Gold- Mining. 203 



stations, with their separate staffs of telegraphists ; and, of neces- 

 sity, a jail. 



Our acquaintances on shore spoke in sanguine terms of the 

 prospects of the settlement, and the future greatness which is in 

 store for the northern territory ; but to us strangers the appear- 

 ance of Port Darwin and the surrounding country was by no 

 means indicative of progress, or suggestive of a superabundance 

 of the elements of greatness. Indeed, although the settlement 

 has been in existence since 1872, yet the white population of the 

 whole northern territory does not exceed two hundred ; and if it 

 were not for the Chinamen, who have been attracted thither by 

 the " gold-rush," and whose numbers including those at Port 

 Darwin, Southport, and the gold-fields amount to 6,000, there 

 would be almost no manual labour available for the white colonists. 



The auriferous quartz reefs, which here constitute what are 

 called the "gold-fields," are situated on the side of a range of 

 hills beginning at a distance of about one hundred miles from 

 Port Darwin, in a southerly direction. The usual route thither 

 is by steamboat for twenty-five miles to Southport, a small 

 settlement at the southern extremity of one of the arms of the 

 inlet, and thence by cart track for eighty miles. Unfortunately, 

 during the wet season this track is almost impassable. The gold is 

 obtained from the ore by crushing and amalgamating with mercury 

 in the usual way. In this country the crushing or stamping 

 machines are known as " batteries," and I believe in the northern 

 territory they are worked entirely by steam power. The average 

 yield of gold from the reefs ranges from one and a quarter to one 

 and a half ounces per ton of crushed material, although rock has 

 been met with containing no less than twenty ounces per ton. 

 The latter, however, is altogether exceptional. There are in the 

 same localities alluvial diggings worked in a small way by China- 

 men, but the yield of gold is insignificant compared with that 

 from the reefs. I find it stated in the returns furnished by the 

 customs officer at Port Darwin that during the year ending 3ist 



