I had wandered listlessly home one evening from a long day"s walk, when I was struck by the unwonted appearance of activity displayed by the Major. Our premises had undergone an alteration. The tent was down, various articles of furniture were assuming their well-known travelling appearance. Suddenly I became aware of an unwonted hum of earnest voices. I began to recognize the symptoms of the complaint.
It was not the first time that I had known a great gold- field infected by it. Forms were flitting about in the gathering twilight, lanterns were being lit in preparation for night work. Horses were driven up, the hobble chains and bells of which sounded their continuous chime. A few words from time to time caught my ear, in which "the Oxley, " " only a hundred and odd miles, " " five ounces to the dish, " " good sinking, " were increasingly distinct. Before I stopped at the spot which had been directly before our own tent door, I was fully aware of the causes of the unwonted agitation-a "rush " was on.
"You"re a good fellow, Pole, " said the Major, "in your way; but I wish you weren"t given to taking such long walks. Here have we been sounding "boot and saddle" all day, and couldn"t get any tidings of you. Lend a hand with this cord. Do you wantto put anything else in your box? I"ve packed for you." "I"ll see in the morning, " I said. "Where"s the rush? ""Where"s the rush? You may well ask that-the biggest thing that has happened in Australia yet. ""So good as that? " I queried languidly.
" Good! " shouted the Major. " Nothing ever heard like it, even at Ballarat or Eaglehawk. Three ounces, five ounces, ten ounces to the dish; lumps of gold, no rock, no water, all shallow sinking. ""I suppose we must start at daylight. It"s a great nuisance," I said, " having this thing to do over again. "" You haven"t gone mad, by any chance? " said the Major, taking a light and peering into my face; " but softening of the brain must be setting in, or you would never think of losing an hour, much less a whole night, when there"s a rush like this on. No; we"ve bought a spring-cart and horse, and are off at once. You"ll have to look sharp. ""You seem in a state of wonderful anticipation, Major, " I made answer; " one would think you were totally unfamiliar with the chances of digging life. Doesn"t it strike you that our ordinary luck will attend us-all the best claims will be taken up before we get there, or we shall most industriously bottom a "duffer"? However, to please you, I"ll go. "As soon as the moon rose, we set off. Nothing was placed in the spring-cart but our clothes, bedding, simple cooking utensils, and, of course, our tools. The road lay under our feet in the clear moonlight, white and dusty, between the witheredgrass and the tall tree-stems. The air was fresh; the heavens brightly azure. The horse was active and powerful, and took us along at a rapid pace.
There was little trouble in following the right road, which led to the plains of the Oxley, on the head-waters of which this last-found Eldorado had arisen. Had we felt any uncertainty, it would have been quickly removed, for, in front, behind, on every side, were wayfarers journeying to the same goal in every sort of conveyance drawn by animals of many kinds.
Bullock drays, horse drays, American express-wagons, hand- carts drawn by men, and even wheel-barrows propelled by sturdy arms, were there. Women laden with immense bundles were dragging young children by the hand, or as often carrying infants in their arms.
Sometimes a drove of cattle, with riders shouting and cracking huge whips behind them, would come upon the hurrying crowd, though, as a rule, they moved parallel with, and at a considerable distance from, the disturbing concourse, whose physical needs they were destined to supply.
The whole movement had the appearance of something between a pilgrimage and a fair, so mixed and incongruous did the component parts appear.
We travelled night and day, only allowing ourselves needful rest and food, and bearing hard upon the good horse that carried our chattels. On the sixth day, we reached the Oxley, and had a free and uninterrupted view of the great "rush. " It was a strange sight. We, who had seen many gold-fields, hadnever before seen one exactly like this.
The auriferous deposit had been so exceedingly rich in one particular point of land or cape which ran into the river, that not a spot of the surface soil was to be seen. This was the famous "jeweller"s shop, " where the very earth seemed composed of gold-dust, with gold gravel for variety. Thousands and tens of thousands of pounds" worth of the precious metal had been taken out of a few square feet here, and no blanks had been drawn in the lottery of pegging claims in the immediate vicinity.
We were fortunate in meeting at the outset a friend whom we had known in Ballarat, and, as he had already taken up a claim, and was employing men to work it, he very willingly proffered his services and advice to us. Following him, we skirted the great, throbbing hive of eager workers spurred on by greed and gain to such desperate efforts that an unnatural silence reigned over the scene.
We came to a halt near our friend"s claim, and, pointing out a spot, he said, "You see this is a place where the greenstone and the granite meet. It is my experience that in such a conjunction there is always gold, and heavy gold, too. "After pegging out our claim, we put up our tent, and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances permitted.
At daylight next morning we were at work. The sun was not high before we had our stage and windlass up, and were delving away as if we intended to solve the question of the earth"s central fires.
We were none of us new at the work; and we were all young and in splendid condition. The consequence was that we went down at such a pace that more than one of the parties that were daily arriving stopped, all eager as they were, to wonder at the rapidity with which our beautifully straight and even shaft was boring, as if with a gigantic auger, towards the bedrock.
We bottomed one afternoon, in about a week"s time; and, by nightfall, the " field " was aware that Pole and party were so " dead on the gutter " that every dish they took out was half gold.
From The Miner"s Right, by "Rolf Boldrewood, "Author.- " Rolf Boldrewood "was the pen-name of Thomas Alex- ander Browne (1826-1915), born in London and educated in Sydney. He was a police magistrate, a squatter, and a goldfields warden. His two best works are Robbery Under Arms and The Miner"s Right.
General.-You can"t know the persons of this story without readingthe whole book. Mr. Browne was warden and police magistrate in the seventies and early eighties at Gulgong, near Mudgee, in New South Wales. He makes use of his own experience in telling the story, of which the exact scene does not matter. You will not find an Oxley River on the map, though there are counties, hills, and towns of that name, called after Oxley(1781-1828), explorer and surveyor. Discuss the mining terms duffer, rush, bottomed, bed-rock, dead on the gutter. An El Dorado (the golden) is any fabulous place of riehes-a Spanish name for a mythical town in South America. Does the story ring true? Tell your own experiences or thoughts about mining places. What other Australian writers have stories or poems about mining?