having
already built the open Sludge-channel, eight miles long, at Naseby.
Besides these several tunnels have been built by private individuals.
At
Gabriel Gully, Tuapeka, where the grade is very light, the hydraulic
elevator is said to be working succes-fully ; and in the river Clutha
dredging machines are at work on the auriferous deposits. North of
Charleston, on the coast-line, the beach sands which contain gold are
worked by a colony of Shetlanders.
Extensive
sluicing operations are carried on along the banks of the Molyneux,
Kawarau, and Shotover rivers. At Tinkers and Drybread Diggings forty
sluice-heads of water, with one hundred and thirty feet head, conducted
through forty-five hundred feet of iron piping, are used to hydraulic
the gravel. The depth of the deposits on the so-called Maori bottom
approximates thirty feet. The resources of the province in auriferous
drift are very great. Ulrich considers part of the old Clutha Lake
basin where Bendigo Creek enters, and along the foot of the range upon
which Bendigo reef occurs, as especially worthy of the attention of the
drift-miner. Miller's Flat, between Arrow and Queenstown, a supposed
old river-channel, is also considered rich.
The
Thames field, on the east side of the Hauraki Gulf, is a narrow strip
of land twenty-five miles long and from two to four miles wide. The
gold in this district is obtained chiefly from quartz reefs. In Tapu
district gold is found in considerable quantities in the decomposed
soil on the slopes of the hills. It is usually flaky and not at all
water-worn.
In
Westland district the mines are classed as cement and alluvial
workings. The cement is from one to six feet in thickness, and consists
of quartz gravels which are found in connection with the coal series.
The gold occurs in the lower portion of these beds. Alluvial workings
are met with in all gullies cut in the auriferous series, but the gold
is generally coarse. In the con-
