27 Juanuary 1859

GOLD-FIELDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

THE accounts of the produce of the gold-fields, as made up to the end of the past year, fully justify the expectations that were entertained at the beginning of the year as to thc “steady development that was obviously in store for this department of industry.

The gold-fields of this colony, though the first discovered in Australia, were speedily superseded in their attractions. Never absolutely deserted, they were comparatively neglected.

All who were acquainted with thc character of thc auriferous country never hesitated to affirm that the depreciation of the gold-fields on this side of the border was not based on any sound judgment, and that, sooner or later, miners would work in great numbers in this colony, and with no despicable success.

Some definite progress seems to bo making towards such a result. During the past two years there has been a steady but observable increase in the number of diggers, and in the quantity of gold sent down by escort.

The amount received last year was seventy-two per cent, in excess of that received thc previous year. And this has resulted not from any sudden and splendid discoveries in any particular spot, but simply from the application of a greater amount of labour.

It is true that thc whole annual produce of gold in New South Wales is but a fraction of that of Victoria, but neither docs the number of miners engaged bear any proportion to those whose united toils swell the splendid escorts of the sister colony.

There seem to be fair grounds for anticipating that in 1859 there will be as marked and continu- ous an advance in the yield of gold as there has been in 1858.

The number of localities at which miners are at work was never so great as it is now, and the researches of prospectors, so far from proving that the gold-fields are very limited in area, go to show that they are of unexpected extent.

Fresh gullies and fiats are ‘ continually being tested with success. The rush to the Fitzroy, which precipitated a vast number of diggers on to our shores, and the subsequent action of the Relief Committee, which dispersed more than a thousand of them over the known gold-fields of the colony, has sensibly merensed the producing power.

And it will be strange indeed if their united efforts do not succeed in making some impression on thc escort returns during thc ensuing twelvemonths. The present state of thc labour market both herc and in Victoria rather encourages, than other- wise, the accumulation of men at thc gold- fields.

Either capital is not superabundant or it cannot find suitable employment under present circumstances, for there is no very active demand for labour, and the Governments arc appealed to to furnish employment.

So that there is nc inducement for those who arc at the gold fields to quit their occupation, even if they an only making wages, while many who can fine nothing to do will bc induced to turn thei attention to thc diggings, as preferable to loiter ing idly about town, seeing that they are prett; sure of a livelihood there, and may perchanc meet with good fortune.

It was thought tho the commencement of thc railway works i: Victoria would have thc effect of raisin thc rate of wages and of withdrawing labou from the gold-fields. But this has not been th case. The wages given by the contractors ar less than what was calculated upon in the ter ders, while the number of men ready to offt themselves is in excess of what thc employe) choose to take on.

The willingness that mar have shewn to leave the gold-fields if thc could obtain a rate of wages slightly in advani of what is offered, would seem to shew th though the diggings there are far from being e: j haustcd, the earnings of many under thc prov i lent system of working, are either so modera i or so uncertain that steady wages would bc pr ferred. The thorough opening up of the wid spread and comparatively untouched gold-ficl of New South Wales, therefore, would be like to attract many labourers, if their undoubt richness were clearly demonstrated. [Sydney Horsing Heñid, January 10.

11 February 1859

A VISIT TO THE WESTERN GOLDFIELDS.

IN making a tour of the western goldfields the vast disproportion between thc numbers of thc European and Chinese mining population cannot fail to impress thc mind of the most casual observer, and lead him to consider how far the colonial interest has been permanently advanced by the advent of the latter class.

They are migratory in their habits, frequently shifting from place to place, and often abandon a district upon what appears to be a sudden and unaccountable im- pulse.

One day you may notice 1000 of these people working, like a swarm of bees, upon a particular bar of a river, and if you return to thc same spot within a week you may not find 300. Where thc remainder have gone it is impossible to learn: every enquiry is answered by the eternal “no savee.”

It is unques- tionable that their movements are directed by some superior intelligence, to whose mandates or advice they render an implicit obedience. Upon an average calculation, about 5000 Chinese diggers have been employed upon the Western gold- fields continually during the last twelve months, and it is supposed that not less than 110,071 ounces, or two-thirds of thc gold that has been for- warded by escort from thc Western diggings, hus been obtained by these strangers.

The value of this large quantity of gold, at £3 12s. per ounce, amounts to £399,405 12s.; of which, averaging their expendi- ture at 20s. per head weekly for rations, tools, and other necessaries, £200,000 has been put into circula- tion, leaving a balance of £139,195 12s., to be taken from our shores, and added to the wealth of another land.

From this sum of £200,000, 50 per cent, must bc deducted as thc prime cost of the merchandise consumed by these people, leaving the remaining 50 per cent, to cover thc various commercial profits, the cost of labour, freight, intercolonial carriage, and colonial duties; add to this, £13,871 7s. 6d., being the duty on thc whole quantity of gold at 2s. 6d. per ounce, together with £2500 for license fees, the pay- ment of which is questionable, and we then have the aggrcgnte sum of £146,371 7. 6d.

This is the utmost amount to which we have been benefited by thc labours of the Chinese, they, meanwhile, having en- riched themselves at our mines, in one year, to the tune of £400,000. If our present position in reference to the Chinese Empire renders it politic that we should receive the subjects of that Government, and place them on a level with Englishmen as far as regards their civil rights, and if we continue to license them to dig for gold, we ought, at least, to insist upon their importing a due proportion of females.

This would more than double their expenditure, and would prove a salutary check upon their wandering propensities. There are those who believe that the sooner our gold-fields are exhausted the better, but those people know little of the true interests of the colony.

The sudden cxhnnstion of thc gold-fields at this moment would involve all classes in one common ruin; the crash would bc frightful. It is not to our advantage to force the auriferous lands to yield their wealth with too great a rapidity. Gold is a harvest that can be gathered but once, and we should guard that source of national riches with the utmost vigilance, regu- lating its production by the exigencies of our fixed population.

Had it been possible to limit thc issue of gold-mining licenses to freeholders, it would have been to the interests of Australia. As it was not, the next best thing is to enable miners to become free- holders, and keep the gold, or its representative value, in thc colony.

Who can pretend to say what amount, in coin and dust, thc 3000 Chinamen who left the western diggings within the last three months for Victoria, have carried across thc Murray. Thc gold-buyers are accustomed to leave sums of money in the hands of thc various storekeepers, scattered over thc diggings, for the purchase of gold; and a few of these parties purchase with their own funds.

It is to these stores that the Chinese and European diggers resort for the sale of their gold, chiefly on a Saturday afternoon or Monday morning. I have, on several occasions, attended these sales, and have always been surprised at thc quantity of gold brought in by the Celestials.

I have observed a large store crowded for hours with these gentry, all waiting for their turn, and displaying the utmost good hu- mour and patience. The quantities offered for sale varied from 12 pennyweights to three or four ounces, and were the product of the week’s work. John has a predilection for silver, and will often divide his little package of gold into two portions, to be sold at separate times, in order to compel the buyer to pay him in that species of coin; and when he is so fortu- nate as to obtain it, he parts with it with extreme reluctance.

He has a thorough contempt for notes, and makes use of many little artifices to get rid of them. If he finds it necessary to purchase a supply of tea and sugar, he buys each article at a different store, and tenders a note in payment of each purchase, consequently, silver is very scarce. The gold-buyer frequently hands him a note, and demands, perhaps, a shilling or sixpence change, when he will request the return of his gold, and postpone thc sale, sooner than part with the “sycee.”

Thc bank collector or buyer visits each district about once in a week, and receives their purchases from thc various storekeepers and publicans. These he deposits with the Commissioner for transit to Sydney by escort, or in some cases carries the gold he has secured to a distant township, in order to swell the escort returns from that particular locality.

To effect that object thc risk is greatly enhanced, as the treasure is made to travel twice over the same ground. Thc storekeepers and publicans receive at the rate of 3d. per ounce for their share of the transaction, but their chief advantage is derived from the opportunity thus afforded of making sales of their wares to the vendors.

Thc result of this system is that it is diffi- cult, if not impossible, to ascertain from whence the gold is procured that is forwarded by the various es- corts; thus, the main portion of the gold forwarded from the Louisa and Mudgee is obtained on the Upper and Lower Meroo and its tributaries.

These arrange- ments have the effect of giving the public a false esti- mate of the importance of certain localities, and in the same ratio depreciates others.

Thc Chinese, when they have accumulated a suffi- cient capital, often become employers of labour, and the new arrivals, ignorant alike of mining, and the customs of our country are glad to place themselves under the protection of their more experienced coun- trymen, and will enter into an engagement, for some months, at a rate of wagers seldom exceeding five sliillings a week and their rations.

These engagements are faithfully fulfilled, and it is by means of these gangs that the poorest ground can be worked to ad- vantage. The Chinese employers are strict masters, and evince much judgmcnt in the application, of the labour thus placed at their disposal.

Many attempts have been made by Europeans to obtain a share of this cheap labour without success. Thc Chinese bosses assert that it is simply because we cannot speak their language, but to this may be added their dread and dislike of the Europoan which is part of their nature, and which time only can soften, if not wholly eradicate.

If the colonial policy has been to enhance the difficulty and expense attendant upon the pursuit of gold to the European, in order to prevent its to rapid accumulation; this has been lost sight of in our regulations for thc man- agement of the Chinese; and, as far as regards the employment of cheap labour, and the formation of co- operative companies amongst themselves, they have been long in a better position than any other class on thc gold-fields.

A few of the bosses, natives of Hong- kong and British subjects, who have been three or four years in thc colony, and held a miner’s right from the commencement, are anxious to know in what posi- tion they stand with regard to the new electoral law; they havc some remote idea of claiming a vote, and of some advantage to bc derived therefrom.

Dr. Street’s party, undismayed by thc failure of the Colonial Gold Company, have leased 400 yards of the same reef that they formerly operated upon, and have sunk one shaft about seventy feet with indifferent success; they discovered at that depth that thc reef narrowed to about two feet, and continued still to de- scend into the schists: they obtained some gold, but not sufficient to warrant further operations in the neighbourhood of the first shaft.

Thc managing partner is an old quartz reefer, and a man of educa- tion and considerable mining experiences; he is still sanguine as to thc character of thereof, and satisfied with the indications; they are now sinking another shaft on the south side. I have examined several small specimens procured from this reef which were found near thc surface, about 300 yards nearer the table land. Mr. Bugg’s party have struck a small leader from thc same reef which promises fair to prove rich; some fine specimens have been taken from it, and a portion of the casing yields as much as one penny- weight of gold to every two pounds weight.

Thc quantity of quartz to bc procured from this leader may be small, but, by following it up to its junction with the main reef, and, sinking at that point, he will in all probability find what others have sought for in vain, viz., an abundant supply of quartz that will pay for crushing.

This reef ascends to the table land, and can bc traced for miles in a direct line for Tambaroora; it is supposed to be thc same that crosses the Bald Hills, and reappears on the south bank of the Turon. Some portion may be immensely rich, but no reef of thc same extent has ever yet been discovered auriferous through its entire length; the greatest part is usually barren, or nt least not payable. T

hose in search of quartz claims should follow up this reef to thc neighbourhood of Dundun, and examine it where it crosses the highest points of thc plateau, and has suffered the least degradation; if unsuccessful, still pursue it to thc point where it sinks into the basin of the Tyramel. It would furnish profit- able employment for a large body of men for many years, if payable quartz was once discovered, but the initiatory operations would absord a large amount of capital.

There arc many other reefs in the basin of the Lousia that present equally favourable indications, but the great nugget vein has ever attracted thc most attention. It is remarkable that in a line with its course thc richest alluvial deposits have been found from the Turon to the Meroo.

The men employed in thc search for alluvial gold take little interest in quartz mining, and do not profess to understand it; if they did, they arc for the most part dcficicnt in thc means requisite to undertake such expensive opera- tions.

About three miles from the Louisa, following the Burrangdong road over the plateau, you cross the Stockyard Creek. This stream, although very little worked, has produced some gold of the best quality. One party of three, who were encamped upon it for some time, were in thc habit of selling from seven to ten ounces of gold weekly; a few parties have since settled upon it for a time, but thc distance from thc stores was so great that it induced them to return to head quarters, and the creek now remains proved to contain payable gold, but unoccupied.

The best portion of the stream is three or four miles from the road: this makes the distance that it would be neces- sary to carry supplies about six miles. There are many small watercourses in the vicinity, and all have been proved to contain gold; some are payable, but have not been worked for thc same reason. If a small store was established in the neighbourhood it is pretty certain that the district would bc quickly settled, and worked to advantage. There is a general impression that the country lying between Burrangdong and the Louisa is auriferous, and that it embraces a large area of payable ground.

A stray digger finds his way now and then over thc table land from the Macquarie, and creates a temporary excitement by his description of thc country he has passed over. A few weeks since a party started on a prospecting expedition in the direction indicated, and several reports of their proceedings have reached thc camps on the Meroo of a cheering character.

Their return is looked for with some anxiety. There are also reports of heavy finds in thc vicinity of Merrinda, and parties of diggers may be observed making their way down the Meroo in that direction. A slight rush also has taken place on Long Creek at thc head of the Meroo, to a place known as Ryan’s Flat, and another to Eagle-hawk Gully, amongst the mountains to the eastward of the Dcvil’s Hole Creek.

The unsettled state of the weather and the frequent severe thunderstorms since the commencement of the year, have kept the creeks and rivers in a constant state of flood, and driven the diggers from their claims so often that a light escort return may be anticipated for this month from the Western; district. In fact, do not suppose that they have been able to work more than three days in each week for the last six weeks, and those three have been at a disadvantage, amidst all these miseries. Hope cheers the digger on and dispels the surrounding gloom.

17 March 1859

AN EXHAUSTED GOLD-FIELD. [A SKETCH BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER] Few places present a more unsightly aspect to a stranger than a large gold-field in its decadence.

The ground is broken, and cut up in every imaginable direction (heaps of stones and gravel interspersed with fallen timber, disfigure the surface; rank and noxious weeds usurp the place of the green sward, and charred stumps, and ruined huts, and mouldering fences, complete the picture of desolation.

Contemplating such a scene, a line of clothes in the distance, fluttering in the breeze, drew my attention to a pretty cottage in an out of the way nook, with its stockyard, its garden, and sundry little back conveni- ences of the gunyah order.

I resolved to visit it, and turned my steps in that direction. As I approached a monstrous beast, half bull and half mastiff, sprung towards me with a ferocious growl, from a hollow log, and I inwardly thanked the chain that held him, and felt some anxiety to know whether it was well secured.

Every bush now sent forth its yelping cur to make a vigorous onslaught upon my heels,—the pigs squeak- ing at the disturbance made for the bush,—the ducks took the water,—the geese stretched their long necks and hiss’d defiance,—the goats stared stupidly at me as if at a loss to known what it was all about, and the old horse hobbled close by, looked over his shoulder, and seemed half inclined to scamper off; in fact where all was peace and quietness I had raised a frightful commotion. The uproar now brought a woman to the door, and a juvenile digger rushed out and drove the curs to their respective hiding places.

Feeling that my introduction was somewhat outré; I enquired if a certain Mr. Smith lived there, and con- trived to be invited to sit down; the ice was now broken, and the youngsters indulged in a good stare at the stranger, while the woman, nothing loth, made me acquainted with all she knew respecting the diggings.

This was the first gold-field she was ever on, and her experience extended no further. Her husband and herself had arrived at that spot six years ago. They were then poor, very poor, and everything was dear—oh! it was so hard to live. Ile had no luck at first, and then he heard of a rush, and nothing would do but he must take the horse and follow the crowd, and leave her and the children behind him.

She supported herself by taking in washing while he was away, and was often sore put to it. At last he come back to her, ragged, naked,’ and penniless, without the horse. Since that time he has never left her.

Sometimes he did well, and sometimes he did bad enough—but somehow or other they managed to get along—and now, thank goodness, he always knew where to lay his hand on a bit of gold. She added, “There are not many on the diggings now, Port Curtis gave us a good clearing out; but they are I coming back to the old spot every day, and it is little they bring with them.”

The good man now came home and was equally communicative. He knew the history of those dig- gings. From the time when they were first opened, since his return from the rush, he had stuck by them through all their varied fortunes.

Sometimes, a year ago, it was as bad as it is now, and then a report would get abroad, and there would be a rush. He did not think much of these rushes, as he generally saw the diggers return poorer than when they went away. He was now working a pug mill with two mates on old ground, and they had three or four years work before them.

The few diggers on the place had been on those diggings since they were opened. They were neighbourly and acquainted with each other, and could always get a little gold; thcre was no fear of their not making a living if they worked.

Strangers came and went unnoticed; few of them could do any good, as they did not know the ground. All he wanted was to get the bit of land about his house; it was not very good certainly, but then he was used to it, and his children were used to it. W now adjourned to the pug mill. Every hole we passed, every pile of rubbish was replete with interest to him: here one man got 50 ounces—here another got 100—here a lead was lost—here it was regained and every rock had its incident. One hut had a par- ticular interest attached to it from the misfortunes of its first occupants.

They were foreigners of a middle class; the family consisted of a woman, her husband, and a youth—their only son. The two latter worked together, and Fortune favoured them so far that in a few montlis they determined to abandon the pick and shovel, and return to their own land with a compe- tence, but—”Man proposes, and God disposes”—the father was drowned crossing the Cudgegong, the mother fell from a dray on the Sydney road, and was killed, and the son is a confirmed maniac.

Many gold-fields, however deserted they may ap- pear at first sight, will be found to contain a popula- tion sufficiently numerous for all the purposes of per- manent settlement, and every now and again small villages occur, consisting of two or three stores and public-houses, with a due propor- tion of blacksmitlis and other tradesmen, capable of supplying all the requirements of the present population.

These villages must grow with the neces- sities of the district, and any effort to force them into an unnatural importance will recoil upon the specu- lators, and result in failure.

Movements are occa- sionally made to get particular localities proclaimed as townships, which sometimes originates in the desire of certain parties to dispose of property to the best ad- vantage when it has ceased to be profitable. Inland towns in a non-manufacturing country must be called into existence by the necessities of the inhabitants; they are the children, not the parents of agriculture.

18 April 1859

THE GOLD-DIGGER. (A SKETCH, BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.)

THERE is no person for whom hope does Bso much as the gold-digger; she sustains him through hardships and dangers at the bare contemplation of which our nature quails, and from which the greatest hero, the most renowned explorer, would shrink dismayed.

Mark him as ho drags his weary limbs across the arid desert-he has not tasted water for two long days, his head swims, lils parched lips are glued together, and the endurance of humanity has reached its utmost limits. But yvhatis that he is gazing at so earnestly ; it is a cloud-no,-its dim outline rising against the clear blue sky remains unchanged ; it is a mountain range, and beyond that range lies the land of promise, and there sits hope on the highest peak ; she cheers him onwards, and ‘reinvigorates his exhausted frame.

With rcneyved life he presses foryvard, he toils up the mountain, and now he is on the summit, and looks down on the long reaches of a winding stream, and countless tents nestling in the foliage upon its banks, and the hum of a thousand voices are wafted upyvards on the fitful breeze ¡ and now he lights a fire at the foot of a huge gum, and stretching his weary limbs, is lost in the land of dreams.

The sun has dawned upon another day ; he has risen refreshed, and we will folloyv him to the diggings, where we lose him in the busy crowd. But here is a man-let us sec what he is about ; he is standing be- side a windlass, over a hole three feet long by eighteen inches wide, and rounded at each end, and round this hole is a pile of white clay, and fragments of quartz , and yellow clay, and gravel, and stones,- j and doyvn in that small hole, twenty feet deep, a human being toils from morning until “night, in half the space of a ncyv made grave, going down, down, still down.

For him, hope rests upon the rock beloyv, and now the windlass goes creak, creak, creak, and bucket after bucket rises to tho surface, and the pile of stones accumulates, and the man at the windlass casts many a wistful look at the laggard sun, and thinks hoyv long hd is in sinking behind the ranges, for his arm nches, and he is weary of the creak all day long.

And noyv moist red gravel, streaked with grey, comes up, and he at the windlass pries into the bucket ns if he thought by the intensity of his gaze he could look through it, and he docs not throw this, like the rest, on the pile of stones, but empties it into a tub, and now you hear the pick below strike against the solid Tock ;

the windlass creaks again, and up come five more buckets -the lost two full of fragments of slaty rock, and they arc all likewise emptied into the tub ; and now the man in the hole comes to the surface, and says to his mate, dipping toyvards the hill, and Hope leaves the hole and sits upon the tub, and he of the windlass fills it with water and washes the fragments of rock, and breaks the lumps with his shovel ; and now he pours ?’

off the muddy liquid and adds fresh, and picks out the fragments of rock ; and noyv the stuff is puddled, and ho lots it settle, and pours off the mud and water, and carries the remainder to the cradle ; and Hope now flits from the tub and rests upon the slide, and ho pours on water with one hand and rocks with the other ;

and noyv the stuff is through he throws the pebbles from the hopper, and there on the slide is the object of his toil-the grains of gold; and his eyes brighten as he scropes them into his tin dish, for they are still mixed with sand. And noyv he washes away the sand in the neighbouring stream, and then his mate enquires how much ?

Three pen . nyweights is the answer ; when he replies, that will do ; and adds, we will drive in towards the hill to- morrow, there is eighteen inches of wash in that di- rection ; and with a light step they seek their tent. Returning day calls the busy throng again to their labours, and we folloyv another party to their shaft it is forty feet deep.

They bottomed late last evening, but during the night the water has risen ten feet to the level of the adjacent rivei ; and now the windlass flies round right merrily, and one bucket comes up as the other goes down. It is hard work, hour after hour, but every man takes his spell-they are gaining upon the water.

Presently the bucket strikes the bottom, and comes up half full. A man goes down, his tools are lowered after him ; he fills the buckets with his tindish, but the water is coming in, fast bubbling from the rock ; and as one bucket is going up he makes a desperate effort and fills the other with washing-stuff, and up it goes ; but before it is half-way to the surface the water is again to his knees and rising fast ; he follows the bucket, in five minutes more he would hare been drowned-the water has driven him out.

They now wash the contents of the bucket, and get five pennyweights of gold. How it would have paid, but for the confounded water ; but it is no use, and sadly they collect their tools, and go in search of another claim. Hope is still their guiding star.

Here is another party higher up the ridge ; they are down 120 feet, and the enormous pile of rubbish tells the extent of their labours. For six long weeks thev have been sinking, living upon hope and credit ; at last they have struck the bottom, and up comes the first bucket of washing stuff. What an amount of hope and fear is centered in that bucket. They hasten to the water, and the secret is soon told ; you can read in their blank faces that all is wrong ; there is just the colour in the dish, nothing more-another-and another-and another-the results are still the same it is a duffer ; and as they leave the spot and sloyvly move towards their huts, they avoid’ the crowd, and many a whisper is heard as they pass along.

One has left lils mates and crosses the flat towards a cottage in the scrub, a woman comes forth to meet him, her step is light and joyous, she carries an infant in her arms, and a little one trips lightly after her, gathering brambles by the way ; as she approaches she reads the fruitless end of his six weeks’ labour in his face, her sunny smile is gone, and she presses the babe convulsively to hot bosom words are needless-she knoyvs it all ¡ and as they enter the cottage, you hear him say, . there is no help for it, Mary, the horse must go.’ But even here hope ftill lingers.

Sec those men on the outskirt of the diggings, gathered round a hole-thev aTe excited ; what antics that fellow is cutting with his shovel-we will go and seo what’s up ; they are fossickers, they took up a deserted shaft last week, the rock rose suddenly at the end of the tunnel and it was deserted, but they knew the ground better than that-they were old hands on | the river, they would go into that very tunnel ; j they rose with tho rock ; for three feet ‘ they got nothing-no, not even the colour.

They yvere I not to be disheartened ; on they went. The rock dips ; now they get the colour only ; they are on the bottom of the dip ; it is a little better-not much ; and now it rises agoin gently. Ah ! here it is. Every blow of the pick turns up a nugget, and up comes the bucket, the nuggets on the top. Hope has done her work, and given place to fortune. And now look at those men, taking all sorts of roundabout ways to come here.

They are trying to escape observation, but their very anxiety betrays them : it has got wind already, and there is a rush. Notice hoyv they scan the ground ; they do not pretend to observe the lucky ones. And noyv one goes into the scrub, and returns with four pegs ; and then another, and noyv there is a general scramble, and peg3 are going down in all directions. The sun rose upon this place a desert, untenanted save by three or four men, and now it swarms with life, and Hope flits from man to man and cheers him innis labours.

But observe those fellows. They ore chary of their work. Hoyv sloyvly they get on ; and now they leave their shovels in their holes, and saunter round to inspect the progress of their neighbours ; they are shepherding, and are hanging on to see how the ground turna out ; duffers are their abomination-besides, thoy hope for a chance to sell. But who is that old man ? his grey hairs escapo from under the remnant of a hat that, like himself, has seen many winters. .

See, he totters under the weight of an old pick, and a shovel worn to the stump, and a tin dish ; they are his only tools, and there his dog trots on before him ; he is his only mate ; it is Daddy Jenkins, the gleaner of the diggings. Ile leaves his lonely hut when the sun shines warm and bright, and is then to be found along the margin of the rippling stream. The diggers look kindly on him, and if in their Sabbath rambles thoy see a little spot where a bit of gold is to be had with no great labour, they tell him of it, and he, even he, ekes out a crust ; he has some one in some far-off plnce that yet binds him to life, for he has been known to make remittances, and Hope sometimes deigns to visit him.

Who is this ? He comes on horseback. Look at his well stuffed saddle bags. “We saw him a while ago popping in and out of those large huts with the flaunting flags. He is not a city swell, nor yet a grossman ; he is a cross between the two, and delights in affecting the rough air of the bush.

Ah, he is a gold buyer ; he is the only man we know of anxious to get rid of his money, tie has been round the stores, and he comes to try his luck with the diggers. He loses no time ; he is now at his work. Jack, is that you 5 Any luck-got any gold for me ? Jack replies no. Your notes arn’t the thing, they smell musty-you keep them too long. He moves on to another with-Well, Bob, how is it turning out ? Bob desires to know whether he could dub up for 200 ounces. The buyer thinks he could raise the tin for so much ; and Bob requests him to wait until he gets it. Ho runs the gauntlet through the mob, nnd gallops off with his aaddle-bags a few pounds the heavier. Here we are on the river’s brink.

Who are these strange men ? See their tawny faces, their high cheek bones, their snubby noses, and their little twinkling roguish eyes set so far npart, and their bamboo hats (ñr,t cousins to umbrellas), and their loose blue collarless shirts, with continuations to match, a sort of compromise between a. petticoat and a pair of un- mentionables-they are from the central fioweryland.

There is a crowd of them picking the surface of that ridge below the quartz reef; and theie is another mob ; they have discarded their ancient bamboo-pole for the milkman’s yoke, and trot backwards and forwards to the river, carrying the surfacing to the washers ; they must get some gold every day, no matter how little, or it will not do ;-and who is this sleek individual, dressed à la barbarian ?-notice his great coarse rings ; he is the boss, and till these men labour at his risk and for his profit.

How he watches our movements ; he thinks wo have come to disturb him in his claim ; observe his sallow caduvorous features-he is an opium smoker, and sometimes in his dreams, is transported to the banks of the Yang tsze, and he has gold and riches, and buys his heart’s idol from her father, and his happiness is complete ; and then he awakes in his miserable tent, the vision has fled, but Hope tells him it may yet be realised. And here is another crowd of the ancient race-what a jabber there is amongst them ; they have sunk a shaft, it is a duffer, and they curse it, and to make the curse the more effectual they drop a green branch into it ; they are too much excited to hope for anything. nark ! what ciy was that, there is a commotion on the upper end of the flat-the people have dropped their tools and are running. Let us follow : n tunnel has caved in, a man is buried ; he came on the river a few days since, and bought the hole from one who said he had to leave ; ho was a novice at the work. And now danger is . forgotten, some jump into the hole, the buckets fly from hand to hand, these are relieved by others ; at last they reach him, but it is too late-he is dead ; and now they bring him to the surface.

21 July 1859

A VISIT TO THE WESTERN GOLDFIELDS. You now commence a rapid winding descent, in some places almost precipitous, and are soon deep in the auriferous formations, huge masses of quartz occur in every direction, the stream is now in sight far below, when passing a dilapidated edifice on a projection overhanging the water.

A few hundred yards, still descending, leads you to the margin of the Summerhill Creek, and you find yourself surrounded by two or three ruinous looking hovels standing within a few feet of the spot where the Thoms, under the direction of Hargreaves, first obtained Australian gold in payable quantities.

And this miserable, damp, gloomy spot is the world renowned Ophir! Here the last-surviving public house, clinging with desperation to the sloping banks, struggles for an existence—every rent and torn sheet of bark proclaims the fallen fortunes of the gold-field; and higher up the remains of what was once a neat little church, crown on eminence, a part of the slabs, with the flooring, doors, and windows, have been torn up and carried off by some unprin- cipled persons; and there it stands, a lasting stigma upon the population of the district.

It was to this part of the creek that the eager multitude first directed their steps, and here they commenced their explora- tions when the astounding intelligence of the discovery of gold in these waters first flew with electric speed through the country. Of all that busy and and excited crowd of adventurers, the solitary inmates of the public-house are the last remnant.

The rugged hills have been abandoned to their ancient solitude, the dark pools under the shadows of the rocks retain no traces of the anxious labours of the gold seeker, and the rippling stream pursues its wonted course, winding along its rocky bed.

As it was here that the digger first tried his apprentice hand, he confined his researches entirely to the bed of the creek, from which successive floods have swept all the evidences of his toil. It is said that much of the channel has been but very imperfectly worked, but it would now be impos- sible to distinguish these spot from exhausted claims without a great expenditure of labour.

Few of the water holes have been yet examined, and these will probably soon attract attention. The junction of Lewis’s Ponds Creek is about a quarter of a mile higher up, and on looking round you find yourself encompassed with mountains, whose steep declivities fall precipitously into the creek, flinging their long shadows over its troubled waters.

Nothing indicates the neighbourhood of the lovely district on the plateau, and there are no marginal flats. The gold set at liberty by the breaking up of the enormous reefs which intersect the hills in every direction, with that also derived from the conglomerates, is carried directly into the creek, or in some rare instances may be found accu- mulated in the pockets of the rocks that cross the little channels of the mountain streams.

At the foot of one of these iron-crested hills left of the public-house on a little bench about 100 feet above the creek, where the rock shelves in to- wards the mountain, a man named White about two years since, obtained about 47 lbs. weight of gold in a few days—this success created a sensation at the time and is now quoted as an evidence of the unexhausted wealth of the neighbourhood.

It is somewhat singular that I subsequently met the same man camped on a roadside, after having rambled through all the Southern Gold-fields without having improved his fortune; in truth, his description of the Southern dis- tricts was gloomy enough, and he, was now returning to where he said he knew gold could be had for the seeking; he appeared to have a theory of his own which I suspect, did not include perservering industry.

Ascending White’s Peak you will observe an immense quartz lode passing under its iron crest, which has been the source of the gold ob- taincd on the bench below.

The pure quartz con- glomerate is here well exhibited, intervening between the ironstone and the schists; in fact examples of all the geological features of the locality may be seen in this single hill, which is simply a fraction of the plateau cut off and shaped by the action of the drain- age. The destruction of the auriferous rocks in the vicinity has, been enormous, and the debris, borne by the resistless floods that sweep from time to time through the chasm-like watercourse, has found a rest- ing place on the lower, levels near the Macquarie.

Many deep shafts have been sunk round the crest of White’s Hill, penetrating the ironstone and conglo- morates to the schists, but the gold obtained was sufficient to render the operation profitable.

Follow- ing the crown of this range, which here overhangs the creek, and passing many spots where the ironstone formations still exist, about two miles brings you to Murray’s gulley, where the drainage from the the table lands has, by the disintegration of the schists, formed a hollow of considerable area, through which a small stream passes to the creek.

In this hollow about thirty diggers are encamped, and at its lower extremity stands a circular fragment of the table land coped with ironstone to the depth of sixty feet, the summit is a perfect level of about two acres in extent, and is nearly devoid of vegetation. Twelve months since a small nugget was found on this hill, and it was immediately rushed, and several shafts sunk to a depth of from sixty to eighty feet, when on per- forating the ironstone, the conglomerate was found to be resting upon pipeclay, two or three feet in thick- ness, On the surface of this pipeclay, or on soft arenaceous schists, gold was found, but the quantity generally fell short of the expenses, a few claims proved remunerative, and are still being profitably worked, some of the tunnels extending nearly through the hill.

The little stream winding round its base was very productive, but soon became exhausted, The Summerhill Creek, sweeping round the eastern base of this hill, makes a large detour, and perpendi- cular walls of rugged and disjointed rocks seven hundreds of feet in height, cut off all access to the stream. On the opposite side of Murray’s Gully the same formation is continued at a similar elevation, and gold has been found beneath the ironstone, generally diffused in quantities sufficient to remunerate the miner at the present rate of colonial wages to labourers, that is, to pay him from 30s. to £2 per week.

Isolated patches of greater value will be occasionally met with, but at the rate specified the stratum beneath the immense fields of ironstone in this district would furnish em- ployment to a large number of men for a long series of years.

A mile lower down the creek a party are engaged draining a waterhole, and beyond this it has been deserted, notwithstanding that the descents from the ranges and the table land on either bank hold out many inducements to the goldseeker. Away to the N.E. a massive chain of mountains, stretching from the granitic formations in the Bathurst district, interpose a huge barrier between the Ophir country and the Macquarie; and the eastern fall from this range is said to give birth to many auriferous streams, as yet unknown to the digger, amongst these is Possum Creek, which has its source in an outburst of granite, and descending to the schists of the forehills has produced several nuggets of from two to three pounds weight; it has been but little worked, as the broken country and the difficulty ex- perienced by the diggers in obtaining supplies has caused it to be neglected.

Six miles above Ophir, at Summerhill crossing- place, a few diggers still contrive to obtain gold enough to pay their way, and here and there a solitary digger may be observed amongst the rocks silently pursuing his dreary vocation. The Ophir district was the first discovered, the first abandoned, and is the least worked of all our gold fields, although perhaps the most extensive; amongst the fastnesses of the Mullions innumerable deposits of alluvial gold are still undisturbed, and many aurifer- ous reefs of immense value will hereafter be traced from the highest elevations to the points where they are concealed by the wreck of the ancient limestones, when Ophir will indeed be worthy of its name.

26 July 1859

AT the first grey streak of dawn I issued from my comfortless quarters, and crossed the Summerhill at the junction of Lewis Ponds, where a mountain road conducts you to a summit of the hills on the eastern bank.

About half a mile above the junction, two or three abandoned public houses, or stores, are occupied by diggers, with their families; and on the crest of the range rising behind the sheltered nook in which they are situated a patch of surfacing was discovered.

All the streams falling into the Summerhill, on the one hand and Lewis Ponds on the other, formerly yielded a good deal of gold, but they are now ex- hausted.

The gold procured on the crown of this mountain, and on all sides of it, and much of what was obtained at the junction of the two creeks, has been derived from some of the reefs that intersect it, and it is very probable that a careful examination would lead to the discovery of a reef or leader similar to that at Burrendong.

Lewis’ Creek has produced more gold than Sum- merhill, but with the exception of three or four miles above the junction, it has been very little, and very imperfectly worked. My attention was called to several places where the first gold seekers were doing well until driven from their claims by floods.

These spots have never been reopened, and many are said not to have been more than one-third worked. After passing about three miles up the stream, the banks cease to be preci- pitous and rich alluvial flats occupy both sides for a long distance, until the granite formations succeed the schists, when the country becomes broken and preci- pitous. From fifteen to twenty diggers, in small parties, are scattered up and down the stream at its lower extremity, confining their labours to the bed of the creek. They were said to be doing better than those at Ophir, but I could hear of no instance of success worth recording.

About fifteen miles, to the south-west of Ophir, the granites of the Bathurst country come in contact with the quartziferous schists stretching from the Mullions and from this important point two parralel ranges stretch to the north-west, on which outbursts of granite may be traced in a continuous course nearly due north for many miles, gradually attain- ing a lower elevation until they dip under the schists; or it will be better understood by saying that the upheaving forces appears to have become gradually reduced, as it advanced northward.

As the ordinary traveller approaches the point of contact, he will find the district become more broken and mountains of great height, isolated and scparated by deep irregular valleys, will succed the continuous ranges He will only see “Rocks upon rocks in dire confusion hurled,

A rent and formless mass, the refuse of a world.” but he who can read the book of nature, spread out before him will recognise no chaos, no confusion. He will observe that every formation occupies the place assigned to it by immutable natural laws,—that it is to these convulsions of a former system we are in- debtcd for many of those minerals so essential to an advanced state of civilization. Beds of the richest iron ore are to be found stretching along the sides of these ranges, and traces of copper are abundant over a very extensive district.

From one of the foothills I obtained specimens of a very rich copper ore and malachite, and amidst the mountains of the northern range there are mineral springs which possess the singular properties of acting as a strong emetic. Gold has also been obtained in many of the mountain streams but the upper district is nearly unknown, and has never been the scene of the gold diggers re- searches; two or three lodes of copper have been opened by companies but the high price of labour, and the difficulties attending the transit both of sup- plies and the ore over these rough mountain districts, have prevented the operations from being remunera- tive, thcy are therefore, at present, unworked.

Lewis’s Ponds Creek originates on the Ironstone Steppes, at the base of the Canobolas in the vicinity of Kyong, amidst swamps and marshes fed from the wreck of the limestone formations, which may be everywhere discovered on the plateau, from thence sweeping round to the north west, it descends to the head of the valley between the ranges, through which it flows until it unites with the Summerhill, draining a district containing a wealth of iron and copper that will afford employment to a largc population when the golden trcasurcs of the mountains have been ex- haustcd. About the centre of this valley a tract of Government land was discovercd which has been cut up into eight or nine small farms, which now form the homes of as many families, the remaining portion of the rich allu- vial valleys and the forehills are unimproved private property.

There may be still some fragments of public land unalienated, but under the present sur- vey systcm, their whereabouts is a mystery, even to the oldest inhabitant, and that is Scotch Harry, who boasts of a residence of thirty years amongst these mountains.

Through his praiseworthy exertions the inhabitants of the valley have an opportunity of at- tending divine service on the first Sunday in each month but the education of the children is yet unpro- vided for. Crossing the range to the sonthward, a journey of four miles conducts you to Emu Swamp, a wide allu- vial valley of surpassing beauty, at an elevation of several hundred feet above Lewis’s Ponds.

The ranges here subside into open broad-based hills, and the country becomes open and undulating, twin ironstone knolls attract the attention and a rich cal- carious ferruginous loam covers both hill and valley —black in the flats, and a dark red blown on the slopes—in some places to the depth of nine feet. You are now on the vergc of a rich farming district, homesteads are scat- tered on the hill sides of every colonial form and shape, from the rude bark hut to the more pretending shin- gled cottage. Large tracts of arablc land stretch up slopes, from which the forest has disappeared root and stump; and long lines of fence bewilder the traveller ac- customed to wander at will over the ranges.

The plough is at work in every direction—and all the hawks and rooks, and magpies in the district seem to be gathered in the valley, and are busy after the ploughman, while flocks of white cockatoos sedately watch the proceed- ings from the highest branch of some withered gum as if conscious that their time of action had not yet arrived. With all this there is a something cold, and naked, and comfortless, about an Australian farm’s use, it has no hold upon the affections—it presents no image for memory to conjure up in distant lands—it wants—the heavy porch, the massive chimneys, the ponderous roof, the quaint little windows, the green hedgerows, the old fruit trees, the gardens , in short the cosy com- fortable, paternal look of a good old English home.

An Irish mud cabin with all its discomforts, looks more like a home, and has more affection gathered round it than on of our bark gunyah conveniences .”Home, Sweet Home,” would certainly never have written by an Aus- tralian farmer, it is not improbable that much of the intemperance, that is the curse of the land, has origi- nated in the neglect of all domestic confort by the rural population, it has weakened the bonds of family affection, and brought a host of evils in its train that it will take a long series of years to eradicate.

How it was introduced it is now needless to enquire—love of country originates in love of home, and he who succeeds in inducing the people to improve the com- fort of their dwellings, will be a public benefactor.

Following one of the arms diverging from Emu Swamp to the southward and doubling round fences, and working through intricate dray tracks, and passing a wide expanse where the hills are deforested, and where fields of from 50 to 100 acres in extent are under cultivation, you at last reach a gap in the Limestone Hills, from the summit of which you look down upon Frederick’s Valley, and the country stretching to the base of the Canobolas, which may be seen towering above the foothills, about twelve miles distant, as the plain from which they rise is more than 3000 feet above the sea, much of the gran- deur that they exhibited at a distance here becomes lost.

The summit of the Old Man Canobolas is itself said to be an ironstone flat; and ironstone and lime- stone, with an occasional denudation of trap, now forms the surface of the intervening country. Descend- ing to the vallcy you find yoursclf in what looks very like an Irish black bog, through which a creek makes its way, until after a course of forty miles it falls into the Summerhill.

The black bog soil found in these flats is precisely of the same formation, and presents the same appearance as that to be found on the broad treeless plains on the banks of the Condamine, on the Darling Downs, and in the valleys at the heads of the Richmond and Clarence Rivers. It is not fertile in its natural state, in winter it is saturated with water like a sponge and it becomes baked as hard as a brick, and is intersected by enormous fissures under the heat a summer sun.

About half a mile lower down, crossing the creek, you enter an arm of the valley, which soon expands into a wide alluvial basin, between iron- stone ridges. This basin appears to have been the bed of an ancient lake, and its unbroken surface is a dead treeless level; in the centre is a small steam flour mill, and beyond it a fine inn and a store.

It is a fearful affair to cross this flat, as after rain, the black tenacious mud is knee- deep, and cannot be avoided. On either side you ascend broad undulating plains covered with the soil formerly described but in some places the deep brown gives place to a light red, and the schists may be ob- served denuded in the deep water courses. There are here and there a few farms; but the surrounding coun- try, lovely and fertile as it is, being the private property, is for the most part in a state of nature.

Ascending the broad ridge to the right of the mill, auriferous indications become perceptible; the sur- face is composed of the debris of a calcarious ferrugi- nous shist, and at a mile’s distance, on the slopes falling into the basin of the creek, you find the works of the Wentworth Gold Mining Company.

There is here a fine steam-engine of thirty-horse-power, with a complete crushing machine, and several huts for the accomodation of the workmen, and a neat shingled residence, which is occupied by the manager. The works are not now in operation, and I wandered over the premises in solitude.

A partially decomposed quartz reef crosses the brow of the ridge, which has been opened for about 200 feet, and the investing schist appears to con- tain an unusual proportion of carbonate of lime, and are perishable in the extreme. Fragments of this rock that seems to have been exposed for two or three years exhibit some very beautiful examples of the net- work of silicious veins by which they are intersected. the softer rock having entirely disappeared. Imme- diately below the reef a large quantity of gold was ob- tained by ordinary diggers prior to the withdrawal of the licenses, and the establishment of the company.

The sinking was through a quartose debris, to a depth varying from three to six feet, when a hard trappean rock was discovered presenting the appearance of having been abraded and waterworn, as if a powerful stream had passed over it at some remote period.

All those who were fortunate enough to obtain claims here were eminently successful. The operations of the company appear to have been confined to three deep shafts now full of water, by which they seem to have penetrated the trap rock to a great depth, passing through veins of black iron flint, and under the trap they have come upon the schists, inter- mixed with carbonate of lime, that has probably filtered through fissures in the superstrata; their tunnels have been driven toward the creek, distant about a quarter of a mile; and these tunnels may have crossed many leaders similar in character to that at Burrendong, as I observed mullock attached to fragments of half de- composed quartz in some heaps of wash dirt.

It is not probable that at the great depth to which they have penetrated large accumulations of drift gold will be found. as at Ballarat and other places.

The overflow of trappean rocks which extended from the Canoblas to this valley was the result of a submarine eruption, as is evident from the superstrata of lime and ironstone which prevails in the district; those fluviatile accumulations that might reasonably be looked for in a country overwhelmed by a subaerial eruption cannot, therefore exist; but if the course of a subterranean current below the trap, and causing quartiferous schists from east to west, or west to east, could be discovered, it is pro- bable that gold would be obtained in abundance.

Opposite to the Wentworth Company’s works is a small round hill, on which a fine reef shows itself; the surface indications are auriferous. Gold has also been obtained on the northern bank of the creek, and as you proceed towards Orange spots have been ex- posed by denudation where the digger might set to work with advantage; but all this district is the pro- perty of individuals, who will naturally object to have their lands disfigured and rendered dangerous to their stock.

To the eastward, about fourteen miles distant, are the King’s Plains, a continuation of the same form- ations, where a few rich claims have recently been dis- covered. I was informed that the payable ground was limited, and fully occupied. I did not, how- evcr visit that locality, the season being unfavourable for the Abercrombie, which is almost a ‘terra incognita’, where it is rumoured that a very rich reef has been dis- covered, which is not yet claimed.

At Canowindra, or, the Belabula, a tiny reef is also attracting attcntion and has only been claimed to a small ex- tent. Again, in the streams falling from the western side of the Canobolas gold has been found, and a few parties have been there for some time making good wages. Chinaman’s Flat is spoken of as one of the most promising localities, but is difficult to find amongst the broken precipices, under the mountain.

The Western will probably be connected with the Southern Gold-fields at some future period by a chain of discoveries tracing the auriferous formations from King’s Plains through the wild and broken country that extends to Adelong, and even beyond to the Murray.

3 august 1859

A VISIT TO THE WESTERN GOLDFIELDS. [from our special reporter]

We are again upon the road, and now turn our back upon the golden regions of the West, which terminate at Frederick’s Valley; our way lays to the southward, over the plateau nearly 3000 feet above the coast level.

Here undulating hills, broad slopes; and winding plains, stretch from the base of the Canobolas to the verge of the horizon, and rich grasses, now frosted and withered, and heavy open timber, are an evidence of the deep trappean soil under which the rocks of both ridge and plain are concealed.

Here and there the summit of some low hill displays the wreck of its iron crest but as you proceed they become more and more rare. The monotony of the forest is occasionally relieved by straggling patches of cultiva- tion, of the rudest kind, enclosed by a fence of logs and brushwood, piled up to the height of three or four feet, which have been collected from the cleared spaces; in the centre, or at one corner within the enclosure, stands a bark hovel, with a pile of stones, and sods, and rubbish, at one end, from the chinks of which the smoke creeping out gives the only evidence of occupation; a few posts and saplings in the neighbourhood represent a stock- yard, near to it stands a dray sheltering two or three famine-stricken dogs; and a little further off is a diminutive wheat stack, which with a few working bullocks, and perhaps an old brood mare, constitutes the whole wordly wealth of the owner—one of that class generally designated as little settlers.

I might proceed to describe an interior, but it would be hardly fair. I can only say that it is in perfect keeping with the outside, and that the people here are of the same opinion as the poet, when he sang “Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long.” At this season of the year the nights and mornings are intensely cold, and the frosts are severe.

Keen and chilling blasts drive over the flats, often accom- panied by a drizzling sleet, and snow storms are not unfrequent; but the snow seldom lays more than a few hours on the ground. Dark November-looking mornings, with their cold, grey, leaden, misty sky, shrouds nature in one wide-spread gloom.

These are succeeded by several hours of bright sunshine, when the fleeting shadows chase each other over vale and and mountain, and then comes evening and sunset.

How the houseless traveller who traverses these hyperborean regions during the long winter months, with no other shelter than his blanket, hates the setting sun; for then comes night, and bitter piercing cold, and frost, and chill and cutting winds come wailing through the forest.

Then by the side of his lonely fire he watches the Southern cross, to mark how the tedious hours wear away, and he notes the bright silvery clouds as they flit over the moon, and listens to the shrieks of the opossums, and the chat- tering of the flying squirrels, and the solemn hootings of the night owl, and the howlings of the dingo, and a hundred other indescribable shrieks and noises—for night is the time when the denizens of an Australian forest are astir, they revel in the bright moonshine and sleep all day long.

And at last the moon sinks behind the forest, and the noises cease, and the cold becomes more intense, and the stars fade one by one, and a streak of misty light appears on the eastern edge of the forest, and every moment it deepens and mounts higher into the sky, and then he scrapes the embers of his fire together, and piles as many logs upon it as will take a good two hours to burn out, and then it is broad daylight; the dreariest hour of darkness has passed, the hour before break of day, and he rolls himself in his blanket, and, stretched on the green turf before his fire, sleeps until the chatter of the birds and the glare of the sun two hours high awakes him to the labours of another day.

Ten miles from Frederick’s Valley you reach the Church and School lands intersected by Brown’s Creek, and pass the neat residence of Mr. P. Slat- tery. The country now descends by successive steppes, and the road conducts you across the holdings of two or three tenants of the Church and Schools, who have a comparatively large breadth under cultivation.

This property is leased at an annual rent of from £6 to £8 a section, for periods of seven years, renewable for twenty-one years at the option of the tenant.

Much of this land is of a very superior quality, and the terms on which it is rented are liberal in the extreme, as the annual fee does not exceed 1½ per cent, on the present value. The fall now becomes rapid, the schists gradually reappear, and seven miles from the last farm, rising from behind a pile of hills, from the last farm, rising from behind a pile of hills, towers up before you with its long unbroken hue of crests stretching to the eastward.

Descending upon Belabula Creek, a large stream where the indications of gold and copper become again distinct, but where there has been no gold-digging as yet, you cross the creek, which is a benutiful clear ever-flowing stream, and ascend a mountain on the opposite bank by a winding road; a mile’s journey brings you to the summit, when you look down upon the pretty compact little town of Carcoar, in a deep glen at the base of Mount Macquarie, watered by the Belabula,

The town appenrs to great advantage, occupying the narrow little alluvial flat on both sides of the stream, and climbing up the steep side of the opposite hill,

The situation is most picturesque; it wants but a mineral spring, and a dozen or two of donkeys, to make it a fashionable watering place another Malvern Hills. Something of the former kind is said to exist on the top of the big mountain.

As a commercial town the position of Carcoar is fatal to its prosperity. Encompassed by mountains, no person can arrive at the town, or depart from it, without descending or climbing a succession of steep hills, and the ranges by which it is encircled, how- ever beautiful to look at, are utterly worthless for agriculture, or even for pastoral occupation.

Descending now into the gorge, you pass a hand- some first-class hotel,. confronted by one of the three stores of which the town boasts, and then a steam flour mill, shut up on the principle of no competi- tion and then comes one of the finest wooden bridges of its size in this or any other country, which, passing over, you are alongside of another steam flour mill in, full operation.

Here is, the second store, and the third is a little higher up on the flat. You now arrive at three public houses in a cluster; beyond this is a small square, in the centre of which is a neat brick-built court-house, and on, the opposite side the National school; also a capacious brick building, and a lock- up near the bridge.

You now follow the Bathurst road up a steep ascent, and have on one hand an elegant parsonage in the Elizabethan style, and on the other a pretty Gothic church, with a square tower, but no steeple the sites of both are chosen with singular good taste, and it is these two buildings that create such a pleasing effect at the first glimpse of the town obtained from the opposite hill.

Higher up, on an artificial level formed by the outlay of a small fortune, so as to enable wheeled conveyances to stop before his door in their descent, stands Mulrowney’s new hotel. Many of the streets are laid out on slopes, at an angle of thirty degrees, and the buildings already noticed, with a few cottages clinging to the sides of the hills, comprise the town, which if well situated, would be now the centre of a large commeicial population.

A strange fatality seems to have attended the selec- tion of the town sites on the frontiers of the settled districts. Here is Carcoar at the bottom of a hole, while within three miles are fertile plains, on the Belabula, of vast extent, and a level country extending from thence to the Murrumbidgee almost unoccupied; and then there is Burrendong, in a slate desert, amongst rocks and ridges; and Douglas on the top of an inaccessible waterless mountain beyond the Lach- lan; and Binnelong, also in a desert of crags and pre- cipices, with a deep rocky ravine, winding in and out of the main street about forty times.

A Government surveyor has been employed at this latter place for the last nine months, vainly endeavouring to improve the original plan, but his is a bootless task, for he can neither remove rocks or mountains, or precipices. In the neighbourhood of all those places good sites exist, but these sites have now become private property under pre-emptive claims. The laying out of these townships has been admirably designed with the view of check- ing an inconvenient increase of the population on the borders of the unsettled districts, beyond those neces- sary to carry on the road traffic.

No man who has his bread to earn by his industry, and had a market to seek for the produce of that industry, would ever dream in his sober senses of settling in one of these picturesque deserts,—the people have asked for bread and have been offered a stone.

Leaving Carcoar by the same road you entered it, after crossing two neat bridges, you arrive at rich level plain’s on the banks of the Belabula, and at two miles distance from the town pass the handsome residence of Mr. C. Icely, half-concealed amidst a mass of foliage half-a-mile from the road, and three miles further you cross the last bridge, when turning to the left, for eighteen miles the road conducts you over a fertile undulating country, lightly timbered, badly watered, and unin- habited.

On either side distant ranges stretch to the westward, and the cloud-capped Canobolas are still visible; but, far to the eastward, the soil is now of the richest quality, and descending all the way you arrive at Ellerslie, or the Old Sheet of Bark, where a tract of land has been purchased at £5 an acre, and a first-class stone house has been built, shortly to be opened as an hotel by Mr. Isaac White.

The soil is here a red loam, mixed with granitic sand. Twelve miles further, passing a solitary shepherd’s hut, you reach an outburst of coarse granite, the soil here becomes light and sandy, when three miles further brings you to the beautifully situated village of Cowra, on the green banks of the Lachlan.

The ground surrounding this village, on the eastern bank, is unimproved and in the hands of pastoral proprietors. The western bank is the com- mencement of the unsettled districts; then broad plains of unrivalled fertility stretch for many miles up and down the river. They extend back some 15 or 20 miles, and are at present unalienated, being held under pastoral leases, and very lightly stocked. It is said that however inviting this country may appear, the excessive droughts of summer would render agricultural pursuits hazardous and uncer- tain. The entire plains for fifty miles at a stretch could be irrigated by a single dam.

The farmers on the eastern bank, a few miles above Cowra, appear to find no difficulty in raising crops that will compare favourably with the produce of any other part of the colony. A bridge over the Lachlan at Cowra would open up the best road in New South Wales, connecting Bathurst, via Marengo, with the Muriumbidgce and from thence, with the Southern districts and Victoria, the greater part of’ the route would pass over a level country, much of which is fertile, richly grasscd, well-timbered, and suitable for the establishment of towns and agricultural villages: however, surface water is scarce over some portion of the district, but it can be obtained almost everywhere on the plains at an average depth of 20 feet.

Cowra contains six public-houses, of various grades, including some of the highest class, the foundation of a Catholic chapel, an excellent National school, two good stores, a post-office, and a very few cottages. The natural beauties of the situation are of a high order, and from its position it promises to become, at some future day, a place of considerable importance.

Some six or seven miles up the river, which flows from the southward, small farms are to be seen on the eastern bank, and from this point they follow the course of the permanent creeks, and are to be found scattered up and down the winding valleys extending to Goulburn. Flour mills are situated within a rea- sonable distance of each other, and the supply of agricultural produce is not yet in excess of the con- sumption of the district.

26 August 1859

GUNDAGAI AND ITS ENVIRONS.

SOME soulless biped in Victoria is reported to have deliberately written that “Australia is not worth fighting for.” Has he ever witnessed the glories of her sun-light mountains, the broad and fertile valleys, the noble forests, the grassy plains, and the countless streams of her interior -the future happy homes of millions of our race as yet unborn?

Has he had no visions of future empire, of the destiny that awaits our children in this noble land? The man that Lord Byron made so many anxious enquiries after,_ the man with the dead soul,-has been un- earthed, unearthed at the antipodes ; but we will leave this soulless individual, in the hope that he is a rare specimen of the genus, and, plunging into the solitude of a mountain road, continue our route to the southward.

Two miles from Galong we arrive at the sum- mit of the range that divides the waters of the Lachlan from the Murrimbidgee. To the south- east the snowy wastes of the Australian Alps rise sharp and clear against the cold bright sky, while diverging ranges and isolated mountains, broken here and there by long winding valleys and gloomy gorges, fill the intervening space, gradually subsiding into the basin of a dry and scrubby watercourse, that follows the base of the ridge along which the road holds its way.

To the westward, the eye wanders over the sum- mits of a wilderness of declining hills; and over all this vast expanse the forest rolls, now bril- liant with a thousand varied shades of gold, and purple, and brown, and green, as it ascends the swelling crest of some long ridge, and then fading into darker hues as it sinks into the depths of a valley until it melts in the dim and airy distance.

A few miles to the eastward, the great south- ern highway from the capital drags its slow length along, winding round sidlings, crossing hills, and struggling through deep clayey flats ; and the lightning messenger now keeps it com- pany, and now, scorning all obstacles, takes a short cut over a range, or plunges right into a swamp, or leaps a creek, to return again to its more cautious companion.

But let us pursue our own road, higher, less frequented, and consequently better-a good, sound, honest road. Why it has been discaided no person can tell, except that it intersects a fine fattening country. Following the windings of the range for twelve miles, we descend across a velvet sward upon a stream, and here, on the banks, a crowd of mouldering posts and half-fallen rafters, and a multitude of crumbling logs lying prostrate upon the earth, overgrown with noxious weeds and thistles and grass, mark the whereabouts of the homestead of one of our earliest pioneers, a memorial of the daring, courage, and enterprise of his order, but now abandoned to desolation and decay.

Ascending the opposite range, the road con- tinues in first-rate order for fourteen miles, con- stantly descending to the basin of the Murrum- bidgee. Here you follow the winding crown of a ridge for three or four miles, and there pass through a mountain valley, with long slopes on either side falling from gentle elevations.

In all this distance the land is rich, but surface water scarce ; however, patches of rushes in the flats indicate that it is not far distant. And now I arrived at a fork in the road, and, as usual, took the wrong branch, and after a jour- ney of four or five miles found myself descending to the banks of Jugiong Creek, about three miles above the now bridge.

The country bordering on this stream consists of rich alluvial slopes, the watercourse is wide and the banks steep, the narrow stream wandering from side to side over a loose bed of shifting sand and gravel.

Crossing the creek, and passing three or four small farms stretching back from its margin, each having small patches under cultivation. I reached the bridge which has been just completed, and there learned that I had gone out of my road, and must recross the stream.

This bridge is about 400 feet long, constructed entirely of timber, and does credit to the contractor ; it is a great boon to the travelling public. The crossing of the Jugiong must have been hazardous in the extreme, as the bed of the watercourse partakes some- thing of the character of a quickstand. Over the bridge and proceeding the first mile, you pass some half-dozen of huts, scattered along the road side, with enclosures stretching to the base of the low range behind that evidently forms the flood bank of the river ; the next mile you are following along the margin of the Murrumbidgee, the road passing over a deep alluvial flat, that must be knee-deep in mud after a few days’ rain, if it is not some feet under water ; and the third mile you arrive at the town of Jugiong, which con- sists of one public-house and a post-office con- nected with the same establishment, backed by a few huts on the slope of the range in the rear.

The greater part of the township, if not all that has been sold, is said to have become the property of the landlord of the inn ; it is certain that if a village ever does take root in this dangerous locality it will be close to the bridge, where, at a little distance from the stream on either bank, a good site, secure from the ravages of destructive floods, could be selected.

There is no doubt that the whole of the rich alluvial flats on each side of the Murrumbidgee have been here frequently submerged, and that the waters have extended to the base of the ranges. Nothing can exceed the fertility of these flats, but they will be ever uncertain; the formation of the country over an area far as the eye can reach in every direction indicates Jugiong as the point where a thousand streams unite their waters.

The watercourses during a continuance of dry weather are dry, but a storm of an hour’s dura- tion will send countless tributaries, rushing and rearing, from the heights into the basin of the river.

A mile below Jugiong the Murrumbidgee makes a large detour, when the road leaves the flat, and ascends the broken ridges that form the southern termination of the table land to the northward.

You are now on Cooney’s Hill, and the track passes over sidlings crossed by an indefinite number of small ravines, formed by the drainage from the mountain cutting into the stiff clay; and here commences seven miles of the worst and most difficult road in the colony; and now you commence the descent, passing over mud holes that would engulph a bullock.

And now you are in a black soil flat, floundering knee deep in mud ; and then comes Cooney’s Creek, and then more hills and more mud traps, and more black clay flats, and then the black springs-the terror of bullock drivers ; and then the worst of all, the Money Money Ranges, across which a rough trench has been exca- vated, intended as a road, but which is now converted into one long mud hole, in which, for two miles, drays sink to the axle in rotten granite, and clay as tenacious as pitch.

Having arrived at the base of the the last and steepest hill, without the necessity of having my horse dug out of the mud, I reached Money Money station, the first house after leaving Jugiong in crossing the range.

I observed a fine outcrop of quartz, with the usual auriferous indications exhibited in granitic form- ations. At some miles distance to the north west, amongst a mass of mountains, I could distinguish a bold cone of considerable magni- tude, rising from the centre of a circular basin or ring of hills ; it is probably of volcanic origin, and is in the neighbourhood of the Muttama reefs.

The Money Money Range is a continuous spur from the table land or levels to the northward of the basin of the Murrumbidgee ; and, after an easterly course of about thirty miles, it is cut through by the waters of that river, and stretches away towards tbe Australian Alps, gradually in- creasing in elevation.

The Muttama Creek also has its source on the levels ; and after a long easterly course, under a variety of appellations, following the base of the Money Money Range for a considerable distance, it sweeps round to the southward, and disembogues into the main river near Gundagai, receiving many minor streams in its course.

Various portions of this creek, after its descent from the table land, have been proved to be auriferous, but from some cause, unexplained, it has never been a favourite resort of alluvial miners.

Sufficient gold has been obtained to prove it to be worthy of a more careful exploration. Gold has also been found in many of the network of creeks that exist be- tween the descents from the plateau and the river, which here are spread over a wide area. The formation of the Money Money Range is chiefly granitic, but in many localities a wreck of the schistose formation still exists, sometimes in a metamorphosed state ; a lumin- ated limestone is also of frequent occurrence, and the forehills and lower elevations are intersected by in- numerable reefs, veins, and dyke’s of quartz, some of which have all the distinguishing cha- racteristics of auriferous stone.

Wherever the evidences of a schistose or sedimentary, forma- tion are most abundant gold has been found in the largest quantity, although the schists may have actually disappeared by disintegration from the immediate neighbourhood of the auriferous deposit.

The large proportion of lime in the schists of this district, with the rapid declination of the stupendous granitic uphevals from their culminating point on the Snowy Mountains or Alps, has hastened the removal of the schists and marine deposits, and that extensive denudation of granite which characterises this section of the country.

That the surface rocks now exhibited were elevated to their present position under the superincumbent weight of an enormous sedi- mentary deposit is evinced on the crest of every hill. About two miles distant over the mountains to the right of the station is the Money Money Reef, and three or four miles further the Coolach Reef, in the same range.

About fifty men are engaged raising quartz on these reefs, which have prospected from two to three ounces to the ton. On the Muttama Creek, near the former, one steam crushing machine is in the course of erection by Messrs. Hayes and Com- pany, and another of small power is in operation, the property of Thurlow, Baxter, and Company.

The Muttama Reef, also in the same range, dis- tant about ten miles, has been opened for about eighteen months; about thirty men are em- ployed raising stone from this lode, and several hundred tons await the crusher. A few parcels of quartz from the Muttama have been crushed at the Adelong, and yielded from l.5 to 2 ounces per ton. The value of the stone from this reef has yet to be tested, as the experiments made up to the present date have not proved satis- factory ; it is intended to cart the quartz to the machines at the Money Money, when, if the yield proves to be remunerative, a steam-mill will be erected on the Muttama Reef ; the present opinion with regard to it is unfavour- able, and the men are rapidly deserting their claims.

There are neither stores nor public houses at any of these diggings, and supplies are chiefly obtained from Gundagai. The road now for seven miles, conducts you over a magnificent alluvial plain, watered by the Muttama, and here called the Mingay Creek, flanked by steep ranges of no great height. You now arrive at Mrs. Hanley’s Inn, a fine stone building, and the land in the neighbourhood is fertile, combined with great natural beauty of situation.

There are here several first-class farms back among the ranges on both sides of the road. Four miles from Mrs. Hanley’s, the range sweeps across the road to the southward; you are gradually rising. The rich black trappean soil of the valley is succeeded by a whitish argillaceous clay. Bands of calcareous schists reappear, crossing out on the declivities : frag- ments of quartz become thickly strewn over the surface, and passing a large reef, you reach a gap in the range where the auriferous indica- cations are again apparent.

Descending on the opposite side, you observe several holes sunk by prospectors, none of which appear to have reached the rock ; and at the base of the hill you find that the slates have passed into a pure schistose limestone.

At Five Mile Creek, the crossing may be enumerated amongst the dangers of the route. The road now rolls over an undulating country still flanked on the right by low steep ranges. Passing a public-house a mile further you are travelling between the front fences of a string of neat small farms that appear but recently occu- pied.

Three miles further you reach Winton’s new brick-built steam flour mill, close to which is an extensive reservoir. Here the road forks, one branch, leading round Mount Parnassus to the east, and the other to the west. Following that to the west, a mile brings you to the begin- ning of the descent of the hill, and the towns of North and South Gundagai are in the depths of the valley before you.

The former on the slopes at the base of Mount Parnassus, and the latter on the southern bank of the Murrumbidgee, situated on the declivities of a range that in- fringes upon the river. Many of the lower ele- vations are crowned with snug homesteads and pretty cottages, but the rich alluvial flats that border the northern bank are untenanted, and present no vestige of improvement; the opposite side of the valley is closed in by a steep range terminating in the precipitous bluff of Mount Kino; to the northward, Jones’ Creek, emerging from a mass of mountains, meanders through the plain, and, after wander- ing round the lower flat, disembogues into the Murrumbidgee.

The view as you wind round the mountain, is one of surpassing loveliness, neat cottages peep from a mass of foliage, and humble huts are sprinkled over the slopes – heavily laden teams are slowly moving across the flats – the tall chimney of a mill is belching forth its smoke against the clear blue sky, and the rich verdure of the valley creeping up on one side to the dome-like crest of Mount Parnassus on the other mingles with the reddish brown of Mount Kino, crowned with grey rocks and a mass of stunted sickly-looking forest.

To the south- ward the white buildings of South Gundagai rise one above the other on the hill side, bathed in a glorious flood of sunlight, and between them and you a belt of heavy forest marks the course of the noble river, and stretches into the far west through an opening in the ranges, until both forest and mountain air lost in the dim and hazy distance. Meantime we have descended from Parnassus, and entered the main street of the north town, and the charm has vanished.

We are ankle deep, dragging a horse through the mud, and esteem ourselves fortunate if we do not get knee deep in one of the holes, out of which that string of bullocks has been endea- vouring to tug a dray for the last half hour, aided by a torrent of colo- nial oaths and execrations manufactured by a bullock-driver and two volunteers ex- pressly for the occasion. On either side a row of houses in every variety of bush architecture, about half a mile in length, rise out of the quag- mire.

The most pretending edifices, and those on which the town depends for the respecta- bility of its appearance, are public-houses ; as you wade through the street past some of these you will observe a knot of long-legged, sallow faced, idle young men, leaning against the verandah posts, peering from under their dila- pidated cabbagetrees, and evidently reckoning you up.

The openings left for future streets give you occasional glimpses of a black, muddy creek, in which fetid pools are collected, sepa- rating the flat from the base of the hill, and immediately behind the lower low of houses, at the upper end of the street, on a green knoll to the left, is a beautiful little Roman Catholic chapel nearly completed, being the only place set apart for worship ; and further on to the right, on the margin of the flat, is an extensive flour mill : a fine stone-built hospital is also in progress high up the mountainside.

Following the road round the hill, of which it makes a complete circuit, two miles from the chapel, you arrive at a cluster of cottages built on suburban allotments. Within a few miles up Jones’ Creek, and on Mingay flats, about six miles distant, there are several farms; for the produce of these the neighbouring gold-fields offer a good market.

The country around the town and on either side of the Jugiong road, with a few exceptions, is suitable for cereal agriculture ; the richest soil is to be found on the summit and slopes of the ranges, and where the road is worst, and the mud traps most dangerous, there the land is the most fertile and suitable for cultivation. North Gundagai, not yet recovered from the dreadful catastrophe of 1852, ought to form the nucleus of a wealthy agricultural district, and be independent of the road traffic.

It is also cer- tain that the auriferous reefs in its vicinity will contribute to its prosperity when quartz mining becomes better understood. It now contains five public-houses, no church, a Roman Catholic chapel, a National school, two well stocked stores, two mills, an hospital, bakery, butchery, court-house (built of slabs), and a full staff of the class of mechanics usually found in a country village.

The population is more nume- rous than appears at first sight, as the inhabi- tants are scattered round the slopes of the mountain. Crossing the horrid creek, you pass over the flat where numerous posts, still standing, mark the site of the old town. This spot, where the yell of despair rose above the uproar of the rushing waters, is now strewn with huge logs of driftwood and overgrown with rank herbage. Here and there the mouldering wreck of a chimney rises above the tall thistles ; blackened stumps are scattered up and down, and the l ancient giants of the primeval forest, tottering in decay, and spared, from their utter inutility, look down upon this lonely place, now left to sleep in its own gloomy desolation.

The people of the district still recount tales of heroic devotion and self-sacrifice on that fearful night that have never been chronicled, but that, pass- ing from sire to son, will be long remembered on the banks of the Murrimbidgee. Half a-mile now brings you to the bank of the river, when, crossing by a punt, you reach South Gundagai.

Thriving towns arise from the necessities of a district, and South Gundagai is as much a necessity to the southern bank of the Murrum- bidgee as if North Gundagai were ten miles dis- tant instead of one.

At certain seasons the passage of the river and flat is impracticable, and it is always attended with some expense,-an ob- ject of consideration to a poor struggling com- munity in the first stage of settlement.

The rich agricultural district on the south side of the river is every day becoming more populous ; it is also destined at some future date to become the head of an internal naviga- tion which will raise it to a position of vast importance.

Nothing is lost by a near approach, as the buildings, although few, are large and well located ; it contains at present three extensive stores, as many inns, no church, and a Denominational school, with a post office. There is a sprinkling of cottages along the Southern Road for a short distance ; and about a mile from the river a steam flour mill has been just completed, which will find full employment when the many farms recently occupied in the neighbouring valleys become productive.

As I turned into the mountain passes, and looked upon the glories of the setting sun, throwing the long shadows of the mountains across the valleys, and lighting up the leafy beauties and soft verdure of the river plains with its expiring rays, I never felt a truth more forcibly than that “ God made the country man the town.”

5 September 1859

A VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN GOLD FIELDS. THE ADELONG.

HAVING crossed the Murrumbidgee at Gundagai, and the rich river flats, subject to frequent inundation, and passed Spencer’s new steam-mill, we parted at the entrance of a valley, and will now resume our journey, following the road, which holds its way along the eastern side of that valley.

On the left are the wooded ranges, which, gradually increasing in altitude, extend far to the southward until they mingle with the alpine heights of the Snowy Moun- tains ; on the right, a number of farms stretching across the valley are bounded by a low chain of hills, which separate them from the basin of the river.

These farms, with two exceptions, have been but recently occupied, and but small spaces at long intervals appear to have been cleared or broken up. A few buildings of a superior description are in progress along the line of road, and you now and then obtain a glimpse of a homestead through the openings of the forest.

The soil is a rich trappean loam, and the timber heavy, but sparsely scattered. Ten miles from the punt the Adelong crosses the road through an ugly black swamp, and, after a tor- tuous course of four or five miles, disembogues into the Murrumbidgee.

The crossing here is at all times difficult, and often renders an otherwise good road im- passable for wheeled conveyances. On the opposite bank you arrive at Roache’s Inn, lately purchased by Mr. Williams, a successful quartz reefer and the pro- prietor of a crushing mill. The country now insen- sibly rises as you proceed, the valley opens out, and tho road sometimes follows the margin of the creek, and sometimes crosses the slopes from the range to the westward, which subsides into broad swampy flats.

These present an appearance of having been frequently inundated, and the vegetation, although abundant, appears to be of a useless character. The valley of the lower Adelong has been partially surveyed, and cut up into small farms, extending from the stream to the base of the mountains.

This land is variable in in agricultural capabilities. Some por- tions consist of rich alluvial bottoms and gentle slopes, covered with a deep red brown sandy loam, while others consist of a granitic debris not yet sufficiently decomposed or covered with vegetable mould to pro- duce a soil suitable for cultivation.

Added to these are many broad areas of cold swampy land that would require a vast expenditure of labour to render them productive.

Five miles from the inn you pass Johnston’s station, when the road takes a westerly direction, and, five miles further, it sweeps over a spur which, descending from a towering granitic range to the right, stretches far into the valley, diverting the course of the creek, which here wanders from side to side through a wide reedy swamp.

The valley now contracts. To your right a lofty granite range rises from the road, swelling into dome-like crests, and clothed with vegetation, except where here and there a mass of denuded rock contrasts with the verdure of the slopes.

You are descending to the margin of the swamp, and as you proceed a mountain chain appears swelling from the plain on the left, and trending to the southward; its sides are broken and precipitous, in some places overhanging the watercourse, in others sending down huge rugged spurs to the banks of the creek. And now you are startled by explosions like that of distant artillery. They reverberate from rock to rock, and are heard rumbling tnrough the hills.

As you advance the detonations become louder and more distinct, and follow each other with great ra- pidity ; presently you see a long line of white tents or flys stretching up the side of a rugged mountain, crowning its summit and perched upon rocky pro- jections at a dizzy height, a zigzag road climbs up the face of the precipice, where men, seeming like pigmies, are moving about amidst piles of white and blue rock-you are now opposite the Gibraltar Reef. On a narrow alluvial flat intervening between the base of the hill and the creek there are several neat cottages and a few gardens, and in their neighbour- hood a small crushing mill driven by water power.

The mountains now close in on either side, the bed of the creek, silted up to the depth of thirty feet, is still of considerable width ; and you advance, passing several huts, until you reach a broad flat below Surface Hill ; here the creek narrows, making a detour round a slope on the left bank, where a large quantity of gold was obtained by skimming the surface. It is now ex- hausted, but on the slopes of the opposite bank a few alluvial miners still contrive to earn a subsistence, im- mediately below a wreck of the schistose formation, invested in granite, and but little altered.

You are now passing through a westerly spur from the range to the left, and enter a deep rocky gorge cut by the waters of the upper country through the granitic formations, to the eastward denuded masses of rock are piled almost precipitously for 1000 feet above your head. The older igneous formations are distinctly ex- hibited, upheaved, disjointed, and fractured by the more recent subjacent outbursts. Many of the open- ings and fissures then created have been filled by the molten rock, and their course can be distinctly traced through the more ancient products.

Here stupendous blocks, some hundreds of feet in length, are to be observed on the lower part of the mountain, presenting all the appearance of having when in a state of fusion flowed to the westward, and of the flow having been arrested by a sudden consoli- dation, others seem to have been forced directly up- wards, and in their passage have displaced blocks, already consolidated, weighing hundreds of tons.

This spur or minor cross-range, merging in the great north and south chain on the western side of the creek, appears to have been caused by lateral pressure, enhanced by the superincumbent weight and resist- ance of pre-existing igneous formations. The range here denuded exhibits a section of its formation to its base, and the successive outbursts can be traced with their relative action upon the older igneous products.

As the lapse of geological time between each upheaval, or granitic outburst, will be an important consideration in here- after attempting to describe the auriferous quartz lodes which intersect these spurs, all parallel to each other, trending to the south-west, and all emanating from the highest points of the main range,-the summits of which consist chiefly of altered schistose sandstone, slate, gneiss, and ancient granite,-I have been par- ticular in calling attention to the appearances here exhibited. In the chasm below are vast erratic boulders and fragments of granite, with frequent ledges, forming a series of falls, over which the waters precipitate them- selves with a deafening roar in their passage through the range.

The opposite side is of a similar character, the masses of granite are on the same scale of mag- nitude, but the superstrata of the earlier formations are wanting, and the consequent lower elevation renders the appearance less imposing. Clambering along a rugged path overhanging the turbulent waters, you soon reach the upper fall, and emerge from the range in the neighbourhood of a second crushing machine driven by water-power, in an elevated valley on the range to the left you see Williamstown, with its huts and buildings scattered over the hollow, and stretching up the slope of the succeeding spur. From this point, for about half a , mile upwards, the creek has been exceedingly pro- ductive, and many rich claims along its course have been exhausted.

A few hundred yards fuither you pass a third water-mill, when a broad valley opens out to the right ; undulating slopes gradually ascend the hills to the westward, and you are on the site of the new town of Adelong. To the eastward the range still continues, and half way up its side a line of tents, with heaps of quartz, and its investing rock mark the course of the Victoria Reef.

Again return- ing to the road which you had left at Gibraltar, you pass several clusters of cottages sprinkled over the green slopes, then Murphy’s new hotel, nearly completed ; then the extensive stores of Mandleson and Co., the Bank of New South Wales, the Oriental Bank, and Paul’s hotel ; further up the valley you see the store of Gasse and Co., with a third inn, and a few scattered erections in various stages of progres- sion.

Still further, the creek trends to the westward, for a couple of miles ; the range on the east bank re- cedes, forming a small plain at its base, now under cultivation, when it again sweeps round, stretching, with an increased altitude, to the westward, in a direction parallel to the auriferous spurs, and ap- proaching the succeeding chain of north and south ranges to the westward, thus closing in the valley.

Turning to the left opposite Paul’s, the road con- ducts you over the creek, here crossed by a bridge of the rudest construction, when, passing between two crushing mills driven by steam power, you commence the ascent of the second valley in the range, and soon reach the commissioner’s camp, crowning a beautiful green knoll and overlooking the township, this wide basin or vale partaking somewhat of the character of table land is bounded on one hand by one of those spurs or prolongations already noticed as bursting from be- neath the highest summits of the range, and taking a direction of S.S.W., and on the other by a similar for- mation at a lower altitude, which, after maintaining an irregular elevation for two miles, subsides with an easy declination to the margin of the creek, before you to the left, extending obliquely up the spur, and inter- secting its crown a few feet below the highest point, in a north and south course, lies the celebrated great quartz reef of the Adelong ; its direction indicated by a line of tents erected over the various shafts.

Below these tents enormous heaps of fragments of granite and the invested schists attest the labours of the miner ; and here and there, towards the crown of the hill piles of quartz, carefully built up, are an evidence of the success of those who have been so fortunate as to reach thee lode. And now you have arrived at that busy haunt of human labour, the centre of a permanently-established gold-field : anxious looking men are hurrying to and fro ; here a little crowd of speculators are discussing the the last crushing ; there a woman, surrounded by her neighbours, is telling that her husband and his mates have at last struck the mundic further on, a tradesman on the look out for customers enquires from a passing acquaintance, how his claim shapes ; and higher up the road, at the public-house, is a noisy half-share man who, wearied of waiting upon Provi- dence, has sold out, and is liquifying the proceeds ;

engines are spinning, and whirling, and stamping with ceaseless industry ; drays, laden with quartz, are clattering down the mountain side or rumbling over the muddy road; butchers’ and bakers’ carts are rattling up and down, as if they had a week’s work before them and only a day to get through with it ;

a crowd of half-starved dogs have each their separate grievance, and contribute their yelpings and bark- ings to the general clamour; pigs, grunting and wallowing in every hole and corner, are regardless of either Pound or Police Act, insessant ex- plosions in the shafts rival the thunders of a cannon- ade, and leave you to fancy that the French have landed and found somebody to fight them ;

and amidst all this din and tumult we pursue our way up Camp-street. On our right is the post office and store of Mr. Michaelis ; then come saddlers, doctors ,car- penters, blacksmiths, auctioneers, jewellers, tobacco- nists, bakers, tailors, butchers, refreshment booths, restaurants, livery stables, Crouch’s Inn, billiard- rooms, a bowling saloon, general stores,

boarding- houses, and a host of other indescribable trades and callings, all stringing along for a good mile, and all dependant upon the fortunate digger who at Adelong has relinquished mud-groping and fossicking, and for the first time become a true miner.

To the left, a diminutive water-course divides the valley ; and beyond it huts, stores, and boarding houses are scattered over the slope below the reef. Higher up where the mountains close in, there are several small cottages in the occupation of miners with their families ; and, about half way, a branch road passing between Emanuel’s store on the one hand and Saunders’ hotel on the other, crosses the crown of the reef; here is another important store -a branch of Gasse and Co.’s establishment, two or three boarding houses, and a few huts of various descriptions sur- rounding the claims on the crown of the reef, which have so far proved themselves to be the most valuable.

You now find that the works extend down the north side nearly to the base of the hill; the scattered huts below are numerous, and you see Wil- liam’s Town in the hollow, with a steam crushing-mill, Davis’ hotel, and two stores. On the ascent of the opposite parallel spur is Curry- jung Reef, in a line with the Victoria ; and on the north descent of the same spur, more to the eastward,

and nearly in a line with the great reef, is Donkey Reef, and flanked by two or three others of less note, and that have not as yet proved remunerative.

Many other reefs in the vicinity have been opened ; but with the exception of those enumerated, intersecting the western spurs from the crown ridge, none have been found sufficiently rich to repay the expense of workings, although all are, more or less, auriferous.

The eastern descent from the range is one unbroken line through its entire length, and a broad strath or valley intervenes between it and the great Mingery chain, which, extending from the Murrumbidgee, gradually rises in its progress southward, until it eventually merges in the elevated regions in which the Murray has its source.

There are no schools on the Adelong that I have yet heard of, although there is a large proportion of young children. As the majority of the present inhabitants will be permanently settled in the township, it is a matter of first importance.

There cannot be less than 3000 souls within a circuit of three miles, and there are few instances in the civilized world of so numerous a population being congregated in one spot without either spiritual advisers or secular teachers. The mass of the population is located in the valley of the great reef ; the remainder is divided between the site of the new township, Williamstown, Gibr- alter, and the marginal flats for a short distance up the creek.

Wages for hired hands working about the mills, is £4 a week. The carriage of quartz from the reefs to the mills is about 7s. per ton, and carters driving their own teams, and bushmen, can obtain constant employment. The alluvial diggings in the vicinity are now unimportant, although there are many places in the Creek and on the neighbouring flats that will eventually be worked, and found remunerative.

I have now endeavoured to convey an idea of the general aspect of this gold-field, doubly important from the fact of its being the first place in the colony of New South Wales where quartz crushing has been carried to a successful issue.

That many have la- boured and few have reaped the reward is, perhaps, too true. We have already learned to appreciate the advantage to be derived from co-operation and a division of labour, and as we advance in science and practical experience much of the chance work that has hitherto directed the energies of our miners will be avoided, and there will be less unprofitable ex- penditure and a more equal return. What the reefs are like, how they are worked, and who gets the gold, must be reserved for a succeeding communication.

19 September 1859

A VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN GOLD FIELDS. [PROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.] No. II.

Having endeavoured in a former communication to give a general description of the Adelong, above ground, we will now ascend the low range to the left of the mountain valley, and, crossing the great reef at an elevation of about 400 feet, continue the ascent about fifty feet higher to the summit of the range, which, expanding to the westward, falls with an irre- gular declivity to the creek at its base.

On that side, at least 1000 feet below the crest, the summit presents the appearance of an undulating patch of table land, broken by masses of gneiss and granite, which intrude amidst a wreck of the silurian deposits, altered, meta- morphosed, or decomposed, in accordance with their constituents, and the varied degrees of hydrous and igneous action to_ which they have been subject ¡ those on the western side being for the most patt arenaceous, while those ontho eastern slopes arc of a more argilla- ceous character, both containing a large proportion of carbonate of lime.

On the western descent the Victoria reef intersects the range longitudinally, and on the eastern slopes the great reef, stretching north and south, pursues a similar direction.

The distance between these two reefs is about half a mile, and in the intervening space numerous small parallel veins or leaders of quartz have been opened and prospected.

The dip of these veins is slightly to the west-they varied from three to nine inches in width ; all were found intersecting ver- tical strata ef the clay slates, more or less decomposed, and modified,-and these in their turn aro inverted by granitic masses, varying in theil character and con- stituents. Some of these veir.s aro within 200 feet of ‘ the great main reef ¡ all were proved to contain gold, but none were found to be sufficiently auriferous to repay the cost of working by the process now in use.

Theso poor lodes will, therefore, continue in abeyance until science and experience, coing hand in hand, have done their work, and substituted mechanical power and chemistry for human labour and ignorance.

In the Adelong range it appears probable that the detritnl and sedimentary formations, resting upon a mass of ancient igneous products, themselves of varied geological ages, have been upheaved, tilted, and in- verted by an intrusion of granite ; which, disrupting, and in some degree’ altering, the older products, has separated the vertical schists at the planes of their stratification, filling up every fissure, and enveloping many of the strata, while others have been forced up- wards and have disappeared.

A close examination of this range will enable you to detect many strata of the schistose formations nearly vertical, and in rcgulur sequence with the granitic masses ; in other spots fragments of the schists will be found surrounding -an ancient boss of distorted rock, which has been thrust upwards through them.

That the range has attained its present elevation by a succession of granitic up- heavals and intrusions, occurring after long periods of quiescence, is well exhibited at the north-eastern ex- tremity of the great reef hill, where three separate actions can bo distinctly traced. Here blocks of granite weighing hundreds of tans are exposed by denudation, resting upon others of a different age and character ; some upheaved at an angle of -15 degrees, with their lower ends imbedded in the supporting moss, appearing as if they had become partially fused by the contact. j

All the schistose rocks present an appearance of intense compression, and are moulded to the surface of the granitic or porphyrytic walls, and altered according to the varied components of the slate ; some are deprived of a great portion of their silica and lime, and so much decomposed, that they will not bear removal, but fall into “fragments at the touch-others are indurated and silicified.

The altered sandstones are seldom found at a greater depth than forty feet, while the lower edge of the argillaceous schists has not been reached by the deepest shafts. AVe will now return to the crown of the reef, where its course may be traced by the line of tents erected over the shafts, extending about half a mile down the northern slope, and something more than a mile in a southerly direction, across the eastern descents ; there aro various undulations in its course as it crosses three or four slight spurs in the hill, caused by unequal accumulations prior to the latest granitic irruption.

The fissure in which the reef is formed, pursuing the line of least resistance, has followed the course of a vertical stratum of argillaceous Bchist, having a slight dip to the westward at the surface, but, chiefly owing to its having passed through a variety of igneous products of an ancient date, it becomes more irregular as it descends. The reef, widest at the crown, gradually contracts as it approaches the base of the hill on either side, until from a breadth of six feet it diminishes to three inches.

The surface reef was not exhibited in the gross for more than about three hundred feet from the crown on the southern slope, with the exception of a few out- crops at long intervals ; on the northern slope, it did not exceed a hundred feet from the crest.

The crown claims were exceedingly pioductive from the surface, yielding in some instances fourteen ounces to the ton of quartz. The miners also obtained from twelve to twenty ounces of gold to the load of fifty buckets from the debris of the reef by washing, and the tail- ing from these washings, nearly given away, after- wards produced eleven ounces to the ton by crushing. At a depth of forty or fifty feet, the colour of the quartz changed from a yellowish cast to a deep blue ; and, passing through the altered sandstones, it entered the true granites.

Large quantities of mundic, with metallic sulphurets and arsenites, now appeared ; and the yield of gold, although still considerable, became less abundant, the lode varying with the character and constituents of the granitic walls. Occasional patches of pure white quartz were sometimes dis- covered on one wall and sometimes on the other, and occasionally extending across the fissure to the depth of several feet ; in these, the mundic and metallic sul- phurets nearly disappeared and the lode became bar- ren, until, the walls altering, the quartz again became a greyish blue, mundic and the sulphurets reappeared, and with them the reef resumed its auriferous cha- racter, varying, however, at every foot with the modi- fication of the slates.

As the shafts went down the yield rather dimi- nished, until at a depth of from 130 to 100 feet the lode in those claims that had been most productive in their yield of gold exhibited a tendency to become white, the metallic sulphurets decreased, and gold ceased to be obtained in payable quantities. The lode may again become lieh or poor, according to the de- scription of granite and slate forming the investing rock, or the walls of the fissure ; but it is probable that it will eventually run into pure white silica, de- void of sulphurets, and, as for as metals are con- cerned, unproductive.

About a quarter of a milo from the crown of the range, on the outside, the surface-rock undergoes a change, and the granites below are of a different de- scription, being either darker and of a finer grain, or coarse flesh-coloured. Here for the next 500 yards, although a little surface quartz was obtained that paid for crushing, it soon ran out, and at a depth, varying from 80 to 175 feet, to which numerous shafts have been sunk, the reef has not been disco- vered. Small veins of auriferous quartz, from two to four inches in width, constantly present themselves, traversing the slate.

It is possible that the miners are not here sinking oa the true reef, but through a neighbouring parallel stratum of slate, separated by a thin block of intrusive granite.

Proceeding downwards for the succeeding 800 yards, the granites again change ; and the reef resumes its character, but at a diminished width. The claims bejond this patchy extend for nearly half a mile further ; and here the formation again alters, and although a Une of shafts have been sunk to depths varying from 180 to 60 feet, a payable reef has not been yet struck.

On the north side of the crown the highest claims have been amongst the most valuable on the reef, but as they descend the hill they become less productive, and the width of the lode rapidly decreases until it approaches the base, where there is a decided change ia the slates and granites. The last fourteen or fifteen claims, although the shafts have reached a depth of from 60 to 130 feet, have not yet bottomed upon a reef. Of about eighty companies working or claiming upon this lode, twenty-one have done well, and many individuals have retired with an independence ; twenty have not cleared their expenditure, exclusive of the loss of their labour, and thirty-nine have obtained nothing.

None of these companies have been at work less than fifteen months, and many have been sinking without cossation since June, 1857. In very many of the shafts and drives the works are carried on night and day ; when the reef was first opened the labour was performed chiefly by the associated proprietors, with the assistance of hired men, the wages being at the rate of £4 per week.

The claimholders subsequently found it to their in- terest to corry on their operations by means of half shares, one-half of the net proceeds being appro- priated to the owners of the claim, and the remaining half equally divided between the men employed, who themselves form working companies.

This system has operated bene- ficially for the working men and the proprietors, but to the prejudice of the storekeepers and other trades- men, who find it necessary in consequence to give an extended credit, and are occasionally subjected to heavy losses. ‘* r-tf-f *y

The produce of the great reef up to the present date at a rough estimate has been calculated at about twelve thousand tons of auriferous quartz, which, at an average of five ounces per ton, gives sixty thousand ounoea of gold, amounting in value at £3 12s. 6d. per ounce to £217,500. Of this a large proportion has reached Sydney by escort and private hands. Much has passed into Victoria, and no inconsiderable amount is still retained in the locality.

Many of tho best claims have changed hands, and £3000 has boon refused for thirty feet on the reef, from which gold to the value of several thousand pounds sterling had been already obtained. I It is remarkable that in quartz yielding Ifrom seven to 8 ounces to the ton, the gold is often barely perceptible, and in much that produces as high as five ounces, it cannot be observed even by the aid of a powerful lens.

We will now proceed to the claims. The first on the crown of the reef is at presentthe property of Baker and Company. The depth of their|double shaft is 180 feet. The upper portion of the lode was from three to four feet in width, and at the bottom of the shaft it has in- creased to five feet. This claim was rich from the surface, and in going down the first thirty feet a large quantity of gold was procured from the decomposed quartz and sulphurets in and near the reef, averaging fourteen ounces to the fifty buckets.

To the depth of fifty feet, the walls were found to consist of a” por phyritic sandstone intersected by joints filled with argillaceous matter. In passing through this forma- tion the quartz had a yellow tinge, with traces of chlorides and sulphur ; it was associated with frag I ments of silicified schist, and the reef was enclosed in a casing of argillacejus slate, varying in thickness from two to eighteen inches, sometimes soft and friable, at others indurated, silicified, and intimately blended with the walls.

In such conditions it con- tained iron pyrites and other metallic combinations, chiefly sulphurets of arsenic and antimony. Evi- dences of lítense compression were also frequent, by which it had been reduced to minute fragments, which were subsequently re-cemented by the silica by which it was invested.

At the depth of sixty feet the altered rocks were found reposing upon a flesh coloured granite, becoming grey and then blue as they descended. The yield of gold became somewhat less abundant, the quartz assumed a bluer shade ap- proaching that of granite, the schists here and there disappeared from the walls and were found shattered in the oody of the lode, occasionally mingled with fragments of granite, and in the interstices of these blended masses were accumulations of metallic sulphurets and gold, which were probably deposited by vapourised metals and minerals which, rising with the gasses, evolved from the depths of the fissure to a , temperature which, although high enough to enable I them to act upon the adjacent granitic masses and fuse a portion of the silica, was sufficiently loose to permit them to form combinations, in accordance with their respective affinities, upon the walls or other sui faces.

It is not uncommon to find the greatest proportion of sulphurets, oxides, and reduced metals in a lode attached to or blended with the casing, and it is pos- sible that the semifused “masses of granite and slates found within a quartz reef have been detached from the walls of the fissure by the exuding silica.

The quartz in the great reef exhibits an appearance of ha vin g been formed by a succession of layers or strata parallel to the walls, and the inner edge of each layer is moro or less distinctly defined by a line of frag- ments of either slate or granite-the latter having been in a state of partial fusion.

At other places this line may be traced by a vein of metallic sulphurets, par- ticles of gold, silicates, and earthy oxides, produced by decomposition. It would appear here that the vapourised minerals and casses^ percolating the granities had set certain chemical agents at liberty, which, uniting with the vapours and sublimations floating ia, the fissure, caused a deposit or precipitate of one class of metallic and mineral combinations, while it repelled others.

These combinations would vary with the components of the various rocks forming the walls. Certain elements will continue in a state of vapour at a temperature in which others will consolidate, and it is probable that silica, by the aid of the solvents by which it is ever surrounded, may be one of these.

From its universal diffusion at the greatest known depths, it will con- tinue to sublimate long after others known to be less abundant have ceased. A series of similar actions would produce like results until the filling of the fissure was complete, and the supply of oxygen neces- sary to produce combustion is cut off or inter- rupted. That the constituents of the walls haye much in- fluence upon the metals and sulphurets to be found in the quartz lodes is evident from the fact of its frequently having been discovered that, while the quartz resting against one is rich in metals, that against the other is pure, and nearly barren. The quartz fillinr| deep fissures will be found to vary with each successive change of the investing rock, and small veins and leaders will often be discovered to be metaliferous when the main reef is unproductive.

This has probably arisen from the varied formation of the rocks through which the minor fissures have been formed, and through which the vapours and gasae3 have percolated.

Gold can be rendered soluble and volatilized by the agency of sulphur, borox and potash, or soda, all volcanic products, and the two latter important con- stituents of granite. It can be again precipitated, and reduced by a proto-sulphate of iron, supplied by ron pyrites, a constant accompaniment of gold in the matrix.

Much of the gold in the quartz procured from the Adelong reef appears in the lorm of a yellow powder, intermixed with sulphurets on the quartz, and in this precise form it would be precipitated from a solution. Cross sections of a few of the quartz lodes or reefs, with their investing rocks, selected from somo of the varied metallifeious districts in New South Wales, carefully described as they descended foot by foot, with an analysis of the formations passed through in the descent, would be of great value to the nuning interest.

There have been many theories and specu- lations propounded, based upon no sufficient data, but such a work has not been yet attempted. If a granite pebble could write its history, what man’s life would suffice to enable him to read-to follow it in its varied migrations during the fapse of a thousand ages through the incandescent fires of the new bom earth, the ocean’s depths, and the wreck of continents ?

AVe will now return to Baker and Company’s claim’ in which we had reached a depth of sixty feet. We had entered the granites and found them sometimes lined with a soft olive coloured slate ; at other times with an indurated black slate, and again reached spots where that formation had disappeared entirely from the walls and was only present in the body^of the reef, and portions of the granite, were found to be soft and partially decomposed. Here the mundic made its appearance in large masses, presenting a very beauti- ful variety of metallic crystals, before it became tar- nished by exposure to the atmosphere.

This mundic is of three varieties-the first, cop perish red, consisting of nickel, iron, copper, lead arsenic, sulphur, and cobalt ; the second of a lighter shade, a compound of nickel, iron, antimony, and sulphuret of lead ¡ and the third a silver white, a combination of nickel, iron, cobalt, and arsenic, the latter constituting three-fourths of the whole ; for 120 feet, through various shades of granite, at one time soft, at another hard, with occasional patches of pure white quartz adhering to one or other of. the walls, the reef continued with varied degrees of rich- ness, until at a depth of 180 feet it exhibits a tendency to become white, contains less metallic sulphurets, and is less productive of gold.

About 600 tons of quartz, the produce of this claim, has been crushed, the average produce being about seven ounces per ton j there are about 250 tons at present, partly at the crushing machine and partly piled at the mouth of the shaft, which are expected to maintain the previous average.

The next claim in succession to the southward is thirty feet on the reef, the property of Mr. T. Shannon^ this has been considered to be the richest and most valuable on the lode -, from the surface to the point where it entered the true granites it has proved very productive, yielding in some instances thirteen ounces to the ton, and gold was obtained from the debris to the extent of twenty ounces to the load ; the slates have been discovered to be removed to a considerable extent from the walls of this part of the reef, and as it descended the fissure became gradually wider, until it has now attained the width of about seven feet, and the quartz extends from wall to wall.

The general character of the lode here is the same as pre- viously described, and at a depth of 185 feet the sul- phurets have partially disappeared, and the quartz has changed, becoming white and less auriferous.

About COO tons of quartz from this claim have been already crushed, producing an average of eight ounces to the ton, and it is said that gold to the value of £18,000 has been already secured. There is now be- tween 650 and 700 tons of auriferous quartz piled up on the claim, estimated to yield seven ounces to the ton.

This claim is amongst the best worked on the reef, and a horse whim transfers much of the Jabour from the biped to the quadruped. ‘ * !

We now. proceed, to the next thirty feet on rt,T ^ worked and claimed by Mr. Wil__n wmE he reef> claim resembles its neighbour bothTnVh^-T! *”. the lode and the large quantity ft foLI£h?8* * debris. About 70*5 Us _avfi_,ÏSÎrf Ä« average produce of which waa about sev^T’ the The slates are here more abundant the^T* 120 feet the white quartz is makins it« ,»7T °* ? and reducing the %«*.* of the ÄrietoÄS’ contrives to tf minish still further* by roS t quartz and sublimating his gold; this genS” valleyT* a CrU 8 m Ue iU the »eiÄ? ‘ We_~e-t »each the claim of Messrs pi» and Bunn who, to their original ¿Ä eighteen feet on the reef L i, ,of added ten feet, at a colt of S) ^

chased from Mr. Bullock, who retains his U^ inSOtons of quartz at the mouth of theshaft^ anticipated that this lot of quartz will produce aboul five ounces per ton; the united claims have 22 yielded about 600 tons of auriferous stone, the .Ä of which has been about six ounces per ton tT slates are still present; the character of the lodeis the same, and at the depth of 130 fest it tnólL . width of nearly three feetP The hilt__«SR^ sharp descent of a few feet, and we reach the Äf Messrs Cowan and Co.. 53 feet, purchased Si from Messrs. Vicq and Co., for tie sum o/S

The new proprietors have about fifty tons of aS raised, expected to yield seven ounces per toÄ former owners crushed about 600 tons, average sever! ïïnT; T-u° ree-f h?re .contrncts’ but atTdeS 140 feet still maintains its colour-mundic in abun dance-and is auriferous character. The nuutz raised from this claim displays a mo.c decided anne« ance of consecutive vertical deposits, or consoïd»” lions, than that higher on the r’eef ; the munlSd iSwockl bltCd m 4lternate Iayfirs’ tlu°3 The following claim is that of Mr. Hood “0 feet who not long since purchased 10 feet on the reef aTS.

ÔLln.te pMíncr’9 lnterpst in «le claim, for £G00* About 230 tons of quartz have been raised fromtthis fr ° ft’1* °r ^hVch Was ahout 5¿ ounces P* ton! Although the reef is here comparatively narrow ata depth of 13 feet it is stül productive. ‘

We aro now at the claim of Messrs. Iredale «nd Company, 20 feet, by purch «, fern ¿tad and party, at the cost of £1000. There arc about thirty tons of quartz aUhe mouth of the shaft and prior to the sale the late proprietors raised 157 tons of quartz which, on crushing, produced 830 ounces of gold. Satisfied with their gain, these men-Nor. wegians-have gone to Melbourne, with the intention of returning to their native land. In this claim, at a depth of 135 feet, the reef, although narcow still presents a promising aspect. ‘

As there are fifty claims still lower down, some of which require a particular notice, I will conclude bv correcting an omission in my lost, describing Adelong on the surface. I omitted to state that the Reverend Mr. Fox, a clergyman belonging to the Church of England, and the Reverend iAIr. Fitzgerald, of the Scotch Church, both stationed at the Tumut, fie. quently perform divine service at the Adelong. A Roman Catholic clergyman has also visited the locality twice within the last six months, so that there is not that spiritual destitution in the district that I was led to believe. I have to repeat, however,. that there are no schools.

28 September 1859

A VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN GOLD FIELDS. [PROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.] No. III.

IN our progress down the slopes following the course of the great quartz reef of Adelong, we had, in my last, reached the claim of Iredale and Company, late Lind and Company.

The next in succession is the claim of Mitchell de Souza and Company, thirty feet ; here the lode ap- proaches the colour of a dark grey granite, the metallic veins appear more stratified, the width is from twelve to twenty inches, and the mundic and sulphurets change some what in their character.

There are about fifty tons of quartz raised here, estimited to yield about five ounces per ton. The next on the reef are Arigan and Fallon, twenty feet ; these parties have about ten tons of quartz raised, expected to produce between four and five ounces per ton, and have reached a depth of 130 feet.

We now come to Skinner and party, forty feet, who have just crushed thirty tons, which produced 120 ounces ; their depth is 115 feet, and the lode here becomes irregular in width, varying from six to ten inches. Then comes Ken- nedy and Company, forty-five feet .

This party has crushed twelve tons of quartz, which produced forty-eight ounces of gold and at a depth of 130 feet ; the width of the vein ranges from four to eight inches.

Here masses of granite intrude between fragments of slate, and fill up the fissure. We now reach Douglass and party, thirty feet ; the pro- duce of this claim, have been crushed, five of which yielded twenty ounces, and nine produced eighteen ounces of gold.

At a depth of 115 feet the vein varies from four to nine inches in width, and the slates become metalliferous and silicious. The following claim is that of Luke Tyrrell, twenty feet ; here the veins were irregular. sometimes expanding to a width of ten or twelve inches, at others, contracting to a mere streak of casing. T

he filling of the fissure is here granitic, becoming a dyke or elvon, differing in its constituents from the walls and inverting blocks of indurated silicified schist rich in metallic sulphurets. Particles of gold have been ob- served in both the schists and granite in this locality, and at a depth of 112 feet the vein is five or six inches in width.

Ten tons of quartz have been crushed from this claim, yielding about twenty-six ounces, and about eight tons are now at the mouth of the shaft, expected to ave- rage four or five ounces to the ton. The next claim is the property of William Williams, twenty feet. At a depth of 112 feet he has struck a small leader, which has produced about two tons of auriferous quartz, estimated to yield two ounces per ton. Then comes Brierley and Haigrraves, forty feet .

This party have raised fifteen tons of auriferous quartz, which produced thirty ounces of gold. At a depth of 140 feet a vein, from four to six inches in width, is invested by indurated black slate, alternating with granite. These are succeeded by M’Cormick and party, thirty feet, they have crushed twenty tons of quartz, the yield of which varied from five to two ounces per ton, becoming poorer after the mundic made its appearance.

At a depth of 115 feet they are on a vein four inches wide ; the character of the dyke corresponds with that in the claims immediately preceeding it. The two following claims, at a depth of sixty feet, have struck small veins which traverse the dyke, and from which they have raised a few tons of quartz, but at a depth of upwards of 100 feet they have not yet fallen in with the reef.

Neizeman and party are next in succession, forty feet, and at a depth of 104 feet are on a vein partially decomposed, about four inches in width, and from which they have obtained about twenty tons of rich quartz. On the succeeding claims, for about 200 feet, the miners have recently opened narrow veins of mundic quartz, at depths varying from 110 to 130 feet, that will yield from three to five ounces to the ton, and are expected to increase in width as they descend.

The hill, which had been gradually becoming more pre- cipitous, here presents a varied formation ; the surface rocks assume a basaltic and doleritic character, apparently the wreck of an ancient volcanic outburst, exhibiting a distorted stratification. They descend to a greater depth than the surface formations higher up the range, and are found reposing upon ancient granites by which they are broken and disjointed.

These igneons products of a former period have been pierced by recent outbursts, but, offering more resistance to the upheaving forces than the arena- ceous rocks formerly noticed, have been less disturbed. The fissure which had followed the schistose stratum from the crown of the range, and been gradually becoming con- tracted as it approached the more compact formations, here finally disappears or will only be discovered at a much greater depth.

The intrusive granite, repressed by the pre-existing igneous rocks on either hand, has burst through the weaker schistose stratum, investing each shattered fragment and filling every cavity, thus forming a dyke, occasionally traversed by minute quartz veins, few of which are metalliferous.

For upwards of a quarter of a mile, at intervals of twenty feet, shafts have been, and are still being, sunk through this dyke on the line of the reef, varying from eighty to 150 feet in depth, and as yet no lode has been discovered, although some of the shafts have reached water. Here and there a narrow vein appears to cheer the miner in his labours, and tempt him downward, but it soon runs out.

A series of shafts have been opened about thirty feet to the westward, but after reach- ing a depth of from forty to eighty feet they were aban- doned for the present line.

It is possible that the reef splits somewhere below the crown, and that the miners are at present on either the east or west branch ; the only way to prove this would be by cross drives, but, however anxious some might be to follow such a course the immense ex- pense attending sinking or driving through solid rock deters them from making the experiment.

It is in such case as this that the operative miner feels himself crippled by the absence of capital, without which all his energies are unavailing ; the exhaustion of his resources but too frequently compels him to relinquish undertakings which he knows perseverance would ultimately crown with suc- cess.

While companies, established with no other end in view than to find billets for the promoters, or to entrap the unwary, under the auspices of our Montillie Tigge», would probably wind up with loss to the shareholders, the forma- tion of copartners between operative miners and capitalists might reasonably be expected to promote tho interests of all concerned, and would certainly direct a gi eater amount of energy and mining experience to the development of our mineral resources

So well ib this now understood bj the working miners and claimholders on the Adelong that all labourers on the reef aro remunerated by shares This system has uuperseded regular w ages, und gives satisfaction to both the employer and employed In quartz mining there is little possibility of robbery or trand, as the gold can only be obttnie I by a tedious process, after passing through the hands of the crusher, who has no connection with the claim holders, and is usually instructed to pvv the gold produced from a lot of quartz into on» of the banks to the credit ot the piopnetors as a company.

In a coputneiship eonsist HijTOl (sa) twelve BhareSjSix of which were held by asmany operatives, and six represented bv eipltal, the liöter might irestneasonably assured that the operations of the copart- nership would bo cn ried on with the utmost economy, and vi itli all the ability of the working pai tners I am at tills moment in sight of a leef fioin w Inch the finest specimens proem ed in the district were obtained, and which, although opened foi nearly a mile in length, has been aban- doned -not because it held out no promise, but because the claim holders were needy men, and unable to cany on for 12 or l8 months, before which they could not, under the most 1 ivomable circumstances, expect a return for their labour

Upwards of a quarter of a mile bilow the point, wheie the lode, after gradually weiring itself out finally disap- peared, au extensive outcrop of qnaitz again made its ap peurance in the line of the hsstire On follow ing it dow n ward it was found to piss into the granitic dy ke on the noi th side within avery few feet ol the outcio» To the southward it alBO disappeared for 400 yards, when it again showed on the suiface lor about 200 feet, and sank to use no moie in the vicinity

Tho filling of the fissure caused by tile disruption ot the schistose stiatum at the southern extremity of the reef, is sometimes composed of granite, at others of quart?, und occasionally of both intermixed Ñotw ithstiiiding the many abstruse theories propounded relative to the origin ol qu irt? reefs, it is pos- sible that they may yet be traced to the simple chemical action of heat und water upon the various bodies throu.rh winch the fissuies pus, and that the fissures themselves will be lound to result from the «nine iction

Returning to the reef where the quirt? makes its second appeiuanco on the suilace, we lind that it was three ftet wide and varied in its charactei lrom that higher on the range, was less auriferous, and moro honeycombed the sulpliuiets were partially decompose I by the combined action of the atmosphere und the neighbouring springs, and the cavities in the lo le were filled with hydrous oxides and eirths forming the wash dut that has proved so productive of the precious metal At a depth of lrom lorty to fittv feet the decomposition c ased, and muudie appeared in a pi oportion equal to one-fom th of the lode, containing less non then els where and more arsenic Gold became lesb ubundint also, at the depth of 115 feet the sulphurets gradually disappeared, and were succeeded by pure white quartz-nearly bairen, but at 145 feet the mundic again shows on the hanging wall and pioi uses at a gi cater depth to cut out the w bite block We will now ramble ovei a few of the claims, on the lower si ebon of the reef

The first, seventy-five feet, is worked by Iredale and Company lu this claim the granitic dyke passes into quartz, north half of the “round, no îeet , south halt, suiface lor forty feet down was payable but not rich, sulphurets decomposed, replaced by eaithy oxides, at sixty feet reached the mundic, wheie the decomposing agents ceased to net Mundie m large qn unities, lode less aurife- rous as it descends, until at 115 feet the ban en vi hite quartz appears

Tins party have about -TO tons ot auriferous stone raised, estininred to produce from two to five ounces per ton. Tim next is Wells and Wiloon, seventy -five feet

Th ¡> clnim is similar to that preceding it The surface reef for fifty leet in depth produced u largo quantity of quirt?, tho average produce was three ounces per ton, some em ill lots reached as lugh as bi ounces

At sixty feet tile decomposition ceas-d, and the mundic appeared , tie yield was no» about four and n-half ounces per ton, be- coming less productive as it descended, until at 115 feet the white birren reef intervened At 147 fee1 it is impioving, but ‘”slowly Six hundred tons ot quart, have been raised from this claim , the present width of the lode is about three feet

Then comes Griffiths and Company 72 feet, Snriuee reef here irregular, varying in width, from four inches to two feet, yield from I three to six onncos per ton. At sixty feet the decompo- sition of tho salphurets ce.vaed Pale tin, white and light copper mundio appeared Reef from two to five feet wide, slate hard, black, and siliclfled. The yield from the mandle quartz, from sixty to eighty feet, averaged four and a half ounces, 120 feet it had decreased to two ounces, with the white reef close at hand.

Then Lemon and Woodman’s, fifty feet, surface reef to fifty feet in depth, yielded two ounces por ton At the point whero the decomposition ceasod the mundic stone produced for a few feet an average of nino ounces, and the last, consisting of forty tons, yielded fivo ounces per ton.

The width at a depth of 110 feet is eighteen inches, was wide nearer the surface, but vvos only rich and payable whon tiro lode became narrow The next in rotation is Dent and Company, thirty feet,recently crushed a few tons of quartz, avcrairing four ounces per ton, are at a doptli of 120 feet, and have twentv tons of quartz raised, width of loef twelve inches.

The following claim belong* to Richardson and Company forty-five feet at a depth of 130 feet, a narrow vein runs into a broad wlnto roof, tboy have ctushod afow tons averaging fifty ounces, and have about ten tons at tho Bhaft month

Then comes tho Cum- berland partv, who claim 120 feet The Biirfnco reef waB of little value, but ut sixty feet decomposition ceased, and the lode became rich from that point downwards, varying in width from two to four feet, the widest part loast pro- ductive, 120 tons haye been crushed averaging fivo ounces, and thero aro 150 tons of quart? raised on tho claim, at a depth of 120 feet the lode contrtcts to from twelve to eighteen niche-, in width, this is one of the moat valuablo c1 urns on the lower part of the reef

The w»xt two claims of 90 and 120 feet, are again on the grimtic dvke, a bluish granite and masses of indurated black schist, much altero! by their contact with tho invest- ing rock, hore usurp the place of tho lode, at tho depth of ?dxty feet The minors opened a narrow vom from vi Inch a few tons of quarta lune been obtained, which avoraged about four ounces, and at n depth of 112 ft-ot sinking through tlie same hard rock they are still in search of tho reef. Lower down is tho claim j of -, lîyzant, and Company, sixty feet ; the iisiuil small veins were found near the surface, which, although rieh, qnickly ran out.

At a depth of 120 feet a blast put ¡Rto the hanging wall exposed a rich mundic reef, two foot, in width, the yield of which is estimated at be- tween five and six onnces to the ton. On examination, the miners discovered that thoy had been sinking alongside of it for the last sixty feet; their want of success had re- duced them to the last extremity, and, during months of weary and anxious labour tho object of their search had boon daily within a few inches of their heads.

This inci- dent proves the exnodiency of cross drives. For a distance extending many hundred yards lower down, claims have been taken up” and worked by about twenty-two companies, and thoir numerous shafts in the granite e’van, which here again displaces tho quartz, vary in depth from 50 to 150 foot ; the average depth may bo said to bo one hundred feet.

Although masy small veins have been found traversing the indurated Bohistese frag- ments and tho granite in the vertical bed of the tilted itraUm, there is, so far, no appearance of a reef. I have described it in this way to draw attention to the fact ! that the cavity caused by tho partial removal of a perish- able stratum of schist invested by moro durable rocks might be mistaken for a fissnro caused by contraction or disruption.

Tivo foot, a week is accounted good work for thr:o men. and .tho sinking of the last twenty shafts through solid rock would not be undertaken by contracts at a lower rato .than ¡C5 per foot’. ,’Tho labour and material oxpendêd upon them, therefore, mav be valued at £10’,000. ‘ I^must be a; , matter of surprisoto many how men without capital could ‘pr«sccnto so expon8Îvo an undertaking. ‘In a’few’of tlio companies persons’ possessed of spare’ capital-aro ‘share-’ holders, but the majority are entirely composed of working miners.

In such cases it is not unusual for one-half of the company to hire themselv-s out to obtain the means neces- sary to enable the remainiug half to carry on their opera- tions. It will be observed that what is called the surface reef at the Adolo.ig usually ex’ends to the depth of from forty to sixty feet. This is perhaps the lowest point to which the rainwaters have penetrated, conveyed along the joints of tho rocks, and by filtration throueh the superstrata, con- verting the snlphurets and arsenites of some metals into oxides, romoving more by uecomposition, and perhaps reducing others bythe aid of the solutions which they become charged with in their passage.

If the reef as it now exists was covered to the depth of sixty feet by a solid roek im- pervious to water or atmospheric influences, what is now called the mundic reef would extend to the present surface; but if, on the contrary, the reef was denuded to the level where the mundic is now first met with in ft state of perfect crystallization, in process of time it would assume the con- dition of the present surface reef.

Many of tho auriferous reefs that have been discovered in New South Wales aro wh it are known as surface reefs, that is, their auriferous character decreases as they descend, and become quite lost at a depth seldom exceeding tlurtv five feet, but more frequently twenty-live

It may also be remarked that where these resfs follow the undulations of the surface, even descending the sides of mountains, where an erormous denudation has taken place, they retain this feature It is wortry of consideration whether the oxy- genated surface waters charged with the solutions tliey collect in their pas «ago through the upper strata, have any effect in reducing tho gold hold in combination with sulphiirehs or chlorides of other metals and minerals, and whether as the surface wears away, and the upper por- tion of the reef becomes destroyed by disintegration, par- ticles of pure metal may not continue to be reduced or formed to as gre it a depth as the waters can penetrate, prov ided that thenecessarv agents aro present in tne me- chanical or igneons rocks forming the Burfaco

These re- marks are suggested by the fact that in a verv largo pro- portion of the quartz raisod from the Adelong reef, yielding as Ililli as seven or eight ounces, a paiticle of gold is. not visible to the naked eye. To recapitulate in a few lines, I may say with reference to the great reef at Adelong, tint a stratum of schist of undetermined lenath and breadth, resting upon more ancient igneous products, has beea tilted and invested by gianite – that either the contraction of the cooling nias«, or the wastine and decomposition of the schist by the infiltration of sur- face w aters has caused a longitudinal fissure through its whole extent, widest and deepest where the granitic mass lind usen to the greatest height

That this fissure has been subsequently filled, partly by molten granite and partly by metaliferons quart?, by the agency of heat, the presence of eithei dependant upon tim constituents of the investing rocks The long dissertations written upon the dipping and nsme of quartz reefs, according to some geometnciilrulo, will, Ifear, prove to be uko the philosopher’s stone ol tlio middle ages. Nature is a simplo chemist, and varies her productions according to the materials upon which she operates.

29 Septemeber 1859

A VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN GOLD [FROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.] No. IV.

We will now return to the crown of the great reef, and take a concise review of the operations carried on upon the northern slopes of the hill.

The descents are steep, and the reef, true to its northerly course, makes directly for the valley. The first claim we notice on the crest of the range is that of Thomas Jenkins and Co., sixty feet, purchased from Don Francisca Carreas for £1800.

The character of the lode continues the same as that already described in the claim of Baker and Company. The surface reef was rich, but after the decomposition ceased it became less productive, and, at a depth of 112 feet, they are working through a vein of barren white quartz, the depth of which is at present undetermined.

This claim has already produced over £4000 worth of gold, and the proprietors have about 150 tons of quartz raised, a part of which, it is expected, will yield five ounces per ton, and the remainder something less.

The width of the reef continues to range from three to four feet, and it is probable that it will become narrower but more valuable a few feet lower down.

The succeeding claim is that of Edwards, Brothers, about twenty-five feet, exchanged for a half interest in the Victoria Crushing Mill ; the reef contracts in this claim and narrows to from seven to ten inches ; it was payable at the surface, but as it descended it be- came less rich ; the yield was at the rate of three and a half ounces, and they have about forty tons ready for the mills, which are expected to turn out four ounces per ton.

Ainsworth and Co., thirty feet, are next on the reef, which continues narrow and irregular in its descent, varying in width from twelve to six inches ; the surface quartz was very productive, decreasing downwards, and the claim is still yielding payable quartz.

We now arrive at the third claim of Mr. William Williams, who has had the honour of giving a name both to the hill and the neighbouring valley. He owns fifty feet on the reef at this spot.

The lode now expands to from two to three feet in width ; like the preceding claims, the surface was rich in gold, ob- tained both from the decomposed mundic by washing and from the quartz by crushing ; as it descended, the yield became less, and at 100 feet the dreaded white reef is making its appearance, holding out a gloomy prospect of much work and little pay.

Two men realised over £300 beyond their expenditure – in this claim by two months’ labour. About 150 tons have been crushed and roasted. The next three claims something less than 100 feet, have been purchased by Thomas Jenkins, and Company, at a cost of £2800, after quartz to the value of several thousand pounds had been raised by the former owners.

The width of the reef was irregular, rang- ing from three feet to nine inches, and the yield de- creased from nine or ten ounces under the gross, to three ounces, when it entered the modern granites, at the respective depths of 110 and 130 feet. They are, like their neighbours, working through the barren reef, with symptoms of an improvement coming in on the western wall, and strong in their hopes of the future.

We now have arrived at the original inspecting claim first granted to the discoverers of the reef, Thomas Williams and his mates, who were conducted to the source by the rich sur- facing on the slopes, and enticed to break up the reef in their pursuit of the gold found in cavities of the quartz mingled with the earths and oxides.

They washed out a part of the gold and sold the claim, with the quartz they had raised, for £1200, to Messrs. Coneras and Ryan. This quartz alone subsequently yielded £5000 worth of gold when crushing mills became established.

The upper por- tion of this extensive claim has been subdivided, and has passed through several hands, but Don F. Coneras, or Mr. Don, as he is called by his old mates, still retains his property in the lower sixty feet ; the yield has been very rich, but, like all the rest, most valu- able at the surface; the auriferous character of the lode decreasing with the descent, while in places the reef expanded to the width of four or five feet.

At a depth of seventy-five feet the miners fell in with the hate- ful white reef, and now at 105 feet they have hopes of being nearly through it, the vein con- tracting from three feet to ten or twelve inches. Blue quartz appears on the western wall-a bare streak at first, but gradually swelling into the lode, the sul- phurets and arsenates become more abundant, streak- ing the quartz like the fat and lean in Wiltshire bacon ; and as the mundic reef cuts out the white block, the prospects of the miners brighten.

A recent crushing has averaged three ounces. We now pass to the claim of Rutter and Company, sixty feet, who, at a depth of 145 feet, have passed through fourteen feet of the white reef, and are now again on payable quartz. A mass of black schist here splits the vein, and the walls become irregular ; in some spots nearly closing the fissure.

The quartz from this claim has produced about five ounces of gold per ton ; and a large pile at the shaft mouth awaits the operations of the crusher. The last we will notice is the claim of Robertson and Co., sixty feet; the surface reef here was replaced by the granite elvan, but at sixty-five feet a vein was opened which has produced about, thirty tons of quartz, not yet sent to the mill, which are estimated to contain from three to four ounces to the ton.

For 1500 feet lower down the slope claims have been taken up. and a line of shafts have been sunk to depths varying from 90 to 130 feet, with no success.

A chronicle of the labours of the miners further on the line of the reef would be but a story of delusive veins which only appeared to run out, of unrequited labour, of privations, of hope deferred, until many a poor fellow, after eighteen months of persevering toil, finds himself pennyless, physically exhausted, and nearly heartbroken. If the general body of miners on the reef had the power to assess the claimholders to the extent necessary to make such examinations as would conduce to the general advan- tage of all those interested in the reef, how much labour that has proved unprofitable would have been saved. Per one heart that rejoices on a gold-field, there are a hundred crushed and broken. “ The smiling there, like light on graves, Has rank cold hearts beneath it.”

Here closes the details relative to the great reef of the Adelong, and those who have had the patience to wade through them will be able to form some estimate of the enormous expenditure of labour and material by which the gold already obtained has been procured, allowing that 750 men have been employed on and in connection with the reef since June, 1857, and that 60,000 ounces of gold are the result of their labours.

This valued at £8 10s. an ounce would give £210,000. From that has to be deducted £14,500 for crushing, machinery, and quicksilver, &c.; ; and £20,000 for powder, tools, and cartage, which would leave just two pounds a-week for each man for the entire period.

But then comes the distribution. Fortune has been I unequal in her favours, and the number of blanks bear no proportion to the prizes-they are fearful to con- template. This fact is suggestive of the most gloomy reflections ; it becomes a serious question, how far a new country is really advanced by such an expenditure of its chief resource, its labour, of which we have yet no surplus.

A few individuals have im- proved their position, but they bear no proportion to the number who this day find themselves in a much worse condition than when they came into the district two long years since. The wilderness is unbroken ; no lands have been cleared ; no happv, smiling, home- steads have risen in the forest, and the country has derived no permanent advantage from the labours of these men, as they have eaten and drank the value of all that they have produced.

A few publicans have been enriched, and, through through them the public revenues have been benefited, but better that the one should continue to eat the bread of honest labour, and that the other should be in a less prosperous condition, than that we should waste the real wealth of our people in the vain pur- suit of a shadow. Follow these reflections out, and then turn to the gold-producing regions of the earth -learn from history what they have been, and see what they are.

6 January 1860

GOLD AND ITS COST. a general review of the various gold-fields, their yield for the past year, and the cost at which that yield was obtained.

The gross production of all the gold-fields during the last twelve months has been about 300,000 ozs., the result of the united labours of 16,000 miners, including the Chinese …

The largest portion of this gold has been forwarded to the Royal Mint at Sydney, much remains in the hands of the miners, and moro has passed into the province of Victoria from the southern gold-fields, to be there fraudulently sold as the produce of certain districts beyond the Murray, the gold from which has a higher market ?value than that from any part of New South Wales yet discovered.

Assuming the consumption of each man to be 12 pounds of flour, 12 pounds of beef, 3 pounds of sugar, and half a pound of tea per week, with one pound of tobacco per month, these 300,000 ounces of gold have been obtained at an expenditure of 15 BOO head of cattle, average weight 600 lbs., at £5 eaoh. . . . . 878,000 4,680 tons of flour, at £30 per ton . 1!*>ÍS? 1,170 tonB of sugar, at £70 per ton. 81,900 4,874 chests of congou, at £12 per chest …… 58,500 180,000 lbs. American tobacco, at 6s. per lb. . 54,000 60,000 gallons of rum, brandy, gin, 4j., being an _ average of 4 gallons per head, at 26s. Sd. per gallon 80,000 Add to this : Hardware, tools, and machinery used by 15,000 miners, at an average rato of £5 per man, exclusiva of quart« crushers. .75,000 Boots, clothes, blankets, tents, and other necessaries consumed or expended during the year by 15,000 miners, ot the rate of £10 per man . 150,009 The value of tbc«c supplies in the interior ls . £717,800

The value of all gold that has been hitherto pro- cured from the gold-fields of New South Wales ranges from 69s. to 75s. per ounce troy ; the average may bo taken at £3 13s., a debit and credit account would therefore stand thus : 300,000 oúnoes or gold at 73s. per ounco …”. .£1,035,000 Da.

Cost of the subsistence of 15,000 men for twolve months, clothe», tools, und oharges inclusivo. 717,800 Balance to remunerate 15,f00 minora for their twelvo months’ labour, exclusive of rotions …… . £377,200 The gross average result of each man’s labour for the twelve months has been twenty ounces of gold.

Which, at £3 13s. per ounce, ls worth . . £73 8 0 From whioh deduct tho cost of his subsitt Balance in remuneration for twelvo months’ labour and to support his family . 25 2 11 – £73 0 0

If all the gold procured had been thrown into a common stock the above would have been the scale of division; but, although science, hythe aid of expe- rience, can now point with certainty to geological formations which are gold bearing, and can indicate where gold may be sought for with a probability of success, she cannot say whether it exists in sufficient abundance to repay the cost of the research ; thc dis- integration and sometimes entire removal of the auri- ferous rooks and veins ; the degradation of tile hills ; the filling up of some watercourses and the opening of others, and the lowering of the channels of streams, have so altered the surface as to afford no guide to the deposit of auriferous drift, or to those crevices and cleavage fissures in -which nuggets are usually dis- covered.

As the distribution is thus capricious the success attending tho laborious researches of the mining population has been unequal. About two per cent, of the European miners have, by a fortunate accident in the selection of their claims, procured gold within the last year to the value of from £12,000 to £0000.

This yield has usually to be equally shared by companies, comprised of from four to six individuals. These persons frequently leave the colony for other countries as soon as their claims become exhausted. About eight per cent, of the same class of miners have securedjelaims from which, by steady labour, they have procured gold to the value of from £200 to £500, exclusive of their expenses.

Some of this has been saved, some expended in prospecting, and a large share has found its way to the public-house, and the sly-grog tent. Thirty per cent, are always on the look out for opportunities of jumping claims, and constitute the numerous rushes fluctuating between the various gold fields.

On some particular gold-field they know every corner of the ground, and to this they invariably return when dead beat. Here they can always get some gold ; but could get more if they worked with greater steadiness ; as it is they only work by fits and starts ; seldom experiencing absolute destitution, they still less frequently drop upon anything worth notice.

Twenty per cent, comprise the unfortunates, who by the strictest economy, and the most severe labour, atc unable to keep themselves out of the store- keepers’ book. The gold seems to sink beneath their feet ; they aro often on the threshold of fortune, but never enter. Amongst this class mav be included those who brought a little money with them-perhaps their nil-and let it slip through their fingers ; those who find themselves by previous habits and pursuits unfitted for the occupation ; and those who, depressed by a run of ill-luck, either want the courage or the will to return within the pale of civilisation.

Aban- doned to their fate, they wear out a dreary exist- ence along the banks of nameless s’.reams, on the skirts of an exhausted gold-field, or hid in nooks and corners of the wilderness.

Forty per cent, are the Chinese. These are most numerous on the Western gold-fields, where they are supposed to obtain the largest share rof gold. They undertake thc most extensive operations, and carry them to completion, thus rendering ground remune- rative that has been abandoned by the European giving but little trouble te) the authorities.

They work under a system of copartnership or servitude un- known to the white miner.

Tlie average value of tho gold obtained in 1859 by each miner has been about on a par with the rote of wages in tho pastoral and agricultural districts, and the hardships attending the life of a gold-digger may be said to be counterbalanced by his freedom from restraint ; the inequality of the distribution is the great evil attendant upon so precarious a pursuit, coupled with the craving for excitement, and the demoralised and unsettled habits arising from a life spent in wandering through the deserts.

There are hundreds of persons now perambulating thc gold-fields who would gladly settle down as culti- vators of tho soil if it was not tabooed against them, they hove taken to an occupation for which they are disqualified as a last resource, do no good for them- selves, are perpetually in the way, reduce the average of the experienced and successful miner, and ‘reflect discredit upon an important branch of colonial indus- try.

Quartz-crushing has excited some attention within the last few” months, and several auriferous reefs hove been examined, particularly in the western districts, where they are numerous but poor. The want of crushing machinery on the gold-fields has discouraged the working digger from prosecuting his inquiries in that direction ; and the ill success that has frequently attended this branch of mining iii Now South Wales, coupled with the uncertainty that exists with reference to the process of amalgamation with mercury, has caused capitalists hitherto to stand, aloof from such investments; future discoveries,. and inventions, will hereafter render our quartz reefs a lasting source of colonial wealth ; and, in the meantime, we can wait.

12 November 1859

OUR GOLD-FIELDS.

THE escort returns that we published monfhly show how steadily the production of gold in this colony t maintains its position as an important branch of our I industry and a valuable addition to our exports.

We I have no need to wish for any sudden and overshadowing expansion of this interest, that would upset once more the established relations of labour and capital, and the prices of commodities.

But it is satisfactory to perceive that in our gold-fields there is a still unexhausted store of wealth, and scope for the employ | ment of surplus labour.

It is not every man that is suited for gold-digging, nor can every artisan, directly he is out of work, betake himself at once to a profitable gold-field.

But though the relief may not be ex- perienced directlj in every individual instance, the general effect upon the labour market is most decided. Every one that goes to the gold-fields makes it easier for those he leaves behind to find employment, and, indeed helps to create employment for them.

And in a colony where the demand for labour fluctuates greatly, according to the amount of capital available for its hire, and the prospects of profitable investment, and where it is impossible always to maintain that perfect balance between the two so that there should never be any surplus of either, it is a great advantage that there should be such a standing resource for the working man as the gold-fields afford.

These, at least, if not furnishing a chosen and favourite oc- cupation, at least offer a dernier resort, and a guarantee against want and dependence. We have no means of determining exactly the number of diggers engaged, but they manage between them to raise as much in the course of the year as will sell for about a million sterling.

And this amount is rather on the increase than falling off. There are variations in different weeks, and different months, and sometimes nvost gold comes down from one quarter, and sometimes from another, but as a whole the annual produce has steadily increased for the last three years, a clear proof that those who work on the diggings are not discouraged, and are not unsuccessful.

The diggings are scattered over a wide area ; if they were more concentrated, – their success would attract more attention. But from the extreme southern boundary of tho colony up to the northern limits of settlement, they are to be found scattered in groups.

Across the breadth of the settled parts of the colony, too, the gold Beems to be widely diffused. Sometimes it is found on the eastern side of the great range, and not very far from the sea coast, as in the case of Braidwood ; at other times, as in the more westerly diggings, behind Bathurst and Mudgee, and in .the south- westerly at Adelong, it is discovered within sight of the long rolling plains of the interior.

Nor is the auriferous deposit confined to valleys and hill sides, for some of the more recent rushes, especially in the north, are to spots which are described as being situated on high tablo lands, and on the summits .of flat ridges dividing the watersheds of different rivers.

The localities, however, in which the gold is found, are not out of harmony with the deductions and conjectures of geological science. On the contrary, the wide diffusion of the precious metal has been most clearly shown to belong to the geological condition of a large portion of the territory.

The concentration of diggers on a few spots in the earlier days of gold rinding was not because those spots were indicated as the only likely places, but because men are gregarious, and prefer to work where they know there is gold, than to spend time in hunting for fresh, places, unless they are forced to do so by the exhaus- tion of the old fields. Many of the later rushes have been to localities long ago pointed out as likely to contain gold.

There stiU remains some spots to be examined, where science has predicted gold, but before very long there will probably not remain any extensive district of which the geological indications are favourable that has not been more or less practically tested.

The newly-constituted colony of Queensland will in- clude the gold-field at Canoona, and it is highly pro- bable that some fresh deposits, more widely extensive than existed there, will be discovered in some other parts of that colony. But at present that is the only known gold-field within the limits of the northern colony.

All the others that exist will remain to tho south of the boundary. The Tooloora diggings, whick have recently excited some attention, are situated very near to the line which has been adopted as the boundary, although almost equally distant from the port of ipswich to the North, and the port of Grafton to the South.

The traders of the two places have contended for the benefits of the traffic, and will divide it in proportion to their respective enterprises. It is not impossible that the Tooloom Gold-field may be traced across the boundary, and into territory which indisputably belongs to Queensland, in which ease our neighbours will be able to boast of two gold- fields to startwith, one on the extreme north of their limit of colonisation, and one on the extreme south,

Aceording to M. Chevalier, and his translator, Mr. Cobden, gold-digging is not going to bo so profitable a speculation during the next generation as it has been during the present, for miners have been so indus- trious, that they have more than supplied the world’s wants, and the mints and banks will 60on begin to cry “ hold, enough.””

But even though the value of gold should fall by degrees, the rate of production is not likely to diminish much, for the decreased value of the product will be compensated probably by improve Í ments iá.the process, of extraction.

The inducementq {o look for gola-Will remain as le ^ as gold in any quantity is to hefound ; and we may look forward, therefore, with tolerable certainty to tho fact that, under any circumstances gold-mining will continue for many years to come to form part of our colonial, industry, and bullion to figure in our exports. Wei know that gold lies imbedded in our mountains, and¡ we know that some persons will find it worth their’ while to pick it up. The style of mining may, and .probably will, undcigo great modification, but the, occupation itself is not likely to die out.

9 January 1860

GOLD AND ITS COST.

WITHIN the last twelve months no practical improvement in the method of separating the alluvium from the gold which it is supposed to contain, has been introduced on the gold-fields.

This operation has from the first opening of our mineral lands been performed in a rude and imperfect manner by the agency of water alone…

By the various processes of puddling, cradling, and sluicing only the coarser particles of the precious metal aro secured ; a very large quantity of fine gold, often in the form of an impalpable powder, exists in all auriferous drift, which cannot be saved by any method with which the miner is conversant : the loss thus sustained, great as it may be, has never been estimated.

It is well known that gold can always be procured from the tailings or refuse of machines worked by the hands of the most skilful washers, and in such quantities as to remunerate tho Chinese for repassing it through their cradles.

With the exception of a few localities we still con- tinue to bo immeasurably behind both California, and Victoria, in the extent of our operations, in the forma- tion of co-operative companies, in the introduction of mechanical appliunces, in the permanent churacter of the towns and villages on our gold-fields, and in the status maintained by our mining population.

This has been the result of the legislation of our successive Governments with reference to the gold- fields ; however else they may haye disagreed, here has been neutral ground, and the open policy of one party, and the disguised policy of the other, has been to make the gold-fields of the colony a refuge for its surplus unskilled labour, and to reduce the profits of the miner to a par with that of an ordinary labourer for hire.

In this they have succeeded but too well, as most of the enterprise, bkill, and science necessary to devclope the mineral wealth of a country, that at first flocked to our shores, have ahnndoned thom in disgust ; the occupation of the miner has fallon into unskilled hands, and our rich gold-fields have not been worked, but rooted over and injured by a vast concourse of men who haye earned a mere subsistence by their misdirected labour, and who would find themselves in a worse position if the gold-fields failed to-morrow than on the day when J they first landed in the colony.

This has been effected by tha discretionary power vested in the hands of the gold commissioners, some- times capriciously exercised, and upon which no .calculation can be based. By the limited area of the claims allowed, the yield from which in Now South Wales is seldom such as to j’ustify an expenditure beyond that necessary for extracting the gold by the most simple process, and by the stringent and oppres- sive conditions attached to leases of auriferous ground which have been only hitherto applied for in a few in- stances, and only granted for lands that were sup- posed to have been previously exhausted.

I The imposition of the half-crown per ounce duty is one of those subjects that will not bear discussion,-the goldmincr already pays for police protection by his consumption of oxcisoable articles, and for the full value of the land ho uses, by the uurehase of his annual license. The 300,000 ounces of gold procured last year cost the colony their full value in the labour and sustenance of 15,000 men.

The product of their labour forms the standard by which labour is measured and represented ; if, therefore, you impose a tax upon the production of gold, you place a specific burl hen upon the labour of one sectio» of the com- munity who cannot disiribute that burthen over the whole population by a proportionate increase in the price of their commodity.

Gold never was procured with an expenditure of labour less than its full value. Who has estimated the value of the labour encamped upon the banks of the Turon, during 1851 and 1852, and compared it with the yield of gold for that period from the same stream.

The rush to the Fitzroy in October, 1858, caused a general exodus of the mining population from the older gold-fields. On their return to Sydney, after the failure of that expedition, the distress and desti- tution amongst them became so general that it was found necessary to raise a fund by public subscription, supplemented by the Government, to enable them to return to the gold-fields.

In that movement the Sydney Morning Herald took an active part, and it is ‘ to the able and stirring appeals that appeared in the columns ^of that paper, from day to day, while the crisis lasted, that they were mainly indebted for the assistance that they received in their hour of need.

By the aid of the Diggers’ Committee, some found their road back, poorer but wiser men, to the respec- tive localities from which they had originally started, but the greater number became scat- tered over other gold-fields that had been more recently discovered, and which at the period were attracting some attention.

Amongst these was Fair- field, on the Clarence waters, and portions of the Braidwood and Araluen districts. The diggers now became redistributed, and the new gold-fields rose into importance ; while others that we had been accustomed to look upon with intense respect sank into the shade.

Thus, although :hcre was a serious fulling off in the production of the AVestern gold-fields, the Hanging Rock, and the Uralla, or Rocky River, there was an increase in the aggregate quantity of gold received at the Royal Mint, and it was proved that the miners had merely shifted the scene of their labours. The decreased yield of the gold-fields enumerated-partly due to the exhaustion of the auriferous localities that have been discovered may be chiefly attributed to the migration of the most energetic part of the population.

The moral condition of the mining population is infinitely superior to that of other portions of the colony, where the labouring class ate equally numer- ous ; the majority of the cases that are brought under the notice of the police courts on the old gold-fields are rather connected with tho class of small settlers that surround them than the diggers-the prevailing crime is that of cattle or horse stealing. “Sly grog selling every where prevails upon the gold-fields, almost without disguise ; that it is countenanced by the Government appears certain, as no effort is made to suppress it.

Leaving theinjustice practiced towards licensed publicans out of the question, the evil re- sulting from this system is that the vendor places him- self in the power of every rascal who frequents his tent, and must act accordingly. Simplify the mode of obtaining spirit licenses on the gold-fields-let the issue be immediate, and for a term of three months, if required, and the sly grog seller will cease to exist.

Leave the digger to drink what ho pleases, and when he pleases, but crush these dens of infamy. j lhere are a numerous progeny of children scattered over the various gold-fields. Those to the westward are provided with schools of a superior class, amongst which may be noticed that at Sofala, and the Iron- i barks, both of which are admirably conducted, but on the other fields there is a sad deficiency.

On the Fairfield gold-fields there is not the same proportion of children as elsewhere, as the diggers are composed chiefly of young unmarried men. There is an equal want of religious instruction, which will not be pro- vided for under the voluntary system. In consequence of the general withdrawal of capital from the gold-fields as soon as it has been accumulated, prospecting has not been carried on to an extent commensurate with its importance, the impoverished goldseeker ia unable to bear the ex- pense of an undertaking, the result of which is so pro o&rious.;

He ia, moreover, impressed with the cer- tainty that he will not derive any advantage from his researches, even if attended with success, as the ground he may discover will be speedily taken posses- sion of by others who have been watching his pro- ceedings long before it is officially recognised os a gold-field, and the claims he selects will be exhausted before, under the most favourable circumstances, he can obtain redress.

The extra claims to which he is entitled, at the discretion of the Commissioner, seldom fall to his share ; and even if he should obtain all awarded to him by the latest regulations, and succeed in keeping them, the chances aro against his being re- munerated for his enterprise, as it is only after a gold- field has boen opened in a variety of places, and care- fully studied, that the most valuable deposits are dis- covered.

I Rewards have been offered from time to time by the trading community, but there is no instance on record of their having been ever paid to discovereis ; the announcement of such inducements are therefore now treated with contempt, and only indicates either the decline of the gold-field, or the desire of the inhabi- tants of a village to reap the advantage of having one in their vicinity. It is worthy of consideration whether the colonial Government should not institute a scale of rewards, the necessary funds to be raised from those benefited by such discoveries, which would include the whole district, digger, trader, squatter, and landed pro- prietor.

The various officers connected with the de- partment might also be called upon to furnish detailed I reports of the geological features of their respective I districts, the natural system of drainage, and all other information that oould be obtained by a close exam- ination of the surface, If these reports were published they would promote the prosperity of our gold-fields, and save the digger much unnecessary labour and loss of time,-in this respect Victoria is in advance of us.

The great waste of labour and want of co-operation on our gold-fields is at the present moment a drain upon the resources of the colony. * When the unemployed labour of the colony be comes absorbed by the cultivation of a portion of our public lands, it is probable that the gold-fields will prove to be more profitable, as few will remain upon them except those who design to make gold-mining their profession, and although the aggregate produc- tion for a time may be less than at present, the average yield per man will be greater.

If the application of the labour expended in pro- curing an ounce of gold would produce a quantity of cotton, sugar, maize, or wheat, greater in value than the quantity represented by an ounce of gold, then the community has obtained it at a cost in excess of its value ; and however we may be dazzled by occasional instances of success, the permanent prosperity of the colony docs not advance in proportion to its resources.

It is one of the condi- tions of the occupation of a gold-digger that he must rely upon the gold he obtains entirely for his remune- ration ; if he finds no gold his labour has no value. On the other hand, every acre that the farmer clears, i and brings under cultivation, however unprofitable it may be to himself, is a future source of wealth to the colony. Gsld-fields are valuable, inasmuch as they serve to attract inhabitants of the best description to a fertile wilderness from the great centres of population, but they are a dangerous foundation upon which to build the greatness of a people.

When the discovery of gold in California was first .announced to the astounded nations of the west, seized by a frenzy, they hastened to throw their wealth upon its shores with such prodigality that the people refused to give it storage. In vain merchants watched for the return of their ships. Months, years, passed by, ere they awoke from their dream of richeB, to find that in grasping at the shadow t’uey had lost the substance ; that they ‘ were sufferers to the extent of millions of pounds sterling, and to seo gorgeous cities rising in far off deserts, founded upon the wreck of their fortunes.

The splendour und prosperity of California, based upon the wealth of the ruined met chants of Europe, only became permanent on the day when she com-Fix this text menced to feed her own people and export the surplus produce of her soil.