Thamanampalli Surekha

Forest Greek, the diggings extending eight or ten miles at least from junction, the road, however, crosses the ranges a little below, and in about five miles more it comes upon the creek. There are many small hills in the valley now, well known, such as the red hill near the post-office, the Adelaide Hill, and the White Hill, painted out to the visitor as spots from, which vast quantities of gold have been obtained. And although they were the localities where the diggings first began at the mount, they still yield largely. It was really astonishing to see the quantity of gold obtained: the diggers were not satisfied with ounces! Unless they got pounds in weight, they thought themselves doing badly. However, it would be a great mistake to conclude, and would be untrue to state, that all were picking up gold by the pound weight. Many could not pay their expenses; but there have been fewer failures at Mount Alexander diggings than those we afterwards visited in New south Wales. There is no comparison between he Turon and these diggings, in regard to the quantity of gold obtained, and the enormous amounts realised by hundreds. It would be impossible, however, to advise any one in this matter; fortune often favours the weak and neglects the strong. We saw lads who, we were assured, had made, and were making, from one to three ounces a day; while hard-working and able men were pointed out to us who had not get a pennyweight, and were compelled in consequence to hire themselves to live, having expended all their means; but still desperately determined to continue at the exciting employment, rather than fall back upon the labour of the country, which so much needed them. Whilst we were in a store purchasing some corn for our horses, a lad under sixteen years of age brought some gold for the store-keeper to weigh, there were nearly twenty-seven ounces of it, for which 2l. 10s. an ounce was offered him, which he refused, saying he thought he should get more. This gold was obtained from a hole he had been permitted to work out by a party leaving it. He went into the hole on the Saturday, and on Monday he was possessed of the quantity here mentioned. The circumstance did not surprise any one; for the fact of getting large quantities of gold was so common, that people said only that the lad was lucky, and it would be a good start for him. To most people at a distance there appears some romance in gold-digging, the are excited with the idea that they may kick up a stone and find twenty pounds of gold under it, and cannot imagine how, people can refrain from seizing a pick and breaking every piece of quartz they pass, to see if there is another monster nugget in it. But this is all a delusion; gold-digging is a real downright matter-of-fact trade; so many hours of common labourer's work, so much gold; so many buckets of earth, so many ounces: and once a man is amongst the diggers, he feels no more inclination to take a pick in his hand for the chance of what he might turn up, than he would to enter upon the labour of English navvies, whose allowance is three cubic yards per day. The labour is always great, and sometimes exceedingly so: a great many fail; and the dirty work, mud, and slushing in water, the wretched cooking and uncomfortable beds-if such as the great mass have can be called beds-the discomfort of sitting about in the open air between sundown and bed-time, and rising cold and damp in the morning, besides the pain of training the body to a severe and incessant labour, are so contrary to the habits of the many, that few, can stand the training. No one, therefore, should think of attempting such work, unless he feels himself equal to any exertion, mentally and bodily, and prepared to rough it in the extremest sense of the term. It is very easy to distinguish those who have been any length of time at work from, the new, arrivals, by their worn and dirty dress, their beards, and their thin, lank faces, for even the most healthy of them have a haggard appearance. A few were complaining of dysentery, and some of them had bad eyes; the latter occasioned by the flies, which are terribly annoying; and the former generally goes its, round amongst the new-comers, though most of the men are remarkably healthy at this time of the year; but the water in many places was very bad, and its ill effects were much felt. To this must be added the excessive heat, much greater in consequence of all vegetation being destroyed. To convey an accurate idea of the desolation around you is almost impossible. These diggings being situated in a timbered country, the visitor might expect to see some verdure under the leafy trees, contrasting with the snow-white tents, and every thing to please the taste. How different is th reality! The road, which winds along the creek through the diggings, is, from constant traffic, exceedingly dusty; and as the gusts of wind are very violent, every thing is covered with it; and thus the white tent soon loses its freshness, and becomes as sombre and as dirty as its neighbours. In the same way such trees as have escaped the axe are dusted to an unnatural brownness; even off the road the earth is so trodden by the thousands who are constantly passing and repassing, that all verdure is gone, there is not the least sign of it, all being nearly bare and dusty; and as the summer advances, this locality would have a dreary appearance. On the southern side of the creek the ground is so torn up, that it resembles nothing we ever saw; a stone-quarry does not quite convey an idea of it, still it is the best comparison for the English reader; for the horses and cattle which