GOLD SEEKING IN THE SOUTH ESK.

Dunstan Times, Issue 779, 23 March 1877, Page 3

GOLD SEEKING IN THE SOUTH ESK.

—o — For some weeks past a German and three English gold diggers from the Dunstan Gold Held, New Zealand, have been employed searching for gold near ihe second basin over the Cataract Hill. They succeeded in diverting the course of the South Esk Diver at one ol the bends so far as to leave one half of its bed bare, expecting to find it covered with sand, silt, and quartz debris, from which—gold having been traced in both the South Esk and Meander rivers they hoped to obtain —a large yield of the precious metal. Their labor has been wasted and their hopes disappointed, as all the bod of the river they could lay bare consisted of hard rock with scarcely any debris even in the crevices. Their theory was no doubt correct, provided they could have reached the pocket of silt, sand and gold in the actual bed ol the river, but this they could not effect. To do that it would be necessary to entirely flume the river, diverting it into quite anew channel, but ns this cannot he done without swamping and appropri ating much private lands as a river channel, the gold is likely to remain hidden for many more centuries. The Dunstan men being thorough alluvial gold diggers, declined to waste their experience either upon the quartz reefs or the (in deposits of Tasmania, and have therefore left the colony—two returning to the Dunstan diggings, one to pay a visit to the Victorian goldfields, and (he German is now en route for California, where Hunting rivers, containing golden sands, forms a largo portion of the science of gold seeking. 'Jho late Mr (Hoyle and many other enthusiasts expended much time and money in the vain endeavor to extract gold from the banks of the South Esk and Meander, and the beds of those rivers, but the returns to (he most persevering and in ; dustrious never amounted to more than “• starvation allowance.”—Cornwell Chronicle.