VICTORIA.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 670, 5 May 1870, Page 4

VICTORIA.

[MELBOURNE lEADKR, APRIL 23.] Three nuggets have' been found at Gilberton, weighing respectively 90oz, 60oz, and 50oz of gold.] The Goldsbrough Company have struck splendid gold in their shaft at a depth of 275 ft. They are now opening a lead going 60ft on a slope. . "A nugget weighing 600z," says the Ballarat Star, "was ploughed up yesterday on Mr Allan's farm, Mount Prospect, Bullarook, and is to be exhibited this day from eleven a.m. till four p.m. at the Ballarat Mechanics' "Institute, for the benefit of the Orphan Asylum. A 60oz nugget is a ; very pretty sort of thing to crop, in a field, but in Ballarat it is hardly a sufficiently remarkable thing .'to exhibit in the way proposed.. Yet, as nuggets are always lpveabje things,and as this one may lead to the opening up of new ground it may be honored as a very pleasant little 'welcome stranger.' The lump was, of course, only a few inches below the surface, and : has what . looks like ferruginous conglomerate attached to it, but is nearly all gold -and is well waterworn." : . - The Inglewood Advertiser reports :— " Another large nugget of 1001 b weight is reported to have been got on the 12th inst., in John's paddock, by a Chinaman, but the report requires' Confirmation. We should not be surprised, however, if the rumor proves correct, as it is known that some heavy finds have lately been got in that quarter. A 68oz nugget was got by Williams and mate in the old workinga at the stockyard, though the ground is generally considered to be worked out." A correspondent writes : — "A new rush has set in about three miles east. from Wedderburn, adjacent to Mr Robert Steel's estate of Craigielea. There is a range of cement rises stretching to Mount Kerong, and on one of these hills the prospectors, at a depth of about twelve feet, ' have found very good prospects. From the last hole they have bottomed they washed 2oz 16dwt of fine gold to forty bu ckets' of washdirt. A prospecting claimi is applied for, and the name of the new gold field is Craigielea." The Marlborough News gives the following account of the discovery of quartz reefs in that province : — "lt has been reported during the week that a payable quartz reef has been discovered in the Kaltuna, at the back of Mr Farn all's. The is said to have caused great excitement in Havelock, from which town it is • distant about a day's journey. Other^, after so maay. disapporhymeyts, are not so sanguine ; but all agree that if the report should prove true, there is abundance of quartz in the neighborhood that lboks likely, and a favorable test of the prfesent discovery will most probably lead t<^ more. 1 ' ';_;; ' , •, ; Mr Hull read, a paper before the Royal

Society in February last, which is eminetuly interesting to miners and men of science alike. He stated that from experiments made at the Ifcosebndge colliery, near Wigan, the deepest mino in Britain, it appears that at a depth of 800 yards the temperature of the coal is ninety-three degrees and a half. Ie will be readily inferred from this fact that the cost of labor and timber for props must be immensely increased, and the danger augmented. No doubt geologists are right in their belief that below tlie old red sandstone are inexhaustible beds of coal, but if the temperature increases in the ratio of one degree to every 55ft (as Mr Hull's paper implies), it will be necessary to train a race of salamanders to work the mineral. A correspondent writes from O'Brien's Creek adjoining Water's Gully, and says that "the vicinity of Mansfield has been thrown into a state of unusual excitement, owing to the discovery of gold in Wafer's Gully adjoining O'Brien's Creek, situated on the run of Mrs John Eon. There is not as yet a great rush of miners to the spot, but sufficient shafts have been bottomed to prove to the satisfaction of many experienced in such matters, that there is a payable lead of gold in the vicinity of the creek, the average yield of those which, are already bottomed being from eight to twelve grains to the bucket. There is every prospect of a rich and extensive field being thrown open, which will fully repay those who are enterprising enough to seek for the alluring metal. The parties to whom we are indebted for this discovery are Messrs P 0 Brien and Co. Owing to the energy and spirit displayed by Mr M 'Waters, of Maindample, none of the inconvenience consequent upon a rush has been experienced, he, with that enterprising spirit which characterises all his proceedings, having established a store upon the spot, where all things necessary to the sustenance of man and beast can be obtained, and that at no exorbitant price. No. 1 north and Nos. 1 and 2 south, have already bottomed on payable gold. After the heavy fall of rain on Saturday night the gold was distinctly visible shining through the washdirt."