Washington telegraph., 1853-02-16
A Golden Way; and Ways in the
Gold Country,

| ouoities, Australla prove beyond doubt
that an immense belt of land, highly impreg-
mated with gold, reaches across that great
island, or continent rather, from the Victoria
/ gold fields to those of Bathurst and its neigh
| borhood, and thence to the Hunter river and
Moreton Bay giving literally golden
way hundreds of miles long, and, so far If
an indefiniteness yet plentude of width thit
| would throw even Croesus into fit of silent
wonder
Just think Of it. The Australians were at
first satisfied with pockets" OF gold; then
they rose to ''holes;'' then to ''placers;'' then
to blind creeks then to "felds;" and now
forsooth they cannot be content unless they
have belt Of gold only three hundred miles
long. Neither will they be satisfied with
digging out in day grains and bits Of gold;
but they get them out in ounces and big
Jumps, and count them by pounds sterling.
There appears, too, to be power of repro
duction iii the localities which had seemed
to be worn out, for we see that after one
party of miners have abandoned a spot,
others win come and draw from it golden
products equally as rich and abundant as
those reaped by their predecessors.
| The miners from Adelaide, in South Aus
tralia, appear to be more fortunate than any
of their numerous compeers That arises,
doubtless, from the most of them having
served in the South American copper mines.
\ party Of twenty of them netted Sl50,O0O
in less than 4 fortnight.
Some slight idea may be gathered Of the
immense amount of gold harvesting that is
going on in this Southern Continent by
statement OF tie precious crop already gath
cred and shipped, what was on hand, and
what was coming in, at last dates The
amount shipped from Australia before the
9TH September, 1852, was | $40, ,538 ounces;
deposited in the treasury and banks, 310,-
3ll; paid into Adelaide Assay Cfiice, 264,-
3lI: probable amount exported in private
hands 337 zoo; probable amount in private
hands in Melbourne and Geelong, 100. 900:
probable amount in the hands of digccrs at
the gold fields and on the roads, $50, 900,
making total of 105 tons. 10 cwt. and .
ounces Of gold,
We can grasp the idea Of u ships tonnage,
or ton or sugar, or one of paper but it
puzzles us extremely to place before our
perceptive faculty, Or intellectual telescope,
a dGfnitive Image Of what one could reason
ably call a ''ton of gold" But when, not ten
Or twenty or thirty, but over one hundred
tons are spoken of en- mass, we acknowledge
the weakness Of that vast and magnificent
power, the human intellect to comprehend
not alone its intangible, but even tangible
things. We confess, too, at such times to
III,
hankering after the days when the bucca-
neersi the true gold seekers roam.d the seas
in search of floating mines, and probed the
depths of Spanish galleons, not with divin-
ing rods, but pixies, lances sabres AID poin-
ares ooh, for an hour of Dundee ex-
claimed an old Scottish chief, when be saw
the tide Of battle running against his coun-
trymen, iuconsequence OF the faults of their
commander. "Oh, for an hour of Morgan
might the incipient c6rsair of modern days
and poetry eXclaim, as he reads of these
more than Arabian Nights treasures on
their way to the Old World, in careless Sc
curity, as if they were only so much cotton
or tobacco
The wonders Of Australia do not cease
with these, wonderful as they are Child
ren, which in most countries are looked up
on in a peculiar light, as a burthen, in Aus
tralla become a source Of income to their
parents. Married couples, with children,
get higher wages than those who have none.
The English payers, that delight in ex-
paciating on the atrocities of American social
life, haze now an opportunity of furnishing
their readers with fresh article of home
manufacture Cod, though more abund-
ant in Australia than in other continents, is
not the more a cure for moral evils, what
ever it be for physical ones. In the region
where Australia miners gather the richest
rewards for their labor, crime in every de-
partment Yields as extensive crops as the
mines The dregs of the jails of England
have been poured over the spot. Victoria
is the place. 1t bears a fair and regal name.
but its fame is anything but noble. The
laundering Times itself says:
Grimes of the most fearful character and
degree abound on all sides. the country is
overrun with bushraGgers, and the towns are
infested with burglars. In broad daylight,
and in some of the most public streets, men
have been knocked down, i'll used and rob-
bed. Shops have been invaded By armed
ruffians, who have struck up the inmates
and rifed the premises. Thieves appear so
thick upon the ground, aad so unceasing in
their operations, that ii is quite clear they
must often rob one another Murders are
numerous, and remain almost always unpun-
ished. The police are cowed or leagued
with the ruffians, and the administration of
the law is fast sinking into contempt"
The market in Australia, in which the
greatest demand exists, opposed to very
scanty supply, is that of female servants
The thousands of miners, scattered over the