160
feet, and driving has been commenced upon the course of No. 1 Reef. It
was from this tunnel that the quartz and other stone was taken and
submitted for analysis at the Bombay Mint; the result showing that the
soil in proximity to the reef is also highly auriferous.
Besides
the reefs here described, there are four others upon which operations
were to be commenced at once. The first is a fine masterly vein that
enters our property from the Phoenix. It appears to be about twelve
feet thick at the outcrops, has a bearing north and south, and a
westerly dip of about forty-five degrees. Another new reef has been
discovered a little to the west of the coffee plantations, high up the
mountain-side. A third appears lower down, near a stream that flows
from Hadiabetta, and has much the same bearing as the above, and is
about two feet and a half wide; whilst the fourth is situated about two
miles down the Grlenrock river, very near the native village,
concerning which more hereafter.
These
are some of the results of careful explorations made since my visit,
and I doubt not are only the beginning of more important discoveries
which will be made when the heavy forest has been more thoroughly
explored.