GABRIELS QUARTZ REEF.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 205, 4 January 1872, Page 5

GABRIELS QUARTZ REEF.

The prospectors of the above reef are vigorously pushing, forward .operations for testing it. They have stoped in about 20 feet from the back of the drive and have also sunk an air shaft. They have sunk about 10 feet down on the reef the prospects of which seem to improve with the depth. About 4 feet from the top the reef widens from 3 to 5 feet, and carries the latter thickness down. The stone is hard aud compact. Numerous specimens iv which gold was distinctly visible have beeu obtained. A number of trials have been made during the week, roughly, of course— the stone being merely pounded with hammers and washed in a tin dish or shovel— and in every instance with highly satisfactory results. A parcel of 31bs. of-thw hardeßt quartz, in which the presence of the pree'ous" metal could not be detected, was crushed in a mortar" in Lawrence, and yieded a large number of specks' of gold. It was not treated with iner-v-ury and consequently a large quantity of the iroH w.s lost, as it is exceedingly fine, paint goM, in fact. Tiiis show» that, gold is distributed throughout the stone, and is a very good inHioation, as the best paying reefs in Victoria present similar characteristics. The casing yields at the rate of a |dwt. to the dish. The average dip of tho reef up to the present depth is one foot in svery two. It is proposed by the prospectors to send a few tons of the stoneto be crushed at the O. P Q. battery at Waipori. That the reef ia gold-bearing, has now been Ratisfa -tonlv demonstrated, and it shows every indication of nein j; payable ; nevertheless, until we ascertain the result of ofualtings "of con-" siderable quantities of stone, we shall refrain fr jm expressing a final opinion upon it.

In the ground taken up by Somers and Co., at Gribriels bush, about a mile from the prospecting claim, a reff supposed to Tip. ihe same as that discovered by Murk Brothers, is exposed by a land-slip. From it one or two specimens, containing goM, have been broken off. No fresh claims have, to our knowledge, been taken up since our last issue. White and C-i. have, however, applied for a miiv'ng lease of ten acres next to the prospectors' claim.