UPPER'SHOTOVER

Otago Witness, Issue 1466, 20 December 1879, Page 19

UPPER'SHOTOVER

Scully and party (says the Wakatip Mail correspondent) have .just finished working a strip of ground in Sandhill Greek, from which they took some very coarse gold, one piece -weighing 3oz 14dwt. They are now engaged in bringing water on a low terrace— above their old "workings— which they snppoae is the feeder of the creek below. — Ashworth and' Co. are sluicing fe beaoh of the river and obtaining fair lesults.— S. Stewart and party are bringing up a tail-race to drain a piece of ground, not iitherto tried, which they suppose to be an old led of the Shotover. Should this opinion prove correct, they will, in all probability, find something good. They expect to finish the tail race by Christmas. — Mr M'Laod'a claim is' in -fall working order, and he has, in spite of a scanty water supply, made good' inroads into his lease t>y means of powerful hydraulic appliances. , He las not vet had a cleaning up,— Mr J. Cameron occupies a terrace a little belowthe Sandhills and in which he commenced work some' two years ago. He began by driving a tunnel in the lower end or outlet of the terrace j but, as lie proceeded, he found that the bedrock dipped away before him, and being unable to find a mate to assist him, the accumulation of waller prevented hie progress. ■ This necessitated the lowering of the bottom of bin tunnel, which he fcegan to do at once. With much, difficulty, the rock being hard, and every foot having to be blasted, he reached the face of the drive, and bj extending it found that the rock still continued dipping- He naturally came to the con«lnsion that a hollow or basin of some kind' existed in the centre of the .terrace, and made it Ids object to explore it. Again he blasted up the. floor of his drive only, to find the bottom still dipping. The dreary months went by, and iv the face of adverse circumstances, buoyed up by hope, Cameron toiled on. < Again and again le repeated, the siokening, monotonous performance until his tunnel became a monster in leight, when at last he reached the-, coveted bottom of the basin only to see his hopes dashed ' *o the ground : no gold of any consequence was there. This would have been-sunioient to induce most men toseek fresh fields and pastures 3iew. But Cameron was -not beaten yet; lie ibegan i working in the other end of 'the teirace, and, I am happy to say, there met with the success whioh he so much deserves. Ho has Mtherto been almost destitutie 'of 'water, but ccould make a good thing of it with the tin. dish only, mi desperandum —Mr Donald,' the manager of the New Nugget' and Cornish ireef, has let contracts for the supply lof iamber and repairing waterirace/ which cdnwill be finished before Christmas, when he intends to make a start in the mine. 2t is to be hoped that under the new proprietorship and a more efficient manager, a new era will dawn en the Nugget— Mr T. Hall and another are at work in the Gallant Tipperary— •which is situated on the- Nugget line of reef—

and I hear they can show some gold. I believe it is never a difficult matter for Mr Hall to produce a specimen or two.