THE INANGAHUA REEFS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1470, 21 April 1873, Page 2

THE INANGAHUA REEFS.

[herald, avril 19. J boatman's. , As Boatman's bids fair to eclipse all other portions of the Inangahua by the richness of its reefs, as at present indicated by the Just-in-Time and Fiery Cross claims, and also by the amount of alluvial workings carried on throughout the district, it would not be out of place to give a snort sketch of its chief township. It is situated on the only available piece of flat land at a gorge iv Boatman's Creek, about oh miles from the Landing, road, and from which it derives the name of Gorgetown. A bakery and a butchery, two stores and a large untenauted publichouse, lately erected by Mr Bruun, together with a few scattered residences, at present mark the site which I have no doubt at no distant date is destined to be. the centre of an important mining industry. Although the number of business places are but few, I would in nowise advocate any increase in that line until the reefs are more developed, for the place is still very short of what- the Yankee terms "the indispensable dollar," and inany*6f the inhabitants have/been afflicted With overdoses of quartz, as might be naturally supposed. However, there is every prospect of a speedy recovery and of things takiug a more favorable turn. At the lime of your correspondent's Visit there

was quite a stir in the little township, occasioned by the rich stone which had been brought to grass that day at the Fiery Cross claim. Some of the stone had been taken up promiscuously from the heap and carried into the township, and crushed. Fiery Cross.— At this claim the shaft has been carried through into the main tunnel, and, without exaggerating, the reef is richer than it was in the shaft, and this is allowed by all to be the best claim in the Tnangahua. Just-in-Time. — Work is progressing as usual : the contractors have broken through into the shaft with their lower tunnel, which was being put in for the purpose of facilitating the working of the different levels. The machine site has been cleared, and the road to the reefs will be completed in another week. Fart of the machinery has arrived from Nelson, and has been landed at the junction of the Inangahua. It seems to be the general opinion of

the mm^ra here^ that the Just-mi Time, , V I \§^P{§f 8 » ' "iF«epcy Cfcosv and" ThbtokWs are '. _ ...alH£e^e.ne.a.r.d the same reef, and if this hypothesis is correct, that would give an unbroken line xJf reel at Jeast five miles in. length. ;;>Gf course time and investigation only cSv prove -this. At preVerit several of the claims in this locality have had to suspend, operations owing to the want of capital. I ...... . iakry's.. . ■ The length of time occupied in prospect•iug and-tunelling for the reef ia beginning toeihaust both tlie patience and purses . of f some of the, miners in this locality. Alihough patience is an important requisite for the quartz reefers, yet when the purses run: out- it; is J not an uncommon tjhing for patience to follow suit. That a .. ?}fsk ree.f does. exktin~this-part. there can be but very little- douto The prospectors have already] sWcie'nt stone to pay the cost of erecting machinery, but they do not feel ju3ti6ed in going to tl&t expense until they have satisfied' fiiemselves as to the extent of reef in the main I tunnel level, where they are at present experiencing a nip out (a circumstance not at all unusual Jn , reef . mining all o.ver world). They have accordingly carried in the main tunnel a distance of 140 feet, prospecting for the reef, and, if not met with in a very short time, it is their intention to put down another testing shaft, as they did some time back, and which assured them of the presence oi the ree^ in tlio lower level/ Certainly, if thej same work had been going on some time back in the prospecting claim, *&? is now taing done, Larry's wou'd have been further ahead*,- and Nos. 1 and 2 would have been better able to trace out the course of the reef for which they have been so long prospecting. The statement that the reef is rising to the northward is simply hypothetical, for . Nos. 1 and 2 south are meeting with better indications of its clcse proximity than ever, cutting through U-ader day after day, and, besides ibis, by their own calculations they are about tip to the line of the reef's course. No 1 south cut through & leader last week, 'vnonaurifvTims," whereas No 2 south cut two leaders one of which contained gold similar to that obtained in the prospecting claim, and on last Thursday week they met with • -a large body of quartz at the right hand corner of the tunnel. The driving for the last-four sets of timber has been very wet, the same as it is in the upper tunnel where thereof : was inttrcepted, and this they -jonsider to be a good indication of its being jlose at hand. From Larry's, I paid a visit to the alluvial workings cf : Bnrke's Creek, Redman's Due North, &c., and found the miners progressing as _ usual, the only drawback being the want of water.