Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/252

 are carried off through the larger end of the cylinder, and fall on an inclined plane, and are easily removed.

The washing-stuff, after having passed through the cylinder, falls into a sluice, and is there washed. The great advantage of this machine is the avoiding the necessity of employing labour in the sluice, the auriferous earth being puddled in the machine. The quantity washed in ten working hours is very great—the machine washing as fast as the carts can arrive.

The place has the appearance of a little village, the Messrs. Brown at present employing sixteen hands. Their domiciles, with the extensive stabling and other necessary offices, coupled with the picturesque beauty of the flat, convey the impression, as you approach, of the nucleus of what the Yankees would call a thriving locality, which is the first step, in that land of go-a-headism, towards the establishment of a township.

If Bendigo could obtain the requisite supply of water, the establishment of machinery similar in principle to that of the Messrs. Brown, at Grassy Mat, would supersede all the present systems of washing auriferous soil, and would bring us back to something like the old halcyon days of gold digging. But Grassy Flat, we are afraid, is peculiar both in its extreme beauty and its plentiful supply of water.

A new rush has taken place at the Whipstick, and we understand that nearly 2000 miners are busily at work; as this number may be exaggerated, we shall take an early opportunity of paying it a personal visit.—Advertiser, July 25, 1856.

THE END.