The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-03-13

II ever Won find it." And when you come to
look into the matter you find there is a great
I deal of truth in sentiment Nature mas
been so lavish in her distribution or the pre-
cious metal that continent or climate is
without its share
To-day men are digging for gold under the burning
of the tropics and amid the deathly cold or the
long, long Arctic night
No climate is sufficiently formidable to deter the
gold seeker and once the madness is upon them men
will gladly lay down their lives in plague-strcken
Skaguay as malarious New Guinea Even now,
early in the it is, boats are loading up In
Australia for Alaska, and the men who but few
years ago rushed the arid deserts of Western
Australia, following long line of ploddng camels,
the ships of the desert Arabs call them will
shortly be guiding dog sled the SHOWS of the
Chilkoot Pass or steering flat-bottom boat down
the rapid Yukon.
a contrast between these two PUSHES illustrates
forciby vfcissitudes life. All the
early finds which made Australia famous as a gold
producing country took place the eastern side of
the continent, and comparatively the seacoast
Here the land is fertile and well watered there is
large farming population and railways intersect the
country in direction. Even during the sos be-
fore. the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales
fully opened up the distance from the seacoast
to the dggings was not difficult to manage for the
poorest seekers after From Melbourne it
easy walk Ballarat and from sydney though the
Blue Mountains had to be crossed there was we'll
made coach road all the way to Bathurst
But in Western Australia the conditions which met
the prospector were entirely different The center OF
Australia was once vast shallow lake, now 1t is an
arid desert where little put SAT- bush ana splnl1ex
EIS| ana where yeGIS often pass without a crop Oh
rain falling The difficulties to be encountered were,
diker has to face Only for frozen ranges you must
substitute burning for billiards. dust and
for dogs and sledges camels and pack trains
Yet, spite of all these obstacles intrepid
pector in 1891, started into the desert from South
n Cross then the outpost of the Western Australian
Zines Though but small mining township, South
Cross became famous shortly afterward for an
other reason. the place to which Deemng, one
the remarkable murderers of the century fled
after killing and burying wife in Melbourne. Deem
ing's method, it viii be remembered, to quietly
make away with his wife, and her in cement
der the fireplace Of the parlor He repeated this OPP
times, and when arrested at Southern
Cross had already ordered quantity of cement.
to be ready the bride whom he shortly to
marry
Deeming had nothing to do with the great Cool
gardie gold finds 1t the plucky Bayley who made
way infinite difficulty through the trackless
desert Even a camel cannot travel forever without
water and thus Bayley's journeys restricted
But about miles from Southern Cross he met with
reward
He found a very rich auvial patch. and after some
little prospecting discovered the outcrop of the reef
The specimens quartz which he brought away with
him assayed very richly, and with the of the
greatest gold of the century set in Bayley, in
accordance the mining laws of the colony, re-
ceived a reward, the which the mine still
bears, 'cBayley's Reward" indicates
Coolgarde not a poor mans diggings. Though
there was plenty wonderfully rich alluvial. there
was no water with which to wash 1t. Dry blowing
was resored to- with less success. and some
very ingenious blowers invented to meet the de-
rnand But in the early days the cost of living
tremendously high everything had to be brought from