St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-12-26
Wonderful GOid Discoveries Sn australia
lCorraspondence london Times

Seven years ago Mr. Harry Davis, Of
Droitwich, and Chss Msclaurin Nichols, son
of the assistant secretary of the British
museum, emigrated TO Australia, the former
educated as an engineer, the latter as black
smith, farrier, carpenter and farmer In the
early part Of last year Mr.. Davis prospected
thirteen weeks for precious metals in the
northern part of the continent He sue
ceeded, and unbosomed a metalliferous
tract of land. H immediately returned 10
England, came TO London;and studied for two
months mining operations in Jermyn street,
and gold in the quartz at the Natural History
museum in Cromwell road. His project was
to take out gold crusher, but he found the
cost beyond his means; moreover, there was
an expense TO be calculated of g26 ton ior
conveyance by bullock team 800 miles into
the interior. he returned to Australia, TAX
ing on Mr.. Charles Nichols with him. Re-
gaining his Dorado, be was not little sur
prised to find the whole aspect of
the country changed. There were forty
miners at work, and two or three mills
erected. The two young men soon selected
their claim on galena mountain, put up
their houses, built forge and settled down
to tempt Mother Earth to yield up a modcum
OF treasure in return for enthusiastic re-
search. Things did not look altogether well
The heat was excessive, water scarce-for no
one had been there to husband in reservoirs,
easily constructed, the blessed gift in that
country of the sub-tropieal rainy
season-ants were voracious, parrots
noisy, and the sweat of their brow was not
rewarded by the appearance OF hard cash in
the lump. They were sanguine of success,
however, but their resources we're running
out; and Mr.. Davis determined TO exercise
his craft as an engineer at q neighboring
mill for wages, Mr.. Nichols working the
claim all alone-or, rather, with dog and
horses for sole domestic ompanions-vary-
ing his toll by blacksmthing, mending and
making mining implements, sboeing horses,
and practising husbaudry on a small
scae-often in temperature of 40 Fair.
in the shade. He had been on the claim
just six weeks, when one day cleaning out
an old gully to make a ventilator for his
mine, be struck vein of rich, coarse gold.
Specimens picked up hap-hazard from this
mine. an the glleua lode, have been sent
to London for assay. On arrival, the ores
were found to be heavy, but except in the
case of two very small fragments, and then
only very sparsely, no indication of gold
was visible. An ASSAY of each of the two
ores, ga!enq and quartz, has just been con-
Quoted by Messrs. Wellby, OF Garriek street,
Convent Garden, and has produced,
for the galena, the remarkable result Sample
tweuty-three pounds) of-lead As so per
cent; silver, % ounces pennyweights:
gold, 5 pennyweights per ton of ore OF 20
hundred weight; and for the quartz (sample
90 ounees) gold, ounces II pennyweights.
grains per hundred weight; and silver, 3
ounces 10 pennyweights, or for gold, la
ounces odd TO the ton Of quartz. Messrs.
Johnson, Matthey d Co., mixing lead, silver
and gold together, assay Sample y pounds)
gold, 19 ounces, 5000; silver, % ounces,
$50 per ton. Mr.. Frederick Clandet isam-
pie IL pounds)-gold II ounces; silver, %
ounces II pennyweights per ton.
Shortly after the discovery of the vein of
gold another prospector, Mr.. William Hankie,
appeared at the Florence Augusta claim, beg
ging one of the Young men 10 join him in
working another mine in the district, the
quartz lying on the surface aud extending for
quite two miles. The same prospector had. in
his search for gold, only just missed the fam
Gus Morgan reef, which contains the richest
and purest gold ever found, assaying 90
9-10ths per cent. only one-tcnth short Of being
virgin gold. Mr.. Nichols, who divides with Mr..
Hankie, writes Of the new tyouuaale that the
stone looks well, though, as in most mines,
the gold is patchy, and that they hope 10 get
big crushing ont BY Christmas, when the rains
begin. The only desideratum is q crushing
machine of their own, and half ton stamps
for the silver, the heaviest loies of that met
al in the district being hard steel-graiued
Two men, aided by lithofracture can get out
from four TO ten tons of ore a day. Gold
fetches from 60 1Ss to e3 IS an ounce. Cost
of crushing e ton, conveyance Is ton.
The country is billy and hemmed in on all
sides, forming huge well. Pinnacles are
numerous, and they nearly all support bowl
ders weighing from a few pounds 20 one
hundred tons. You might fancy yourself
among the so-called Druidical monuments of
Stonehenge, except that there is no plain.
The hills afford good gradient for the ores,
and there is abundant storage for water.
Gems and numerous metals, best les gold
and silver, are plentiful in the vicinity, and
the pinnacles are alive with kangsroos and
kangaroo rats, wallabys, opossums, pady-
melons and birds. The food is coarse;
salt beef, damper, and tea (no milk
for breakfast at $50, after hunting
in horses from five O'Clock. rising hour. Din
ner at twelye-beef, damper, and tea again;
then work till sunset. Supper at six OF
seven (the old menu.) On red letter days
a cake, VERY home made), potatoes, and a
few other vegetables. For amusement,
clothes mending and washing, reading,
writing, shooting, visiting, say a twenty
mile ride, though this is not essential 10
sound sleep. Some of the men do not min d
a ride OF twenty miles out and twenty back
just for the qualification Of respectfully tax
ing of their cabbage hats TO any lady who
may be known to be passing that way.