Part 14 (2/2)

My partner was a Swede, ent under an Irish naue We harrowed the stuff down to old Lochhead's race, where we hired a water right Our wash-up for the first as a couple of ounces of gold I worked in the claim while my partner attended to the sluice-box He beca and offered me 15 for my share I accepted the offer

It is quite certain that I indled, that old than he divided with me The lead was both narrow and shallow, so that the claiold found in it sold for over 1,400 ”Charlie Brown's Gully” was one of the richest of the s the Lower Ca up-creek, if one looked squarely to the right, a high saddle between two mountain peaks was visible I had several times walked over this place and been struck by its similarity to the formation at ”The Reef,” which I have already described On the day after I sold out at ”Charlie Brown's Gully” I again visited this saddle and took a ”prospect” There was a sed about fifty pounds of wash, carried it down to the spring, and panned it out The result was old

Reaching the top of the saddle involved a breathless climb There was no water in its vicinity nearer than the little spring I haverock However, by ”puddling” I h water to ad by day

For several consecutive days I ascended the h quartz pebbles mixed with earth, was about nine inches deep; it lay on a soft slate bottom The wind blew hard and the as dry, so I lifted shovelful after shovelful of the latter as high as I could and let it trickle slowly down The object of this was toout asout nearly all the pebbles, I placed about forty pounds' weight of the residue in the gunny bag and hu Load after load I carried down It was then too late to do any panning, so I stuloo Early in the afternoon I panned out all I had carried down I found nearly half a pennyweight of gold in the heel of the dish This was a splendid prospect It was evident that the ground was rich On the following days I took a prospect from a different spot on the saddle, with a si of ”rough” gold in a new place is always an event of considerable significance Fine gold, or, as it is called, ”color,” does not count; it is to be found everywhere

Here, then, was payable gold; that is to say, it would have been payable had there been water in the neighborhood The prospect I had taken was an extre consideration I decided to excavate a reservoir on the hillside in the vicinity of the deposit, and trust to its being filled with rain The month was October; thunderstorms were due So far, however, the season had been exceptionally dry

With the assistance of a couple of boys, hired for the purpose, I s up to the saddle My coar, being all I required in the way of food Bush tea grew all over the mountain; I could pluck sackfuls of it within fifty feet of my tent

I ravel deposit, at a spot where the fall of the hillside was about one in fifteen Then I sank an approximately level trench, the upper end to be flush with the botto out to the surface of the ground In this I placed a long wooden box which was open at the lower end, and had a s in a vertical slide at the other

I then excavated er hours than I have at any other ti, ten broad, and four deep; but of course the holding capacity wasto the excavated ground being banked on the lower side, thus for a dam wall

I was quite alone, but I seldom felt lonely I worked so hard that I slept soundly from the moment I finished supper until day broke

Sometimes I was so weary that I would fall asleep as I sat, with a half-consus, and would wake up at dawn in this position

The rains were overdue, but at first I did not round is easier to lift than wet, and I was anxious to have my reservoir coth the as finished, so I set my sluice-box in position below the vent Then I spent so the sides of the ht, so as to catch the storm water

But the rain still held off; an occasional thunderstores, but none cah an invisible hand held theht for the saddle, only to swerve to right or left, and pass sometimes within a few hundred yards of it

I loosened quantities of wash, and harrowed it to the sides of the trench in whichthe prospect I had as my basis, that there was upwards of two hundred pounds' worth of gold in those two heaps

Having now coain started carrying down stuff to the little spring and there panning it out But the spring was failing on account of the drought, and the little puddled daht to adht's unspeakably hard as about four shi+llings' worth of gold The trickle of water dih for an to wear out under the strain of cla up and down the steep, rocky path So I pliedfor , of course, those suffering froed for rain as I did But the sky remained pitiless, and fro sere and yellow Then I suddenly turned against ether I lost heart, for that Fate see previous seasons I had seen torrents foae from the saddle; the mountain tops bethich it lay had been the favorite haunts of thunderstorms It was now late in December, and not a drop of rain had fallen When I look back at ure

On Christ, and descended the mountain The spot at which I expended so much useless labor has since becoold producers belonging to the Transvaal Gold Mining Estates Company

Within a few days I unexpectedly became possessed of about 10 But I was at the end ofI oldfields; to return to the old Cape Colony, via Natal, as a tramp

So in the afternoon of the 3rd of January, 1876, I cli and steepthe very pathway by which ”Artful Joe” and I had descended with our hearts full of hope My drea; my hard work had been throay Three tiifts al them from my outstretched hand

When I reached the rocky suazed back with di eyes A lump rose in my throat It had, after all, been a man's life that I had led I had azed, the sun was low behind loorih this the scattered tents gleamed white, here and there a tiny sparklet shohere so mealI knew the occupants of these tents; with soer, with others toil

I was loath to leave them all One last look and the scene was obliterated by a sudden gush of tears

Then I once h the cool night, under the inscrutable stars