point
of attraction was the spot below the junction of the Lewis Ponds and
Summerhill Creek, forming a natural dam across the creek about a
quarter of a mile in length. There were several of these dams, which
have since been found to contain gold. The creeks take their rise in
Frederick's Valley, a locality in the county of Bathurst, about 153
miles from Sydney. Here lies the estate of Mr. Wentworth, for the
working of which a company has been formed in Sydney. The country
around is poor and unfit for pastoral purposes. Coomling Creek, which
falls into the Belubula River, was the next gold locality, and then the
Belubula itself. This river empties itself into the Lachlan.
By
the 25 th of May there were 1,000 people at the Summer-hill Creek,
working hard upon a surface of not more than a mile in extent, and
lumps were found varying in weight from 1 oz. to 4 lbs. " Nuggets" is
the local term for such specimens. The large pieces were generally got
out of fissures in the rock—clay-slate—which forms the bed of the
creek. The smaller grain gold is procured by washing the alluvial soil
resting upon and filling in the cleavage joints of the rock, The high
lands in the vicinity are mostly surmounted by basalt, thickly
traversed by quartz veins. Much of the gold bore evidence of its having
originated in the quartz, thus affording evidence of the
inexhaustibility of the mines as long as quartz was left.
The gold here obtained, and it may be taken as a specimen of the whole, gave, on assay, gold, 91,000; silver, 8-333; base metal, 0'5C7. The gold is, therefore, 22 carats, value 3l. 17s. 10-1/2. per oz., and contains 1 dwt. 16 grs. of fine silver to the oz, value 5-1/2d., making the value "of Australian gold 31. 18s. 4d. per oz., though it is selling in the colony at from 3l. to 3l. 5s., thus yielding an enormous profit to the purchasers.
Gold
was now found on the Abererombie River, which flows through the county
of Georgiana into the Lachlan. In the creeks running south fro:n the
Corrobola, principally in Oakey
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