Part 3

All this is the bright side of the picture. The reverse is not so pleasing. Swearing is an almost all prevailing vice. The recklessness begotten by the wild and uncomfortable life, induces this licentiousness of speech. That kind of existence, also, is peculiarly antagonistic to habits of reading and reflection. No retirement is to be found in the tent. Fatigue indisposes one for mental exertion, and there is not the great incentive to reading—a wish to please. The evening’s talk is about the work of the day, the probability of success, arrangement for future labor, and, too often, some coarse and spicy anecdote to sustain that excitement of spirit natural to men. No woman’s soft voice is there to soothe and to refine. Under no circumstances could I have known better the moral influence of woman in the element of civilization, than in a sojourn at the gold fields. The filth, the disorder, the domestic misery give place at the presence of a female to cleanliness, regularity and comfort. When I passed a tent in which there was a swept floor, a bit of furniture, nicely washed plates, bright pannicans, a sheet to the bed with a clean counterpane over, with here and there a sack or piece of old carpet laid down, I knew that the genial influence of woman had been there. A man once alluding to his home under these circumstances said to me, “you can’t tell how comfortable we are.” There was a pretty sight to be witnessed at Bendigo; a young, and not an ugly wife, standing under the green bough porch of her tent, playing with a pair of beautiful canaries in a cage.

The lovers of order and the friends of humanity must surely rejoice at the noble stand taken by the government, to sanction no sale of alcoholic drinks at the Diggings. The miners themselves too well appreciate the security and peace this gives, ever to desire a change of the system. True it is that tents still exist as “Sly Grogshops,” and true it is, also, that scenes of riot and bloodshed are only to be found in their vicinity. Men, otherwise agreeable mates and quiet neighbours, become under the influence of drink, tumultuous and quarrelsome. The destruction of those nests of crime at Friar’s Creek, soon made Murderer’s Flat and Choke’em Gully associated only with the history of the past. Many parties before going up, make agreement to be Total Abstainers while at the Diggings.

One prominent and most common evil to be apprehended from the diggings, is the sense of degradation induced by the uncomfortable and often disgusting associations of the place. Even gentlemen of refinement and education have been so oppressed by the circumstances around them, as to become reckless of their personal appearance, and even their language and demeanour. They have sunk to a level with the mass about them. This loss of self-respect is the precursor of a deterioration of moral feeling. The same causes operate in producing disunion of parties. Always together, and always in contact with the same irritating circumstances, they sometimes lead the life of Kilkenny Cats, which are said to be eternally devouring one another. A very sensible digger made the following judicious observations to a new party he had formed. “Now” said he “we shall have hardships, and we are sure to lose our temper; when this happens, let us lay it to the circumstances and not to each other.” The effect of this life upon youths is most disastrous, and many parents may have to rue the day they suffered them to leave their homes of comfort and of moral control.

The condition of children at the mines is to be particularly regretted. Exposed to scenes with which their young eyes ought not to be conversant, knowing little of the sweets and privacy of a well ordered household, with no means of daily instruction at hand, and with no Sabbath bells to call them to the place of prayer, they fall into habits which materially and sadly affect their future course. It is not impracticable to have even _Itinerant_ Government Schools at the Diggings for the young; it is not impracticable, and it would be highly desirable, to establish good circulating libraries, of light and useful, but not trashy, books for the adults.

Could nothing more be done for the moral and religious welfare of the poor diggers? The Bishop of Melbourne, while I was up there, made an earnest appeal to the miners at Bendigo to get a church erected before the wet season came on. But it is comparatively of little use urging this duty upon men who know that they are to leave next week. It is a deeply interesting sight to witness a number of rough, unshorn, and toil worn men assemble around some spreading gum tree in the wilderness, in the newly trodden gold fields, desiring to worship the God of their fathers with their brethren of a kindred faith. How pleasing, and yet how sad the emotions which rise in the breast during such an exercise! We love to think of _that_ House of Prayer now distant from us, and of _that_ dear company with whom we met to worship. Visions of sweet home appear, and each familiar countenance passes in review. And then we are anxious and concerned about the friends we left behind us. A tear starts in the eye at the thought of a wife or darling little one. It is well if we then can feel that a Father above is watching our absent home.

The moral effects of the Diggings is an important subject. We may and do regret the debauchery and extravagance consequent upon the sudden accumulation of wealth,—the interruption to the regular course of business,—the indisposition of the miner, whether successful or unsuccessful, to resume his accustomed occupation in the field or in the workshop,—the absorbing thought of gain among all classes,—the neglect of literature, and the indifference to religion. But there is a serious social evil which is too often lost sight of;—the breaking up of families. How many a bitter tear, and how much domestic trouble have the Gold Fields occasioned. Wives separated from husbands, and children far away from the care of fathers. The object of love in a happy home has a stranger to close his eyes of death. Some there are of whom no tidings arrive. The depths of the forest alone can reveal the sad tale. One evening, coming down from the Bendigo, I encamped near a party also returning to town. Some children playing about drew my attention. Falling into conversation with the mother I learnt the following story. Her husband, a Burra miner, had gone to Mount Alexander. Having sent for his wife, she proceeded with her family overland. After this trying journey, she arrived only to hear of the death of her partner. “When dying in the hospital” said she, “the children lay heavy upon him; he was always calling out for them.” And that man was buried without a follower in the graveyard of strangers.

There are not wanting pleasing moral features of the Diggings. At the same time we must bear in mind, that in this our embryonic state as a Golden Land, we see the first fruits only of disorganization; by and by we may, if we use proper means, witness happier effects. It is highly gratifying to observe many who had been honestly contending with pecuniary difficulties become by a visit to the mines freed from debt and care. Many such have quietly returned to their bush homesteads, and are now busy in preparing for the Golden grain. As friends of progress we may congratulate ourselves upon the development of the Anti-feudal element. In spite of the confusion of the times, and the dissipation of lucky diggers, we must feel proud to live in a time when the sons of toil, without bidding or control, may realise the means of competency. It is to be hoped that such persons will let their children be benefitted by this change, in the improvement of their education. This is preeminently the occasion, when true patriots and philanthropists should awake to an earnest feeling of the moral wants of the times, and when they should in stern resolve prepare at once to do their duty. The future condition of our colony, and its influence upon the safety, comfort, and happiness of our own homes, greatly depend upon the efforts of the few and the unselfish, amidst the whirl of excitement and the rush for wealth.

HISTORY OF THE DIGGINGS.

Sir R. Murchison, from observations at the Ural gold diggings, and his knowledge of the geology of New South Wales, concluded that in our eastern ridge the treasure would be found. The Rev. W. B. Clarke of Sydney, some years ago made a similar announcement, and in fact discovered gold in the valley of the Macquarie. Mr. Edward Hammond Hargraves arrived in Australia from California, resolving to find a gold field in our adopted land. On the 12th of February, 1851, he sighted the favored locality. Disappointed in his application for £500 bonus from government, he at length threw himself upon the liberality of the authorities, and made known the lucky spots on April 30th. The Government geologist reported favorably of the discovery, and Mr. Hargraves afterwards received £500 and an appointment of Commissioner of Crown Lands. The first party of diggers left Bathurst on May 6th. The scene of labor was Ophir, at the junction of the Summerhill Creek with the Lewis’ Ponds Creek, near the river Macquarie, and 30 miles from Bathurst. The Turon became known June 16th, and Louisa Creek the month after. The metal is now known to exist more or less from the Manero Plains to Moreton Bay. The Bathurst gold was found alloyed with silver in the proportion of 30 grains to an ounce. Platina and the precious stones are also found.

The Port Phillip people were alarmed at the good fortune of their neighbours. A gold committee offered a reward for the discovery of a gold field here. It was known that the precious material had been seen. The Clunes diggings were announced on July 8th, 1851. They were on Deep Creek, a tributary of the Loddon, 100 miles to the west of Melbourne. The Buninyong followed in August 9th, being 25 miles nearer our capital. But the great revelation was made at Ballarat, on September 8th, which was 75 miles from Melbourne and 54 from Geelong. On September 17th, the press declared that “Geelong is mad, stark staring gold mad.” The following “symptoms of insanity created some amusement at the time:—”

1. Rising early and proceeding to the creek, pulling the stones about, and washing the sand and gravel, then placing it in a box resembling a cradle, imagining the stones and sand to be a _child of earth with golden hair_; rocking the child to sleep; then taking the mud and gravel out, and putting it into an _expecting dish_, mixing it with water and shaking it, all the while looking at the slush with the fondest solicitude for its safety; ultimately throwing it away with disgust, and assuming the appearance of intense disappointment.

2. Repeating the above strange proceeding day by day.

3. Troubled sleep at night, with frightful dreams of being pelted by Midas with lumps of gold, upwards of 106 lbs weight, and being unable to pick them up, or of smaller nuggets sticking anywhere, but in your breeches pocket.“

The wonderful Mount Alexander diggings were visited in September 10th. Bendigo followed soon after, but remained for a time in obscurity. The Jim Crow range diggings near the Loddon have recently attracted attention. The following licenses were taken out at Ballarat; in September 532, October 2261, November 885. At Mount Alexander there were in October 221, in November 4678. The number of late on the ground has ranged from 30,000 to 50,000. What will be the number on the return of the Colonial emigration in Spring, and on the advent of the English gold diggers? It is not easy to calculate the produce of the mines. In August last we exported 18 ounces, and for July it rose to 180,000 ounces. The escort is no criterion, as many men convey their gold to town themselves. The amount raised in 24 years from the only paying English gold mine in South America was worth £1,300,000. Only a few years ago the total value of the world’s gold was estimated at nine millions a year. Now Russia produces four millions and California above a dozen millions annually.

Australia is eagerly competing with the American El Dorado, and it is thought that in Victoria alone the yield for 1852 will very nearly equal that of California, if not exceed it. But how long are our Gold Fields to last? Some will talk of hundreds of years at the present amount. This is impossible. It is highly improbable that as they are now wrought they will continue twenty years. But even should they continue as briskly as ever for four or five years more, this colony will be placed upon a very comfortable footing. Even when the scrambling and wasteful diggings are over, and the lottery runs out, it will be discovered that judicious and systematic working of places not paying now, and even going over the old claims again, will in the hands of gold companies profitably employ a large population at excellent wages, or furnish individual miners a most respectable maintenance. Having then no fears of the future, we can with joyful voice exclaim, “Advance, Victoria.”

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A few stories were given as connected with the discovery of certain gold localities. A shepherd was the first who brought gold to Melbourne from the Pyrenees. A boy at one of Dr. Barker’s huts, Mount Alexander, is said to have brought in some shining stuff which he had found to his father, and that originated a gold field. Gold districts have been made known by holes being dug for posts. A horse’s hoof, or the wheel of a dray, unfolds to view a glittering lump. A bullock driver spied a nugget at the foot of a tree; he scratched up a handful of beauties, and the gully was soon known as the rich Eagle Hawk. The celebrated Peg Leg Gully yielded its gold through the surfacing of a man whose wooden legs forbade him sinking. Part of Friar’s Creek became an Ophir through some passing shearers who washed some of its sands in a tin plate. Golden Gully, near there, gave up its hidden wealth through a man idly pulling up a root of grass, under which was a lovely nest of nuggets. Mr. Gibson is said to have been scratching with his knife on the banks of the Bendigo, and accidentally turned up a piece of gold. Telling his men, they feasted awhile by themselves upon this dainty repast. But I had another story given me, which I must tell, although conscious that there is a fearful scandal in it. Mr. Gibson’s shepherd there told his wife privately of the treasure. She told it in the strictest confidence of secresy to another woman, who conferred a similar favour upon a female neighbour of hers, who might in the fulness of her heart have bound a friend in the same ties of anti-revelation, and so it went on, I suppose, till a man knew it, for it soon got blazed about far and near.

GEOLOGY OF THE DIGGINGS.

When a man of observation walks over the Gold Fields, his attention is arrested by the following facts.

1. The prevalent rocks are observed to be of a crystalline, or what is called igneous, character; as, granites of all varieties, quartz, mica, slate, felspar, sienite &c. Some felspar is seen decomposed into a soft white finger-staining mineral, or into fine porcelain clay. At the “Gap” of the river Macquarie the sienite is flanked by precipitous silicious slates. The Mount Alexander range is of a granitic character, and the beds of the streams running from it, on the Bendigo road, are filled with huge boulders of granite on a granite floor, containing parallel veins of crystallized felspar, having usually a north and south direction. No detritus of other rocks is found on the granite by the “Porcupine.” Some of the rocks bear fantastic resemblance to Beehives, Logan stones, and Scandinavian Tumuli. Granite is the bed of the Macquarie at Bathurst, and the base of the Mullion range, near which were the first diggings of New South Wales. The quartz is of all kinds; black, white, yellow, pink, green, red, spotted, streaked, mosaic, porous, fibrous, clinker like, and crystallized. Carbon makes it black; copper or chlorine, green; oxide of iron, red or brown; manganese, rose colour. The crystals are hexaedron pyramids, single or double, of different sizes and degrees of transparency. Some rise from the surface like wedges, having a singular appearance. The prisms are triangular, quadrilateral or pentagonal; some crystals have others attached to their sides. Veins of black quartz are observed with the centre very vesicular. Carious quartz, or swimming stone, is not common. The granulated quartz or grindstone schist has often minute transparent crystals in cavities. From a hole in Golden Gully, Bendigo, I obtained a specimen of soft sandstone, with most exquisitely beautiful veins of crystallized quartz running in all directions.

2. The Crystalline rocks are observed gradually changing into what is called the Sedimentary rocks, as slates. Such a transition from the crystalline to the laminated form is by insensible degrees. The experience of the miner is often opposed to the theories of geologists. He cannot help noticing the different kinds of slates, as presenting proof of their being transmutations of, or some among the many kinds of developement in, crystalline rocks. There are slates as amorphous looking as any Huttonian can desire. Others are so silicious, as to be denominated by the New South Wales geologists, _Quartzites_. On the Bell’s creek the clay slate changes into jasper. The chlorite slate of Ophir is so full of quartz veins, and dykes and bosses of quartz, as to be called by Sir T. L. Mitchell, _Quartz iferons schist_. Instances are numerous of slate with embedded quartz, and quartz entangling slate. At the cathedral rock, near Specimen Hill, Bendigo, numerous veins of chlorite slate are seen running unharmed and unchanged amidst that huge block of so called, igneous rock. The same specimen of quartz has exhibited in different parts not only different colours, but the clinker, the calcined, and the transparent conditions. The Rev. W. B. Clarke, of Sydney, hints at the probability of quartz, greenstone, basalt, and slates, by the influence of segregation, chemical affinity, galvanic or other forces, being “derived from the same original source, and indefinitely varied in the order of their arrangements and relations to each other at different intervals.” Mr. Clarke’s observations on the Diggings’ ground, would seem rather to have confounded his geological creed. The absence of ordinary stratification, even in the holes, is a remarkable feature. The character of stuff through which we have to go on the tops of hills resembles that in the gullies. Though much of the soil bears evidence of diluvial action, yet a considerable portion clearly results from the decomposition of the rocks near. The great irregularity of mineral beds in the holes, no two holes being alike, would not present the idea of gentle depositions, nor are we warranted to assume volcanic dislocation. Such fantastic changes in the order and depths of these mineral beds, were compared by a diggings’ friend to the alternations of the eight notes of music in different bars.

Our slates in Victoria are elongated, amorphous, crystalline, contorted, laminated, with or without cleavage, red, brown, white, blue, and chocolate color. Some are very talcose and soapy. In others grains or streaks like rainbows are seen. Mundic or Iron pyrites’ crystals are found in dark, friable, unctious slate of Forest creek. At Miles’ creek, Bendigo, are fine curvillinial lines in red slates. Near the old square, Forest creek, and beside Fryer’s creek is some splendid blue book slate, resembling the leaves of a book. The cleavage of the slates is evidently made by magnetic agency. Sometimes, as at Bendigo, the cleavage planes preserve a true parallelism while passing through contorted hard slate.

3. The rocks of the diggings are observed in successive bands of various colors and compositions with a great vertical inclination. This is the same as in other gold countries. Intelligent miners are much struck with this fact of rock succeeding rock over a country side by side, and all with a perpendicular direction. The slate has some odd changes of position, influenced doubtless by local disturbances. On the road from Bendigo to Bullock creek, the rock may be seen in one place dipping 80° to the east, a little further 80° to the west, then 10° to the west, &c. In Iron bark gully I noticed in a square yard of space the following different position, in some blue roofing slate; 45° to N E, 30° to Es 70° to N. The Pipe clay, which, being silicate of alumina, is decomposed from siliceous slates and granites, has, like the neighbouring rocks, this same vertical inclination.

4. The ridges of rocks are observed to run nearly in a North and South direction. This is the same as in all gold countries, and establishes the theory of terrestrial magnetic agency.

5. There is a remarkable abundance of iron. Crystals of iron pyrites are common. The carburet of iron or emery, like iron sand, is always associated with gold. Oxydulous masses of iron form a precipitous waterfall of 60 feet near Oaky Creek, New South Wales. Ferruginous, or iron bearing, conglomerate, overhangs the river at Ophir. Auriferous bands of argillaceous iron ore traverse the limestone of Bungonia. Large nodules of peroxide of iron, and magnetic iron ore of all kinds, are taken out of our Victoria Diggings. The burnt stuff, or burnt quartz of the miners, is a ferruginous cement binding quartz pebbles. There is no need of referring this compound to volcanic or electric fire. Chemical action with moisture will make any mixture hard enough. Roman cement when dried is not very soft. In the Ballarat holes the “Burnt Quartz” has been found ten feet thick; it is less at the Mount, and less still at Bendigo, though on some Bendigo hills it occurs six or eight feet.