Pity 'tis That Such A
Woman Should Be Able To Mar Or Make The Fortunes Of Her Fellow
Creatures.
TUESDAY, 28.
- The holes commenced yeserday were duly "bottomed," but no
nice pocket-full of gold was the result; our shipmates, however, met
with better success, having found three small nuggets weighing two to
four ounces each at a depth of not quite five feet from the surface.
WEDNESDAY, 29. - To-day was spent in puddling and cradling.
Puddling is on the same principle as tin-dish-washing, only on a much
larger scale. Great wooden tubs are filled with the dirt and fresh
water, and the former is chopped about in all directions with a spade,
so as to set the metal free from the adhesive soil and pipe-clay.
Sometimes I have seen energetic diggers tuck up their trowsers, off
with their boots, step into the tub, and crush it about with their feet
in the same manner as tradition affirms that the London bakers knead
their bread. Every now and again the dirtied water is poured off
gently, and with a fresh supply, which is furnished by a mate with a
long-handled dipper from the stream or pool, you puddle away. The
great thing is, not to be afraid Of over-work, for the better
the puddling is, so much the more easy and profitable is the cradling.
After having been well beaten in the tubs, the "dirt" is put into the
hopper of the cradle, which is then rocked gently, whilst another party
keeps up a constant supply of fresh water. In the right hand of the
cradler is held a thick stick, ready to break up any clods which may be
in the hopper, but which a good puddler would not have sent there.
There was plenty of water near us, for a heavy rain during the night
had filled several vacated holes, and as there were five pair of hands,
we hoped, before evening, greatly to diminish our mud-heaps.
Now for an account of our proceedings.
Two large wooden tubs were firmly secured in the ground and four set to
work puddling, whilst Frank busied himself in fixing the cradle. He
drove two blocks into the ground; they were grooved for the rockers of
the cradle to rest in, so as to let it rock with ease and regularity.
The ground was lowered so as to give the cradle a slight slant, and
thus enable the water to run off more quickly. If a cradle dips
too much, a little gold may wash off with the light sand. The cradling
machine, though simple in itself, is rather difficult to describe. In
shape and size it resembles an infant's cradle, and over that portion
of it where, if for a baby, a hood would be, is a perforated plate with
wooden sides, a few inches high all round, forming a sort of box with
the perforated plate for a bottom; this box is called the hopper. The
dirt is here placed, and the constant supply of water, after well
washing the stuff, runs out through a hole made at the foot of the
cradle. The gold generally rests on a wooden shelf under the hopper,
though sometimes a good deal will run down with the water and dirt into
one of the compartments at the bottom, and to separate it from the sand
or mud, tin-dish-washing is employed.
As soon as sufficient earth was ready, one began to rock, and another
to fill the hopper with water. Richard continued puddling, William,
enacted Aquarius for him, whilst a fifth was fully occupied in
conveying fresh dirt to the tubs, and taking the puddled stuff from
them to the hopper of the cradle. Every now and then a, change of hands
was made, and thus passed the day. In the evening, the products
were found to be one small nugget weighing a quarter of an ounce, and
in gold-dust eight pennyweights, ten grains, being worth, at the
digging price for gold, about thirty-five shillings. This was rather
less than we hard less calculated upon, and Richard signified his
intention of returning to Melbourne, "He could no longer put up with
such ungentlemanly work in so very unintellectual a neighbourhood, with
bad living into the bargain." These last words, which were pronounced
SOTTO VOCE, gave us a slight clue to the real cause of his dislike to
the diggings, though we, did not thoroughly understand it till next
morning. It originated in some bottles of mixed pickles which he had in
vain wanted Frank, who this week was caterer for the party, to purchase
at four shillings a bottle, which sum, as we were all on economical
thoughts intent, Frank refused to expend on any unnecessary article of
food. This we learnt next morning at breakfast, when Richard
congratulated himself on that being the last meal he should make of
tea, damper and muton, without the latter having something to render it
eatable. The puddling and cradling work had, I fancy, given the
finishing stroke to his disgust. Poor Dick! he met with little
commiseration: we could not but remember the thousands in the old
country who would have rejoiced at the simple fare he so much despised.
William, in his laughing way, observed, "that he was too great a pickle
himself, without buying fresh ones."
Richard left us on Thursday morning, and with him went one of the other
party, the house-painter and decorator, who also found gold-digging not
so Pleasant as he had expected. We afterwards learnt that before
reaching Kilmore they separated. Richard arrived safely in Melbourne,
and entered a goldbroker's office at a salary of three pounds a week,
which situation I believe he now fills; and as "the governor," to use
Richard's own expression, "has not yet come to his senses," he must
greatly regret having allowed his temper to be the cause of his leaving
the comforts of home.
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