On the Coromandel Gold-Diggings in New Zealand

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
T he gold which was obtained here (Coromandel, near Auckland) during the summer was all dug from either the surface, or from a depth of 18 inches varying to 4 feet below it, and was taken in some instances from the gravel of a stream bed, or in others from a bed of quartz-grit near the foot of a granite mountain. Only in one instance had any one sunk a shaft to the bed-rock. At a depth of 33 feet, a shaft, which I dug, fell in from the looseness of the surrounding earth. Mr. Stephenson, a digger, however, came upon the bed-rock at a depth of 27 feet; but there it was on so steep an inclination, that but little gold could have been expected to have been found lodging upon it. Some small pieces, of a more solid nature than any found elsewhere, were, however, washed from its surface. (See fig. p. 323.) The unusually wet summer induced the diggers, who were chiefly men from Port Philip, men used to a dry climate and firm soil, to abandon the idea of sinking shafts to the bed-rock. The New Zealand diggers contented themselves with digging near the surface, and when the small stratum of quartz-grit, where Coolahan got his gold, was exhausted, they left the district. It cannot, however, be denied, that the limited extent of the Government district was a source of discouragement to men, who, in Australia and California, look to an unlimited field for exploration. But, had

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: