Spinifex and Sand | Page 9

lying peacefully drunk under a tree! I doubt if his intention
had been suicide, but had it been he could hardly have chosen a more
deadly weapon than the whiskey of those days.
The "rush to Hannan's" had depopulated Coolgardie and the next day
saw Davies and myself amongst an eager train of travellers bound for
the new site of fortune. "Little Carnegie" was harnessed to a small cart,

which carried our provisions and tools. The commissariat department
was easily attended to, as nothing was obtainable but biscuits and
tinned soup. It was now mid-winter, and nights were often bitterly cold.
Without tent or fly, and with hardly a blanket between us, we used to
lie shivering at night.
A slight rain had fallen, insufficient to leave much water about, and yet
enough to so moisten the soil as to make dry-blowing impossible in the
ordinary way. Fires had to be built and kept going all night, piled up on
heaps of alluvial soil dug out during the day. In the morning these
heaps would be dry enough to treat, and ashes and earth were
dry-blown together--the pleasures of the ordinary process being
intensified by the addition of clouds of ashes.
A strange appearance these fires had, dotted through the brush, lighting
up now a tent, now a water-cart, now a camp of fortunate ones lying
cosily under their canvas roof, now a set of poor devils with hardly a
rag to their backs. Oh glorious uncertainty of mining! One of these very
poor devils that I have in my mind has now a considerable fortune, with
rooms in a fashionable quarter of London, and in frock-coat and tall hat
"swells" it with the best!
How quickly men change to be sure! A man who at one time would
"steal the shirt off a dead black-fellow," in a few short months is
complaining of the taste of his wine or the fit of his patent-leather boots.
Dame Fortune was good to some, but to us, like many others, she
turned a deaf ear, and after many weeks' toil we had to give up the
battle, for neither food, money, nor gold had we. All I possessed was
the pony, and from that old friend I could not part. The fruits of our
labours, or I should say my share in them, I sent home in a letter, and
the few pin's-heads of gold so sent did not necessitate any extra postage.
Weary and toil-worn we returned to Coolgardie, and the partners of
some rather remarkable experiences split company, and went each his
own way.
It is several years since I have seen Mr. Davies; but I believe Fortune's
wheel turned round for him at length, and that now he enjoys the rest
that his years and toils entitle him to. I have many kindly recollections
of our camping days together, and of the numerous yarns my mate used
to spin of his palmy days as a Queensland squatter.

CHAPTER III

A MINER ON BAYLEY'S
Returned from the rush, I made my way to Bayley's to seek
employment for my pony and his master. Nor did I seek in vain, for I
was duly entered on the pay-sheet as "surface hand" at 3 pounds 10
shillings per week, with water at the rate of one gallon per day. Here I
first made the acquaintance of Godfrey Massie, a cousin of the
Brownes, who, like me, had been forced by want of luck to work for
wages, and who, by the way, had carried his "swag" on his back from
York to the goldfields, a distance of nearly 300 miles. He and I were
the first amateurs to get a job on the great Reward Claim, though
subsequently it became a regular harbour of refuge for young men
crowded out from the banks and offices of Sydney and Melbourne.
Nothing but a fabulously rich mine could have stood the tinkering of so
many unprofessional miners. It speaks well for the kindness of heart of
those at the head of the management of the mine that they were willing
to trust the unearthing of so much treasure to the hands of boys unused
to manual work, or to work of any kind in a great many cases.
How rich the mine was, may be judged from the fact that for the first
few months the enormous production of gold from it was due to the
labours of three of the shareholders, assisted by only two other men.
The following letter from Mr. Everard Browne to Lord Douglas gives
some idea of what the yield was at the time that I went there to work:--
"I am just taking 4,200 oz, over to Melbourne from our reef (Bayley's).
This makes 10,000 oz. we have brought