cting farther and farther away from the
true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most
successful. Is not our _native_ soil auriferous? Does not a stream from
the golden mountains flow through our native valley? and has not this
for more than geologic ages been bringing down the shining particles and
forming the nuggets for us? Yet, strange to tell, if a digger steal
away, prospecting for this true gold, into the unexplored solitudes
around us, there is no danger that any will dog his steps, and endeavor
to supplant him. He may claim and undermine the whole valley even, both
the cultivated and the uncultivated portions, his whole life long in
peace, for no one will ever dispute his claim. They will not mind his
cradles or his toms. He is not confined to a claim twelve feet square,
as at Ballarat, but may mine anywhere, and wash the whole wide world in
his tom.

Howitt says of the man who found the great nugget which weighed
twenty-eight pounds, at the Bendigo diggings in Australia:--"He soon
began to drink; got a horse, and rode all about, generally at full
gallop, and, when he met people, called out to inquire if they knew who
he was, and then kindly informed them that he was 'the bloody wretch
that had found the nugget.' At last he rode full speed against a tree,
and nearly knocked his brains out." I think, however, there was no
danger of that, for he had already knocked his brains out against the
nugget. Howitt adds, "He is a hopelessly ruined man." But he is a type
of the class. They are all fast men. Hear some of the names of the
places where they dig:--"Jackass Flat,"--"Sheep's-Head
Gully,"--"Murderer's Bar," etc. Is there no satire in these names? Let
them carry their ill-gotten wealth where they will, I am thinking it
will still be "Jackass Flat," if not "Murderer's Bar," where they live.

The last resource of our energy has been the robbing of graveyards on
the Isthmus of Darien, an enterprise which appears to be but in its
infancy; for, according to late accounts, an act has passed its second
reading in the legislature of New Granada, regulating this kind of
mining; and a correspondent of the "Tribune" writes:--"In the dry
season, when the weather will permit of the country being properly
prospected, no doubt other rich '_guacas_' [that is, graveyards] will be
found." To emigrants he says:--"Do not come before December; take the
Isthmus route in preference to the Boca del Toro one; bring