OLD GOLDEN CALF.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3799, 2 March 1881, Page 3

OLD GOLDEN CALF.

Duriug the past week or two this once celebrated mine has been again coming into notice in consequence of a discovery, the importance of which the future alone shall decide. It will be remembered that some months back high hopes were indulged in respecting the result of t'.ip operations being carried on at the ISTo. 3 level (Caledonian) under the directions of Mr Crawford. A .fine reef with gold showing made everyone believe that the turning point of prospering had arrived but a Econi.h or twos' work dispelled the idea. .Nothing daunted by the il! success a start in a new place was decided on, and a little more than a month ago Mr Crawford called tenders for driving in the No. 2 level eastward from a' point about 60 feet distant from the Caledonian Company's boundary. I must mention that surrounding this point is a bar of broken country was lost some years ago. Several attempts were made by cross-cutting to pick up the up " the richest quarlz reef in the world," but all were unsuccessfhl in consequence of the No. 3 lode being mistaken for the reef in which the searchers were in quest. The broken ground referred to above it would appear altered the course of the No. 3 so materially that the mistake made regarding its identity was quite natural. But to return to the letting of the contract: Operations were started on a small thread of quartz, as I before said bearing easterly, and|this was followed for some 50 or 50 feet when gradually increased in dimensions, and then traces of the presious metal became pretty frequent. At present the drive is in 100 feet or thereabouts, and for the past week small pieces of picked stone have been obtained fronu different portions. The lode is 7 feet thick with gold showing in colers from the footwall to within a foot of the hanging wall. The country has now entirely changed from the broken hungry country in which the operations were started, and closely resembles the casing of the No. 1 in to use a hackneyed expression, palmy, or Caledonian days. I am firmly of the opinion that a solid block of country, perhaps 70 feet long, exists between the disturbed strata and tbs slide, and as this is traversed by the No. 1 lode, under highly favourable circumstances too, there seems to be a possibility, if there is any of the old patch yet in the hill, it will be found in the piece of ground I have attempted to describe.