Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/34



reports which daily reached Melbourne from Forest and Fryer’s Creeks were so favourable that those who were able to resist the mania when Ballarat first became popular now prepared to take their chance, unable longer to oppose the almost universal epidemic which then received the name of the ‘yellow fever.’ The numbers on the road to Mount Alexander far exceeded those who had been observed wending their way to Ballarat; the whole route was literally crowded with passengers, many of whom were denizens of the Australian colonies, who began to be attracted to Victoria by the fame of her inexhaustible mines. The term ‘Mount Alexander’ was indiscriminately applied to Forest, Fryer’s, Barker’s, and Campbell’s Creeks, and even to Bendigo and the Loddon. The great ‘finds’ of gold were, however, first discovered on the old golden point on Forest Creek and on the hills and gullies adjoining. The first diggers on the creek found a seam of gold almost on the surface of the ground, and running across one of the small hills, but the precious metal was chiefly dug out of the small gullies which ran between the hills into the main creek. There were two methods of obtaining the gold at this period—washing the soil to the depth of about half-a-foot on the surface, and sinking pits in order to search for pockets of the precious metal, which was often found above or in the pipe-clay and slate.

“The Bendigo diggings were discovered a few weeks after, and attracted crowds of persons by their richness. Those who were on the goldfields in the latter portion of 1851 and the first six months of 1852 could scarcely have failed to obtain treasure. In many of the richest gullies on Bendigo, such as Eaglehawk, Long, Ironbark, Pegleg, &c., and in Golden and Adelaide gullies on Forest Creek, nearly every claim was auriferous. In the first named few parties who were fortunate enough to possess a claim on the best ground, dug out less than three to six hundred ounces. But even at this period many went away without obtaining any gold. Those persons either could not maintain themselves on the goldfields, or were compelled by hunger to leave them in order to obtain employment, or they could not reconcile themselves to the privations and hazards which diggers have to undergo. Many