ng as the claims of the company were held
in my name. On the very day the company suspended operations all the
vacant ground on and about the saddle was pegged out. Most of those who
"rushed" the vicinity were New Zealanders from Hokitika. The site on
which my tent stood was appropriated by a man named Cunningham. When
ground was required for mining purposes, any one tenting on it had to
remove.

Within five minutes of Cunningham's first pick-stroke, he struck the
"lead." On merely turning over the surface sods the nuggets could be
picked out like plums from a cake. The bedrock was soft soapy shale;
there was no "wash" in the ordinary sense of the term. Loam, with which
small, angular fragments of quartz were mixed, covered the bedrock to a
depth of about six inches. But this bedrock turned out to be scored by
a small gutter or channel a few inches deep and about eighteen inches
wide, which ran for about twenty feet through the middle of the claim.
The surface soil gave no indication of the existence of the channel.

The bottom of this channel was literally paved with nuggets. The stuff
it contained gave an average of over four ounces to the pan; it had to
be harrowed to Mulcahy's spring, there to be cradled. Within a few
weeks the claim was worked out, for there was no gold to be found
outside the channel. But the gold won by Cunningham was worth over
4,000. The legs of my bunk had actually been sunk in the richest part
of the ground, they must have literally been touching some of the
nuggets. This was but one of the several occasions upon which I all but
grasped the skirts of Fortune.

Soon a water-race was brought in from the opposite side of the valley
on the southern slope of the saddle a distance of about four miles.
Then ground-sluicing operations began. I again took service, this time
with a party of New Zealanders. I never knew how much gold was found by
them, but the amount must have been considerable. I was not permitted
to be present at any "wash up," but in the stages just previous to that
climax I used to see nuggets lying thickly about whenever the water
cleared. No one, even though he were one of the partners was allowed to
pick up gold before the end of the "wash up," all had to come into the
pan.

My best friend among these men was a gigantic Swede who was called
Peter. He had another name, but, as he said himself, it would be
necessary to take a pinch of snuff before you could pronounce it
proper