164 ON AND OFF THE TURF. 



main street there is now a mile long, and it is a 

 populous township. Lord ! you should have seen ifc 

 when we first struck it/' 



'* Didn't much like it, I reckon/' I said. 



'' Like it ! We could have hugged it. We did 

 hug some of it. The first thing I hugged just before 

 we got fairly on to Bayley's was a nest of nuggets,*' 

 said Ford. 



^'^A nest of nuggets!" I exclaimed. The fact 

 took away my breath. Talk about the celebrated 

 goose with the golden eggs — what had not Coolgardie 

 laid for this man ? It had laid the foundation of a big 

 fortune, and it was hatched from a nest of nuggets. 



^'I saw one fellow peeping out of the ground/' 

 went on Ford. " I dug it out. There were three 

 others followed. A nice little nest, eh ? One weighed 

 nearly 200oz., none less than 90oz.*' 



" Here, hold on," I said, '' this fact requires 

 digesting." 



" Digesting," said Ford. " I wish we had had 

 something to digest at that time. We could not very 

 well eat nuggets, or I believe some of them would 

 have gone down.'' 



" You had a hard battle to find the field ? " 

 I asked. 



"We must have ridden 7,000 miles all told. It 

 was a rough experience. The country is most extra- 

 ordinary. Between Coolgardie and the Murchison 



