ristison, owner of Lammermoor Station, and Mr.
Richard Anning, from either Cargoon or Reedy Springs Stations (I forget
which), arrived with two horses and a dray. They camped close to us, and
like ourselves, intended trying their luck at gold digging.

Whilst working at this, one Sunday evening, we overheard some Chinamen
speaking of a flat they were going to in the morning. We decided to
watch, and follow them. At daylight they made a rush to peg out claims;
we did likewise, and obtained one well placed as to water. The
difficulty then was how to work both claims, and it was decided Carolan
should get a mate and go on with the deep sinking on which we were
working. I was to work the shallow one myself. Our first claim turned
out to be on the edge of rich gold-bearing country, which was good while
it lasted, but soon petered out. The surrounding claims turned out very
rich, and got the name of the "Deep Lead."

In the meantime I had bottomed my shaft at eleven feet. It turned out to
be a very wet one, so I had to work without my shirt. When I took the
first dish down to wash, I noticed a number of men taking great interest
in it, especially when the panning-out showed two dwts. of shotty gold
in the dish. The men engaged me in conversation. When I returned to my
claim, I found my pegs thrown away and fresh ones surrounding the shaft
in place of them. I strongly demurred to this, but without avail, until
a party of men who were our camp neighbours came over and took my part.
Through them I recovered my claim without more than wordy warfare. After
doing well out of the claim I found I could not continue it without a
mate. Having to throw the wash-dirt eleven feet, a lot of the pebbles in
it would come back on and bruise my naked body.

Carolan and his mate determined to sink another shaft in the deep
sinking to hit the lead again. We had a consultation, and decided I
should take in as partner an old miner known as "Greasy Bill," who
possessed a horse and cart, cradles, and all the plant required for
shallow sinking.

For the first month we were getting as much as an ounce and a-half to
the load of sixty buckets. As I puddled the wash-dirt he cradled it, and
consequently was in possession of the gold bag which held the proceeds
from the cradle. Although I could detect no difference in the wash-dirt,
the cradling results dwindled down by degrees to a quarter ounce per
load. As this did not pay our tucker bill, my mate su