The Portland daily press., 1898-04-02

ground along the line of the reel VI
course the built-up portion nusU no in ~
to look like unbroken grouno' puo JUS
is sometimes most dlfhcult task 20 ~
complish. Luckily, however, lol VIZ sou
ers, few of the hest gold-reefs are WltnollC
very numerous fractures, and inceed they
not infrequently look like pahus "
mullock held together by a clayey SUP SUP
stance impr9gnated with IRON o1lue. ' olon
reefs, which are not uncommon III Meso-
ern Australia, are much easier 70 i''iio"oo
thar the hard white reefs OF BaliarisU vi
the wide gold bands of South africa.
Usually the stacking has depth OF from
four to five feet, though in exceptloh3ail
cases it is considerably greater. a Well
known London mining engineer ulscoF
cred depth of no less than ten feet IN u
stack prepared for him in Colorado IL
need hardly be said that when only the
end of drive is stacked it is found nee
essary to timber the roof and keep judi
cious supply of water and loose pianks on
the floor, while of course the original reel
is taken out for its entire width. Past
masters in the art of stacking hail usual
ly from the States, but Australia mas
produced two or three prime examples:
Stacking is usually performed IN $50
lated mines, where the operations ~ Ihe
salters are not likely to be watched or IN
terrupted. In cases where there are
several mines in tho same neighboTnood,
the salter generally resorted TO dootoflng
the experts samples, after perhaps Judlc-
iously peppering the workings with damp
gold dust.
Should the salter fail altogether to tam
per with the samples, or to deceive the
expert underground, his only chance is
to fake the samples at the assay office to
which they are TAKEN This requires
confederate, and is usually very difficult;
but it has been done successfully many
times. In one case-the ST. George mine
in ustralia-the. culprit was discovered,
and he received two years Imprisonment;
but meantime he had cleared a few thous-
ands of pounds.
Occasionally diamond drills are put to
work in gold country to test the value OF
reefs at great depths. They cannot be
considered satisfactory for this purpose,
as drill might just miss shoot OF gold;
or else go through very short one ana
thus lead to false hopes. Sailing these
drills has been successfully accomplished
on several occasions, the practice being to
hammer gold into the interstices of the
core, or else to surreptitiously Introduce
an entirely new pieos of core which had
been previously prepared. Near Bright
and Victoria, "a great deal OF money was
put into mine few wears ago on The
faith of sailed drill-hole.
Sometimes it happens that a really
good property is sailed. his one OF the
large mines now working at Broken Hill.
and which has turned out an enormous
quantity of silver and lead, was orlgi-
nalIy sold on a salt of several tons of ore
conveyed from neiRhboring mine, and
carefully stacked about an outcrop. In
New South Wales a gold-mine that paid
dividends for years was sold In the same
way On the faith of the promising sur
face show shaft was sunk, and at
about zoo feet splendid body of aurifer-
Gus stone was struck. In tasmania an
alIuvial 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-nine sailing Case in Canada
which was probably the most cleyerly
oontrived swindle of its kind on record
The operators two In number, purchased
from time to time some small parcels of
tin-ore in Cornwall aid shipped it to
Toronto, taking care never TO send more
than a 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 ship
ping 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 large and rich
tin-field had been isc vered IN the west,
and claim had been put in for the gov
ernment reward of (I think $50, 600,
which had been several years on offer for
such discovery. AS might be expected
considerable excitement was manifested
over the reported find, and when the gov
eminent expert who was sent to inspect
the property pronounced the discovery to
be genuine, there was quite rush OF
prospectors and spectators to the West,
anxious to peg out or to purchase tin
claims. Meanwhile, a company was
formed to work the reward claims; and
lust when it was ready TO commence
work, the government. acting on the re-
ports of its skilled advisers, paid over the
reward to the claimants, who, with this
sum and further large amount obta1neda
by the sale of their claims, suddenly dis
appeared and were never afterwards heard
OF. 1t is scarcely surprising that the
Canadian experts were deceived, as grass
and moss and other vegetation had grown
over the packed ore, while the denudatlon
of the hiIIsides had resulted in some OF
the tin being washed into neighborlng
creeks, where it was covered over with
sand and debris. The swindle was ex-
ploded 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