These leads would vary in richness according to the length of time the river followed the channel discovered, and would seldom exceed its present width. A little consideration will convince the miner that prospecting is not so much a matter of chance as he now imagines. There are certain natural laws and indications which he should become con- versant with, and thus save himself much unprofitable labour. I have known good workmen who understood so little of the science of their occupation, that they would throw up their hat and put down a hole where it fell, and then in the event of its proving a shicer abandon ground that has at a subsequent date proved to be a mine of wealth. As an instance of this, a young man of my acquaintance, on the first rush after the discovery of gold in the colony, got possession of what afterwards proved to be one of the best claims on Sheep Station Point; he scratched about for a time, and could not make the price of his rations; he then hired a man, who knew no more than himself, to sink a hole, with like success, and soon afterwards abandoned it, which he had no sooner done than three others occupied the same ground, and a short six weeks served to enable them to leave the diggings each in possession of the groundwork of a fortune.