The Gold Fields of Victoria in 1862 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: various sorts preparing to develop themselves. I came to the conclusion that, if Inglewood was a fair sample of our new municipalities, and of what could be done in a couple of years to develope the resources of a district, its story was a good one to tell for the relief of those who are apt to despond as to the future of this colony. Chafter III. THE ANTIMONY MINES OF M'lVOR. Ten miles from Heathcote, in a north-easterly direction, at the foot of a lovely mountain of the M'lvor range, to which the name of Mount J.da has been given, are found the antimony mines of M'lvor. Lying at a distance from any of the mam lines of inter-communication, the visitor to these mines must seek them specially, but they will reward his pains. Crossing M'lvor Creek, and passing the old workings, where, in 1853, so large a body of miners were located, and where some 2,000 Chinamen are busy on a tributary of the old lead, the road skirts the foot of the ranges, over green, well- watered, and heavily-timbered plains, on which no trace of the digger?no mark of a pick or spade?is to be seen. Passing a small crushing plant in connexion with an extensive saw-mill, at which some of the richest gold- bearing antimony has been reduced from Mr. Morris's prospecting claim, and crossing at a distance of nine miles from Heathcote in a line of recently-opened workings, in the centre of which is the mine just alluded to, a glimpse is caught through the trees of the crushing- machine lately erected by Messrs. Youle, Coster, and Field. Their claim itself is soon reached through thelittle township that has been called into existence, though it is as yet without a name, by the opening up of the antimony reefs. The story of these prospectors is soon told, and it happily illustrates " what may happen to a man " in ...