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"Bah! Don't talk about it," I cried. "Can't help it," he replied. "It makes me want to practise my shooting upon those loathsome crows." "Why should you?" I replied. "They are only acting according to their nature, and Hullo! Look yonder; what's the matter with the baboons?" Away to our left a loud chattering had begun amongst the ridges of ironstone and blocks of granite which formed the kopje.
In half a mile came again upon the stunted gum plain, splendidly grassed to above the horses' knees. Can find no water, although the birds are still round about us. The same description of country continues from the swamp with the water to beyond this, consisting of small undulations of gravel and ironstone.
Thus ends the Bonney and the McLaren. We passed over several quartz and ironstone ranges of low hills crossing our course, and camped under a high one, without water. Wind south-east. Cloudy. Started at 7.25 a.m. on a bearing of 70 degrees.
Emerging from the valley, we urged on our animals over comparatively level ground, in the fallacious hope of seeing the sea that night. The trees became rarer as we advanced and the surface metallic. In spots the path led over ironstone that resembled slag. In other places the soil was ochre-coloured : the cattle lick it, probably on account of the aluminous matter with which it is mixed.
The conclusion seems but natural, that in the one case the siliceous exuviae have been left in their original form; in the other dissolved chemically, and aggregated on the common principle of chemical affinity into nodules of flint, probably concentrating, in every instance, upon a piece of decaying organic matter, as has been the case with the nodules of ironstone in the earlier rocks, and the spherules of the oolite.
Persons unacquainted with minerals would be unable to discover the slightest affinity between the rough ironstone as brought up from the mine, and the iron or steel of commerce. To unpractised eyes they would seem to possess no properties in common, and it is only after subjecting the stone to severe processes of manufacture that usable metal can be obtained from it.
Prejudices seldom outlive the generation to which they belong, when opposed by a more rational system of explanation. "In a similar manner, Time operated in my favour in respect to the Black Band Ironstone. The discovery of this was made in 1801, when I was engaged in erecting for myself and partners the Calder Iron Works.
By the continued action of the surf the heavier materials, gold, and ironstone sand, are mingled together between high and low water mark, and what appears as a stratum of black sand is found on the surface or buried under the ordinary sand. The gold is usually very fine, and the trouble of sifting and collecting it is great.
Sent the horses across a gully to another hill still higher, while I descended into the creek; found the bed very rough, having large masses of sandstone and ironstone, which rendered it impassable for the horses. Found the water to be deep and beautifully clear; proceeded down a little further, and saw another large one.
We could not get enough for the horses this morning in the creek we have left. Judging from the number of native tracks that we have crossed this morning, there must be permanent water on the north side of the range, which is composed of immense blocks of granite, apparently on the top of mica slate, with occasional courses of quartz and ironstone.
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