The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-10-06
NUGGETS or COLI
Some of the Largest Ever Strut'
Were Found by Chance.
THE OLlVE7 MARTIN CHUs...

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 a thrill around the world. Sam
uel Napier a 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 story in Napicrs own words:
I'VE had dug down about fourteen
feet TO the pipe clay stratum and were
shutting around in the bottom of the
shaft more dead tAln alive from the
heat. Old Ambrose lit his pipe and
/ leaned against the side of the hole to
rest. Just then struck something
with my pick. | turned it up so the
light could strike it, and. by Jimmy
it was a chunk of gold MS big as
hubbard squash" The nugget sold for
$4,000.
Among the thousands who flockcd to
the Victorian gold fields in the early
| fifties were two Cornish miners. John
~ ~
claim near the village of Moliaque
| They set to work with vigor. confident
| that in a few months they would I've
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 1869, fifteen years after they began
their search for gold, they were re.
duced to the last straits. Starvation
stared them in the face.
In despair the miner seized his pick
and wandered away to the outskirts Of
the gold field. and as he wandered
downcast and heavy hearted. he IN.
ticed a CLEAN Of yellow in IL rut made
by a peddler's cart. Lifting his pie:
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
as the "Welcome Stranger" actually
weighed two hundredweight and was
sold for nearly $4,000
And these were but few of the
many similar blocks of gold discovered
In Australia under equally dramatic
conditions. While II native shepherd
named Kerr was tending his sheep one
day his attention was arrested by II
yellow rock projecting few inches
above the soil. In his excitement at
the discovery he ran to fetch his mas
ter. The rock was unearthed and
proved to be a nugget of two hundred
weight, from which 1G0 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 a
block Of almost pure gold twenty
inches long, foot wide and seven
/ inches deep. It's weight was almost
one hundredweight and a quarter ant
its value S4G,G25
1t was the periodical discovery a
Ballarat of these monster nugget:
which first fired the blood of the en-
tire world in the PARKWAY tifties. Blu
even BallaTat has no other romance Il
: rival that of the discovery Of two hug
G nuggets within a few days in the sam
claim. The story runs that four miner
had worked their claim down to abou
d sixty feet when one of them brough
to light a nugget weighing nearly
8 one hundredweight and worth $27, 500
In their Joy at such a rich treasur
q trove the men abandoned the dig
-, gings and took their nugget with theI
to England. They had scarcely lief
T. Ballarat when their successors in tn
IS claim, with almost the first stroke of
pick, turned over another nugget heGN
V Ter than the first and valued at NOR
, than $35 900.
OF all the romantic stories told o
gold discoveries in California not on
20 Is more remarkable than that of whic
% Oliver Martin was the hero. Flo
|; months Martin and companio
e named Flower had been prospectin
N Cor gold TO no purpose. Worn out b
hardships and half dead from starvi
ton, they were on the point of abaI
- doning the quest in despair when fat
administered her last crushing blow.
ID They were overtaken by a terribl
lie storm, in which Flower was drowned
lie Martin, weak though he was, set
work to dig his fallen comrades gray
NJ tho fnnf nf a frQQ and had dil