I fear I did not much
impress my hearers on the latter point, for everyone did what was most
for his immediate needs, whether or not he thus sacrificed his neighbour
below him. Next I was conducted to Gold Point, which was just developing
its quality in the "blue clay," which had been struck at no great depth
below the surface. I was let down into a big hole, the early parent of
shaft-sinking, given a spade, and directed to apply it to a place where
a digger's quick eye had detected one speck of gold. There was probably,
he said, a string of gold behind it. And so it proved, for out of about
a pound weight of matrix which I removed on the corner of the spade, I
picked out 7 shillings and 6 pence worth of gold.
Then I retired from the crowd and the incessant noise of cradles, and
ascending from the valley to the high level plain, I came upon a small
lake, whose waters glittered peacefully in the warm sunshine of a bright
spring day. A tiny streamlet was still running from the lake, and
trickling down the small semi-precipice towards the main rivulet, now
sadly muddy, which I had just left. So near was this edge to the lake
that I increased the stream by deepening its bed with my foot; but I
repented of this waste, and restored the block, because the approaching
summer must be thought for, and this natural reservoir was by no means
deep.
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