66 
Mines and Mineral Statistics, 
be extracted ; aud for that purpose four lar/^e puddling machines 
have been erected close to the dams and sluicing appliances. 
148 tons of tin have been raised from this property during the 
last fifteen months, and the mine is now in first-rate working order, 
the only thing retarding the tin-raising is the want of water, and 
when a sufficient quantity shall have fallen to fill up the large 
reservoirs, the manager has every liope of doubling that yield 
during the ensuing twelve months. 
The ]\lessrs. Hall, Bros., are also very large holders of mineral 
land in Vegetable Creek and the vicinity, and have proved them- 
selves most enterprising speculators in prospecting and developing 
their numerous selections at the Six-mile, the (xrampians, Tent 
Hill, The Springs, and Kangaroo Mat, Strathbogie. The yield of 
ore from all of them has greatly diminished the last three months, 
having to suspend almost all operations on account of the pro- 
longed drought. The yield of ore from all the selections of 
Messrs. Hall, Bros., for the past yetir is about 400 tons. 
At Kangaroo Mat, Strathbogie Enn, the tin is raised from a 
depth of from 20 to 70 feet from surface. The sinking is through 
a volcanic basalt formation, and the alluvial deposit is a river-bed 
drift, with occasional patches of cement, but with tin Avell 
interspersed. 
No portion of the Tin Melds offers stronger inducements than 
Kangaroo Mat for the investment of capital in developing its 
resources. In every hill, flat, and gully, for miles around, tin ore 
can be found in greater ^or less quantities on the surface, but 
unfortunately the surface deposits are too poor to pay working 
men, and capital is required for sinking in search of the lower 
deposits. 
The tin lodes have not yet had much attention directed to or 
capital invested in tliem, and even where a fair prospect of testing 
the lodes with advantage presents itself, the owners of tlie land 
ask such exorbitant prices as to deter capitalists from investing ; 
thus this branch of tin mining, upon which the future and per- 
manent prosperity of this district must mainly depend, is at present 
lying dormant. 
The only property taken np for the purpose of working lode 
tin and on which a quantity of work has been done by an 
Englisli company, under the management of Captain Stevens, is 
situated at the Nine-mile Mole Tableland. 
A battery of eight stampers is being erected on this mine, there 
are a thousand tons of quartz at grass ready to be operated on, 
and in respect of which many persons well acquainted with the 
locality speak in the most sanguine terms. 
The great disad^'antage under which all the tin districts suffer 
is the absence of a permanent supply of water, preventing sluicing 
operations being carried on with regularity on an extensive scale. 
