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filled with tailings from sluicing claims, and the question of an outlet for these tailings will most undoubtedly crop up. The whole of the gold got in the creek is of a coarse character—plenty of pieces like peas and beans, and without any of that fine scaly gold that is got elsewhere. It is all greatly waterworn, but evidently has not travelled a long distance or else it would be more ground up than, it is. At the head of the gullies it is very little water-worn, as many of the corners and projections are quite sharp and angular, showing that it has come a very short distance, and indicating that rich quartz reefs are likely to be met with on the range, or, at least, the indications show that there was a time when the caps of the reefs have either been broken off by slips taking place or by the atmospheric action disintegrating the exposed rocks on the range, causing the high ranges to be denuded, and filling the gullies and creeks with debris which water has swept away, leaving a golden harvest for the present reapers. Koromiko. —There are about seven men working in the valley leading down from the head of the left branch of the Mahakipawa Creek towards the Koromiko Eailway-station, and getting a little gold, and it is said there are some large reefs on this side range. A little gold is also found in White Pine Gully, which is a similar formation to that; of Mahakipawa —namely, the older quartzoseschist rocks that occur in Otago. This same formation seems to run past the head of the Kenepuru Sound, and underlies the more recent formation found on Mount Stoke, and passes into the sea at Jackson's Head. The country between Mahakipawa and Twofold Bay is well worthy of being prospected, and, judging from the formation of the country, it is likely that auriferous drift-gravel will be discovered in the belt of country which will pay.for working. Wakamarina. There is very little alluvial milling being carried on here, and what little there is may be termed fossicking, with the exception of the work recently done in the gorge of the Wakamarina River, at the foot of Deep Creek. Three different companies have tried, to work this gorge, two of which failed entirely, and the present one has suspended operations after expending £1,880 of capital, and incurring liabilities to the extent of £550, which makes the total cost of their works £2,430. The former companies are said to have expended nearly £6,000, and never could get the water pumped out. The present company has been more successful. They have constructed new and substantial dams at both ends of the gorge, and have cut a channel for the water in the river through solid rock for a distance of about 3 chains. The dams are all made on the solid rock, having squared logs and sheet-piles scribed down to the rock on each side of a puddle-wall. The top of the puddle-wall is covered with bags and planked over, so that the water in the river can flow over the top without damaging the dams. The logs and sheet-piles are all held down to the bed-rock by iron bolts. By this means the dams have been made practically watertight, and the gorge has been pumped dry in about three days. The present company have two steam-engines, one of which is- connected with a centrifugal pump whose outlet and intake pipes are 9in. in diameter. The centrifugal pump and engine are fixed on a cast-iron bed and placed in a punt, with a vertical steam-boiler for supplying steam for the engine. The other engine is a double-cylinder portable steam-engine and boiler. The vertical boiler that stands on the punt is not capable of supplying sufficient steam to work the pump at its proper speed, and a steam-pipe is connected to the steam-cylinder attached to the pump from the boiler of the portable engine on the bank, to supplement the steam from the vertical boiler. This enables the pump to be worked at a speed which takes the whole of the water out of the gorge in three days, and when once the water is out a hand-pump is said to be able to keep it dry. As soon as the dams were completed and the punt carrying the pump placed in position, they commenced operations at the upper end of the gorge, and go); about 20ft. to 30ft. of the bed clear of shingle, and obtained about lOoz. of gold out of the crevices of the rock. They also stripped a considerable quantity of shingle from another bench, when a flood occurred, a few weeks prior to my visit, which stopped their workings. The whole of their capital being expended, they suspended operations during the winter months, and intend raising fresh capital to prosecute the work next summer. This company deserves credit for the substantial manner in which they have constructed their works; but they seem not to have carried on their operations in the bed of the gorge, after the works were completed, with as much energy as they should have displayed. Where mining is carried on in river-beds liable to be flooded, work should be carried on with as many hands as can profitably be employed, and working carried on continually day and night. There is a large quantity of shingle in the bed of the gorge in which there is not sufficient gold to pay for washing. This is filled into trucks and hauled up an inclined tramway by a horse, and the shingle deposited in the river-bed. The gold seems to lie on the bed-rock and in the crevices. They expect to get the richest deposits in the centre of the gorge, where they say there is a bar of rock, and also at the lower end. The depth of the deepest portion as yet ascertained is about 30ft. below ordinary water-level. Assuming that they have expended £2,430, and that they will require another £570 to prosecute the work, exclusive of actual working-expenses in connection with lifting the shingle, they will require to.get at least l,ooooz. of gold to reimburse the capital expended. Westland District. There is still a large population in this portion of the West Coast, and a great many of the alluvial mines here are doing -very well. There is no gainsaying the- fact that the gold is becoming more difficult to get. The shallow placer-workings are getting worked out, and", although there may be equally as much gold on the drift near the bed-rock, there is a large quantity of superincumbent drift to remove before the auriferous wash-drift is reached, which greatly increases the cost of obtaining the gold. The most economical method of working ground, wherever dump can be got for tailings, is by hydraulic sluicing and a plentiful supply of water. This method is getting,