BATHURST GOLD-FIELDS.

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lumps or "nuggets" of various sizes, which once excited great attention and curious comparison between those found in quartz, in clay, in alluvial mould; but now in the auction-rooms of Sydney and Melbourne they excite no more attention, unless of rare beauty, than so much copper or lead.

The immediate result of the rush to the Bathurst gold-fields was to supply the district with labor at reasonable rates. A traveler observes: "We were much struck by the difference between their ideas of the mines and those of men at a greater distance. To the latter the gold country is a place with pieces of gold ready to be picked up without trouble, and they start off, trusting to find food somehow, and quarters somewhere, as they have done hitherto in the bush; but to these men here it is an open box forest, with severe frosts every night, sleet and snow for weeks at a time, without any accommodations whatever, or rations, unless paid for in hard money, at three times the usual price; if they turn out, they exchange their comfortable, warm hut and regular meals for cold and hunger at once, so that there is no room for the imagination to work. And though they all intend to give it a trial when they get their discharge, and their wages to fit them out, they expressed the greatest astonishment at the folly of the men they saw passing every day, totally unprovided: they looked upon them as literally mad."

Amid the sounds of rejoicing from those who for the first time found themselves amply repaid for every week's hard work in solid gold, there were of course

many failures. There were thousands who came up to dig for gold who had never dug a rood of garden in their lives, and never slept out of the house. To a working man who had been accustomed to toil for weekly wages, it was nothing to dig all the week, and if one hole or spot did not suit to go on and try another. Hard work is second nature to such; but of gentlemen, clerks, shopmen, city mechanics, there were many who easily broke down, worn out by the labor, by the exposure to night air, change of living, and bad luck. At least fifty per cent. of the adventurers are obliged to retire after a short probation.

A stock of clothing is indispensable, of at least one good change, with boots of the best leather: half the diggers get lame from their boots growing hard with wet.

The cost of tools, utensils and provisions for four persons for five weeks, is £23 3s. 10d. Carriage and expenses on the road from Sydney, £8; licenses payable before commencing to work, £6.

The following are the regulations enforced at the diggings:

"All persons digging or searching for alluvial gold to take out a license, the license fee being at the rate of £1 10s. per month. All gold procured without due authority is liable to seizure, in whose possession soever it be. Persons applying for license required to prove they are not absent from hired service. Claims to work unoccupied ground to be marked out on the following scale:

"1. Fifteen feet frontage to either side of a river or main creek. "2. Twenty feet of the bed of a tributary to a river or main creek, extending across its whole breadth.

"3. Sixty feet of the bed of a ravine or watercourse.

LAWS FOR THE MINERS.

"4. Twenty feet square of tableland or river flats.

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"These claims to be secured to parties only as they may continue to hold licenses for the same, except in case of flood or accident. Licenses liable to be canceled on conviction of the holders of selling spirits, or of any disorderly and riotous conduct. Persons found working alluvial gold on public or private lands without a license, to pay a double license fee. Disputes as to claims to be settled by the commissioners. Licenses to dig on lands alienated from the crown, to be issued only to the proprietors, or persons authorized by the proprietors, in writing, to apply for the same. The fee for such licenses to be 15s. per month. Licenses for draining ponds and waterholes, for the purpose of obtaining alluvial gold, to be obtainable on paying as many license fees as shall be proportioned to the area of the waterhole-calculating twenty-five feet square for every license. Reservoirs and dams for the purpose of washing gold to be constructed on the permission of the commissioners. Owners of claims employing laborers, and paying license fees for them, allowed to transfer such licenses to other laborers. All persons searching for matrix gold, by working auriferous quartz veins, to pay a royalty of ten per cent. on all gold obtained, to an officer appointed by the government. The party working the vein to come under a bond in the sum of £1,000 to pay such royalty; the government officer to reside on the land, and to have access to the buildings and premises, and to all books and accounts connected with the production of gold. All buildings and machinery erected on the land to be considered as additional security to the government. The claim to consist of half a mile, and in the course of the vein, with a quarter of a mile on each side of the vein reserved for building purposes, &c. The right to cut timber and to use water on the land to be granted. The claim to be forfeited by neglecting to pay the prescribed royalty; by not employing twenty persons or machinery, calculating one horse power to seven men, within six months after the application for the claim has been accepted; or by ceasing to employ that number subsequently; by the employment of unlicensed persons to work alluvial gold on the claim, or violating in any way the terms of the bond. The duration of the claims to be three years, to be extended further under instructions from her Majesty's government, if the conditions of the bond have