THE SOURCE OF THE COAL AND CRAYFISH ISLAND GOLD. (Southland News.)

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 20

THE SOURCE OF THE COAL AND CRAYFISH ISLAND GOLD. (Southland News.)

In a preceding article the olaim to assistance of a prospecting patty engaged since the early part of the year in exploring an area of country on the West Coast marked only as one of the " white spaces " on the map — of whioh so few are left— was sot forth in the hurried manner the exigencies of daily, and particularly v evening," journals so often compel. Since then the opportunity has been afforded us of examining at leisure the sketch map constructed by one of tho party, showing in detail the topography of the country tra-erspd, the trend of the upper arms of Preservation and Chalky Inlets, of the lakes and rivers, the nature of the limber, geological features, places where gold was found, &o. It is roughly executed, but with Its aid any bushman of average experience would have no difficulty In finding nis way about over a big tract of previously unfigured country. Some men have the gift of mapdrawiog intuitively — almost all those of the native race. A'most everyone who has come in contact wi"> Maoris, when travelling in unsettled diß\.;."lc*!>, mmt have met with evidence of this faot. One will drop down on his haunches, smooth ft place in the sand, dust, or ashes, and with deft forefinger gketoh the rivers, creeks, fords, and passes rapidly and With a degree of accuracy as regards distance*

and bearings that would op^n the eyes of a scientific geographer. But this is by the way. What we are concerned with for the moment are the inferences drawn from his obs* rvationp by Mr F. Hamer, in the paper previous'v referred to as published in a recont issue of the Waimea Plains Review. He comes to th* conclusion that the god found on the islandsCoal and Crayfi-h— at the entrance ot Preservation inlet, did not come fr- m the fame direction or source r<s {hat obUiwed at Wilson river on the mainland at the rnntern side of the inlet, but from the country o th« north and westward which he and his party have to some distance penetrated. Mr Hamer gives his reasons. He siys : "On Coal and Crayfish Islands the gold is all the same sample. Nowher* else in the sound (Puysegur mainland), including Wilson river, Co-ilburn, and Goldburn, do you fiud the same description." This statement we are able to confirm from personal observation of samploo from the localities. He $oe3 on to demonstrate, from the character of the country audits general out* lines, that the Ccal Island god came from well inland, brought down originally by glacier action, and afterwards distributed by eruptive forces. Of the Titanic nature of these the face of the country bears eloquent testimony. " Now," he continues, "if the glacier had come Routh-west from the direction of the Princess mouutiins, it would assuredly have left traces of the gold of which deposits occur on Coal and Crayfish. Moreover, the ' wear ' of the country is most perceptible in the opposite direction. II is quite true we have gold on the BjUth-weßb hide 01 the inlet, and good gold, too, but its occurrence is local. In other words, it has come out of reefs running through a btlt of slate in a nor'-west course, not more than two miles wide. Beyond that belt the gold rnn» out. . . . Preservation passes through what hns undoubtedly been the original glacier track, and in that way the run of gold has been destroyed ; or. rnther, cut off. In my peregrinations inland, I crossed ?and?tone belt., 6late, gueiss, granite (bluo or white), making together a width of 40 miles of country, and found gold in small quantities at each strati. I have now reached a point of unexplored territory forming a second belt of slate. It is a formation strongly resemb'ing the fort ign (wate.-borno) matter or debris found in the wash at Coal and Crayfish Islands, and my opinion is this is the formation out of which the gold originally came. It is the true fall of the country. I am myself quite convinced a proper deposit will not be got till the solid formation is found, and you cannot find that about Preservation." Without reference to a fairly compendious map, the foregoing sequence of observations and hypotheses must seem somewhat obscure to the general reader, but to those having access to 6uch they are clear enough. Wilson river does not run towards and into Preservation Inlet, but, roughly speaking, parallel to and towards the mouth, away from it. In exploring phras°, it is on a different waterched ; and, as Mr Hamer rather quaintly aay3, "the country there has been all shaken up, but, as it happens, euough was caught iv the shake to afford a clue to the description of couutry from which it came." Undeniably, he and his party have followed up tha tracei of gold to a previously almost unexpected quarter with a degree of method and perseverance, stamping thtm as men of the right sort to unearth the ni<neral treasures that are lying hid len in the fattnesses of a region hithert6 untrodden by Europeans And, from another point of view than that of the miner, they have already done signal service by proving that the region is not »o inhospitable for settlement as has been supposed. But this belongs to another story.