WEST WELCOME.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1405, 26 May 1884, Page 2

WEST WELCOME.

Some interest arid excitement has i been occasioned during the past week in consequence of the discovery of j what appears to be an uncommonly I rich run of stone on this lease. The | company's ground adjoins the Welcome on the west, and it is in the northern part of the lease that the discovery has been made. Mr C. Clifford is the prospector, and for several weeks past he has been engaged in an examination of the ground. His attention was first attracted to the locality by sonfe largo antimony boulders lyi'Vs" iv the bed of Little. Boatman's Creek, near the Low Level Tunnel. These boulders have been exposed for years, but under the supposition that they had been brought down the creek l>y floods from the higher ground, nobody appears to have thought them deserving of attention. Mr Clifford had been long under the impression that a line of reef crossed the country thereabouts, and it was, in fact, upon the strength of this supposition that the West Welcome, No. 2 Welcome, Occidental and other leases on the line were taken up but nothing could be found to supply a clue to its exact course. Nothing daunted by previous failures, Mr Clifford decided a short time back to give the locality another overhaul. To this end he first of all made a careful examination of the antimony boulders in the creek bed, which, besides proving the blocks to be gold-bearing, left, the impression on his mind that, the boulders had not travelled very far. had in fact hardly more than rolled over into their present position. From this datum then he resolved to work, and taking the compass bearing of the Welcome workings from this point, made up his mind to confine his prospecting to this line, or within a reasonable distance of it on either side. A steep terrace rises from the creek and his next care was to find traces of antimony stone in that direction, and after a long and careful search he succeeded in tracking the indication to a narrow gully or ravine at the north western corner of the West Welcome lease. This gully is only two or three yards wide and very steep, and by putting in short trenches on each side lie eventually traced the stone through the lease up to the eastern boundary of the Welcome. Having thus assured himself of the importance of the rlis-. covery Mr Clifford made it known, and early in the week Mr Murphy, one of the Welcome directors was taken out to the locality, and obtained some of the stone, which was brought to Roefton and crushed by Mr Caples, the 'mortar tost giving, as we are told, equal to 4ozs, per ton.. Later in the

week Messrs Bepche, Casely, Wiso, Twohill and Clifford, with our reporter visited the locality, and went over tho whole extent of the line. As yet tho work done is a mere scratching of the surface, but this lias been sufficient to expose an almost continuous run of stone for several hundred feet in the West Welcome leasehold. The o itcrop is in many places very loose and rubbly, while in others it is h■ id enough, though not appearing in a compact body. This may, however, be due te the circumstance that having flily been covered with a layer of moss, its looseness is thr- result of atmospheric ;ution, not b.^ing, so far as ba/ed. of .my very great tiiickness. This refers more particularly to the stone on the foot wall side of the gully, but under foot on the other side of tho gully the stone appealed to he much more solid, and the distance between these two points would not be more than about four feet. About half a dozen pros pects were broken out, some by M Clifioi-d and others by Mr disely, all from different spots along the line, ami the stone bfii:,g first washed in a dish the rubble showed an excellent prospect of tine gold: The washed stoiv was then put in a mortar on the spot and crushed under the eyes of tho^e present, and gave a really magnificent prospect. All the prospects but one, the last washed, which was composed of very rotten stuff, moi'e mullock than stone, and hastily panned, for it \w< getting late, gave the same splendid | show of gold. This completed the days doings. It is worthy of note tha the sjtone is heavily loaded with inti- , monyj and in this respect is similar in 1 character to the boulders found in . Little Boatman's Creek The compass . line, of the run is a point or so t,o the north of east and west, which would t.ike it iv the direction of Lai inn Gully, and would cross the Boat .lans Low Level Tunnel line, at from 50 to 100 ft. from the fiu'thest point driven. ; The No. 2 Welcome is directly on the line. Until the stoneis driven into at . a sufficient dopih to prove its solidity, nothing more can be said concerning it. As a surface indication it is undoubtedly a surprisingly good one, and if what we saw was a fair sample of the whole, it has certainly never been excelled in this district Steps will no doubt be taken without delay both by this and the Welcome Company, to tost it at a lower level, and if it should theo justify the expectations which htve reasonably been formed from the surface aspect, it will give a new lease of life to the whole northern portion of Boatman's district, and add enormously to the value of that part of the field.