GOLD MINE IN THE WORLD.

Drilling the rock for blasting on the Rand Reefs of South Africa; the
compressed-air drills give a million blows a day, each with the force
of half a ton.]

"The authorities of the province of Victoria were in despair. The
colony was plunging into ruin. Something must be done at once. They
offered a huge reward to any one who should find gold within two
hundred miles of Melbourne. On the very same day, two men came to
claim the reward. One had made a strike on the Plenty River, the other
on the Yarra-Yarra. In August, 1851, came the discovery of gold at
Ballarat, gold in its pure form and in large grains. The Bendigo
fields developed immediately after.

"Then came a rush unparalleled! Money came easy, just as it comes easy
to any man who has the good luck to be first at a strike. Every one
got rich in Ballarat. There were no blanks. It was the richest ground
that ever was found. The grains of gold were so big that they stuck
out and looked at you!

"Geelong, which was the nearest town to Ballarat, was deserted. Three
months after the discovery of gold the mayor of Geelong complained
that there were only eleven men and over three thousand women and
children in the town."

"Ay," agreed Jim, "and I remember in Pot-Luck Camp, the first time a
decent woman came into the town, a miner offered her a bag of
gold-dust to just shake hands with him. I've seen seven camps in a
string, wi' maybe a thousand men in each an' nary a woman in the lot!"

"A camp like that becomes right wild," Owens agreed. "Ballarat, for a
while, was about as dangerous a place as ever the world saw.
Ticket-of-leave men from New South Wales, escaped or paroled convicts
from Tasmania, roughs that had been run out of camps by vigilance
committees in California, Chinese and Malays swarmed there. The
diggers refused to take out licenses, fired on the police, charged the
military stockade, and when the troops charged back and took 125
prisoners, a jury acquitted every one of the mutineers as upholders of
individual liberty. If a man did not find gold, he starved at the
exorbitant prices demanded for food; if he did make a strike, the
chances were ten to one he would be murdered the next day. Colorado,
at is worst, could not be compared with early days at Ballarat.

"Bendigo followed right after. That was a nugget corner. During the
year 1852, alone, three big nuggets were found there, one of 24
pounds, one of 28 pounds, and o