THE SERPENTINE REEF.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 374, 12 May 1876, Page 3

THE SERPENTINE REEF.

At the "Warden's Court at Serpentine on the sth inst., a formal application was made for registration of a prospecting claim under section 1 of regulation 25 (permissive registration), upon the quartz' reef discovered at German Jack's, Serpentine. The applicants, Joseph Edmonds and party, reported that they had opened the reef out for a length of about 14 feet, and had tried it to a depth of 6 feet. They had found gold showing freely in the stone, specimens of which were exhibited to the Warden. They described the reef as bearing one point north of west, and its inclination or strike as being northerly at an angle of 60 degrees. They were unable to say whether it dipped, having prospected it so short a length. The thickness of the reef, so far as traced, varied from 18 inches to 2 feet—the surrounding rock being of rather a rubbly character, the laminations not so regular as in the ordinary schist rock. But the strike of the reef appeared to.be at right angles to the main lamination or lay of the rock. No stone has yet been crushed, but it is proposed to have a fair sample of it crushed at the Rough Ridge battery (Withers's). Owing to the severity of the climate at Serpentine the prospectors do not expect to be able to do much until the winter is over. They, therefore, applied to the Warden for protection for 00. days for the claim 1200 feet by 300, which they had marked out under the prospecting regulations. The names of the prospectors are Joseph Edmonds, George Quayle, Hugh Magee, James Shephard, Andrew Murray, Peter Allen. Other claims have been marked out On the supposed line of reef, but as yet there is no information as to whether the reef has been traced beyond the prospectors' claim.