MINING NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 710, 6 August 1870, Page 1 (Supplement)

MINING NEWS.

THE LYELL REEFS. [correspondent of westport times.] The Lyell stream may be described as a mountain torrent closely confined in a narrow gorge by lofty ranges on either side, running about north and south and discharging its waters into the Buller on the north side. Its bed naturally is very irregular and rocky, its banks are rendered still more difficult to travel up on account of the workings which have been done during the last seven years, it being that time since the richness of this locality was first disclosed. There is no road whatever, and during this severe frost it requires a steady nerve to follow along the log bridges, narrow footways and even rudely constructed ladder gangways that one must pass high over the old ground in the bed of the creek to make his way up its course. At present the number working here is few, but were a better supply, of water available there would be many more. The Jirst piece of ground I came to was that of Dayie and party, who are busy ground-sluicing, having a race of about 800 yards from Deep Creek, with a registered right to eight heads of water. This creek runs into the Lyell from the south-west, and it is on the range separating this water-course from that of the Lyell that the famous reef has been exposed. Of this I shall be better able to report, with due justice to its merits, when I have given you the position and ' character of the alluvial ground iv the vicinity. Davie and party's ground is yielding about L 9 a man per week. With the exception of the "Hermit, 3 ' who is working promiscuously, when nature supplies an extra quantity of the watery element, the next is Anglesse's party, who are doing as well as any on the creek ; and had the good fortune to come across a soz nugget a few weeks since. Napoleon's Terrace, a little higher up, which lias always held such a good character, is still paying handsomely, and is .being worked by Brown and party, who are at present engaged sawing timber for the extension of their race:— brought ia from Irishman's Creek. There is another party working the foot of Carter's Terrace, which is reputed to have been the best paying ground on the diggings ; it is situatod immediately opposite Irishman's Creek. This tributary is jibout two miles and a quarter from the mouth of the Lyell, and comes down through the prospectors' quartz claim. Between ibis junction and the next creek, called the Eight-mile, there are no workr ings to speak of, and beyond the famous Irishman's the yield has never been so extensive. Iv irishman's Creek itself, however, one party is reputed to have taken out one thousand ounces of the precious metal before he was disturbed by fresh arrivals to this Eldorado. This was about the first of these diggings, and since then it has been sluiced over and over again, with variously successful results. A slate specimen, weighing about two and a-half ounces, and composed of about five-eighths of gold, excavated near the mouth, .is one of the many indications of the immediate richness of the hills about this small stream, and, I may mention that, in all the parcels of gold that I saw, that had been got about the Lyell, I could discern fragmentary specimens of this kind, and pieces of quartz studded with gold in the same manner. From the foregoing description of. this vicinity, it will, I think, be apparent how small an area of this remarkably rich diggings has been so far prospected, and almost all the claims on the Lyell may be said to be on old workings. A favorite method of working, by which the ground is still found to pay handsomely, is to strip the surface and to. break up the slate reef exposed, in the crevices of which loose formation, large quantities of the precious metal which escaped the past diligence of the gold-seeker are still obtained.