Researches in the Southern Gold Fields of New South Wales, 1860

Researches in the Southern Gold Fields of New South Wales, 1860.Sydney. 305pp.  Cloth-covered light boards with torn paste-on label. Cover is very worn with glued on spine beginning to detach. Pages yellowed and flush-to-cover page edges worn. Front free end-paper and title page are loose, but rest held by stitching. A much used complete copy in poor to fair condition. 

Includes ‘Map of the Gold Localities in the Basins of the Snowy River and Upper Murrumbidgee’, 1851-52 (date on map). Folded print 48 x 38cm (19 x 15 in) at 1”=8 miles. Gold locations shown by red hand-coloured spots; copper, lead and iron locations shown by printed symbols. Very worn thin paper neatly repaired with archival tapes. In fair condition.
Clarke (1798-1878) learned his geology at Cambridge from Adam Sedgwick, emigrating to Australia in 1832. Clarke worked as government inspector when gold was first discovered in NSW; this book is the summary of 28 reports prepared as parliamentary reports in NSW and Britain. Kind and warm hearted to his parishioners, in scientific matters he was a born fighter. Sir RI Murchison wrote to him, ‘considering you are a clergyman, you are very bellicose’. I expect the feeling was mutual. His maps were used to compile the first geological sketch map of New South Wales, issued in 1880 by the Dept of Mines. (Aus. Dictionary of Biography). Clarke has been called the Father of Geology in Australia.