266 



GOLD NUGGETS. 



Widener, Peter A. B., Philadelphia, gift to the 

 city for a memorial library, his costly residence 

 and its contents. 



Wilson, Myron H., Chicago, gift to the North- 

 western University Settlement, for the erection of 

 a new hall, $50,000. 



Wilson, Thomas, Cleveland, Ohio, bequest, 

 funds for establishment of a home for aged couples, 

 preferably sailors and their wives. 



Wolcott, ex-Gov. Boger, Boston, bequests to 

 Harvard University, $20,000; Massachusetts Gen- 

 eral Hospital and Boston Museum of line Arts, 

 each $5,000; Milton Public Library, $2,000; Hamp- 

 ton Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee 

 Normal and Industrial Institute, and Wolcott 

 Library, Litchfield, Conn., each $1,000. 



Wolff, Abraham, New York, bequests to the 

 United Hebrew Charities, $10,000; Mount Sinai 

 Hospital, $10,000; Montefiore Home for Chronic 

 Invalids, $10,000; Home for Aged and Infirm He- 

 brews, $5,000; New York Cancer Hospital, $5,000; 

 and other institutions an aggregate of $10,000. 



Woodford, Stewart L., Brooklyn, N. Y., gift 

 to Berkeley Institute, for three scholarships, 

 $9,000. 



Woolsey, William, Belair, Md. (died in 1888), 

 bequest to the authorities of Harford County for 

 improvement of its public roads, the reversion of 

 $58,000, released by the death of Miss Rebecca 

 Woolsey in 1900. 



Yankton (S. D.) College, gifts from friends, 

 $30,000, securing gift from Dr. Daniel K. Pear- 

 sons, of Chicago, of $50,000. 



Young, Harriet B., Charlestown, Ind., be- 

 quests to Presbyterian missionary and benevolent 

 societies, an aggregate of $16,000. 



Young Men's Christian Association, Hyde 

 Park, Mass., gift from a friend, for building fund, 

 $25,000. 



Young Men's Christian Association, New 

 Haven, Conn., gifts from friends for auditorium, 

 $35,000. 



GOLD NUGGETS. The important discoveries 

 of gold in the past century began in 1848, in Cali- 

 fornia. Three years later those in Australia fol- 

 lowed, a few years afterward those in British 

 Columbia, and those of Colorado in 1858-'59. 

 Those of the Transvaal were made principally in 

 1886. Gold was discovered at various places in 

 Alaska in 1882-'94, and the first claim in the 

 Klondike was located in August, 1896. 



Australia. Australia has been found richer 

 than any other part of the world in gold nug- 

 gets. The colony of Victoria has yielded the 

 greatest number, and New South Wales the largest 

 one recorded. This monster nugget, found at Hill 

 End, was 4 feet 9 inches by 3 feet 3 inches, aver- 

 aging 4 inches in thickness, and $148,000 was 

 paid for it to the finders, Messrs. Byer and Halt- 

 man. Just previously they had so exhausted their 

 resources as to be obliged to live on charity, and 

 this rich find is said to have unfitted one of them 

 for work for a long time thereafter. 



At Bakery Hill, Ballarat, Victoria, June 15, 

 1858, a party of 24 found the Welcome nugget, 

 and sold it for $52,000 in Ballarat. It was ex- 

 liiliitod in Melbourne, and was sold again for 

 $40,625. The Welcome was found at a depth of 

 180 feet, was water worn, and contained 10 pounds 

 of fjiiartz, clay, and oxide of iron. It measured 

 20 inches by 12 inches by 7 inches, and when 

 melted in London, in November, 1859, it yielded 

 99.20 per cent, of pure gold. Three years before 

 the finding of the Welcome a nugget of 480 ounces 

 and one of 571 ounces were discovered very near 

 the same spot. Canadian Gully has an interest- 

 ing record. In it two new miners, working with 



two others, found a nugget of 76 ounces, and imme- 

 diately after, digging to a depth of 60 feet, they 

 took out a nugget weighing 1,619 ounces, which 

 they took to England and sold for $27,660. The 

 Lady Hotham, weighing 1,177 ounces 9 penny- 

 weights, was also found at a depth of 60 feet, where 

 the earth about it had been yielding one ounce of 

 gold to the ton. Also a beautiful pyramidal nug- 

 get came to light not ten feet from the point where 

 the 1,619 ounce nugget had been discovered. In 

 the year 1853 a nugget of 371 ounces 2 penny- 

 weights, worth $1,327 , one of 368 ounces, and one of 

 143 ounces 15 pennyweights were taken from the 

 same gully. !Near this gully a nugget of 1,177 

 ounces 17 pennyweights was discovered in 1854, 

 and smaller ones to the amount of 220 pounds, so 

 that the claim yielded $65,000. In the Indicator 

 vein in the Ballarat group was found, about 1870, 

 a remarkable pendant of pure gold. It consisted 

 of a golden wire about 4 feet long, hung at inter- 

 vals with lumps of gold about as large as an egg. 

 It was found at a depth of 250 feet, and was worth 

 $7,500. 



Other nuggets found at Ballarat are: At Ku- 

 reka, in an abandoned hole, one of 625 ounces, and, 

 in 1857, near Native Youth, at a depth of 9 feet, the 

 Nil Desperandum, 540 ounces. Also there was 

 found at Ballarat in 1860, at a depth of 400 feet, a 

 solid lump of gold weighing 834 ounces, and in 1889 

 a 48-ounce nugget is recorded, taken from the 

 Pinchgut Gully. 



The Welcome Stranger is a famous Australian 

 nugget. It was discovered in the rut made by a 

 peddler's cart, for it had been but barely covered 

 with loose loam. The nugget measured 10 by 21 

 inches, weighed 2,280 ounces, and contained 9S.6(i 

 per cent, of gold. The value was $47,670. It was 

 found Feb. 15, 1869, at Moliagul, near Dunolly. 

 whore prospecting had but just begun. Heavy gold 

 and many large nuggets were found in that region. 

 Among these were the Schlemm, 478 ounces, the 

 Spondulix, 130 ounces, one of 110 ounces 9 penny- 

 weights, which was foujid in 1854, and two nuggets, 

 unearthed soon after the Welcome Stranger and 

 near the same spot, of 114 ounces and 36 ounces 

 respectively. 



Kingower yielded the Blanche Barkley, a nug- 

 get of 1,743 ounces 13 penny weights, which lay bur- 

 ied at a depth of 15 feet. It was taken to Mel- 

 bourne and was exhibited there, and also at 1 1n- 

 Crystal Palace, London, where it proved very inter- 

 esting to the public and netted the owners $250 a 

 week. It contained 95.58 per cent, pure gold and 

 was valued at $34.525. Also at Kingower was 

 found a nugget of 805 ounces, one of 782 ounces, 

 one of 282 ounces 2 pennyweights in 1854, one of 

 260 ounces in 1856, and one of 236 ounces in 1860. 

 In the last-named year a moss-covered nugget was 

 picked up by a party of prospectors. A nugget of 

 120 ounces, lying but a few inches below the snr- 

 face, was dug up by a boy in the same locality in 

 1858. Nuggets of 106 ounces 16 pennyweights and 

 100J ounces were found at Kingower in 1861. At 

 the Mclntyre diggings, near that place, a nugget 

 weighing 810 ounces was discovered in 1857. a nug- 

 get of 452 ounces in 1870, and in the year 1858 one 

 weighing 300 ounces was taken from under six (Vet 

 of soil. 



Besides the large nuggets already mentioned, 

 Australia has produced several others weighing 

 more than 1,000 ounces. These are: The Pre- 

 cious, 1,621 ounces: the Viscount Canterbury. 

 1.105 ounces: the Heron, 1,108 ounces; one from 

 Berlin weighing 1,121 ounces; and one from Lask- 

 man's lead of 1,034 ounces 5 pennyweights. Tho 

 Precious was found Jan. 5, 1871, a year in which 

 Berlin generously yielded nuggets, two others being 



