86 
yielded 285 ozs. of gold. The claim was again abandoned owing to 
another patch of poor ground being met with. After some time Briddon 
and Son went into the ground abandoned by Conness and party and broke 
out 20 tons of stone which they crushed together with 30 tons of rubble 
discarded by their predecessors, and from the whole obtained 20 ozs of 
gold. Sinking through this poor stone they found improved ore and 
crushed 835 tons for 1,150! ozs. of gold. Up to the time of Air. Wright's 
report (20.12.05) this party had crushed 885 tons for 1,170! ozs., giving 
an average of 1 oz. 6 dwts. 11 grs. of gold per ton, and the total quantity 
crushed from the whole mine was 1,385 tons for 2,326! ozs. of gold, giving 
an average of 1 oz. 13 dwts. 14 grs. of 'gold per ton. The whole of this 
was free gold. Twenty tons of pyrites was saved from the last crushing 
(84 tons for 120 oz. 15 dwts. free gold). When treated by the mill-owner 
this yielded 12 ozs. of gold or 12 dwts. per ton, making a total of 
1 oz. 11 dwts. 15! grs. per ton. Further crushings were obtained, but I 
was not able to obtain details. 
The last crushing from the bottom of the winze obtained prior to the 
present company taking possession is said to have yielded 25 dwt. of gold 
per ton (10 tons). 
The whole of the lode formation is heavily charged with sulphide which 
appears to have been an almost neglected source of revenue owing to the 
present company’s concentrating table proving a failure. Properly treated 
it .should add considerably to the value of the mine. 
Mr. Sheppard showed me the prospects obtained from a small quantity 
of the mineral which he had burnt in his fireplace, and the results after 
panning off in a dish were exceedingly good. 
I also tried several samples of the lode from the bottom of the present 
workings and obtained fair prospects of free gold in several instances and 
always a very large percentage of mineral. In one case I observed free 
gold in the solid matrix of quartz and felspar. 
There is every indication of the auriferous shoot continuing to unknown 
depths, as the gold appears to have been deposited simultaneously with the 
dyke formation. In the lowest workings the lode has a well-defined 
footwall, but the hanging wall is very irregular. The formation, which is 
from 4 to 5 feet wide, appears to be nearer the vertical and is very heavily 
charged with mineral. 
The Honeysuckle Shaft. 
About 14 chains to the south-east of the Grasshopper new T shaft is the 
Honeysuckle shaft which is now flooded. The manager informs me that 
it is 190 feet deep, with a winze somewhat to the north down another 
49 feet. The lode was 18 feet wide on the surface, and averaged about 
7 feet down the shaft, of which 2 feet of the hanging wall was left. Most 
of the shaping was to the north of the shaft and the shoot was vertical to a 
little northerly. The strike of the hanging wall is about N. 7 deg. W. 
and the dip 78 deg. W. The present company crushed 10 tons from 
the south end of surface workings for about 8 dwts. per ton. Mr. Martin, 
from whom the present company bought, crushed a considerable quantity 
of ore from this line, and is said to have obtained as much as 2 ozs. per 
ton. 
The Happy Day or Scheimaster’s Dyke. 
The Happy Day lode lies to the south-west of the Grasshopper line 
and is probably its continuation. It was first discovered by a prospector 
named Scheimaster who worked the alluvial gold in the loam on the hill- 
