Page:Anti-slavery and reform papers by Thoreau, Henry David.djvu/137

 126 Anti-Slavery and Refo7nn Papers.

gold were to be found in that direction; but that is to ofo to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting 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 throuofh our native vallev ? 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 sup- plant him. He may claim and undermine the whole vallev 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 nngget. Howitt adds, " He is a hope- lessly ruined man." But he is a type of the class. They are all fast men. Hear some of the names of the places