Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-12-16
NUGGETS OF GOLD
Some OF the Largest Ever Struck
Were Found by Chance.
THE OLIVER / MARTIN CHUNK.

Drowned Comrade-A Starving Miner
Unearthed the "Wolcons Stranoer.r
Nowhere does fortune indulge her
love of the dramatic and the sensa-
tional 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 of Australian gold mining, which
sent thrill around the world. Sam
uei Napier, sailor, with his brother
Charles and one Robert Ambrose, their
cook and general handy man, had been
digging for gold for six months at
Hangover. about forty miles from Ben
digo. without discovering as much Of
the precious metal as would pay their
living expenses, when one August day.
TO tell the s<Ory in Napiers own words:
I'VE had dug down about fourteen
feet 10 the pipe clay stratum and were
shutting around In the bottom of the
shaft more dead than alive from the
/ heat. Old Ambrose lit his pipe and
leaned against the side OF the hole to
rest. Just then I struck something
with my pick. turned It up so the
i light could strike Il, and, by Jimmy.
1t was chunk OF gold as big as a
hubbard SQUASH" The nugget sold for
! $50. 900.
! Among the thousands who fiocked to
the Victorian gold fields In the early
| ffties were two Cornish miners, John
Deason and Richard Oates, who staked
claim near the village of Moliaaue.
They set TO work with vigor, confident
that In few months they would be
able TO retire to their native Cornwall
rich men. but their expectations were
| doomed TO cruel disappointment. Not
only months, but many years, passed
and found them still as far removed
from fortune as at the beginning, and
10y 1869. fifteen years after they began
their search for gold, they were re-
duced TO the last straits Starvation
stared them I'm the face.
In despair the miner seized his nick
and wandered away to the outskirts of
tne gold field. and as be wandered;
downcast snd heavy hearted. he no
ticed a gleam OF yellow in a rut made
hy peddler's cart. Lifting his pick,
with few frantic blows he brought to
light an enormous nugget, which, with
all his strength, he could barely raise
an inch from the ground. The nugget
| which was soon known the world over
ms the welcome Stranger" actually
weighed two. huDdredweight 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 a native shepherd
named Kerr was tending his sheep one
day his attention was arrested by a
yellow rock projecting a few inches
above the soil. In his excitement MT
the discovery he ran to fetch his mas
Ter. The rock was unearthed and
proved TO be nugget OF two hundred
weight, from which 1GO pounds OF pure
gold We're extracted
A few years later another monster
nugget made its appearance ut Baila-
rat A party OF miners had worked a
claim to depth OF sixty yards when
one or them struck with his pickax n
nard. irreguiarly shaped mass, which
on being unearthed proved to be l
Diock or almost pure gold twenty
inches long. q foot wide and seven
inches deep. Its weight was almost
one hundredweight and n quarter and
Its value $46.625.
II was the periodical discovery at
naliarat or these monster nuggets
which first fired the blood of the en-
TIRE world In the PARKWAY ffties. But
even Bailarat has no other romance to
rival that OF the discovery OF two huge
nuggets within few days in the same |
ciaim- The story runs that four miners |
pad worked their claim down TO about |
sixty rect when one OF them brough, |
70 ilght a nugget weighing nearly |
one -hundredwe;ght and worth S27 500. |
In their JOY at such a rich treasure
trove the men abandoned the Dir.
gihgs and took their nugget with them |
10; England. They had scarcely, left
baliarat when their successors I'm the
claim. with almost the first stroke OF n |
PICK, turned over another nugget heav.
Ter than the first5 and valued AT more
than $50. 900.
of all the romantic stories told of
gold discoveries In California NOT ono
Is more remarkable than that of which
OnVer Martin was the hero. For
months Martin and companiou
named Flower had been prospecting
Tor gold to no purpose Worn out nv
hardships snd 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 We're overtaken by q terrible
storm. In which Flower was drowned
Martin. weak though he was, set to
work to dig his fallen comrades grave
at the foot of tree and had ding
down, barely two feet when his spade
struck a hard. unyielding substance.
which, to his amusement and delight
proved to be an enormous nugget. the
largest ever found on the American
continent. The "Oliver Martin Chunk.
as IL came to be known the whole
world over. weighed I5I pounds q
ounces and was the nucleus OF a for
tune OF a million dollars which Martin
accumulated In later years.-Casselps
Journal I,
/.
WI 0NsS ptiArvln