them; it was not enough that the useful metals were found cropping out from the surface and requiring only to be gathered up; it was not enough that, while in the home country squalidness and poverty were the lot of the many, and even persevering ability could not ensure a sufficiency of food, and while gaols for crime and gaols for misfortune were both filled to overflowing, a teeming and beautiful land was on the other side holding out its magnificent bribes to tempt the unfortunates at home to cross the watery bridge which separated them from happiness and plenty-all appeared to be indifferent to the "voice of the charmer." Once in about twelve months an article would appear recommending a little emigration as a palliative for some portion of that misery which the legislature could not alleviate or prevent, and a ship or two would be put on now and then, lazily waiting week after week for its complement of passengers; but there was no vivid general recognition of the advantages presented by such magnificent possessions, nor any general willingness or inclination to pay the necessary "toll" over the bridge which led to them.

But a land where gold is to be had for the picking up, has roused alike the attention of the press and the legislature, the avarice of the capitalist, the enterprise of the merchant, and the

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anxious desire of all who are suffering here from lack of a sufficiency. The Gold Regions of Australia are the universal theme of contemplation and discussion. Ships for the diggings, good, bad, or indifferent, fill as fast as the brokers can engage them. Steamers of the greatest magnitude are adding their powerful and rapid assistance to the means of transit, and even return tickets" are advertised for conveying the curious traveller to the Antipodes and back in the course of a few months' pleasant trip. Books, lectures, and panoramic exhibitions to inform the public as to the features of the golden land are "plentiful as blackberries." Advertisements by the page inform the emigrant where he can best procure every possible thing he may require, from a nail to a steam quartz crushing machine, and the whole country is in a state of feverish excitement.

The actual discovery of gold in Australia, however, can scarcely be said to be a recent one. In December, 1829, it is mentioned in a Sydney paper, that a piece of gold in the quartz matrix had been bought by Mr. Cohen, a silversmith, from a labouring man, whose surprise is described as great on his receiving its proper value in money. For several years afterwards, a shepherd named M'Gregor, perhaps the same individual, was in the habit of occasionally

bringing pieces of gold to Sydney, by the sale of which he is said not merely to have supplied his immediate wants, but to have realized at one time a considerable property. He repeatedly offered to reveal the fortunate locality (which was supposed to lie in the Wellington district) to respectable persons, for the consideration of a large reward; but his honesty seems to have been questioned, as his conditions were never acceded to. Whether his supply had failed him or not, is doubtful, but he certainly was, at the time of the late discoveries, in gaol for debt.

The Rev. W. B. Clarke, of St. Leonard's parish, whose ability as a geologist, as well as in other departments of science, is well known and acknowledged in New South Wales, brought specimens of the metal in 1841 from the basin of the very river (the Macquarie) now supplying it, and he has also repeatedly announced his conviction that gold existed in considerable abundance in the "schists and quartzites" of the mountain chain. In consequence of communications made by him to the Geological Society, Sir Roderick Murchison, in a letter addressed to Sir Charles Lemon, advised that a person well acquainted with the washing of mineral sands be sent to Australia, speculating on the probability of auriferous alluvia being

abundant, and suggested "that such would be found at the base of the western flanks of the dividing ranges."

The following passage from the Quarterly Review of Sept. 1850, will show the opinion these gentlemen had formed, at that time, of the probable capabilities of the country:

"The important point for Englishmen now to consider, is, the extent to which our own great Australian Colonies are likely to become gold-bearing regions. The work of Count Strzelecki, and others, having made known the facts, that the chief or eastern ridge of that continent consists of paleozoic rocks, cut through by syenites, granites, and porphyries; and that quartzose rocks occasionally prevail in this long meridian chain, Sir Roderick Murchison announced, first to the Geographical Society, and afterwards to the Geological Society of Cornwall, his belief that wherever such contrasts occurred, gold might be expected to be found; Colonel Helmersen suggested the same idea at St. Petersburg. Very shortly afterwards, not only were several specimens of gold in fragments of quartz veins found in the Blue Mountains, north of Sydney, but one of the British Chaplains, himself a good geologist, in writing more recently, thus expresses himself: This colony is becoming a mining

country, as well as South Australia. Copper, lead, and gold, are in considerable abundance in the schists and quartzites of the Cordillera (Blue Mountains, &c.) Vast numbers of the population are going to California, but some day, I think, we shall have to recal them.'

"Mr. Montgomery Martin, in a pamphlet, published in 1847, says: Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his recent expedition to the north-east, found a region like the Uralian Mountains, abounding in gold. The specimens I have seen of the gold are very rich. It is in large grains, or irregular veins, loosely embedded in white quartz.""

About the beginning of 1849, a very fine specimen of gold in quartz was brought to Melbourne, Port Phillip, where, in March of that year, it was shown by M. La Trobe, the Superintendent, to Sir Charles Fitz Roy, the Governor of New South Wales. This specimen was said to have been found by a shepherd in the "Pyrenees," a day or two's journey from the town, and mysterious stories were current as to his disappearance, it being supposed that he had been induced to leave the colony by some person who had bought the secret. The general feeling, however, on the subject was one of incredulity; and many who were supposed to have some knowledge of mineralogy, declared