MOUNT BISCHOFF. 349 



scheme (Fall-^ Creek) a trial. Prior to this we had examined 

 the Wandle, the Fossey, and the Cold Stream, and had 

 taken levels, but all confirmed the impracticability of con- 

 necting- any of these with Waratah, as the least difficult one 

 would have required a tunnel of at least four miles in hard 

 basaltic rock, an undertaking which might have taken many 

 years to accomplish, and a very expensive one too. 



When the hrst embankment across Falls Creek, which 

 was only 12 feet high, was finished at the beginning of the 

 summer 1881, and when the races and flumes to convey the 

 water to the works were also finished, we wei'e able to keep 

 the machinery partly employed, and although the dam was 

 not quite full, still, by crushing fairly good stone, three 

 dividends, each £6000, was the reward for this experiment. 

 With this result I need not say that reservoir-building became 

 the order of the day, and now it is finished we have six reser- 

 voirs, covering about seven iiiiles of water, along the line of 

 the creek when all are full. In addition to this, we have 

 added since the Fossey scheme, by which water is brought 

 from the foot of Mount Pearce, a distance, including race and 

 flumes, of 4 miles 32 chains. The water conveyed by this 

 scheme helps in certain seasons a good deal to keep up the 

 supply, but, unfortunately, in the height of summer, when it 

 is most required, we cannot depend very much upon it, as we 

 had to tap the stream rather near its source. 



Our crushing power consists of a total of 75 stampers, with 

 assistant works (slime-sheds) for re-working the refuse. 

 These were considered necessary on account of the nature of 

 the ore, which principally consisted, in the early period of the 

 mine's history, of gossan from the Brown Face, which has a 

 tendency of thickening the water, on account of the large 

 percentage of iron it contains, and thereby causing part of 

 the fine ore to float away, also fine particles of ore adhering 

 to the sand may also be carried away ; all of which is col- 

 lected in these sheds as far as possible. Besides these works 

 at Waratah, other subsidiary works are erected a mile lower 

 down the river, where it junctions with the tailing gully from 

 the Mount. Here all the dirty water from the mine, and 

 such tailings that escape, are collected and worked over 

 again. All these works are very profitable, and reduce the 

 loss to a minimum, as the results of the tailings' works lower 

 down the river belonging to other companies go to prove. 



In the early days, when the works at the mine were 

 carried on on a small scale, a wooden horse-tram, worked in 



