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To the north-east of this north-west extension of the granite lies'an area of highly-metamorphic schist, the age relation of which to the granite is difficult to determine. On its south-western side the granite is flanked by Lower Silurian strata more or less metamorphic, the strata in nearer conjunction with the granite being completely metamorphosed, while the middle and higher parts of the series are less altered. In the higher beds the change has not been sufficient to obliterate the organic remains (graptolites mainly), which, at Long Beach and along the upper part of Sailors' Creek, can in places be collected in abundance. These Silurian rocks in the eastern part of the district are much shattered and invaded by veins of granite, which, however, are different in character from the great mass of the granite lying to the north and east. Quartz lodes are of frequent occurrence in this formation, and some of these contain rich shoots or pockets of goldbearing stone. Lodes of pyrites, and reefs carrying a mixture of iron, galena, copper, and zinc ores that contain both gold and silver, are found with the granite veins that cut the lower part of this formation, as well as in the granite that, lying further inland, underlies this formation. Cretaceous or Cretaceo-tertiary coal-bearing rocks stretch along the coast-line from Green Islets to the shores of Preservation Inlet, and in this part the formation has a maximum breadth of four miles and a half. It also stretches from Observation Point to Puysegur Point, and covers the whole of Coal Island except a small part of the north-eastern end, The same rocks are present on the Gulches Head Peninsula, where they are in contact with both Silurian slates and granite ; they form almost the whole of Chalky Island, but it is doubtful whether they appear on the mainland between North Port and Cape Providence. Glacier debris, for the most part reassorted by the action of the sea or running water, are found over the country between Wilson River and the eastern shores of Preservation Inlet, over the whole of Coal Island, part of Steep-to Island, some of the high lands at the back of Te Whara Beach, and between Red Head and Gulches Head, extending through the peninsula to Price's Beach. Generally these deposits may be found over the district towards the sea at heights below I,oooft. above sea-level. Table of Formations. I. Recent. (a.) Raised beaches, river-alluvia, &c. 11. Pleistocene or Newer Pliocene. (a.) Glacier-drifts usually reassorted by the action of the sea. 111. Cretaceo-tertiary, including the coal-bearing series. (a.) Limestones, marly clays, and soft sandstones. (b.) Shales, sandstones, and grits, (o.) Coarse breccia conglomerate. ' IV. Silurian. (a.) Sandstones and graphitic shales, or mudstones, cherts, carbons, slate, and mica-schist. V. Mica-schist. (a.) Highly-metamorphic schists north-east of the granite belt. VI. Granite. I.—Recent. (a.) Recent Raised Beaches. —These are of limited extent, either on the ocean coast-line or along the shores of the shallower waters within the inlets. The flat upon which the Township of Cromarty has been surveyed may be regarded as coming under this head, as, also, the low alluvial lands between South Port and Preservation Inlet, and a strip of beach under the high terrace at Gulches Head. There are also gravel-terraces along the east side of South Port which have to be considered or mentioned under this head. None of these alluvial littoral deposits already mentioned are markedly gold-bearing, except it may be that at Price's Beach, Gulches Head, and even there it is only at the north-east end of the beach that payable gold has been found. At the mouth of Moonlight Creek, on the north-east point of Coal Island, there is a raised beach, only a few feet above the level of high-water mark, which from time to time has been occupied by a varying— sometimes a considerable —number of miners, to whom it has yielded variously but sometimes rich patches of gold. The gold has evidently been derived from the glacier-drifts, both reassorted and as originally deposited on the higher levels of the island, and from a cemented, water worn gravel that appears on this part of the island, but which is doubtfully to be referred to as deposit by glaciers. It may be of greater age, yet not belonging to the conglomerates and breccia conglomerates that lie at the base of the coal-measures. The sea has encroached on and cut away part of these cemented gravels, till they now present a cliff-face to the shore-line some 40ft. or 50ft. in height. Moonlight Creek has also carried to the shore-line much debris, which has been reassorted by wave-action. A process of concentration thus going on, the gravels of the raised beach have acquired gold sufficient to make them payable for working. The gold in this deposit is both coarse and fine. The fine gold is fairly evenly distributed, and rather too widely so for profitable working of the deposit; but at wide and somewhat uncertain intervals larger pieces of gold are found, sometimes to a value of £12 or £14 in one piece, and the chance of finding such a piece of gold still retains one or two parties of miners on the ground. The area of ground at this place i 3 not extensive, but it may yet for some time afford untouched ground to the one or two parties, usually of two, who are on the ground. On the other side of the narrow strait that separates Coal Island from Steep-to Island there is on the latter a raised beach at the head of a (little cove which, now worked out, yielded a considerable amount of gold. At the opposite or northern end of Steep-to Island a similar but