St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-12-26
Wonderful Cold Discoveries 5n australia
correspondence ondon Times

correspondence oucon Times
Seven years ago Mr.. Harry Davis, of
Droitwich, and Chas. Maclaurin Nichols, son
of the assistant secretary of the British
museum, emigrated 10 Australia, the former
educated as an engineer, the latter as black
smith, farrirr, carpenter and farmer. In the
early part of last year Mr.. Davis prospected
thirteen weeks for precious metals in the
northern part of the continent. He sue
ceeded, aud unbosomed a metalliferous
tract of land. He Immediately returned 10
England, came TO London, and studied fortwo
months mining operations in Jermyn street,
and gold in the quartz at the Natural History
museum in Cromwell road. His project was
10 take out gold crusher, but he found the
cost beyond his means; moreover, there was
an expense TO be calculated of g26 ton lor
conveyance by bullock team 300 miles into
the interior. He returned to Australia, tax
ing on Mr.. Charles Nichols with him. Re-
gaining his Dorado, be was not little sur
prised to find the whole aspect of
the country changed. There were forty
miners at work, and two or three mills
erected. The two young men soon selected
their claim on galeua mountain, put up
their houses, built forge and settled down
TO tempt Mother Earth to yield up q modicum
of treasure in return for enthusiastic re-
search. Things did not look altogether well.
The heat was excessive, water scarce-for no
one had been there to husband in reservoirs,
easily constructed, the blessed gift in that
country of the sub-tropical rainy
season-ants were voracious, parrots
noisy, and the sweat of their brow was not
rewarded by the appearance of hard cash in
the lump. They were sanguine of success,
however, but their resources were running
out; and Mr.. Davis determined to exercise
his craft as an engineer at a neighborlng
mill for wages, Mr.. Nichols working the
claim all alone-oT, rather, with dog and
horses for sole domestic mpanions-vary-
ing his toll by blacksmithing, mendiug and
making mining Implements, shoeing horses,
and practising husbandry on a small
scale-often in a temperature of 40 Fair.
in the shade. He had been on the claim
just six weeks, when one day cleaning out
an old gully to make a ventilator for his
mine, he struck vein of rich, coarse gold.
Specimens picked up hap-hazard from this
mines.an1 the galena lode, have been sent
to London for assay. On arrival, the ores
were found to be heavy, but except in the
case of two very small fragments, and then
only very sparsely, no indication of gold
was visible. An ASSAY Of each of the two
ores, galenq and quartz, has just been con-
Quoted by Messrs. Wellby, of Garrick street,
| Convent Garden, and has produced,
for the galena, the remarkable result Sample
tweuty-three pounds) of--lead As. so per
cent; silver, % ounces pennyweights :;
gold, 8 pennyweights per ton Of ore OF 20
hundred weight; and for the quartz Sample
so ounces) gold, s ounces II pennyweights,
| grains per hundred weight; and silver, 3
ounces 10 pennyweights, or for gold, III
ounces odd to the ton Of quartz. Messrs.
Johnson, Matthey & Co., mixing lead, silver
and gold together, ASSAY Sample IL pounds)
gold, 10 ounces, $500; silver, % ounces,
$50 per ton. Mr.. Frederick Clsndet (sam-
pie IL pounds)-gold IL ounces; silver, %
ounces ~ pennyweights per ton.
Shortly after the discovery of the vein OF
gold another prospector, Mr.. William HAnkie,
appeared at the Florence-Augusta clam, beg
ging one OF the young men TO join him in
working another mine in the district the
quartz lying on the surface aud extending for
quite two miles. The same prospector had. in
his search for gold, only just missed the fam
Gus Morgan reef, which contains the Srichest
and purest gold ever found, assaying 90
9-10ths per cent only one-tenth short of being
virgin gold. Mr.. Nichols, who divides with Mr..
Hankie, writes of the new trouUalls that the
stone looks well, though, as in most mines,
the gold is patchy, and that they hope to get q
big crushing out by Christmas, when the rains
begin. The only desideratum is q crushing
machine of their own, and half ton stamps
for the silver, the heaviest lodes Of that met
al in the district being hard steel-graiued.
Two men, aided BY lithofracture, can get out
from four to ten tons Of ore 4 day Gold
fetches from 60 1ss to 23 IS an ounce. Cost
of crushing FL ton, conveyance IS a ton.
The country is billy and hemmed in on al
sides, forming huge well. Pinnacles are
numerous, and they nearly all support bowl
ders weighing from a few pounds to one
hundred tons. You might fancy yourself
among the so-called Drudical monuments o.
Stonehenge, except that there is no plain
The hills afford good gradient for the ores
and there is abundant storage for water
Gems and numerous metals, best les goll
and silver, are plentiful in the vicinity, and
the pinnacles are alive with kangaroos and
kangaroo rats, wallabys, opossums, pady
melons and birds. The food is coarse
salt beef, damper, and tea (no milk
for breakfast at $50, after hunting
in horses from five O'Clock. rising hour. Din
ner at twelve-beef, damper, and tea again;
then work till sunset Supper at six o
seven 1.-THE old menu.) On red letter days
cake, (very home made), potatoes, and q
few other vegetables. For amusement
clothes mending and washing, reading
, writing, shooting, visiting, say a twent
t mile ride, though this is not essential t
sound sleep. Some of the men do not mine
: a ride of twenty miles out and twenty bac
! Just for the qualification OF respectfully tar
r ing off their cabbage hats'' 10 any lady VIII
may be known to be passing that way.