"TWO MILES OF GOLD,"

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1884, 10 January 1885, Page 2

"TWO MILES OF GOLD,"

Under the above heading a curious story of suQceaaful prospecting' for gold in Northern .Australia,- at a point some 800 miles from the coast, has appeared in the papers (says a London' correspondent of tho "Argus"). : Its accuracy of courso cannot be teßted on this side of the world, but it appears to be accepted as a genuine account of mining adventure. Briefly told it is to the effect that, early in 1883, Mr Henry Davis, an engineer, spent three .months among the "cannibal blacks" in the northern part of the continent, in order, by their aid to discoyer a motallifercjus of land, He-. succeeded ftn'd cpetq England to. obtain *''toals«nd machinery" to develop his Eldorado, JHo returned to Australia without ifenecessary gold-mining machinery, ing the scene of Ms discoveries was "aghast to find that his mounds of gold and silver had been invaded" by other miners. • He and a mate named Charles Maclaurin fficholls, a son of the Assistant Secretary of the British Museum, who had begn educated as a t "blacksmith, fiimer, qarpenter, and farmer,' 1 pegged 'gut a' claiffij'wiuch at' Just did not picmiiijg much. Nichqls, howeyer, qne day cajrig Upon a rich vein pf' cparp golft while prospecting fqr gijlena. Specimens were immediately, sent to Lohflon for assay, They have only just been assayed, but, It b said, with the moat.gratifying results, for they were merely aver'agelumps of or« picked up haphazard, no gold being discernible, -oxcept in two. very tiny fragments. Messrs ..."Wellty7~ of Garrick Street, Covent' Garden, jipwever, thus :report: their:'essaySimple of gold quartz, 50oz, yielding per drt,—Gold Boz 17dwt, Bgr,-; silver, 3oz, lOdwt. Sample of rock, band .qf. galena running through it/height S3lf). v per ton of ore of 30 wt —Leadj 48,80 pep (lent ; silver, Ssoz,, SUwt, i'JpW, Bd wfc.; It can be better realised"wlfat this means, as to gold alone, d|h'-n it is put thus—that .the ton. of quSw yielda 177 oz of gold, the price of ■ which on the ground ranges from £2lßs to £3 5s per oz.; that two men can, aided-by the lithofracteiir, get apt oi\tfrom'fpur to ten tops j)'f'quar,fcz per ! day ; anjl. and that the s'ilver, of which there is (imoptain, isilfj insignificant - Mixing up gqld, silver, and lead Messrs Johnson •Sjatthey and Co, epaay (121b sample) 10 03 COO gold, 28pii 500 silver j find Mr Frederick Claudiet tillb Sample) 11 oz gold, 270z 12dwb silver per ton," The account further narrates that Mr William Hawkie also met with good fortune, He discovered a run of gold reef extending for quite two miles, the quartz lying mostly on the surface, in an awfully steep precipice.. He offered a share of his claim to Davis and Nichols, and the three are now working it jointly. Amongst colonists'the.impres?ioii !l prevailg that the leading journal haipoflca jnqra .Been hoaxed, : -