visible here and there. The fragments covering horses left no track, and that of a cart was only this singular feature were all of the same kind of rock-indurated or compact quartz.' In another part of his work he says:— having a total tonnage of 110,659 tons. In | they had been rounded by attrition, were coated the year 1857 the number of ships cleared over with oxide of iron, and were evenly disoutwards at the various custom-houses in Vic-tributed. In going over the dreary waste the toria was 2207, with a tonnage of 684,826, and they were manned by 33,928 sailors. It is in the character of a gold-producing country that Australia now excites the greatest attention. The great colony pours into the markets of Europe an annual supply of upwards of ten millions sterling of the precious metal, giving a stimulus to industry and an expansion to trade greater than has taken place since the discovery of America. It was long a common belief that Australia was a country but of yesterday, and the youngest of those continents that had been upheaved from the ocean bed. Further investigation has proved it to be one of the most ancient. The auriferous districts of Australia are encircled by vast ranges of granitic, porphyritic, and metamorphic rock, crowned, in many places, by naked needles and toothformed peaks, which give a bold character to the scenery, and render the mountains in many places difficult of access. These mountain ranges once formed gigantic barriers against the intrusion of winds that 'Our ride was over a singularly rugged country, of equally singular geological formation; nor can I doubt that one time there were currents sweeping over it in every direction. At one place that we passed there was a broad Through this opening the eye surveyed a long opening in a rocky but earth-covered bank. plain, which at about two miles' distance was bounded by low dark hills. Along this plain the channel of a stream was as distinctly marked in all its windings by small fragments of snowwhite quartz as if water had been there instead.** As this kind of surface extends over enormous areas, the superficial extent of Australia affords no true index to the territory really available for colonization. A great portion of the interior is more hopelessly barren than the deserts of Africa, being in summer a hollow basin of burning sand, and in rainy seasons a vast shallow inland sea. But if the action of water has done much to impoverish a large portion of this great country, it has, in another sense, abundantly enriched it. Water has been the principal agent in those grand debacles that, in ages of indefinite remoteness, have broken up, pulverised, and dispersed the great mountain masses and their mineral contents, that are now superficially diffused over the continent, or buried deep under its trackless sands. blew over a wild waste of waters. From Mount Kosciusco, the loftiest of the Australian Alps, the eye sweeps over an area exceeding 7000 square miles. The whole of the low interior was unquestionably once a sea-bed, and the process of slow elevation has so changed the configuration of the whole as to make a continuous continent of that which had once been an archipelago of islands. Viewed from almost any very elevated point, the greatest portion of this enormous country presents an appearance like that of the ocean seen Australia has been the theatre of igneous from a lofty cliff; the undulations and re-action on an enormous scale, and to that fractions of the atmosphere presenting the semblance of waves, while estuaries and bays seem to penetrate the bases and wind between the spurs of the hills. Impetuous currents must have once swept along the shores of multitudinous islands, depositing the accumulated detritus which they carried along with them in their tumultuous course. action and its influence upon the contiguous the formation of gold. The most prolific strata may probably be chiefly attributed gold-fields in Victoria are in regions where the old formations are pierced by igneous rocks which have flowed from extinct volcanoes, and some of the richest alluvial deposits have been found covered by beds of lava, many feet in thickness, through which the miner has had to sink his shaft. By what exact agency, and at what geological epoch, gold was formed in the submarine mountain chains must probably always remain a secret. It exists chiefly in quartz veins which are seen extensively traversing the Lower Silurian strata, and was probably elaborated by thermo-electrical action 'The stones with which the earth was so thickly strewed, so as to exclude vegetation, *Narrative of an Expedition into Central were of different lengths, from one inch to six; | Australia,' by Captain Charles Sturt. The interior, in various places, possesses vast stony deserts and sandy plains which exhibit a regularity and a surface that water alone could have given. Captain Sturt, in one of his exploring expeditions, encountered one of these remarkable wastes, which he thus de scribes :- induced during the period of the vast igne- | discovered at the top, I thought I was certain to ous eruptions. In Victoria the gold-drifts constitute at least three distinct deposits, the result of successive upheavals and depressions, and these three auriferous deposits sometimes occur in the same locality, and the miner finds, in the course of his working, a first, second, and third bottom, the last being always on the solid and unmoved paleozoic rock, from which all the gold has been derived. The richness of some of these deep drifts or 'gutters' of gold almost exceeds belief. In a visit which the author of one of the latest works on the Victoria gold-fields paid to the celebrated shafts called the Jewellers' Shops,' he ascertained the following extraordinary facts : 'I made my first descent in what was called the "Blacksmith's Claim," being opened by a person of that craft. It was about the most slovenly and ill-sunk shaft I ever ventured down, being so far from the perpendicular that at times the half of the orifice above was obscured; and it was slabbed in so insecure a manner that flakes of stuff were being constantly forced through the wide slits, falling down to the imminent danger of the people below. The danger was fearfully aggravated by the partial tipping over of the buckets while ascending, from their contact with the irregular sides of the shaft, at times upsetting half their contents. The blacksmith's party was composed of eight persons, most of them novices in their new profession, which accounts for the faulty construction of the shaft. When they reached the gutter on the bottom, being ignorant of the proper mode of carrying on the workings, they washed out all the stuff they could reach without opening a regular drive, and after dividing 16007. per man (12,8007.), they offered it for sale. Several parties of inspection went down without making a bid, being frightened at the appearance of the shaft, as well as at the wetness and rottenness of the ground below. At length one party plucked up courage, purchasing all right and title to the claim and utensils for 771. They entered into possession at noon, and on the same day (Saturday) divided 2007. per man (2000). Charmed with their luck, they continued working in spells night and day, until the following Monday, when they declared another dividend of 8007. per man (10,000l. in all), when they sold out for a week, then to regain possession. 'The succeeding party, whose purchase-money I could not ascertain, were regular bred miners, who went about their business with their eyes open. They spent the first four days of their term in opening two regular drives, one at the point where the gutter entered the shaft, and the other where it made its exit. It was during their occupation that I descended; but if I was offered 10,000l. for twenty-four hours' work at the bottom I would have declined the employment, for, what from the falling dirt splashing in the water around me, the cracking and straining of the bent slabs, and the thin line of light to be defraud the undertaker; and when I came above ground I felt like a person who was released from a coffin which had been prematurely nailed down. Not so, however, the temporary proprietors, who, before the three remaining days had elapsed, took out an amount of gold which divided 12007. per man to a party of twelve men (14,4007.). The other party then re-entered, and, after digging out 900l. per man (90007.) in a week, principally by day-work, they sold out to a well-known store-keeper, Mr. Nin shares. After a fortnight's irregular work for 1007., who put in a gang of men to work it they divided 5007. per man (50007.), when one of them, an old hand, undermined the props on a Saturday night, and before Monday morning the whole workings fell in. This fellow then marked out a claim on the surface of the ruin, and went down straight as an arrow on the old gutter, having engaged a hired party. The first 40 lbs. weight of coarse gold, and two others tubful (four bucketfuls) they raised turned out yielded 10 lbs. each, after which he took gold amounting in the aggregate to 40007., raising the value of the whole amount taken out to the prodigious and unprecedented figure of 55,2007, from an area of twenty-four feet square, an and which may never be again paralleled.** amount unequalled in the annals of gold-digging, It is a remarkable fact that these rich gullies are seldom traceable to any existing quartz-reef, but evidently originated in the débris of older mountain masses, which have undergone a process of disintegration, and were doubtless deposited by strong currents, in remote ages, in the spots where they are now found. This leads us to remark a conspicuous difference between the gold deposits of Australia and California, which has a great geological significance. the The gold of California is found in the midst of, or contiguous to, the existing great mountain ranges, amidst regions of peaked, jagged, irregular crests and upheaved and distorted strata, the undoubted effects of internal convulsions. It has not, however, selected as its resting-place the smooth levels and hanging slopes of the contiguous hills. The metal, ground finer and finer as it is carried forward by the river-beds, finally settles in the form of fine torrents that year after year tear up flakes or dust along the banks and at the bottoms of the great streams of the country. The diggers of California have not, like those of Australia, to penetrate into the earth for the drifts of the precious metal, but find them in the strata immediately under the surface, either associated with the subsoil or in the holes or 'pockets' of water-worn rocks. They rarely go lower than a few feet, and almost always *Life in Victoria.' close to the margins of rivers or brooks, whereas at Ballarat and most of the other prolific gold-fields of Australia, the gold is found on the pipe clay bottom of flat widespread plains, or settled in great subterranean gutters deep under broad elongated slopes, which the miner can only reach by sinking his shaft through stratum after stratum, from fifty to three hundred feet down, before he reaches the buried treasure. The inference necessarily is that much of the gold-drift of Australia is of an earlier origin than the deposits of California, which are the products of the existing mountain ranges, and therefore will be exhausted in a comparatively brief period. locked up in the great mountain-ranges both of Victoria and New South Wales, the hidden wealth of which can only be brought to light by the skill and energy of the systematic miner. And this leads us to the consideration of a question which at one time excited considerable discussionthe question whether gold-bearing quartz veins can be profitably worked, or whether, by reason of their asserted poverty at certain distances from the surface, every attempt to pursue the metal in depth must be attended with loss. The progress of mining both in Australia and California has clearly proved that there exists no immutable law by reason of which quartz-reefs are rendered richer near the surface and poorer as they descend. The special correspondent of The Times' in California, in a communication dated 10th April, 1858, thus expresses himself: The auriferous drifts of the deep alluvial deposits may, and it is probable will, be worked out in a comparatively short period. Rich as they are frequently found to be, they must be necessarily limited, having been deposited by currents and the con-Quartz mining is no longer a speculation, tinuous action of waves not far from the localities where the gold was originally formed. But the alluvial gold of Victoria and New South Wales is not confined to drifts and gutters;' there are hundreds, probably thousands, of square miles where the clay, earth, and sand are impregnated with gold in sufficient quantities to pay well for washing. In one district of the Goulburn an area exists of such an extent that it could not be washed over in half a century. The Alma, Avoca, Dunolly, and Ararat districts are known to be sufficiently auriferous to be well worth working under improved processes. Mr. Hardy, formerly the gold commissioner of the Turon goldfield, thus reports of its capabilities: 'In the whole course of the Turon valley the production of gold appears as regular as wheat in a sown field. It does not matter where you work; any steady working man can earn ten shillings a day with the utmost regularity. In short, from the top of the bank across the whole bed of the river (from fifty to one hundred yards wide), and for nine miles at least, the result is as absolutely to be depended on as weekly wages, and 5000 workers would be nothing in that space. There are, moreover, many partially explored, but highly promising and almost illimitable territories, such as Gipps' Land and the Wimmera, where there is every probability that the surface-washings will not fall short in productiveness of the districts which have already been found more or less remunerative.' Although the rich deposits of the Australian gold-fields are doubtless owing to the disintegration of pre-existing quartz veins and decomposed rocks, more or less impregnated with the metal, there are vast reserves, if we may so express it, of gold it is a certainty; and is destined to be the paramount lasting interest of the country; and this improved success is attributable to the greater depth of the sinkings. Great confidence is entertained, much capital is laid out, and new buildings and improved machinery are always on the increase.' In reference to Australia we shall quote a few examples of successful deep quartz-mining for gold, which are certainly very remarkable and calculated to give great confidence to the miners and capitalists of Victoria.* * It must, however, be added, that as yet no mine has been sunk into the solid rock of Australia, which a miner of Cornwall, South America, or The narratives are so extraordinary, that we should have hesitated to quote them had we not found the general statements of the writer confirmed by concurrent and independent testimony : 'A Mr. Ballersted, in the district of Sandhurst, attracted by the richness of the surface, followed down his reef for 200 feet and found no gold, but went down an additional 100 feet and found the reef richer than at first, in one of the galleries of which he had the honour of entertaining Sir Henry Barkly and suite at a champagne luncheon, amidst the blaze of twelve hundred wax candles and the coruscations of the gold-bespangled walls of the cavern. Mr. O'Farrall's reef, on Specimen Hill in Sailors' Gully, was only moderately rich at the top, but kept improving as it went down. At a depth of 180 feet he gave 8007. for three yards of the claim to a partner who wished to sell out, and the whole continued improving as he descended. At a depth of 250 feet the reef was 4 feet thick and more promising than ever. During the sinking it frequently ran out, but was always recovered again at a greater depth each time, proving better and better. It has already led to the accumulation of a large fortune, and where it will end neither science nor experience can conjecture. 'Johnston's Reef, as it is called, after the first person who opened it, was worked by successive parties for upwards of two years, and never showed a symptom of promise for 120 feet. After every one else deserted it, a butcher named Dawborn organized a small party, who set to work again: he supplied the funds from his trade earnings, getting his wife to keep the shop; but after the shaft was down to 145 feet without finding a speck of gold, his resources became utterly exhausted, and the spirit of the party was broken. It is the common practice amongst quartz miners to finish up the day's labour by firing off the evening blasts just before leaving off, so that the work should not be retarded in the morning by waiting for the smoke to clear away, and, in accordance with this custom, Dawborn's party, late of an evening, fired their last blast as a sort of farewell to the claim that had impoverished them all. Dawborn the same evening went to a public-house and strove hard to sell his fourth share for 157., but his proposition was received with derisive laughter. However, the next morning having visited the reef for the purpose of gathering and carrying away the tools, he went down the shaft to take a "last fond look," and was well nigh overwhelmed by the gorgeous sight he encountered. The first crushing of tralia, are recorded in the 'Quarterly Review' of 1850, vol. lxxxvii., in the article entitled 'Siberia and California,' in which he pointed out the extent to which our own great Australian colonies were, in his opinion, destined to become gold-bearing regions. For his still earlier allusion to this topic see his Anniversary Address to the Royal Geogra phical Society, 1844; Transactions of the Royal GeoL Soc. of Cornwall,' 1846; 'Journal of the Royal Institution,' 1849, &c. six tons yielded 370 ounces of gold, or about 14807. Since then the party have gone on amassing wealth rapidly, and the share which they could not find a purchaser for at 157. would now sell for 10,000l. In the next claim to Dawborn's, on the same reef, a twelfth share was foolishly disposed of for 500l., and reimbursed the purchase-money in three small crushings. 'Wetherall's Reef, likewise called after the person who first "prospected" it, was perfectly barren for a great depth. Mr. Wetherall was a gentleman by birth and also a University man, still he worked as hard and as steadily as any Cornish miner, but was for a long time very unlucky, being almost at the end of his tether before any ray of hope came to cheer him in the prosecution of his daily toil; however, when it did come it was in a full blaze, for in an incredibly short space of time he took out gold to the value of 80007., but got so unfortunately elated by this sudden acquisition that he went to the Victoria Hotel in Sandhurst to celebrate his success, and, in a fit of delirium, jumped from a window and broke his neck. This poor fellow only began to find his gold when, in accordance with scientific theory, it ought to have failed altogether. 'The Nelson Reef was paying well at a depth of 200 feet, and the great Victoria Reef yielded the greater part of its almost fabulous wealth at a lower level. The Clarence Reef was found by following down a number of spurs or veins for 90 feet, at which level they all met in the solid concentrated reef, yielding an average of 10 ounces to the ton, thence downwards. The splendid New Chum Reef, from which so many fortunes have been extracted, after paying in all places at a high level and then becoming poorer, increased in richness again as the deep sinking was persevered in. The great reef running into Bendigo Flat gave no decided proofs of richness until the sinkings attained a depth far in excess of the scientific limit, and then one poor fellow, in coming to his claim in the morning to examine the effects of the previous evening's blast, was so overpowered by the golden spectacle which presented itself, that his senses fled on the instant, and his insanity afterwards became so deplorably confirmed, that the warden felt it his duty to employ a keeper to ensure his safe custody. 'In Tarrengower, a German named Weisenharem has a claim, from which at a depth of 300 feet he took 4 cwt. of gold in the space of a week. At Steiglitz the reefs are found to pay at great depths; and at Maryborough, Blackman's Reef paid well at 240 feet, and is improving as it goes down; one' bucket of stone from Mr. Meredith's claim having yielded so much as 15 lbs. weight of gold at that depth.** We could multiply proofs that the idea of reefs running out as they descend, is now abundantly refuted by experience. Trusting to the evidence of their senses, the merchants, bankers, and professional men of the city of Sandhurst have expend *Life in Victoria.' ed enormous sums in the erection of splen- | twenty pounds, certainly not thirty pounds. It did shops, banks and edifices of a most enduring character, in the firm persuasion that when the coal-seams of Newcastle are exhausted, fears may be entertained of the continued productiveness of the gold quartz reefs in their neighbourhood, and not till then. Amongst the marvels of Australia are the sudden fortunes that have been acquired by some of the poorest emigrants, who, entering the country with the stock in trade of only a few simple implements, their brawny arms, and indomitable wills, have suddenly stumbled upon wealth beyond their wildest dreams, and picked up from almost the surface of the ground, in a few hours, riches that would have more than rewarded a life of skilled and persevering labour at home. Children even have been known to return to their homes tottering under a weight of gold of which they knew not the value. The following instance of juvenile quartz-mining is both amusing and suggestive : Anxious was very dark and disintegrated, with little Think 'The brace of millionaires smiled me their thanks for the service I had rendered them, and departed with their treasure in a direction which I very well knew, by their previous tactics, was not likely to lead them to the neighbourhood 'I remember,' says the narrator of the inci- from which they came; and as if they had be dent, one morning, after our mill was at work, come introduced to the surrounding scenery for seeing two children loitering about the engine- the first time, they sat down on every eminence house with bags on their backs. At first I to take a survey of the country behind them. thought it was curiosity, but observing that the About ten days afterwards the same pair made elder made one or two efforts to engage my their appearance again, escorting a wheelbarrow attention, I inquired what he wanted, when, in driven by a lad more advanced in years, in a silent, cautious way, the wily manikin asked which there was a good-sized, well-filled bag. leave to use a pestle and mortar that was kept After entering the yard the trio squatted on the in the canvass workshop for testing quartz sam- barrow, waiting, as before, for the coming dinples. I gave the child permission, but instead ner-hour; but as I had, in the mean time, been of instantly availing himself of it, I remarked talking of the occurrence, the men determined that he and his comrade waited until the dinner- to forego their meal to see the result, and when. hour, when the carpenter was sure to be absent; the hour arrived, they made a ring round the and even then they entered upon their little busi- barrow, produced the pestle and mortar, and ness with a degree of wary circumspection that offered their services in pounding the stuff. made me exceedingly curious. So, after a short Seeing there was no averting the result, the lapse of time, making a slight circuit, I came boys assented; but, on opening the bag to noiselessly to the tent entrance, and found this commence operations, there was a simultaneous pair of Lilliputian miners laboriously at work, start, as if all the gazers received sharp electric pounding quartz pebbles in the mortar. My shocks; and really it was a sight to produce a entry was a surprise; but, when they peeped shock of utter surprise, even to men accustomed out, and ascertained that none of the men were to golden marvels, for the contents were only approaching, they became reassured, without, comparable to large honeycombs of gold, dotted however, entering upon any explanation or con- with quartz and ironstone. Mr. S., a wealthy fession, until I put the mortar on edge towards citizen of Sandhurst, who had some of his own the light, and saw its glittering contents. The rich quartz under process at our mill at the elder child then told me, with reluctant can- time, offered the lads a cheque for 1200l. for the dour, that he and his mate, when at play the contents of the barrow, and he was a person other day, found a "little quartz reef with a lot both qualified to form a correct opinion of its of gold in it, and without telling father and value, as well as constitutionally disposed to bid mother, they picked out the two little bagfuls, considerably below the intrinsic worth of any and came round to the mill by a back gully for article he desired to purchase. I did not weigh fear any one should get upon the scent." I the proceeds on this occasion, but even taking could not help smiling at their acuteness while them, at Mr. S.'s estimate, it was a startling commending their prudence, and promised most sum in the pockets of this juvenile triumvirate. faithfully to keep their secret, an obligation, Every effort that coaxing, cajoling, or crosshowever, from which they relieved me by keep- questioning could suggest was tried in order to ing it to themselves. According to my estimate, discover the El Dorado without effect. the two parcels of stuff they had with them would not have weighed together much over 'I lost sight of the lads for some weeks, until one evening the original pair turned up to make |
