Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1911-02-02

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 10 the early
days of Australian gold mining. which
sent thrill around the world. sam
uel 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. aboul forty miles from Ben.
digo. withou' discovering as much of
the precious metal as would pay their
living expenses. when one August day.
TO tell the story in Napier's own words:
We had dug down about fourteen
feet to 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 | struck something
with my pick. | turned 1t up so the
light could strike it, and by jimmy,
it was a chunk of gold as big as a
hubbard squashr' The nugget sold for
$4,000
Among the thousands who focked TO
the Victorian gold fields in the early
fifties were two Cornish miners, John
Deason and Richard Oates, who staked
a claim near the village of Moliaque.
They set to work with yigor. confident
that in a few months they would be
able to retire TO their native Cornwall
rich men. but their expectations were
doomed 20 cruel disappointment Not
only months, but many years, passed
and found them still as far removed
from fortune as Mt 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 MS he wandered,
downcast aud heavy hearted he no
ticed CLEAN of yellow in n rut made
by 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
as the Welcome Stranger actually
weighed two hundrcdweght 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 native shepherd
named Kerr was tending his sheep one
day his attention was arrested by
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 Il nugget of two hundred
weight, from which 100 pounds of pure
gold were extracted
A few years later another monster
nugget made its appearance at Bala-
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, irreguarly shaped mass, which
on being unearthed proved to be
block Of almost pure gold twenty
inches long, foot wide and seven
inches deep. It's weight was almost
one hundredweight and a quarter and
It's value $46,625.
1t was the periodical discovery at
Ballarat Of these monster nuggets
which lrst fired the blood of the en-
tire world in the faraway fifties. 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 thar four miners
had worked their claim down TO about
sixty feet when one Of them brought
TO light q nugget weighing nearly
one hundrelwe.@ht and worth S2T 500
In their joy at such n rich treasure
trove the men abandoned the dig
gmgs and took thpi nugget with them
TO England They had scarcely left
Ballarat when their successors In the
claim, with almost the Grst stroke Of
pick, turned over another nugget heay-
Ter than The first and valued at more
than $4,000.
OF all the romantic stories told Of
gold discoveries la California not one
is more remarkable than that of which
Oliver Martin was the hero For
months Martin and q companion
named Flower had been prospecting
for gold to no purpose Worn out by
and half dead from starva-
ton. they We're on the point Of aban-
doning ihe quest in despair when fate
, or last crushing blow
They were overtaEcn by terrible
storm, in which Flower was drowned
Martin weak though he was. set TO
work to dig lis fallen comrades grave
NJ the foot or tree and had ding
down barely two feet when his spade
struck q hard, unyielding substuu-c,
which, o his amazemcnt and delight
proved @ he an enormous nugget. eiht
largest ever found on the American
continent The oliver Martin ChuuK
as i came TO be known the Nfuin