Transcription

18
DEPOSIT OF GOLD.  BASIN OF GOLD AT BALAARAT [BALLARAT] NAMED THE JEWELLERS SHOPS
 
The Jewellers shops as the strata of gold discovered at Balaarat [Ballarat] are  called, and described as being of uncommon richness.  People were arriving in Melbourne from those diggings after a months work with from two hundred to four hundred ounces of gold - this rich discovery is described as being a basin of gold.  The gold was found in an immense circular patch or monster pocket.  So uniform was this rich stratum, that its value wherever tested, has been found to range from £1200 to £2000 per superfical [superficial] foot.  Nearly twenty thousand ounces were obtained in a few days.
This basin from which such surprising quantities of gold was obtained is now found to be of small extent, and only afforded room for a few claims. Those who were digging in the immediate neighbourhood were sadly disappointed.  This stratum of gold was in reality a "basin" not a table, heretofore the gold had been traced in veins and "pockets".
When this stratum was first reached, the little moulds of earth containing the gold had the appearance of solid rock of the metal, but when handled, broke into a Mass of dust and nuggets.
Twelve holes were sunk into this basin every one of which hit.
The greatest amount of gold has been got out of the hollows of flats which are occasionally flooded, as in the case with the hollow basin in which the Jewellers shops are situated.
 
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURE IN THE BALAARAT [BALLARAT] GOLD FIELD

The Shafts sunk in the gold mines at Balaarat [Ballarat] are from thirty to one hundred & eighty feet deep.
The gold found at the Balaarat [Ballarat] mines is heavy, many of the nuggets procured from the Balaarat [Ballarat] mines are what are called Monster Nuggets.   It is also found in veins or parallel layers, in patches, tables of gold, monster pockets and basins of gold.
These mines are situated to the westward of Geelong, are fifty miles from that city, and one hundred miles from the City of Melbourne.
The working of the gold mines at Bendigo is principally confined to Surfacing & the sinking shafts from ten to twenty feet deep.  Fine gold & nuggets are found at the mines of Bendigo & Mount Alexander. These mines ae situated to the north west of Melbourne.  Mount Alexander is sixty five miles from Melbourne and Bendigo mines are
one eighty five miles from Melbourne.

 

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