The diggers now always looked for the most
gold where the quartz drift showed most of iron browning. Mr. Selwyn had
not yet explained to us our Australian gold features and those gold
"constants" of Murchison, which had to sustain so severe a shaking in
Australia. I scraped out gold grains with my nails, and a good many with
a knife within a minute. When I told the claim owners, that here was
unlimited gold, and asked what they intended to do with it all, they
pointed to the superincumbent mass of white stuff, which was either
absolutely sterile, or, what was practically the same, had insufficient
gold to pay even a run through the wash when ejected. The case seemed
not unlike that of the thin seams of flint nodules (say nuggets) which
characterize the thick chalk strata of South England, within which most
or all the silicious matter of the entire bed has been somehow brought
together. I understood that this remarkable gold seam gave out not long
after, and that, thereupon, the marvellous yield of Bendigo was
seriously diminished.
As we approached this already great and busy goldfield, when the hum of
its business life was just breaking upon our ears, but without any other
disturbing intrusion to interfere with the universally indigenous scene,
a large kangaroo--the "old man," or largest species--started up amongst
the gum-tree underwood a little ahead of us, and bounded away in
magnificent style.
Pages:
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172