THE CHINA GOLD MINES.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 447, 6 January 1869, Page 3

THE CHINA GOLD MINES.

A Chefoo correspondent of the Shanghai News Letter says : You will doubtless be glad to learn of our safe return here, ahd the sue-

cess of our prospecting survey among the Shantung mountains and ravines, in search of that gold which the Shanghai newspapers have of late so often been bringing up to the notice of their friends there and at home, to gaze and go mad upon. "We organised a prospecting party of three —a Californian, an Australian, and a General Ward's man—immediately upon our arrival at ' Tulloch's Temple,' twenty miles from Chefoo, on the 29th ultimo. Our first effort was near a Mandarin's tomb, where the Chinese said immense specimens were buried! A shaft was sunk, but a storm coming on flooded our claim, and we retired, demoralised, back to camp. The next day we prospected for some six miles to the northward and toward Lookout Mountain, fifteen miles south of Chefoo. We raised mica, mundic, black sand, and everything except gold, and were going in after that with a will, when the headman of a village near by ordered our packs to " move on." "We went down to a creek near by, and watched some 30 Chinese washing out gold. It was after the rains, and they were evidently making a good thing of it. They used a shallow wooden vessel, something like a bread-tray, a blunte rake, clipper, and spade, and got through a great deal more earth than we could with our tin pans. A portion of the gold was evidently lost in the raking, yet nearly all the trays showed at least 30 cents after a few minutes' washing. We selected a spot some little distance above these fellows, and with a pan soon brought up : the color with two shovelfuls only. This satisfied us of the richness of the creek, and when we went back to our ' quarters, the Chinese foil wed us with their dust, some of which we bought at a fair exchange for Mexicans. We camped on the 31st ultimo at the ' foot of Ferguson's Peak, which we attempted to cross, but could not for want of a pass. A solitary Chinaman > was here discerned down among the boulders .xnd deep cliffs of the mountain, washing his twenty-five cents to the tray. We tried the bed of a dry I creek below our camp, but found no gold, though indications were sufficiently good to warrant explorations at a future opportunity. The next day a prospect of the ravines and hills was made to the distance of eight miles beyoud, then we returned to camp, packed up and struck oft' down the valley in a northeasterly direction for Chefoo, which was reached on the second day thereafter, or the oth inst., when the first prospecting party of Shantung miners broke up and went home to refit. After a brief look at the hills to satisfy us that gold was indicated thereabouts, we packed up and left for Cheefoo again.