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surface, in which gold can be freely seen; it is about 4 feet in width, but whether it will continue unbroken can only be proved as the workings continue. On this mineral belt of country, and about four miles distant, are the Macetown reefs, which are far more denned than the Skippers' reefs, and this may be looked on as the part of the district where the quartz mines will get first developed. The hanging and foot-walls in the generality of the reefs are of a soft nature and liable to flake away after exposure to the atmosphere. This necessitates the ground being well timbered, and timber has hitherto been very expensive to procure owing to its having to be packed on horses from Arrowtown; but when the dray-road that is now being constructed by Government is completed it will materially cheapen the price of mining timber, which is the chief item of expense in working these mines. This may be easily understood from the fact that each prop of 7 feet long and 9 inches in diameter costs about 10s. delivered on the ground, and in some of the mines the whole of the main levels required to be close-timbered. Cardrona. —The only mining that is carried on here is in the alluvial ground. A lead of gold has been traced for about ten miles down the Cardrona Creek into a wide valley, and there lost. The water became too heavy to follow it up without having pumping machinery erected; but the miners in this locality are still very sanguine that they will yet be able to trace it down to the Clutha River, and they propose to sink a prospecting shaft about six miles down the valley at a place where the slate rock can be seen on each side about eight chains apart, erect pumping machinery, and drive on the slate rock from side to side. If this is done it will test the valley sufficiently to prove whether a lead of gold goes down it or not. The Government have granted a subsidy towards this work. Blacks and Tinkers. —This field is confined to alluvial mining, principally hydraulic sluicing. The richest alluvial diggings in the colony during last year may be said to have been Tinkers, which averaged about £2 per man per day for the whole of the mining population on the field. This is to a great extent due to the rich yield of gold that came out of the Blue Duck Claim, which gave in one washing about 2,400 ounces of gold during a period of seven and a half months, and only eight men employed. The gold here is very fine, and the layers or strata in which it is found are of gritty sand nature, resembling crushed quartz. This formation extends from Tinkers to Mount Ida, following through Drybread, Welshmans, Vinegar Hill, and St. Bathans. St. Bathans. —Hydraulic sluicing is carried on here on a more extensive and systematic scale than on any other gold field in Otago. The peculiar formation of the ground here where gold is found deserves notice. Near the township of St. Bathans the gold was first found on the slate and Maori or terrace bottom; but this terrace bottom was gone through, and under it was an immense stratum resembling rough-crushed quartz tailings, which contains a little gold all through it. This stratum is in defined layers or beds, standing at an angle of about 30° from being vertical; some of them are of a tough mullocky nature, others of a fine clean white grit, and some of them are nothing but coarse white tailings, as though they had gone through a grating having holes of about half an inch in diameter; and in this stratum likewise are beds or layers of leaves of trees, amongst which can easily be distinguished the leaves of the kami {Weinmannia Racemosa) : these layers are from 3to 4 feet in thickness. Apart from these beds of leaves intermixed with the strata, there are trees which are now turned into lignite lying here and there. The miners here are a very enterprising class of men. They are at the present time constructing two large sludge-channels to enable them to work the ground at a greater depth. One of them is at St. Bathans, which will be about a mile and a half in length: it is paved with stones in the bottom 6 feet wide, and lined with stones on the sides for about 4 feet in height, and is being constructed with a fall of lin 60. The other channel is at Muddy Creek, about three miles from St. Bathans, and when completed will be three miles in length; it is paved in the bottom with stones 10 feet in width, and lined on the sides with stones 3 feet in height. This latter channel has been in course of construction for eight years, and it will yet take a long time to complete it. The whole of the excavation is done by sluicing the tailings and debris away. This is done by making a temporary cut or channel in the bed of the gully, and keeping the sides lined with scrub : anything is washed into this channel, and any large stones picked out. By this means about 30 feet in depth of tailings have been sluiced away into the Manuherikia River, and the sludge-channel formed ready for paving. Naseby. —It is principally hydraulic sluicing that is carried on here, with water from the Mount Ida Water-race. The system of working the ground in this locality is greatly behind any other gold field in the colony. There is a good supply of water, but the elevation that it is brought in at is not taken advantage of. The most of the miners use canvas hose, instead of iron piping, which has not been greatly introduced here yet. In connection with this waterrace, which was constructed by the Government, and is 65 miles in length, is a sludge-channel, the longest one in the colony. It is 10 miles in length and 6 feet wide in the bottom. It is paved with stones in the bottom, and lined with stones on the sides for about 3 feet in height, and is formed with three separate grades. The upper portion has a.fall of lin 40, the middle portion lin 60, and the loweih portion 1 in 100. When there is a large number of parties sluicing into the channel it is inclined to block up at the change of grades, and this entails a considerable expense'"in maintenance in order to keep the sides lined up with scrub as the tailings block up, so as to keep them within the channel, and by this means it runs itself clear. The most of the gold workings here are on the Maori or terrace bottom; but this bottom has recently been sunk through in a prospecting shaft in the bed of the Hogburn, and the samq