The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-02-21
AUSTRALIANS ELDoRADo.
Fabulous Extent of the New Gold Dig
gings at Coolgsrdie.

Coolgardie, in West Australia, the
scene of the latest gold finds. is new
township. 354 miles due east of Perth.
with which it will soon be connected by
railroad; but by the Coolgardie gold
field is really meant an immense tract OF
land nearly 100000 square miles in area.
says the New York Sun. Much of IL is
still UNEMPLOYED, but in many parts gold
in quantities has been discovered. II is
the collective name for many gold fields.
some of which will be soon exhausted,
while others give every promise of being
permanent and most of which are sit
uated within a radius of 20 miles of Cool
gardie itself. The whole district is an I'M
inhabited desert save for the gold mines.
and most of the names are not TO be
found in even recent maps. The limits are
Mount Margaret and Ullaring on the
north and Lake Lefray and the Dundas
hills on the south. An elaborate account
of the recent discoveries is given by the
London Times.
Prospectors from Southern Cross, the
late settlement on the edge of the desert,
found gold bearing quartz reefs in the
Ullaring and Mount jackson districts in
1891. but no alluvial gold. and the value of
their discovery was not believed in. The
following year was extraordinarily wet,
the desert and stay there for an unusual
ly long time. Two men named Bailey and
Ford followed a track made many years
ago by a gang of convicts and pushed
their way TO Bailey's hill. near Coolgar-
die, wehre they collected between GOO and
100 ounces of gold. Within "a hours of
their return to Southern Cross the town
was deserted, every man having rushed
off to the new Eldorado. This was in
September, 1892 That year there were
running creeks where no trace of water
had ever been seen; horses and carts
were begged and the gold seekers were
disappointed. as the moisture made it diff
ficult to get at the gold. Many returned
home thinking they had been swindled.
In few weeks. however. the soil dried
up and gold in plenty was obtained by
those who remained by the simple pro-
cess of dry blowing-throwing the con-
tents of a pan into the air and letting
the wind blow away the dust and sand.
leaving the gold fall back into the pan.
Water to drink soon became so scarce
that the miners were all driven away till
measures could be taken for procuring a
regular supply.
Reef after reef of gold was discovered
The first miners neglected them, as they
had neither the machinery, the capital
nor the time to crush the quartz, and
hunted for alluvial gold. Humans reef
whose name IL bears. He lost his pack
horses In the scrub, and while hunting
for them stumbled upon the gold and
specked off a two-ounce nugget. In the
needless rush into the waterless bush on
the announcement of the new alluvial
finds many men persisted of thirst and
many more were rescued at the last ex-
tremity by the securing parties on cam
els which the government sent after the
stragglers.
At Kurnalpi the finder managed TO
work for some weeks in secret, helped
by Australian natives, and to secure J. 200
ounces of alluvial gold. He had to go for
water to hole 10 or - miles away. and
had made well-beaten track before he
left. This was discovered by two other
prospectors. who followed his track TO
the gold and We're themselves tracked by
the hoofmarks of their horses by three
other white men. These five gathered 50
ounces before they were driven off by
lack OF water. Their appearance at Cool
gardie was the cause of a great rush to
the new fields, where the gold was so
plentiful that men worked side by side
without stalking out claims, and the place
was named Social Flat. The Londonderry
mine was discovered by six men who
were returning disappointed from Lake
Lefray. Dunns Wealth of Nations. from
which 1000 ounces OF specimen gold have
800 'hhNAi rum pONhtlSs was IOun0 DIV
native boy. And every week new discov.
cries In the UNEMPLOYED parts are an
nounced.
The mining has so far been largely moor
mans mining. There is a phenomenallv
rich surface show, with pockets and
shoots of gold often astonishingly rich.
but the surface indications do not seem
TO go deep. In many places the gold
bearing stone is soft and rotten. so that
II can be worked without machinery.
But there are also many true fissure
lodes, well defined running across the
country for many miles. While the
amount of gold I'm these is not sensation
al. the metal is well disseminated
through the quartz. and so far these
reefs have improved with depth. II is
from them that permanent supply Is 10
ne expected. Frequently there are from
-FOUR 10 six parallel odes close together
hVe, seven and 10 miles long. There IL
stone enough yielding from one TO two
ounces ton to kepp Coolgardie busy for
n any years to come. The great reouirc-
ments OF the place are honest capitaliza-
ton. the money going into machinery and
economic mining. Town blocks I'm Cool
gardie are very high because the me,
there are convinced that their town has
come to stay.