The Country round Lyell the Goal-Field 



In order to attract attention we fired a gun in reply, 

 and in about half an hour were rewarded by the appear- 

 ance of a man of apparently sixty years of age. He 

 was an Englishman and told us that he had been living 

 here for some ten years, though he seemed a little 

 doubtful as to the exact number. He was very reserved 

 and would say nothing about his past, but appeared glad 

 to see us, and invited us to his house to share in a deer 

 which he had shot. Leaving our men in charge of the 

 canoes and stores we made our way, in the company of 

 our new friend, along a narrow pathway through the 

 undergrowth for a distance of about a quarter of a mile 

 from the fork of the stream. We soon found ourselves 

 in a small clearing in front of a steep face of sandstone, 

 under the shelter of which stood a somewhat primitive 

 log hut. 



Eventually convinced of the boria fides of our host 

 we offered to lend him two of our men to assist in 

 carrying home the deer, and returned to the canoes to 

 bring up some tinned fruit, and other delicacies, which 

 we hoped might prove a pleasing variety in the diet of 

 the hermit. 



On our return we were surprised and highly pleased 

 to find him carrying a basket of excellent coal, which he 

 informed us he had dug out of the river bank a little 

 farther up the main stream. This we supposed to be 

 derived from some thin seam such as those we had 

 encountered from time to time in the lower reaches 

 of the river, but decided to visit the spot on the 

 morrow. 



As our host appeared to be very reluctant to tell us 

 his name, or to say why and when he retired to these 



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