A. J. BARRINGTON'S DIARY OF THE WEST COAST PROSPECTING PARTY.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 125, 9 July 1864, Page 3

A. J. BARRINGTON'S DIARY OF THE WEST COAST PROSPECTING PARTY.

March 30th—Left this flat and crossed over a saddle, N.N.E. Found a large creek, which runs over and through immense boulders; all up this creek you are in danger of breaking your neck every moment, the boulders are so slippery. Got up well towards the saddle, and saw a white crane.

March 31st—Followed a branch creek oyer the saddle, and down the other side N.N.E. about eight miles. Made another creek running W. by N., and down to the sea. Prospected up and down but could find no gold ; very hard bottom; April Ist—Travelled about seven miles down the creek, which for that distance runs N.N.W., then camped. Beautiful soft sandy bottom; can get no gold; can see a low country lying along the coast. Remained on the next day.

April 3rd—Followed down the creek three miles, then took to the bush and crossed oyer N.E. to another creek, distant five miles. Prospected that creek, but without success. Can see the sea, distance given about miles to the westward. A low, bushy country—no timber here.

April 4th—Followed on our course N.E. by N. eight miles, at sundown arrived at a small river running S.W., distance from the sea ten miles. This country is composed of granite of a soft nature, with a thick growth of small black pine and tea-tree, which together forms an almost impenetrable scrub. By the river side there are some small flats and some fine beaches, with any amount of boulders, which looks well for gold. "Went to bed after a hard day's toil, with a pannikin of tea for supper, hoping to get some game in the morning. April sth—Turned out early and went shooting. Simonin saw two reefs a few miles down the river. Rained all the afternoon.

April 6th—Rain again; continued all day Farrell went down to the gorge to see the reefs; found any amount of specks to a shovel of dirt in several places, also found gold in the reef. Secured two very handsome specimens with a few specks of gold, beautifully ornamented with other minerals, mundic, iron pyrites, &c. April 7th—Went down the river to prospect. Could get gold almost anywhere. Some fine looking beaches; soft bottom. We did not get gold enough to entice us to stop, as we believed there was better gold farther to the N.E. April Bth—Turned out early. The ground covered with with white frost, which soon disappeared before the sun. Got up the river five miles due east, when we arrived at a nice flat; found one Maori hen, three kakapo, where the wild dogs had killed them the night before. This flat is deep ; could not bottom. Got a few specks in the gravel. Called it Welcome Flat. April 9th—Got five miles further up the flat, or creek, which here forms a great many branches, forming a very rugged surface the higher we got up. In this place we are down in a low valley, with high mountains on either side. The sun does not shine here, consequently the bush is always wet, and being thick we are wet to the skin in five minutes. There is some very good timber, chiefly birch and totara. This creek runs due east from last camp. April 10th—Commenced raining, with thick foggy weather, and continued so all day. April 11th—Still continued raining. April 12th—Rained in torrents all night. At daybreak we were forced to turn out in the rain and shift our tent further into the bush. Had we not awoke, both we and the tent would have been hurled down the creek in ten minutes more. So rapid did it rise that before we could get the things shifted the river was running over the ground where we had our tent pitched. A creek, where yesterday evening there was only a few inches of water trickling through the boulders, this morning was a large foaming river, with water enough to launch a good sized schooner in, and running at the rate of twenty knots. Continued to rain all day; no game, consequently nothing to eat. Here was the first place our dog turned traitor to our cause. When we took him in the bush to hunt for kakapo—which is our chief food—he would go and catch one, stop and eat it, and then he would not hunt any more for us. April 13th.—Turned out early, still raining. Killed a robin and three wrens; roasted them: the smallest joints I ever saw; then went hunting again with Fairell. Very lucky this da;. Still raining.

April 14th—Raining in torrents; we have had a hard matter to light a fire these three Mornings, as everything is completely saturated with water.

April loth—Dried our clothes in a hurry and made a start, very glad to make a move out of this condemned cell once more. Travelled up the side of the range in the bush; wet to the skin in half an hour, in which state we remained all day, on several occasions taking off our shirts or coats, and wringing them; we could not keep the creek on account of the precipices and waterfalls. Made about five miles N.E. up a fearful road; camped on the side of a mountain. This creek is surrounded by five low sugarloaf mountains, completely covered with timber up to the top, forming several creeks, all of which run into the little river below in which we got the gold; we have taken the N.E. branch, which we mean to follow up, and go over the saddle opposite. April 16th—Beautiful morning. Proceeded up the mountain with the bush still wet as the wind or sun has no power on it, from the surrounding high mountains. Made the top of the high saddle at 1 p.m.; started to make a river we could see off the top of a tree—the largest river we have seen yet. We can also see a small lake about a mile the other side of the river, on the flat due east from here. The down hill was very steep and bad travelling, as the bush was very thick on this side the mountain, with many precipices. We tried hard to reach the river, but could not although we travelled, or rolled rather, till 10 o'clock at night and then camped on the only piece of level ground we saw all the afternoon and that about six feet square with precipices on either side. Could not light a fire, went to bed with wet clothes and blankets and no supper. We have had only one kakapo for the last fortyeight hours. April 17th—Turned out this morning very stiff and sore from last night's rolling down precipices in the dark ; made a fire and dried our clothes and had a snack—just enough to say we had something to eat, or rather to drink, as our oatmeal is now getting short. Made down to the river, which we followed up two miles and camped. Distance from Little River eight miles E.N.E. Beautiful large beaches here, and any amout of quartz boulders—in fact all the stones just here are quartz, with any amount of mica in them. April 18th—Preceeded up the river S.W. about three miles. Saw a likely place for gold; prospected and found gold in two places. Camped on the flat and dried our blankets and clothes, which have been wet now for a fortnight. Got more gold. April 13th—Went prospecting and got gold in sufficient quontity to give it a week's trial. I believe there is plenty of gold on this river, but I also believe that there must be pumps to work the ground, as they are all heavy beaches. What gold we have got is in the gravel about a foot below the water level. The river is high just now on account of the late rains. I should like to have a pump and some of the tools which I left on the Shotover. This river I believe to be the right or western branch of that which empties itself into Jackson's Bay, and is nearly as large as the Shotover.

April 20th—Crossed the river where there are two islands dividing it into three parts, and went in search of the lake we saw off the top of the mountain, hoping to be able to obtain fish and fowl there for the next week or two; one of the party to keep always hunting and fishing, while the other two keep working and try to get some gold. Found the lake about one mile east of the river; a very fine one, one mile square, with a beautiful grassy mound all round it, with a creek running into it at the mountain side, and another running out on the river side. There was not many ducks on it—only six, of which we shot three; the remainder flew away to the river. Simonin saw a fine eel; he cut a forked piece of wcod and held it to the bottom, but while getting his knife out of his pocket to stab it, it broke away, as he was not able to hold it down with one hand. Started raining again before we got the tent op, and continued so all day. Went five miles up the river duck shooting; the other boys went down to the river and got some more gold, and of a coarser nature than any we saw before. Returned at dark wet to the skin with three ducks.

April 21st—Very heavy rain has now set in and every appearance of its continuing. This is the heaviest rain I have seen since I left Victoria. The lake has risen four feet to-day, and the rivers are at a fearful height. Nothing to eat since a small snack this morning. There is nothing at all that we can find here eatable—no fern-root, no spear-grass, no annis, or any vegetable whatever ; nothing but stones, timber, and water. I am certain we can get payable gold here if we can only get to work. It continued to rain at a fearful rate during the four following days, and flooded the lake and river, entirely precluding any work. Obtained just sufficient game to keep life in us, only after great hardships and difficulties.

April 26th—Foggy morning; cleared up about 12; put our blankets out to dry. One of the boys started early this morning to look after some game, but returned without any. Have but about 41bs. oatmeal now, and are 80 miles from the Wakatip in a straight line, but it will take us twice 80 to get there. My two mates made up their minds to start back again the first fine day we get, but I do not fancy going back the same route. 1 have tried all I know to induce them to continue east with me, as we cannot be more than 30 miles from the west river running into Lake Hawea, which lies N.E. from the Wanaka Lake, and which I believe to be the centre of the golden line of country, as the farther we get eastward the better we find the gold, and it is not half the distance that it is to the Wakatip. They however refused, and I then said I should go alone, which I was afterwards sorry I did not do, as I believe we had got almost to the end of the chain of mountains which runs north to Jackson's Bay from the Wakatip. If I had had a dog nothing should

have prevented me from going alone, as I know it cannot not be a worse road than we have had coming here.

April 27th—Turned out early and tore up one of my blankets to make shirts, as my clothes were worn out in the bush. The river and creeks so high that we cannot cross any of them ; the smallest stream a few days since is now impassable.

April 28th—Rained till night, when it cleared up. Made a good fire and dried our clothes, ready for a start back in the morning, should it be fine. We are all very weak for the want of sufficient food. If we could travel we could always get sufficient food, but it is having to camp in wet weather that kills us. April 29th—Packed up a few things which we cannot do well without, leaving behind picks, shovels, tin dishes, gimlets, nails, spokeshave, chisels, and several other things, which made our swags much lighter, but they felt just as heavy, on account of our weak state. We got a few miles up the river south, and had a good feed on some paradise ducks that we shot, turned in and felt much refreshed. The place we left this morning is situated about half a mile east of the river, lies due south from Jackson's Bay, and 30 miles east of the coast.

April 30th—Continued on our course up the river—a very bushy sideling of a steep mountain gorge, with the white foam of the river some hundreds of feet below us—jumping from one precipice to another, which under any other circumstances would have looked pretty. We did not, however, stop long to admire it, as then it looked hideous. Toiled away till night, when we had a hard matter to find a piece of ground 6ft. square on which to pitch the tent, and harder still to light a fire and cook four magpies we had shot on the road.

May Ist—Got up the river a few miles and came to a precipice and a very large and deep waterfall. It took us a long time to ascend, but we succeeded after many difficulties and dangers, our lives many times depending on a tew blades of grass, which grow out of the free of the rocks. After a few miles further we came to a nice flat, where we could see there was any amount of game. Camped here the following day, hunting. May 3rd—Crossed the river and up the saddle, which leads up the side of a large burntmountain; in gaining the top of which we had a few hours of fearful danger. Ths stones are so soft or rotten that we could not tell the moment our feet would give way and down we should go several hundred feet. At one time we were two hours getting twenty yards. Reached the top at ore p.m. Run it along south, which way our course lay, till near dark, then camped at the side of a little creek running down the side of the mountain higher up. There are three small lakes on this mountain nearly of the same size, with a few ducks on them (To be Continue 1.)

R. M. COURT, QUEENSTOWN. (Before Richmond Beetham, Esq., R.M.) July Bth, 1864. Threatening and Abusive Language. —Margaret Stout charged Mrs. Atkins with having made use of language calculated to provoke a breach of the peace. Mr Campbell appeared for the plaintiff. The evidence throughout was of a contradictory nature; the plaintiff called Miss Longford, barmaid to Mr Brookes, in whose hotel bar this offensive language was alleged to have beenjused, but could not remember any stronger word than " hypocrite" being used. The plaintiff dwelt more upon the fact of being charged with having given her "master's grog away" than the abusive language, which she " was freely willing to forgive." Mr Brookes, who it was alleged knew all the language used, and had separated the quarrel in the kitchen, was not present to give evidence. Mrs. Stout handed in some certificates of character obtained while a servant in Geelong, and the Bench finally dismissed the case, remarking that the only direct evidence was that of the plaintiff and defendant, and it seemed to be one of those affairs in which biting, cutting remarks were made in the heat of passion.

CIVIL CASES. Christenson v. E. Jackson, Southland Agent.—£6 17s. 6d. A promissory note for jewellery, &c. Verdict for plaintiff by default. Reilly v. Lehaine.—£ll 10s. Verdict for plaintiff by default. Hillv. Kilpatrick.—£2 6s. 6d. Verdict for plaintiff by default. Hill v. Agnew.—£l 15s. 6d. Verdict for plaintiff by default. Hill v. Woolridge.—£7 lis. Verdict for

plaintiff for £6 10s., the charges for drinks being disallowed. Cassiusv. Smith.—£l3 15s. 3d. Settled out of Court.

Cassius v. Bordeaux.—£l9 3s. 4d. Verdict by default. Holmes and Watt v. Howorth.—£2o. For firewood supplied to the Victoria steamer. £3 ss. was paid into court, and a set-off of £33 pleaded. The original amount of the plaintiffs' account was £42. Mr Shepherd for the plaintiffs and Mr Campbell for the defence. The set-off was admitted by the plaintiffs to the extent of £2l. Amongst the items disputed was the sum of £6 10s for passage money. The case took up the time of the

court for a considerable period. The plaintiffs were wood cutters and had agreed to cut and stack firewood for the use of the Victoria, at certain places on the Lake; but, as they averred, had made no arrangement as regards price. Captain Pritchard and Mr Gordon were called to prove the prices of steam wood, and a good deal of evidence was also gone into regarding the price of axes, &c. For the defence the engineer of the Victoria supported collectively the evidence of MrHoworth that 30s per cord was the price agreed upon for maple wood, and not 35s as charged by them. Four cords of wood were acknowledged to have been washed away and the bench gave a verdict for plaintiffs for 14 2 s 6d, and £3 2s 6d costs and travelling expenses, striking out the item of the four cords of wood, and otherwise altering the disputed accounts.