MINING NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1090, 1 February 1872, Page 2

MINING NEWS.

THE RUSHES. TO : -l?EVI0T AND BRANDY- JACK'S CREEKS; [PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] January 30. ' An extensive rush is now going on to some high terrace ground situated about midway between these two creeks. The exact locality, jp ..on the western face of a spur. separating Brandy Jack's from.the Tevoit Creek, ;and coming down on the south-western watershed of the main dividing range between the Totara Swamp and the Grey River oh the one side, and Mosquito and Orwell Creeks and the Ahaiira River on the other. ; There are numerous blind creeks running down the sides of this spur, and at the head of one of these the prospectors' shaft has been sunk. The shaft is 19ft deep, and it has been driven in several directions. The washdirt is about 2ft 6in in depth, and the party have washed about four loads, with an average yield of lozto the load. A small bucke.tfulof washdirt' was taken out of the western drive, about 6ft from the Bhaft; dndV-tfashed in the presence of the Warden, who paid a special visit to the ground on Monday, and inspected the underground workings, and the result was 24gr of fine, but solid gold, a result which would give a , yield of about 3pz to the load. This prospect, 'which was stated by the prospectors to be above the average, was knocked "out by. a disinterested person,.and, washed within view of the surrounding shepherds. The prospectors, Messrs, Grogan and Fraser, have be^en working in the bed of the creek for some months, and one of them, Mr Frank Grogan, has been at work in the locality since' the beginmrig of 1866, with' the ' exception of a month or two spent at Moonlight Creek. The ; washdirt is resting on the false bottom, which forms the bed of all the present creeks in this district, and it is ' this' fact* which fehderslt doubtful whether the golden ground will be of any great extent. The party are sinking'ja new shaft about 50ft to the south-west*oi; 5 the opened one, in the expectation of striking the gold on , the true bottom- It is now down some '2oft, and if it go the expected depth, allowing for the rise in the surface of the hill, it will be bottomed at about 30ft. Further south, Campion and party, are sinking ; they, are down about 20ft, ; and by their calculation they wiU have to siuk 60ft before they bottom, that is if they be in the deep ground. On the north-east end, Hanlon and party are sinking, and' a number ! of the shepherds are assisting them. Their shaft is on the opposite side of a small spur between the prospectors and themselves^ They are now v down ;30ft, and it is expected they will bottom by Thursday. K this claim strike gold, the existence of a defined lead may be considered settled,' because, from the position of the shaft, if gold be found in it, it can have nothing to do with the gold An the creek bed in winch the prospectorsjhave been lately working, and it will prove' 1 what is now suspected, that they have bottomed on a new lead . running at right : angles with the present creek. The Government Surveyor will lay offa base line by the end of thisweek*, aridby that time there wilL be sufficient work done to show whether this is only one of the ordinary terrace patches, of which so many have been opened in the district, or a defined lead. Should the latter be the case an area of country sufficient to profitably employ a large population will, be available. As far as present appearances go this looks like; the most important discovery made, aboiithere since the Wellington lead was struck, at ! wh'at is now called Napoleon, in 1867. The conditions under which the gold has been found are exactly alike iv both cases.. The gold has been traced through! the bed of a creek and upwards until the high range was met with in 1 each instance, but the great: similitude is in the appearance of the washdirt at both places. The wash is of a reddish color, a tint given to it by the: presence of great quantities of t iron ore, in ( the drift, and differing ' .enlireiy . f rom the blueish-grey appearance, and of the wash in the preseat creeks, which again derives its . peculiar color from the washing away of portions of the large beds of lignite and inferior coal over which the ! water flows in its descent from the mountains. Attention has been frequently drawn in thesexeports .to these high terrace gold deposits, and the desirability of more generally prqa- . pecting for them. If the time and labor expended in exploring the deep wet leads in the valleys had been laid out in searching for those old world watar-courses, the result would be very different. These j leads at high elevations are comparatively easily prospected , by reason of their topographical situations. -The ranges, rise so suddenly that they can be driven through, from : Bid e-to side, at. almost any.place, in the time it takes to erect a water-wheel, and drive a long tunnel after, one, of the lower wet leads. There is no appreciable quantity of water to contend with, and in fact the scarcity and difficulty of obtaining water for^ washing purposea is the great drawback to this description of mining. It -wouldf appear to a casual observer that these' auriferous terralce 'deposits are isolated patches of payable ground, as likely to be met with in one place as .another, but on a closer examination such a theory will hot hold good: Nothing has occurred irregularly, or in an accidental manner^ geologically speaking ; on the contrary, everything has been beautifully arranged again in a geblogioal sense, according to certain ; defined natural laws arid their consequences, which are easy of explanation and not difficult to understand. . The terrace workings now knovt a to exist in the Napoleon, DufFer, Sullivan, Half-Ounce, Teviot; attd Brandy Jack's localities ; will yet \ be traced from one to the other, and forming a continuous lead, except, of course, where the present creeks have intersected it, and carried away the connecting portions. This lead, which there is no doubt was formed by the sea, for the effects of the tidal action can be almost demonstrated by the composition and formation of the drifts, and the 1 presence if of fossils? comI mences at the northern end at the Lighthouse Terrace, near Speck's Hill at Napoleon, and it can be traced at intervals in a southerly course at Freeman's Teirace, at the upper part of Duffer Creek, and :■ again across .the creek at Boland and Hay's Terraces. It again makes its apj earauce at Gladstone, Veniis, and other terraces above Rowdy and Sullivan's Creeks. Thero are slight traces of it near the summit of the ranges above Half-Ounce; and at the Teviot it>"has beeh w orked and f6uhd to be rich.' The ground opened at the new rush would seetn to bo

a continuation of this lead, aiid let ( it -be extensive or confined,; the prospectors are likely to be well .remunerated ? f or ; tlieir enterprise' and industry!' Whatever^ may be 'tner.esult of the present excitement about this*hew find, it will have oneigbod effect, by drawing attention to this part of the country, which has hitherto: been much neglected. The rush can be reached on f dot from Granville or the Upper Town at Half-Ounce in about two miles,, andthe business people, of both places are about having foot ' irabks -cut along the ranges, . 1 in order to secure the traffic. ■ Brandy Jack's^ which was at one time a populous place, is almost entirely deserted. There are only : two hatters working throughout its whole length, and the whare of one of these siugle young, men is all that remains of : the* once busy township. Not knowing the exact' place which has been newly; rushed, the party I was with t.iok;Lonargah'ef track, which branches off the Duffer arid Half-Ounce trail at Lunches House, and skirting the southern edge, of the Totara Swamp,' passes up through Brandy Jack's Creek to the old town. Some distance below the town the creek becomes impassable from fallen timber,'; and : we left pur horses here and set off exploring on foot. After some time, not finding any traces of the object of our search, we /began to think we had our journey for nothing, when by good luck we fell in with one half the population of the creek in the person of German ■ Jack^ who/ has-been- vrdrking about here and living 'for years as an hermit, and a very obliging. 1 and J goodnatured hermit he turned out to be. We enquired the .whereabouts of. the rush, and Jack did his best to enlighten us, but whether 'from ■ the want of clearness in r his . directioris, ■ or the f ogginess^ of our understandings, we could not make . head or tail of his geography. •At length, seemg thefix we were in, [ he stopped in his explanation, arid suddenly blurted oritj not at all after the manner of the hermits of old, "Gottsdonderjl gan go mit and show you der blace. before you not ri'stand me:" He accordingly started up the face of the range, and after following him'rfor a short half njifei he brought us to the prospector's claim. It appears this man has done a deal of prospecting about here, and; on the way to Grogan arid Fraser's claim h6 pointed out several spots where he coulipL :make high ; wages if he could procure water to sluice with. It is men like this who are the real prospectors of new goldfields, for it is work which gives scope to their wonderful energy and 'great powers of endurance., .But the ideal and actual ( conditionsi'of these pipneerprospectbrs' are very different. This' man has to make periodical journeys, over the mountains to Half-Ounce for his. provisions, • a long day's laborious and wind-splitting work ; and he states that he has been for weeks without seeing a human face. After seeing all we could at the rush* we returned to Jack's " Hermitage," where we were bounteously .entertained; for which 1 take this opportunity of returning the thanks of my fellow traveller and myself; 'Looking at the old workings at Brandy Jack's and seeing ; where the gold has been got and where it apparently ran out, one cannot help coming' to the conclusion that the mistake, which has since been made in a more aggravated form below Mabille's claim at Half-Ounce, was made here. The lead-was good to the township, where all trace ' of it was suddenly lost. "An immense amount of ;w6rk:^as done further down the creek, but nothing to pay. was found. It would now seem: that : aU this work was done in the ; wrong direction and far away to the eastward of where the lead might reasonably be expected ; to be found. When Brandy Jack's was deserted, the water-wheel age had not come in. These pieces of machinery were looked^ upon at that time as. something remotely connected with gold mining, and specially appertaining ( to flour and treadmillsj but the, bitierexperierices.of . .'last, winter 'at Haif^Ounce has dispelled these illusions.;: There is- a good opening for , an ; enterprising , : party at Brandy Jack's. , The lost claims . 'worked on , ; the ' lead were veiy good, nnd it is not likely the gold has run out ; and all the surrounding circumstances go to sfyow that it will yet be found if looked for in the proper quarter.