STAFFORD HILL RUSH.

West Coast Times, Issue 276, 11 August 1866, Page 5

STAFFORD HILL RUSH.

The rush to which the above name is given is situated in the Waiinea district, about one mile NE. from Stafford Town, on the Waimea track. Excepting the last mile, there is a good road to it all the way from Hokitika. The best and nearest route is to follow the beach as far as the Auckland, or Eight-Mile, township, and then turn off upon the Waimea track, which is corduroyed and partly metalled. Following this for three miles, Stafford Town is reached, where the traveller must turn short to the left, and by following a track, the condition of which sfrongly savouvs of the Waimea as it was sixteen months ago, the rush will be reached in three-quarters of a mile or a mile. Stafford Hill is a very peculiar eminence, as it rises abruptly out of the flat, and on its north-east and east sides is nearly perpendicular. In fact, there are many places quite inaccessible, as the face falls sheer down for a hundred feet and more. On i' s south-west side, the rise is more gradual, although steep enough — and ifc was here, in a blind gully running from the hill, that gold was first struck some three months ago by Lewis and party (tho prospectors), who gradually traced it into the hill by tunnelling, and finally sunk a shaft upon the sumjait of the brow, bottomed at sixty feet, and were rewarded with a prospect of ldwt. to the dish, out of a vein of granite? and sandstone gravel, from eight inches to one foot in thickness. The wash-dirt lays upon a soft mullocky sandstone, dipping to the westward. The sinking is through a heavy bed of granite, sandstone, and slate wash, free from water save a very slight drainage ; but on the western side of the terrace, where the ground is deeper, the water is more abundant. Sext to the prospectors', but more to the west, Peel and party have bottomed at seventy-one feet, with a foot of wash dirt, that yields from 4grs. to 6grs .to the dish. Andrew Londhal and party, who occupy the second claim N.E. from the prospectors', have also struck gold at fifty-five feet, the prospects they obtained ranging from idwt. to ldwt. the dish. Nearly at light angles to this claim, on the eastern side of the terrace, Joe the Italian and his mates, after sinking eight feet through a very pretty "wash, struck a heavy bed of clay, ' through which they are still sinking, believing there is another wash underneath. One or two other shafts have also struck the same clay bed, which many believo is the main bottom. On the" north-west side 8, the hill, some sixty or seventy feet from its summit, a party of miners drove iv a tunnel, and struck washdirt that yielded ldwt to the dish. The vein is about one foot thick. On each side of this tunnel another is being driven ; that to the west by Hamilton and party, who have not yet struck gold, and a party of G-ennans, who, so far, are equally unsuccessful, are taking in the other. Above about eighty yard 3 from the brow," Williams and party have "bottomed at forty feet, but affirm tho hole isa "duffer." Apparently,howover, they havo faith in tho grqund, as a veiy substantial hut thoy aw building fttwrts,