THE BALMORAL CLAIM, LONGWOOD.

Western Star, Issue 351, 22 May 1880, Page 2

THE BALMORAL CLAIM, LONGWOOD.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — As any news respecting the Longwood is a source of interest to the public, I beg to forward you a few notes taken from my own observation. Various reports haring been circulated and certain Irish hints given, I feel called upon to state the truth respecting the Balmoral claim. The contract drive which has just, been completed was done under trying circumstances, and the particulars appended I guarantee to be bona fide. When we started the contract 71 feet of a drive had already been put in, but not properly timbered. The rock taken from that drive had been deposited at a higher level than the floor of the drive, on the top of trees, stone, boulders, &c., which were lying there before. There was no tramway, truck or wheels, and in consequence we had a lot of extra labor to contend with. Wo took advantage of the heavy rain at thar, time, and ran out with water 100 ft of an open drive, 12ft wide and 10ft deop, and connected it with a tail race I had cut some months before for prospecting purposes, extracted the trees, stone--, and boulders, and stacked them on either side, leaving an open space to deposit the debris or refuse matter taken from the tunnel, which has since been carried away three hundred yards by every flood. This work was not part of tbo contract, jbut was done principally to benefit tbo company, and will last until they work out their present level, as availing depository, so wo expect the company will give us something extra for the labor, for had wo deposited 100 feet more of the bed rock there, which we could have done, we should have endangered the interests of the company. Wo made our own rails out of saplings taken from the surrounding bush, and laid tho tramway to the face 71 "feet in. We drove 70.f00t without cutting anything, but the next set we passed through a In !e 2 feel 2 inches wide of decomposed quartz adhering closely together and interspersed with iron veins, which either d niote volcanic agency on the presence of iron in tho water which passes along the lode. On driving about 12 fert farther, we crossed another lode about 8 inches wide, a composition of crystallised white and burnt quartz, in some places opening out to a foot wile of what is known as sugary quartz. At tho termination of the drive, 172 feet in and 15 feet from the last, wo cut another leader 4 inches in wi Ith, which is highly mineralised, and shows every indication of rich gold in the neighborhood. The coarse of tho lode and its leaders, which apparently ai’e connected with it a certain depth below our present level, is more northerly than the course taken at Pnntz’s shaft, but as I have no faith in any compass but a cromatie, I decline to slate the point exactly, yet to all appearance the lode is making straight for the shaft, and will pass through the Geelong on one side and the Duffer on the other—that: is. provided it keeps course, which I have no doubt it will do, as my firm belief all along was that it should be more to the north to coincide with ny prospecting. Your correspondent last week seems t - be gifted with supernatural powers, when ho states confidently that it was not Printz’s line of reef, but a distinct one from it. Would he kindly prove it to mo ? It is not very difficult to find me at any lime, and any man that Las talents above such an ordinary being as myself, I will be happy at any time to meet and learn from him even as a litlie child.—l am, &c., E. R. Ford, Riverton, May 19, 1880,