r; that I worked
down about ten feet there, put in a drive, and, whilst I was working,
chanced to look up, and there, sticking in the pipeclay, was a piece
of gold as big as my fist. Such was my dream. It took complete
possession of me. I could think of nothing else. Some weeks after, I
selected just such a site for a shaft as that I had dreamt of, under a
gum-tree, close by a creek; and there, new-chum like, I put in the
drive at the wrong depth. But, one day, when I had got quite sick at
fruitlessly working in the hole, on accidentally looking up, sure
enough there was my nugget sticking up in the pipeclay, just as I had
dreamt of it. I took out the gold, sat with it in my hand, and thought
the thing over, but couldn't make it out at all."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 12: The ordinary price of good gold is 3_l._ 19_s._ 6_d._
the ounce. In the early days of gold-digging, the gold was never
cleaned, but bought right off at a low price, 2_l._ 15_s._ or 2_l._
17_s._ 6_d._ an ounce; the bankers thus often realizing immense
profits.]

CHAPTER XV

ROUGH LIFE AT THE DIGGINGS--"STOP THIEF!"

GOLD-RUSHING--DIGGERS' CAMP AT HAVELOCK--MURDER OF LOPEZ--PURSUIT AND
CAPTURE OF THE MURDERER--THE THIEVES HUNTED FROM THE CAMP--DEATH OF
THE MURDERER--THE POLICE--ATTEMPTED ROBBERY OF THE COLLINGWOOD
BANK--ANOTHER SUPPOSED ROBBERY--"STOP THIEF!"--SMART USE OF THE
TELEGRAPH.

In the times of the early rushes to the gold-fields there was, as
might be expected, a good deal of disorder and lawlessness. When the
rumour of a new gold-field went abroad, its richness was, as usual,
exaggerated in proportion to the distance it travelled; and men of all
classes rushed from far and near to the new diggings. Melbourne was
half emptied of its labouring population; sailors deserted their
ships; shepherds left their flocks, and stockmen their cattle; and,
worst of all, there also came pouring into Victoria the looser part of
the convict population of the adjoining colonies. These all flocked to
the last discovered field, which was invariably reputed the richest
that had yet been discovered.

Money was rapidly made by some where gold was found in any abundance;
but when the soil proved comparatively poor, the crowd soon dispersed
in search of other diggings. A population so suddenly drawn together
by the fierce love of gain, and containing so large an admixture of
the desperado element, could scarcely be expected to be very orderly.
Yet it i