exceptions,
all quartz mining has been directed to the big formations of stone.
Some of the prospectors, however, have worked indicator lines for good
results. As in other parts of the district, the arches, with
intervening lode systems, are about a quarter of a mile apart, and the
belts of gold-slate, showing outcrops of quartz, are to be seen in
parallel lines. There is really no mining at present, the place being
in the hands of cyaniders, who are treating on a small scale the
tailings heaps left by mills formerly erected on the strength of
patches met with in outcrops. One venture of the past, known as the
Union, opened works on a big outcrop, from which gold to the value of
£100,000 is said to have been taken. This outcrop belongs to a system
which crosses the old washdirt workings at a part that yielded many
nuggets, and it was this fact that led to the big lode being opened.
The Union main shaft is said to be 280 feet deep. I was informed that a
patch worth £3,000 was met with, in sinking this shaft, in wing stone,
and that one piece of this weighed 7 ozs. The Union line has been
followed in outcrop for miles, and at more than one place patches have
been found. The mining on it, however, is all shallow. The people of
Kingower never refer to the weight of nuggets in ounces, it is all
pounds. Of all the fields I have visited for this report Kingower has
the highest record for nuggets, and there is no mining on its
indicators. Why don't the miners act on the suggestiveness of the
nuggety nature of the washdirt found on the outcrops of the
quartz-permeated slate belts ? Those too poor to go in for deep mining
could manage depths by windlass to 100 feet very well. Why not
cross-cut for 60 or 100 feet, say, to a depth of 6 feet, in the region
of the nuggety washdirt, with a view to exposing in a system the
numerous lines of slate drainage known as indicators ? Having located
these, let them sink and drive for the "filter packs," known as flat
veins, crossing these lines of drainage. There are many nuggets in the
downward extensions of these drainage systems less than 100 feet from
the present surface, and one patch, nuggety or in "tea-lead" form,
would stimulate effort in the shallow parts of the indicators of
Kingower. Kingower should prosper when its lode systems are worked on a
large scale. I have to thank Mr. Joe North, Mr. Hutchison, and Mr. Taig
for their attention in showing me around old works here.
Going
east from Kingower I cross the usual parallel belts of gold-slate, all
containing lode systems, gold-bearing and untouched. Seven or 8 miles
brings me to the gold-field of Inglewood. Like the others visited, it
is practically dead from a mining stand-point. Here the lode structure
is much the same as throughout the district. A more general twist
strain has been applied to the rock beds, with the result that the
wing-like lode formations are more massive and continuous, and, in
places, show a saddle shape, probably a "flank effect" of the forces
that originated the lode structure of Bendigo, some 38 miles still
further to the east. Two companies are working—one an English concern,
and the other a Bendigo one. The English company is at work on the old
Morning Star mine. It is sinking a main shaft, and the depth reached at
the date of my visit was about 500 feet. The Morning Star lode belongs
to a main system of lodes, which runs in a north-and-south line through
the town. This system is one of three whose formations appear in
outcrop through a width of about a mile. Many golden outcrops were met
with in ea.rly times, and, as a consequence, much work was done in
following golden parts to shallow depths. The lodes show widths varying
from a foot or so to 60 feet. According to the figures given in an
interesting little book published by the proprietors of the Inglewood Advertiser' in 1883, the total yield obtained from all parts of the field, to that date, exceeds 100,000 ozs., all of which
