MINING MEMORANDA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 475, 26 May 1871, Page 2

MINING MEMORANDA.

i Alexandra. —Cleary and company have taken up two acres of ground in a gully debouching near the Half Milo Beach. They have got very good prospects at a depth of fifty-four feet, but have not yet bottomed. It is probable that it may turn out well. Knowles and Oliver are in very good spirits this season, having got a fair supply of water, and they will no doubt reap a very good harvest by supplying about seven companies with water. If they had the water as many more would rent it and the West hank of the Molyneux would look up. The Great Eastern tunnel at the foot of Conroy’s is looking up. A share in it was sold for £3O recently. - Sandy Hook and Golden Beach.—The ground adjacent to Messrs. Knowles Simmonds for a mile and a half on each side will no doubt be taken up and worked. It has been tried and proved payable if proper machinery were put on the grouml. The Golden Beach paity have erected a large wh'el and are about to commence operations in ground where gold was previously obtained. Roberts and party are laying to this year to regain strength for next year, when they intend to strike for the “jugular ” they last year tried so hard to get at. Sandy Point. —Alexander and party on this Point are trying for the ma n bottom, and with good chances of success. This party has a very novel appliance in full work for keeping their claim free from water. The following description which appeared in the Daily Times, being a very good one, I append for your publication. the ordnaiy pump, worked by hand or water power, a strong metal pipe, measuring about twenty feet in length, and having a diameter of about six inches, is adjusted upon wooden bearers in a slanting position over the paddock to he drained. To an opening in the bottom of this pipe another pipe is firmly jointed, inclining hack at an angle sufficient to allow of its end resting on the bottom of the paddock. Connected with the principal pipe is a strong canvas hose, down which a current of water descends, and passing through, issues at tho mouth of the pipe. In its course, by a well understood principle in hydraulics, it • forms a vacuum in the second pipe, and the water in the bottom of the paddock is thus rapidly . sucked up and discharge;! with the current flowing through the principal pipe. The appliance is thus entirely self-acting, works day and night (if required), and, by its very simplicity, reduces to a minimum the constant delays au I expense entailed by the wear and tear of ordinary pumping machinery. With some slight modifications as to the gauge an t angle of pipes and of fall of water, it seems quite possible si to perform, by the means. here described, at a very moderate outlay, all the work now done in open claims by the heaviest pumps and water-wheels The idea was very successfully utilised on a large scale some years ago at Melbourne, in the Yarra Yana improvements, where the immense pressure of the Yan Y. au was made available.” Earnscleugh Junction. —The Earnscleugh Grand Junction Mining Company, (Messrs. Knowles and Simmonds) opened a large paddock about a hundred feet square at the junction of the Fraser and Molyneux Rivers, and after sinking about fourteen feet opened a small paddock to prospect the main bottom. • With eleven men and a Californian pump woiked by two men-, half hour shifts—they got a depth of twenty feet below the Molyneux, and trying with a crowbar struck the bottom about two feet s x inches below their paddock. They are ’■ in good spirits and intend to give the main bottom a good trial next season. The upper portion of their ground which they have thoroughly tested throughout its whole area —four acres—for a depth of from twelve to twenty-five feet has proved payable. They have trucks on the ground and intend to start them in the course of a few days. Tho last flood w uld not have affected them had it not been for some old ground in (he vicinity bf their claim not having been properly tilled up. They will employ fourteen or fifteen men besides themselves, when in full work. They have ten men at present and work night and day. They are sanguine of getting good returns. Blackman’s Gullv. —Messrs Wickes and Company are still persevering in the gully above the gorge. But for their excellent stvle of working the ground their return* would not be very large. Tunnell is still persesviing below the Gorge with ahorse and waggon, and continues to think that he will he paid for his last two years work. The ground is very deep in the flat and there is plenty of water to contend with. Conroy’s. —A great many shares have changed hands within the last two months in this Reality owing to the good prospects in the reef. All the shares are turning out well. Hancock is prospecting the Old Man Range, at the head of Conroy’s, and hj s labors are likely to be well remunerated. Conroy’s Gully Reefs— Work is being carried on with right good will by the holders of the prospecting claim, Iverson and party. The site for the machinery and the road to same is completed ; the water race, to supply the motive power is * being vigorously pushed ahead, (this work was let by tender.) Tbetimher, (ahoutthree tons) the produce of the Tapanni bush on the ground and the latest advices from * Messrs. Kincaid and Co., the contractors fovthe machinery, statethatalargoquantity left town on the 18th inst., and that the balance will Rave n about a fortnight. In the meantime thereof is being worked and atone brought to grass. At the present time about three hundred tons are ready for tho mill. One other claim is in occupation on this reef. The holders are applying for a lease and until that is : granted little work it is anticipated will he done.