ORWELL CREEK.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 736, 6 October 1870, Page 3

ORWELL CREEK.

October 5. Another extensive rush has taken place to Noonan's Terrace, at Orwell Creek. Noonan's party have been washing away a face sixty feet in height for the last six months. The run of washdirt i 3 forming itself into a defined lead, confined between two perpendicular walls, and running diagonally into the range. The immediate cause of the rush has been a shaft which Denis Noonan and party took down to a depth of sixty-five feet, 'directly ahead of Noonan and Fiunicanu's claim. The shaft ponld not be bottomed in consequence of the large body of water met with, and the party have started a tunnel from the face of the range. Noonan and Fhmican,

previous fo taking iv the largo water-race they are now sluicing with, worked a patch of ground a short distance higher up the Crook than their present claims, but they were stopport by a high roof which roso straight, up before them. The shaft which Denis Noonan and party have partly bottomed is further into the ranjje, and beyoinl this high bar, and it is the proof of the existence of this run of deep ground, together with the extraordiniuy richness of Noonan and Fiunaatne's claim that has been the cause of the present rush. I hazarded an opinion some months ago that Noonan's original party had struck the tail end of the Mosquito Lead, previous to its leaving the ranges and running into the plains — whence all the leads in ihis district are evidently trending — and it would seem ths conjecture was not far astray. Claims have been marked out from Noonan's claim to the workings on the southern end of the Mosquito Lead. There are several hundred men at the rush. Clarke, Evans and party have taken up the bottom from the paddock they bottomed on their leasehold lately. The ground is likely to pay good wages, and the company have remunerative work before them sufficient to last them for years. The members of the company are at present erecting new weatherboarded huts for themselves ; and the main drive to cross the auriferous ground and thoroughly test the value of this new discovery, wil) be commenced at once. In the meantime the machinery is fully equal to the work of keeping the water down, notwithstanding the immensely increased drainage caused by the present wet weather. Two new leases are about being applied for below this company's claim, but as | there is likely to be considerable opposi- ! tion made to the applicants, it would be as well to defer.an opinion as to the desirability or otherwise of granting then), now that psiyablo gold has been proved to exist in the ground, until the applications have been disposed of. John Hessey and party are making vapid, progress with their head-race, the terminus of which will be at their claim on the range, just over the Wheel Company's works. Hansen's largo race is also getting along satisfactorily. This has been an expensive undertaking, as an instance one portion of it, in order to get the water from one face of the range to the other, had to be taken through a tunnel 600 yards long, cut through rocks as hard as flint. Already alterations and improvements are being made in the buildings in Orwell township, and altogether the place is again assuming its former appearance and activity.