A TRIP TO HILL END.
FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
VIII.
BY dint of pretty regular daily practice I have managed to scramble over Hawkins Hill, and have now
viewed the monster from nearly every point. The wildness and roughness of the place is altogether
without parallel in the hills of the county of Cumberland; and there are few things more calculated
to take the shine out of a man than a day's work in scrambling up and down the steep sides of Hawkins.
Practice, however, enables you to accommodate yourself to the situation; and in the course of a few
journies you come to walk with composure along precipices which at the outset you would have shuddered
to look at. I believe I have visited every claim on the Hill, but had not always the good forfune to
find the owners "at home" In some cases they were represented by men working by contract, in some
the managers had only been appointed and were not in a position to give information, and in others
they were temporarily absent. Under these circumstances the information I have been able to gather is
not so full in many cases as I could wish. I could not fail, however, to be impressed with the enormous
amount of work which has been accomplished, and which is still being done. As a rule the work does not
appear to bo undertaken in a half-hearted way, and there can be little doubt that the majority of the
claimholders thoroughly believe in the enterprise upon which they have embarked. I will state as
consisely as I can the facts which I obtained on the ground, keeping as nearly as may be to the order
in which I visited the claims, commencing at the top of the gully, ard proceeding southwards along
the western face of the hill. The shafts, as a general thing, are never less than 6 feet 6 inches x
3 feet 6 inches, and the tunnels would average from 7 or 8 feet in width to 6 or 7 feet in height.
In all cases present workings are through hard granite.
It is fourteen months since ground was broken. They have a frontage of 540 feet along the line of reef.
The shaft is l68 feet down. They are now stripping the reef, and going down upon the underlay.
Ten tons of stone ready for crushing. Operations have been retarded of late by the workings of the
Amalgamated breaking in upon the shaft; but timbering up is this week completed. They are working on
the Frenchman's line of vein, and the stone assumes more of the Hawkins Hill type as the shaft descends..
Tenders have been called for sinking the shaft 50 feet deeper.
A few yards west of Niagara also on the frenchman's veins. Shaft down 145 feet.
are sinking a second shaft, which is fifty or sixty feet down, the original shaft being down 130 feet.
Have a quantity of stone ready for crushing.
This also is in the frenchman's line. The men were at work below. Some stone ready for crushing.
Situated on the western side of the gully. Sinking with the view to cut the Hawkins Hill line of veins
Supposed to be on Steven's line. Shaft down 160 feet. Quantity of payable quartz at grass.
Are down 155 feet. Have not yet reached the vein for which they are sinking.
Near the summit of Hawkins Hill. First shaft down about 130 feet in Rowley's vein; and a drive is
being put into the Hill to catch the vein further east. A second shaft is down over fifty feet in
Steven's vein, and a third about seventy feet on the frenchman's line. In the middle shaft two nice
looking veins have been cut. The whim which is being constructed is nearly finished, and operations
will be recommenced in a few days.
Two hundred and ten feet on the line of Steven's vein. Has been worked for five or six years, and
crushings have averaged from three to eight ounces per ton.
Shaft down 210 feet, and in one of tho oldest claims on the reef. Several crushings have been had,
some giving results as high as 14 oz to the ton; 9 oz. and 10 oz. being about the general run.
About 40 tons of stone ready for crushing.
Five men's ground. Shaft down 220 feet. Have several tons of stone for crushing on the surface,
taken out of the cross drives. Opening out veins expected to be payable, from their appearance, in
the cross drives.
Driving into the side of the Hill, and getting payable stone.
Six men's ground. Shaft down 260 feet, and thirteen men are now at work underground. Repairs to shaft
will be completed in about a week, when a perpendicular shaft will be sunk to cut Krohmann's veins.
The shaft in the old workings will, it is expected be got ready for use in about a fortnight, when
they will again begin to raise stone.
Described in previous letter.
Shaft down 220 feet. Working on five veins, and sending up some very rich stone; 200 tons reddy for
the mill. Gold to the value of £30,00O has been taken from this claim.
Shaft down 215 feet. Stone looks rich, and from 200 to 300 tons are ready for crushing. The last
crushings of 136 tons and 48 tons yielded 1830 oz and 1100 oz respectively. Next crushing not expected
to realize so much.
Shaft down 220 feet, working at the levol of 200 feet. From 160 to 200 tons ready for crushing.
Stone gets better as the workings descend and the gold appears to be more regularly diffused. A
crushing of 300 tons yielded 24 oz, and the last crushing went at the rate of 9½ oz to the ton.
The shaft is down 240 feet, and they have about 200 tons of stone ready for crushing.
Working about 200 feet down, the shaft somewhat deeper. 250 tons of stone ready for crushing, and
some of the specimens look very promising. The last crushing of 300 tons went at the rate of 4½ oz.
The present workings are down about 100 feet. As much as 200 oz to the ten tons have been taken out
of this claim, and the last crushing of 106 tons realised 2800 0z. About seventy tons are on the
surface, which, however, will not run so high.
The shaft is down 220 feet; and about two hundred tons of stone are ready for crushing. Four tons
gave a yield of 280 oz, and the last crushing gave a return of 5 oz The stone now being raised appears
to be richer than any previously obtained.
The manager was attending to some business in town; but the last time I saw him, he and one of his men
were heavily laden with specimens which they were carrying to the Joint Stock Bank. Those were as rich
as any of thoso shown in the Exhibition, and were masses of golden slate rather than stone. Their
workings are down about 180 feet.
194 feet is the present level of the workings. There has been only about one crushing of the stone
from the deep ground. 23 tons gave 398 oz. They are still sinking for Krohmann's veins, which they
expect to drop upon at 35 feet below the level of the present workings.
Shaft down 246 feet. Have struck one vein, but are sinking deeper, to strike Krohmann's westerly veins
No stone has yet been raised for crushing.
Just above Rapp's, and supposed to be on the line of the Frenchman's and Steven's veins. Shaft down
200 feet, and have touched one vein.
It is here that Adams found the golden quartz which led to the discovery of all the rich claims
on Paxton's and Krohman's line. The claim is now being worked by a tunnel, eighty feet from the mouth
of which a perpendicular shaft, 120 feet deep, has been sunk. Expect to cut Krohmann's veins in another
30 feet of sinking.
Descending lower down the hill, we came upon the line known as Eisenstadter's vein.
Shaft down 90 or 100 feet; and a tunnel is being put in for 20O feet or more. The first crushing
yielded 2½ oz, and the second 6½ oz. The stone is expected to improve.
Have started to drive to tho Royal standard, to break through for air. The underlay shaft is being
sunk on a vein struck in the tunnel, and is timbered down about 30 feet. The manager estimates that
the vein now being worked will yield at the rate of 7 oz or 8 oz per ton.
are driving through the Lord and Lady Belmore's ground for the convenience of both parties, and have
struck a vein in that ground.
have driven a tunnel into the hill, and sunk on veins struck at a depth of 80 feet. No crushings
have yet been had, but they expect the stone to yield well.
iS 260 feet into the side of the hill, and they expect to cut Krohmann's veins in another 200 feet,
and Brand and Fletcher's vein in about 100 feet. At 180 feet from the mouth of the tunnel an
air-shaft has been sunk.
tunnel is in 280 feet, and the first 160 feet being, through broken ground, is timbered up.
have amalgamated for the purpose oí driving a tunnel along the boundary of this ground, and when this
is completed they will then work separately. They have passed through several veins, but are still
driving in the expectation of cutting Krohmann's.
tunnel, a little higher up the hill, is in 300 feet, and they are now sinking a shaft at the
head of it.