below
this, further to the south, are the remains of many old surface efforts
which yielded from penny weights to many ounces to the ton. The most
southern of these is known as Barnes'; here works were carried to a
depth of about 300 feet, on a long", narrow " make " of stone, that in
parts contained large deposits of the usual sulphides found in this
field.
Just
east of this line is a line of saddle formation, known as the
Hampshire : and this formation, though of low-grade ore, could be
easily mined. Its system of lodes can be traced north to Percydale,
where at one point its makes " have been worked under the name ot the
Union Jack, and, still nearer Percydale, under the name of the Poverty
Reef.
About
a, mile to the south of the Percydale township, Mr. Hall, a pioneer
prospector, has opened a belt of slate evidently in association with a,
trough in the corrugated rocks, giving yields of gold from the slate
itself. The gold is distributed through a width of about 15 feet; it is
in fine-paint fcrm on the sides of the leaves of slate, and in numerous
veins of quartz that permeate the rocks. The bulk is said to have
yielded an average of 2 dwts. to the ton, while some parts gave 15
dwts. to the ton. A small mill was set to work on it some years ago,
but the results did not
satisfy the owners, although it might-have paid had the ore been
treated without mercury, but by blankets and tables of the Wilfley
type. The use of mercury insures failure on many formations containing
arsenical pyrites and line gold.
There
have; been dozens of points on the many lodes which occur in about a
mile in width of the Percydale country that show the remains of weak
efforts to mine them; and from the heaps left by the several small
mills which treated their quartz, Mr. Doepel is carting the sand away
to his cyanide vats.
Percydale,
once a flourishing' town in its alluvial mining days, is now a.
comparatively deserted village. Its streets of houses have disappeared
and its thousands of inhabitants wandered away, but the time will come
when it will lie as flourishing as ever, and this will be when proper
attention is paid to its systems of lode formations.
As
stated by Mr. Robert Bryant, a mining engineer, in giving evidence
before the Gold Commission which sat in the late "eighties,'' ihe field
offers great" facilities for national prospecting works in the form of
cross-cutting' tunnels through the Pyrenees ranges ; these tunnels
would open hundreds of lode lines at levels admitting'of, in some
instances, fully 1,200 feet of backs. In fact, the whole area examined
is specially suited for this kind of opening works, and splendid
facilities would then be offered for the employment of thousands of
miners.
I
must not neglect to mention the quarries opened on formations of slate
admirably suited for paving, and in some parts for roofing, purposes.
Great works were in progress in these quarries in the past, but it is
said that the cost of carting to the railway rendered the works
unprofitable. These quarries will i.o doubt receive attention some
day. but not until a railway connects them with the main line at Avoca,
7 miles distant.
PART II.
On
returning to Moonambel, I found that good progress was being made with
the new shaft of the Moonambel Company, and I hear that sinking is to
be continued for at least 200 feet further. Immediately to the
[Part II. sent in 21st August, 1902.]
