We did not wash any of the gravel, for we
had no tin dish, neither did we know how to wash. The specks we found
were mica; but I believe I am right in saying that there are large
quantities of chromate of iron in the ranges that descend upon the
river. We brought down several specimens, some of which we believed to
be copper, but which did not turn out to be so. The principal rocks
were a hard, grey, gritty sandstone, interwoven with thin streaks of
quartz. We saw no masses of quartz; what we found was intermixed with
sandstone, and was always in small pieces. The sandstone, in like
manner, was almost always intermingled with quartz. Besides this
sandstone there was a good deal of pink and blue slate, the pink chiefly
at the top of the range, showing a beautiful colour from the river-bed.
In addition to this, there were abundance of rocks, of every gradation
between sandstone and slate--some sandstone almost slate, some slate
almost sandstone. There was also a good deal of pudding-stone; but the
bulk of the rock was this very hard, very flinty sandstone. You know I
am no geologist.
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