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population. Plfttow and party, who have been here a long time, and whose operations are on a large scale, have been employed for the last twelve months in various expensive undertakings, preparatory to opening their claim by a new face at its lowest extremity, for the purpose of obtaining more fall, an object with them almost indispensable, but which they could not hitherto attain in consequence of another party (whom they bought out at considerable cost) holding rights immediately under their claim. The chief part of their claim consists of a deep gutter, probably an old creek bed, running through a terrace, the front of which is a bluff reef, rising perhaps 200 feet from the present creek bed; and the depth of their face, when they reach it (which they hope to do in a week or two), will be something over 100 feet. They use an india-rubber hydraulic hose, and have a pressure of over 150 feet. They command all the water available, and when their two reservoirs are added it will be equal to ten sluice-heads. The work done hitherto has been at the upper end of their claim, and has paid about £10 per man per week, and they expect it to continue as good, or even better, with more fall for their tailings. Other sluicing ground is being opened in Bremer's Gully, a tributary of Bracken's, by a party on a high terrace (perhaps the highest alluvial workings in the Arrow .District), with every appearance of success. Becently a few miners have opened some new ground immediately below the old workings. Tunnelling has also commenced in a low terrace with prospects of fair success. There are a few miners opening up new ground at the bottom of the upper gorge of New Chum Gully, where a rich run of gold was followed some years ago and lost. It is supposed to have taken to the terrace, and these men have already had fair prospects in following it. The gold is generally throughout this district of the same character, being coarse and nuggetty and much water-worn. There is great'probability of payable gold being found higher up these gullies and terraces than it has yet been looked for. About two or three miles of Bracken's G-ully proper and the upper part of it still remain unworked, although coarse specks have been occasionally found in that quarter. (Gold found here for the last twelve months is about 450 ounces.) Quartz reefs have not hitherto been searched for, but doubtless they exist, from the fact of specimens of quartz gold being often found on the surface. Although probably 3,500 feet above sea level, the climate is excellent and very healthy. Sickness is seldom heard of. The winter is rather severe; 3to 4 inches of ice will form sometimes during a single night, which impedes the sluicing operations. Domestic fuel is very scarce and locally unattainable, the Chinese having cleared away every particle of scrub for miles. Peat has been used for five or six years, but that too is nearly exhausted ; speargrass well dried is now the chief stay, and coals are being introduced and delivered here at £4 10s. per ton. The cost of living in this locality is about 255. a week, the miners having their gardens well cultivated, the vegetables growing as well as at Arrow, but later in season. The Arrow Valley. —It was from this portion of the district so many of our oldest residents left for the Palmer rush, and I was of opinion last winter that the river-bed workings had been exhausted. Arrowtown had always received great support, commercially speaking, from the population up the river, and the trade became much depressed when packing stores in this direction became unnecessary. I am glad to be able to report that the abandonment was only temporary. The Palmer fever has abated. Many of the miners have come back and set in to work on the old ground with a will; and in an extraordinarily short space of time several parties (of about four to each company) have traced the lead of gold and obtained payable gold, at £3, £4, and £5 a week a man. Of the large companies registered under the Limited Liabilicy Act, the Sons of Fortune has, after ten months' hard tunnelling (blasting with lithqfracteur), and only one slight accident to two men by a premature blast, succeeded in reaching the golden ground, having passed through a seam of rich ground without working it until they have finished the extreme block. They have been employing six to eight men, and expended about £1,500 in preliminary operations. The Universal and Arrow United Companies having completed their easements, the former at a cost of £1,100 and the latter £4,000, have now discovered that they are assisting one another by pumping. It is well known that the ground at a depth of 30 feet is very rich, and under the management of Mr. O'Keefe, who is a most indefatigable, able, enterprising man, I have great hopes that these workings will prove successful before another winter sets in, which means constant employment to not less than thirty men. The Rule Britannia Mining Claim, Arrow Valley, of thirteen years' standing and twice abandoned, is now engaging much interest, for the four indefatigable shareholders have again struck gold, and were obtaining as much as £2 a day a man a short time since. If this success continues, other claims will be taken up above them. Macetown, an almost deserted village (reduced to a population so small that the Government withdrew the subsidy to the teacher's salary about a month since), is now, while I am writing, attracting great attention, and I have good grounds for believing will be a busy place with a population of 200 before the end of this year, as its quartz reefs have proved payable. A fortnight ago I started the first battery erected in that locality. The two tons of quartz brought to the machine to test the reef it belonged to, produced 10 oz. 16 dwts. Newly-discovered quartz reefs at Macetown promise to prove of considerable value to the province, while the field itself is without doubt an extensive one. So far as these reefs have been developed as yet, there exists most satisfactory proofs of their permanency. In all cases The lodes are well packed and solid while the walls are perfect and true, nor in any case in the course of these lodes are they interrupted by blocks of mullock. The schist country has not been disturbed, all being as solid as when nature formed it. There appear to be two belts of this auriferous quartz, one taking a direction from North to South, the other from East to West. Present appearances indicate the North and South reefs to contain the most gold; but as these discoveries can scarcely be called more than three months old, this surmise must not be considered as an accepted dictum. These lodes have been traced from 200 to 1,200 feet along the surface, and have been cut by driving tunnels into the hills at depths varying from 50 to 200 feet. In every case whore this has been done, the lode is as perfect as upon the surface.- The quartz for the most part is extremely friable,