iate neighbourhood.[11] Yet there is no
lack of marsupial animals of the same character: the opossum is one
of these. There is also a small kind of kangaroo, called the wallaby,
which, though I have not hunted, I have eaten. And wallaby stew is by
no means a bad dish: the flesh tastes very much like venison. Indeed,
the marsupial animals of Australia are of almost endless variety,
ranging from a very tiny animal, no bigger than our field-mouse, to
the great old-man kangaroo, which measures between seven and eight
feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. The peculiarity of all this
class of animals, from the smallest to the largest, is the marsupium,
or pouch, in which the females carry their immature young until they
are old enough to shift for themselves. The kangaroo is almost
confined to Australia, though several species are also to be met with
in the neighbouring islands.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 10: It is said in the colony that the musquitoes scent out
each "new chum," or fresh importation, by the lime-juice he has taken
on board ship; and that, being partial to fresh blood, they attack the
"new chums" in preference to the seasoned inhabitants.]

[Footnote 11: There is a Hunt Club at Avoca, that hunts kangaroo. The
animals abound north of the Murray River; and some parts of the
unsettled country in Gipps Land still swarm with them.]

CHAPTER XIV.

GOLD-BUYING AND GOLD-MINING.

HOW THE GOLD IS FOUND--GOLD-WASHING--QUARTZ-CRUSHING--BUYING GOLD FROM
CHINAMEN--ALLUVIAL COMPANIES--BROKEN-DOWN MEN--UPS AND DOWNS IN
GOLD-MINING--VISIT TO A GOLD MINE--GOLD-SEEKING--DIGGERS' TALES OF
LUCKY FINDS.

I must now be excused if I talk a little "shop." Though my
descriptions hitherto have, for the most part, related to up-country
life, seasons, amusements, and such like, my principal concern, while
living in Majorca, was with bank business and gold-buying. The
ordinary business of a banking office is tolerably well known, but the
business of gold-buying is a comparatively new feature, peculiar to
the gold-producing districts, and is, therefore, worthy of a short
description.

The gold is found and brought to us in various forms. The Majorca gold
is generally alluvial, consisting of coarse gold-dust and small
nuggets washed out from the gravel. There are also some quartz reef
mining companies, whose gold is bought in what we call a retorted
state. Let me explain. The quartz containing the gold is stamped and
br