PROGRESS OF MINING AND GEOLOGY IN QUEENSLAND. 369 
reason to hope for additional discoveries, owing to the greater extent 
of metalliferous country which had then come under the operation of 
the prospector and alluvia] miner, for the Palmer was essentially an 
alluvial field, and was far outside of any previously existing field, 
either of quartz or alluvial workings. Gold at the Gilbert had also 
been discovered and worked during these years, and the last of this 
quinquennium showed a production about double that of any previous 
year, although regular increases had taken place for some years past. 
The discovery at Charters Towers does not appear to have attracted 
that attention which its importance has since been proved to have 
deserved. The discovery of tin at Stanthorpe, about the same time, 
appears to have received far more attention, being in a more easily 
accessible position from the more populous portion of the colony, for, 
although not by any means so valuable a discovery, the tin was in the 
streams and in the alluvium, and was consequently obtained by the 
application of much less labour and capital than was necessary on a 
new and distant reefing field, even though a hundredweight of the 
product was only worth an ounce of that obtained in the more distant 
field, which required a large amount of labour and capital to procure 
it. But these discoveries were scarcely beginning to be realised when 
even a seemingly more important announcement was made that alluvial 
gold of surpassing richness and in incalculable quantity had been 
discovered in the sands of the Palmer .River, in the far North of 
Queensland. The difficulties of travel, the absence of the necessities 
of life, the impracticability or utter absence of roads, the inhospitable 
nature of the climate, the miasmata of the swamps, the certain danger 
from the natives, were all as though they had not been ; and such 
have not yet been experienced that would deter the intrepid and 
adventurous digger from pursuing his quest of gold and penetrating 
to its probable location on the first hint of the proof of that proba- 
bility. And the result was a rush that equalled or surpassed that to 
the memorable Canoona, but without the disappointing and disastrous 
results in the absence of gold which was experienced from that ill- 
advised and unprofitable stampede. When the locality was safely 
reached gold w T as plentiful, and, that desideratum accomplished, a host 
of difficulties, of which there were many, disappeared, and fortune 
appeared within the grasp of the successful travellers. 
The discovery, made by an exploring party, was hundreds of miles 
beyond any considerable settlement. There was no convenient port 
then opened or well known to navigators which could be used for 
the ordinary requirements of passenger and goods traffic ; the route 
from whatever port wrnuld be through unkuown, unexplored, and 
hostile country ; the locality was seven degrees north of the Tropic of 
Capricorn, where the tropical sun evaporates any moisture which the 
parched earth and the open sands of the rivers, the detritus of a 
granitic formation, have not already absorbed during the long dry 
seasons which prevail there. But the Endeavour Biver was utilised as 
a port, and the other difficulties were set at defiance, when, after a 
short experience, it was found that this discovery eclipsed everything 
of the kind previously made in Queensland ; and, notwithstanding the 
almost inaccessible position, the locality was soon transformed from a 
sterile wilderness into a scene of busy industry and activity, and 
z 
