Thamanampalli Surekha

were left to take their chance, or several flocks were put together. As we passed one of these flocks where two were put under one man, the fellow said, "he would not stop there in such times; that these were the days for labouring men!" Short-sighted man! as if the abandonment of industry, though it may lead some to fortune, will ever benefit society so much as following industry perseveringly. Wages every where in the bush were enormously high, 30s. a week and rations for indifferent labour! As we passed along, we inquired, and found that some had engaged men to reap their crops, shortly expected to commence, at 1l. 5s. an acre. These wages must be submitted to, or the crop lost. But will the land generally be cultivated again? Time will determine that, at any rate the farmers, with such prospects before them, are more likely to take a turn at the diggings than fallow their necessary occupation, if so, what will be the state of the country? What will those people do who are unable to be gold-diggers, either from age, infirmity, or sex, or from any other cause? It was such reflections passing through our mind that induced us to address the Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria upon the subject, and enclose to him a memorandum on the gold question, which the reader will find in. If we were in power, we should be intensely anxious until the principle submitted was acted upon, after it was, we should have great hope that by raising other interests we should negative the evil effects of gold, -effects that have been injurious to all people hitherto possessing goldmines. Gold, like every other thing bestowed by a bountiful Creator upon man, has nothing in itself that is injurious, it must, therefore, be the mode in which communities treat it that makes it so. The whole matter, however, is a currency question-a question few comprehend, and upon which in all countries there is a great difference of opinion. We have seen gold selling at Mount Alexander at 2l. 12s. and 2l. 10s. the ounce, and it has been sold nominally as low, as 2l.5s. by those in extremity, while the some gold has realised 4l. in England. These are fine times for the store-keepers, who made on enormous profit upon every thing; they and the buyers of gold would, of courses, object to any regulations which are calculated to interfere with their enormous gains: but the government has a duty to the people to perform, and its profit and its interest, and in this case its duty, should induce it to adopt some course which would be a protection to the hard-working miner, and at the some time take care of all other interests in the community. Visit Friar's Greek-Bush hospitality-Probable extent of the gold-deposits-The digger's habits open to improvement-Abandoned diggings-Discomforts at the day diggings-Hardship and fatigue comparative- Prospects for gentleman diggers-Extroordinary instances of good fortune-Gold companies-Carting the golden earth to the Loddon River - The digger's El dorado-Gold-washing-Yield of the surface-diggings-Pit- diggings-Formation in which the gold is found-Best season to commence digging-Appearance of the gold as it is found-Colour of the Victoria gold-Hopes of the gold-digger. On the 31st of December, 1851 - the close of that memorable year in the history of Australia- we visited the Friar's Greek diggings, which form a portion of the auriferous deposits around the golden mount. Our gold- digging friends were very desirous to obtain every information concerning that locality, and we were but too gold of the opportunity to show them how much we appreciated their kind hospitality-a hospitality so freely proffered where the most selfish passions of our nature are supposed to be brought into play. Nor during our stay amongst those people did we see the hungry man or newly-arrived digger refused a bit of damper, or a pot of tea where it was to be had, and welcome, and those who opened their larders most liberally were the older hands of the colony, who had been nurtured in the hospitable manners of the patriarch settlers. The fear was, that the influx of new-comers, who had never experienced the well-known hospitality of the country, would lessen the display of this kindly feeling by a want of reciprocity, and be the means of creating a bad feeling between them, for in no part of the world is the inhospitable man contemned more than in the bush of Australia. Friar's Greek and Forest Greek are both tributaries of the Loddon river, which forms one of the southern branches of the Great Murray river. The former creek joins the Loddon about ten or twelve miles from the "Shepherd's hut" at Forest Greek. Between the two creeks there is a range of hills, the distance apart being about five miles. These hills are intersected by veins of mineral quartz, presenting all the usual indications of gold, there is, in fact, nothing to distinguish Forest Greek or the ranges in its vicinity, with their iron- sandstone, quartz-rock, and slaty broken ridges and ravines, from thousands of similar localities throughout the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. And upon testing the soil of these ranges, the government geologists have already discovered indications of the gold alluvium over 400 miles of country, and every month is adding fresh workings to those already known. Similar ranges also stated to extend as for west as the Pyrenees, and as for south as Wilson Promontory, crossing 500 miles of country, and from that point along the whole Australian cordillera as for as Cape York, 1500 miles to the northward, the some formation