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least three other lines of gold-workings between the foot of the high terrace and the coast-line. Deposits of black sand are found in considerable areas over many parts of Addison's Flat and the slope thence to the mouth of the Totara Biver. Generally, however, the superficial rock deposit is a granity beach-wash. Along the course of the Totara Biver the marine deposits have been carried away by the river, and a large shingle fan of river material takes their place. On the south side of the Buller the marine sands cap the brink of the highest terrace, and the succession of terraces to the river-level show by how much the land has been raised since the sea washed the foot of the Big Terrace, between Bald Hill and the Shamrock Lead. The high terrace east of Addison's Fat, some 300 ft. above the level of the flat, has a width of from one mile and a half to two miles before the foot of the granite range is reached. Black-sand deposits, evidencing the presence of the sea, are also to be met with on the higher terrace, but no important gold-workings have been carried on at this higher level. South of the Little Totara the country from the western base of the granite mountains is hilly to the sea. The Nile, the Four-mile, and the Fox Biver drain this area. A range of limestone hills, commencing on the coast-line near the mouth of the Totara, sweeps inland in a semicircle from this point to St. Kilda and Brighton. The limestone (its western boundary) is furthest from the coast-line between Candle-light and the Four-mile, south of Charleston. A valley depression lies between the limestone hills and the foot of the Paparoa Bange. This part is either not gold-bearing, or has not been sufficiently prospected. Coal is found along this line, and outcrops on the banks of the Fox Biver, and marine tertiary (Miocene) beds are also present. It is between the limestone range and the sea that the greatest interest attaches to this part of the district. Over this are black-sand deposits that have been accumulated at all heights up to fully 500 ft. above sealevel. These black-sand deposits have been the mainstay of gold-mining in the Charleston district. The auriferous character is not confined to the purely black-sand beds, but the beds of granite wash (beach-gravels) widely spread over the area between the limestone and the sea are also gold-bearing. It is here that black sand deposited by the action of the sea reaches the highest level along the coast-line between Boss and the Mokihinui Biver. The Fox Biver has cut part of its course through the limestone, and in this part the river-channel is through a remarkable gorge, which is only a few feet in' width, "but 300 ft. or more in depth. Coast-line, Fox Biver to Barry'town. —Gold-mining in the north part of this district is limited to the beaches on the coast-line and one or two patches of high-level gravels in the vicinity of Bazorback. South of Bazorback and the Punakaiki Biver continuous beach-workings are to be had as far as the Fourteen-mile Bluff, while inland of the present coast an old high-level terrace-working extends along the foot of the ranges, from Doubtful Biver to Baker's Creek. There are also creekworkmgs in some of the various streams draining this part, and taking their rise from the southern continuation of the Paparoa Mountains. Canoe Creek and Fagin's Creek are the most important of these gold-bearing streams. Barrytown to the Grey Valley. —This part of the district has a bold coast-line, and the inland district is mountainous. Gold-workings are chiefly confined to the beach, and the sea-terraces immediately at the back thereof. The conglomerates of the Ten-mile Creek are thought to be stanniferous, and probably also are gold-bearing. From the Seven-mile to the Nine-mile, and, again between the Nine-mile and the Ten-mile, a back lead is at the present time being worked, and at higher levels, 60ft. or 100 ft., there is a high-level line of auriferous gravels that corresponds with the higher levels of Darkies' Terrace, between Point Elizabeth and Cobden, and west of the Limestone Bange. Westland, District. This has been fully described in the Goldfields and Mining Beports for 1893,* so that a few remarks on the general character of the country will suffice in this place. Grey Biver to Marsden and the Valley of Neiv Biver. —The coast-line of this part is formed of a slightly elevated beach, ranging from half a mile to less than a quarter of a mile in width. Behind this, near Greymouth, are hills of tertiary clays, or, further back, and forming a range of higher hills, the southern continuation of the Cobden limestone. The valley of Salt-water Creek and the vicinity of Butherglen shows clearly that the New Biver at one time had its course to the sea in this direction, the old high-level beaches being destroyed in the middle parts of the valley, and only attesting their former continuity by appearing as disjointed fragments on the ridges that are between the Salt-water and New Biver, and the first-mentioned and lesser streams to the north. The valley of New Biver, as elsewhere described,! is due to the action of the main stream and its various tributaries on a table-land formed near its surface by gravels of the "Old-man bottom," which are present also in the adjoining hills overlain by glacier debris brought on to this region by the action of a branch of the Teremakau Glacier, which, passing through the gap in the mountains at and below Jackson's, filled the Lake Brunner Basin, and thence overflowed the country to the west and south-west. By this means (the action of the New Biver itself) gold widely dispersed was collected and greatly concentrated along the beds of the several streams within the watersheds of New Biver and Salt-water Creek, and these accumulations of auriferous material, together with the beach deposits, modern, and of older date at high levels, formed a source of gold that has maintained a large mining population from the early days of the Coast till within very recently. Teremakau Valley. —The Greenstone or Hohonu Biver is the principal gold-bearing tributary of the Teremakau. The source of the gold is the same as that of the New Biver, and the physical circumstances under which the river-valley has been excavated differs only in this, that the Greenstone takes its rise among mountains of granite and gneiss, which may have hastened somewhat the rate at which the middle and lower valley was cut down. The granite belt which, from the south of Lake Brunner, extends through the Greenstone Mountains to the south side of the Teremakau Valley, limits, with the exception of the Seven-mile Creek and some other creeks in the
* Geological Explorations of the Northern Part of Westland, Mining Reports, 1893, C.-3, p. 132. t See report already cited above, page 137.