The Express.
London, England, 1852-12-22 00:00:00

SWITZERLAND.

In its sitting of the 16th the municipal council of
Genoa unanimously adopted the proposal of the
Chamber of Commeroe, to contribute six millions of
francs towards a railway going from the Sardiuian
frontier to the Lake of Constance, along the valley
of the Rhine.

M. James Fazy, the chief of the radical party, has
given in his resignation as vice president of the
Council of State of the canton of Geneva, but con-
tinues to sit in the Grand Council.

AUSTRALIA.
GOLD IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.—THB 1
ECIIUNGA DIGGINGS.
We announced a few weeks ago that a gold dis-
trict had been discovered in South Australia, and favour-
ably situated at no great distance from Adelaide. Adelaide
papers of September 11th give the following particulars re-
spcfting these diggings :
The Echunga diggings are about twenty-three miles to
the east-south-east of Adelaide, and they are pieced on the
skirt of the stringy bark ranges, which stretch far away to
the north and south. The whole of this line of hills is pro-
bably auriferous, but whether gold will be found in them
in such quantities as to make them more attractive than
Mount Alexander, remains to be seen. At first the
Victoria diggings were confined to Ballarat, and they
were then scarcely more attractive or important than the
Echunga diggings. Time and chance, however, lid to the
development of the auriferous treasures of Mount Alexander
and Bendigo, and the Ballarat diggings were superseded.
The same good fortune may, probably, one of these days
overtake us, and the chances are that it will, inasmuch as it
is unusual to find gold so generally distributed over the
surface, as in the neighbourhood of &bungs, without its
being accompanied with great underlying cleposita. From
two to three thousand persons bare visited Echunga within
the lan three weeks, either in the capacity of workers or
lookers on, bat at no time has there been any gnat number
of men steadily! at work. Perhaps one hundred to ons
hundred and fifty would ba near the mark. Still, all
that are working are making it pay, and, if there
have been no large ' finds,' most of them go on under
the hope that this will be the ease, when the
weather Glean up, and they are able to get down to
the rock. Some fine nuggets of Echanga gold are
eaustaatlyahowa about town, but they an usually small,
the largest of them not exceeding half an ounce in weight.
No true estimate of the quantity of gold raised at &linage
can yet be obtained, the parcels being so small, and in so
many hands. Perhaps 30 lbs. weight would be rather
ander than over the mark. The general belief in Adelaide
is, that when the fine weather sets in, and the ground
admits of sinking, gold will be found in as great abundance
at Echunga as Mount Alexander. If so, the rash from
Adelaide will be tremendous, and those des, who are com-
pelled to stay behind, shall have to shift for ourselves as
wo best can. What with those who have gone, or are now
going to Victoria, and those who will be attracted to
&lungs on account of the greater nearness of these dig-
gings, the whole available labwir of the colony will be with-
drawn from its socastomed channels, and absorbed in the
solitary pursuit of gold digging.