46 
Mines and Mineral Statistics, 
Mr. Warden Browne reports : — 
1. Alluvial mining is still carried on -vvitli considerable energy 
and success in the Mudgee Mining District, but, as beretofore, 
by far the larger projmrtion of the gold sent down by fortnightly 
Escort is procured from the auriferous drift of Galgong and 
Home Eule proper, or of later discoveries within a circuit of 
twenty miles. The mining population is more diftused, and the 
total amount of gold raised less than at the commencement of 
these Gold Fields, but the returns of 1874, viz., 72,488 ozs. 
4 dwts. 10 grs., afford proof that the exceptionally rich deposits 
referred to are still far from total exhaustion. 
2. The macliinery emplo 3 ^ed for purposes connected with gold- 
mining, though iuadequate''to the full development of the deeper 
alluvial leads, yet will be found to represent no inconsiderable 
amount ot capital. It comprises (20) twenty steam-engines, of 
an aggregate amount of 2G4 horse power, with (104) one hundred 
and four puddling machines, (42) forty-two whims, and (135) 
one hundred and thirty-five “whips,”— all worked by horses. 
This list is exclusive of water-wheels, sluice-boxes, and hydraulic 
hoses. It may be appropriate to mention here that costly 
machinery is at present employed upon the lower portion of the 
Moonlight, the 8tar, and the'Black Leads, as also at the pro- 
specting claim of the Buchanan. At the Great Extended 
Black Lead Company's lease — where jmwerful steam machinery 
is employed for pumping — I am informed that verv encouraging 
returns have been lately received. I share, with persons of 
experience and geological eminence, ;i fixed belief in the future 
disco^^ery of rich de])osits underlying the basaltic formation at a 
greater depth than has been hitherto reached. 
3. Seventy-six (7G) leases have been applied for during the 
year 1S74 at Gulgong, in occupation of 407 acres of alluvial, and 
(G4) sixty-four acres of quartz reefs or veins. I am unable to 
point to any instance of proved richness in quartz-mining, though 
it should be stated that capital, at Gulgong, has never yet been 
applied, save very sparingly, to the efficient testing of promising 
reefs which are_ known to exist. An exception to this rule may 
yet he found in a line of reefs, discovered recontlv, at the 
•abandoned alluvial diggings of Three-mile. of the 
working parties there had a crushing so successful of late that a 
continuation ot the average yield will at once, and favourably, 
settle the question of the existence of rich quartz reefs in the 
^cinity of Gulgong. In the neighbourhood of Hargraves and 
Windcycr,^a8 at Apple-tree Flat, near Mudgee, there is a fair 
amount of labour employed and capital expended in quartz- 
mining, though, as in the vicinity of Gulgong, by far the larger 
part of the population is concerned with the alluvial. 
