THE CANTERBURY REEFS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXV, Issue 7863, 19 May 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CANTERBURY REEFS.

[from a correspondent/] The following account of a trip to North Greek and Mount Harman may be interesting to some of your readers. lam an old quartz miner of Australian and New Zealand experience, and I wanted to inspect the operations now carried on at the reefs. Having a strong mare and light trap, I did Ihe run from town to Moa Creek in two days. This stream had destroyed the track, rendering further progress in a trap impracticable, so I started on foot for the North Creek, where one party was at W °As‘ far as the North Creek there had been no change in the formation of the rocks from Porter’s Pass. A cartload of shingle from any of the river-beds would be found to resemble a similar quantity irom any of onr river-beds about town, but up the Moa Creek a marked change occurs. Masses of slate and other plutonic rocks are to be met with, indicating a change in the formation. The hills higher up, on the western side of the North Creek, being altered rocks, with a sharp dip to the westward. The question whether the schist rock had at one time rested "pon the harder formation

of the eastern elopes, and been away by the action of frost and assisted by earthquakes, is a theory onlythe fact .remains, that. the head waters of the Wilberforqe tlie Moa Greek the- same order obtains, prospecting is confined to the west ®f ■line drawn from the base of Mounjt to the junction ot North Creek jwith . Moa Creek, Eastward of that ing for gold would be useless.’ To west are all the mining leases at applied for. My first visit was . sent workings of the 1 ORTH CHEEK GOLD-MINIF® COMIMUT.'^H They had put in a drive a chains along the coarse of i a defined quartz vein, averaging two ■’eet in thickness. The quartz considerably in character—now hard dens , then changing to quartzoze, othe: times of a porous and mineral ter. Of gold, I saw none. Whether vein is worthy of being called va reef or not, 1 suppose a very short will prove, but it appeared to one of those lenticular veins Ibo found m the schist formations; of _ Zealand. This Company have workol an outcrop on another spur of , same :ange. Certainly their practical energetic Manager (Mr George daserv *s success. The next day to Netve’s Hut, converted the cart into-a. pack, and started for Mount. man. \ The track lay over low, grassed - land; the Wilberforce! right, and on the left high cliffs, which there were several waterfalls, bafl had a fall of about 100 ft but as the creeks had all gone very rapidly dcring the past 24 noue of them were very On reaching Sebastopol—a low junction of Griffith’s ’Creek with Wilberforce—the spur on which the IftntiH Creek workings could be seen, were "our miles distant in a straight £pil Here the line of altered rocks previousljH referred to was met with, and the bumß order obtained, the mining country beingH on the western hills right up to the head oH the valley. Quartz and slate were commoiß portions of the shingle beds, and lenticular veins of v the former could seen in the schist formations on the left.. the right, the harder rocks, denuded of softer formations/which had once them, have ceased to be affected bytifefitoeH and snow, and are covered with vegetatlonH Missing the track in a snowstorm*, Ilufl some difficulty in finding the camp Government survey party, where T nl mained that night. Next day I arrived* ajH tiie camp of the | H CSKIBTCHT7BCH GOLD-MINING COMPANT, H whose workings were two or three milfifH further up the ravine. The | billsldesH at this place were very precipitoitqfl and although 1 was travelling in a-mopfl north-easterly direction, the auriferodfH country still 1 lay on the left, the same characteristics as those > ftM North Creekr—clay slates with sharjj I,ill mi 1 iiiiiT'ii Mi' i iiiiliiillillmLiflUlJ less evenly stratified schist tormatioiiilM Upon the same side was a jveis," ctJ dike, of porphyritic schist, which contained® slight traces of copper. The bottpm of £lml ravine now rose rapidly, and the trackfl gradually ascended above the n p irnnrnrj which Bometicties ran under blocks'; olfl frozen snow end over huge bonldrifa,| Quartz was to be seen laying [about ini some of the small gullies, but 90 sign of l any workings; , the fog was thickening;l snow was falling in good-sized fiakes, and no sign of a track. Noticing .'that-the crumbling mass- of shingle had been duP turbed on one spur, I chose that, and, after a hard climb, saw a rope hanging ‘over a piece of hare rock, by the aid, of [which :I at length reached the workings. Two men were at work driving to strike; the continuation—if there is one—of ft shapeless mass of quartz sticking out of the cliff above. On making a closer inspection, it appeared to be about 30ft by 10ft, with star-like points sticking out ift all directions for a distance of a! few feet only, but nothing to indicate either strike 6r dip. ! The surface of the rock through which it crops is clean, showing every vein or-; marking. Gold is to be seen, not; in every; piece you break off, but iu nearly all the; points and seams which are of a; mineral character. Iron pyrites abound,'and £h« quartz is of the kind known among miners as *'■ likely-looking.” 1 ' , 'J The sides ,'f the mountains in the vicinity are devoid of anything in the shape of scrub or timber, and all that is used has to he carried up by the men.: Snow, at the time of my visit, was to, be seen in small patches only, thdugh ,£he workings are considerably above [the snost line. Accepting the theory that this raving was formerly a small fissure in the mountain, enlarged by the action of frost and snow, from which descending torrents carried on the work until the present deep ravine was formed, ilt becomes apparent that nature has-been njiining in thip locality for centuries, is still! and will '.continue; until the mountain aides have sufficient slope to retain the (fldbris. This is continually falling from tbe’cliffs, is' and sluiced by watjer, but the gold, where is it? has it a-eached the mouth’ of the Eakaiaf Afflter looking at the[ mine critically, I did! not see ipuoh in-, ducement to invest ante spare eash in quartz veins of the DavEe country; as theiri lenticular" character intakes it -probable that though gold-bearinij to a fair extent, they may not prove oft that permanent! nature so essential to suclceßEful min* 1 ®; ■ The gradual thinning lout of suA the distances to be drivela before met with again, have much for many a company ™ ‘ We were told at the mine! that the altitudewas 7200 ft, hut betweeii 5000 and 6Q00; would he nearer the markft e carne from the mine rapidly, |ri*»til we reached; the water-course, thence jlownward as fast as specimen hunting would admit of, and, hack to the camp before Blight closed upon US The return journey occupied tyro and ft" half days, from Mount Hlarman,; vi 4 the Wind Whistle and Glentftunel, the road, beino* much easier to ti| av el than via Porter’s Pass. The road frefm Christchurch to the Harper is fairly goolb thoijgh not a •fast road; thence to Mouilt Harman not suited to anything on dPiMbut tnii gradients are easy and ekilflully liid off by ! the person iu charge of the district. Whilst I was there, a dray, went iJithm a mile ol Pullar’s Camp; but the first run, that comes will render the road jimpalsable tor wheels. I The mining population of t» e ” yherforec have no occasion to complafi ll of Goycimment neglect :• that a dray rioad t houlu be made to penetrate so far country at so .su/all a cost ia creditable »■ those concerned.- That any (necessity, for the expenditure exists, or Ifhat sufficient prospecting has been done to svarfant euCtt, expenditure for the benefit <>f the concerned, is a matter for : ?rai e doul*. Let us hope that the search! 101} payable gold up the Wilberforeo may y prove fueeessfui, and that the money sp ms upon the road may not have bee n expended in . »*/■*»*. vain. \ v • • ; .'j*. r"I