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MERRIJIGS GROUP.—ADAMS LODE-SERIES.
This series occurs between Lee’s and the Globe-Progress series, and a little eastward of either. The principal mines opened on it were the Rainey Creek, Supreme, and Inkerman; but there were several claims towards its northern end, such as Hustler’s and the General Gordon, in which more or less auriferous stone was found.
Rainey Creek Mine.—In 1872 the Adams brothers located an immense blow of quartz in this claim. It was of very low grade, but it was thought it might be treated payably, and a company was formed to work it. The mine being in a position difficult to access at the time, there was some delay in starting active operations, but in 1876 a fifteen-stamp battery was erected at a cost of £6,000, and crushing was begun. The quartz proved, however, even poorer than had been expected, some 1,632 tons yielding only 167 oz. gold, equal to just over 2 dwt. per ton. The company soon suspended operations, and disposed of its mine and plant to Messrs. Graham and Allen, who continued to work the deposit intermittently for several years without getting any better results. The quartz-blow was about 100 ft. wide on the surface and 150 ft. in length, and it stood up 30 ft above the surrounding surface. Exactly what development was done on it is not now known, no plans or other definite information being available. The earlier owners of the claim evidently took their crushings from the surface, but it is known that in 1893 the Inkerman Company, which then held the property, sank a winze on the blow and crushed some stone taken from it with unsatisfactory results, and the mass of quartz is said to have cut out in a rounded surface resembling the hull of a ship. Years later, however, another company, the Inkerman Combined Mines, is reported to have located at depth some large bodies of quartz that evidently represented the downward continuation of the “big blow,” but they were, like the surface stone, of extremely low grade, and there is no evidence that any crushings were taken from them.
Supreme Mine.— The original company that held this property, the Supreme Gold-mining Company, was registered in September, 1888. The ground was immediately north of the Rainey Creek Company’s holding. In the year mentioned some fairly good reef was found outcropping on the claim near its western boundary, on which a winze was sunk to a depth of 40 ft. An adit was also driven to meet the stone at a depth of 180 ft. below the outcrop. Practically no information is now available as to the results of this latter work, but it is recorded that in 1892 a party of tributers gave the mine a trial and took out, evidently from this adit, 400 tons of quartz, which yielded at the battery only 17 oz. gold, so it would look as if the shoot at this horizon was very poor.
In 1897 the Inkerman Combined Mines (later reconstructed as the New Inkerman Mines, Ltd.), took over all the claims in the vicinity from the original holders and commenced prospecting on them in a large way. An adit known as No. 2 was driven from the Lady Louisa Claim westward into the Supreme ground, and in a branch drive from it in a southerly direction a large ore-body was located from which a considerable quantity of quartz was subsequently mined: this stone was evidently not correlated to the outcrop previously mentioned as having been found near the western boundary of the claim. A little later the same company drove a second adit, also from the Lady Louisa, nearly due west to come under the big blow on the Rainy Creek Claim, but nothing of value seems to have
