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for a distance of 390 ft., eventually making connection on the reef-line with a two-compartment vertical “monkey” shaft, sunk very many years previously from what is known as the “Old Dark” tunnel, in which, it may be remarked, the timber was found as sound almost as when first put in. During the extension of this adit four short shoots of quartz were met with at 300 ft., 450 ft., 550 ft., and 585 ft. respectively from the crosscut: the first was 45 ft. in length and 1 ft. wide; the second was 50 ft. in length and about 2 ft. in width; the third and fourth were each only 20 ft. long, but opened out to about 4 ft. in width. Three parcels of quartz, totalling 225 tons, were crushed from the drive and from a small stope on the second shoot, for a yield of gold valued at £595 15s. 1d., equal to £2 13s. per ton, while a parcel of 70 tons won when driving on the third and fourth shoots yielded 31 oz. 13 dwt., valued at £126 4s. 1d. When the drive had reached the old shaft referred to the conduct of operations was taken over by the Hercules Mines Syndicate, a subsidiary organization of the recently floated Southern Mines Corporation. This syndicate has since cleaned up and repaired the old battery level of the Keep-it-Dark Mine, 103 ft. below the No. 2 Golden Ledge adit, and purposes crosscutting from it at a point about 300 ft. in from the portal to Smith’s line, a distance of approximately 380 ft.
Wealth of Nations Mine.—Portion of the Keep-it-Dark Mine, that known as the “Old Dark” shoot, was on Smith’s line, north of the Golden Ledge workings, and Dr. Henderson has evidently included the east shoot of the mine as belonging to this lode-series; but, partly because there is some little reason for doubting the correctness of this classification and partly for the sake of convenience, the present writer has preferred to deal with the Keep-it-Dark as a whole when describing the western line of the Crushington Group. The next claim of importance north of the Keep-it-Dark was the Wealth of Nations. In the early days another small claim, the Vulcan, intervened, but comparatively little work was ever done on it, and it was in a very short time absorbed by the Wealth of Nations Company. At least one adit was driven on it, and a shoot of stone was located, but it evidently cut out at shallow depth. Crushings totalling 919 tons were, however, taken out, which yielded 586 oz. gold, valued at £2,077, out of which £400 was paid in dividends. Another company held ground adjoining the Wealth of Nations on the west, but was also absorbed by the latter company at an early stage. This was the Independent, which drove a long adit to one of the shoots subsequently worked in the Wealth of Nations, from which it mined 2,345 tons, which yielded 1,179 oz. gold, worth £4,568 12s. 6d.
As previously mentioned, it was on the Wealth of Nations Claim that Adam Smith found the first gold-bearing stone on the line in 1870. The shoot on which this discovery was made was vigorously developed by means of four adits. No plans or other records are available showing the length or width of the shoot, but it is known that it was followed down to 300 ft. from the outcrop, down to which depth it yielded about 28,000 oz. gold, valued at £110,267 2s. 5d., out of which dividends amounting to £35,100 were distributed among the shareholders. At this point the shoot became very broken and finally was lost. A fissure containing a mixture of quartz and country went down, however, and was followed for 500 ft., when solid stone again came in. The tracing-down of this shoot was a remarkable example of persistent and plucky prospecting. From the time the shoot was lost in 1881 the search went on till about 1893, and was only made possible by
