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location of the reef from which it came, by trenching and surface prospecting, should not be a difficult matter, and might be undertaken with advantage.
McQuilkin’s Reef.—McQuilkin’s Creek is a tributary of the Arahura River, but has its source near the Hura Saddle, on the opposite side from the locality just referred to. At a distance of little more than a mile up from the Arahura River, and at an elevation of about 1,300 ft., in a small headwater stream coming into McQuilkin’s Creek from the northern side, occurs what Bell and Fraser describe as one of the best-defined quartzs veins in the whole area covered by the survey. As exposed for about 100 ft., it is from 15 in. to 30 in. wide. Its strike is about north 22° east, and its dip westward at about 65°. In some parts it seemed comformable to the bedding of the enclosing greywacke, but in the others evidently cuts it at a very acute angle. The only gold seen in it occurred as a coarse bleb in the quartz in the vicinity of the slaty selvage separating the quartz from the country rock, and the result of one sample assayed was only 1.5 gr. gold per ton; but, in view of the fact that auriferous quartz is found in the debris of the creek, and also free quartz gold very little worn, the geologists were led to the opinion that the neighbourhood well deserved further investigation.
As previously stated, only a negligible amount of prospecting has ever been done in the area within which occur the formations mentioned, and it deserves closer investigation; but it must be said the country is very rugged and difficult of access, and for prospecting purposes is of no use to the small two-or-three-men party, the labour entailed on the individual members of such parties being inordinately heavy, and the loss of time necessitated in travelling to and fro for supplies too great to admit of the men doing justice either to themselves or the possibilities of the locality. To examine such an area to advantage a fairly large party seems needed, well equipped with tools and other requirements; and it would be all the better if it were in charge of a leader with good geological and mineralogical knowledge, who would be able to direct the work and map the country traversed.
JACKSON’S REEFS.
A good deal of prospecting was done some years ago in the ranges south of Jackson’s Railway-station, on the Greymouth-Christchurch line, in a reef-bearing run of the country that may be considered the northern extension of the Taipo River belt. As early as 1889 the Teremakau Gold-mining Company is reported to have been investigating an area about a mile and a half from Jackson’s, and was said (Mines Reps., 1887, C.-2, p. 52) to have found a quartz lode considered payable for working, and was making arrangements to erect a crushing-battery as soon as a road to their mine (then being constructed with the aid of a Mines Department subsidy) was completed. Apparently this battery was never erected, for there is no further mention of it in the Mines Reports, nor of any further work done on the find.
In 1896 it was reported (Mines Reps., C.-3, p. 104) that four prospecting licenses of 640 acres had been taken up in the same run of country, but evidently not covering the ground on which the old company had worked. A party of men had been prospecting on these areas during the summer of 1895-96, and were said to have got results of an encouraging nature, particularly on the Jackson fall of the range, where a reef 3 ft. in width was said to have been traced for a distance of 60 ft., with gold showing fairly through the stone. Parallel to this reef, and only 20 ft. away, another one had been partially bared and showed gold, but its thickness was not known. On the Taipo River side of the range the party was also reported to have got good results, three distinct lines of reefs having been located, one of which, called
