18 OUR "SOUTH INDIAN" ESTATE.
all.
Captain Gifford's operations have proved that his predecessor was
wrong. Indeed, when once the thing itself is seen, the method or reason
upon which this fine reef has been opened out is simplicity itself.
Sixty
feet below No. 1 Tunnel, we came upon the entrance to No. 2. This has
been driven twenty-five feet into the hillside, where the reef, which
proved to be eight feet in thickness, was again reached. Some
fifty-eight feet have been exposed along its course.
The
third tunnel, more to the westward, is seventy feet below No. 2, and
the reef here proved to be fifty-seven feet from the entrance, and is
twelve feet thick. Here, again, driving has been carried for a distance
of thirty-seven feet along the reef. The deepest tunnel of all is No.
4, at the foot of the hill, only ten feet below No. 3, and ninety feet
to the west. At this spot the reef was reached at a distance of
fifty-four feet. This tunnel is 180 feet below the outcrops on the
hill. Consequently, it is certain that there is a wall of quartz over
our heads, when standÂing in this tunnel, no less than 180 feet high.
How much lies below our feet, who can tell!
Ascending
the hill, and passing round its western extremity, a second branch of
the same range is reached. Into this two more tunnels have been driven,
Nos. 5 and 6. These were directed towards another series of outcrops,
indicating the presence of a reef having very nearly the same bearing
