VICTORIA. [From the Geelong Advertiser, February 12.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 793, 9 March 1853, Page 3

VICTORIA. [From the Geelong Advertiser, February 12.]

Within the last few days three unparalleled masses of gold have been brought to lightsuch as perhaps the world has never seen before. They were found in a spot never much frequented hitherto, and there are reports of numerous smaller lumps having been found in the same locality. The largest of these three great lumps weighs a hundred and thirty-fourpounds and a half> of which upwards of a hundred and twenty pound are pure gold. The other two lumps weigh 98 lbs. 8 oz. 5 ! dwk and 83 lbs. 9 oz. & dwt. respectively ! only a very small proportion being quartz, j They are superb specimens of gold and quartz interblended. The largest weighs manyj pounds more than the famous ' Kerr hundredweight' of New South Wales, and. has- the additional advantage of being in one solid lump. The fortunate finders are taking it to England in the Sarah Sands for exhibition. The locality where these splendid masses have been found, is called the Canadian Gully, ,and is a branch- of the Ballarat diggings. These diggings were the first opened up in Victoria, and attracted a large number of peo-' pie ; but they were almost deserted when the superior richness of the Mount Alexander diggings was discovered. They have lately risen again into favour, however, and there is no doubt that tens of thousands will now flock to th6m, and explore them more thoroughly. The difference between the two localities seems to be that at Mount Alexander the gold is finer and more equably diffused : while at Ballarat it is in larger lumps, and occurs less frequently. A similar difference has been observed between the Ophir and Turon diggings, in New South Wales. The difference would seem to indicate the existence of an original matrix or fountain-head of the gold deposits, to which Ballarat probably lies nearer than Mount Alexander. Our scientific men can help ud but little in the solution of that problem; but there is no saying what continuous exploration may reveal. There really seems no antecedent improbability of the existence of some such original gold-bed,"-