344 



. / ( A / 'A'. I L.I SI A ILL US TRA TED. 



rich upon the Victorian gold-fields all these were forced into a strange companionship. 

 ami were depressed to the same social level by the force of untoward circumstances. At 

 the same time a horde of Asiatics descended on the colony from the Straits Settlements 

 and from Canton ; and not less than twenty-five thousand Chinamen were allured to the 

 gold-fields by the widely-spread rumours of their richness. 



For a period of ten years the yield of the precious metal was enormous, but it 

 reached its max hint in only two years after its discover)-, when no less than twelve 

 million six hundred thousand pounds' worth was taken from the soil in the space of 

 twelve months ; while the value of the gold raised from 1852 to 1860 inclusive was 

 upwards of ninety-five millions sterling, the population of the colony in the latter year being 

 a little over half a million. All the splendid prizes in the captivating lottery of gold- 

 digging were discovered in the early days. The first large nugget, .weighing one thousand 

 six hundred and twenty ounces, was unearthed in Canadian Gully, Ballarat, in February, 

 1853, and was surpassed in weight by another found on Bakery Hill, in the same district, 

 in June, 1858. This turned the scale at two thousand two hundred and seventeen ounces; 

 while the heaviest ever found was procured at Mount Moliagul, in the Dunolly District, in 

 February, 1869; for this weighed two thousand two hundred and eighty ounces. Men mining 

 on Golden Point, Ballarat, were known to be making as much as from three hundred to 

 four hundred pounds sterling per day each ; and Governor Latrobe, who visited this spot 

 in 1851, mentions that he saw eight pounds' weight of gold washed from two tin dishes of 







EN ROUTE FOR THE DIGGINGS. 

 Adapted from a sketch by F. Gill. 



dirt, and heard of a party that had raised sixteen pounds at an early hour of that day, 



and had succeeded in obtaining thirty-one pounds before night-fall. But there were many 



)lanks, and numbers of disappointed diggers betook themselves to their former employ- 



at which they found they could earn from a pound to twenty-five shillings per 



Not a few turned carters, for as much as one hundred pounds sterling per ton was 



