AUSTRALIAN GOLDFIELDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 223, 18 September 1894, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN GOLDFIELDS.

THE COOLGARDIE, RUSH. (

PEptILS Of prospecting. !

Fighting the Natives?

A Sydney " Morning Herald " , telegram from Perth (W.A.), of a^ate date, gives the .following interesting account. of, the perils of gold prospecting work in the interior: of -Western Australia, ; which Bhould fa worth reading by those .who are '•offto Coolgardie:"— "Mr Hall, prospector for W."; R. Wilson arid Horns Comoahy, has; arrived with a caravan of camels, after having been oub since the middle of April, on which date he loft Cue. The bulk Of the country passed over "was sand and Bpmifex, with occasionally small auriferous belts, At the junction near Lake Carey, usually called Eagle Nest, Mr Hall found a quartz leader. ! He prospected over 100 miles of country... searching for gold,,.butj although: several Creek soaks with permanent Waber were meb wibb, no important auriferous discovery was made; Finally, Hall and pArby pegged two leases adjoining Wilson's Mount Margaret mine. All .bhe party wero more or lesa atbacked with scurvy, and one man, William Ritter, died trom congestion of the lungs. Mr Hall sayS the country ab Lake Carey was thoroughly prospected for alluvial diggings with fairly good prospects. . ••During the time they were camped ab the Junction, the party was attacked^ by natives at,Windich Brook, and the -whites, Were obliged to abandon their camp, their revolvers being untrustworthy. They made across country towards the camel track. The nativeß there surrounded bbem, arid, their revolvers again proving defective, they had to stand fire from ? pears, and broke, them aa they were hrown, till moat of. the weapons were destroyed. At length, seizing sticks,"the diggers attacked the natives,and beat them off. ?' , "One of the party, named firiffo Wallace, was Seriously injured, having been speared through the lungs, and also in the head. Another named Malcolm • Was speared in the back, shoulder, thigh and bead. Hall carried the men into camp on camels, and attended to their ■'- wounds. Wallace is able to hobble about; but Malcolm is still in bed, his Spinal cord being injured."