NEW RUSH TO MOKIHINUI.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 511, 1 June 1869, Page 2

NEW RUSH TO MOKIHINUI.

A PEOSPECTLNG CLAIM GEANTED.

The following notice was posted yesterday outside of the "Warden's office in Westport:— " The undermentioned persons have obtained a prospecting claim of double ground (240 ft. by 120 ft.) upon the terrace known as Broken Leg Lead, near Mokihinui:—Eobert Watson, J. Adams, T. Norris, E. Lees. "Situation, about two miles in from Dufty's creek. "ChABACTEB OP WOEKINGS.—The prospectors have put in a tunnel 90 feet, but it is supposed that the ground may be readily worked by sinking, the average depth being not more than 50 feet. " Quality and Yield op Gold.— Gold coarse and scaley. Prospect one to three or four dwts. to the dish. " Depth op Wash-diet.—Not more than three or four inches where the gold was struck." It became known on Saturday that some application for an extended or prospecting claim was to be made to the Warden, and yesterday morning there were about a hundred men on the ground or on their way towards it. Others are now proceeding to the locality from the terraces in this neighbourhood and from Charleston, and, should sufficient inducement offer, the s.s. Wallabi will make a special trip to Mokihinui to-morrow.

We learn from the prospectors that Dufty's or Cunningham's creek is a small creek about four miles on this side of the river Mokihinui, flowing into the sea. To reach the ground where the gold has been struck, it is necessary to ascend the creek for about; two miles to the junction of two branches, and to follow the left branch, from which the terrace is about half a mile distant. From "Westport to the mouth of the creek the distance is about twenty or twenty-one miles. The prospectors have been in the neighborhood of Mokihinui for eighteen months, and for the past nine months they have been working in the neighborhood of the locality in which gold has been found, but with very trifling and varying success. About that time they purchased a water-race, and brought the water on to different places, sluicing the face of some of the terraces, but their reward was usually small until this richer piece of ground was discovered. The ground where the prospect has been obtained is in a dry terrace running north and south, and the run of gold seems alse to extend in the same direction. It ia apparently not a marine terrace, such as the Caledonian and Giles terraces, and the washdirt contains no blacksand, but consists of a sandy cement and gravel to which the gold adheres. The payable lead is about twenty-six feet wide, and of the thickness described in the Warden's report. Outside of the twenty-six feet there is gold in the cement, but the prospects beyond that space are inferior. The exact length

of the line of terrace we have not been able to ascertain, but it is possible that the same lead of gold may extend northward for some miles. A Bhort distance to the north of the prospectors' claim, however, jit broken by a gully and by a pteep creek. Tlie prospectors ;tunnel enters, not from the seaward, but from the landward side. It is possible, however, that the lead may be worked by shafts from the top of the terrace, which iB flat. The lead which has been struck is situated half a mile further inland than that which was wrought on the occasion of the first rush to Mokihinui. The peculiar name by which it is known was conferred upon itbyLees,one of the prospectors, in commemoration of the circumstance of his having, some time ago, broken his own leg near the spot where the gold has been discovered. Except other two men, no one has been at work in the neighbourhood for many months, but the prospectors have themselves done a good deal of fossicking in blind gullies and other situations where there were indications of gold. "Water is not abundant in the neighbourhood, the creeks being of small size except on occasions of heavy rain, and it will have to be brought some distance. The waterrace belonging to the prospectors is about two miles in length. The .specimen of the gold brought in by the prospectors consists of 3ozs 19dwts, and is a3 fine a sample of gold as any obtained in this part of the Nelson goldfields. Should there prove to be any great extent of ground, there will yet be a chance of Mokihinui recovering itself, and a rush to the northward will certainly not act prejudicially to the interests of Westporb.