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fairly rapidly to No. 5 level, and a certain amount of quartz seems to have been won from Nos. 4 and 5 levels. Only the scantiest information is now available as to the actual development, especially on reef, but a study of such old plans as have been preserved serves to show that a short shoot of stone was apparently worked north of the shaft—probably the southern end of the shoot afterwards worked to some extent in the Golden Ledge Claim adjoining. Whatever stone was mined must, however, have been of poor grade. In 1887 the shaft was sunk 100 ft. further, and No. 6 level was opened out. A crosscut to the west cut a reef track which, on being driven on northerly for 70 ft., was found to carry a shoot of quartz 90 ft. in length and about 3 ft. in width. This stone was, however, also poor, for very little work was done on it, and a return was made to No. 3 level, which was extended to the south, where a number of small detached blocks of stone were located and mined. In 1889 another company took the mine over under the old name, Hercules, and at once drove No. 6 level to the south, where, at about 200 ft. from the crosscut, a block of stone of good quality was met with, a first crushing of 31½ tons from it giving 58 oz. gold. The stone was found, however, to live only a short way above the level, and the sinking of the shaft to No. 7 level was hurried on with. Towards the end of 1890 this lift was completed, and the level was being extended north and south. In the south end, at 170 ft. from the crosscut, the reef was met, but it was just as broken as in No. 6, and the level was then pushed on towards the northern boundary of the No. 2 Keep-it-Dark. At about 600 ft. in from the crosscut the downward continuation of the shoot worked in the north end of the latter mine was picked up, but the stone was apparently only about 2 ft. in width and of low grade, and, like all the other blocks found in the mine, this was broken and erratic. The company struggled on for a few years longer, during which it opened up Nos. 8 and 9 levels, the latter 713 ft. below the surface, without meeting with any success, and in 1899 it ceased operations. The claim later became the property of the Keep-it-Dark Company, which still holds it, but no further work has been done on it.

Under its various managements the mine produced, as near as can be estimated, 12,601 tons of quartz, which yielded 6,809 oz. gold, valued at approximately £27,233, and paid in dividends £3,744.

Golden Ledge Mine.—The original Golden Ledge Company, which held a small claim to the north of the Hercules, appears to have been formed about 1877. Very little is on record regarding its operations, but it put in two adits on a shoot of stone outcropping close to its southern boundary. The upper adit was about 100 ft. below the highest point of the outcrop, with No. 2 about 50 ft. still lower. The top adit was driven wholly on reef for about 200 ft., the stone averaging apparently from 2 ft. to 3 ft. in width. In the lower adit about 230 ft. of crosscut had to be put in before the shoot was met, but the latter maintained its length and width. Most of the quartz between the two levels was stoped out, but it was of low grade, 1,831 tons only yielding 552 oz. gold, equal to about 6 dwt. per ton. The company carried on operations a short time only, and its claim became part of the Keep-it-Dark property. As in the case of the neighbouring companies—the Hercules, No. 2 Keep-it-Dark, and Pandora—the Golden Ledge Company did not erect its own battery, but had its crushing done at either the Keep-it-Dark or Wealth of Nations mills. For nearly forty years the ground lay idle till about two years ago, when what is known as the Keep-it-Dark Tribute Party cleaned out the two old adits, and extended the lower