Page:Notes on New Zealand (1892).pdf/166

156 to the "heathen Chinee." The theory in regard to gold deposits is that the places where they are found were formerly portions of some river bed. The digger who has a claim, and finds the wash dirt, supposed to have been originally deposited by some river, works it so long as it lasts. Very often, however, he comes to a rock, and, believing this to have been the absolute bottom of the original river, abandons the claim. Another digger, however, comes along, and, sounding this rock, finds he can partially remove it or get beneath it, and sometimes discovers below a fresh deposit of wash dirt even more