und a spot in the bed of the creek from
which, after scooping off the top, he scraped from the bedrock a panful
of earth. Hastening to the water hole with the loaded pan, he proceeded
to wash away the soil and lo, in the bottom of the pan were
bright-yellow particles!

"I shall be made a baronet and both of us will be rich," exclaimed the
excited Hargraves. He seemed to be walking upon air and could scarcely
believe his own senses. Nevertheless, he prudently kept his own counsel
until he had taken out sixty thousand dollars. Then he hastened to
Sydney to lay the matter before the government. The government gave him
a reward of fifty thousand dollars for his discoveries and made him
commissioner of the gold fields.

Hargraves's unexpected find stimulated other persons to search elsewhere
for the attractive metal, and soon other and far richer fields were
found. From one locality alone seven tons of gold were obtained in a
single month.

The whole country now went gold mad. Doctors left their patients,
lawyers their offices, bakers and butchers their shops, clerks the
stores, and sailors deserted their ships as soon as they touched the
wharves--everybody hastened to the diggings eager to get rich.

When confirmation of the wonderful gold deposits in Australia reached
the outside world, a grand rush, like that to California, took place.
New towns and cities sprang up as by magic, and from the increase of
business the older places rapidly became more populous. Since the time
of Hargraves's discovery, Victoria has produced the most gold, some of
the largest nuggets in the world having been found in this colony.

The following story of the gold fields is related in Lang's "Australia":
While the ship _Dudbrook_ was docked at Sydney, where she was receiving
her cargo, a sailor boy named Bob heard of the great quantities of gold
that had been dug out of the mountains. He longed to try his luck at
mining, but hardly knew how he could get away from the ship without
being caught.

In the meantime, while the ship was receiving her cargo, all the old
crew except Bob had deserted. He hesitated about leaving and seemed to
find no good opportunity to escape unnoticed. The day of departure
arrived. The sails were being shaken out by the new crew, which had been
pressed into service. The little tug that was to tow the big ship out
of the harbor was beginning to straighten the cable and churn the water
into foam, but the hawser stil