river itself is chiefly dust, generally of a very fine description, but coarse gold has been obtained in various places, and is abundant in the creeks and ravines opening into the river. Lumps weighing as much as seven pounds have been found The yield of gold on the Turon has been in many instances most extraordinary. In several cases, from eighty to 100 oz. a day have been obtained by parties of three or four for days together; in numerous instances from twenty to fifty ounces a day have been procured, and from five to fifteen ounces were at one time a common yield. The gold has been obtained in equal quantities in the bed of the river, and on the banks and slopes in its vicinity. In the former case the greatest depth to which it is necessary to go for the gold is from four to ten or twelve feet, but the continual presence of water has rendered it generally a matter of difficulty, and often of impossibility to get at the auriferous deposits. In the dry diggings the depth of the claims varies from the surface to forty or fifty feet, and the largest deposits of gold are got in the pockets and crevices of the bed rock. In the river diggings the useless surface soil is wholly removed, but in the dry diggings when a shaft has been sunk the ground on the level of the gold deposit is tunnelled. The dry diggings on banks of the Turon are considered by many to be comparatively exhausted, but this is by no means the case in the opinion of more competent judges. Recently rich dry diggings have been discovered on the slope of the hill leading to the township of Sofala, and not more than a pistol shot distance from the town. This ground has been constantly traversed by eager miners for many months, and is proved to abound in deposits of precious metal, which hundreds have left its vicinity to seek for at distant localities. The mining population of the Turon numbered at one time certainly not less than 10,000, but at present (September, 1852,) the number of persons engaged in digging on the Turon and its tributaries does not exceed 1,200. The average yield at these diggings, is from 15s. to £3 or £4 a day, but the instances are numerous in which large sums are earned in a very short period. The labour required is great, whether in the bed or the dry diggings, as in the former the water has constantly to be contended with, and in the latter, the conglomerate soil which has to be wrought through is almost as hard as rock. Many of these tributaries, Big Oakey and Little Oakey Creek especially, have yielded a large amount of gold. On the tableland, where their source is, parties have been at work for months, making large earnings; and more extensive research would, undoubtedly, develop many rich deposits at this place. Along the Bathurst-road gold has been found, and at Wyagden Hill, midway between that town and the Turon, operations on a large scale have been begun.
The Braidwood diggings next-claim attention. They are confined chiefly to Major's and Bell's Creeks, which flow over the tableland, above the valley of Araluen. They are not more than ten or twelve miles distant from the town of Braidwood. What is peculiar in these diggings is the fact that they are situated to the eastwards of the dividing range of mountains. These creeks before named join the river Moruya, which flows into the sea at Short Maven, on the east coast, between Bateman's Bay and Twofold Bay. Major's Creek and its tributary Bell's Creek have amply repaid those engaged in mining operations on them. The country is not of so mountainous a description as at the Turon. Slate and quartz abound in the vicinity, but the bed-rock is granite, and the gold has been found chiefly in what is regarded as decomposed granite. The prosperity of these diggings has been seriously retarded by the incessant rains which have fallen
