GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 150, 29 May 1886, Page 3

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.

The Melbourne Argus of a late date published a full and interesting account of > the Kimberley country, from which we make the following excerpts :— According to Mr Harry F. Johnston, staff surveyor in command of the Kimberley surveys, "the respective distances from Derby and Cambridge Gulf to the place where gold has been found are-^-from Derby, 350. miles; from Cambridge Gulf, 290 miles. These distances are along the routes that travellers will follow from both places to reach the spot where this gold was found; The Cambridge Gulf Tuns inland nearly 80 miles, and is navigable -fer 60 miles from the entrance. There is a staff of officials there also. On the 29th of March last the ius. Albany left Freemantle for Cambridge Gulf, having on board Mr, C.' Di.> Price, the nowly-appoihted Governor Resident, with staff, survey party under Mr H. S. Rahford, eleven conbtables and srgeant, and aa of stores - and buildings suitable for the formation of a new settlement. Considering the latitude of the Ord and Cambridge. Gulf , Mr Johnston < thinks the climate good, especially inland ; but near the coast, particularly where it ia low-lying, malarial fever may be expected to prevail during the dry season, when the sWamps and marshes aye giving off the superabundant moisture that they had accumulated during the rainy season. Fish are very plentiful in the pools of the Ord; the kinds most .caught i with lines werod cat-fish and bream. Other fish abound, and could be caught in numbers with a net. Native dogs aire rather numerous —more .so on, the- Lower than the Upper Ord. Water-fowl' of various descriptions ate plentiful on the rivers aud'lttgbons. Wild • gebse are to be firtjnd ou sorue nf the large pools and lagoons. : As this Kiiirherley couutry is onlf partially occupied by settlers, it. "must be understood that no stores ea's tgejiati on the road,' after leaving tKckiport, sv that travellersniust provide themselves with all that may be reg uired-.ii Every - man ought to have at loaafe three or four pack horses. Horses are ttdtto- be procured iff the countiy, therefore they will have to be taken by 'steamer. The Weatorn Australian Government caused surveys to be made undtfr t&e direction of Mr Johnston. The party obtained gold, but before* he reported •td the Government his men disclosed the -good news on thoir way back to PdrthJ 018?: diggers caught the inevitable fever, and went off to look at the' place. The results wo know. Gold in Kimberley is now causing excitement throughout Australia. 'Mr Hardman, a geologist, who accompanied Mr Jackson's party, says : — The r giijffrtz reefs have a general bearing of ~N. 10 E. to NE. Many runvdueN. and S. Some of them can be traced for several miles. It is most probable thatthese quartzif erous rocks are a spur- or continuation of the gold-bearing metamprphio rocks oft ' tfte Northern Territory of South Australia, now being worked with some suocess. The rivers, valleys, MM-' flats are in many cases covered with deposits, sometimes very extensive, of quartz, gravel, and drift, the quartz being derived from denudation of tiie reefs referred to above. I have prospected these gravels over many miles of country- and I have rarely failed to obtain good colors of gold^itt many localities of a. very encouraging .character. Very often good colors were obtained in every pqp gashed in different trials in the same locality. I have thus found gold to be distributed over about 140 miles along ; the Elvire, Panton, and Ord rivers, i&c., as well as on the Mary and Margaret rivers, where the indications were very good, and the apfearaaceof the country most favorable, ff several instances I obtained good colors of gold at considerable distances from the' qnartz-oearing rocks from which the gold could only have been derived; This to my mind seems to indicate that there must be large quantities of gold in the quartz-bear-ing rocks and in the drifts overlying them. The gold-yielding country is well watered by numerous rivers, creeks, and gullies, which even in the driest part of the year are never wholly without water. And although during the dry season water is scarce, there would be no difficulty in conserving water anywhere in sufficient quantity for all mining purposes.