CHAPTER V

Summary

While speaking of the glens further up the river, I omitted to say that in several places I found decided indications of gold.

In one gully the bed of the stream had numerous small quartz stones scattered about, some of them honey-combed, which reminded me strongly of the quartz-bearing reefs of Australia. Whether it was fancy or not I do not know, but I thought that the mountains had a similar formation to some that I remember having seen about Mount Alexander and Mount Blackwood.

Then once again, as in former years, I got an attack of gold fever, but this time only in a mild form. We were between two and three miles from the boats, and I had nothing in which I could wash even a handful of sand, but what I had seen was quite enough to raise up visions of gold, so an attempt at washing must be made, even though it proved a failure, which I quite expected would be the case. I had a long weary tramp to the boat, and on overhauling the cooking department I found the very thing I wanted. A tin milk-dish, about twenty inches in diameter, sloping sides and five inches deep. Nothing could be better; it was a perfect prospecting pan such as I had used hundreds of times before.

The tramp back again seemed endless, but, when I had arrived at the place where I intended my first attempt should be made, something in its appearance displeased me and I looked for more promising ground.