GOLD MINING WORKS. 
153 
thing) that it was not the rule amongst mining 
companies to waste money in needless buildings, 
or useless ornamentation — the test of success being 
in their handsome dividends. I intended going 
down this mine, but time did not permit, so had 
to be content with a walk over the surface. The 
workings are from 300 to 400 feet deep ; four 
layers of bluestone, varying from 5 to 25 feet 
in thickness, were cut through . The machinery 
consists of two engines of 25 horse-power,, one- 
used for pumping and winding, and the other for 
puddling. At the time of my visit very few hands 
were employed, the funds of the company having 
run low, and the results of their findings being 
very small ; but I ascertained that when fairly under 
weigh, work was carried on in three shifts day and 
night. The cuttings, or wash-dirt, is sent up the 
shaft in iron buckets, then by means of the steam- 
driven puddling machines the useless is separated 
from the good : a stream of water is now let into 
the head of a long wooden trough, in which a 
ribbed false bottom and movable cross-bars are 
placed ; the puddled stuff is wheeled to the head of 
this trough in barrows, thrown in, and worked back- 
wards and forwards until the whole is thoroughly 
disintegrated ; the large stones passing over the 
false bottom, while the heavy gold, falling through, 
is caught on the cross-bars, the smaller gravel 
passing to the bottom, when it is collected by 
