KIMBERLEY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 771, 10 December 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

KIMBERLEY.

A private letter received by a gentleman L" “ e wh“h° d p°“d t vtrSTe r Ki„be ! ri e y particulars f oountry . S: ”Sf whosever i. dated September lrtedwlth^fo W »H».h. f ate\m «d off With colors flying, but the tovxtib. day the roads got very bad, and bad a.-sSCs* sir. trues, trampof 200 miles. When I reached the field I found many of the diggers complaining very much, which was not to be wondered at. The field is a large one, and Vrater is b 8 gob in three or four: places, and th crornd all round these has long been-worked out. and until rain comes very little work oan be done. I have great kopesof the place, although it is run down a. great deal, f only remained two days, and had to come awav as there was no fsed .for my horses. I had to go to the various camps to give a report on the place, so was unable to tpend any time in digging. I only tried once and got a fine sample of gold. At the first part of our journey we got plenty of game, but near th f welched was very scarce, and the day there I had been eight days without any meat I saw a great many blacks, but they Sd not attack us ; so far they are very frightened of firearms, but they have . t to fobbing tents, so I suppose we shall have trouble sLn They are a fine race f men many standing over 6ft high. Ihere are lots of alligators in the rivers, and they are very large; one was shot near the mam street a few days ago that measured 13ft, but this was a small one. 1 also fi ° d snakes very numerous and huge. go one a few days ago that measured 19it 6m , but the greatest plague are the flies and mosquitoes. .They are in millions, and at times nearly drive one mad 1 al ®° find the heat very bad; llOdeg. the average temperature m our store, and this is only the beginning of summer. A.i the country round heie is mountainous, but there is a splendid country for and I must say it is the best watered ? I have ever seen, and there are fine fish in the creeks I have been on the Ord, Pan ton, Denham, Elvire, Bow, and Eraser Rivers but none of them are very large ; the Ord is the largest river here, the tld .® re f° he ® sa° 5 a ° miles up it, and it is infested with alligators. On the Toad to the field it was fearful to see the number of horses that were dead along the track (mostly killed by overwork). The track was lined with broken-down vehicles »f every sort.