This diminishes towards the native pits, and there the vein diverges into
two portions, both presenting a decomposed appearance, the casing on both
foot and hanging wall having a highly talcose character.' This engineer
also washed gold specks from the loose soil. Finally, he notes that the
massive quartz-outcrop is homogeneous and crystalline, giving only traces
of gold, but that the stone improves rapidly with depth.] was from eight
to ten feet thick, and I believe that there are other and parallel
formations. But the ground is very complicated, and for proper study I
should have required borings and cross-cuts.
There were two big rough pits called shafts. I descended into the deeper
one, which was fourteen to fifteen feet below ground. The walls would
repay washing on a large scale; and the look of the top soil reminded me
of the descriptions of old California and Australia when there were rushes
of miners to the gold-fields, carrying for all machinery a pick, a pan,
and a tin 'billy.'
The Insimankao concession contains 1,000 fathoms square; the measurements
being taken from a 'marked tree' on the north-western slope of the hill
with the long name.
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