MARYBOROUGH DIGGINGS.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 232, 29 April 1868, Page 3

MARYBOROUGH DIGGINGS.

Latest feom the Gtmpie Creek Diggings.—One of those lately returned to Westport from the Gympie Creek diggings has kindly given us the following information, on which we glace every reliance. He states at the present time there are not more than three hundred and fifty miners working who are getting more than a living, and about one hundred and twenty of them are realising from £8 to £lO per week per man ; the workings at the present time are confined entirely to the shelves •on the banks of the creek, and the ajold is of a ehotty or coarse description. About six or eight miles further up the creek, there are several parties sluicing the sand from the bed of the creek, which is very poor. After sluicing the whole day, in some instances, hardly the color of gold is to be found in the a-ipple-box, while perhaps, the next day, they may get very fair returns, the gold apparently lying in small patches only ; In four fifths of the ground the color even is not obtainable. He states that the first diggings or workings come to is from forty to forty five miles from Maryborough. The road is rather sandy, but taking it altogether is a very good one. Provisions are very cheap, the following being the prices for some of the leading articles: —4 lb loaf, 9d;

beef, best cuts, 3d per lb ; mutton, 2|d per lb 5 potatoes, 3s to 4s per hundred lbs. The ground, for scores of miles in different directions, has been well prospected, and only in some few instances lias the color of gold been obtained, but he says that it is quite likely that they may find some good patches of payable ground yet, and in fact, it is most probable that they will. It is almost impossible to find the gold, as it is unlike any of the goldfields of Victoria or New Zealand, as you may sink within a few inches of gold, and that very fine, and not obtain the color.

A Model Pbospectob— The Oipps 1 Zand Times writes as follows of John Middleton, known as " Sailor Jack," a quartz-reef prospector, who was recently found dead in his hut in the ranges on the Devil's River:—"Few were aware of Jack's real name, but all knew of his indefatigable exertions in the mountains in quest of reefs, and of the success which often attended his E respecting excursions. At Kilmore e discovered some reefs which at the present day remain valuable properties. At "Woods' Point he was also fortunate, and claimed the honour of discovering the All Nations and other reefs, which were for a long time held in high repute. Many of the reefs in Gipps Land owe their origin to Jack, but few of them are in very high estimation at present, and many of the shareholders, especially in the Britannia and El Dorado, on the Crooked River, would be better satisfied if he had not met with so enticing a show as that reef presented on the surface. Although often m a position to have realised an independent fortune, he never took advantage of the opportunity. He was good-natured and beneficent in the extreme, and his old associates and,

j others connected with him obtained Bhares in all his discoveries until he had none left for himself. A bottle of grog or a few pounds was to him a sufficient equivalent for a share in a reef; in fact, in moments of excitement, he some times forgot how many shares he disposed of; and on the Crooked River he was said to have parted with twenty-sixteenths in the Britannia alone. On occasions of particular good fortune he always maintained the true character of the sailor, by remaining in town until every shilling was spent, when he supplied himself with a bottle of rum, and repaired again to the ranges. Sometimes he would be lost sight of for a week or fortnight, and the greatest wonder is that his bones have not been found bleached in some remote part of the colony years ago. The most remarkable feature in his prospecting career is that he was no miner : he never worked in a claim, never was the length of himself down a shaft, and yet there appeared to be a kind of affinity between himself and gold-bear-ing lodes." Thb Custody, or Spexdthbifts.— The correspondent of the Morning Herald in America says that a law

exists in Massachusetts, which provides for the appointment of official guardians to notorious spendthrifts. A person who foolishly wastes his estate in debauchery, gambling and riotous living may, upon evidence being given of the fact, be declared a spendthrift, and placed under special control. A few days since a Bostonian was, under this law, adjudged a "spendthrift," and committed to a guardian's care.

0-A.s.—Coal, remarks Galignani, is a strange substance. It provides us "with coke, tar, and illuminating gas. Tar, by distillation, yields about a dozen different hydrocarburets, some extremely dense, others almost as light as alcohol 5 napthaline, a solid substance used in medicine, being an instance of the former, and benzine, now one of the commonest drugs, one of the latter. By repeated distillation, we get gazogenic substances, which, mixed with acohol, produce what is oddly enough called liquid gas, and which, moreover, dissolveslndia-rubber, and cause, by the way, the disagreeable smell peculiar to waterproofs. And yet these very substances will, by chemical reaction, produce the most delicious perfumes for amateurs of sweetmeats, and even for admirers of the bouquet of cognac and rum. But our present object in talking of coal is its valuable ingredient, illuminating gas, which is now undergoing, at the hands of MM. MarechalandTessierdu Mothay, a process calculated to increase its' lighting power enormously. The process simply consists in subjecting common gas to complete combustion by oxygen. A small cylinder of magnesia put into the flame becomes luminous enough to project a light sixty times stronger than that of common gas. This very nearly constitutes what, about fifty years ago, was called the Drummond light, consisting of a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen lighted at the orifice of a tube and projected on a piece of chalk.

An UNFOBTtnSTATE PISHING ExctrEsiON. —Not many days ago a rather extensive party set out for the picturesque banks of the Murrumbidgee, having with them all the necessary accompaniments for a several days' picnic and fishing excursion. Arrived at the chosen encampmeut, the joyous party dismounted, and unsaddled and hobbled out of their horses. This done, they proceeded to pitch a large and expensive tent, which formed part of their equipment. Into this they carefully stowed their saddles and bridles, blankets, coats, rations, and what not in fact, everything except what they took with them for the immediate purpose of angling ; and having made a fire and refreshed themselves with a pot of tea, they set out, some up the river, and some down, to lure with tempting bait the cautious perch or greedy cod. It is not said with what success these disciples of good old Izaak "Walton plied their innocent art. But at a fixed hour they retraced their steps, according to a preconcerted arrangement, to the place of a general rendezvous, where each one intended to refresh the inner man with the dainties there awaiting them, and to recount meanwhile the result of his excursion. But, Oh! the mutability and uncertainty of things temporal! what a change had come over the spirit of their dream, and over the fair scene they had erewhile left! During their absence that treacherous camp-fire, which at first with such seeming good will helped them to the everwelcome quart-pot of tea, had communicated with the intervening dried grass, and spreading quickly to the fair white canvass, became a devouring flame to the fury of which

everything succumbed. There before the gaze of the petrified fishers, lay a smouldering mass of fused and black woollen, that just now existed as blue and scarlet blankets, Inverness wrappers, and tweed coats, indiscriminately mingled with roasted saddles and bridles, and red-hot stirrup-irons, bits, and spurs, and the charred remains of the bag of ration. The predicament of our friends was most woeful. Hungry and dispirited, it was resolved after J grave deliberation to catch the horses, and extemporisig bridles bv means of pocket-handkerchiefs and fishing-lines fastened to bits saved from the fire, to commence a forlorn barebacked march homewards in the uniform (with one exception) of shirt-sleeves. There is one feature in the foregoing occurrence which alone redeems it from the character of a capital joke —that is, the serious loss entailed on the excursionists. Several sons of Mr Henry Hall of Cham wood, were of the party, and that gentleman alone reckons his loss by the untoward event of about £6O. One of the party was a brother of Mr Harcourt of Ginindera, and a recent arrival from England. This young gentleman came up from Sydney with a very superior saddle and bridle, and silver-plated stirrups and spurs, all of which were consumed. In short, the party consisted of nine persons, and the estimated loss sustained altogether is at the lowest computation £loo.—Queanbeyan Age.