I Could Depart, Therefore, With The Satisfactory
Feeling Of Knowing That My Faithful Animal-Friends Would Be Well Cared
For.
Shares were rising, the mine was sold, and the work done, and it was with
a light heart that I booked passage for London in October, 1895.
PART IV MINING
CHAPTER I
QUARTZ REEFING AND DRY-BLOWING
I would not, even if I had the requisite knowledge, wish to bore the
reader by giving a scientific account of gold-mining, but Western
Australia presents so many appearances differing from those in other
gold-producing countries, and so varied are some of the methods of
obtaining gold, that I hope a short account of the usual ways of winning
the precious metal, purely from a prospector's point of view, will be of
interest.
The area over which the goldfields extend, may be described as very gently
undulating country, from which rise, at intervals, low ranges or isolated
hills.* These ranges, in reality seldom over 200 feet above the plain,
have in the distance a far more important appearance. It is a common
experience to steer for a range, sighted from perhaps a distance of
fifteen miles, and find on closer inspection that it is no more than a low
line of rocks. It is equally common for a hill to appear as quite a
respectable mountain when seen from one point, but entirely to disappear
from view when seen from the opposite direction, so gentle is the slope.
[* Mount Burgess, the highest hill around Coolgardie, is about 500 feet
above surrounding country.]
These ranges, such as they are, occur at intervals of a few miles up to
thirty or more, and between them scrub-covered plains, sand-plains, or
flat stretches of open forest are found. In the deeper undulations, long
chains of dry salt-lakes and samphire-flats are met with, occupying a
narrow belt, perhaps one hundred miles in length. Doubtless were the
rainfall greater, these lakes would be connected, and take the place of
rivers, which would eventually find their way into the Australian Bight.
Unfortunately for the comfort of travellers, this is not the case, and
their water supply must depend upon one or other of the various sources
already described.
The first aim of a party of Western Australian prospectors is to find not
gold, but water. Having found this they make camp, and from it start short
excursions in all directions towards any hill that may be in sight.
Arrived at the hills, which, though bare of undergrowth, are usually
covered with low scrub, they can soon determine from the nature the rock
whether further search is likely to have good results. Should they see
hills of ironstone and diorite, or blows and outcrops of quartz, they
will certainly revisit the locality. In what manner, will depend upon the
distance from water. They may be able to form camp in the desired spot,
with water close at hand; or the party may have to divide, some camping in
the likely country, engaged in prospecting solely, while the others "tail"
the horses or camels at the watering-place and pack water to their mates.
In cases where "good gold is getting," water has sometimes been packed
distances of twenty to forty miles; or it may happen that good country
must be passed over, from the want of water within reasonable distance.
From his limited appliances and means, a prospector's object is to find a
vein or reef of gold-bearing ore, not by sinking, but from surface
indications.
Veins or reefs may be described as layers, which have been deposited in
fissures and cracks in the rock surrounding them. The enclosing rock is
known as the "country rock." "Lodes" are veins composed of a mixture of
quartz, ironstone, and other material, and usually exceed in width the
"reefs," which sometimes, as at Southern Cross, attain thirty feet, but
are rarely more than one to four feet in thickness. The part of a reef
showing above the surface is the "outcrop," which may appear either as a
mass or "blow" of quartz, sometimes sixty feet in height, or as a solid
wall or dyke which can be followed for perhaps five miles without a break;
the direction in which it runs is known as its "strike."
Reefs may go down vertically, or on a sloping "dip" or "underlay." The
country rock lying immediately above the reef is the "hanging wall," and
that immediately below, the "foot wall."
In prospecting a reef, a miner walks along the strike of the outcrop,
"napping" as he goes, i.e., breaking off with a hammer or pick, pieces of
the quartz or ironstone outcrop. Each fragment is carefully examined for
the presence of gold, which is nearly always found, if on the surface, in
a free state, that is to say, uncombined with any other mineral. If any
gold is present, it may occur in small specks as fine as flour, or in
large solid lumps as big as one's fist, as in Bayley's Reward Claim,
Londonderry, and one or two other mines. In the latter case the rich find
would immediately be pegged out as a claim, or lease, and work commenced,
the coarse gold being won by the simple process of "dollying" the ore;
or pounding it in an iron mortar with an iron pestle, and passing it when
crushed, through a series of sieves in which the gold, too large to fall
through, is held.
To estimate roughly the worth of a reef in which only fine gold is visible
it is necessary to take several samples along the outcrop, "dolly" them,
and wash the powdered quartz by means of two iron dishes, from which the
light material is floated off, leaving the gold behind. From a series of
experiments an idea can be formed as to whether the reef is worth further
work.
It will be found on napping a reef, that the gold occurs at more or less
regular intervals.
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