They sank the main shaft to a depth of 230 feet, and on the top of the hill erected a pumping engine. Other tributers took hold of Wilson's areas on Laidlaw's hill, and drove a tunnel to drain and work the well known barrel quartz of that locality. Some tributers opened the Hall lead and for a time worked with success. Their operations were, however, but of a temporary character. Mr. Donaldson increased his facilities for extraction by the erection of a 10 inch cylinder horizontal engine as a substitute for the small portable engine previously used.
Much water has to be contended with as the rock is open and the surface very swampy.
The main pumping shaft has been sunk to a depth of 130 feet. Three new drawing shafts have been put down to the west and the exploitation in that direction continued by a tunnel driven under some 20 feet of cover. Lawson, with his customary vigor, has continued sinking the Albion main shaft in the hopes of again striking a shoot of rich quartz, He has now reached a depth of 300 feet, but has not yet struck paying ground. The mining to the west of the barren ground has proved profitable, and it is the extension of this shoot in an oblique direction that will, it is expected, be struck in the main shaft. McClure trenched some new ground in the eastern section of this district and exposed numerous leads, but none of which did he find promising.