d and clay into the shallow
current, whose waters were turned to a tint of dirty yellow. Such is the
scene which presents itself by day; but at sunset a gun is fired from
the commissioner's tent and all cease work: then, against the evening
sky, ten thousand fires send up their wreaths of thin blue smoke, and
the diggers prepare their evening meals. Everything is hushed for a
time, except that a dull murmur rises from the little crowds chatting
over their pannikins of tea. But, as the darkness draws closer around,
the noises begin to assume a merrier tone, and, mingling pleasantly in
the evening air, there rise the loud notes of a sailor's song, the merry
jingle of a French political chant, or the rich strains of a German
chorus.

In some tents the miners sit round boxes or stools, while, by the light
of flaming oil-cans, they gamble for match boxes filled with gold-dust;
in others they gather to drink the liquors illicitly sold by the
"sly grog shops". Many of the diggers betake themselves to the
brilliantly-lighted theatres, and make the fragile walls tremble with
their rough and hearty roars of applause: everywhere are heard the
sounds of laughter and good humour. Then, at midnight, all to bed,
except those foolish revellers who have stayed too late at the "grog
shop".

At dawn, again, they are all astir; for the day's supply of water must
be drawn from the stream ere its limpid current begins to assume the
appearance of a clay-stained gutter. Making the allowances proper to
the occasion, the community is both orderly and law-abiding, and the
digger, in the midst of all his toil, enjoys a very agreeable existence.

#5. The Licence Fee.#--He had but one grievance to trouble his life, and
that was the monthly payment of the licence fee. This tax had been
imposed under the erroneous impression that every one who went upon the
goldfields must of necessity earn a fortune. For a long time this
mistake prevailed, because only the most successful diggers were much
heard of. But there was an indistinguishable throng of those who earned
much less than a labourer's wage.

The average monthly earnings throughout the colony were not more than
eight pounds for each man; and of this sum he had to pay thirty
shillings every month for the mere permission to dig. To those who were
fortunate this seemed but a trifle; but for those who earned little or
nothing there was no resource but to evade payment, and many were the
tricks a