Whatever the origin of its name, the hill is here with all its strongly marked characteristics. In a gorge to the west of it is Oakey Creek, which joins the Turon coming down a long deep valley eastward, and these then flow away to join the Macquarie southwards. The summit of the hill is fully 1500 feet above the level of the Turon, and its slopes are precipitous in the extreme ~~ so abrupt indeed that it is quite impossible to get down in many places except by taking zigzag courses. The view from the top of the hill is grand and extensive. To the eastward you may look for many miles up the bed of the Turon, which flows at the foot of mountain chains which run at right angles with the course of the stream; in front of you to the south are long lines of white tents which stretch across the valley and run up the opposite hill sides, and they mark the supposed line of the rich veins of Hawkins Hill. At the back of those there is a great expanse of wooded hill-tops, which also trend westwards, shutting in the valley in that direction. The farthest peaks, looking over Chambers Creek, are the Canobolas near Orange; and the path which on a clear day may be seen for many miles winding along the hill sides is the bridle track, a short cut taken by horsemen to Bathurst. In the immediate neighbourhood of the hill the gorges are so steep that in places the sun does not visit them until noonday, and the scenery there is wild and romantic. The mountainous country around is pretty much of the same elevation, and the indigenous timber which clothes all the hills tends very much to soften and harmonise the otherwise rugged aspect of things. The air here is singularly clear; and when the sky is partly overcast with clouds the deep shadows which chequer the hill sides and rest in the valleys form a striking contrast to the bright patches of sunlight which irradiate the landscape. Until about 11 o'clock in the morning, at this season of the year the gorges are often filled with fog, white as driven snow, and the mountains which lift their heads above this sea of vapour resemble islands of surpassing loveliness. The transparency of the atmosphere enables you to see every feature of nature with marvellous distinctness for many miles; and so regular and compact is the level of the fog that it is difficult to resist the illusion that you are looking upon an island-studded ocean of snow. Looking down the steep Hill-side you can sometimes see the rocks and the trees reflected in the vapour at your feet; and when the fog begins to flow down the valley or to rise higher up the hills it assumes many shapes exquisitely beautiful. The surface, which, in the early morning, looks perfectly level, at times becomes undulating and broken like the waves of the sea; looking up the gorges, across the valley, the fog banks that lie between them may be compared to streams of snow, or frosted silver, and the pure whiteness of the vapour is preserved almost to the horizon, where the blue sky seems to bend down to meet it. Apart from the gold contained in the hill, its characteristics appear to be roughness, steepness, and sterility. The mountain has at some remote period of the world's history been overturned, and it requires all the agility and sure-footedness of mountain goats to enable you to pick your way along its sides. Rocks of all sorts and sizes crop out everywhere; gum trees ditto. Within the last six months there have been enormous masses of broken stone thrown out from the shafts and the tunnels on the western side; and the hill in some places is thickly dotted over with whim-sheds, blacksmiths' forges, tool houses, and other erections which may be classed as useful rather than ornamental. The bed of Oakey Creek is composed of large water washed pebbles and masses of disrupted rock; and in places along the course of the water (when there is any) are some uncommonly beautiful banks of pteris, maiden hair, and other ferns; a few luxuriant patches of stinging nettles, and some of the handsomest specimens of thistle to be found anywhere in or out of Scotland. John Chinaman has established himself in some of the queerest places along the bed of the creek that man ever set his eyes upon. His habitations in this quarter are among the meanest I ever beheld, and his miniature gardens among the neatest. From his terraced rows of highly manured vegetable mould, John manages to produce a prodigious quantity of vegetables ~~ cabbages, carrots, turnips, &c. ~~ and he finds no difficulty in disposing of the contents of his well-filled hampers to the townspeople of Hill End, who eagerly buy up all he and his horses can carry. John also does a little alluvial work here on the quiet; and it is very quiet, for the silence of these deep ravines is hardly broken except by the noise of, the crows, or the explosion of the blasts, so suggestive of the 1 o'clock gun, or (when they follow in succession) Anniversary Regatta. The Chinese, although few in number, have performed several works in the bed of the stream which must have cost them great labour. These are chiefly for the purpose of conserving water for washing alluvial stuff. I met with three of them in one of my perigrinations the other day. One of them sat on a stone up to his knees in water rocking the cradle and baling in water, while the other supplied and stirred up the soil, which was fetched by the third with buckets and yoke from the bank a short distance away. They took very kindly to this sort of drudgery, and from the solemnity and gravity of their deportment, you might almost imagine they were absorbed in the performance of some important religious ceremonial. This was the style of digging that was chiefly carried on here in former times ; (and was entertaining to me after what I had seen of underground work, which probably, but for this exception, would now be the only way of searching for gold in these parts. It is several years since reefing was commenced at Hawkins Hill. The first gold on Hawkins Hill was obtained by Mr. J. Wythes, whose finds led to the discovery of the reef now known as Rowley's, which was along the upper part of the hill. The western face of the hill may be said to be full of quartz-bearing reefs in veins, which increase in number and richness as the sinking becomes deeper. They vary from a few inches in width to three feet. The principal reefs whose course has yet been traced are known as Rowley's, the Frenchman's, Steven's, the main line or Paxton and Krohmann's, and Eisenstaedters, these occurring in succession as you descend the slope. I am not aware that any payable reefs have been found on the eastern side of the hill, although tunnels are being driven in there. Rowleys vein was worked twelve years ago; and, if I mistake not, it was from it that
"Old Daddy Nichols"
padded out some fine bars of gold. Another tradition runs to the effect that, after surfacing was given up on Hawkins Hill,"Billy the Spider"
(if the gentleman had any other name, I haven't heard it) put in a blast, the stone from which yielded 800 ounces to the ton. Rowley's reef was followed down to a depth of 150 feet, when it was thought to have been exhausted, and was abandoned. Mr. William Adams, whom I met with the other day as manager of a claim on the Red Hill, is entitled to whatever honour attaches to the discovery of the rich vein known as Krohmann's and Paxton's. One Saturday afternoon he was out there looking for his horse; when sitting down to rest, he knocked off a piece of quartz thickly studded with gold. This led him to prospect the place; and the spot is now known as the site of the Old Rose of England. A rush took place the first thing on the following Monday morning when a large number of claims were marked out. Soon afterwards a small company known as the Rose of England, came over here from Ballarat, and obtained some large, dividends. The reef was taken up for a distance of at least a mile and a half, and claims were worked with varying success. Most of the old claimholders, who within the last two years have amassed fortunes, had previously struggled along for years, sometimes enduring severe privation, all their resources being exhausted in the labours and expense of the enterprise to which they had committed themselves, and in which they still had heart. Things began to look up about eighteen months ago; and within the last nine or twelve months the vast influx of Sydney capital has precipitated the progress of mining industry to an extent beyond the expectations of the most sanguine. Twelve months ago claims began to change hands at what were then supposed to be high figures; although subsequent experience has shown that the prices then obtained were generally below the actual value of the properties transferred. Thus for instance, one gentleman bought a one-sixth share in a mine for which he paid £1625, which a year ago was thought to be an extreme price. Last week however, he sold one-half of that share (or one-twelfth of the whole) tor £5500 in cash. A fifth share in Paxton's was sold for £3000 eleven months ago; a few weeks after it was sold for £6000, and it has since been proved that £12,000 would not have come up to its intrinsic value. There are two belts of veins (which are distinguished as easterly and westerly veins) in all the rich claims of Hawkins Hill, running parallel with each other north and south; and no cross veins of any importance have been found. At first the easterly veins only, were worked, but attention has been latterly paid to the veins further west, which on the whole have been found to be more profitable. The gold in the different veins varies very much in quantity. It is said that the best patches in Paxton's and Holman's claim were obtained from the easterly veins; while the best patches found in Krohmann's and others have been taken out of the westerly veins. The Hawkins Hill veins dip or underlay east; but the veins on the other side of Oakey Creek dip, west. The veins in Hawkins Hill have been worked to a greater depth than elsewhere, 300 feet being the deepest, and it appeared to be the generally received opinion of miners, ~~ and several with whom I have conversed, have had a long reefing experience in Victoria, ~~ that the reefs on Hawkins Hill will not be worked out for many years to come. They say that there is no reefing district in Victoria which can be compared to the reefs of this district for richness, and that all appearances indicate permanence. The claims on what is known as Krohmann's line are said to have yielded, on an average, gold to the value of'£10,000 each. It is necessary that the quartz from the Hill should be very rich to pay the numerous charges upon it. While under ordinarily favourable circumstances, quartz yielding an ounce to the ton would pay, yet on Hawkins Hill, quartz that did not yield 12 oz. to the ton, would hardly pay the cost of working. In the first place the miner has to dig a quarry out, a platform on the hill side, where he intends to sink his shaft, and he has then to build a shed for his whim, to put up a blacksmith's shop, and other erections. As a rule the first 130 feet have to be sunk through broken ground, filled with enormous boulders; and in some cases the sinking is through hard granite, at a cost of from £5 to £8 a foot, while the price for driving would not be less than from £4 to £5. In most of the works every inch of the rock has to be brought away by blasting; and in one tunnel (that of King and Hudson's) I was shown an uncommonly tough stratum of rock, which could only be penetrated at the rate of a foot a week, and that too with three shifts of men, so as to enable them to keep at the work the twenty- four hours round. While the shaft is being sunk or the tunnel driven, there is, only room for two men to work at a time, so that the progress in the 1st instance is necessarily slow. Most of the work is done by contract; and it is hardly possible, to watch these underground toilers, by the dim light of a couple of stearine candles stuck against the walls by a piece of clay, which serves for a stick, without being impressed with a sense of the dignity of labour. It requires a man of resolute heart and sinewy arm to pit himself against rock as tough as that which has to be got through in Hawkins Hill; yet little by little, by dint of a tremendous amount of hammering, the holes are drilled, and the blasting powder does the rest. I have never seen a Chinaman face work of this sort. He has all the perseverance which would be requisite, but none of the pluck. Supposing a miner to have got upon veins that will pay for the working, that his shafts have been lined with timber, that his winding gear and plant of tools are all complete ~~ there is the cost of separating the quartz from the rock in which it is imbedded. This cannot be definitely stated because so much depends upon the number and the thickness of the veins worked in any particular claim. As a rough guess, it might be set down at £3 or £4 per ton. Care has to be taken in separating the quartz from the slate on the rocks, for the cost of getting the material to the crushing machine is very great. When sent on top it has to be picked over and stacked until such time as a sufficient quantity is raised. It has been necessary to have a man to take charge of it until it is removed; and the most of the men are engaged in loading it for the pack horses, by which it is carried to the top of the hill. A string of these horses are in charge of a boy, who drives them along narrow footways worn on the side of the hill; and it has occasionally happened that an unfortunate animal has lost its foothold, and thus been precipitated with its load down into the gully. Having reached the top of the hill, the horses are unloaded at the expense of the claimholder, and men are also stationed at the heap to see that none of the stuff is stolen. It has next to be carted to the crushing battery, where the claim holder, or somebody in his behalf, superintends the crushing. Taking into consideration all the items of expense which must be incurred the cost cannot be far short of from £6 to £8 a ton at claims disadvantageously situated as regards the mill. There is no government inspection at any of these mines. The"liberty of the subject"
is in no way invaded, but every manager"does that which is right in his own eyes."
On the upper part of the kill there is little or no underground soakage, so that no expense has to be incurred to keep the claims clear of water. Ventilation also is a question which has not yet become of any importance, because most of the claims now being worked have had their north or south boundaries broken through, so that there is communication from one to the other. There is more danger to the health of the miners from cold draughts than from any want of pure air. In claims where but one shaft has been sunk, ventilation is obtained by timbering it up and putting in a division in the centre, and contrivances similar in principle are also resorted to in some of the tunnels. In the longer drives, however, an air-shaft is sunk, so that the men can get to work again immediately after the explosion of a blast. In all the claims along Krohmann's line, two gangs (or"shifts,"
as they are called) of men are kept constantly at work one by day and the other by night. Some of the claims give employment to l8 men', and some to 28-the average being about 22. The wages of the miners run from £2 10s. to £3 a week.