'non est'.
The hollows have been worked, and many nuggets found; it is said more than ever were made public. Messrs. Marshall and Co., have erected a paddling machine at the foot of the flat which has been amongst the most successful on examining several heaps of old tailings I found them to consist entirely of quartz, and that the detritus in the watercourses was the same. Water here is procured by constructing a dam across the worked out hollows, in some cases 250 feet in length. Amongst operations of this description may be mentioned one by the Messrs. Marshall and Co. below their old machine where they are erecting two others eventually to be worked by steam; their dam is a creditable piece of work, about 200 feet long and 7 or 8 feet high, and they calculate that their reservoir will contain nine months' supply of water; such operations as these give new life to a gold-field, and enable men to work profitably for years on ground abandoned and declared to be exhausted. On the left of Marshall's dam is a leader from a large reef. On breaking the surface for the construction of the dam they opened this leader. On examination I found that it contained gold in the matrix, a specimen of which I enclose. Two persons, practical quartz miners, are now at work on the reef, and there is every prospect that it will pay for crushing. Passing over the slightly elevated quartz flat the surface falls at the base of the range, and forms the wide shallow basin of Dead Horse Gully, the waters from which, passing round Wyagdon Hill on the south side of the table land, pursue their course to the Macquarie. Dead Horse Gulley has been, and is still, rich, although few men are now employed there, and the gold has been found in many of the quartz leaders surrounding and crossing it. The same dyke, or system of reefs, that supplied the head of Solitary on the north-east also supply this gulley on the south-west of the flat, the distance between the head of the two watercourses not being more than 300 yards, and both have been worked to their highest source close to the reef on each side. Lower down is a puddling machine; and here, crossing an undulating ridge, you reach the road, and, rising to the top of Wyagdon Hill, leave the Turon and his golden tributaries behind, and commence your descent into the Macquarie country. Returning now across the plain between the ranges, and following the dry channel of Solitary Creek, you pass many puddling machines on the sloping flats. The men engaged at these machines appear to be of a superior class to those occupied in gulley-scraping and fossicking for nuggets, and their gardens and cottages bespeak a domestic comfort to which the latter are strangers. Nothing can tend more to the advancement of the mining population than these permanent settlements. Recrossing Atkinson's Creek and following the crown of the ridge between Little and Big Oakey, passing several reefs a mile and a-half lands you on the highest point of the range, below which the fall commences to the Turon. On the east side of this summit, over Big Oakey, the descent is steep and rocky, and here, from the crest downwards, the richest surfacing has been found, yielding as much as five or six ounces to the load. There is a large quartz reef cropping out on the crown of the hill, and as the rock was denuded by the surfacing operations many leaders from the reef were exposed, which contained matrix gold, and are now being broken up by the diggers, to the depth of three or four feet, who find that they can earn wages by smashing the quartz and casing, and separating the gold by washing. These reefs would pay well for crushing -- and there is a party from Victoria now sinking on one of the leaders, far below Nuggetty Gully having its source in the rocks under the mountain beneath. The surfacing has been worked, and proved very rich; the amount of gold said to have been taken from it is incredible for so short a watercourse, as it is only a few hundred feet from where it springs from the rocks until it unites with Big Oakey. In a deep ravine, in this table land, quicksilver has been discovered: about half-way up the mountain side is a crevice under a mass of trap rock, and from this crevice, after a continuance of heavy rains, a small stream issues containing globules of virgin quicksilver, in each quantities as would enable a party to fill a small phial in half-an-hour. The person who gave this information has been working in the locality for six years, and assures me that he has himself procured the metal in the manner stated. On examining the place, I could detect no trace of quick-silver; all the hill bore indications of igneous action, and the clay was of a deep red or crimson colour. Upon enquiry, I found, from others working at the base of the hill, that during rainy weather all the gold they find is coated with mercury; that they see quick-silver in the crevices like drops of honey, and frequently find it in their toms and cradles. I could see nothing like cinnabar; but mercury has been found in Mexico, and other parts of South America, under similar circumstances. If the above is found to be correct it will add another item to our colonial mineral wealth. Leaving the Bathurst road, near Jagoe's inn, and crossing the eastern ridge, you descend upon Bullock Flat: this is an extension, of the table land to the S.E. for eight or nine miles, when it meets the Gulf Range, and forms the great basin of Sofala. Amongst its broken and precipitous descents Big Oakey has its source, and further on Pennyweight Creek, with its many branches and tributary ravines winding amongst a confused mass of hills, which become lower and less fantastic in their shape as they approach the Turon, to which they generally descend in long grassy slopes from conical summits. From the table land some beautiful verdant slopes may be seen extending to the creeks below with their long spurs entering far into the opposite range, forcing the stream to make a detour round their base when it passes under some, overhanging bluff, to be again driven from its course by a spur from the opposing hills, now murmuring away with a joyous ripple, bathing the green sward and creating a second Paradise in the bosom of the mountains, and then rearing, leaping, and bounding from rock to rock, until it unites with the main waters. Further on, M'Cabe's, Arthur's Oakey, and Sailor's Creeks fall from the table-land to the depths below, and as they approach the Turon receive the waters of Tobin's Oakey, which has its source in the gulf mountains near the high flats. These are the main watercourses, alike in character, formation, and appearance, numerous nameless tributaries swelling the volume of their streams, and contributing their share of the golden treasures of the hills. All these main creeks have been worked in favourable situations by the miner, and diggers' huts and tents are to be found at intervals scattered along their bank. Tobin's Oakey was recently opened, and a rush took place, which is now somewhat abated, as the waters are too high to permit the digger to pursue his avocation with success. Puddling has been carried on at Bullock's Flat, and some rich deposits have been found at various places on the fall of the waters; but it is generally less productive, and quartz less abundant, then on the western side of the range. A few diggers are located on the banks of its ravines and gullies, but by far the greatest number of them are yet unexplored. It is certain that all the watercourses falling into the basin of the Turon from these heights are auriferous, and many could be made payable under a proper system of working. A spur from the table land now slightly declines, until it, reaches, the neighbourhood of the lime-stone formation near Palmer's Oakey, and, rising again, merges into the main range that terminates near the Pinnacle on the Willawa. The chain is auriferous throughout, and furnishes most of the gold to be found in the Upper and Middle Turon and its tributaries on the southern bank. From the foregoing description it will be evident that gold is mainly to be found in the matrix on the table land, in the innumerable quartz reefs and dykes which, with their leaders, intersect the ridges, slopes, and flats in every direction. From these it is continually being disengaged, both by decomposition and disintegration, and that the fluviatile action of three or, four streams, which receive the entire drainage from the richest portion of the plateau, has carried the lighter particles of metal to the Turon. Thus Ration Hill and Mundy's Point are indebted for their riches to Big Oakey; and Little Oakey after making Erskine Flat what it has been, has shared its treasures with Golden Point; while Spring Creek has enriched Sheepstation Point, the whole having contributed to place the Turon at the head of our gold-fields, and made it at one period one of the richest auriferous streams in the world. The parties on the reef near Marshall's claim, have just marked off their ten claims, as being the first who have struck a payable reef on Wattle Flat, and it is to be hoped that others will follow their example in this description of mining. The day will come when the exhaustion of the alluvial deposits will turn the public attention to our quartz reefs and the search for gold in the matrix, and when that day arrives the table lands above Sofala will be amongst the most important in the colony of New South Wales. Wattle and Bullock Flats and their vicinity contain about 250 European miners, and a floating population of Chinese. The waterholes and reservoirs being private property, renders these diggings unfavourable to the latter class, who prefer the banks of the Turon. A Roman Catholic clergyman visits the settlement once in each month, and the Church of England clergyman from Sofala, and a Wesleyan minister, remind the people that there are other treasures than the riches of the mountains that demand their serious attention more frequently. A good school proves that the education of the succeeding generation has not been neglected; and three medical men from Sofala attend to their bodily ailments, and divide the practice on the flats. There are four or five small stores, three butchers' shops, and now comes the worst, nine public houses; the support of one rum shop devolving upon twenty-eight diggers, which will leave them little for the savings, bank, and renders them unable to undertake those expensive operations, which the exhaustion of the creeks and gullies render necessary. I may add that supplies are plentiful at the usual rates on the diggings. By some mistake, two influential persons in the district have been able to secure, by purchase from the Crown, a large tract of the auriferous lands on the flats, with the houses, huts, and enclosures on it, much to the disgust of the diggers generally. These lands were sold long after the opening of the gold-fields, and their character ought to have been known at the period of sale. The population are as orderly and steady as can be expected, in a district overrun with public-houses. Few make less than £3 a week, but the majority much more, surrounded by all the elements of wealth and happiness. Their prosperity, as a community, is wholly dependant upon themselves.