"We were all astir at daylight, and found the water frozen in the bucket, and the top of our blankets quite wet within the tent. The loads were adjusted, and the blacks, with the two men, started under the guidance of the company, and returned about noon by a short cut, we remaining to erect the tent. On loading them again, one fellow complained that a pot of beef hurt his head, so I gave him a roll of brown paper, but soon found my mistake, as not a man would move without the same, so that when I came to the last there was not a scrap left; he had only bedding to carry, and I explained to him that no pad was necessary, but he drew himself up and asked if I thought him a fool; 'Another one black fellow hab it.' He was evidently in earnest, and would have left his load there and then, had I not clapped a calling-card on his shaggy bullet head, and he went off quite proud; we gave them one shilling each and their rations, which is high pay for a black. Many return at once, without giving it one minute's trial. I saw one party arrive, six respectable looking hardworking men, all well provided with tools, clothes, and provisions. As I stood conversing with one of them, who was putting his things together to move to their tent, a parcel unrolled, and a Bible and Prayer-book fell out. He looked up, and said they should not forget these even for gold, to which I assented, with the remark that men would get none the less gold for minding them."
The Turon, which, like many Australian names, was scarcely known beyond its immediate neighbourhood before the gold discoveries, rises in the county of Roxburgh, near Cullen Cullen, and flows, like the Summerhill Creek, into the Macquarie. On its banks Sofala has been founded. Here it was that the art of cradling gold and washing gold was learned by thousands who have since removed to Mount Alexander and other districts.
The gold-fields of the Turon include river-bed claims and dry diggings.
In the river-bed claims it is the object to clear a deep hole of water, and then wash the mud and sand which have been carried there in the course of ages; partly washed to the hand of the miner by the torrents of nature. "In dry diggings" the earth after being raised must be carefully broken up and washed.
Fortunate diggers come from time to time upon lumps or "nuggets" of various sizes, which once excited great attention and curious comparison between those found in quartz, in clay, in alluvial mould; but now in the auction-rooms of Sydney and Melbourne they excite no more attention, unless of rare beauty, than so much copper or lead.
