Otago Witness Illustrations.

Otago Witness, Issue 2479, 18 September 1901, Page 35

Otago Witness Illustrations.

No. one is a view of the Fraser River Gold Company's dredge (late Cobledick), the first modern dredge of New Zealand type to start operations in British Columbia. Mr H. Graham, late of the Hartley and Riley, is the Company's general manager, and Mr Watt, late of the Electric No. 11, is in charge as dredgemaster. Mr E. Butler, the former diedgemaster of the Cobledick dredge, is now in charge of the Jamieaon Creek dredge, the second of the same type to be built in British Columbia. At Lytton, where the Eraser River dredge is at present working, the river is over 1200 feet wide at high water, and the difference in level between high and low water mark this year was 42 feet. This will give som« idea, of the volume of water in the Fraser River, compared to the Molyneux, considering the current is much the same in the two rivers. This dredge compares very favourably with the majority of New Zealand dredges. The machinery was supplied by English firms, and the whole cost amounted to 80,000dol. The ladder is capable of dredging to a depth of 45 feet, with buckets of 5i cubic feet capacity. The two great difficulties met with are the running ice in winter and the drift-wood in the spring, which explains the presence of the false bow in the photograph, as it is not an unusual occurrence at high water to see trees of 200 feet in length sweeping down. No. two shows the method adopted for running lines, rather a difficult undertakingj owing to the great width of the river. No. three shows the dredge in course of construction at dead low water, with the ice running in the river. No. four shows the way the men put ii, their spare time catching salmon. Photograph shows 140 fish caught in two hours with a scoop net from the bank. As many as ten fish were caught in one scoop.