BANNOCKBURN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 1, Issue 46, 28 September 1870, Page 5

BANNOCKBURN.

( From our own Correspondent. J .September till, 1870. The scantiness of mining nows precludes any communication of importance being made : the current of mining affairs still Hows on in its usually placid manner. But for the snow on the ranges becoming dissolved by the mid-day sun, the scarcity of water (owing to the continued drought) would give the sluicers of this district some cause for grumbling ; and should the present warm weather end in a downfall of soft, melting rain, the snow will suddenly be brought away from the hills, and a heavy flood will he the consequence. The tunnelling claims at the upper end of Doctor’s Flat are being worked with satisfactory results by those miners who are far enough in to be working on the lead ; but some time and expense are incurred before the payable portions of the claims can be reached. Smith’s, Adams’s, and Pipeclay gullies are being thoroughly ground-sluiced, in the most approved and expeditious manner, water being freely used where it is obtainable. The opinion which at one time prevailed that gold was lost during the process of washing by the use of too much water, has now become an exploded fallacy. Shepherd’s Creek and the upper part of the Bannockburn are mostly occupied by the Chinese. What was once the richest part of Pipeclay Gully is now almost deserted ; but it will unquestionably be reworked at some future time, for this remarkable gully is enriched by every flood, through the falling and washing of its treacherous banks and terraces. Only two claims are at work on that portion of Doctor’s Flat known as the deep lead. The expense of erecting suitable machinery, requisite for the remunerative working of such ground, will probably account in a measure for so few miners being engaged in that locality. Quartz-reeling operations have not yet been begun on the Garrick Bange, which is perhaps owing to the frost that j 7 et remains on the ground in that elevated quarter. Prospecting is being carried on with activity in Smith’s Gully, and some of the claims are undergoing a thorough testing. Fresh tenders are out for lengthening the tunnel (which is now in over one hundred feet) at the Elizabeth Beef, the previous contract having been only lately completed. The Ba nuockburn public library and readme room is still in the Ferry Hotel, and is under the careful and gratuitous supervision of the complaisant landlady of that establishment. At the first of the rush to these diggings, the miners so thinned the ranks of the wild fowls which then abounded, that of lato years a wild duck has been quite a ram avis ; but this season, paradise and grey ducks have been comparatively plentiful. This gratifying accession is no doubt attributable to the preservation law now in force. A witty inhabitant of this district, in speaking about the Clyde gold robbery the other day, said that it was not so very surprising that Constables M ‘Gann and Smith so soon discovered the stolen treasure, as, “from information they received,” they would naturally be of opinion that they would soon find some of the gold, if they looked for any (for Bennie).