Thamanampalli Surekha

the ground without the slightest experience of what colonial roughings are? If the clerk from a banking - house or a merchant's office is inclined to lay down his pen and take to handling the pickaxe and shovel as a gold - digger, we do not say nay, provided he marches to the field of operation with the requisite physical energy and habits necessary to encounter the hardships attending this novel pursuit. The extent, however, to which these qualifications will be taxed in such a sphere, few, individuals who have been unaccustomed to hard labour are aware of. And it is a great and mighty change to the office- man from any of the large cities of the United Kingdom, to give up all his comforts, and amusements for this rude life in the mountains of Australia, even thought they be strewed with gold. Many, we are certain, will wish themselves again in "Old England." However, in this matter it is useless to advise; for the love of gold will made men encounter a vast deal more than the fatigue of procuring it at the diggings. A hole sixteen feet deep was painted out to us from which one hundred and fifty pounds weight of gold had been taken out by one man of the name of Darcy. This statemen was confirmed by the commissioner with whom he had deposited the gold, valued at upwards of 7000l. sterling. Other instances were mentioned where enormous sums, such as 10,000l. worth of the precious metal, had been obtained by parties of four and six from similar holes, eight, sixteen, and eighteen feet deep, where they came upon the golden earth. The luck of such men made others almost mad. But the severe labour and exposure, the illness and bad fortune some had to endure and put up, with, checked the enthusiasm of many, although the general success kept up the mania. All persons in this locality were doing well, none had been unsuccessful in procuring more or less of the gold. The surface-diggings were very rich even to the summit of the hills, and as much as 6l. a - day per man had been obtained. So easily was it found, that we pickled out some specimens from the root of a tree, which, in its fall, had torn up much earth: the roots of this tree had been well pickled, but there was some gold still left. A party of Ayrshire men, whom we entered into conversation with, had obtained, they said, thirty pounds weight of gold in one month from holes and from surface - diggings. From them we received some specimens of gold in ironstone. Those parties of four, six, and eight, whom we have mentioned, worked extremely well together, because they were all on an equality; no one was master: the cradle-rocker of this week was cook next week; each one took the other's job by turns; and all shared equally in the collections of gold. Nowhere did we come across any large body of men working under a superintendent, or belonging to a public company. The most intelligent men we spoke to upon the subject were doubtful of such companies succeeding; they said, at the best they would never be able to compete with individual enterprise, and it would be almost impossible to keep a large party of fifteen or twenty men together; it would be constantly liable to be broken up by the men deserting, after all the trouble and expense of bringing them free from England to the field of operation. And although the most stringent arrangements could be entered into in the colony between such companies and their servants, it would be impossible for the managers to enforce their agreements in the lawless localities of the gold-diggings. From these opinions, we have great doubts whether any of the Gold Companies, which this discovery has given rise to in London, will be effectually carried out, however honest their promoters, or however efficient their officers may be. As to those which may be termed Bubble Companies, formed by designing knaves to dupe the public, we need only mention the case of one, to put people on their guard how they invest, where 20,000l. of the money subscribed by the shareholders was bonâ fide paid for a tract of land in the colony, reputed, upon the most flimsy evidence, to contain gold alluvium, and gold quartz; but which has turned out, upon examination, to be destitute of any mineral wealth whatever. In all these companies we have remarked, that there are exaggerated plans set forth with regard to their management on the field. They make a grand parade of sending out scientific engineers to conduct their operations, and talk of erecting large steam-engines, and expensive mining machinery at the diggings, as if gold-digging in Australia were the same as mining in Cornwall, where both the overseers and miners have to serve long apprenticeships before they are qualified for their tasks. Such means and appliances may be profitably used where difficulties are to be contended with in extracting metals from, their ores by chemical methods, and mincing we take to be a process of working metalliferous minerals by great skill and machinery; but to call this simple process of washing sand and gravel mining is absurd: they might as well designate ordinary gravel-pits mines, and propose that scientific engineers should superintend the loading of the carts. Seeing that there was no water in the creek to wash the gold-earth, the diggers were necessitated to cart it to the Loddon river, distant about three miles. In this case they were obliged to pay separately for carting it; for which they were charged fifteen shillings per load. It was put into bags for this purpose, which were carefully emptied at the washing-ground. This nearness to the Loddon is a great advantage to the diggers upon Friar's Greek. That river is a beautiful clear running stream, the water of which is excellent. And there was even at that