JOTTINGS FROM THE COUNTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1856, 8 July 1887, Page 11

JOTTINGS FROM THE COUNTRY.

(By Oue Teavelling Repobteb.) Beaumont— The Molyneux— Gold in the River Bed -Delusive Hopes— The Dredges— The New Bridge Over the Molyneux— Along the River Bank— A Field for Hatters— ' Mining in the (District. Leaving Lawrence and passing through Evans Flat comparatively barren country is met with till the Beaumont is reached. There are small areas of farm land along the route, but as a rule the country is only fit for sheep grazing, and is rough at that. It is at the Beaumont that the traveller going up-country gets his first sight of The Powerful and Swift Clutha River A short pause on its banks gives one a pretty good idea of the enormous body of water this river carries seaward, and the angry rush of water shows how through ages past it has fretted away its channel down through the solid rock to its present level. Not far above the Beaumont the rocky cliffs, three or four hundred feet above the river level now, still bear plainly enough evidence of the action of the same swiftflowing current with its swirling eddies that cut the rock into caves and fretwork in the ages long past. Then, as now, the river must have hurried along its course bearing with it untold' golden treasure, partly torn by itself and partly by the great glaciers around it from the solid bosom of mother earth. Much of the gold, ground by rocks and gravel along the river bed 10 impalpable powder, has been carried right out to sea, but much of it still remains embedded in the stationary river gravel, and caught in rock crevices, or mingled with the river drift that is moving bodily seaward. In the palmy days of long ago many an ounce of bright clean gold was unearthed along the river banks at the Beaumont ; and when King Frost held the upland streams in wintry bonds, and caused the water to run low into the river bed, richer treasure was found in the gravelly slopes laid bare. This led the miners to believe that could the river be got rid of altogether gold in such rich abundance as never man dreamed of would be found. But the history of river dredging has quite put the delusive dream to one side, for the richest ground is generally found near the river banks and not in mid-channel, as might have been expected. River Dredges on the Molyneux. There are a number of dredges at work on the river from the Beaumont upwards, but a description of the Hope of Dunkeld gold-mining dredge, owned by Templeton and party, will pretty well stand for a description of all except Wellman's patent, at present being got into working order at Alexandra. The dredge consists of a double flat-bottomed punt, with a space between for the dredge ladder and buckets to work. The ladder is 301't long, and can reach bottom almost anywhere. The dredging apparatus is an endless chain of bucket scoops, and the motive power is obtained by two side wheels ! ! from the current of the river. These wheels I supply ample power to drive all the machinery I employed in river dredging, and can be disconnected at will, so that they revolve without any unnecessary tear and wear. The buckets are capable of raising from 20 to 27 tons of gravel per hour, and the whole concern is kept running day and night by four men. This will give some idea of how perfect the way of working is : the river current does the work, and the workmen have but to watch that everything works smoothly. The gravel is delivered from the buckets on to a short box, where a steady stream of water, raised by a series of small buckets on the inner rim of one of the driving wheels, falls upon it and carries it into the cradle, some 10ft long by 3ft wide. The cradle has a jerky, oscillating motion given to it by a connection with the driving gear, and this makes it much more effective as a gold-saving appliance, and does away with the necessity for longer boxes. The top part of the cradle is covered with a sheet of perforated iron, with holes fine enough to allow the finer gravel to drop through on to the blanket table, while the coarser stuff is carried into the river. The blankets are washed into a large tub kept for the purpose every eight hours, and the gold is panned off at the end of every week. No quicksilver 5s used. The gold is extremely fine, and looks not unlike fresh brass filings, proving the grinding action of the drifting gravel. Occasionally a patch of old river bottom is met in with that gives a good yield. At times the blue slate bottom is scraped up, but this generally proves barren. When the extreme fineness of the gold is considered, and the large quantity of gravel rushed over the cradle' hourly, it is evident that much gold must be lost. Could some system whereby long boxes behind the cradle were used be devised, some of the gold now sent into the river again would be saved. Copper plates would be useless, as the continuous stream j of coarse gravel would quickly grind off the I silvering. Mining by dredging is in its infancy, I and as yet the methods are somewhat orude. In time to come, when these methods have j ceased to pay, more elaborate gold-saving appliI ances will be tried. I saw a nice pan of gold the result of a week's work, but whether that represented an average week's work or not I | did not ascertain. Beyond admitting that they ! are doing very well the party were very reti- , cent.

The Beaumont Bridge.

Quite recently a splendid iron girder bridge on concrete piers and abutments has been opened for traffic at the Beaumont. The floods of 1878 carried the old bridge away, and since that time the traffic had all to cross the river on a punt until the new bridge was opened. The punt here, as elsewhere on the river, was propelled by the river current. A wire rope stretched across the river held the punt in position, and guys fixed to this rope allowed the punt to move in either direction, the puntman having only to turn the helm at the stern of each of the two boats upon which the stage rested to head to either shore, when the current did the rest. And it is really surprising how fast these punts cross the river. The Beaumont does not strike one as being a very busy place, yet on approaching it a very large building in the shape of a hotel would almost lead to the Idea that someone had faith in the future of the plaoe. This large two->storey hotel was built by Mr Clark, of Moa Flat estate, but at present it must be larger than the requirements of the place justify. The ooaoh changes horses here, and gives the travellers time to get a little refreshment. This hotel is kept in first-claas style, and few houses out of Dunedin are better conducted. Anyone desiring quiet and oomfort can get it at the Bridge Hotel, Beaumont, and at extremely reasonable prioes ; consequently most travellers passing a night at the Beaumont take advantage of it. There is another hotel further along the road, but there cannot be much trade for both.

From Beaumont td Roxburgh

a road has been made along the east bank of the Clutha, and all the way the red pegs of the re-

cent survey for a railway may be seen. There are no engineering difficulties of any moment in the way, but still a railway from Lawrence to Roxburgh is far away in the future. By taking the east bank road, which is only fit for horse- ' back yet, a splendid view of the river is obtained, as the road skirts' its edge nearly all the way up. Broad and smooth in some reaches the river glides along placidly enough, but again, where rocks bar the way, it frets and fumes and boils over into foaming surges and whirling eddies, which speak all too plainly of the impetuous rush of water hurrying on seaward. At some ' places where the river is narrowed to half its average width it is surprising how the immense volume of water rashes through in the time, and in many places where one might almost vault from rock to rock all the way across the current in the narrow gulches is comparatively smooth, giving evidence of the immense depth to which these same gulches must be cut down. The river being low when I passed along its bank, I was Btruck with the number of " hatters " Fossicking Among tbe Rocky Ledges at the water's edge on both sides the stream. Both Chinamen and Europeans here pursue their lonely calling, and one or two I saw with no other appliances than a sheath-knife and tin dish collecting the precious metal left in the crevices by the eddies of the river. An occasional individual with shovel and cradle may be seen collecting the washdirt left on the shore when the river stood at a higher level. All this speaks of the vast treasure that must be held fast in the rocky grip of this swift river's bosom — treasure which may lie there and baffle the most ingenious to reach it. When the pickings on the shore are so promising, what must the wealth held in the crevices of the rough rocky bottom be ? Small" alluvial flats, left by eddies of the river, may be seen pretty well all along its course. All are auriferous, and though all are not equally rich, still in time to come they will one and all be turned over. Good ground occurs on the west bank of the river at the lower end of the Island Block, but the difficulty of getting water laid on is a serious obstacle in the way of working it. One ingenious miner, however, has solved the problem by carrying hose n across the river supported on wire rope cables. Although the water so laid on is insufficient, still it has been demonstrated that water can be carried across the river. There should be no great difficulty in carrying fluming along the wire cables, but capital is required for this. The owner of this claim has offered his interest to the public, but no one has been found willing to give him tbe price demanded. Tbe Island Block is a good block of agricultural land — at one time an island, with the waters of the river on either side. Now, however, the river has cut down its eastern channel, and left the other as dry land. The river takes an abrupt turn at Horseshoe Bend, showing plainly enough that what is now dry land was long ago the main channel. This old river bed is rich alluvial soil now, and grows excellent grass. A great part of it is swamp land that should not be very difficult to drain. There is one pretty good alluvial claim on the east side of the river at Horseshoe Bend. One difficulty in the working of these river deposits is that they almost invariably dip back from the river, which necessitates pumping and extra labour in sluicing. At Horseshoe Bend the washdirt has to be hauled by a horse some distance to the sluice-box, and of course the extra labour involved reduces the dividends. This same difficulty is met in with all along the river's course, and before these alluvial terraces can be successfully worked the hydraulic elevator principle must be resorted to.

Roxburgh.,

Borton and party have fitted up hydraulic sluicing plant on their claim near Roxburgh, and although a fair trial has not yet been made, still there is a certainty that the system will be a success. In the immediate vicinity of Roxburgh there are several good alluvial claims. Some of the parties have the difficulty already mentioned to contend with, and others have so little fall in their tail-races that any material rise in the river prevents their working. There are a few claims, though, that have fortune in their favour, their ground being at a high enough level to admit of sluicing in the ordinary way. In the claims at Coal Creek Flat this is especially the case. The fiats all along the river bank at this place are auriferous, the deposit is pretty extensive, but the water available for sluicing, while ample enough for the claims at work, is limited. At times a good run of rich stuff is met in with, and though much poor wash is put through the race, yet on the whole these are good payable olaims, and give constant and remunerative employment to those holding them. On the opposite side of the river the dip of the bed-rook renders the ground more difficult to work, and before these extensive terraces can be worked out hydraulic sluicing must be tried. The present water -races will scarcely give enough pressure ; consequently new races will have to be cut at a higher level, but as water is plentiful, that should not be a matter of any very great difficulty. Capital will be required, but no doubt were the olaimH'oldrrs to combine, that desideratum could be found.