The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-15 00:00:00

" THE GOLDFIELDS.

"At length we have some prospect of a return
for the expenditure of public money in prospecting,
although the results of this first attempt to promote
the interest of our greatest producing class may not
possibly be equal to anticipations. An official an-
nouncement has just been made of the discovery of
a new tract of auriferous country to the north-west
of Ararat, and still further westward than gold in
quantity has been found before. This is merely a
portion of the Ararat goldfield, but it promises to
be of much extent and value, as the lead first struck
is rich, and the indications around are most promis-
ing. The sinking at the spot now opened is shallow,
and several of the mining parties who were the first
to commence work after the prospectus are already
getting gold in the proportion of between 2 oz. to
3 oz. to the load—a yield that, when known gene-
rally to have been got at such a moderate depth,
will speedily cause such a rush' as we have not had
for some time. Indeed, this has commenced on a

large scale, and will quite divert attention from the
much dreaded Kiandra, the reports from which
place are now very bad. The prospecting parties
sent to the unexplored portion of our territory in
the direction of the Snowy River have as yet made
no discoveries of an auriferous nature which are

likely to be of the least importance ; but a party
engaged in exploring the Dividing Ranges between
the heads of the Yarra and Gipp's Land has added
much to the known extent of the gold country in
that direction. This is, however, so dense and
scrubby and difficult of access that it can be ren-
dered available but slowly, although gold and
water are both abundant. Other prospecting par-
ties receiving aid from the public funds have also
somewhat extended the different fields for opera-
tions elsewhere ; but, with the exception of the
places named, none of the new ground promises to
be of much extent. Public attention was, of course,
for a while more especially directed towards the
movements of what we may call the public pro-
specting parties, but private enterprise in this
direction has by no means abated, and through
such agency the mining district near the Indigo
has been much enlarged. Deep leads have been
found at Wahgunyah, within a few miles of the
Murray, and as some five or six have been opened
up in less than as many weeks where gold was not
before known to exist, this new field is likely to be
of considerable extent as well as that in the far
west. But for the discovery of this last there would
have been a monster rush to Wahgunyah ; but
now, fortunately, attention is divided between the
two extremities of the gold fields, and we shall par-
tially escape the evil of a too great concentration of
miners, and their still more numerous followers on
one point. Besides this new ground there have
also been good spots opened up among the old
workings in different parts of the country ; so that
the alluvial miners are likely to be fully employed
so long as the supply of water lasts, and this is at
present abundant—in fact, has been often too much
so of late, for heavy floods have caused serious da-
mage to low-lying claims, and interfered with
much work at different times within the last few
weeks. At Clune, the creek broke through thebed
into the mines beneath, and before its course could
be diverted rendered a large portion of them un-
workable for a long time to come, and until a large