IN SEARCH OF GOLD IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

Evening Star, Issue 13012, 5 January 1907, Page 5

IN SEARCH OF GOLD IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

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[By Robebt 1L Macdonaid, 1\8.5.G.5., etc] When my companion and I arrived at Kanowna, the most distant outpost of the famous Kalgoorlie goldfields, we were surprised to find it a very ordinary collection of galvanised iron hotels, stores, and gambling saloons; but when we got beyond the limits of the town and found ourselves amidst thousands of white " mullock" heaps (excavated material from shafts), on the tops of which creaking windlasses proclaimed that men were working underneath, we agreed that there was a possibility of truth in the census statement that ten thousand men lived on the Kanowna fields. We had to walk two miles before reaching the last of the gEstening white mounds, and then, just ahead, we saw a roan working a strange contrivance amidst a dense cloud of sand, and walking up to him I said : " Can you tell us where we may peg out a clami?" He ceased his work and looked around. " Oh, ye is darned new chums, is ye?" he cried. " Well, ye.can stake off anywhere outside that post ye see there." "Tiank you. Do you mind telling what you are doing just now?" " I is getting gold oaten the air." "What?" "What I said; this jigger is what we call a dry 'blower, an' I shovel the sand • into it an' shake it—-bat here, try it for yourself." I examined the machine and saw that it was a series of inclined sieves mounted above each other, with little bars of wood fastened transversely across the lower ends, and the. whole was attached to four springy wooden feet—Eiddling Gold.— "Shake it, darn ye, shake it!" roared the miner, and applying my strength to the affair I imparted to it a jerky motion, Mac, my companion, meanwhile shovelling the sand on to the top sieve. The result was magica], the large stones rolled down the incline plane over the bars of wood to the ground, the finer dust rose all around, filling my eyes, ears, and nostrils, and almost choking me. "Where does the use of all this come in?" I gasped. "Keep it jiggin' an' yell see directly, cried the owner, squatting on the ground and lighting his pipe. I kept the thing "jigging "till my strength gave out, then Mac and I changed places, and for half an hour that " shaker " shook as it never did before. " Stop!" the miner suddenly roared, and we obeyed. "Now," he continued, rising and

walking up to the machine, " I is no good at explanation, but I don't suppose you fellows ever heard o£ a thing called specific gravity?" "We remained silent. We wished to hear his story. "Well, this thing goes by that, for the stones, being light, roll over these bars, and the sand and fine. gold falls through. But the gold, being heavy, cannot git over the darned riffles there, and so it sticks in them an'—lor! boys, look!" He ran his hand along one of tbe top riffles as be spoke, and held up a rrugget of gold about 4oz in ' weight. To say we were surprised hut feebly expresses our astonishment, and when Sam, l as the miner was called, gathered four jpz pieces and about twenty " pin head" slugs from the other sieves, we were unable to speak. Sam insisted on our keeping the gold, but we as firmly declined- "We'll make one of these things and start dry-blowing the desert for ourselves," I said laughingly. " Well, come an* have tucker with me, anyhow," he said, " an' Til help you to make a jigger; but, mind you, ye cant alawys do what yo has done to-day. If ye takes my tip you would gink a shaft over by that boundary peg there, and chance hittin' on a good thing down below. I has no male, or I would have done that long ago." "Then join us." _ " Does ye mean it ?"■ " Certainly." "Then I am with you, boss." Everything now being- settled, we had dinner with Sam in his tent, during which ceremony ho gave us a history of the various mines in the vicinity. —A Salted Mine—

" Does ye see that shaft over there near where we is to sink?" he suddenly-said. Then, continuing, ho added: "That is the Victory mine. It was first pegged out by Tim Mnrphy, the mayor off the town. Of course, there never was no gold in it, so he sold it to a London fellow, who floated it into a ccnipany; bat they very soon abandoned it, and then Murphy pa* pegged it over again, and is now waiting to sell it to the first new chum ho meets." We did not allow much time to pass before wj inspected the surface work of the abandoned mine, hat we saw by the notice on the corner post that tie * exemption from work leave" had stffl four days to run before we could "jump" it. "X'm goin' doon to see the bottom onyway," said Mac, sliding down the windlass rope, and Sam and I marked oft" an adjoining claim 80ft square. Before we had inserted our pegs, however, Mac's shouts made us rush back to the shaft. "Come doon!" roared Mae; "the drive is made o' gold." "That is darned funnjj* mused Sam, following me down tho rope. 'Where is it. So"** 10 ?" . ™. , _, "Just look at this a mtonta. The last company that had this mine didna inspect their property vera thoroughly. They seem t»3 have forgot this tunnel- Why, it's fanshot wi' gold." Sam and I crawled forward mto a small drive, from the wails of which Mao, with the aid of a lighted candle and a pocket knife, was picking out slugs of ffold. "Ha, ha!" laughed Sam, " you is right, Soottie. It is shot with gold. Lor, but Muipby ia-a-smart fellow " " What do you mean," I cned. "Just that Murphy has been down here and salted that drive for the next new chum he meets. He fired that gold into the walls with a gun." "Then this is a fraud " " An' a darned good one. But t say, boss, it ain't no use us sinking a shaft near hero now. I can see this country is as barren as the Anstrahan treasury, and w«M better go 'back dry-blowing again." —On the Wrong SSde of the WalL —

"I.don't know about that," I said, creeping up to the end of the drive. "B it evident that no mineralogist has ever been here, or he would have recognised ibis ■wall of diorHic formation." "What about that, boss?"

•' Oh, just that the auriferous deposits ■were probably stemmed back by that wall, and in all likelihood there are rich pockets on the other side of it."

■' Oh, lor! Quick, mates, let us get out an' peg the ground alongside an* get a shaft dewn on the other side of the darned wall," criod Sam, the perspiration breaking out all over him as he realised tho significance of what I had said.

And my words proved to be correct, for in three days we had bottomed our own shaft and driven into the wall from the other side, at the base of which 'we struck gold in extremely rich quantities, but—on tbe Wrong side, of our boundary line- What our thoughts were can be imagined, and what Sam said may not be repeated. We had proved the value of the Victory mine, but that was aIL As we stood disconsolately round the top of out shaft on the fourth day, hoping that no one would put in an appearance to work the Victory nSnc, a loud shouting, accompanied by revolver shots and other noises, made us look around, and we saw a large crowd of men rushing wildly in. our direction. Some were on horses, some on bicycles, one or two were driving, and a few •were mounted upon camels, but the majority were running on foot, and all contributed to tbe medley of discordant sounds. —A Bran.— "They're comht' to jump the Victory mine," cried Mac, ruefully. " No darfied fear,"' roared Sam excitedly. "It's a rush, and there's Mayor Murphy, that fegowj^ojL^horseback,.anions..the first.

'Come on, boys.'* Sam wised an axe and M\ off, and perceiving that the . excitement wai caused by a new discovery of gold some-. where, we did likewise, for well we knew that first men on a ground can always dispose of timr ebizns to advantage. We -did not know where the "rash" was midrmg for, bat, a timber clomp retarding the horsemen and a soft sand patch the cycUsts, Mac and I soon found ourselves leading, and picking up some tree stumps as we ran, we went on at our utmost pace until we came upon three men filling in a hole with feverish haste. " It aint here the big nugget was found," cried one anxiously. " We're liars ourselves," laughed Mac, coolly inserting a post alongside one of theirs. "We'll fight you if you stay here," continued the men. "As you please," I said, placing post number two. "We've been on goldfields ■before, and really do not care much what you do." At this point the rider whom Sam had pointed out as Murphy rode up. "; "Hallo! you're first, are yon," he cried, seeing our ground pegged out. "Say, 111. give you fifty sovereigns for your claim." ~ : "Not just now, thank you," I replied, -as the crowd began to approach. •'What! would you run against me?" cried Murphy. "11l fifi you with lead, yori new chum——" He did not complete his sentence, for Sam came up at that moment, and hauled him from his horse, and looked to me for further instructions. " I do not think you- will do any shooting just now, Mr Murphy," I said, producing my own Smith and Wesson revolver. "We were' here first, and " " And we'll see yon through," cried th» crowd of men. '' Fair play is the game Sfi Australia." " Name your price, then. What will yo»i sell your ground for?" cried Murphy, e* citedly. "A thousand pounds," I said, coloDy, "bu% I don't beEeve it is worth sixpence." —The Biter Bit.— "Here yon are, then," he cried, producing his cheque book. "Men, you are all witnesses that X have bought the No. 1 claim of this new rush?" "Yes, yes," cried everyone. "For what will you sell any right you may have to the "Victory mine?" I asked, indiw ferently. i "That cheque back again," answered Murphy promptly, now rapidly becoming cooL " Don't deal, stranger," yelled the miner*. "The Victory is a duffer ** " There's your cheque, then. Hen, yon are bJI witnesses that I have bought his interest in the Victory?" "More fool you," Jarcghed the men, now departing to peg out their daim*. "Yes, more fool you," laughed Murphy. "There never was any gold in the Victory except what I put in myseK" Neither Sam, Mac, nor I ventured to correct him. We went back, and made oni title secure. Some days later Murphy rode over to us. " That rush of yours was a failure," he said. "There was no gold there." " I never thought there was," I said. " But yon led the rush? The men all followed you." "Well, we coutdnt help that. We thought they knew where they were going. We ce> tainly did not." "Ah, well, we're square, anyhow, foi there's no gold in the Victory," he said. " Oh, yes, there is," I remarked. "W* have already taken 300oz out." "What!" he yelled. "You're dreaming I'll buy it back from you' if you can show me an ounce of gold yotfre got from it that I did not shoot in." Here Mac threw me a bag of nuggets which we had taken from the base of the wall, and, showing them to Murphy, I said: "We are quite willing to sell the Victory, but our price is £50,000." Murphy's. answer was unprintable, and the mine remained in our possession.