low. Now we creep up from the drive into a narrower
space, where we crawl along upon our hands and knees. We shortly came
upon four men getting out the wash-dirt, using their picks while
squatting or lying down, and in all sorts of uncomfortable positions.
The perspiration was steaming down the men's faces as they worked, for
the heat was very great.

We did not stay long in that hot place, and I did _not_ take a pick
and happen to strike upon a nugget, as it is said the Duke of
Edinburgh did, though I saw a small dish of the dirt washed when we
reached the top, and it yielded a speck or two. We saw "the colour,"
as the expression is. I felt quite relieved at last to find myself at
the top of the shaft, and in the coolness and freshness of the open
air. Here the dirt raised from the mine is put into the iron
puddling-machine, and worked round and round with water. The water
carries off the mud, the large stones are picked out, and the gold in
the bottom of the machine is cradled off. Such was my little
experience in mine-prospecting.

I must also tell of my still smaller experience in gold-seeking. One
morning a little boy brought in a nugget for sale, which he had picked
up from a heap of dirt, while he was strolling down the lead outside
the town. After a heavy washing fall of rain, it is not unusual for
small bits of gold to be exposed to sight; and old diggers often take
a ramble amongst the mullock after rain, to make a search amongst the
heaps. A piece of gold was once brought to us for sale, weighing about
two ounces, that had been thus washed up by a heavy shower of rain.
Inspired by the success of the little boy, I went out in the afternoon
in a pair of thick boots, and with a pair of sharp eyes, to search for
treasure! It had been raining hard for several days, and it was a good
time for making an inspection of the old washed-out dirt-heaps. After
a long search I found only one speck of gold, of the value of about
4_d._ This I was showing with pride to a young lady friend, who, being
playfully inclined, gave my hand a shake, and my microscopical speck
was gone, the first and last fruits of my gold-seeking.

Some of the tales told by the old diggers of their luck in the early
days of gold-finding are very interesting. One of these I can relate
almost in the very words of the man himself to whom the incident
occurred; and it was only an ordinary digger's tale.

"My mates and I," he said, "were camped in a gu