PROSPECTING AROUND WESTPORT. (From a Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 20

PROSPECTING AROUND WESTPORT. (From a Correspondent.)

I recently gave you the gist of prospects in Fairdown, lying under the ■terraces and on the upper side of the railway. In this letter I will deal chiefly with what I saw on the leads lying cJose to the beach, known as the Wet Lead, Triumph, and beaches further on, including Native reserve. In these claims 1 found a distinct difference in every way, although there is only a distance of two miles between them. Under the terraces is distinctly seen the action of the Wareatea and creeks adjoining, carrying rich gravel wash into the basin below. The leads on the beach are purely of a sea action, and hence there is a marked difference in the lay of the gold. To understand this, it is only, necessary to stand on the shore end watch the action of the waves. They deposit in layers, sometimes flat, one on top of the other, while at other times they overlap, and become detached. The wash is of a finer character, rather too much sarid for successful stacking by a dredge elevator. The gold is fine, and very much more difficult to save. The beachcombers use copper plates, while under the terraces ripple irons are used, and no plush. I thoroughly proapected right along from Birchfield into Westport, and the same conditions apply almost everywhere, except where rivers and creeks enter the oeenn. All the creeks and rivers have had the 1 tendency to go north, and have left lagoons over a mil" long in every instance. I found the leads fill along very rich 'ndeed, and feel sure, when a better method of treating black sand to srve the fine gold, and means provided to "prevent the wash from getting under the dredge, these wet leads will prove a great source of profit, and return large yields of gold. I am not exaggerating when I say that in prospecting I came on leads which would run sdwt to 15dwt to the yard. The stripping above bears gold also. What the bottom is I cannot say, as the deepest I could get with pick and shovel was- 9ft or 30ft. Should I, however, at any time get interested in these leads, my first consideration would be to test the bottom all over, which, can easily be done by boring, in going .through, the bush, about five or ten chains from tho beach, I name across many old shafts and workings of early days, and I am told from very, reliable men that miners did extremely well in the early" days there. On some of the higher terraces," about 30ft to 40ft above sea level, I ifl beds of seashells; thus proving the whole has been sea action. To those interested these details may be of interest.