BENDIGO GULLY REEFS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2185, 9 May 1870, Page 2

BENDIGO GULLY REEFS.

(‘ Dunstan Times’ Correspondence.) Kecfing is still prosecuted with unflagging vigor, the general idea being to get a trial crushing before the winter thoroughly puts a stop to crushing operations at the “ Aurora mill. A good deal has been said concerning the said stoppage, as to its duration, &e. I cannot say that I agree with the prophets of Bendigo, who say that we may (expect to see the water races ice-bound for two months. Judging from experience gained in other places in Otago, at a similar elevation, I am inclined to divide that period by two, and still hope to be in excess of King Frost’s reign. The yield from Lougham and Company’s trial crushing, spoken of in my last, was nearly one ounce to the ton, and,taking into consideration the quantity of mullock I saw mixed with the quartz at the mill, I really think the return first-rate. Colclough and party had a Crushing of thirty tons, retorting about two and a-half ounces to the ton. As the stone crushed was carefully taken from each heap, so us to give a fair test of the average yield of the reef, the party may congratulate themselves on having made a lucky hit. Broadfoot and Company are now carting their stone to the miil; they will crush lifty or sixty tons. This party of men deserve praise for the energetic way in which they have carried the work of their claim on. It is barely two months since they applied for a prospecting claim, and they have now n tolerable crushing ready for the stampers, and have expended a fortnight of the time in making a cart road to the mill. If all claimholders had displayed only half such pluck, the district would have loomed up better at the present moment. As a natural consequence of an increasing mining population unable to find regular employment., the country round is getting a thorough fossicking. A number of men have set in sluicing and tunneling about Bendigo Gully. I am glad te see a move in this direction, as I have a firm belief in the existence of deep leads in this neighborhood, the ground hitherto worked only containing the gold deposited by the cutting down of water-courses through the terraced hills overlying the earlier deposits of auriferous drifts. The frost is not yet sufficiently severe to interfere with crushing operations ; the Cromwell Company are carrying on vigorously, the last two washings up yielded respectively two hundred and sixty-eight and two hundred and sixty-six ounces, the result in each ease of about eight days crushing with five stampers. This fact will, I think, need no comment. The Aurora Company have their ten hands at work crushing for themselves, the stone being put through is reported good, 1 sincerely hope they may have a monster cake this time(: such perseverance and energy deserve a substantial reward. I believe Broadfoot’s stone will be commenced at the above mill this week, it is lying close at hand, having been carted to the Company's stamps ; this lot will, I believe, finish' the series, “ public crushings,” and really, after all the outcry about the “ public’’ wanting to be crushed, I am surprised to see the “ public ” so quickly satisfied. The old story of “ a great cry and little wool” more Jstone will have to be raised, and better methods of doing so will have to be adopted before ano.her mill within the “ Aurora’s” radius of operations wiil be wanted, distant reefs, of course, will require a pulversing agent of their own, as the serious drawback of long carriage would soon eat up the price of machinery; but in ail cases, I recommend caution, as people will do well to remember that a crushing mill is not exactly like a cradle or sluice-box to be removed hither and thither at the owner’s wilj but is likely, when once set up, to remain a fixture ; the reefs will, I have no doubt, eventually have to be worked from much lower levels, when the sinking becomes deep and wet, and it would be extremely awkward for the owners of claims to have to cart their stone up-hill, as would be the case if all the projected mills were erected where present convenience requires them. A few claims have, I am sorry to say, ceased working, principally I believe from scarcity of funds, and possibly a dread of “ hard' times ” in the winter. As this, however, is a common feature of all reefing districts, no detrimental supposition should be raised in such a case. Time, along with other good things oat of the womb of futurity, will provide a cure for this.