PROSPECTING

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1931, Page 2

PROSPECTING

A USEFUL BOOK.

(By A.11.M. in “Auckland Star’’). “In gorge country, or country subject to landslides, cast vour eyes up now and again,” says lon L. Idriess in the best handbook for prospectors I’ve seen. “You may see a seam of wash far up in the side of a hill. Perhaps you only distinguish what appears to be a cliirnn of wash-stones. Impossible for wash to be there when the river is flowing a hundred feet below! Not at all. Climb right up and try that wash. There is where the river flowed a million years ago.” Having in mind that there is no prospecting for alluvial gold in the North Island, or .practically none, and remembering the suggestions put forward in the “Star” by Mr W. G. Mouatt, Mr Adam Thompson and others, I heartily recommend this little book as containing the aecumlated lore of those who find alluvial gold. Mr Idriess had succeeded splendidly in setting out the practical side of a most interesting quest, enlivened by graphic descriptions of bis own experience in overcoming the physical difficulties usually met by gold prospectors. It is virtually certain that there are allu\ial goldfields yet to he found in New Zealand, including the North Island. There are strong indications of goldcarrying watercourses long ago covered up, The finding of old watercourses, or. to speak more precisely, the discovering of the “bottoms” ol ancient watercourses, may he done by fluke—onoo in a hundred years, But systematic prospecting is the reasonable way, M Mr Idriess shows, To those who are interested, whether old alluvial miners, out-of-work men who would be glad to try their luck in a business so alluring (and. incidentally, full of beneficial possibilities to the whole community) or Government officials like the Unemployed Commissioner, Mr idriess “Prospecting lor (fold’ is a timely publication. One hundred and fifty p 3 crn S crammed full of practical Hints to the prospector; and every manoeuvre and operation recommended is the best for overcoming the particular difficulty discussed.

The well-proven methods of experienced prospectors and fossickers (theie is a difference here!) are well set out, but the methods of New Chum’s Luck are not despised: “Now, in prospecting, remember a golden rule about gold, ‘Where it is, there it is!’ It may be everywhere. That is the reason of New Chum’s Luck. . . Gold is not only in watercourses and depressions. Jt is usually there; but it may be on top of a hill; a ‘patch’ of it may run down a hill slope; it may be deep down under solid rock ; it may bo ‘ on the surface’ ; in the ‘grass roots’ ; in the ‘tree roots’. Don’t laugh. Many hundreds of ounces of gold (and some big slugs) have been found among tree rootß, . , . Gold is in grass roots, too. I have seen a tuft of grass shaken into

a dish,. - aiul the little gold ‘pieces’ roll away from the loam. That is when, of course, the grass is growing upon a ‘surface patch.’ ” Mr Idriess leaves nothing out that might be useful. Mining laws, laws lotwater rights, for tailings rights; plans for making cradles, sluicing boxes and sluicing trenc hes; hydraulic sluicing—“a handy workable plant at a cost, oi £2o”—dry-blowing and nuggets; prospecting for reefs, dam building; and. above all, bow to make water work. Over and over again the author urges prospectors to “use your beads”—to make running or falling water save them sweat, time and expense; and be shows, very clearly, bow that is to b' 1 done. Tn n country like New Zealand, where crooks are so many, the labout of alluvial prospectors can be made light indeed.

Tluf prosv introduction written by the Under-Secretary of Mines. N.S.M.. adds nothing to the value of the book, and the poor index is another example of what I bold to be a truismthe index should not he compiled by tinauthor. For example, “concentrates are mentioned very frequently, and it is essential that prospectors should know what concentrates arc, ami how they are to be treated: the index is innocent o? “concentrates,” as also o' “tailings.” “mustard gold” and dozens of other things amply mentioned in the book.