Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-06-27
NUGGET HUNTING.
PersfStency and Luck-Each Has Its
Share i'm the Success.

From the San Francisco Call
An old miner who followed the gold excite
nlent in its devious wanderings In Australia,
California, Mexico, and British Columbia, re-
| lated to q Call reporter q few days ago several
| instances Of lucky discoveries:
"An old Dutchman brought the plodding
method of his race to the work of gold digging
in Australia. All of his companions had bold
ness and dash, but few had the stolid persist
ency In the face Of bad luck that this Dutch
man possessed. He had been plodding along
for several months digging a tunnel Heavy
sign beckoned him on. He seemed to get more
settled in his determination to work the tunnel
to the end the more unpromising it looked. He
ment for several months. One morning he
was making his way into his tunnel, and be-
fore he had gone fourteen feet his heart sank
his tunnel caV Ve The ''I path h that he
bad laboriously dug into the hill was
his Character asserted itself. Most men would
have volleyed oaths at his Ill luck, and packed
ap their kit left The In
again in the same tunnel. He crawled into
his tunnel, and with his pick and shovel set to
path. He had not struck a dozen blows with
his pick before the sharp iron point struck
ward and cleared away the earth, and there be-
weighing fourteen ounces. He crept ont Of the
and when he got into the fresh air and heard
the birds singing, he sat down and wept. No
one begrudged the Dutch Inn. Ali his luck. Nov
TALLY worked is just as good field as virgin
soil" continued the miner. 1.-THE spots that
have not been touched may be the very nests
of the precious metal. 1t is dangerous to leave
single foot of ground unwOrked. The for
tune Of lifetime inc, might thus be passed by and
With Wife in n1 rags H and Children child in squaor
TI,n vro1 10, n
together and SHIFT about till they had got
enough to buy something to eat. They kept
sinking lover and But day they
enough to push on abreast OF the workers.
They fell to picking little pillar, that had
diggngs, all about it having been worked. I
do not think it could have been more than
three feet across. certainly, not more than
the diggers pushed their drifts ahead. The
squalid family began work on this solitary pill
them for the day. AS the man Continued list
lessly, the sunlight was caught up by a speck
in the pillar that glistened and flashed. The
work for the day was done. Heknelt down to
clean away the dirt from the bright spot. AS
portions. Immediately the whole family was
around 1t in eager haste to uncover it. The
further they cleared the soil away about it the
hours with growing establishment they saw
the full outline of their prize-one of the largest
humps OF SOlU ever I1at was the luck.
lest find ever made.
"The Mount Moliagul nugget was found in a
most peculiar place., resumed the miner.
vicinity OF Mount Moliagul, Victoria, that had
made hundred men rich. 1t had been
thoroughly worked in every direction, and 1t
was thought that every grain of gold in the
neighbOrhoOd had been collected. The crowd
than once made the camp busy scene OF life
dissolved as quickly as 1t had collected, leaving
the shanties to the mercy of the weather, which
soon made them picturesque rum. Off to-
ward the east there was a solitary tree stump
standing on pillar of earth that had not been
cut away by the gold hunters because of the
old roots OF the tree that spread through the
SOIL. 1t was not more than ten feet in circum-
ference that had been left by the diggers
One day two miners came to the deserted
camp, and stopped. over night on the site
OF the old camp The. stump struck one
of them as q singular ,deature uefp the old dig
that one part Of a f1dstety ebnHtrry was az
likely to hide the precious metal as another.
1t occurred to him that the ground under the
stump was as likely to prove rich as the por-
lions Of the neighboring field that had yielded
SO much gold He resolved to work the little
mound the next day. His companion, however,
was anxious to be off to the latest diggings,
where the excitement was at the highest pitch
But the first miner who had resolved to ex-
piore the solitary patch of the deserted dig
gings, persuaded his partner, and together
they set to work on the Old stump. They began
by undermining one slice OF the stump, bat be-
fore they had dug in three feet they discovered
an enormous nugget, one OF Che most valuable
that had been found in the whole diggings
They continued their labors and uprOOted the
stump, but did not find another grain of gold"