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larger area of raised beach lies between the higher grounds and the shore. This, over less than an acre of extent, was worked, and proved remarkably rich in gold. A total of several hundred ounces of gold was taken from this ground, but statements as to the actual amount vary so much that the value obtained may be put down at any sum between £800 and £2,000; but, whatever the amount may have been, this little patch is regarded as having been very rich, and, the gold being easily obtained, one of the best-paying patches on the goldfield. After careful examination of the ground there seemed to be no other source for the gold than the rocks on which the beach-deposit rested and the similar or same rocks that form this extreme part of the island. On the top of the ridge, immediately opposite the rich ground on the beach, there is a deposit of gravel, but this is subangular, and seemingly a cemented slope-deposit from the hill that rises to a higher level to the southward. The Silurian rocks at this point contain bunches of quartz in sandstones and graphitic slates and from a flat-lying patch of such quartz, rich gold-bearing specimens were obtained, which led to a considerable amount of prospecting for defined reefs which were supposed to exist in the spur. Such prospecting did not prove successful, and the works have been abandoned. At Long Beach gold-bearing specimens of quartz are frequently picked up upon the strand, the finding of which led to the tracing of similar specimens along the bed of the creek and the discovery of the Morning Star line of reef. Within the crescent-shaped area between the rocky points at the two ends of the beach there is a probability of workable gold-bearing deposits, but the ground in the middle part will probably prove too deep unless rich gold should chance to be found. Quite close to the beach, and thence extending south to the foot of the steep part of the range, the material showing at the surface is slope-deposit from the range at the back, and therefore it is likely that any gold found in this will prove to be specimen gold liberated from the reefs on the range, and, as a consequence of the deposit not being concentrated or assorted, such gold will be erratic in the mode of its occurrence, and possibly not payable to work; but it may be different with respect to the gravels of a former beach which may underlie these. At the mouths of Sealers' Creeks Nos. 1 and 2, sand-dunes penetrate inland up the valleys of these creeks for a short distance, but there are no signs of gravel-deposits, and there does not seem to have ever been any gold-mining in the lower valleys of these creeks. Towards its mouth Wilson River is sluggish, and the sands at its mouth are not reported gold-bearing. At Gates' some goldmining has formerly been carried on in the gravels of the creeks entering at the two angles of the little bay there formed. No workings are now to be seen at the mouths of the Coal Burn or Gold Burn, though gold is known to be present in the sands of the beach at and near the mouth of the Gold Burn. The mouth of Kiwi Burn is not much more than half a mile distant from the Gold Burn, and at this place a party of three are'working for gold in the beach-sands, and are netting, so they aver, fair returns. Gold has also been found, and has been worked, by the same party at Green Islets, and it also occurs on the beaches farther to the eastward. (b.) River-alluvia. —So far as could be gathered, Kiwi Burn has not been worked for gold, but a short distance from its mouth the Silurian slates that occur on the western side of its valley cease, and the further course of the stream is wholly through granite. Gold Burn, why so called is uncertain, except on the assumption that the beach-sands at its mouth are auriferous. A short distance inland from the beach this stream flows through an impassable gorge, beyond which it breaks up into a number of branches, and takes its rise from the southern margin of the granite area. The Coal Burn, on the other hand, is passable through its gorge, in which some gold-workings were about two miles and a half from the beach. Near the southern edge of the granite country the gorge terminates, and beyond this point, towards the sources of its several branches, though there are evidences of prospecting having been carried on at several places, such works clearly indicate that the search for gold was unsuccessful. At one place a hole had been sunk on the point of a low spur to a depth of 4ft. to sft. in decomposed granite under the belief that the disintegrated granite was an alluvial deposit. It may be here mentioned that along the northern edge of the slate-belt, and over the granite area within the watersheds of the streams mentioned, there is hardly any wash in the creeks, and none whatever on the higher grounds, the granite materials breaking up usually fine enough to be carried forward to the coastward region in times of flood. Wilson River is a stream of greater volume than either the Coal Burn or the Gold Burn. It takes its rise by several branches from the granite mountains lying between the source of the Grey River falling into Revolver Bay and the upper part of Kiwi Burn. The various source-streams flow across a lower-lying tract, mainly over granite, and converge to junction as one stream a little above the upper end of the gorge. The upper or granite area of its watershed, though prospected, has not afforded payable gold. The boundary between the slate and the granite is at least a mile to half a mile above the upper end of the gorge ; yet, although the rocks belong to the same formation as that seen at Golden Site Claim, above Golden Site Claim no recent gravels of any account are formed, and below the Golden Site, for two miles, or to the foot of the gorge, gravels of any kind are confined to the moving shingle of the bed of the stream. Near the foot of the gorge there are one or two patches of gravel at a level above the action of the stream. But it is from the foot of this gorge down stream that any considerable deposits of auriferous gravels occur. These are found on both banks of the river at levels up to 60ft. or 70ft. above the bed of the stream, and are ordinary moderately-fine or very coarse bouldery river-gravels, containing examples of all the rocks of the watershed above the point where they occur. The gold occurs usually not far from the bank of the river, the gravels, lying along the immediate base of the hill-slopes, consisting mainly of higher flood deposit and slope material unconcentrated, which has simply gravitated from the heights that bound the river valley. Below the point where the road from the landing at Otago's Retreat reaches the river its valley still retains the character of a deep narrow valley, in which the areas of alluvial deposit are small, and alternately first on the one and then on the other bank of the