Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 15.djvu/623

Fourteenth Annual Report. there are yet, in all probability, as rich auriferous belts of country at lower levels as have hitherto been worked near the surface, and that gold will be found to quite as great depths as it is practicable to work. Besides this, he has illustrated the structure and behaviour of the reefs by numerous sections, and has also prepared a plan and section of the Ohinemuri and Te Aroha Districts.

During part of April he was engaged in an examination of the Blue Mountains, on the northern side of the Shag Valley, with the special object of determining the position of the Blue Mountain limestones. These he has shown are interstratified with slate and sandstone of Lower Carboniferous age, which form the first range north of the Shag River, and are separated from the Te Anau series of Upper Devonian age, which form the next range by a large fault which traverses the country in a N. 65° W. mag- netic direction, and has a downthrow to the S.E.

Mr. Cox has also made special reports on the Woodstock Gold Field and the Ross and Humphrey's Gully mining claims on the West Coast, and has examined the lignite deposits at Norsewood, which he reports to be of an inferior character.

During the latter part of November, and part of December, Mr. McKay was engaged in collecting moa bones at Motanau and examining the country between Motanau and the Cheviot Hills. During this work the principal result arrived at, from an economic point of view, was the discovery of an outcrop of hematite about six feet wide, associated with the Triassic rocks of the coast range near Motanau. An analysis shows that this ore is specially adapted for the manufacture of hematite paint. After this he was engaged in Museum work during the month of January, and during February and the early part of March he examined the antimony deposits of the Carrick Ranges in Otago and collected fossils from the coal strata of the Bannockburn. He reports that there are three lodes which are apparently convergent, the thickest of these being two feet at its widest part; an out- crop of antimony can be traced at places on the surface from Alexandra, at the Manuherikia Junction, to the hills west of the Nevis Bluff, on Kawarau River, a distance of over twelve miles. During April and May he was engaged, at the request of the Hon. the Minister of Mines, in making a typical collection of the rocks of the Reefton District in duplicate. One of these collections was deposited at Reefton as the nucleus of a museum. While thus engaged he made a detailed examination of the relations of the various beds and confirmed the views previously held concerning them. He also gained important information concerning the extent of the coal-bearing areas, proving their probable continuance, as a basin, across the Inangahua Valley, comparatively near the surface about Reefton, but at much deeper