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took up the Exchange Claim, and did some further work on it, putting in several adits and sinking a winze to 50 ft., but nothing was found beyond reef-tracks. This company took out, however, the small amount of quartz that had been developed in the claim by the former owners, 511 tons being mined and treated at the Sir Francis Drake battery for 259 oz. gold, valued at £945 0s. 6d.
Cumberland Mine.—This was the most southern mine opened on Lee’s lode-series, and the most successful of all the claims along it. In 1890, while prospecting for the northward continuation of the Golden Lead line of reef, Robert Lee, the original discoverer of the Sir Francis Drake shoot, found, near the eastern boundary of the claim, a block of quartz lying in a horizontal position. An adit was put in 30 ft. below the outcrop, which cut the lode at 130 ft. in from the portal, and followed it for about 250 ft., in which the width varied from 1 ft. to 10 ft. No. 2 adit was then put in, 133 ft. below No. 1. This adit was driven for 450 ft. without meeting any stone. A reef-track was struck, however, at 280ft. in, which was driven on for 140 ft., but was only found to contain small boulders of quartz. A winze was then sunk from No. 1 adit on the shoot revealed there, and a rise was put up from No. 2 to meet it. At 50 ft. down the winze a crosscut was put out to the west, and in this at 20 ft. the reef was intersected and an intermediate level was driven on it, which developed a splendid body of stone 100 ft. in length and averaging about 5 ft. in width. Following this discovery, No. 2 adit was advanced in a north-westerly direction for a further 150 ft., where it picked up the lode, which was found to be about the same length as in the intermediate, but averaging about 11 ft. in width. An inclined shaft was next sunk from No. 2 adit for 86 ft. (measured on the incline). At the bottom of this shaft the lode became badly broken, but a drive put out from it in a southerly direction located much more solid reef at 40 ft. in. This stone apparently was not correlated to the shoot worked in the upper levels, but it was driven on for 110 ft. and found to average about 18 in. in width. A winze was also sunk on it for 45 ft., for which depth it averaged 2 ft. in width. It may be here mentioned that down to No. 2 level the dip of the stone was easterly, but on No. 3 the small reef referred to dipped to the west. A vertical “monkey” shaft was then sunk at a point about 500 ft. in from the portal of No. 2 adit to a depth of 220 ft., and at 200 ft. No. 4 level was opened out. On this level much prospecting was done without satisfactory result. The level was extended north into the Exchange ground, but nothing was found but a track containing quartz fragments and much pug. In an extension of 300 ft. to the south, however, a large body of quartz was met with, but it was of very low grade. Two crosscuts were run out to the westward, one for 60 ft. and the other for 80 ft., and a winze was also sunk for some distance below the level, but nowhere was any payable reef found. The last stone of any value got in the mine was in an intermediate level 100 ft. above No. 4. By the end of 1900 the company had exhausted all the ore in sight and ceased operations. During the period of working, some 13,896 tons of quartz were crushed for a yield of 13,631 oz. 10 dwt. gold, valued at £53,734 16s. 4d., and dividends to the amount of £13,800 were paid out.
Whether or not further prospecting along this lode-series is warranted is a question not readily answered. It is plain that from end to end the line has been greatly affected by faulting, and the blocks of stone found have been of no great length or depth; but, in view of the richness of
