The Bottles Were Then Corked, And Any Or All Of Them Politely Offered To Us At The Rate Of 30s A Piece.

We declined purchasing, but he sold them all during the evening, for which we were rather glad, as, had they been discovered by the officials in our tent, a fine of 50 pounds would have been the consequence of our foolish comrades good-nature and joke-loving propensities.

We afterwards found that Master Joe had played the same trick with our shipmates and with the two doctors, who had bought a tent and settled themselves near our old place by Montgomery's store.

SATURDAY, 25. - The two holes were "bottomed" before noon with no paying result. It had been hard work, and they were rather low-spirited about it. The rest of the day they spent in washing some surface-soil, and altogether collected about I ounce and a half of gold-dust, counting the little I had washed out on the Friday. In the evening it was all dried by being placed in a spade over a quick fire. We had before determined to square accounts and divide the gold every Saturday night, but this small quantity was not worth the trouble, so it was laid by in the digger's usual treasury, a German match-box. These round boxes hold on an average eight ounces of gold.

These two unproductive holes had not been very deep. The top, or surface soil, for which a spade or shovel is used, was of clay.

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