passage through its detritus deposit formed at their bottoms and in the upper part of Wakamarina through the bed rock wearing it to a depth of in some places many hundred feet.

Concerning the geological character of the country its contents principally :-

1. Of the "Schistose" and "Quartzose" formation; of the clay, slate, and sandstone formation intersected by quartz veins belonging to the "Lower Silurian" or "Cambrian" series of rocks, contorted, cleaved, and dipping at very small angles, the cleavage in some instances being nearly horizontal,

2. Of the "Auriferous drifts" subsided into pliocene and miocene, all of "Tertiary formation," consisting of sand, clay, and gravel.

The fact that gold is found in payable quantities in the bed of creeks and river and in their banks is due to a very simple cause, the continual action of water, which is disintegrating, reducing, and collecting, dispose the remains of insoluble matter in the order of their respective gravity and according to the direction and effects of the currents. It is on that principle that all the gold which is generally so far scattered is collected in the shape of "veins" or "deposits" as it is vulgarly termed, "runs" or "patches."

Then it is easy to conceive how the streams are working their respective drifts when you compare to them, on a large scale, the practical working of the ground-sluicing operations.

The capabilities of the district as a payable goldfield have already been proved by the escort returns, but not to an extent to indicate anything more than that the present watercourses are all more or less auriferous and their workings remunerative. My experience, but not to an extent to indicate anything more that that the present watercourses are all more or less leads me to the conclusion that there is room here for a mining population two or three times larger than the present one.

Very little has been done in terrace working yet, and tunnelling as well as sluicing prosecuted on a proper scale has never been attempted.

Timber being at hand so plentiful, these will prove most remunerative workings, and the terraces will without doubt be worked at a cheaper rate than in Otago.

I believe that good payable deep sinking will also be struck towards Canvas town, on the flat between the Wakamarina and the Pelorus.

I doubt not for a moment the existence of a vast deposit of auriferous drift buried beneath the plain further down than that point, and that in course of time a lead probably wet and deep will be traced therein. This district is yet a new one for the intelligent miner. It requires only to be prospected in a proper and skilful manner, which has never been done yet.

Above Deep Creek, the auriferous nature of the country is well defined, and its bearing extends more to the southern side of the river than to the northern.

All tributaries of the Wakamarina on the terrace side are more or less auriferous, while the colour of the metal can be found on the tributaries of the opposite side.

From a careful examination of the country I am strongly inclined to believe that there will be "leads" of a certain extent struck and remunerative to worked, there is some old creeks or river beds entirely filled up by lake detritus.

After having considered the various physical features of this auriferous district, it will be essential that the estimate of the degree of activity prevailing or which ought to prevail in the different fields open to mining operations be next entertained. In fact, it is upon these physical features, that depends in great measure the kind of mining most generally adopted here, as well as the atmospheric conditions which generally influence favourably or otherwise the "rate" of production ; that subject will be my next theme.

Signed,

THEOPHILUS MABILLE,
Government Mining Surveyor
for the Pelorus Goldfields.

Deep Creek, November 1, 1864.

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