The Marshall republican., 1910-12-16
NUGGETS Of COLD.
I'll, M r. u
Some Of the Largest Ever Struck
Were Found by Chance.
THE OLIVER MARTIN CHUNK.
II Was Turned Up by q Minor Who
, Was Digging a Grave For His
Drowned comrade-A Starving Minor
Onearthed the "WeIeoms stranaer.'

S'"W"oo SonnTsoc-N otarNtn9 miner
Onearthed the "WeIeoms Stranger"
Nowhere does fortune indulge her
love Of the dramatic and the sensa.
honai 2 more fully than In the gold
fields.
Take. for instance. the story of
the discovery Of the world famous
blanche Barley" nugget in the early
DAYS or Australian gold mining. which
sent a thrill around the world. sam
aei Napier. a sailor. with his brother
Charles and n Robert Ar,broae. their
cook and general handy man. hnd been
digging for gold for six. months at
Hangover. about forty uiiies from Ben
digo. without discovering AZ much OF
precious metal as would pay their
nving expenses. when one August day.
to tell the story In Napier's own words.
I'VE had dug down about fourteen
feet to the pipe clay stratum and were
shufaiu8 around In the bottom of the
shaft more dead than alive from the
heat. Old Ambrose lit bis pipe and
ieanedfaEainst the side of the hole to
rest. asJustF then / struck something
with my pick. I,turned It up SO the
light could strike II. and. by Jimmy,
II was q chunk of gold as big as a
hubbard SQUASH" The nugget sold for
$35.OO0. =,
Among the thousands who flocked to
the Victorian gold fields in the early
nfties were two Cornish miners, John
Deascn and Richard Oates, who staked
a claim e the village of Moliauue.
They set to work with vigor. confident
that In a few months they would be
able to retire to their native Cornwall
rich men. but their expectations were
doomed to cruel disappointment. MOI
only months. but many years, passed
and found them still as far removed
from fortune as at the beginning, and
by 1863. fifteen years after they began
their search for gold. they were re-
duced 10 the last straits. Starvation
stared them in the face.
In despair the miner seized his pick
n uder away to the outskirts Of
the gold field, and as he wandered.
downcast and heavy hearted. be no.
ticed a CLEAN of yellow In q rut made
by a peddler's cart. Lifting his pick,
with n few frantic blows he brought to
light an nor nugget. which. with
all his strength, he could barely raise
an inch from the ground. The nugge
which was soon known the world over
as the Welcome Stranger" actually
weighed two hundredweight and was
sold for nearly $4,000.
And these were but a few of the
many similar blocks of gold discovered
In Australia under equally dramatic
conditions. While q native shepherd
named Kerr was tending his sheep one
day his attention was arrested by a
yellow rock projecting n few inches
above the soil. In his excitement at
the discovery he ran to fetch his mas.
ter. The rock was unearthed and
proved 10 be a nugget of two hundred.
weight, from which 16O pounds of pure
gold were extracted.
A few years later another monster
nugget made its appearance at Balla-
rat. A party Of miners had worked a
claim to a depth OF sixty yards when
one of them struck with his pickax a
hard. irregularly shaped mass, which
on being unearthed proved to be q
block Of almost pure gold twenty
inches long. a foot wide and seven
inches deep. Its weight was almost
n hundred weight and a quarter and
its value $4G.625.
H NM Tho narinasooI dieonrn,, NJ.
Ballarat Of these monster nuggets
which first fred the blood of the en-
tire world in the faraway ffties. But
even Ballarat has no other romance to
rival that Of the discovery Of two huge
nuggets within a few days In the same
claim. The story runs that four miners
had worked their claim down to about
sixty feet when one of them brought
to light a nugget weighing nearly
a hundred weight and worth SGT 800
In their Joy at such a rich treasure
trove the men abandoned the dig.
gings and took their nugget with them
to England, They had scarcely left
Ballarat when their successors in the
claim. with almost the first stroke of a
pick. turned over another nugget heav-
Ter than the first and valued at more
than $4,000.
.,Of all the romantic stories told of
gold discoveries In California not one
Is more remarkable than that Of which
Oliver Martin was the hero. For
months Martin and a companion
named Flower had been prospecting
for gold TO no purpose. Worn out by
hardships and half dead from starya-
ton. they were on the point of aban.
doning the quest in despair when fate
administered her last crushing blow,
They were overtaken by a terrible
storm. in which Flower was drowned
Martin. weak though be was. set to
work to dig his fallen comrades grave
at the foot OF a tree and had dug
down barely w feet when his spade