87

miners were out of the workings and there was no loss of life, although
considerable damage was done and caused a suspension of mining operations
foratime. A mine car is said to have been shot out through the tunnel on
to the dump by the sudden rush of water and mud. The workings, how-
ever, were cleaned out and drifting resumed, but the work is said not to
have paid. In 1879 the Waverly Hydraulic Mining Company was formed
to mine the ground by hydraulicking. An attempt was made to reach the
deep channel by bringing a cut up in the first draw north of that in which
the tunnel is located, but this failed as it was found that the bedrock in
the draw was too high and it was held by some of the miners that the old
channel was a “blind channel’, which ended near the Talisman shaft. An
open-cut was then made down to the upper end of the bedrock tunnel and
hydraulicking started by sluicing the material out through the tunnel, the
upper part of it being enlarged somewhat and the bottom raised sufficiently
to provide grade for the sluice boxes. Hydraulicking in the old Waverly
pit was continued each season, while the water lasted, from 1884 to 1914.
Water was brought on the ground by ditches and flumes from the dam on
Grouse creek above the falls. John Pomeroy was manager until 1905 and
was succeeded by Pat Carey. Approximately 750,000 cubic yards of dirt
were washed and the total output of gold—as stated by the late James
Bibby, who kept the books of the company for many years—was about
$75,000, or an average of 10 cents a yard. It is stated that a cleanup on
bedrock was made for the first time in 1896 and that no pay gravels were
found until the face had been carried about 1,000 feet along the pit, when
pay gravel 80 feet wide and 25 feet deep above the boxes came in.! With
the advance of the face of the pit, the pay gravels and bedrock were found
to become lower, until in 1908 the gravels dipped below the grade of the
sluice boxes. This low grade of the bedrock continued with the advance
of the face until after several years operations it was found necessary to use
an hydraulic elevator to reach them. When operations ceased in 1914 the
deep channel was about 20 feet below the upper end of the sluice boxes,

The New Waverly Hydraulic Mining Company, Limited, organ-
ized in 1918 by J. G. McLaren and C. W. Moore, acquired the property of
the old company and attempted to mine the deep channel in the old Waverly
pit and its continuation downstream by hydraulicking out a cut starting
about 2,000 feet below the lower end of the old pit. In this attempt they
were only partly successful, for although the outlet of the buried rock channel
was found and was followed nearly all the way to the old pit it was found
that the grade of the channel was low and the bottom of the channel was
not reached. A great deal of work was done and a pit was opened up in
three seasons which is nearly as large as the old .pit. Although over 350,000
cubic yards of ground were moved by hydraulicking only a few ounces of
gold were recovered. This is remarkable considering that colours of gold
can be obtained almost everywhere in the surface gravels of Grouse Creek
flats. A hard mass of boulder clay was encountered at the bend in the
channel 800 feet below the old pit and the deep channel lies beneath it.
A tunnel was driven from the old pit to the draw leading to the new pit
and the water stored in the pit was used for flushing. Two bore-holes
55 and 41 feet deep, respectively, were put down to bedrock in the draw

1Ann. Rept., Minister of Mines, B.C., 1897, p. 494.