120 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



almost to beggary and starvation, wandering listlessly 

 about, knowing not where to seek for the precious 

 metal, their efforts so frequently failing, have stubbed 

 their toes against just such a pile of wealth as you see 

 in this " welcome stranger." A party had excavated 

 some distance into a hill, and had for several days 

 carted earth for washing. In going in and out they 

 had used a boulder (which was inconvenient to lift out 

 of their way) as a step down from the outside into 

 their drift. A circus had come into the town, and 

 most of the men had gone to the show. One preferred 

 to remain and dig. There had been a heavy rain, 

 which had washed everything within its reach pretty 

 clean, and just as the man was returning from the 

 excavation with his load of dirt, he noticed something 

 peculiar in the stone on which they all had been step- 

 ping up and down for several days. Examining it 

 more closely, he discovered that it was an immense 

 nugget, worth twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars, 

 or more. 



One could fill a whole volume with just such finds. 



There are also tales to be told which give quite a 

 different shading to the picture. Some who become 

 suddenly rich become almost as suddenly poor, by 

 making big ventures for larger riches. Others lost all 

 by giving themselves up to the wildest extravagance. 



