THE KIMBERLEY BUSH.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 278, 19 June 1886, Page 4

THE KIMBERLEY BUSH.

Robert Purves, who lately returned from Kimberley, sends the following interesting letter to the Dubbo Despatch : "As I have just come back from Kimberley, after nine months' prospecting and exploring, I am able to give you full information. We made up a party in Port Darwin, and came to Cambridge Gulf in a boat chartered by a storekeeper, who brought 40 tons of goods and started building a store at the Gulf, He brought a quantity of fowls and geese, which did not last long, being eaten by alligators and snakes. After waiting six weeks six of us and 20 horses started up the Ord river, and followed it for 200 miles through well watered and splendid pastoral country, the grass growing to a height of six feet and being of good fattening quality. The Ord is a beautiful river, much like the Darling in size, and abounding in fish for 50 miles, As far as the tide goes it is infested with alligators, and beyond that it is full of crocodiles. There are plenty of game, wild geese and ducks, along the river. The blacks in this part are cannibals, and eat their own children. They are too wild to attack white men, and run like deer at the sight of them. In appearance, they are the finest race of blacks I have seen, mostly six feet high, with fine limbs and broad chests. After leaving the Ord we struck up the Panton river, on to the Elvire, where there were mountains and gullies, well grassed. After six months' travelling we came to the gold region, which I believe will be the future El Dorado of Australia. The party divided here, and got nearly 100 ounces in three weeks* being compelled to leave there for want of rations, and return to Derby. About 40 miles away we struck gold, getting twelve ounces in a few days; but we had to leave or starve. There never was a white man in these places before. The party we separated from got gold 60 miles north of us. The intervening country is not half prospected. The gold is a beautiful sample, and we got £4 per ounce for it. We found a great many quartz specimens thickly impregnated with gold in the face. One-half the gold, I believe, will turn out grand. It is no use for men to go till the wet season sets in, which was January with us. In the dry season there is no water for gold-washing, and only sufficniet for domestic use after carrying it for miles. Men must be provided with provisions to last through the wet season. They require plenty of pack-horses, which are dear at Derby—£3o each. On our way down we were compelled to live on boiled grass and grubs, and thought ourselves lucky if we could catch a snake or an iguana, being away from more desirable game through having to travel on high ground, it being the wet season, and the low country being flooded. After much trouble and privation we reached Derby, considerably the worse for wear, having no boots and very few clothes. The climate agreed with us, but not with others. I am going back with another company at once." A young man named Brookman, I just returned from Derby, gives the! following information to a Bendigo paper :—He left Roeburne in August last, with sheep for Derby. The roads were good, and the Government wells supplied water. At the Fitzroy river he waited three months before he got across to Derby, owing to floods. He met two miners, who said wages on the diggings were poor. Two others, however, brought down 280 ounces of gold, which they obtained on the surface. The gold was much water-worn. They declared the field was not payable, and said it took from three weeks to a month to reach it from Derby. The country was bad for travelling, the high grass being troublesome. Some of the miners on the ground did not take enough provisions, and had to live on snakes and iguanas. Parties were daily coming into Derby for rations. Fever, ague, and scurvy prevail on the field, and Brookman was laid up for a paonth. Flour was selling at Derby at £2O per ton, and horses at £3O each. Four hundred head of cattle had reached to within 150 miles of the diggings, but 80 died on the road.