The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-06-23

The Precious Metal Foumd fn Large
Chunks by Lucky Miners,


Nuggets arc the delight of miners
heart. Some pretty big follows have been
found now and then, and there is no good
reason why gold picked MP in chunks
weighing one and even two pounds should
not some day turn up in Jumps and huge
boulders of fifty pounds or more. Such il
The fascination of gold finding that il hn
caused hundreds of men to give up home,
friends and kindred to spend their lives
/ among lonely gulches and mountain depths,
and perhaps TO die ns the saying goes,
with their boots on As an old 49er
you've struck II pretty rich, and can see yer
gold right in front of yer, when your piling
it up every half hour o. the day with mug
get now and then ns big as bullet to cheer
you, and then when tho evening comes and
You count it up and find hundred odd
dollars just picked out o tho earth that day
well, there amt nothing like ii. Then
when you don't strike it rich you always
think you're going to next time, aud it's
just as exciting to hear another man tell in
the egenin' what they pulled out a. il is
countin' over your own. Why, I've been
making dollar and without cent in my
pocket; but, gee whitaker! the excitement
of 1t don't give man time to think how
hard up he is?'
The largest gold nugget ever found in thu
world was discovered in 1853 in the Bal.
laret diggings, Victoria, Australia, and
weighed 2, l66 ounces, troy. II was nearly
pure gold, and sold for $43, $50 This
mammoth nugget was called the :" We'll
come" and for many years was reckoned
one of the modern seven wonders of the
world. The first gold discovered in New
South Wales was tremendous nugget, and
was found by shepherd boy tending sheep.
1t was large mass of quartz and gold, and
weighed about one hundred pounds. The
boy, full of excitement, ran TO his master,
who hurriedly repaired to the spot, and
they broke IL up with an ak. It split into
three pieces, and out of tho largest section
was taken sixty pounds of pure gold From
the Victoria diggings were taken many fine
nuggets. This colony sent, in 1861, to the
London International Exhibition I'm aston
ishing tower called the !" Gold Trophy" II
was an obelisk ten feet in height, represent
ing in bulk all tho gold found in the colony
for eleven years from 1851 down to 1862.
Since the finding of the Welcome"
many other big nuggets have been picked
up in various parts of tho world, but none
equal to the great wonder of Ballnret. Two
have been found worth $21 900 one, &c.
600; two, IS, 900; one, Sc. 500 four $5,-
600; twelve worth from $4,000 to $4,000
and eighteen from 81 900 to $4,000. Cali
fornia must be credited with the greatest
number of nuggets, the annals Of gold min
Ing in that State during the last thirty years
showing numberless others, besides some Of
the large ones above mentioned, worth
from 800 to $500. One nugget was found
in Snewshoe gulch, in Montana, 1865,
which weighed 17S ounces and was sold for
$3.50. Another large lump of simon-pure
gold was picked up in the summer of 1856,
in Nelson gulch, worth $2,073. An Indian
boy found another shining fellow in Scratch
Gravel bottom in 1874, which brought him
about one-third ita. value-yiz, $500. A
Cheyenne buck came into the post traders
store at Fort Keogh Ave years ago holding
in his hand a long, icicle shaped pendant Of
the purest kind of Virgin gold, which he
said he had broken off from beneath an
over hanging rock in tle Big Horn Noun
.ains. He would, howessz, tell nobody the
va - - L. IL