MINING ON THE KAWARAU.

Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, Page 30

MINING ON THE KAWARAU.

(From Our CuomwkLl Correspondent.) September 27.— Tho contractor for the Hartley aud lliley 13e»-h Company Has arranged to get three teams at work carting, and will begin work at soon as there is timiter enough on tbe f round. - The Gentle Annie Quarts-mini»c Cointmny's property has not, I am aorry to tar, turned out a success, and the venture has beeu given up. A very old quarts miner who hat had great experience in reefs has be«n prospecting on behalf of the company for about a fortnight and has given an adverse opinion, so that the company have decided to, suspend operations. I visited the reefs. There are two in thecUim, which is •ituated on the north shoulder of an isolated mountain mass between the Roaring Meg and the Geatla Annie, and which is cut off from the Qucaniberry Hill by a deep ravine. .Before reaching the claim one pa«s»e3 the holes sunk on what is known as, lteaa s Reef, which was taken up last summer, but at which nothing has been done so far this season. The chief peculiarity about this piece of country ii the rinding of rough un travelled alluvial gold an top of an isolated mountain block. Inside the Gentle Annie Company's pegs U a fairly large basin, and several blind gullies which were worked years ago with very gatiifactory results. Indeed, two men are now working for alluvial gold in tbe gully draining the before-men-tioned basin into the Meg. The origin of cold of such, a character in sucK a place may furnish, matter for argument for those who support tha gold-growing theory and for those'who 6pposa, it. The fact is there : 'a hummock of high land cut off from the surrounding oouutry by gorges and gullies ; rough, gold on and near the summit of this hummock. Query : Whore did it come fromt Don't all speak at ofcC6 t please I There, may bo a good reef somewhere. in the sahie country, but the trouble is to find it. A short distance abova where the Roaring Meg run* into the Kawarau golden gravel was found hanging by the ey«browo, at it were, to just above the top of an ' almost psrpendiculur face. The finders triad to work the deposit by bagging the stuff and throwing it over the face down a hundred feet or so into the Meg ; but the process was ruinous to bajf, aud tho wasbdirt got scattered down* th« cliff.' T* look at the place one would think the sturdy digger would want his wings in thU world in order to get at his cl'iim. This ledge is alno part of the auriferous h>U on which lh« Gantle Annie property is situated ; so that the yellow metal seems to bo scattered all about gorC of " permukusly."