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NELSON GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

shall next describe, this claim is the first I believe in which the method of hydraulic mining was adopted in its integrity, the same system is in use at the Glengyle claim, where they have 120 feet of pressure, and use 2½ inch nozzles with good effect.

Lightband's claim on the south, or Appoo's Gully side of the saddle, promises to turn out every rich wash-dirt, and the party are sparing neither trouble nor expense to enable them to thoroughly and systematically exhaust their ground; a shaft sunk 53 feet gives the subjoined sections:—

1. Yellow clay ... 15 feet.
2. Loose sandy quartz drift showing the "color" ... 5 feet.
3. Red wash-dirt ... 11 feet.
4. Blue wash-dirt with blueish quartz, and rich in gold not bottomed at ... 27 feet.

The bedding is westerly.

Golden Gully is, I believe, almost abandoned, but does not appear to have been thoroughly exhausted. Lightband's Gully is also deserted.

REEFS.

Only one reef has as yet been worked to any extent, so that it is very difficult to come to any definite conclusion regarding the ultimate prospects of the district; several have had a few days work on them but not sufficient to show the character of the reefs.

The Perseverance reef naturally takes precedence of the others, as it is the only one which is at present yielding gold in notable quantities; it is situated at the head of Bedstead Gully, exactly on the junction of the crystalline rocks and the slate, the one forming the footwall the other the roof.

The reef, as shown in the accompanying sketch section, dips to the east, varying considerably in the thickness of quartz and the amount of dip. The fissure in which the quartz occurs has been caused by the movement of one or other of the two rocks, through a vertical space of 12 or 15 feet; this movement has been slightly diagonal, viz., 25 degrees to the south of vertical; it is self-evident that if one of two hard, rigid, mammillated surfaces, resting and fitting on each other, be caused to slide in any given direction, it must form a fissure of greater or less magnitude, according to the size of the mammillations. The vein itself is not one

continuous sheet of quartz, but consists of a quartz breccia, with a little slate and slate powder in it; and in one place, where the reef is little more than a quartz sand, gold may be washed out in an ordinary pan; very fine specimens are also sometimes found in the solid parts of the reef. The fissure or reef is cut off by a cross course of blue graphitic slate, which seems to turn it round completely on to itself again. This slate is quite different to that ordinarily found in Bedstead Gully, which does not contain graphite, and does not, to my knowledge, appear anywhere on the surface; it is so soft that it is extremely difficult to carry without being crushed to powder.

The other claims are hardly worth mentioning. The Masonic and Decimal are adjoining the Perseverance, but neither have yet done any work to prove their ground.

In Coles' Gully the Ophir and the Commercial attracted my attention; the former is situated near the head of the gully, and has a brown ochrey leader, running north 30 degrees west, dip east, nearly flat; the country is schistose slate, a few tons have been extracted, and sent to the Perseverance battery for trial, but they had not been crushed when I left. The Commercial, near the lower end of the gully, was opened on a mass of quartz, which was said to show gold; the quartz is hard and white, sometimes containing white mica; strike north, dip east.

There is one claim worthy of particular notice, as having been taken up to work for copper-ore. The lode is situated about half way between Appoo's and Bedstead Gullies, and may be traced on the outcrop for a considerable distance; a shaft has been sunk to a depth of 60 feet, and now the funds are exhausted and the work at a standstill. This is very much to be regretted, as the lode contains some fine specimens of chalcopyrite; and although the matrix is not such as usually carries ores of that class, it is remarkably promising, as the character of the lode is uniform, and as long as such the case a rich course of ore might be cut at any moment, if this set was in England or any other real mining country it would not be allowed to remain idle for a single day, no metalliferous lodes are uniform, for a few fathoms no ore is found and then a rich course is cut and so on, the manner in which the ore occurs in this lode gives every hope that it will make into bunches in different places though where it is impossible to indicate.

E. H. DAVIS.

Printed under the authority of the Provincial Government of the Province of Nelson, by R. LUCAS and SON, Bridge-street, Nelson, Printers for the time being to the said Government.