"Struck Oil."

King Country Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 909, 23 September 1916, Page 6

"Struck Oil."

If every man his own pants discovered a goldmine there would be a slump in washerwomen. But that is how the largest nugget ever found in California was turned out. It was a young Indian who was washing his clothes in a certain stream when this big lump of fortune came his way. Who will say now that virtue —cleanliness, for choicedoes not bring its own reward ? The Californian Eldorado, to which all the world rushed, with one accord, was first spotted by a man who went out early one morning to dig onions with a sheath-knife, and found gold adhering to the blade. Talking of sheath-knives, they were the favourite meanß of picking out gold in the old Bendigo days. The diggers used these knives for many things, and wore them in their belts. They used to dig in their "claims," flicking out bits of gold with the point. Imagine taking thirty-two pounds' weight of gold out of a hole in the earth before breakfast ! Yet such an experience was common enough. And a gold mine in New Zealand was discovered by a man who picked up a stone to throw at a woodpigeon !