THE QUEENSLAND NUGGET.

West Coast Times, Issue 758, 27 February 1868, Page 3

THE QUEENSLAND NUGGET.

So the present excitement concerning Queensland has, after all, been caused by a party of hard-up diggers, who, driven to " fossick " for a livelihood, " happened " upon the monster' nugget which has driven two-thirds of the Westland diggers nugget-mad, and threatens to turn the brains of the remainder. By great good fortune a copy of the Queensland " Times," of the 11th inst., fell in our. possession yesterday; and amongst its other items we found the following account of the 831 b nugget, and how it was found. The " Times " says : — " The continuous good news from Gympie Creek and especially the finding of what is said to be the second largest nugget Australia has produced, is causing considerable excitement in Ipswich, and several parties are preparing to make a start. A person who left the field on Friday afternoon, and who saw the nugget, informs us that it is a mass of solid gold, about fourteen inches lonff and eight inches high in the centre, from which it shelves suddenly towards the edges. The average width is about eight inches, and the bottom is slightly concave. Only one small speck of foreign substance can be seen, and the owners — Curtis and Ins nephew — were doing quite a " stroke" by exhibiting it at a shilling a head. It was then in charge of the police, and was subsequent^ taken to the Commercial Bank. Our informant states that the lucky finders, who were rather hard-up, were fossicking about in the old claims, and struck a pick into the nugget, which was a little more than a foot from the surface, between a layer of pipeclay, which is generally passed without examination— and the ordinary washdirt. The find created intense excitement. The population is now over 10,000 persons, and is still increasing ; but all are not doing Trell — seme barely making a living. Stores and public-houses continue to be well patronised ; and the ferryman on the Mary River, who is no way backward in charging, is said to be making something like LSO a week."