The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-24

successfully accomplished on several occasions, the practice being to ham mer gold into the interstices of the core, l or else to surreptitiously introduce an entirely new piece of core which had | been previously prepared. Near | Bright in Victoria, q great deal of mon- | ey was put into mine few years | ago on the faith of salted drill-hole.
 Sometimes it happens that a really | good property is salted. Thus one of | the large mines now working at BrolS-
 en Hill, and which has turned out an
 enormous quantity of silver and lead,
 was originally sold on salt of several 1 tons of ore conveyed from a neighbor- l ing mine and carefully stacked about an outcrop. In New South Wales a l gold mine that paid dividends for
 years was sold in the same way. On
 the faith of the promising surface | show" shaft was sunk, and at about
 two hundred feet a splendid body of
 auriferous stone was struck. In Tas-
 mania an alluvial tin-mine which had
 been salted led the purchasers to the
 discovery of gold reef which amply repaid them for their outlay.
 Many persons will perhaps remember
 the great tin mine salting case in Can
 ada, which was probably the most
 cleverly contrived swindle of it's kind
 on record. The operators, two in num- Der, purchased from time to time some
 small parcels of tin-ore in Cornwall
 and shipped it to Toronto, taking care
 never to send more than few bags in
 any one vessel. From Toronto the ore
 was taken out west some hundreds of
 miles and carefully planted along granite ridge, the work of shipping and planting taking about twelve months
 to accomplish. The salters then left the scene and remained away for some three years. At the end of that time it was suddenly announced at Quebec that what appeared to be a large and rich tin-field had been discovered in
 the west, and a claim had been put in for the government reward of q thinlS) sixty thousand dollars, which had been several years offered for such a dis covery. As might be expected, consid-
 erable excitement was manifested over the reported find, and when the gov- ernment expert who was sent to in-
 spect the property pronounced the dis
 covery to be genuine, there was quite 1 9ESNNAANNNSAh
 to the west, anxious to peg out or to
 purchase tin claims. Meanwhile, a
 company was formed to work the re-
 ward claims; and just when it was
 ready to commence work, the govern
 ment, acting on the reports of it's
 skilled advisers, paid over the reward
 to the claimants, who, with this sum
 and further large amount obtained
 by the sale of their claims, suddenly
 disappeared and were never after
 wards heard of. It is scarcely surpris
 ing that the Canadian experts were
 deceived, as grass and moss and other
 vegetation had grown over the packed
 ore, while the denudation of the hill-
 sides had resulted in some of the tin
 being washed into neighboring creeks,
 where it was covered over with sand
 and debris The swindle was exploded
 by Cornish expert who had been sent
 for. He recognized the ore as having
 come from certain Cornish mines, and It's sale and shipment were thereupon quickly traced.
 Saiters, however, do not always es-
 cape punishment. A case occurred in South Australia in 1895, in which a man was sentenced to two years imprison-
 ment for swindling in this way. The
 culprit did not, however, tamper with the mine, but carefully salted the bags ! of samples taken from @ shaft by the
 various experts and spectators who inspected the property. This mine, in
 which there was undoubtedly a little gold in situ, was quite exceptional in one way, inasmuch as all the subscrib- ing shareholders In the company which purchased it were members of the South Australian Parliament. Need : less to say the mine was dropped like
 hot brick' when the fraud was dis covered.
 The colony of Victoria had very bad case of salting exposed last year.
 About three years ago, a certain "Col-
 onel Morgan" (the title American), who was formerly at Broken Hill, and be-
 fore that in Nevada, U s. A., was sent
 to take charge of a reported valuable silver and lead mine in Gippsland, owned by a Melbourne company The
 colonel sent down from time to time
 glowing reports upon the mine, and af- , ter some months a few tons of silver lead ore were forwarded to Melbourne from the property, and sold at a satis-
 factory price. Strange to say, howev- CT, the regular delivery of ore was not maintained but the colonel explained
 this by reporting that, though there
 were immense bodies of ore practically
 exposed. yet the mines wanted proper , ly opening up before the ore could be dealt with on a large scale. Time went
 on, and funds giving out, the company was reorganized, the splendid reports of the work in hand which reached Melbourne every fortnight rendering it easy to obtain fresh capital. Then one fine day the colonel reported that the , mine was sufficiently developed for the : erection of machinery, and the direc-
 tors were specially asked to visit it and
 see for themselves what magnificent property they had. The journey was , long and difficult but the visiting par ty from Melbourne felt themselves well : rewarded for their trouble when they examined the workings, and saw on all sides of them, and overhead, and un- derfoot, magnificent carbonate and sul- phide of lead ore rich in silver. In ev- cry place exposed there was ore, and judging from appearances there was , practically an unlimited supply. The directors returned to town highly