NENTHORN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 1066, 8 May 1890, Page 3

NENTHORN.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

.'„,' /• April 2Sth. r 1 he past week has not furnished us with any startling items of mining news beyond what was previously reported. The- first' reports nf the find of gold in the Blue Slate mine, which yielded something like 3oz. 12dwt. per ton, has not been followed so far by anything worth reporting. The last crushing is reported to have given a return a good way under an ounce, but the stone has' been taken out at or near the surface aud pro\ es nothing about the lode beyond thefacc that it is highly auriferous and'more or less patchy. It is said the company intend putting a whim on the main shaft, which is SO feed deep. It is a case of "better late than never." It is to be hoped they will not only put on a whim, but go down as fieep as their power will allow them, so as to give themselves at least a chance to win. The Crcesus Company have been engaged keeping down the water in th* main shaft and raising stone from a shaft on Craig aud Party's boundary. The stone looks pretty well, but it would not be easy to estimate its value. Craig and Party are raising a nice heap of clean, good-looking quartz, and I understand that they frequently obtain very nice prospects of gold, which gives us the hope that they will be ultimately well rewarded lor their perseverance and carefully-applied iudustry. A 4-1 T £t Vlctor ' a Go - are raising quartz from the Ao. 2 shaft, from, which a large quantity was previously raised, all the ground having been stoped out to the depth of heavy water" but the sinking of the main shaft havim? dried the ground, the manager is sinking the shaft, aud as the reef averages fully two feet thick, a nice heap of rubblv quartz is accumulating near the mouth of the shaft. The Break o' Day works are being pushed ahead with the view of employing the company's battery should that machine ever get ready to prove its worth to a long-suffering list «f shareholders. The delay will give the mine managers a chai.ee to do what they can to raise sufficient stone to keep ths machine employed for some time. Ifancy there must be close on a hundred tons of the Victoria stone in the paddocks at.the machine already, and had there been opportunity of having it crushed th« paddocks could have been very easily filled by this time. There is reasonable hope that the Break o' Day will have a good heap of stone ready by the time j the Victoria crushiug is thiough. It is not I expected here chat the machine will be ready much, if any, before mid-winter, and should that prove to be the case the Victoria Co. need not be thankful for having their crushingdonein the time when intense f rostsickens the quicksilver aud allows the fine gold to escape. Work is being prosecuted vigorously in the Eureka, also in the Surprise and in the Jacob; and it is reported that Mr. Sheehy has taken the Homeward Bound on tribute. The development of Cunningham's claim at Barewood seems to give hope of a continuance of gold-bearing country rio-ht through, from this place to there. Some miners are working ou alluvial gold between this place and Barewood at the present time, but I have not been able to obtain any particulars about the yields obtained, beyond the statement that " they had got a good few ounces; " but in travelling over the country quartz-reefs are frequently met with, and it is all promising looking country to prospect in. Some kind of influenza or like epidemic has seized upon many persons here during the last month or so, and a number of persons are bad with it at the present time. [The above was unavoidably held over last week.—Ed.] ,;. • "