Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 550
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7
CHARACTERISTIC OF THE URALLA OR ROCKY RIVER GOLD FIELD AT MOUNT JONES & WELSH.
The new lead of gold was first struck in surfacing on the Southern end of Mount Jones, the surfacing indications are not very promising. A few heaps of loose whinstones remain in small piles. The bed rock which is soft and partially decomposed granite, is also attended by hornblende, which forms a feature in rich granitic gold fields. The bed rock dips towards the north with the mountain; and the depth increases until after the lead passes the crest of the ridge in a parallel line.
Mounts Jones and Welsh seem to be twin ridges the line of rich sinkings on each being on the eastern face, near the summit, and with occasional swerves appears to run nearly north and South. The late discovery at Tipperary north of Mount Welsh, seems to be a continuation of the lead found in the latter. The outward indications on the ridges are generally large granite boulders on the bases and flanks, & whinstone & trap rock in disjointed masses, bearing stony bases of igneous & up heaving agencies on the summits. Mount Jones seems to have borne away the palm for general [richness?]. The Shafts sunk at Mount Jones are about sixty five feet. the bed rock is undulating & uneven, the stripe of washing stuff about four inches scarcely discernible, from that above it, and rich patches indicating a likelihood of their deposit by a current of water from the north. Three small roots of a tree quite fresh were found in the washing vein & these remain yet undisturbed. The different deposits by igneous agencies are plainly marked in the Strata sunk through from the surfaces. Those near the bed rock are more or less of a granitic texture, and their appearance combined somewhat resembles that sandston ewhich is beautifully marked with lateral stripes of a brownish colour. By the united action of pressure & moisture the drift strata seem to be gradually hardening into rock by that time is wanting to complete the process.
Large boulders of granite are occasionally found embedded in the layers of drift but experienced miners are not deceived by them, as their texture is dry & rough, & the particles much larger than the proper bed rock. The cement - usually termed ironstone seems to have been produced
by the fusion together of metalic [metallic] substances with whinstone or trap, by igneous action, forming an overlay upon the successive drift strata, subsequent to their deposit upon the gold as it is found at present. This cement is found from near the surface to a depth of many
feet, the drift strata succeeding. Some shafts are
sunk at Mount Welsh to a depth of eighty six feet. The diggings here commenced with shallow sinking on the eastern face of the ridge, but the depth & [?] have increased towards the summit, the surface is boggy the sinking is generally dry. on the north end of Mount Jones a number of shafts have been sunk on a flat ridge forming the continuation of that mountain but few have provided rich.
In one shaft of 54 feet deep forty feet of which was driven through blocks of whinstone jointed together and near the bottom there are layers of granitic sand, in the brown streaks in the bed of the rock being soft; of a pinkish colour, & resembling porphyry -