Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/115

 CHAPTER IV.

EFORE we enter into a statistical and geographical account of the Gold Fields, it may not be amiss to give a short description of a digger's life, according to the experience of Mr. Earp, from whom we quote:—

"On our arrival in the afternoon, we found the men congregated in crowds, which at first induced us to believe that a quarrel was taking place, but which turned out to be the gathering round some lucky find, each digger trusting to hit upon the rich veins in the vicinity. There were not a few, also, who, like ourselves, were surveying the wondrous scene before us, with blank looks of astonishment and dismay, for the first natural feeling was, that in such a crowd all the land must have been searched, and all the gold found. Selecting a spot close to where one of the most considerable groups were hard at work, we paid our license fee, pegged out