The Roper Country.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 151, 1 October 1872, Page 7

The Roper Country.

We give the following from the South Ant- j tralian Register. It conveys a timely warn- ' ing to the miners of this colony, and' it may I 1)3 hoped that the valuable information it j conveys will riot be thrown away : We still urge upon all who are thinking of I trying their future at the Northern gold-fields '• to wait patiently until Mr M'Lachlan's report j is fully considered. If there is any gold ! worth going for, it will not be all swept away I by the first handful of men who reach the j ground. In so wild a country, where supplies are as yet not to be purchased, the early pioneers are far more likely to get more' than ! their shara of privation and disaster than of ; gold. Our Port Darwin correspondent has; pointed out that intending diggers must not only take with them tools, stores, tents, and every other appliance they will need upon the ground, but even the very means of transport to Pine Creek and back. The ex- j pense of such an equipment will be a very: s-rions charge upon the profits of the first ; ruayectors, however successful they may be. | Soy is ( this consideration the most pressing! one at the present moment. The peculiar 1 character of the climate has to be also taken into account, and this precludes the possibi-l lity of working later than the end of Decern-' ber. At that time the rainy season sets in | and continues without interruption until the j beginning of April. The quantity of rain! that fell last season was upwards of seventy inches,—more than thrae times as much as is registered in Adelaide in twelve months. It converts the climate into a hot stelining atmosphere, in which it is impossible for Euro peans to labour. It necessarily puts a stop to mining operations, and turns the whole surface of the country into a morass, over wlrch the lighest buggy cannot make its way. Lakes and torrents appear where a month before there was hard dry ground, and travellers unaccustomed to the suddenness and violence of these changes run great risk of being cut j off from safety and hemmed in upon some low level with water rising all around them. | We strongly urge, therefore, upon all who are looking with longing 1 eyes towards the possible El Dorado of Pine"Creek to weigh I well these considerations, and plan their | movements so as to re:uh the ground not earlier than April or May, IHn*. They can ! do no possible good bv going sooner, and in j the meantime they will have all the benefit of the information which the pioneer parties I are so diligently collecting. It is quite posj silde that the result of this wise delay may be ! that they will not g > at a'l. The following is v.\ extract from a Jotter I received from Mr John Westeott, the leader of the Northern Territory Gold Piospect'ng Association :—" Pahners'ton, 31st May*.—l have to report that 1 left Southport on' 25th April, and arrived at the locality of Mr M'Laughlin's diggings on 20th May. "From i Mount Tym to No. 2 depot the country hns ; every appearance of being auriferous, and | from Si'Minn's Bluff as far as I proceeded (towards the Cnllen River. The prospect 1 i got was not payable, but I had but little time to prospect. I am perfectly satisfied of the existence of a good gold-field, ami all I want is the time and provisions to develon it. This is my judgment from the little time I j have had for inspection. I prospected creeks '\ and places on the way down, and always got gold. In some instances it was my opinion 1 if I could have given a more thorough trial deeper down, I would have got good "old. .The reef in the neighbourhood of Gaudy's Gully looks remarkably well, and I believe | from the prospect got on the lulls of rrcfy gold that ricli reefs are to be found. There is no game in the country to speak of, and for | any rush of diggers with swags and with £1 jor ,£2, they would simply starve. The cli- | mate at the gold-fields is t< «ol and pleasant i and at the present time of the year men can i do as much work as in South Australia."