156 
The accessible workings on the lease are on two well-marked backs in 
the east limb of the Christmas anticline, and on “ flat ” spurs making away 
from these .backs. The back nearer to centre country—that is, the western 
as regards position—carries a well-formed east leg 6 inches to 3 feet in 
width, which is auriferous wherever it has been tried; the other—26 feet 
further east on the surface—is also well defined, but, excepting where 
spurs make on it, carries no quartz. . The former is known as the 
“ leader ” or “ main ” back, the latter as the <£ flucan ” back. Practically 
the whole of the old workings are on flat spurs filling fracture planes 
uetween these two backs, and traversing the strata generally in a horizontal 
direction. These spurs occur at irregular intervals, and have no uniform 
size, but their occurrence has hitherto been frequent enough to yield a 
good profit, and it is confidently expected by the promotors that with 
depth they will be found to continue. The work of the present holders 
has been performed on the main back at 150 feet below the surface, and 
a flat spur (at 130 feet) dipping from the east towards the flucan back 
(see sketch). This spur varied in thickness from 2 inches to 6 inches. 
It has been worked on the underlay (23 0 west) to a height in places of 
20 feet, and horizontally for about 70 feet. Bank returns handed to me 
snowed that 64 tons crushed from it yielded 84 oz. 12 dwt. 20 gr. From 
observations made in the workings on this spur, and from remarks passed 
bv the Messrs. Buttrey, it is evident that the character of the quartz was 
closely connected with the nature of the rocks through which it cut. The 
gold was not in payable quantity where the quartz intersected the normal 
sandstones, but was uniformly payable in a bleached, coarse-grained sand¬ 
stone, containing innumerable decomposed coarse cubes of iron pyrites, 
and was rich at the intersection of thin bands of olive-green slate. These 
peculiarites, the miners state, were characteristic of all the spurs worked. 
On the main back, at 150 feet deep, and 43 feet west of the main shaft, a 
level has been driven southward, and although the leg was auriferous 
(crushings were nine loads for 1 oz. 12 dwt., and six loads for 
1 oz. 16 dwt. 6 gr.), it was evident that the continuation of the main shoot 
111 the old workings was not in this direction.. A north level was then 
driven, and the shoot cut at about 40 feet north of the main cross-cut. 
Ac 50 feet north, a winze was sunk on payable quartz 3 feet wide, and 
crushings varying from 8 dwts. to 14 dwts. to the ton were broken from it 
(the last crushing from the bottom of the winze is -said to have yielded 
12 dwts. to the ton). At 27 feet down the winze water was struck, and 
work there discontinued. The main shaft was then deepened 50 feet, 
and the flucan back intersected. The water making from this back 
flooded the mine before the main back was reached. 
It is now proposed to place a steam winch on the surface, cut down the 
mam shaft, drain the mine, drive a cross-cut to the main back, and, in 
short, in place of the spasmodic efforts of development that have been 
made above water-level during the last few years, to systematically pros¬ 
pect for the continuation of the main shoot, as well as for another series 
of spurs below water-level. The prospects of success in working the 
deeper ground are good. The favorable beds in which the previously 
worked spurs were formed will, unless faulted, undoubtedly continue down¬ 
wards until they are folded under the syncline between the Thistle and 
the Christmas lines. Down to this depth spurs may be expected to occur 
at intervals, and to be auriferous, though not so rich as those worked 
near the surface, the contents of which were probably augmented by a 
process of surface enrichment. 
