deep
wash-dirt deposits here, by boring, in more than one place. An
unexplored system of ancient gutters lies beneath this volcanic
covering, the main trunk of which leads west into the ancient valley
mentioned in the early part of this report as being between the Egerton
country and Warren-heip. The Egerton range of gold-bearing rocks forms
its headlands, and these headlands also send another system of
prehistoric gutters down their eastern side to the volcanic plains of
Bradshaw's Creek. Although the Mines Department went to a lot of
trouble and expense in the matter of boring, no mining came of it—why,
I cannot say. There is room here for a good rush or two, if only in the
gully fringes to these systems of deep ground. The deep ground itself,
as far as concerns that part of it on the Egerton line of country, is
held under lease by a syndicate that hopes to interest the English
investor in its wash-dirt deposits and quartz-lode formations at an
early date. This area, containing many lode-lines belonging to the
Egerton system, has never received the attention it deserves. There is
not the slightest doubt but that many favoured situations on its lines
of drainage (known as lode-lines and indicators) are to be met with in
it, some of which, like Hickey's, but await intelligently applied
effort to locate them. Indeed, all along this line of concentrated gold
there are great widths of ore which, if taken in bulk, would be classed
as low-grade, but which would, for long stretches, probably return more
than cost.
Still
following the same line, we rise over the hills of slate and sandstone,
showing outcrops of quartz and gold-slate and dyke. Some of these have
been " rooted" out a little in shallow works, and in more than one
place rich yields have been obtained. No notice appears to have been
taken of the slate-layers and their hundred and one drainage lines
known as indicators, miners being always under the impression, it
seems, that indicators have no significance except when associated with
flat (or nearly flat) veins of quartz. Their association with the rich
parts of vertical lodes, wide and bulgy, or thin, as the case may be,
has never been noticed, yet all lodes apparently owe their value to
them. .
On
the range just to the south of the township of Gordon the remains of
works known as the Hit or Miss mark the locality of numerous patches
met with in vertical and wing quartz structures. A shaft has been sunk
about 250 feet through splendid country of gold-slate associated with
dyke material. There is a great width of gold-bearing drainage here,
but the company that put the shaft down was evidently in search of big
stone rich in gold, and did not realize that it had opened a line of
ore good enough for a big mill with bulk treatment. I went below in the
shaft to the l00-ft. level (the remaining depth of 150 feet had been
filled in), and found exposed many indicator lines of drainage. Two
parties of local miners are busy in shallow works on veins, some of
which are credited with yielding 15 ozs. to the ton. The nearest public
mill is at Egerton, three miles away.
North
from this hill, towards Gordon, are the shaft and top-gear of the late
Klondyke Company, Here is a system of almost vertical quartz
formations, all gold-bearing, known, going from west to east, as
Fisher"*, the Kangaroo, Peterson's, and the Eastern. A small run of
rich wash-dirt was met with in early times, crossing the outcrops of
these lodes, and numerous spasmodic attempts have been made during the
last 40 years to work the lodes themselves. Away back in the fifties
the Kangaroo was worked for remarkably rich yields. The other members
of the group had attention also, and this resulted, it is said, in
yields from Fisher's lode, where a width of 7 feet of stone was met
with, of 2 ozs. to the ton, and from Peterson's, which had an average
width of 4 feet, of 8 dwts. to the ton. The Eastern lode has received
little attention, and I could not ascertain anything
