both horse and man, caused the mud ploughed by cattle and pack horses to assume the appearance of a torrent; so bad was it that the whole distance was marked by the bones of dead animals.
“The price given for the package of stores was £3 per hundred pounds for the whole distance, and I suddenly bethought me of the possibility of making myself into a very profitable pack horse.” How he most successfully did so is another story, and a very interesting story, too, but sufficient has been written to show the transport difficulties of Old Westland in those days.
By this time gold was being found almost everywhere and each and every day there was a rush in one direction or the other. As a matter of fact wherever new ground was tried it invariably proved payable, and it is utterly impossible to put on record every rush that took place; only the most important can be dealt with, and pride of place must be given at this time to the general exodus which took place from all parts of the goldfields to Jones’ Creek, which we to-day know as Ross. This town through the years has been the centre of various diggings, which were for the most part very rich. Of this particular field Larnach states: “In 1865 ground was worked in the neighbourhood of the Totara, and in the same year the rush to Donoghue’s took place,
