KUAOTUNU.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XXI, 23 November 1895, Page 653

KUAOTUNU.

FORT CHARLES. There seems every chance that another valuable section of our goldfields will be opened up in the vicinity of Fort Charles, aa excellent stone is shown by prospectors. Mr Mclsaacs, the well-known prospector, brought to town this week samples taken from the reef which he has discovered. Mr Mclsaacs brought with him eight pounds of stone which he took from the reet nt a depth of eight teet from the surface. Theoie was washed and rubbed in waler, but not crushed in any way. When the loose stones were picked out, the mullocky deposit in the dish was panned off, and the result was a really magnificent tail of gold. The peculiarity of the deposit was that while there were numerous coarse) particles of the precious metal, there was also a tail of very line gold of a much richer colour. The quartz is of a rubbiy tree milling nature, and showed gold freely. Mr Mclsaacs was panning up the Ohahutahi Creek from Fort Charles when he first found prospects of gold, which were so plentiful that he became convinced there was a rich reef somewhere that had shed the precious metal. About a mile back from Fort Charles Mclsaacs discovered an eight, inch leader from which the samples now on view were obtained A claim of 100 acres was at once pegged out and called the Jay Gould. It is fortunately on Crown lands, so that there will not be any difficulty about the title. The reef has been found outcropping about four chains away, and here it also shows gold. Further on a landslip has apparently carried a portion of the reef into the creek, and it was this that most probably shed the prospects found in the cioek. Mclsaacs states the reef is enlarging downwards, and the beat prospects were obtained at the deepest point sunk. Mr Richards, of Whangapoua, also brought over stone from the Jay Gould claim from which the assay returns were as follows : Bullion, 320 z 17Jwt 21gr ; value per ton, £B7 l«s 3d.