Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

W. B. Clarke papers and notebooks, 1827-1951
MLMSS 139/55

[Page 1]
E.H. Hargraves
his letters to
Mr. Northwood
1851
with one from Mr. S W Rudder
to this same

Darlinghurst 1861 Feby 14th

To the Rev.d W.B. Clarke

Sir some years ago Mr. Thomas Gren applied to me on your behalf requesting I would supply you with such information as I possessed respecting Mr. Hargraves connection with me. Relating to the Search for Gold, I furnished him with some letters I received from Mr. Hargraves saying you might make such use of them as you might wish. I have now received a similar application from Mr. Rudder of Port McQuarrie (whom I think was not well treated respecting that matter) I should like to have a copy of the letters which I did not preserve and shall feel obliged if you can furnish me with one. I then will send Mr. Rudder a duplicate, I forward his application for your perusal and [indecipherable] yours [indecipherable] Mr. Northwood

[Page 2]
Summer Hill Creek
Ophir July 5 1851

Sir
You should have heard from me before could I have written with any prudence had you been possessed of all that could have told you it might have militated against your interest in as much as you & Mr. Hargraves would probably have had a misunderstanding & thereby have prevented your sharing in that benefit you anticipated through his [indecipherable] with the Government. As follows are the facts which have come to my knowledge – When Mr. Hargraves came into this County in quest of gold he did not know where to go although he felt confident he was in a country possessing all the features of a gold region. He was therefore at his own request taken by Mr I Lister & Mr. Fern to Lewis Ponds Creek where they knew gold to be found every thing was arranged with the greatest of caution & secrecy & these Gentlm. set to work with a Parker on their own account Mr. Hargraves holding out to them certain instruments & has himself to receive a portion of this profit. You were never known to these Gentlm. neither was your name ever mentioned to them

[Page 3]
until I did so one day fully supposing they knew all about your arrangement with Mr. Hargraves & was much surprised to find Mr. Lister never knew anything about it but supposed Mr. Hargraves to be a man of influence & property & was engaged solely on his own account. This representation to you & others that he had so many men at work was altogether a fiction. It came out first in the Bathurst Free Press & gave great offence. Mr. Wm Tom called him to a strict account for it and so did W Lister. The Messrs. Toms are very highly respectable settlers in this neighbourhood & felt very greatly annoyed with Mr. Hargraves that he should have in any way represented them as his servants in working for him. The fact is you never had any interest whatever here as far as I could ever learn. My coming up took Mr. Hargraves much by surprise & in a day or two after instead of doing as I advised him (going at once by way of Mr. Seely to Sydney) he went to Bathurst & made every thing public & thereby caused such a rush as overwhelmed his friends & took the Government by surprise). Instead of keeping all quiet & going with me as a friend to the ground he took a large company & made all as notorious as possible thereby doing all of us who had assisted him a most serious injury. You were to have secured half of the £500 to be paid.

[Page 4]
by the Government now had you known all I have told you before & had come to a rupture with Mr. Hargraves in consequence. The probability is you would have said or done something which would have so injured him in the estimation of the Authorities as would have prevented his attaining what he has done & your gaining anything whatever by the discovery – I think therefore I consulted your real interest best by allowing things to take their own course without any interference on my part. I do not think Mr. Hargraves has acted with good faith or generosity to any of us who forwarded his interests or depended in any degree upon his promoting own interests them. He has succeeded on his own account & all agree that the Country is indebted to him for showing them the people how to get the Gold, but Messrs. Lister & Tom consider themselves as the persons who enabled him to do so by showing him where to procure it. Purchasing gold is & has been a very profitable business & I am rather surprised you did not come or send up but presuming you would know from Hargraves all such matters as did not immediately clash with his interests which that could not I concluded he would at least serve you where he could if he has not done so I much regret it as he certainly had it in his power to do you a considerable service by giving you much valuable information.

[Page 5]
Mr. Hargraves suppressed three communications of mine & would probably have got one written by me to you in the same way if he thought it would have been at all to his prejudice. What I have now communicated must be deemed as confidential as I do not wish to be implicated in any disputes. With best wishes, I remain, Sir, yours [indecipherable]
G.W. Rudder

To Mr. J. Northwood
Agent, Market Street, Sydney.

[Page 6]
Summer Hill Creek
Ophir, July 5th
1831

Sir
You should have heard from me before could I have written with any prudence had you been possessed of all I had I could have told you it might have militated against your interest in as much as you and Mr. Hargraves would probably have had a misunderstanding and thereby have prevented your sharing in that benefit you anticipated through his success with the Government. As follows are the facts which have come to my knowledge. It seems Mr. Hargraves came into this country in quest of gold. He did not know where to go although he felt confident he was in a country possessing all the features of a gold Region. He was therefore at his own request taken by Mr. T. Lister and Mr. Tom to Lewis Point Creek where they knew Gold to be found every thing was managed with the greatest caution and secrecy and these gentlemen set to work with a Hocker on their own account, Mr. Hargraves holding out to them certain inducements and he himself to receive a portion of the profits. You were never known to the gentlemen neither was your name ever mentioned to them until I did so one day fully supposing they knew all about your arrangement with Mr. Hargraves and was much surprised to find Mr. Lister never knew anything about it but supposed Mr. Hargraves to be a man of influence and property and was

[Page 7]
engaged solely on his own account. This representation to you and others that he had so many men at work was altogether a fiction. It came out first in the Bathurst Free Post and gave great offence. Mr. Wm. Tom called him to a strict account for as did Mr. Lister. The Messrs. Toms are very highly respectable settlers in this neighbourhood and felt very greatly annoyed with Mr. Hargraves that he should have in any way represented them as his servants in working for him. The fact is you never had any interest whatever here as far as I could ever learn. My coming up took much Mr. Hargraves much by surprise and in a day or two after instead of doing as I advised him (going at once by way of Mr. Seely to Sydney) he went to Bathurst and made every thing public and thereby caused such a rush as overwhelmed his friends and took the Government by surprise. Instead of keeping all quiet and going with me as a friend to the ground he took a large company and made all as notorious as possible thereby doing all of us who had assisted him a most serious injury. You were to have received the half of the £500 to be paid by the Government now had you known all that I have told you before and had come to a rupture with Mr. Hargraves in consequence the probability is you would have said or done something which would have so injured him in the estimation of the Authorities as would have prevented him attaining what he has done and you gaining anything whatever

[Page 8]
by the discovery – I think therefore I consulted your real interest best by allowing things to take their own course without any interference or support. I do not think Mr. Hargraves has acted with good faith or generously to any of us who forwarded his interests or depended in any degree upon his protecting them. He has succeeded on his own account all agree that the country is indebted to him for showing the people how to get the gold but Mr. Lisles and Jones consider themselves as the persons who enabled him to do so by showing him where to procure it -. Purchasing Gold is and has been a very profitable business and I was rather surprised you did not come or send up But presuming you would know from Hargraves all such matters as did not immediately clash with his interests which that could not – I concluded he would at least serve you where he could if he has not done so I much regret it as he certainly had it in his power to do you a considerable service by giving you much valuable information –

Mr. Hargraves suppressed three communications of mine and would probably have got one written by me to you in the same way if he thought it would have been at all to his prejudice – What I have now communicated must be deemed as confidential as I do not wish to be implicated in any disputes With best wishes I remain sir Yours obed.
S.W. Rudder

To Mr. J Northwood
Agent Market St Sydney

[Page 9]
I certify that this is a copy of a letter furnished to me by Mr.William Northwood and that the corrections in the copy are made by me to render the copy perfect and correct – according to the original.

W.B. Clarke
16 Feb 1861.

[Pages 10 – 13]
Not transcribed

[Page 14]
Prince Castra [indecipherable]
Goyouz Die Saturni
16th/2/AD/49

My dear Sir

In my last dated 11th inst your were informed I was about to proceed into the wilderness on my Mission - The following day I did so and be it remembered on the memorable day To Wit on the 12th Day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty one that I did at my 'Prince Castra' on the Arouya Goyouz in the very first bowl of earth washed – discover 'gold' amalgamated with the earth precisely in the same way in which it is at 'California" Mexico – "Chilli" – "Peru" and South America hence I claim the right of discovery. You will of course keep this letter as an important document – I knew I was in gold country ten miles before I made the discovery but being no water I could not try the earth and being near a sheepstation expecting the sheep to drink I did not further disturb the earth but carefully put up my 5 little specks or grains away – I am now perfectly

[Page 15]
satisfied of its existence and shall launch out to a remote place to try for a rich place and when I can do that I shall return to Bathurst and tale across the mountains to Gundagai – I shall then have travelled over a country in extent 600 miles – I do not hesitate to say that I have now been over at least 30 miles of a gold region but the want of water precludes me from making such a research as I could wish to Therefore in this my present communication I wish you distinctly to understand that I cannot for the want of water make at all a satisfactory research indeed such is the scarcity of water that I have had great difficulty at times to get water for self and Horse. Where I am going now to the Tororu River there is water but no grass – I have got bran and hay but in all probability shall be able to get "Mr [indecipherable] to keep the horse alive for a few days – Mr Suttor will be out of my way and 20 miles for a tired man and horse is a great deal" – you had therefore better enclose me a five pound note through the post to Bathurst as I shall not have a feather to fly with on my arrival there. My Opinion is that the Gold Mines of New South Wales are more extensive than those of California, the richness of which I cannot as yet form the most remote idea.

Yours very truly
E.
H. Hargraves

Post Paid

Mr. William Northwood
Agent
Market Street West
Sydney

[Page 16]
Pages 16-17 not transcribed

[Page 18]
Wellington Inn Gayoung
11th February 1831

Dear Sir

I arrived here last evening the weather was exceedingly hot indeed nearly as much so as in California. I am scarcely 250 miles from Sydney The Horse is the greatest brute I ever rode after the first days journey he would stumble twenty times in one mile – I am obliged to hold him up and by the end of the day my arms are tired however I hope to get him along after a days rest and his pedigree is as follows. Bred by Mr. Collett Mount York sold by him to Mr. Kendall at Fish River who sold him to Raper in consequence of his buck jumping propensities. He nearly killed Mr. Kendal who is a native and an excellent horseman.

Mr. Raper sold him to a Hackney Coachman and after a while bought him again he has got the character of being a good horse if not allowed to be idle but his stumbling is a bad thing. Mr. Kendall says if he is stabled for 10 days no man can sit on his back but as feed is exceedingly scarce and dear and in some places not to be got at all I hope to keep him under – indeed he will be a pretty object if you ever see him again. I am now going to the "McQuarie river" and trace up the source of 'the Bell

[Page 19]
and Tooron Rivers a distance of 150 miles. I strike the Macquarie 20 miles from Wellington at Bunnalong I have got hopes of success but the scarcity of water will prevent my making such a research as I should wish you will not hear from me for 3 weeks or a month it is superfluous for me to say that my most undervided energies will be directed towards the object in view. I have been over a country of 30 to 40 miles abounding with copper – the resources of this country are little known it is no doubt a rich mining country and new discoveries will be made every day

You had better send 200 lbs flour up to the house in a fortnight and write me about the same time giving me what news you can address Post Office Bathurst – I shall then know how things are going on – I am not at the Worlds end and am gong nearly 200 miles beyond it. A little news will be acceptable. When I come into the world again – I met Mr. Icely coming up from Sydney He was going down and gave me a very pressing invitation to go to his house at "Coombing"– I did not go. I may call coming back if I want to rest the horse Don' forget to speak to Mr. Suttor as I shall be regularly stumped by the time I get to Bathurst

In haste yours truly
E.H. Hargraves

PS. I have got the horse fresh shod the Blacksmith tells me the brute will not stumble so much when his feet are shorter
E H H
Agent
Market St Sydney

[Page 21]
and at the request of several Gentlemen go down to the diggings today just to make some temporary regulations for working the mines and to restore order if possible – as numerous adventurers are now congregated there

I cannot advise my friends at present to move in the matter – will write you more fully in a few days.

Yours truly
E.H. Hargraves

[Page 22]
This letter a copy of Page 20 and 21

[Page 23]
Guyong Bathurst
19th May 1851

I duly received the £10 – my expenses have been very heavy. The Colonial Secretary I expect shortly and then shall come to Sydney. You must send me more money. I cannot advise any person to come here. God only knows how this will end. The People are dreadfully excited you can form no conception of it Robert Henderson predicted this I did not believe it tell him I am a fool in knowledge to him -
I am from morning to night appeasing the people – nothing is right or will be agreed to unless I sanction it

[Page 24]
I have not got a scale of Gold to send you. Not having worked [indecipherable] The diggings have been very successful. If the Government do not immediately employ me I will join the Victorians and go digging but not now and do not advise them to come every thing is as dear almost as it is in California I only hope I shall not have to report loss of life in my next. I am as cool as if nothing had happened. I sent you the Bathurst free press – they say I have formed a Company of nine. This is an error (the three) self Lister and [indecipherable] it was agreed on my last visit and that everything they got should be shared alike. Gold to amount of £16 was obtained and I bought them and have to

[Page 25]
forward to the Government and paid £10.13.4 for it. [indecipherable] £5.6.8 makes £16 –
I am no longer connected with them in this directly or indirectly or with any other person
I have fully satisfied Mr. Stutchbury that my representations were correct doubly and trebly so he furnished me with credentials which are now at Government House and I am just waiting here to appease the People until the Colonial Secretary arrives, my business is so far satisfactorily settled
Write me by return of Post

In great haste
E.H. Hargraves

[Page 26]
The Mines are inundated with traders. A Surgeon has commenced practice. Carpenters – cooks shops and everything you want for money. The rich man curses and the poor man blesses the name of Hargraves.

Mr. William Northwood
Agent
Erskine Street
Sydney

[Page 27] and [Page 28]
copy of pages 23, 24, 25, 26

[Page 29]
Mount [indecipherable]
29th Octre 51

My dear Sir,

My trip to the Coast as far as [indecipherable] goes has been as much so as the [indecipherable]. I did not see the slightest indication of Gold on "Wooaly" Creek and the only place in which I found any was at Balary creek near Mr Wallis station it is in fact the Taross river and the quantity there so small as not to be worth the trouble of gathering. From the time you leave the top of the hill to descend the structure of the country may be said to be "Granite Porphry" [indecipherable] clay slate transmuted sandstone and Ironstone

Rev. W B Clarke

[Page 30]
I washed at a distance of 7 feet from the surface in "Granatec" detrititus and found a speck or two of Gold in each pan in the "Taross" and higher up in Porpherytec grit and Trappeau detrititus where I obtained a very large quantity of "Emery" but no Gold I also picked up a piece of Horniblendic granite weighing about 10lbs one corner of the piece was in an advanced state of decomposition I carefully washed & that part say 3lbs and obtained 3 small grains of Gold therefrom size...... thus
I start tomorrow to complete my last journey this trip and probably shall fall in with you again before I take my final departure for Sydney if not hoping you will have [indecipherable] success

I am dear Sir
Yours truly
E.H. Hargraves

[Page 31]
Mr. Hargraves was a relative I believe, of Jus Norton Esq Solicitor –
The hand writing of this letter is certainly very like the handwriting of Mr. Norton's son [not that I intend to imply that he wrote it but may probably have acquired the "hand" in Mr. Norton' office. The resemblance strikes me – that is all.

[indecipherable]
14 July 1906

[Page 33]
Launceston 20th Novembr. 1849

My dear Sir,

I shall reply at once to those parts of your letter which are most easily answered, and which I have leisure to attend to just now – The rest must remain for a time.

Many thanks for your article on the aneroid. I had obtained one from Sydney and by chance we commanded 4 of them at Launceston. They now however unsuited for the great purpose for which I required a portable instrument [indecipherable] to ascertain the elevations of our Mountains and higher lands – the measurements of Strezelecki being most uncertain. I think the aneroid might be made however to measure elevations – say from 2000 to 5000 ft elevation commencing at the lower – but I have not heard of any being [indecipherable]. Are you not in error as to the derivation of the name? Is it not from (symbol denoting alpha) and [indecipherable] (Greek symbols), such [indecipherable] with water – a v n g o s without liquid as contracts [indecipherable] being [indecipherable] from the barometer & [indecipherable]
Now for your queries as numbered

1. I send you a specimen (my only one) of the resin found by Dr. Hobson, Tasm. Jour III p. 236. Also specimen of the resin from the Sandstone at Macquarie Plains, River

[Page Number 34]
Derwent [indecipherable] - I have no doubt that the Port Philip resin is from some of the older formations, and not recent. The Tasmanian resin is from a sandstone formation – and I believe one older than many of our volcanic eruptions and flowings of lava. If my opinion is correct it is sandstone which originally enclosed most of our silicified trees, has since disappeared by denudation leaving the innumerable fragments of fossil wood lying upon the surface of the ground – It is a subject worthy of investigation. At Macquarie Plains one of our finest fossil trees existed standing vertically surrounded by lava (a trachite rock) the sandstone being below. In this lower sandstone occurs the resin. The fossil tree is coniferous (I send you specimens of the identical tree). Until we know the genus of this and the other fossil confers found so abundantly here it will be impossible to know whether it is like any of the existing genera of Pines. The Pines must have grown I think upon land now submerged – of which probably [indecipherable] Land , St Pauls & [indecipherable] & Tasmania may indicate the [indecipherable] Certainly V.D.Land was a cluster of Islands like the Islands in Bass's Strait – sandstone and fossil shells occurring on he flanks of them all at elevations varying from 100 to 3000 ft up. And to ascertain whether the height of this sandstone above the Sea on the flanks of all was

[Page 35]
Mountains was somewhat like was one of the objects for which I wanted an instrument more manageable than the Barometer. I have I find diverged from the subject of resin - but I send you some of the resin off one of our existing conifers for comparison

2 I shall try to obtain you some specimens at all events of the fossil plants alluded to in Mr. Milligans paper Vol.. III p. 1331. Milligan did not [indecipherable] the names with doubt ? but I would not publish it until I had altered it throughout. He has occasionally some extraordinary notions and if a think was like a chest of drawers, he would put it down as a veritable fossil chest of drawers merely from the resemblance. I mention this that you may be cautious. I have [indecipherable] make two species of the same plant – the cast being on the two sides of a stone split open!

3. The fossil Crustacean I sent home through Hookes to the British Museum but never heard anything more about it. I wanted much to know what it was.

4. I cannot tell the specific gravity of the water from the Salt Lakes near Geelong, but I have no doubt it is similar to those described by Mitchell in the same Country – see his travels 2nd Edit. Vol. II p. 268. Cochajinny

[Page 36]
Lakes being part of the same flat country. I send you specimens of the Salt. [indecipherable] Journ. III. P. 327.

5. I returned the trilolite to Mrs. Hobson, but as I shall probably visit p. Phillip next month I will try to get it from her to send to you to look at. I do not know the precise locality where it was found, but it was not far from Melbourne. The rock if I recollect aright – argillaceous.

Strange to say I find young Hooker has anticipated my views as to the temperature and vegetation of the Carboniferous Period which I was not aware of when I wrote to you, as it was only yesterday I saw part of his [indecipherable] in Jamison's Edit. Philosophical Journal for Jan.y 1849 – as also in the same number a paper by W. Nicol on the formation of Coal. It is some years now since I stated my opinions at some of the meetings of the Tasmanian society founded upon my observations at Macquarie Harbour, & the West Coast of V.D.L., and although I wrote some rough notes upon the subject, they were not fit for the eyes of the public. Presuming that you have seen Hooker's Paper which is published in Fol. 2. part 2 of the [indecipherable] of the Geological Survey of Great Britain it is interesting – except that he was not aware that the Western Shores of V.D land resemble what he describes New Zealand to be. At Macquarie Harbour where the highest monthly mean

I must take to thinner paper.

[Page 37]
temperature is 64.23 and the lowest 43.05 giving a difference of 21.18 between summer and winter ) [indecipherable] Brit ass. Reports for 1847 – by Proff. Dove) there are three species of tree ferns with fronds upwards of 7 feet long - trunks of two of them running up to 25 to 30 feet ([indecipherable] Backhouse) and fronds 12 to 15 feet each. The Richer [indecipherable]acrifolia I found grows like a Palm with a clear branchless trunk 30 feet high and leaves 3 to 5 feet long. – (I send you some leaves). Imagine such an Epacris found fossil a few years ago. Great heat would at once be argued after to account for the development whereas I found the Richer [indecipherable] growing [indecipherable] near the Coast of the sea to an elevation of upwards of 4000 feet. The masses of ferns in that region surpassed all conception to a traveller in far Tasmanian settled districts seeing only one Pteris esculata. A number of plants which I had only previously known as shrubs there became trees, - and small trees assumed the character of timber trees. And yet this moist humid climate producing so different a vegetation, and looking like a different country is not more than 40 to 50 miles straight from the dry region of V.D. Land and not separated from it by any very high mountains as the East and West Coasts of South America. I have tried for very many years but no tropical vegetation can surpass in luxuriance the vegetation of the South West Coast of Tasmania where genera & species of plants abound not hitherto found in the drier Eastern half of the island.

[Page 38]
I am more and more convinced that the theory of great heat during the Carboniferous period must be ultimately abandoned or at least that our recent observations – shew that luxuriant vegetation does not depend upon high temperature. The formation of coal mainly from heat seems very satisfactory, and our sphagnum bogs over in this Colony satisfy me how it might occur, but I remember in the North of Scotland our mosses (as peat bogs were called) were restored after a certain number of years rest. In no two places will the same peculiar circumstances exist , and for every spot some modification of our views must be made although the general principles remain.

The Huon Pine which forms forests at Macquarie Harbour grows to a large size. The Athrotaxis does not – indeed all the Athrotaxis trees (of all species ) look very much as if they belonged to a former order of things, and were not in their congenial climate on V.D. Land – looking in fact as if they belonged to a former time. Lindley in his fossil flora of Great Britain Fol. II Vol. 127 D & F

figures two of mine, since described, and I see Don compares them with the fossil Lepidadenderous in which they are the closest living analogues. (Linnean Trans. Vol. 18 F. 174. It is a wide and interesting field for research and observation but quite beyond my skill I wish you could come here, but no flying visit would do. You would require to labour for months and see most of V.D. Land to see how much there is

[Page 39]
in it to illustrate the geology of Europe.

By the bye trunks of fern trees in decaying in our dense Fagus forests lose all the outer covering of roots & fibres, and present with the hardwood almost long skeleton inside a remarkable resemblance to some of the Sigillaria – The appearances struck me very forcibly years ago – the pith too decays so that this hard skeleton became compressed and must from its hardness be almost indestructible. May not some of the sigillaria be trunks of fern trees thus denuded of their outer coating of fibres?

Geology is, you must remember, not my hobby although I am very fond of it, but my means of study have been few and most of my observations have been more to follow out the principle than the details. I am a follower of [indecipherable] – and all that I have seen here bears this out – still do not attach any weight to what I may scribble. I sometimes do so [indecipherable] with the intention of directing your attention to particular points than otherwise – as you can see their value when I cannot.

I shall devote a separate sheet to the remarks I have to hand on Port Phillip and the separation of this Island from it – as I am now writing against time , and give you my notions as they happen to come uppermost.

In the " United States Exploring Expedition" fol.4.p.183 of the edition I possess – a lava stream at Kilauea is

[Page 40]
described and the following passage occurs. "it was covered here and there with the fallen timbers appearing in some instances as if it had been bleached; only a hole was left to mark where each tree had stood, the stump having been entirely consumed. These holes were frequently found as much as 12 to 15 feet in depth. Of their origin there can be no doubt and my supposition is that by the time the tree had been burnt off, the rocky stream became fixed, [indecipherable] as allagaria Kemis, here a similar appearance is presented, and I had many years ago arrived at a similar conclusion as to the cause of the holes which however are more usually horizontal. It is just where the lava stream stopped enveloping the green trees which afterward decayed leaving perfect casts in the ferns [indecipherable]. I wish you could see it. This part of the United States Exploring Expedition is very interesting.

5th Dec. I was interrupted at this point & had to go into the country for a fortnight – and I hardly know what I had intended further to say – so I shall conclude.

Yours ever sincerely
[indecipherable]

[Page 41]
Penguite 6 December 1849

My dear Sir,

I hasten now that I have a leisure hour to reply to that part of your letter relative to the disruption of V.D. Land and New Holland.

I do not know whether you have ever been to P.Phillip or not, but if you have you would at once see that at a comparatively recent period the sea extended over nearly all of what is now the settled districts between the waters flowing into the Murray and towards the North Coast not exceeding a few hundred feet by Mitchell's measurements (vide Map in his travels). Fossil shells of recent species are abundant near Geelong, a few miles inland, – at least they seem so little altered, and so similar to those now inhabiting these seas that I believe them to be identical. Near Melbourne a few miles inland (at Maynes Quarry of which stone the Cathedral is built) the ferruginous sandstone – or conglomerate in some parts – contains fossil spines of cidans, bivalve shells & numerous specimens of Haliotis. One small specimen I obtained contained two casts and I got another very perfect – in fact Haliotis seemed abundant although from the Penny Cyclo. I perceive that fossil Haliotis was at that time everywhere. I have now got the specimens which I gathered hurriedly one afternoon some

[Page 42]
years ago. There are other indications of recent upheaval, and I never saw a country with such a look of newness as Port Phillip. V.D. Land has such indications of marine deposits – or at least none so generally diffused. The rock at Table Cape is said to be very recent. Strezeleki speaks of raised beaches on the West Coast, but I did not see them – still denudation may have swept off a great deal – But I think it probable Port Philllip was under water long after V.D. Land was above it – the mountains alone of P. Phillip forming islands is at a prior period our Mountains formed islands. Hobsons researches at Point Nepean would point out that more than one upheaval, period of rest, & depression took place between the first and last deposits at Point Nepean. The Strait separating V.D. Land from New Holland is now only 25 to 50 fathoms deep. (vide Stokes Chart) but usually much less than the latter depth.

The number of animals at present peculiar to V.D. Land as Prof Owen's recent paper – (vide Tasm. Jour III. P 273) is eleven but I think it probable that some of these may yet be found in New Holland – if not they would seem to have come to us from some point not in New Holland – and that the connexion has not been recent – the number of animals common to both countries being from the above table only 5. I have been trying to find the Phascolomys Iatiforms

[Page 43]
in V.D. Land but have hitherto failed.

Gould in his recent Introduction to the Birds of Australia gives 32 birds as peculiar to V.D. Land but certainly many of these are not peculiar to it in a true sense, as some are migratory, and in other cases I think he has most unnecessarily multiplied species so that from the Birds little is to be learned except that many birds very common at Port Phillip do not seem ever to have crossed the Straits.

Plants The Flora of the two countries is very similar At Port Phillip 6 weeks ago I went out botanizing from Melbourne and found a very similar vegetation to ours. There were it is true many plants not found in V.D. Land, but very few of ours were not there, in fact the Flora of the South Coast must have been enriched with many species after its connexion with V.D. Land ceased. My paper on the Flora of Geelong written some years ago (Tasmn. Jour I p. 203 ) shows out of 100 plants two thirds were found in this island, and only the third peculiar to New Holland, and my more recent researches would lead to a somewhat similar result. They are two of so many genera that I can hardly suppose either winds, currents, or Birds could have carried so many across the Strait, more especially plants like the Orchidaea. The only natural order very common indeed at Port Phillip which I have not seen in any part of V.D. Land is "Lonanthacia"

[Page 44]
different species of Loranthus covering the branches of species of Eucalyptus, Acacia, Casuarina so far South as Geelong – but I have never yet seen an individual in this Colony. There are many New Holland Genera at P. Phillip not found in V.D. Land but that alone is I think the only [indescipherable] order not represented here so far as I at present recollect.

The North Coast of V.D. Land has a vegetation differing considerably from that to the South, and approximating more closely to the P. Phillip character. I should like so much to visit the Mountains of P. Phillip as being most likely to yield many of our plants if my general views are correct. – Mt. Macedon ([indecipherable]) has the Fern tree [indecipherable] tree (Eury [indecipherable] argophyllia) Tasmania aromatica and many other shrubs common in the island but less rare on the other side of the Strait. I have previously observed that all the Mountains of V.D. Land posses indications of having once been islands – and the low lands almost as certain indications of having been submerged, but the extensive plain from the Western Mountains to Ben Lomond & the Eastern Mtns, (about 40 miles across) has no marine sediment that I have seen whereas impressions of leaves, trunks of trees in the form of lignite, so that vegetable impressions occur to the depth of upwards of 50 feet. There is much for the ecologists to observe in this Island but it wants one to look at it as a whole

[Page 45]
first, and afterwards to work out the details. The islands in Bass's Strait possess numerous indications of raised beaches, and I presume they have been influenced as the same P. Phillip – which is certainly a very new country. Unfortunately we do not possess the same means of ascertaining where depressions have taken place, but assuredly among the most recent [indecipherable] has been upheaval. Still the upheaval may have been at some time very great - uniting Tasmania to New Holland so as to admit of a certain intermixture of species and afterwards depressed a few feet so as to admit the passage of the sea again which has more lowered the channel to a depth of 150 to 300 feet, but it is clear from the recent formations as P. Phillip that, nearly all that country was sea except the tops of the Mts. Dr. Hobson believed that the Coast line had been upheaved more than the interior and that the salt lake of Carangamite are remains of sheets of sea [indecipherable] in [indecipherable] Port Phillip Bay probably once was and would be again it is narrow entrance was blocked up. It would be interesting to ascertain whether Carangamite is not below the level of the Sea like the Caspian in Asia.

I have packed up in a box a most miscellaneous lot of specimens to illustrate some few of my observations. Most of these you can retain but I wish you to return to me the fossil plants of the coal formation, Fossil Haliotis! Fossil

[Page 46]
Casurina and a few others marked.

The formations containing the various impressions of numerous [indecipherable] seem to be all over the island extending from South of Hobart Town to George Town in the extreme north, & from Fingal on the East to near Lake St. Clair on the West.. Those fossils occur almost everywhere, [indecipherable]? Sandstone at the base of most of our mountains; but in many other situations as well. In some places yielding lime fit for burning but in other instances being almost pure argillaceous rock. They occur from the level of the Sea to an elevation of 3000 feet, but were usually at about 500 in the centre.

I have not seen this formation at P. Phillip but it seems like some of the Grass
formations of which I possess specimens. I send you lots of the various specimens from many locations.

The Grass Tree Hill shells (Pachyderms [indecipherable] Strezlecki) are many of them too large for the box I have sent but I have put part of two smaller specimens.

From Port Phillip I have sent you sundry specimens but you must draw your own conclusions from them.

The fossil Cones & leaves of Casuarina are from Flinders Island East Coast & I wish the specimens returned. They are most curious, & their being Casuarina seems unquestionable. They were collected by Mr. Jos
[indecipherable]

[Page 47]
yours ever sincerely

T Ronald [indecipherable]
Had I more leisure at this my busiest season but I thought it better to give you rough notes than none at all.

I should like much to see your M.S. Chapter. Gilmore of the Shamrock will bring anything down for now.

[Page 48]
Launceston 23 June 1856

My dear Sir,

The 'Black Swan' starts for Melbourne on Friday evening 27th inst. At 8 o'clock – so you will have lots of time to go to Quamby. My friend Davies will drive you easily to the country where the gold has been found - in fact under his hands you will be as well as under anybody I know.

Should your health or inclination lead you to make a longer stay in Tasmania the Rev V. Williams of

[Page 49]
Westbury will gladly go to Sydney for a month or six weeks to act for you - and we will cheerfully pay his expenses - which is all he requires.

When at Quamby you can see Mr. Williams and Davies will do anything you
require.
I am delighted to hear that your health is better & I trust it will suit your purpose to remain longer - or if not – to return to Tasmania at an early day.

Excuse this hurried note.

Yours ever sincerely,

Ronald C. Gunn

[Page 50]
[indecipherable]
22 July 1856

My dear Sir

Your note gave me great pleasure in it in the first instance appraised me of your safe arrival in Sydney and in the next afforded me valuable information touching over infra carboniferous strata

[Page 51]
which to your apprehension linked the geology of the two colonies with one and lastly it explained the reason why. I had not the satisfaction of seeing you again on the day of your departure from [indecipherable]. While sympathise with your [indecipherable] the loss you have sustained in the death of your sister I cannot but congratulate you on your approaching reunion with those still more dear to you – your wife & children.

You have named several Silurian forms of NS Wales as distinctly recognised by Mr. Salters – I wish you would send me specimens of them named on [indecipherable] with reference to a list together with such other fossils as you may profess belonging to either Devonian or Silurian [indecipherable] carefully distinguishing when they exclusively appertain to one or the other and when they [indecipherable] 'through ' both or into the lower beds or show themselves in the carboniferous limestone. If you will also

This next paragraph is photocopied on page 50 but only makes sense if transferred to after page 51

note the fact where they are actually obtained from beds which are traversed by [indecipherable] ferous quartz veins you will still further oblige me. I am anxious to see specimens of your Trilolatics amongst other forms
which it would be most desirable if possible to identify here. In return you shall have corresponding fossils with their [indecipherable] from the [indecipherable] of Tasmania. I shall not omit the [indecipherable] which I provided – I have been flitting since you left and am scarcely yet settled. Mr. Chapman has received your Reports and will hand them over in due course to

Rev.d W.B. Clarke
Etc. etc. etc.

[Page 52]
your humble servant. I think you promised in your general observations on the Geology of Tasmania or upon the points of correspondence which you had remarked in the Geology of the three colonies of N.S. Wales – Victoria and V.D.Land in order to its being read on a paper at the meeting of the [indecipherable] Society here.

[indecipherable] languishes as much I think on amount of the matters s from the paucity of the precious metal

[Page 53]
though sooth to say, until they fall in with regular drift gold I cannot anticipate great results from the locality. Do you not think that the quartz [indecipherable] now [indecipherable] Gold these are nearly exhausted and that the richer products of the upper portion of them which has been removed by denudation and other degrading ought to be looked for under the thick transition drift which lies through the length & breadth of our central valley wherever the waters [indecipherable] a northward direction?

Such is my opinion – but as a practical operation the experience will be somewhat of a lottery – until some important lead has been struck –

Excuse haste and a most unceremonious close

[Page 52] Again to make sense this comes after the first half of page 53

close – "needs must" and the printer's desire is [indecipherable] written [indecipherable] proofs bad luck to him as my man Patrick would say -.

Adieu and do not fail to write and send sp.mns

Believe me always yours [indecipherable] faithfully

Joseph Milligan

[Page 54]
This letter printed in "The Web of Science" Vol 1 - 1836-63 Page 457

Hobart
12th August 1856

I am directed by the Gold Exploration Committee to acknowledge the receipt of your further Report upon the specimens of the Quartz taken by you from the Fingal District, and to convey to you their best thanks for the continued interest which you have thus evinced in the determination of the Gold producing capabilities of this Island, and which they feel assured will

I am to add that every attention will be paid to the suggestions contained in your private note to the Chairman of the Committee, and that the specimens you now require will be procured and forwarded to you with the least possible delay.

I am further to acquaint you that any expenses that you may incur in testing the specimens Etc will be gladly defrayed by the Committee through

[Page 56]
the Agency of Messrs Willis Merry & Co of Sydney upon your transmitting the account to that firm.

I have the honor to be, Sir
Your most obedient servant
Geo Whitcomb
Honorary Secretary

[Page 57]
In Tasmania

The Rev.d W.B. Clarke
St Leonards
Sydney

This next part is printed in 'The Web of Science" p. 457

Hob.t Town
14 Aug.t 1856

My dear Sir

Many thanks for your note with the further report on Fingal which has been published by order of our Committee and I send you a copy of the Gov't Gazette, with two copies of our Local Journals containing same.

By the Tasmania in a box & a case care of Willis Merry & Co we send you some Quartz

[Page 58]
specimens from the Western Country – viz from the neighbourhood of the Frenchman's Cap & from McQuarie Harbour, and the Committee will collect further specimens from the localities you have pointed out—I enclose a note from W. Roope one of the members of our Committee to which I refer you` and in the care of Willis Merry & Co I send you 18 oz 10 cwt

[Page 59]
of Fingal Gold Dust bought in small lots recently from the men now there, and we shall be glad to have your report thereon – when you have examined the Gold Dust please hand it over to Willis Merry Co who will have it assayed & coined for us if possible.

In much haste my dear Sir
Yours very truly
[indecipherable]

[Page 60]
[12 Aug 1856]
My dear Sir

I send you two receipts from the Tasmania

One for Box of Quartz about 70 lbs. the other for a small parcel each 18 ozs 10 cwt of Fingal Gold. Both are addressed to the Rev.d W.B. Clarke Sydney

The Box of Quartz has in addition to the address the letters McQ.H. signifying Macquarie Harbour.

The Quartz is taken indiscriminately from a parcel of about 2 Tons Manning and I had collected from the beach at Macquarie Harbour with the intention of sending to England for analysis

[Page 61]
[indecipherable] the Rev Mr. Clarke will kindly get it tested in Sydney instead or possibly he may be able on examining it at once to determine that it is not auriferous

The Gold is as you know the collected earnings of our Explorers at Fingal and being aware that Mr. Clarke was somewhat sceptical as to a purchase he made on the spot being entirely Fingal Gold you will probably add your assurance to mine as to our firm belief that the whole of the parcel [indecipherable] sent was obtained in that locality – Will you further oblige me by asking Mr. Clarke after examining the gold to have it converted into coin and hand the proceeds to your Agent. They doubtless will be kind enough to get it so converted

Yours ever
[indecipherable]
[indecipherable] Wharf
12 Augt 1856

T.D. Chapman

[Page 62]
Monpelliers Retreat

August 14 1856

Sir
At the request of Dr. Crowther I beg to forward to Mr. Chapman the enclosed specimens of Rocks obtained from different spots in the County between the source of the Derwent (Lake St Clair) and the Frenchmans Cap.

I remain Sir
Yr very obedient Svt
J S Calder

T.D. Chapman Esquire
[indecipherable]

[Page 63]
Mr. Calder's Report to the Fingal Gold Committee [indecipherable] 1836.

1.[indecipherable] between coast and line marked on the [indecipherable] = 3 to 4000 sq. miles = 2 or 3000'000 acres. – betwn King's River Macq. Harbour and S.W. Cape.

2. Area

Pages 63,64,65.66,67,68,69, not transcribed]

[Page 70]
THIS IS PRINTED IN ‘THE WEB OF SCIENCE’ PAGE 458.
Fingal Gold Committee
Hobart Town 30th August 1856
My dear Sir /

By the Tasmania I send you a bag (marked WBC) containing – one large piece of Quartz marked No 1 weighing about 30 lbs – taken from Mr Grants reef near his house at Tullochgorum – and some pieces on a bag marked No – 2 – obtained from the head of the Scamander River –

I also send you 3 oz – 7 dwts.16 grs of gold dust from the black bag flats marked out on the spot, in the presence of Mr. Rooke & Mr Maning, both Members of this Committee

Your customary kindness towards the Committee in getting a correct analysis of these specimens, will no doubt be afforded in this instance, and if it could be conveniently done I should be obliged by the gold dust being converted into sovereigns and returned to

Revd. W.B. Clark

[Page 71]
the Committee – Both the quartz and gold dust are given into the custody of Capt.n Church for delivery to Messrs Willis Merry & Co for you –

Yours very truly
Geo Whitcomb
Hony Secy

Specimens from the reefs at Specimen’s Hill and Harrisons gully near the Nook, are on the way from Falmouth by the steamer, but will not arrive I n Town for this conveyance

[Page 72]
The others were broken from the [indecipherable]
Several of the latter [indecipherable] the graduations of the sandstone into quartz-rock. Whilst others exhibit the intrusion of a quartz vein thro the schist

The veins were seldom distinctly traceable and instead of thinning out were apparently diffused and imperceptibly passed into the rock into which they had intruded. In the schist, their course was better defined.

In conclusion I feel it necessary to deprecate criticism on the foregoing remarks – I lay no claim to geological experience, and submit them with all due humility

I have the honor to be
Sir
Your obedt srvant
(signed) Willm Dawson

[Page 73]
Hobt Town
19 Sept 1856

My dear Sir

By the Tasmania I send the Gold Ingot with thanks –
I forward the enclosed note from Mr. Rooke to which I have to request your favourable attention – I send ten box to Mr. Willis by the Tasmania since and he will forward it to you.

I have been much occupied with my

[Page 74]
[indecipherable] so that I have not a minute to spare, but will write you next [indecipherable]
I shall be very glad to hear from you and believe me my dear Sir yours very truly

Mr. D. [indecipherable]

[Page 75]
[18 Sept 1856]
My dear Sir

Doubtless you are writing to the Revd Mr. Clarke by the Tasmania so will you send him the enclosed receipt for a case I have put aboard to his address containing a number of small bags containing

A. Quartz from Seddon's reef
B. Do ' Specimen Hill
C. Spotted slate from Specimen Hill
D. Quartz from reef behind Specimen Hill probably the same reef
E. Quartz from Burnt Tree Reef
all the above are from the immediate neighbourhood of the York Fingal
F. Quartz from Cameron's Reef which crosses the road about 12 miles beyond Fingal, at the entrance of Allarys Pass

I think the country about Black Boy Flats infinitely more promising than the Nook. I form this opinion chiefly from that of the Diggers themselves having but little experience of my own, but could see there was a good retentive clay upon the slate there which was absent at the Nook. I very much wish the diggers could fall upon a [indecipherable] just to establish our diggings with it which I sadly fear notwithstanding your assertion [indecipherable] to the contrary we shall fall sadly into the background.

Yours ever
[indecipherable]
J.D. Chapman Esq

[indecipherable]
18 Sept, 1856

[Page 76]
This page is out of order and should precede the last paragraph of previous page

G. Crystallised Quartz from that neighbourhood of Swanport collected by Mr. Shaw also tells me that there is a great abundance of it in that locality ( as well as the ordinary quartz and slate) that gentlemen also send me some other specimens which D Milligan assures me belong almost entirely to a coal formation so have not forwarded them to the Revd. Mr. Clarke

I have never yet been able to obtain any quartz from the westward Quambie's Bluff etc. though I have repeatedly written to Thompson and others on the subject but shall get some as the summer advances

Can you venture to ask Mr. Clarke to send an analysis of the Quartz from Seddon's Reef, Specimen Hill by the return of the Tasmania. There is as you are aware a good deal of excitement just now about these reefs and the
main Seddons has opened and the face of this to a depth of 50 or 60 feet so that an early analysis if available would lend energy to the work if unfavourable would prevent a great waste of labour. There is a piece of quartz marked A ++++ showing the face of the Reef upon which the truck has been running the Reef dips at an angle of about 4 deg If Mr. Clarke is unable to send the analysis of both specimens Hill and Seddons Reef possibly he may of the latter which is of the most importance of the two on account of the labour being bestowed upon it If these will only pay to work I may safely say from what I myself have seen they are inexhaustible and D Milligan asserts that he struck upwards of one hundred reefs in a journey he made from the northern side of [indecipherable] and round to the Nook

[Page 77]
[indecipherable] Banks [indecipherable]
5th

5th September 1856

My dear Sir,

I went today accompanied by Mr Taburt to "Bluimans Valley" for the purpose of obtaining specimens of the Pebbles and Quartz which I told you of as resembling so much that , which I saw at "Ballaarat". We [indecipherable] as great a variety as we could and brought home as many as we could conveniently carry. – A box containing them addressed to you will be shipped in bound the "Duncan Foyle" tomorrow morning –
"X" You will find a division in the box – Those specimens on the top, and in the little bag were obtained [indecipherable] two hills. One North the other South of "Bluemans Valley" where

" X " These D. Milligan says belong to the Coal formation and are therefore not forwarded
J. Roope

[Page 78]
they abound – the soil is of a white, gritty nature on the hills; and black in the valley – and a little way below the surface there appears to be a sort of burned pipe clay. Some of which is in the box. – Several [indecipherable] were [indecipherable] here by a Mr. Allen (who also accompanied us) only to the depth of about two feet, but without finding any gold. A quantity of [indecipherable] however was discovered and is quite visible on the surface: - No proper search has been made, and I am not sufficiently acquainted with the Science to say, whether the indications are sufficient to justify any expedition being gone to, in the South – all I can say is, that the pebbles resemble exactly those I saw in the troughs of those who were washing out 12 [indecipherable] of gold a day at ' Ballaraat" –

X The specimens at the bottom of the box are crystallized Quartz and a bit of Iron Stone mixed – they were found about two or three miles to the South [indecipherable] than the others.

X These are the specimens contained in the bag marked G sent to Mr. Clarke
J Rupe

[Page 79]
upon a rough hill covered with boulders which at first appearance looked like Iron Stone but upon being broken was found to be a mixture of Quartz and [indecipherable] stones such as you will find several samples of. – A hole was sunk here by Mr. Allen about 3 or 4 feet [indecipherable] when they came upon a Slate, which they could not penetrate for want of Tools – There was a great abundance of Quartz both in large & small pieces, but they could not discover any gold, it certainly appeared to be a very likely place and Mr. Allen promised that , he would as soon as possible make a further and deeper search. – he it was who pointed out this latter place to us, and he says that, about 4 miles further South there is a larger hill of Slate and Quartz mixed, and quite close to it. Alum – freestone and Coal. - [indecipherable] not time to go so far today but will so another time –

I shall be glad to hear from you whether the specimens I send indicate the presence of this hidden treasure and if so I shall be very glad to render whatever assistance I can in discovering its whereabouts, -

Believe me to be
My dear Sir,
Very truly yours, -
[indecipherable]
L. Roope Esquire Red Bank, Swanforth
5 Sept 1855

G. [indecipherable] (Coal)
Chalcedony
Jasper
Quartz [indecipherable] Basalt
Basalt [indecipherable] Basalt
Pebbles

A Box called H
[indecipherable]

[Page 81]
Fingal Diggings
Sept. 21st 1856

My dear Sir

I will not this time incur the temptation of being a tardy correspondent. Yours of the 8th came to hand yesterday – In the samples of quartz sent since I wrote you will find specimens of the quartz [indecipherable] pyrites - & of the peacock quartz, but I will look out for two or three good specimens for your own cabinet – as to quartz with shells or corals o specimens have presented – I keep my eyes open for them but [indecipherable] to have been greeted by the appearance of some – As the reefs open I may be more fortunate. What particular forms of fossil must I look for ?

What think you to the country behind us towards Ben Lomon? It is [indecipherable] to that hill as the [indecipherable] to the [indecipherable]
We ought now to keep the exploration going until summer comes. By that time we shall surely have discovered enough to convince many men to remain on the ground & the field will then greatly develop.

[Page 82]
I have handed to Mr. Clerk of Malabar a sample of gold out of a brownish red slate – hard & penetrated with quartz matter – The gold is [indecipherable] with the substance of the rock so as to assume the same appearance – It will not wash clean. It appears to me from an older deposit than that we] generally find –

Mr. Cox has retired - & I have had charge for several weeks. Mr. Lane now abandoned the old deposits and is working others. In a gully down the flat towards Fingal – on the right as you ride up here – we have very good prospects. The gold is rounder & larger than that generally found in the old Creek & is obtained in a deposit from 10 to 12 ft deep – The flats are yet too wet. We have tried them

[Page 83]
this week but have no appliances for working them effectively. At the N. [indecipherable] we are prospecting. From the old ground the yield [indecipherable] much the same. But as yet we have nothing heavy. The precious stuff lies thinly scattered through a gravely clay about 2 ft thick. Lying immediately under the super soil & beddy [?] on soft blue slate, on edge. I am disposed to think that another bottom will be reached below this. The tiers in the vicinity are less rugged than here – the Country much more undulation.

So far as I can judge the range of wh [which] the “Tower" forms the principal feature is the centre of these tiers, most if not all of them radiate from the Tower & on the top they

[Page 84]
form a considerable plate wh [which] has the form of a basin & is [indecipherable] very scrubby & wet. Hence the cracks rise. To this flat I am very desirous of getting some men as soon as it is sufficiently dry. What think you of our chances there? We are here on one flank of it. At the N. [indecipherable] on the opposite and I am disposed to think the most promising side is the N.E. or E. by S towards the coast. I have given my views to the Counter but a word from you if you coincide with me will carry more weight then a sheet of foolscap from myself. The Crushing Co is here but as yet their arrangements for trial are incomplete.

I am dear Sir
Very sincerely yours
Wm L Horton
Cy Rev.W.B.Clark

[Page 85]
The Parsonage
St Leonards
N.S.W
24 Sept 1856

Sir,
I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of various specimens of slate with quartz partly collected by Mr Calder from different localities in the region round Frenchman’s Cap which in June 1851 I reported to His Excellency Sir W,T. Denison Chairman of the Gold Committee Hobart Town, as auriferous; between the source of the Derwent and Macquarie Harbour around

[Page 86]
the Frenchman’s Cap

I have also received a box of quartz pebbles collected by Mssrs Manning and Roope from the beach at Macquarie Harbour.

I have further received a mass of samples of quartz which I saw from a dyke at Tullochgorum and some specimens from the head of the Scamander River.

In addition to these I have also to acknowledge the receipt of a bag of gold dust marked 3oz of dust 16gr. from the Black Boy Flats.

[Page 87]
I do myself now the honour of reporting to you thereon.
1. The specimens from the Frenchman’s Cap country had amongst them several which were very highly charged with iron, as well as others which being merely glossy clay slate offered no auriferous indications. But there were two specimens from an isolated rock on Galena Plains which had much the characteristics of Italcolumite, being a micaceous quartzite rather than quartz, and which probably came from a thin stratum interpolated amidst the slates.

[Page 88]
As Chloritic quartz rock and Mica-schist occur in that region, I have no doubt whatever, that the same relations exist as those mentioned by Humbolt (Essai Geognostique sur les gisement des rodies [?]. Paris edition 1826 p 89) though on a limited scale, nor have I any doubt that the fossil evidence confirms the parallel, for, when I was in Hobart Town my friend Wm Milligan produced on my enquiry expressing a belief that [indecipherable] exists in Tasmania, a collection of corals and shells &c from Franklin River (S.E of Frenchman’s Cap) which I recognised as identical in genera, if not altogether in species, with similar fossils found

[Page 89]
by me in various parts of New South Wales and which have been determined by Mr Salter of the Museum of Practical Geology London, to be of genuine upper Silurian age. I consider them to represent the [indecipherable] We are therefore, well supported in expecting gold in the neighbourhood of the Frenchman’s Cap, as I previously suggested, and with the examples of America before us, we might expect auriferous deposits in such a district if the superficial conditions are analogous with those of the Italcolumic country. In the following table the rock in question is marked E, and you will perceive, that it is the most

The Chairman
of the Gold Committee

[Page 90]
auriferous rich in gold of all the [indecipherable] rocks from the Western side of Tasmania that have yet been tested.

Having carefully examined the specimens forwarded to me I selected five samples as below and they were submitted them to Mr Hodge for amalgamation. The results are detailed in the following table which gives the rocks and their calculations as well as the experimentations, quantities and values in gold and all useful particulars.

[Page 91]
Table here not transcribed.

In the examination of these samples every precaution was observed: and as to the samples themselves, it is clear no choice should be made, as they were forwarded by your Committee.

[Page 92]
2. The box of pebbles from the beach at Macquarie Harbour offered very little choice either for they were all either opaque or scarcely translucent quartz that had been rolled and abraded, without the slightest trace of gold in or upon them perceptible before or after crushing. The result in this case was that 4 lbs avoirdupois (marked 1 on the tube) of Sp. G. 2.65 provided 2.200 grains of gold, which is at the rate of 2.566oz of gold for the ton of quartz.

[Page 93]
In order that your Committee and the public may judge for themselves Mr Hodgson has forwarded to me the granules of gold produced from the six samples enumerated and which are marked with the letters [indecipherable] indicating the samples in the table. You will perceive that whilst the first five look like rich gold, there is a striking difference in the palm granules from the Beach Quartz. It is evidently much alloyed. But the quantity is too small

The Chairman
The Gold Committee

[Page 94]
to bear analysis.

The result on the whole is, I consider, satisfactory, and to myself especially, as it at once, and visibly demonstrates, that my opinion of the auriferous characters of the country round the Frenchman’s Cap was not incorrect.

3. Up to this date I have not received Mr Hodgson’s report on the quartz from Tullochgoram and the Scamander; but so soon as it arrives I will communicate it.

[Page 95]
4. The Deputy Master of the Royal Mint has very obligingly forwarded to me the analysis and assay of the gold from the Black Boy Flats, of which 4:19.5 [indecipherable] were retained as a sample of reference and for which the value is now

[Page 96]
remitted in cash.

In this sample I detected one crystal of tin; the meteoric iron was less in quantity than in the sample from Fingal, nor was the gold visibly alloyed with antimony. The colour and character of the sample seem to point to a somewhat different matrix, though small fragments of quartz are attached to some of the pieces of gold.

There were also several nearly perfect drops of gold in the sample, and one or two semi-crystallisations. You will see, that in proportion and value of gold, this sample is richer than the former.

[Page 97]
Its purity is more than that of the Golden Gully and of the Macquarie below [indecipherable] in New South Wales, which given the former 947 the latter 947.30 parts gold in the thousand. This is 947.60

I enclose with this report Mr Hodgson's and Captain Ward's communication as vouchers for the fidelity of my statements; and I hope by the next down voyage of the Tasmania to forward you a report on the other samples of quartz just received and which cannot be tested in time for this opportunity.

I have the honour to be
Sir,
Your obedt svt
W.B.Clarke

The Chairman The Gold Commission Hobart Town

[Page 98]
Royal Mint Sydney
26 Sept 1856

The sample of Tasmanian gold from Black Boy Flat consisted of a fine bright granular dust. The grains varying in size from about 1/8 inch down to finest dust; in shape very irregular; some partially [indecipherable] and spherical, others rather flat and apparently water worn.

The impurity was composed of small pieces of white opaque quartz both detached and holding gold; a considerable quantity of very fine sand of many colours and about 8 grains of a mixture of malleable iron and oxide of iron, both magnetic. The Iron was taken out with a magnet and tested for nickel & cobalt, but no trace of either of these metals could be detected.

The sample weighed 3.12oz: it was melted with a small quantity of [indecipherable] and produced an ingot weighing 3oz, it [indecipherable]. The gold is of rather a light colour and perfectly ductile and malleable though slightly hard [?]. The ingot yielded by assay 94.76 of gold
and 5.04 of silver – over – 99.80

The only other metals which could be detected were copper traces and iron in larger proportions but the quantity was not [indecipherable].

The commercial value of the gold dust is 3.17.3 the oz & of the melted gold 4.0.6
Robert Hunt

[Robert Hunt was the worked for the Royal Mint referred to on page 95 above but became Deputy Master only in 1878. He was also an amateur photographer taking many pictures of scenes around Sydney]

[Page 99]
Tasmania

Report No 4

The Chairman of
The [indecipherable] Gold
Committee

[indecipherable] country
Quartz [indecipherable]
Black Boy Gold

27 Sep 1856
W B C

[Page 100]
The Royal Exploration Committee
Hobart Town 7th October 1856

My Dear Sir

I have the pleasure to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 27th ulto with the report of the assay on the quartz from the neighbourhood of the Frenchman's Cap.

I enclose you a Gazette of this days date, containing limited copy of the above

To the Rev W B Clarke

[Page 101]
report-

I also send you a tracing by Mr Calder of the Country (together with his description of the same) in which the quartz specimens alluded to were found.

The sailing of the Tasmania does not allow of Mr Calder's tracing or report being copied and I must therefore trouble you to return me the same if convenient by the steamer.

I send you by the Tasmania a leather bag containing specimens of quartz picked up at sundry places on the Gordon River, together with copy of Mr Dawson's letter with reference to them – and the Tasmania has also on board for you a small brown paper parcel forwarded by Mr Clark of Malahide and containing pieces of quartz from the newly described reef about 15 miles from the present diggings at the hook.

Trusting your health is quite resolved – I am my dear Sir
Yours very truly
Geo Whitcomb [?]
[indecipherable] Sectry

[Page 102]
(Copy) Gordon Plains
1st October 1856

Sir
I have the honor herewith to transmit as directed two parcels of Quartz Rock numbered respectively 1 and 2 and enclosed in leather bags sealed with my initials.

As promised in my last communication on this subject, I seized the first fine day and extended my exploration of the Country West of the valley of the Gordon and North of the Great Bend. Passing the Denison Range the mountains exhibited a more rugged profile and less obvious stratification; Sandstones and Conglomerates however continued to be the prevalent rocks until about 8 miles N of the Bend we crossed a stream in which was observable a natural section of a Schislose rock underlying the Conglomerate.

Proceeding onwards this a very rugged but open country

The Director
Of Public Works

[Page 103]
(S.E. free of Forest) we met with numerous detached masses of a Quartz Rock which had evidently fallen from the mountains on our left. These were all much weathered and exhibited a surface of glistening white but on detaching pieces with the hammer it was found that their more chrystalline structure seldom extended beyond an inch or inch and a half beneath the surface. The vitreous appearance graduating into a very compact sandstone which might be said to be of a sub- chrystalline character and having a formed but lighter shade of colour than that in immediate contact with the outer coat. It was not until we had passed the Island (some 16 or 18 miles S of the Great Bend) that a decidedly quartz formation seemed to prevail. Conglomerates were still present the pebbles being smaller and formed almost invariably of quartz. Another beautiful section of a Schislose rock traversed by quartz veins was here seen and isolated and rugged conical shapes of quartz rock towered

[Page 104]
above us on rock banks of the Gordon throughout the extent of our journey which did not exceed some 4 or 5 miles beyond the Island. Our mean course up the stream from thence was about SW but as there was no apparent limit to the quartz formation within our view, it was obviously impossible to assign any magnetic bearing to its direction altho assessment of the rock surface was very carefully examined and very many pieces subjected to the hammers, I regret to state that no traces of the precious metal were discovered.

We found two square sets near the Island where the diggers had been at work. They were filled in with water, were about 8 feet deep and the operators seemed to have bottomed their excavations. The stuff which appeared to have been last thrown out was a pliable yellowish clay and contained small fragments of quartz and schish with some few iron pyrites, globular and in crystals.

These were I believe the diggings of two men some 4 years hence. Both were supposed to have been lost in a snowstorm and I remember an inquest

[Page 105]
being held on the remains of one. The fate of the other was never distinctly ascertained. I may remark that the Gordon above the Island flows for some distance over a sandstone rock in which quartz pebbles are sparingly disseminated. In one locality I observed a section of dull slatey coloured Schislose piercing the sandstone.

Chrystals of quartz were perseveringly sought for but none of any remarkable size or beauty obtained.

The remarks I have previously offered as to the exterior of the blocks which had fallen from the mountains exhibiting a more advanced degree of chrystallisation than was observable in their interior applies also to the Mountain [indecipherable] themselves. Always accepting how even the veins injected through the schislose rocks where opportunity was afforded of making an examination.

About one fourth of the specimens comprising the two parcels transmitted is of water-worn pebbles collected on the plains between (between the river and the mountains)

The

[This is the end of the document. A page or more seems to be missing]

[Page 106]
[Right hand side]
[This is a new letter. The first paragraph is written above the address and date on the top of the letter]
Send me some specimens of your Trilobites and any other fossil from the oldest paleozoic rocks you [indecipherable] or from the Devonian beds if you can [indecipherable]– if not send me a [indecipherable] from the trip only. JM

Hobart Town
7 October 1856

My dear Sir

I am reminded by a request [indecipherable] on your behalf by Mr T. W. Chapman Chairman of the Gold Exploration Committee here touching specimens that I am in the [indecipherable] in your [indecipherable] as a correspondent and

[footnote] Reverend W.B Clarke

[Page 107]
[left hand side]
and secondly that I have not [indecipherable] the promise I made to send you some tertiary fossils. But I gather from your note to Mr Chapman that the specimens which you expect have from more immediate relation to the older beds in short to the gold bearing strata

[right hand side]
and as I now recollect the particular Country of most of the Series from which I proposed to [indecipherable] thus or from which you desired to obtain them. I scarcely know what to send and therefore I have determined to send none until I hear from you on the subject. If however you write of Port Philip immediately

[Page 106]
[left hand side]
on receipt of this I may be able to get together such as you require by the time the Tasmania starts on her next return trip to Sydney – at all events I shall do my very best to meet your views and in the meantime I will look out for a few tertiary fossils from the Lacustrine deposits of trifaceous limestone in this neighbourhood. I have referred to your

[Page 108]
[right hand side]
your last note and I find that you ask for tertiary and other specimens as promised – now will you oblige me and state distinctly the particular presentation or locality from which you wish to have those other specimens.

Mr Chapman intends to write to you and Mr Roope and others are most anxious to know whether you might not be prevailed upon to spend another month in Tasmania

[Page 109]
[left hand side]
in the course of this Summer. Living there your health suffers so much now and again and that you [indecipherable] to my great benefit from your last trip to & those sojourn amongst us.

The Committee returned to submit to you a quantity of quartz partly drift partly broken from veins in micaceous Schist from near the Great Bend of the Gordon River in order to ascertain whether

[right hand side]
it be auriferous – I need not tell you that when they speak and write of mountains of Quartz they only express the [indecipherable] which the exterior of rocks of micaceous Schist so often present when highly charged ([indecipherable] as well as by intersection with seems) with sileceuos matter from the [indecipherable] effect of [indecipherable] and decomposition of the softer [indecipherable]]. By the way is it the highly sileceuos mica Schist which you term Itacolumite – ought it

[Page 108]
[left hand side]
not according to type to contain a good deal of iron when strictly so designated?
By the way I do not know whether [indecipherable] found in the slate pieces of sileceuos layer between the "Tamar river" and "Piper's river" a piece of fossil wood imbedded? And now I am thrown on my beam ends (Geologically speaking) by the discovery in what I have [indecipherable] as Coal Sandit..[indecipherable] in the Queen's Park here and close to the Royal Society's

[Page 110]
[right hand side
Society's [indecipherable] as a fossil bone (!) – which to my slender judgement of such matters appear to belong to the flipper of a large Saurian – there can be little mistake I think in that – but whether the beds are under or over the coal ( anthracite – the Sydney equivalent of which lies high, I think you stated, above grassy Newcastle & of course our Eastern Coast Coal Beds) I know not at

[Page 111]
[left hand side]
this moment. Have you met with anything of the kind in N.S.Wales?

I have been to [indecipherable] I have the pleasure of seeing you on a flying visit with two members of the Gold Committee but the tale of progression[?] [indecipherable] all unfavourable to Geological observation and I returned about as wise on the subject as when [indecipherable
[Right hand side]
Excuse my high [indecipherable] of writing [indecipherable] a short note a moment to peruse what I have written excuse all imperfections and [indecipherable].

Trusting to hear that your health is very much improved and that your family will soon arrive to provide you with all the comforts of which the domestic circle

[Page 112

[right hand side]
Hobart Town
4 Nov 1856

My dear Sir
I am reluctant to say, but it is the truth notwithstanding, that it will be impossible for me to forward the Geological Specimens which you request by the Tasmania today. My time has

[footnote] Reverend W.B. Clarke

[Page 113

[right hand side]
partially registered and numbered when you were here. I have now begun to register such as I mean to send to you and as they will be duplicates you will have it in your power in any [indecipherable] in which you may indulge and of which they may from subject matters to refer to them individually by the numbers affixed to them.

[Page 114

[right hand side]
may turn out to be footmarks of the very animal of which we have just caught one of the [indecipherable] [indecipherable]. But I have also (I do not recollect whether I mentioned it before to you) got from the same quartz several of what I take to be bodies of vertibrae of Saurian reptiles together with some small coprolite [faeces] looking forms in one of which I

[Page 115]
[right hand side]
Before sending you the Bone to be submitted to Mrs Macleay which I shall have Great pleasure in doing it is my intention to have an accurate figure much of it in case of any accident causing its loss in the course of the trip to Sydney and back.

You may expect me to refer to your last letter

[Page 118]
[indecipherable] Report on the second samples from The Nook and form Black Boy

Nov 7. 1836

[Page 117]
[left hand side]
On further examination:

The gold from Black Boy after melting
gave 0.08 per cent dross and traces of Copper, Tin, Lead and Nickel.

While that from Nook gave 0.17 per cent dross and traces of Copper & Tin.

In neither case was Nickel or Cobalt found in the Metallic Iron.

Signed
Robert Hunt

[Page 120]
[left hand side]
and has abandoned it for lack of success. He finds specimens containing fine gold from the surface to the bottom. The shaft goes down the face of the quartz, wh. is like a table of marble inclined at an angle of somewhat more than 45° dipping [indecipherable] the N.E. The entire reef resembles a vast slab and smooth on the upper surface embedded in a rock of slatey texture wh. is penetrated by small seems of quartz & veins of tough clay of a dark hue – almost black. The quartz itself has not been broken into as yet top any great extent. Dawson has worked down with the intention of reaching what he terms the "turn" of the reef i.e. the spot where it becomes vertical – there he thinks another reef will join it – secondary with an opposite dip thus [a small sketch of two reefs shaped as a V joining at the bottom of the V which is marked with an x]
He proposes, as I understand him to work down to the point x. How far does this correspond with your observation

[Page 119]
[left hand side]
& on the bottom rock a gold bearing drift, cemented gravel or clay. What think you? This vein is rather sustained by the holes at the foot of the hill – where at 10 or 15 ft we find a rock of firmer closer grain – very irregular & containing in the fissures & crevices & under the large boulders – gold that appears water worn & smooth & flattened.

At the Mt Hoy we have a shaft 70 ft down through a curly blue slate. There a cleavage almost as tough as talc in some places - [indecipherable] nice from beneath. What does this indicate? Fine gold is washed out of the dust & gravel produced in working - & small veins of quartz lie in the slate.

I have lately taken a journey along the coast. On the other side is a very rough sketch of the country as I observed it. The rock along the coast is called granite but is more properly a [indecipherable]] of quartz gravel or detritus - on

[Page 122]
[right hand side]
be not where the older slates are apparent and along the border of the more recent beds of granite-like quartz rocks – or probably under the thinner inland edge of this quasi granite seam ledge to find the heavier deposits? I leave these questions to be solved by one of much more extended observation than myself. But as far as I can at present judge the region marked on my sketch (?) ought to be explored for the main leads [?] of Tasmanian gold. I may add that I found on enquiring several traditions of gold having been found on this community current among the few settlers along the coast. I went as far as Anson's River wch enters the Bay of Fires.

Always faithfully yours
W L Horton

PS if you think my observations of any use – use them at your option. The country I refer to is unknown to our committee & so far as I am informed, to any one else.

[Written up the side of page 122]
If your views correspond at all with mine a few line from you wch I might use wd perhaps enable me to effect the exploration I desire, or you cd communicate direct to the Committee.

[Page 121]
[right hand side]
[This page contains a sketch of the area around Tower Hill in Tasmania. It shows Ben Nevis, Black Boy Flat, Fingal, Nook, the South Esk River, Anson's River, a line of quartz granite rocks, Bay of Fires, Mt Nicholas (coal) and Lowr ranges and marshes]

[Page 123]
Hobart Town
20 Nov 1856

My dear Sir

I had more fully intended to have for sending your promised specimens for the Tasmanian today but as bad luck or rather (anything being for the best – and anything right that is) an unavoidable circumstances would have it I am again reluctantly constrained to crave your indulgence for another trip –

The Tracing which you wished to have of the Western side of Tasmania comprising the area between Lake St Clair

Revd. W.B. Clark

[Page 124]

[Left hand side]

Macquarie Harbour & has been prepared for you and I now only retain it for the purpose of inviting in the [indecipherable] to which they [indecipherable] the Vo1 of the geological specimens to be transmitted to you.

I rather think that your request to have a copy of the first part of our Journal supplied to the Revd. Trollop [indecipherable] was attended to but the promise I [indecipherable] and should it turn out (for somewhat doubtful) that a copy which was previously furnished no great harm will have been done.

[Page 124] [Right hand side]
I congratulate you again upon your complete recovery of health spirits and natural energy – long may they continue – to shed their [indecipherable] influence on your path in life!

With respect to [indecipherable] quartz in the highly inclined strata [indecipherable] of you on Maria Island; - having only examined and collated specimens touching upon on occasion on the northern extreme of the Island where the [indecipherable] & [indecipherable] occupy the whole section of the cliff I can do no more than conjecture that the objects of your inquiry may be Tran[indecipherable] schists on the edges of which we

[Page 123 left hand side]

often find the comparatively flat [indecipherable] with but a thin pasting of Conglomerate or clay rock the debris of the plates etc.

As to the fact of gold being found & analysed in the Drift from Swanport which comprised fragments of Pelogoric & carboniferous beds in the Basalt carrying quartz (which you would remark is of [indecipherable] character) I set no store by it – in [indecipherable] may be due to the presence of drift from the disruption of old auriferous schists capsized & dispersed by [indecipherable] during the period of

[Page 125 right hand]
deposition of the carboniferous series, or subsequently [indecipherable] thrust up at the time of ejection of later Basalts – there being clearly no reason why Gold should not have been eliminated from its matrix in the slate [indecipherable] and in the granites & and the source from which the material of the schists has been [indecipherable] by the combined operation of heat and magnetism during the later igneous eruptions as the earlier – always pressurizing the forces to have been equal and to have operated upon very similar if not identical constituents]. Be this

[Page 126 left hand]

Be this as it may the properties of Gold generally distributed in 'the' way in recent formation scarcely more than a [indecipherable] notion as a philosophical [indecipherable] which could not be [indecipherable] in any [indecipherable] upon the origin & mode of [indecipherable] the precious metal.

I am glad to perceive that you do not now appear to [indecipherable] any argument upon the circumstances of meteoric iron having been met with alike in the Gold fields of NS Wales and Tasmania – as should such have proved to have

[Page 126]
been even extensively the case it could only have been regarded in the nature of things I think as a coincidence.

I shall be very glad to hear your progress for publication in the forthcoming part of our journal and to ensure it being included therein the manuscript ought to be in my hands early in December.

I am writing from time to time on a matter of exercise in the quarries near the new Govt House in the Queen's Domain here and have been [indecipherable] with sundry relics of other (query

[Page 125 left hand follows right hand of page 126]

ante-carboniferous) days – amongst them the cast of a Fish (drawing of fish) 9 1/2 inches in length – several fragments of bone connected with one of which is a small oblong and cylindrical body marked with diagonal stria (drawing of piece of bone) about 5/8 of an inch in length and looking for all the world like the chrysalis of a carrion fly – the impression of part of the shell of a [indecipherable] - carbonised pieces of vegetable fibre etc. etc. etc. you shall in due course have some of these to examine and to show to Mr. Mackay – more anon – I have been spending part of the morning in [indecipherable] to administrative position at the Pal: office – a most unsatisfactory appn. of time just as the Tasmania is about to learn.

[indecipherable] as always Yours faithfully
Joseph Milligram

[Page 127] [right hand side]

212 George Street, Sydney
April 15th 1857

The Revd W B Clarke,

Dear Sir,
I beg to transmit the results of my examination of the three samples of auriferous quartz which you kindly forwarded to me.

Table not transcribed

The divisions in the tube are numbered with a diamond as above. The smaller tube contains the former products, which have unfortunately been mixed.

Allowed to remain
Dear Sir, Yours faithfully & obliged
Chas J Hodgson

[On the page is written in another handwriting]
Received 14 April 1857

From the neighbourhood of The Frenchman's Cap

[Page 128] [left hand side next to page 127]
[This is similar to a business card but hand written]
The Revd W B Clarke
St Leonards

Cs Hodgson
[indecipherable] from Frenchman's Cap

referred to Mr Chapman Apr 15, 1857
per Tasmania

[Page 129]

[image]
Table not transcribed

[Page 130]
212 George Street, Sydney
July 11.. 1857

Dear Sir

I beg to forward the results arising from my examination of six specimens of auriferous quartz, received from you on the 24th ultimo. I have preserved the globules of Gold obtained, although they are too small to admit their assay.

Allow me to remain
Dear Sir
Yours faithfully
C. J. Hodgson

The Rev W.B. Clarke
St Leonards

Table not transcribed

[Page 131] [on the left of page 130]

Gold
Circular Head
Quartz
July 1857

[Page 132]
Hobart Town
29 Oct 1857

Yours of 16th came duly to hand and I have since received from the Tasmania one small case which I am just preparing to examine. Any remarks therefore on its contents I must [indecipherable] till another opportunity. Sincerely thanking you in the meantime.

Revd W.B. Clarke

[Page 133]
For your kind [indecipherable]
In your letter of 30 Sept you mention that a copy of your observations before the eclipse in Mandi had been transmitted to me – if so I must have in some way or other have mislaid it as I am unable now to trace it out – you are good enough to say that if desired you will put them together and arrange them "with those of 1851" so they may appear in our [indecipherable] as one

[Page 134]
account – if it [indecipherable] from you to us then at once it might be sent to me in time to time to be noticed at our next monthly meeting (10Novr) and immediately printed so as to appear about the close of the year.

I enclose herewith a copy of the Hobt Town Meteorlogical Tables from September.

It is my wish to [indecipherable] of the [indecipherable] to the Western side of V.D.Land but man proposes & God disposes whether I shall be able to carry my

[Page 135]
my plan into effect will hinge] a good deal upon other views:- which I entertain. I am very desirous of seeing my boy consigned to the care and direction of an able and honest counsellor and good teacher at home until he can be moved to college and it would afford me more complete satisfaction to see this arrangement carried in to effect with my own eyes and on the spot and indeed I should wish to have it in my power myself to make the selection of a master– in which case I might, instead of making a geological tour to the Westward, make a hurried trip to old England and London.

[this post script is written upside down at the top of page 135 or page 4 of the letter]
P.S. In the event of my sending you a few genuine samples of Tasmanian Flour for analysis could you undertake to have it done without prejudice or partiality by some competent man?

[Page 132]
[Written sideways on the page and appears to be a form of post script]
Plan to work up your Eclipse papers and let me have them by next Tasmania so that they may make their appearance without any unnecessary delay –

The enclosed flattened [indecipherable] glass cooling fragment has been handed to me as having been picked up in the alluvial soil of Victoria not far from the Wannon River under the supposition that it bears some relation to the button like forms "Volcc Bombs" from the same quarter – the material of which this is composed is evidently basaltic and it is basicular: in fact a basicular semi-esterfied[?] lava –

Page 133
it is said that one way obtained of pricing the same shape but of greater length = 2 inches. What think you of it? Such forms were frequent enough in the office of [indecipherable] conditions in [indecipherable] of [indecipherable] acting on the [indecipherable] shales and the like rocks – now if [indecipherable] why should not they form – conditions and actions

Page 134
continued & operation for an indefinite period produce the same results upon harder bodies such as result in white [indecipherable] about it?
[indecipherable signature]

[Page 135]
Diagram and explanation not transcribed

[Page 136]
Diagrams not transcribed

[Page 137]
[Page of diagrams and the heading on this page refers to Green Point, not transcribed.]
[This is the end of WB Clarke’s letter]

[Page 138]
[this is a new report with no address and based on the attached diagram (page 139) must refer to the Fingal Gold Field]
The northern part is the poorest part of the Field. There is but little gold in the gullies and on some flats. 60 miles [indecipherable] quartz with calcorous & [indecipherable]. At Specimen Gully – a tub of 5 buckets gave ½ dwt [pennyweight] of gold.

Eastern and southern part. Slate – sandstone quartz and pulverised augit! 100 miles square chiefly from A to B [indecipherable] – 800 to 1000 ft high – a table land of some magnitude [indecipherable] ascending 900 ft table land 4 to 5 miles long ¼ to ½ mile wide.

Appearance like [indecipherable] in California where [indecipherable] & quartz produce per cubic foot 1 to 2 dollars worth of gold - [indecipherable] 5 to 6 foot thick , 30 to 335 ft deep in zig zag under the Table land – sometimes watery [indecipherable].

In open tunnels 40 to 50 ft deep – one may try quartz mining.

Malahide – color gold. [indecipherable]. Other places.

[indecipherable] by Olmert[?] Perets[?] DG
to L Roupe Esq. H.T
Fingal Malahide
13 Novr 1854
on Monday

extra income customer by
[indecipherable] Grant Esq
Tullookg [indecipherable]

[Page 139]
[This comprises a map of the Fingal Malahide area referred to on the previous page]

[Page 140]
Tables not transcribed

[Transcribed by Robin Matthews for the State Library of New South Wales]