LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7337, 18 July 1892, Page 1

LITERATURE.

"SILVER L[N]NG" CLAIM. A SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND COLDFIELDS. (CorufitU Magazine.) Chaptbb I. A calm, still day in the middle of winter, s day that comes occasionally between weeks of pouring rain and howling gusts of wind. Nature had fretted and wept for ten dayß previously, and was now resting from sheer exhaustion, like a spoiled child ■worn out with its own irritation. Seaward the sun was narrowed in the glassy surface of the water ; overhead dim folds of gossamer clouds were all that remained of the thick, damp blanket of the previous day, The warm sunlight rested on the broken ranges which rose tier above tier like a giant's Btaircase, leading to the mighty monarchs far inland,,who raised their reverend heads, bound with eternal frost, in rugged and glittering relief against the clear brilliancy of the distant aky. Perfect stillness, perfect peace, and yet Adam Jellicoe looked sorely out of temper. He was a short, wiry man, dressed in the usual miner's garments; moleskin trousers, blue Crimean shirt, huge lace-up -water-tight bootß, and broad-brimmed gray felt hat. His lean brown face, ■ sharpfeatured and determined-looking, showed ■considerable disappointment, and he frowned on all the beautiful surroundings, from his perch on the top of a heap of •"tailings." Perfect stillness, only broken by the subdued clatter of the stamper battery behind him, where the hard quartz rock was being reduced to a fine powder, which was carried by a rush of water over a long series of sloping "tables." At intervals these tables were crossed by lines of copper plates covered with shining mercury to catch the fine particles of gold .released from its flinty bed by the heavy -fall of the stampers. After passing over these tables the pounded rock was deposited further down hill, the water draining rapidly down the foaming race to rejoin the stream that had originally Bupplied it. It was on top of one of these heaps of gray sand or powdered rock that Adam was standing, with his heels together, his arm 3 akimbo, and his whole body braced erect, a3 if to meet a shock. For there was no denying the claim had turned out " a duffer," and the result was a severe disappointment. It had taken Adam aud his mate six weeks to put a drive or burrow into the face of the hill, with the objecb of picking up a reef which showed a promising outcrop on the summit. The prospects from this outcrop had been moat enticing, but the quartz had completely changed in character at the point they had reached by the labour of six weeks. Still the reef had given fair prospects on the dish, and they had broken out five toiißof it and sent it to the battery to be crushed and treated. But the whole five tons had only yielded half an ounce of gold, or a value of about 30a. Thi3 miserable return had just been handed to Adam, who had thrust it into his pocket and wandered away to the heap of tailings to grasp the new position of affairs. The clear brilliancy of the atmosphere .seemed to shed a beauty of its own over ; everything. From Adam's coign of vantage he could see the creamy folds of lustrous mist resting softly between tbe jagged ranges ; he could watch the silver torrent of the little streamlet leaping from rock to rock as it hurried down the deep, broken valley to be caught in the grip of the roughly-constructed dam that stemmed and deflected the torrent to turn the huge wheel of the battery. At his feet he could gee the little township of Bangatonga, very young and consequently irregular, -sleeping in the sunshine ; with now and then the black figure of an inhabitant passing slowly and lazily between the rows of rude little wooden buildings. Even -the unsightly scars on the mountain eide, where the pick and shovel bad turned out earth of many colours-yellow, red, blue, and green — were all softened and harmonized by the genial sunshine. The huge, ugly scaffolding of the water race, and the corrugated iron of the battery, touched by the same magic charm, were blurred out of staring distinctness, and became only secondary features in the landscape to heighten the beauty of the hills, like a patch on the cheek of my lady. And up the rugged track which led from the little township he could tee the tall form of Barney Hyan, his mate, hurrying quickly along to hear the result ot the crushing, Adam was the brain force of the firm, the muscular development being supplied in the huge person of Barney. But the brain force was solely troubled at having nothing but a heap of tailings and half an ounce of gold to display to the astonished eyes of the junior member of the firm. Yet that was all the five tons had produced, thoughsometimea a very large portion of the gold will paes over the quicksilver without being caught, to be swept away and lost in the " tailings ;" and this generally happens when the quartz contains sulphur, or zinc, or Dome other minerals which interfere with the action of the mercury. In these cases the tailings are often worked over again, and when treated with care and knowledge, yield moat satisfactory results. Could this be the case with Adam's claim ? But what did that matter ? The solid fact "waß 30b worth of gold for six weeks' hard labour and expectation. " Have they finished the blessed stone jet?" asked Barney from the bottom of the heap ; "or are ye waitin' for the retortin' ?" Adam turned and looked down at the great red-boarded giant, gave a shake of the head, stared blankly up the gully, and tried to whistle softly. " Cuss the claim," he answered at last ; " it's an everlastin' duffer." " Yer not sayin' bo ?" exclaimed the sanguine giant. " See here," replied Adam, pulling a small -chamois leather bag out of his pocket, •* half an ounce of gold for the bloomin' lot." "Holy Moses," said the disappointed Barney ; " another let-me-down. How the boy s'll baßte me. Niver would have thought it." Barney never could understand how bo .many good claims went wrong ; but his hopes never faltered and his courage never fell. He always lived on the verge of an immense fortune, but never got further than the verge, though he generally made enough to keep him supplied with the necessaries of life. This last claim, however, had absorbed all the ready money the partners had possessed. It had seemed such a certainty that, though tbe drive had taken a much longer time to finish than they had anticipated, they had expended pound after pound in the purchase of "tucker" until the last sixpence had been parted with. More than that— though this did not trouble them—they were in debt to the storekeeper, who bad allowed them some small credit on the understanding that, when the claim turned cut well, he would be allowed to " stand in " with the partners and share the success of their venture. " Should have done as I said," remarked Adam at last, " Should have floated the darned thing in a company when we were two feet off the reef. We might have floated it then easy enough ; but now— the bottom's tumbled ont." It is but a fair acknowledgment of Adam's ability to say that this was the policy he bad suggested and tried to initiate. He had expatiated on the plausibility of the enterprise when all but Completed ; be had shown how tempting it

would he to the mining brokers ; how eagerly they would have responded to an appeal for a little necessary capital to complete the operations ; how willingly they would have assisted the enterprise just at the last moment, after all the heavy work had been done, in the hope of reaping a rich reward almost instantaneously. But no amount of clear logic could reason away Barney's faith in the big fortune of the immediate future, and his sanguine nature had infected and finally \ triumphed over the shrewd head of his wily partner, who at last gave way and began to fix his belief in the "quietness, contintment, and aise" for the remainder of their natural life, which Barney ao surely prophesied would be reached with the end of their drive. So instead of disposing of the greater part of their interest in the claim to a company, they had taken credit from the storekeeper. And now the claim waß found to be a " duffer," and there was nothing for the partners." " Ye needn't be talkin' about this," said Adam slowly, at last, his face gleaming with the coming Bolutioa of a problem which his mind had been busily engaged on— the problem of how to recover a part of the lobb they had made. " It's that elapper-tongued battery manager'll be spreadin' the news far an' wide," returned Barney. "So he will," replied Mr Jellicoe, garnishing his speech with some ugly adjectives ; " but Bee here, Barney — the gold is in these cussed tailings," and he gave the heap an angry kick aB he spoke. " Sure, an' you're right," replied the flushed Irishman, " an' we'll sell it to tailing works on the beacL — ef they'll give us a price." " An' we'll get a price— a long figure, you bet. This stuff* pans out well — see here ! " How could Mr Jellicoe know thi3 when he had never tried to wash the tailings P This speech savoured more of prophecy than of ascertained fact. But he caught up a miner's dish, a fiat iron basin shaped like a milk dish, and half filling it from the tailings heap Btrode down to the water race which carried off the waste water from the battery. Filling up the dißh with water, he stirred the contents with his hand, shook the dieh rapidly from side to Bide, and poured off the muddy water. The lighter particles of quartz sand were carried away in the stream, and continuing the process he soon reduced the material until nothing but the heaviest particles remained in the dieh. At each repetition of the opera* tion he became more careful and washed the stuff more slowly, bnt at last only a thimbleful was left in the edge of the pan, and was filially ecattered over the bottom by a peculiar jerk of the wrist well known to experienced miners. The yellow gleam of gold could be seen in Bmall glittering particles spread over the dark iron bottom of the pan, now almoßt empty. " Holy Moses !" exclaimed Barney, "it'll go four ounces to the: ton, an' that manager 'has put it over the tableß to get his price from the tailings plant, when we've ' cleared.' " (To be continued.)