the deposit and cut their hands, the skin being worn through, as they were actually working with tools encased in stone. At this time it also formed in the lines of the skin on the men's hands and arms, and took a great deal of cleaning and rubbing to get rid of.

It speedily began to act upon the working of the pumps, and castings had to be got specially constructed to disconnect the pump bucket from the rods below, as it would not come up the column, and as time went on the column had to be chipped the whole length inside to keep the water space clear; this was done by slinging five or six men at a time on to a rope and lowering them down into the column, which they chipped with chiselpointed hammers. This operation would take about three days, but it wa not all performed at the same time, one part of the column would be done when we had to change a bucket, and another part was done at next changing of bucket, and so on, and by this means the lift was kept clear.

The twenty-five inch lift was cleared its entire length by this means three different times, and the working barrel at the ends of the stroke had to be chipped fortnightly.

The deposit was very irregular while forming, with regard to hardness. Sometimes it would form hard, sometimes soft; when it did form soft there was always more of it; sometimes it would form three-eighths of an inch in a week; when so, for two or three hours after the bucket came to the surface the incrustation was quite soft, but it hardened very soon on exposure to the atmosphere.

There is a peculiarity in the deposit, viz.,—it always forms in layers, and these layers change colour without any apparent cause—one layer may be white, the next one red, and it would keep changing in shade from pure white to a dark brown.

Where the water was hottest the deposit was most, and in some parts of the workings, on the thermometer being held in the stream as it issues from the rock, it will rise to 108° Fahr.; 100° is quite usual.

Since the crosscuts have been driven on both sides of the shaft the deposit has ceased forming in the pumps, and it now forms on the sides of the drives. The drives north and south for a distance of 300 feet on both sides of the shaft being now all coated with it, it also forms in the shoots in which the water is conveyed after it leaves the pumps on the surface. This deposit is not like what is formed below, being quite soft and having more of an earthy appearance.

There is an old shoot on the surface not now in use, along which a small quantity of water has been running; this shoot is about eight inches square inside and it has completely filled up with deposit during the last two months.