commonwealth, or general public of the United Kingdom-should have their fair legal share of the wealth discovered on their property. Even where land had been granted or sold to individuals, still, by the common law of England, the precious metals are always reserved. If the government of the country, therefore, had had the power, they undoubtedly had the right, both legal and equitable, of absolutely prohibiting the removal of any gold out of the ground at all, and consequently the power of deciding under what regulations any of it should be removed. It is, however, clear that a government such as that of the colonies, ruling over a scanty population spread over a vast territory, and with but a small force at its command, has but very little power to restrain any large portion of the population from doing anything which they all unite to do. It was necessary, then, that they should devise some system-1st, For getting the share of the gold fairly due to the public; 2d, For maintaining order and preventing crime among the people under their care. This system had to be devised, moreover, on the spur of the moment, and in spite of the difficulties arising from the diminution and disorganisation of the force at their command.

The system adopted, which we think, on the whole, a good one, if not the only one that could have been carried out, was the following:-A Gold Commissioner was appointed in New South Wales, and subsequently seven Assistant Commissioners, each of whom was to have a sergeant and ten troopers as his party. The commissioner, Mr J. R. Hardy, had L.600 per annum; the assistant-commissioners, L.365 per annum each. Their duties are to station themselves each in a central portion of the district assigned to them for the issue of monthly gold licences,' at 30s. each, and to take care so to post their men and themselves, that no one is allowed to continue at work without providing himself with a licence. They have also to act as magistrates, to hold courts of petty-sessions, to adjust disputes among the gold-diggers, and to measure off to each man, or to each party, the amount of land to work on which he can properly claim.

In addition to this, there was established a government escort of gold weekly from all the principal gold-diggings to the chief towns of Bathurst and Sydney. This consisted of a light but strong spring-cart, guarded by armed constables, and attended by mounted troopers. L.1 per cent. was the cost of the transmission of gold by this means of conveyance. Additional police were also appointed to all the principal stations. All this, of course, had to be done at heavy cost, because many of the old police, and others who could have supplied their places, resigned their situations, and rushed to the diggings. Very high wages had consequently to be given to all the men employed.

The government of New South Wales at one time contemplated issuing a joint commission to the surveyor-general, the geological surveyor, and the Rev. W. B. Clarke (a colonial geologist), to

search for fresh gold-fields: they afterwards, however, determined that each should pursue his researches alone. The cost of the whole of the commissioners on account of the gold-fields, with their attendants, is about L.9500 per annum, besides forage and rations. The proceeds of the sale of gold licences, from July 24 to October 31, 1851, was L.15,023; the amount received during the same time for the transmission of gold by the escort was L.1485; but the expense of that escort was L.1027.

In the colony of Victoria, no chief-commissioner of gold-fields had yet been appointed permanently; but eight assistant-commissioners, together with four corporals and thirty-five troopers of the mounted police; two sergeants, a corporal, and fifteen troopers of the native mounted police; clerks, escort-officers, and constables. The total annual cost of this establishment would be about L.6626. The amount received for gold licences in this colony, from September 30 to December 31, 1851, was L.25,482. The amount received for escort-fees for same time was L.3634. An increase of 50 per cent. had been authorised on all the salaries of the persons employed by government in every department. In consequence of the recent establishment of this colony, and its much scantier executive staff, on the one hand, and of the nearness of the most productive fields to its chief towns, and of its shores generally to Van Diemen's Land, saturated with a convict population, on the other, the colonial government of Victoria was placed under much more difficult circumstances than that of New South Wales.

The home government have recently sent the 40th Regiment to the assistance of the colony, which is to pay all its extra expenses, and an additional pay of 10s. per diem to each officer, and 3s. to each private; and the men are to be allowed a certain portion of leave, in turn, at the diggings. If they are not detained by General Cathcart for earnest business at the Cape, the 40th Regiment will be to be envied by their military brethren.

It has been found by experience, that a gold-digging party should consist of not fewer than four people. To pursue the occupation to the best advantage of health and comfort, and therefore permanent profit, they should be provided with a small tent, with a stock of blankets, and a sufficiency of coarse clothing to afford a change from wet to dry, with a cradle, and a stock of pickaxes, crowbars, and shovels. A wheel-barrow, a sieve or two, and one or two flat tin dishes, like milk-pans, are also necessary. For food, a stock of flour, of tea and sugar, and perhaps of salt pork, is necessary. A strong, light one-horse dray or cart, is about the best conveyance on which to pack and carry these articles, the party proceeding for the most part on foot. If they are going to explore new ground, they should have some previous knowledge or experience to guide them in the search, it being absolutely necessary that they should know

what kind of rock, or what kind of ground, will not produce gold, in order that they may avoid wasting their time on it. We will suppose them to have reached a probably auriferous region, through which it is possible somehow to get their dray. They arrive at the bed of a water-course or river, and they succeed in finding a water-hole. The dray is stopped in the most convenient spot, and set up for the night without unpacking. The horse is taken out and watered, and then tethered in the best spot of grass that can be found; meanwhile a fire is lighted, and the kettle set on to boil. If the ‘damper' has been all exhausted at the last meal, one of the party proceeds to make another after the following fashion-He selects some smooth flat stone, or slab of rock, on which he lights a fire, and accumulates a mass of glowing embers. He then takes one of the tin dishes, half fills it with flour, which he mixes with water into a stiff paste; and when the slab of stone is sufficiently heated, he brushes aside the embers, spreads the paste upon it, and then piles the embers over it again, till it is baked into a roundish flat cake, about a foot in diameter, and an inch in thickness. With a segment of this, a quart pannikin of tea, and perhaps a rasher of salt pork, or, if in extreme good-luck, a kangaroo steak, or a pigeon or two, our party 'solace their evening hours,' as old Johnson phrases it. A short pipe is stuck into each man's mouth as soon as the meat is down, and is probably a permanent tenant of that situation for the rest of the evening. The horse is rewatered and retethered in a fresh locality, if necessary, and then wrapping himself in a blanket, each man lies and sleeps where he finished his supper. If it were in a very remote district, it would be wise if each one kept watch in turn through the night, with a gun loaded in his hand, to guard against the probability of an attack from the 'black fellows;' but such a precaution would be little needed in any part of the country our party were likely to reach.

At earliest dawn, or before it, all hands would be astir, and while one prepared the breakfast, and another attended to the horse, the two others would probably be searching the bed of the river, or prospecting for gold. Digging down at some sandy spot, spadeful after spadeful of the earth would be carried in the tin pan to the water, half immersed, and then gently agitated, and shaken round and round till any particle of gold would have time to sink to the bottom of the mass. The coarse stuff is frequently skimmed off and thrown away, taking care, of course, to throw away no visible pebble or nugget of gold; and the washing and sifting continued until nothing but a little sand perhaps is left, and this is carefully examined to see if it contain gold. When gold occurs, and probably also when it does not, there is often found a heavy metallic sand, said to be titaniferous iron ore (called in Australia emery'), and possibly other minerals in a fine state of comminution. Should this trial be unsuccessful, our party pack up their traps and continue their journey, choosing the

easiest and openest route for their cart, which one or two of them accompany, while the others explore the river at other places, or search in the beds of its lateral creeks. Eventually, perhaps, they stumble on some rich diggings, when of course they set up their tent, unpack their cradle and tools, and set to work in real earnest. One of their number will then perhaps have to start to the nearest town or station for a fresh supply of provisions, and thus the news of their success becoming known, other persons follow them, and a great camp, or perhaps the elements of a town, is formed.

If in place of exploring for themselves, our party went at once to a well-known locality already partially occupied, they will of course have to select a spot still untouched, or to purchase a partially explored one. In either case, they will have a certain plot of ground marked out for them by the assistant-commissioner, and each will have to take out a licence to dig. For the licence to dig, which only lasts a month from the date of issue, each person will have to pay 30s. The plot of ground, by the last regulations in New South Wales, bearing date 7th October 1851, will be on the following scale; namely

1. Fifteen feet frontage to either side of a river or main creek to each person.

2. Twenty feet of the bed of a tributary to a river or main creek to each person.

3. Sixty feet of the bed of a ravine or water-course to each person.

4. Twenty feet square of table-land or river-flats to each person. These claims' shall be voided in every case if not worked within ten days; and if the licence-fee be not previously paid, its amount will be doubled.

Having procured their licences, settled their claims, set up their tent, and made arrangement for the supply of food, the party set to work. If they have any depth of soil or earth to clear away, it will be necessary that two should work at the actual diggings, one should wheel the earth to the cradle, which the fourth should rock and keep supplied with water. The ordinary cradle very much resembles in form the domestic article from which it takes its name. It is, however, open at the foot; while at the head, instead of a hood, it has a sieve fixed like a gravel-sifter's; and across the bottom, inside, there are one or two cleets or wooden bars nailed.

On bringing the earth to the cradle, a shovelful of it is thrown upon the sieve, and a ladleful of water poured over it. More earth and more water is added alternately, the cradle all the while being kept in motion by rocking, until the sieve is full of the larger pebbles or fragments of rock. When that is the case, the sieve is carefully examined to see whether it contains any large nuggets of gold, and the fragments are then thrown away. The water thrown into the head of the cradle carries away all the mud and sand out at the foot; but as its current is arrested by the

cleets or bars across the bottom, it deposits against them most of the golden dust and scales that it contained. This common cradle is, however, a rather wasteful contrivance, as a large quantity of the very finest and thinnest gold-dust is apt still to be carried away with the mud and sand out of the cradle, and lost. The Californian cradle is, therefore, adopted whenever it can be obtained. This contains a compartment full of quicksilver, through which all the mud and sand is made to pass. Now, quicksilver has such a love for gold, and the affection is so mutual, that whenever they come in contact, they immediately unite and form an 'amalgam,' a compound of gold and quicksilver, which it requires a very powerful heat to dissolve. The quicksilver thus licks every particle of gold out of the earth; and when the amalgam is put into a proper apparatus, and the requisite heat applied, it is sublimed into fumes, lets go the gold, which falls down pure, while the fumes may be caught in a separate chamber, and recooled back into quicksilver again.

Whichever cradle they may use, our adventurers must now live a life of great toil, of some hardship and privation, and of great monotony. The rising sun must find them at their work, and when setting, look with an approving eye as they are preparing only to finish their labours. As the sun himself is, in those latitudes, a very regular and steady-going character, rarely varying more than half an hour from six o'clock in his rising and setting, this will give twelve regular hours of labour throughout the year. To unwonted hands and sinews, twelve hours at pickaxe and spade, even if varied by a turn at the wheelbarrow, or at the water-scoop and cradle, are quite sufficient to make sunset no unwelcome sight. Then comes the hour of tea and damper, of lying at the tent-door in the cool air, made fragrant by the evening pipe, with the dews falling around from the clear Australian sky, in which the stars glisten and sparkle like living gemsthe hour of silence broken only, perhaps, by the distant howl of a wild-dog, or the plaintive cry of the thick-knee'd plover, or perhaps by the confounded hum of half-a-dozen mosquitoes, that come buzzing around you, looking for a soft place in which to insinuate their long, stinging proboscides, and make you start from your reveries, inclined to devote all the race of gnats as an offering to the infernal deities. Still, wearied with the day's toil, our party sleep, in spite of mosquitoes and all other discomfortssoothed, perhaps, by the remembrance of the ever-expanding little bag of gold-dust, the reward of their labours. Even at their daily digging, the constant chance of a rich prize, that may turn up at any moment, tends to keep men to their work as no other inducement would, and perpetuate an excitement which makes labour pass unnoticed, that, under other circumstances, would be felt as irksome and distressing beyond endurance.

Partly, perhaps, from this cause, partly from the richness and extent of the diggings, and partly from the natural good disposition