THE MARYBOROUGH GOLD-FIELD, GYMPIE CREEK.

Southland Times, Issue 963, 5 June 1868, Page 3

THE MARYBOROUGH GOLD-FIELD, GYMPIE CREEK.

(From the " Argus," May 28.) The following extracts are taken from a letter received by a gentleman now in Melbourne from an unquestionable authority, who recently visited the Maryborough goldfields. The gentleman who received the letter, however, who is acquainted with the goldfields in question, is of opinion that the ground hitherto discovered ia lully occupied ; hence the place offers encouragement to ordinary gold diggers, though an excellent field for the investment of capital and the introduction of machinery. The letter is dated the 17th inst : — I say it without any fear of contradiction that there was no single person on the diggings when I left knew as much of them as I did ; but this is not saying very much, for diggers and reefers seem to make it a point of duty — and most honourably perfoin it — not to know anything beyond their own " claim" and its productions. The alluvial deposits far exceed in richness and extent all that I had been taught or imagined of them, and I pray you not to think that there is any immediate prospect of their becoming worked out. My own conviction is, that they are in their infancy still. I never met a man working who did not confess that he was making wages or more. Some I know — for I saw — are making largs fortunes, and hundreds are realising small ones. The Nashes have done very well, and will end their prospectors' claim with some £20,000. They, however, will be beaten by Murdoch and son, ■who divided for their week's work while I was there £12,000. Baker's claim, •which he fancied he had worked out and sold for a few pounds, has yielded already more to his successors than than himself. I was there the other day when they washed out an eighty-ounce nugget and seemed by their way to to think nothing of it. The dense scrub bounding Walker's G-ully is found to be full of gold — that is, the earth from the surface to a foot down is. It is (or was) to me a strange sight. There were scores of men deliberately removing a dense pine scrub — trees, vines, bushes, and roots — bodily away, and then ■when the ground is cleared as though for the plough, they set to and scratch up one foot or thereabouts of the surface ground and cart it down to the river. Immediately out of the creek, against "Walker's creek claim, MAdam, of Brisbane, publican, is working in the way I describe, and I presume is making his fortune. "This is better than hotelkeeping," he said to me, as I passed the other day. He was then shovelling the dirt into a cart. Prom the ground he picked up a stone about the size of a turkey's egg, weighed it in his hand, asked me how much I thought was in it. It was very heavy, sol guessed " a pound," and begged him to break it. He cracked it with his pick, and to get it in two had to twist it round and round and round, so full was it of solid gold. He admitted he found lots of them, and, to quote his own words, " You are walking on gold." I could tell you much more of the alluvial ground, but think you can understand now that it is not going to collapse just yet. The reefs I am somewhat puzzled over. I met with no one at Nashville who seemed able to judge them from a data founded ona scientific point of view. The old reefers of the south have not seen their like before; and I should say the general impression is that they will not be found to carry the gold far down with them, or themselves to go deep into the earth. None could give any other reason for the supposition beyond the one, that they had not seen their like elsewhere. Othersj however, said that the stone would improve as they went deeper for it. When I left there were at least fifty reefs named, but the supposition is that many will be found identical with each other. For instance, the Lady Mary and Caledonian . intersect Nash's Gully, and near it the prospectors' claims are ; and it is nearly certain that they are identical with very fine reefs opened out beyond Walker's Gully — nearly a mile away. The country is full of them, however, and hundreds will be discovered. Very few of them have been opened to a depth beyond fifty feet ; in fact, none of j the shafts except those in search of the reef are so low down. The reefs generally run north and south. One, and a very promising stone, (it shows both for size and "the colour"), lies east and west. I was taken into a hut in a thick scrub to see " Dodd's." "Dodd" and party of two other men had not a penny about six weeks ago. They were just gathering up their week's collection of " specimens." We calculated they had, in tubs, buckets, in the fire, and elsewhere, from £6000 to £8000 worth. The specimens, I must explain, are the pieces of quartz or gold so visibly rich and tempting that it would not do to throw them into the pile of stone intended for the crushing machine. When we left the hut the commissioner told me " they had been doing that way all the time." What they really have taken is not known. Lawrence and Pollock, M'Ghie and party, and Goodchap, who used to be overseer of the road, have litterally made fortunes out of their specimens ; while M' Ghieaent 30c wt. of quartz to the mill so poor looking, compared withmost that he is stacking, that it was sent to find out if it was worth crushing at all ; its yield was eleven ounces. Munro, of the New Zealand Beef, sent nine tons of rather better looking stone, but nothing like most of what is stacked ; the yield was nine ounces to the ton. Now, 1 saw these stones, examined them well, and I saw their produce. The New Zealand stone I could just detect a speck or two of gold in, after much searching. I think I may safely say that from the Caledonian and Lady Mary, both prospectors' claims, they were taking out daily £500 worth of specimens. On Monday last Lawrence estimated his day's work at £1,000.

I have been amazed at all I saw — lumps of gol 1 worth hundreds of pounds lying in pails and tubs, like so many potatoes. There are several other reef's of equal roputo besides those I have named. I speak of them from actual knowledge. Brneat Webb gave £700 for his one-eighth share in the Lady Mary ; hu has already received the money back If the ieefs are as extensive as those of other parts of the world, I can see no limit to the wealth of their prospectors ; and if all that are opened prove goldbearing, surely Gympie is unrivalled. I used to crush small pieces of stone in the mortar, and only such as contained no visible gold, not even through a powerful glass, and in every instance but two I obtained more or less gold. The largest piece of Stone so crushed would not weigh a pound — generally they were half that size — and with the exceptions named I never got less gold than would, if scattered, have covered the nail of your little finger. I can't tell you if that would be paying or not. People there seemed to regard my finds as wonderful, but so they were ; and understand that I never tried any but refuse stone, or from deserted claims. One of the two without gold was from the Lady Mary, taken at a depth of sixty feet. The next day the same claim, A C 's, yielded specimens. N has a fine chance, and must realise money — probably a fortune. He lives comfortably. His is not, so far, as rich a claim as his immediate neighbor's, yet he manages to wash out of the casing daily more gold than pays his expenses ; so he has the crushing stone to the good. What a fine field for powerful machinery! I was told there is full work for a dozen mills. The thing they have is more fit for grinding coffee than quartz.