The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-09
BIGGEST NUGGET OF GOLD.
Death in obscurty of the Man Who
 Found 1t.


 Ottawa (Ont) Dispatch to the Globe
 Democrat
 romance and tragedy were bound up in the life of Samuel H. Napier, lately m charge of one of the lumber supply sta- tions of Gilmour & Hughson, of Ottawa, which is situated In the wiiGs Of the Gatineau district whose body, half eaten up by rats, was found rev days ag,.. He died all alone in the heart of the Canadian pine forest, with no other com ranion save a faithful dog, who attrac. cd the attention of some visitors to the lonely spot where the body or his master lay.
 MT. Napier was once a successful gold miner and occupied important public po- slt'ons in this country. in late years, however, misfortures crowded upon him and swept away his wealth. forcing him In his old age to seek a livelihood as Il keeper Of stores in a lumber camp far bey ond the limits of civilization in thu. Ottawa valley He was the discoverer Of the greatest nugget of pure soid that thu world hs ever known. rraveiirg with t iron. Australia, where he nad round it. to London, he became one of the lions of that capital ard .he guest of royalty. Returning to New Brunswick he was soon elected a member of the provincial parliament for his native county or GloN- cester. The story of his great find is ono for the latter day novelist, put With thu, mrortant feature that 1t is strictly trux and a matter of history in some respects
 In 1852 the world was stirred by the reports of great fortunes being won by the pick in the gold fields of Australia Napier was then a purser of a clipper sailing ship, plying between Liverpool and Melbourne. He left seafarng life and joined his brother at the Kingowar diggings.
 The brothers claim was not a large one. only 56 feet square. but in 1t was hidden q treasure that made even the eyes of the queen of England sparkle On August IA their find was made, which gave fortune to the Napier brothers and it was in the year 1857. The crcumstan- ces are best given In Napier's own Ian guage as related to MT. Payne, the sec retary to the minister of railways here, by Napier before he went up to the lum- Der camps last spring:
 We had got down to the pipe-clay bottom, which marked the bed of an ex- tinct river, and was the chief charac- teristic of all alluvial diggings in Aus tralia. when my pick struck something hard. l knew at once that 1t was not a powder. There was not the same ring to it. It struck dead. Scraping the dirt away, I caught sight of the bright yellow color of pure gold. knew at once that 1t was a nugget, but its size l could not estimate. This happened about 10 o'clock in the morning."
 Were you excited?"
 Excited? I cannot describe to you how excited I was, especially when the nugget was at last got free. It was all I could do to lift 1t. and I saw that 1t was solid. pure gold. It was feet 4 inches long, by 10 inches wide, and from IF to 3a4 inches thick. It weigh ed exactly 146 pounds 4 ounces 8 penny weights. and was actually the largest and finest nugget of pure gold ever found anywhere in the world. One or two others were discovered that weighed as much, but they were not solid or pure gold.
 At dusk we secretly transferred the precious lump to our tent. and at mid. night. when all was quiet, we made a hole six feet deep in the middle of the tent. Into this we laid the nugget and filled in the earth with great care, so as not to leave a trace of our work Then only did we feel safe. No one had seen the nugget save ourselves-my brother II from discovery. We went to work as usual every day. and left the tent open to avoid exciting suspicion in the camp. For three months 1t lay thus buried, and at the end of that tise we washed out our claim. We found a number of other nuggets in the same hole. one of which weighed eight pounds. Then we quit the diggings and soon landed our prize in the bank at Melbourne and all anxiety was at and end. The news then spread like wildfre, and thousands rushed to the Kingower gold fields. We named the famous nugget the Blanche Barclay" in honor of the beautiful daughter of our governor and by that name is the model, now in the British Museum known. The bank gave us an insurance of s500o0 for the safe delivery of the nugget In Lon don, and we set sail for England
 "On our arrival we were made lions of in London. The queen sent for us and we dined at Buckingham palace. Her majesty and the prince consort received us most graciously. and the Prince of Wales. now the king then a lad of l5. showed very deep Interest in the big mass of gold, and no wonder. Tor 1t was