THE LITTLE GREY AND INANGAHUA DISTRICTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 599, 18 November 1869, Page 3

THE LITTLE GREY AND INANGAHUA DISTRICTS.

(Correspondent of the Westport Times.)

On Antoni's Flat, in the Little Grey district, and around that neighborhood, mining matters are almost at a standstill. We put in a few weeks prospecting, but with no success, and apparently the further you go the worse things get. We left Antoni's Flat where, by-the-by, there is at present a population of eighty men, none earning little more than tucker. Two or three large water-races have been brought in, and the owners have made a very good thing by washing down some of the old-worked gullies. We made tracks for Soldier's, hearing a rumor of some good gold having been struck four miles above Murray's Gully. Getting up to Maori Gully we found it almost abandoned. Still there are a good few fossicking about that locality, and there is still one store there. Following the gully up, and striking a spur to the left, we dropped over the Saddle, down the Devil's Staircase, into the Devil's Creek, a very large and likely-looking creek for a bit of gold, and apparently very little prospected. We ran the creek down four miles, taking a spur to the right which brought us over into Nathan's Gully, where we found thirty men at work, and some of them doing well. Some of the best claims in the Little Grey district are there. We mounted the spur and got into Soldier's Gully, a mile from Nathan's, a good gully in its time, and one which got a fearful turning up. There are still a few parties working there, some of them doing a little, working old ground, taking a foot of the blue reef and making wages. Want of water is the cry. While they wait for water it is common among the men to go out with a tin dish and fossick out a few pennyweights in some of the smaller gullies. There are two stores, Anderson's and another. Twelve miles np the Inangahua from Anderson's, you reach Murray's Creek, one of the last creeks opened of late, and 1 believe that good gold has been struck two or three miles higher up. The head of the Inangahua I consider about the best and most likely district between Napoleon's aud the Lyell. Fox's, No. 1 and % and Fossicker's Gully we visited for a few days. Two stores are there— one kept by Williams, the other by Long and Co. 1 met Bill Fox, who is out that way prospecting, and is very sanguine as to finding a good patch. By what I could see and hear it is poor country. A man can make his tucker, but very little over. I like the look of the terraces in that quarter ; should gold be Btruck in the terraces there it will be a good district. There are a few parties working on the banks of the Buller, some ;of them making pretty fair wages ; but I imagine that most of the men who go up this river prospecting go past some likely country fifteen or twenty miles up, unprospected. There are several small creeks on the north side of the river, but men cannot prospect without a canoe and two or three weeks' tucker, in case of floods. One great advantage in travelling on the Buller is the track. There is not a better track on the coast. A man could travel from Westport to Soldier's Gully with slippers, but immediately you drop over into the Grey Valley your troubles begin.