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 similar distance. Only rather indefinite information regarding the results of this work is available, but reports on the files of the Mines Department at Reefton seem to indicate that the drive followed a reef averaging about 14 dwt. gold per ton, but very narrow and broken. The prospects were evidently not considered encouraging, for nothing more was done, and the claim has lain idle ever since.

This series, on which the mines known as the Happy Valley, Sir Francis Drake, Gallant, Scotia, Cumberland, Exchange, Inkerman South, and Inkerman West were opened up, has been named after Robert Lee, who found auriferous stone on it in 1887. Actually, the first discovery of gold-bearing stone on the line was made by the McGee brothers in 1882, on what was afterwards the Happy Valley Claim, but Dr. Henderson has preferred to name the next lode-series to the south after those pioneers.

Happy Valley Mine.—An east-and-west lode was found on this claim by the McGees, as well as a number of leaders with a north-and-south strike. A considerable amount of prospecting was done on the claim, a winze or prospecting-shaft 60 ft. in depth having been sunk on a large reef near the head of Slab Hut Creek, and a lot of trenching and driving on other formations. The claim did no good, however, the ore proving everywhere unpayable. Only one crushing is recorded, 127 tons of quartz, in 1889, which yielded 28 oz. 12 dwt. gold, equal to only a little over 4½ dwt. per ton.

Sir Francis Drake Mine.—It was on this claim that Lee made his discovery, and great expectations were formed regarding its possibilities. On the surface the reef was traceable for about 250 ft., and showed a width of up to 5ft. An adit driver at 45 ft. under the outcrop cut the reef at 60 ft. from daylight, where it was from 8 ft. to 9 ft. wide, and a second adit, 115 ft. lower still, struck it at 260 ft., where it varied in width from 2 ft. to 9 ft. In 1888 a fifteen-stamp battery was erected at a cost of about £4,000. Although very good prospects of gold were said to have been got throughout the prospecting, the crushing did not come up to expectations, a total of 3,980 tons of quartz taken from above No. 2 adit only yielding 820 oz. gold, valued at £2,972 12s. 9d., an average of 15s. 10d. per ton. It may be said, however, that the gold was very fine, and an appreciable amount of it escaped during treatment owing to a small quantity of base metals being associated with it. The tailings from these crushings, when put through the cyanide process some years later, yielded very good returns; but even if these recoveries be added to the figures given it is questionable if the stone could have been considered payable.

By 1891 all the stone in sight had been stoped out, and a start was made to sink a main shaft the collar of which was on the level of No. 2 adit. From the shaft a level, No. 3, was opened out at 190 ft. down, in which three blocks or shoots of stone were met, two of them being 80 ft. in length each, and the third 70 ft. Stoping on this level did not pay the company. In 1893, 1,911 tons of quartz were mined and crushed for a return of 393 oz. gold, valued at £1,482; but, to meet the expense of working, calls to the amount of £1,800 had to be made. In 1894 the company went into liquidation, and the claim and plant were disposed of to a party of working-miners, who made a sturdy effort for some time to work the property to advantage. In 1895 and 1896 they mined 2,195 tons of quartz, all of which came evidently from No. 3 level. From this tonnage