A RUSH FOR GOLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 130, 10 September 1910, Page 9

A RUSH FOR GOLD.

STORY OF ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY. Tho sensational discovery of "-old in British Columbia is another example of history repeating itself. As is practically every similar ease, the present is described as the geatest mineral discovery over made, the statement that a thousand stamps could be worked for a hundred years on the reef beino- a picturesque detail. The history of Bitter Creek, the new Eldorado, will, doubtless prove to be similar to history of other gold-fields. The outstanding fact with regard to the openmgi of new goldfields is that the original discoverers have rarely benefited greatly the harvest going to others. Usually the gold deposits have been discovered merely by accident. Thus, take the case of the great discoveries in California.

A Mr. Marshall, who had a .sawmill on a river in the now famous gold-producing district, decided to -widen the tail race, ol the mill in the course of other alterations. After the work had been done h< was walking along the bank one morning when he noticed a number of shining particles amidst the disturbed mass of sand and gravel; however, toe paid no particular notice. Later, in an idle moment, he went to the trouble of picking out one of the scintillating particles, and was astonished to find that it was a thin' scale of gold. Then he picked out as many of the fragments as he could see and found that the whole of them were undoubtedly pure gold. Even then he paid little attention to his discovery, considering that the fragments were the remnants of some of the early mysterious inhabitants, the ruins of whose temples were scattered in the neighborhood. In a casual manner he mentioned his discovery to a neighbor, and the two made a thorough search' which proved that the whole of the debris undoubtedly was auriferous. Their searches showed that not only was gold to be found in tho whole of the river course, but that in the dried-up gulches and creeks there were solid deposits. In fact, they picked up nuggets from the soil by the simple means of using a penknife. '

it happened that a number of the" mill hands were curious to know the strange movements of the two men. The result -was that in a very short time the secret of the gpkl deposits was noised far and wide, and so the infection of the great gold fever spread over the land. Remarkable scenes were soon witnessed, but these are outside the scope of the present article.

The original discovery of gold in Ausralia was of a most romantic and as;ounding nature. While a convict was it work in New South. Wales he came icross a small nugget of gold one day. Accordingly the man was brought before i magistrate and questioned as to his sossession of a piece of gold. His story, ivas not 'believed, as he could not point )ut the spot where he had picked up the nugget. He was accused of having stolen a. gold watch and having melted it down, md was convicted of the crime, with the result that the poor wretch received the punishment of 100 lashes. Owing to the sparseness of the population isorne remarkable scenes were witnessed in Australia. The .towns were rapidly drained of the males, and, as in the case of California, the result was that in the mining towns women were so remarkably scarce that the miners were willing to pay over a quantity of gold dust simply to view a female through the cracks of a shanty. Possibly a more remarkable fact, however, was that of the older Australian towns, such as Geelong, men became such curiosities that the women would flock in crowds whenever a man appeared on the scene. One of the principal West Australian mines is stated to have been discovered owing to the playful habits of a boy. He picked' up a stone to throw at a crow, and found it was very heavy and bright. He handed this \stone to his father, who found it was a piece of yellow metal, and reported the fact to the Warden. According to the legend, that worthy official telesiraphed the news immediately to the Governor of the, colony, stating that a boy had picked up a stone to throw at a crow; in his intense excitement at the discovery, the Warden omitted to state that the stone contained gold. Hence it was that the astounded Governor wired back: "Yes,and i what happened to the crow?"

These. Australian fields are noted for the greatness of size of nuggets which have been found. Thus, one of the natives was seen playing with a glittering object which turned out to be a nugget of'gold'weighing 102y a lb, and having a value of over £4OOO sterling. Considerably more valuable nuggets were found , there; thus the famous Welcome Stranger nuggets actually weighed 22G80z., while another nugget realised £10,500 , when sold. So abundant were these nHgI gets that a single party of five men obtained £SOOO worth of'gold in a day of eight hours. Probably the most remarkable gold finds have" been those attaching to Northern Canada, the home of the new fields. These have proved the exception to the rule that original finders have been the most badlv rewarded. This has been due to the fact that in frozen North America discoverers have been cut off entirely from civilisation, and so the news has taken a considerable time to leak out —the discoverers meanwhile reaping the fruits of their luck. Take the case of the memorable discoveries in the Yukon. Owing to the isolated position of the fields, and the terrible difficulties in the way of travel, the news of the discovery was not bruited until the original finders had obtained all the gold they wanted and had returned to civilisation to realise their foi*tunes in gold dust. This district, in fact, contained only a handful of inhabitants.

The remarkable ease of the discovery of the Bonanza Creek on theKlondyke river should he mentioned. There were only 350 inhabitants at Forty-mile, and these, individuals made astounding fortunes owing to having the richest known deposits of gold in the world at their solitary disposal. All the laud ahout was simply studded with gold, many large nuggets being taken. TTence through the winter the miners spent the whole nf ilieir (inie dirrsriTifr up the "pay-dust"; the work of washing was left until the spring, and every person became wealthy. There was a. particlarly idle barman in the town who did not possess the energy to take him to the top of the creek: instead, he turned his attention to a small side creek close by, anil, astounding as the fact seems, he obtained no less than £OOO.OOO worth of gold as a reward of his sloth. I

Eventually the first hatch of miners reached San Francisco by boat; they were a, curious looking set of customers, and carried their, precious dust in every article possible to conceive, from rude canvas sacks to jam jars covered with old newspapers. Their arrival was the signal for the enormous rush which, took place, and which, it must be stated, ended in direct disappointoiOTifc i-a th« tnaHm--