The Palmer Diggings.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 263, 13 October 1874, Page 6

The Palmer Diggings.

; &*. correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, writing from Cooktown on September 5, says

The road over the Normandy Range is now finished, and is in a very creditable state, and a vast relief to the carriers. As to the state of the field at present, the older workings'are being rapidly seized on by the Chinese population, which at present cannot be far shott of eight' hundred; The.old ground is being reworked, and in most cases yields a fevYi pennyweights per man per day; in a few instances, a ‘ patch’ may be struck of a few ounces ; and. there have been one or two instances of a lucky find of either new and overlooked, or else badly worked ground, that haver 1 richly repaid the lucky finders ; 'tlie merd who worked these creeks and gullies at first were no novices in gold-digging, and left but scanty pickings to those who might follow. The. most any man now coming up to the old field can expect is.to make ‘tucker,’with the rare chance of making wages as well, and the still rarer one of making his ‘pile.’ If the adventurous spirits from the southern goldfields come well, armed, equipped, and provisioned, in large parties, with sufficient horses, they can go out along the vast extent of country lying, to the west and south-west, along the Tate and Mitchell, through a country as yet almost untrodden by white men, but which the few prospecting and exploring patties that have passed through it have reported as auriferous along the greater portion of their line of search. It is a very rugged and broken country. Confused masses' 5 of low but steep hills thrown in the wildest confusion along the banks of (at present) shallow creeks. Plenty of timber, and little grass, and, as I was informed by an old bushman who has seen a good deal of this back county* ‘ There’s not a level 100 yards in as many miles.’ Regarding the chances of success in this direction,, no one at present can say much —all is conjecture, but undoubtedly the majority of the miners believe that the field extends west to the Mitchell, and south towards the' Etheridge, and- there are few who have not the strongest belief in the value of this field in the future. Nor are there many of thejucky men who would hesitate abouttrying their luck there even now—dangerous as the expedition must necessarily be. The bladks ' are very numerous, and exceedingly fierce, and cruel, and are accused (and' apparently on good grounds) of cannibal propensities—at l eas t when a white man falls into their hands. The country, too, is unhealthy in the extreme, and, moreover, the climatic influence seems to extend to horses, which soon break down, rarely lasting long on the Palmer. The tracks in every direction to and from the township are strewn with the carcases or whitening bones of the equine martyrs to the sacra auri fames. “ The grass beyond the Kennedy is scanty and bad ; being coarse, and apparently with little nutrition in it. A great deal of the turpentine grass is found there. The odour of turpentine from this grass is so exceedingly powerful as to make any camp in its immediate vicinity anything but pleasant. When the wet season sets in, and immediately before it, there will most undoubtedly be a backward rush of all who can leave at all, or who fear the unwholesome effects of the tropical rainy season, which in Queensland, as in similar latitudes of Africa, is prolific in fevers and febrile diseases. I would, therefQ?e, strongly urge no one to come here who has not sufficient means to provide for such a-cpntingeney as an enforced idleness of three months or so, with the probable addenda of sickness and a doctor’s bill (no joke, I can tell you, on the-Palmer). It is sheer madness.Tor the New South Wales miner to give up a certain livelihood in a settled and healthy country for & very poor uncertainty, unless, as I previously stated, he has sufficient'capital to attempt fresh discoveries in the untried country with all the necessary appliances 'aM !; Stores for, guch an expedition, in-which latter case, with health, I think there cannot he any great doubt as to his success. At any rate,..he wjll have followed the only course t}mt is: likely to pay him for the risk and danger of his venture, * ‘ * “ As to the prospects of this field as a reefing one, little can yet be said. That there are reefs, and good ones, if properly opened up, no one can feel the shadow of a doubt, >as they have; been fairly tested, in so far as they, can be tested without machinery, and a great deal of gold has been extracted by picking the richer stone and ‘dollying’ it by a very rough process indeed'; yet in this way three at least of the reefs are yielding fair returns. “In time, I have no'doubt that the Palmer will have many good reefs opened up, and will become a large reefing district; but whether, as its enthusiastic admirers say, it will yet rival Gulgong and surpass the Towers, I very much doubt.”