DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF VICTORIA   

Atlas Page 46
By James Smith

WESTERN DISTRICT  2...

Farther on to the north of Heywood lies the Myamyn country, thickly timbered with stringy-bark, blackwood and other valuable trees. Here the screech of the circular saw is heard at frequent intervals, rivalling in the dissonance of its notes the cockatoo in its own native fastnesses —though, indeed, the music of either buzz-saw or cockatoo is not necessarily harsh if heard at a sufficient distance.

The next halting place on this line is Condah. A few miles to the east of the station are a large lake and morass, at which extensive reclamation works have recently been completed to render the bed of the swamp available for cultivation. Here, also, is an aboriginal mission station on an extensive area reserved for its uses —its superintendent being the Rev. J. H. Stähle —where a considerable population of a very mixed race is maintained in comfort.

Following along the railway line Branxholme is reached, thirty-eight miles distant from Portland, and two hundred and forty miles west from Melbourne. It is situated on the Arrandoorong Creek, and is surrounded by station properties. From Branxholme the railway proceeds in a north-easterly direction to Ararat, whence Dimboola can be visited by one route and Ballarat by another, but the north-western portion of the colony can be described better in the journey westward from Ballarat. From Branxholme, in a north-westerly direction, a branch line passes through Morndal, Grassdale, Merino, Henty and Sandford, and has its terminus at Casterton, a far western town situated on the river Glenelg only three miles from its junction with the Wannon. Casterton is the centre of a fine agricultural and pastoral district, the land in the neighbourhood of the river being particularly fertile and well-watered throughout the year. There is a fine quarry of granite at Wanda Vale, a little to the north-east of the town. Casterton, which is not far from the South Australian border, lies on the main road from Melbourne to Adelaide, and is about two hundred and sixty miles west from the Victorian metropolis. The return journey can be made in a south-easterly route passing through the settlements of Carapook, Coleraine, Redruth, Hamilton, Penshurst, Purdeet and Caramut, and striking Hexham on the river Hopkins. A line of march in a direct easterly course from Hexham would bisect a fine pastoral and agricultural country, in which the villages of Darlington, Tooliorook, Lismore, Foxhow and Cressy may be regarded as the places of most importance. Turning south from Cressy through the great lake country, and calling en route at the little settlement of Beeac, the Geelong and Terang line is again struck at the town of Ondit, two stations removed from Birregurra, whence we turned off to take a glance at Lorne and the seaports of the south-west coast.

Beyond Ondit is Colac, fifty miles from Geelong. This is a large town in the centre of a broad tract of farming and grazing country, and is finely situated on the shore of an extensive lake, towards the margin of which the town’s beautiful public gardens slope. Colac is well-built, and has many excellent places of public worship, comfortable hotels and good schools. Snipe and quail abound on the undulating plains surrounding it, while aquatic birds frequent the lagoons and swamps in large numbers. The principal rivers and creeks accessible from Colac are the Barongarook and Gellibrand, both of which meet with fish. The lake has an area of nine square miles, and is well stocked with Murray cod, besides other fish native to the locality. It is about thirty feet deep in places, and is like a miniature ocean with its many indentations and jutting promontories. Boats are kept for hire, and convenient accommodation is provided for them on the banks. The general aspect of the locality is that of the best kind of English rural scenery. Grasslands alternate with cultivated paddocks, and the sleek condition of the cattle and sheep give proof of the nutritious character of the herbage. Many hills of volcanic origin spring from the plain within sight of the town, while for background there are the Otway Ranges, the Grampians, Mounts Elephant, Warrenheip and Buninyong. Many pleasant excursions may be made to localities within the vicinity, a favourite place of resort being Red Rock, from the summit of which a view can be obtained of surpassing beauty, with the great salt lake Corangamite as one of the principal features in the scene. This is ninety miles in circumference, and is surrounded with lesser sheets of water which stretch to the foot of the Rock. In the great salt lake, fish cannot live, but its surface is alive with wild fowl which have their home on its marshy shores and at its creek-mouths. Stony Rises is a basaltic area upheaved by volcanic action to a height in some places of fifty feet, the surface being covered with boulders and lava. This is a most fertile breeding ground for the farmers’ enemy —the rabbit —which finds a safe refuge among the stones, where it can laugh at traps and trappers, phosphorised oats, bisulphate of carbon, or other means used for its destruction.

Seventy-eight miles from Geelong is Camperdown, one of the best beef-producing localities in Victoria. Fat bullocks from some of the rich pastoral properties of this district fetch twenty pounds and upwards, every week in the Ballarat and Melbourne markets. The beauty of Camperdown is the beauty of utility, and its far-stretching and rich pastures arouse feelings of envy in the minds of passing graziers less favoured in their own land. The township has a reserve of three hundred acres for purposes of recreation, of which three acres are admirably laid out as a public garden. On the other side of a tributary of the Hopkins, Emu Creek, in which blackfish and bream abound lies Terang, at a distance of fourteen miles from Camperdown. Here is a fine fresh-water lake of three miles in circumference and thirteen feet in depth, on which are boats for the use of visitors. It has been stocked with perch and carp, and these are rapidly increasing in. numbers. The shores are peaty, and it is a favourite amusement with the boys of the district to make bonfires of this fuel. Around the lake the land rises to a height of twenty or thirty feet, and the water is raised by means of windmills to supply the wants of the town. The Heytesbury Forest begins within a mile of Terang, and there is good agricultural land on three sides of it, from which much farm produce is brought in. The town is well supplied with stores and hotels; it has four places of public worship, a large State school and a free library.

Westward of Camperdown, and on either side of the excellent road which connects Geelong with Warrnambool, spreads a fine dairy country noted for the excellence of its butter and cheese. The estates of Noorat, Glenormiston and Wooraryite are within a few miles of Terang; all these consist of most valuable grazing country, the value of which will be increased by the facilities afforded by the railway for sending stock to market. Eleven miles north-west of Terang is Mortlake, at the foot of Mount Shadwell. This is a pretty little country settlement surrounded by first-class grazing and farming land. Somewhat to the west is the Hopkins River, and following the course of this stream northward, the villages of Hexham, Chatsworth, and Wickliffe are successively passed journeying in a direct easterly direction from the last named, the Ararat and Hamilton railway is struck at Glenthomson. By another route further to the east-passing through Koroit, Kirkstall and Penshurst —Dunkeld is reached, from which the return journey can be accomplished by rail to Portland, the line passing through Hamilton nineteen miles from Dunkeld. From Portland, the return journey can be made by steamer to Geelong. Whence, again setting out by rail, a district is traversed centred in which lies the greatest inland city of the colony.

The famous old historical settlement of Ballarat East, is situated on the Yarrowee Creek, one hundred miles north-west of Melbourne, and fifty-four from Geelong. To reach it by railway from that starting point, the line crosses the Moorabool River by means of a long and lofty viaduct, which takes about the second rank in importance among the railway works of the colony. Thence, through forestland of various degrees density, the route lies by way of Elaine, Lal Lal, Yendon and Warrenheip —from the last-named a branch line of railway conducts to the mining village of Gordons, at an elevation of nearly nineteen hundred feet above sea level. Gordons stands on the road from Melbourne to Ballarat, and not far distant is the source of the Moorabool River, which partly supplies Geelong with water.

The country from Elaine to Ballarat East possesses much picturesqueness and beauty. Near Lal Lal, the creek of that name throws itself with fine effect over a steep precipice, a hundred feet in height, when there is water enough to make a good show, but the river is a little uncertain in this respect. Within a short distance of Lal Lal station, there are extensive sheets of water created out of the old swamps by the Water Commission for the supply of Ballarat’s domestic and mining requirements. A few miles farther on, the railway skirts the bases of Mounts Buninyong and Warrenheip, two striking features in the landscape both of these hills are conical and rise abruptly from the plateau, which is here about sixteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. The sides of each are covered with scoriae and other products of volcanic eruption, and each is sometimes capped with snow. Passing, between those two prominent hills, the train arrives within a few minutes at the historic battle-field of Eureka. Here it was that in 1853 the diggers of Ballarat rose in armed rebellion against the vernment of the day, and entrenched themselves within strong palisades, as has been already described.

The area of Ballarat East is of schistose formation, and was found to be remarkably rich in auriferous deposits. On the west or opposite bank of the creek stands the city of Ballarat, and a few miles to the south of it the borough of Sebastopol, and these three combine to form by far the most important goldfield in the colony. It was on the west bank of the Yarrowee that mining enterprise first pierced the basaltic rock to discover the existence of river-beds submerged in. far distant ages, and as rich in golden sands as the Pactolus of antiquity. Three layers of bluestone rock were bored through, and beneath these gold was generally found in sufficient quantity to pay very handsomely for the heavy outlay in machinery rid labour which the search involved.

But Ballarat has been singularly favoured by nature in dependently of the mineral source of its wealth. Its climate is healthy and racing; it has rich natural forests within a few miles in almost every direction; and the land all around is capable of Profitable cultivation. Consequently Ballarat has been, almost from its commencement, a self-supporting place, having nearly everything within its own boundaries that was required for the sustenance cc of its population, besides leaving a large margin available for export to less favoured districts. It contains three large four, mills, three breweries, a distillery, and two woollen factories, and some of the largest iron foundries in the colony, one of which —the "Phoenix" —is famous for the construction of locomotive engines, nearly two hundred of which have been sent out from this establishment, and are now doing excellent work on the State railways. Ballarat has also two other extensive foundries and engine shops.

The undulating nature of the ground on which the city stands sets of’ its architectural features to great advantage, and the buildings are for the most part worthy of their sites. There are probably few boulevards south of the Equator superior to the Sturt Street of Ballarat. It is three chains wide; and has a double avenue of trees in its centre with well kept roads between them and the houses on either side. The government offices, places of public worship, scholastic establishments, warehouses and hotels, are on a fine scale, and when the streets are lighted up at night by means 1 of electric lamps, and crowded with visitors from outlying hamlets, the scene presented is lively and beautiful in no ordinary degree. There are literary institutions and free libraries in each of the three towns, and the local journals are conducted with great spirit and ability. The city of Ballarat —formerly Ballarat West —has a double claim to its title, inasmuch as it is the seat of both the Protestant and the Roman Catholic sees.

The city itself dates its municipal history from 1855, when it was created a borough; in 1868 it attained its present rank. It has an area of two thousand and ninety acres, sixty miles of well made and well kept streets, roads and footpaths, and about forty miles laid out but not yet formed. ‘ It has excellent natural drainage into the Yarrowee Creek, and its water supply is of the best quality, and ample for all requirements; four large reservoirs, with a storage capacity of over six hundred million gallons, intercept and collect the waters of the Bullarook and Bungaree forests. The principal one has its outlet at a distance of four miles, and is seventy-five feet deep at the, by-wash. The town hall is a splendid structure, with a frontage of one hundred and twenty feet to Sturt Street, and a clock tower one hundred feet high, from which a wide spreading, diversified and most pleasing view can be obtained. The beauties of nature, enhanced by man’s skill and liberality, are here seen to mingle with wealth-producing agencies in the most impressive manner, and afford proof not only that Ballarat has produced much gold, but also that its finders have known how to lay it out again in ways that are at once gratifying to the eye, refining to the taste and profitable to the pocket. The city is not compactly built, and covers a large area of ground in proportion to its population. Every tiny cottage, except in the main business streets, has its area of an acre or half an acre of land, and there is consequently space enough for gardens both in front and in rear, and this in most cases has been duly turned to account. In the streets there are pines from the Caucasus and Los Angelos in companionship with English oak, elm and lime trees; while mingled with factory chimneys and mine shafts are cedars of Lebanon, deodars, pittosporums from New Zealand or Queensland, stately eucalypti, and the humbler thorn, arbutus, abutilon and acacia. There are twelve banking houses in the city, all of good architectural design and substantially built. A fine Anglican Cathedral has been planned on an excellent site, and there is money in the bank to cover its cost. The principal ecclesiastical building at present is St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, a grand Gothic structure, in Sturt Street, and on the opposite side stands St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, also a very fine edifice. The Wesleyan Church in Lydiard Street is large and handsome; and there are at least twenty other places of public worship of various denominations and `varying degrees of pretentiousness in the city. The number and excellence of the educational institutions of Ballarat have already been referred to, but one is entitled to special mention. It is a Roman Catholic convent of Loretto, a school for young ladies, and is a handsome building pleasantly situated on the shore of Lake Wendouree. Here about a hundred girls are at present receiving a thoroughly good education, and space is being provided for more. The Alfred Hall, on the banks of the Yarrowee, is the joint property of the city and borough. It can accommodate between three and four thousand people, or a thousand dancers. It was specially built on the Duke of Edinburgh’s first visit to the colony to hold the crowd that desired to see him and do him honour, and so rapidly was it constructed that trees which were rearing their proud heads aloft in the forest or, Saturday evening, as if no danger threatened them, found themselves fashioned into joists and rafters on the following Tuesday, and with such vegetable vitality remaining in them that they threw out leaf buds under the eyes of the carpenters and decorators. The Miners’ Exchange is an institution peculiar to Ballarat. A great deal of business is transacted in the city in the selling and buying of mining stock —a business which is pursued with the utmost avidity and with varying success. Fortunes are here sometimes made and lost in a day, for share dealing is nearly as uncertain as horse racing, and it seems to be quite as fascinating. Hundreds are engaged in it, some of them permanently, but most of them merely for a time, when they indulge in a kind of speculative intoxication, only to return to their more legitimate occupations poorer and possibly wiser men. These brokers, dealers and speculators crowd a place known as the "Corner," note-book in hand, to enter their transactions, like bookmakers in a saddling paddock, and when business is slack they play practical jokes on each other, or on passers-by, and "adjourn" at intervals. Their redeeming point is that they are free-handed as regards money, and charitable subscription lists have been known to fill at the Ballarat "corner" at the rate of a pound a minute. These speculators, however, add nothing to the wealth of the country. They produce nothing. They remind the visitor of a drop of stagnant water under the microscope, in which dreadful looking creatures are seen preying upon and devouring one another. But yet they have their uses, in regulating the share market and preventing the sacrifice of really promising mine property owned by hopeful but necessitous holders. The business will be systematised, and its Bohemian elements eliminated, when a new Exchange is opened, though at the same time, some of Ballarat’s picturesqueness will be lost to the world. In the city there is a fine hospital containing two hundred beds, available for the whole surrounding district; also a benevolent asylum, which has two hundred and sixty-three inmates and affords out-door relief to about as many more; a reformatory for boys, and other useful public institutions.

Ballarat East was made a municipality in 1857, and a borough in 1863. It has an area of four thousand three hundred, and thirty-one acres, forty miles of completed streets and roads, and sixty miles of good sidewalks. Its site has excellent natural drainage into the Yarrowee Creek. On a hill overlooking the earliest Ballarat business settlement —namely, the "Main Road" —is a large and handsome town hall. The thoroughfare commanded from this hill is sinuous, and nearly follows the old bullock-dray track, on the sides of which the stores and boarding houses and drinking shanties of ‘53 were set up. This Main Road is dear to the memories of old Ballarat men, of whom many, still remain in the district, though the majority have either "gone home" or are enjoying in other lands the fruits of their toil on the diggings. It was here that the gold that was not wisely hoarded up was as lavishly spent as got. The Charlie Napier and Montezuma Theatres employed the best foreign talent that could be secured, while music halls, dancing saloons, drinking bars and gambling dens abounded in "the road." On each Saturday night the outlying gullies sent in their hundreds and thousands on pleasure bent, and it was not unusual to see five hundred or a thousand stalwart fellows waltzing or polkaing among themselves in the pit of a theatre after the play was over, every one of them big enough and manly enough to make a first-rate grenadier or front rank man. Those were rare old times, and the foundations of many a fine fortune were laid on the Ballarat East goldfield, while many a grand constitution and many a fair name were wrecked in its "Main Road." There are numerous churches and State schools, a well supplied free library, an orphanage with two hundred and fifty inmates, and a public bath with a concrete floor, which slopes so as to give a depth in the swimming arena of from four and a half to eight and a half feet. A female refuge is another of the useful institutions of Ballarat. Extensive engine repairing shops are also about to be erected in it by the Railway Department. Soap and candle manufactures are among its industries, also woollen factories and sugar boiling works. Much that equally applies to Ballarat East has already been said in describing Ballarat West.

Sebastopol is a continuation of Ballarat West, in a southerly direction. It has through out its length of about three miles a double row of fine blue gum trees, and is the site of some of the richest gold mines in the colony. It was on its plateau that the miners first exploited the country under the igneous rocks, and the success which attended their search gave quite a new direction and a fresh impetus to, the gold mining industry of Victoria. It also contains many churches, schools, and hotels, together, with a free library and other institutions. Following the road from Ballarat, the tourist reaches Black Lead, Scotchman’s, Napoleon’s, and so on to Rokewood, Skipton, and the great western district.

To the north of the city of Ballarat, and about a mile from its centre, is a beautiful sheet of water six hundred acres in extent, which has been almost created by the hand of man, since, when Ballarat began, it was a mere reedy swamp, liable to dry, up in hot summers. It. is now from four to six feet deep, is studded with wooded islands, and skirted by a pretty carriage drive. It is well stocked with native and acclimatised fish, and is a favourite resort of wild fowl, which build their nests and rear their young in the lagoon of the neighbouring forests. The only species of fish really indigenous to this sheet of water is the eel, but Murray perch and cod have been introduced, and have multiplied and thriven amazingly. From Great Britain, the trout, perch, carp and tench have been imported and have rapidly increased. Specimens of the first-named have been caught in the lake which turned the scale at ten pounds, while five and seven pound fish are not uncommon. There is an artificial hatching establishment in connection with the lake fishery, where, in the proper season, the ova of trout and other fish are hatched out, and the young fry protected for a time against the assaults of the predatory cormorants that infest the water. This is Lake Wendouree, and on it eight steamers ply for hire, meandering with their deck loads of passengers among the hundreds of sailing and rowing boats that may often be seen cruising about over the surface of the lake. Immediately beyond the lake are the botanic gardens and the ornamental forest of the city, which are well kept, and are a source of great enjoyment not only to the inhabitants of the adjacent towns but also to thousands of visitors who find their way thither every summer.

Eight miles south from Ballarat lies the ancient township of Buninyong, the connecting road being a portion of the old highway from the seaboard to the mines, on which there was much traffic before railways were. This section of road is always kept in excellent condition, and is much used by excursionists from Ballarat. Farms and villas dot its margin at intervals, and there frequently occur dense clumps of saplings which have sprung up from the roots of old trees, cut down for building and mining purposes. Mount Buninyong, a conical volcanic hill, already referred to, is the principal topographical feature of the locality. Gold was found here in the very beginning of the goldfields era, but it does not seem to be fully known whether it was first discovered at Buninyong, at Clunes, or at Forest Creek. There are many farms and orchards about that shew all outward signs of prosperity. The little town is thoroughly complete as to its roads and bridges, and it possesses valuable public institutions. But it is not so interesting from a pictorial point of view as it was in the fifties." There was then a continual stream of passengers between Geelong and the golden land of the Caledonian lead and the "jewellers’ shops" of Ballarat East, and as there were no railways to carry them, and Messrs. Cobb and Co. had not yet systematised the passenger traffic by coach, most of the adventurers effected their journey on foot, while paying carriers and draymen for the conveyance of their luggage. A hundred horse and bullock teams would be timed to arrive at Buninyong at nightfall, and then brisk business ensued during the hours of the evening, the travellers purchasing their provisions and other necessaries at the stores, while the drivers attended to the wants of their cattle. When the American coaching firm had got into fair working order, with their springless vehicles supported on leathern thorough-braces after the manner of "out-west" stages, they rapidly came into a large business at high rates, and made money as rapidly. They began with four-horse teams, which soon gave place to teams of six and eight, and some of their drivers were eminent public characters. "Cabbage-tree Ned" and "Gin-and-Bitters" were as well-known as Mr. Latrobe or Sir Charles Hotham, and though they were rough men, given to "cussing up grades," they were exceedingly skilful whips, and could control a team of half-broken horses in a way that an English coachman, though perhaps more skilled in the higher branches of his art, would have hesitated to attempt. The environs of Buninyong abound in pleasant resorts, the Mount being easily accessible on foot, by winding paths, while pretty country lanes extend in every direction. From the summit of the Mount a view of Corio Bay is obtained in clear weather. The surrounding district has both alluvial and gold-bearing quartz mines, but the latter are now the more productive. Three miles off lies Hiscock’s Reef, named after its discoverer, who is one of two or three claimants to the honour of having been the first discoverer of god in Victorian territory. Buninyong is now a very pretty and healthy little township, and should by no means be omitted by those who wish to study the district.

A very pleasant trip may be made by travelling in a northerly direction on the Maryborough railway line or by road. Five and. a half miles from the city is the Ballarat racecourse, a beautifully situated and excellently kept ground at the foot of Mount Pisgah, one of the Bald Hills of Dowling Forest. Undulations of a prettily outlined contour surround the course, and these can be profitably cultivated to an altitude of two or three hundred feet, and are of an almost perennial greenness. Six miles farther on is the town of Creswick, a typical Victorian goldfield settlement. Stretching away from it are almost continuous forests —extending to Bullarook in one direction and to Daylesford in another —which have been found of inestimable value in the prosecution of the mining industry for lining miners’ shafts and for roofing their underground workings. Nature seems to have done for this favoured district everything that was possible. Alluvial gold, not far from the surface carried the miner on in the beginning, and enabled him to prospect for richer deposits at greater depths, while the auriferous quartz contained in the surrounding hills stimulated an rewarded the enterprise of gold seekers who had money to invest and could afford to wait for their harvest. Scarcely less important than the wealth found underground was the golden corn waving on the surface, for the sustenance of man and beast, or the excellent butter and cream produced on the neighbouring farms. There are sixty-five steam engines engaged on this goldfield. The town is well built, has good roads, and is well supplied with water from three spacious reservoirs. Its six churches, five banks, public and private schools and government buildings, are both substantial and elegant, and it has a fine hospital, a free library, and commodious town hall. There are gulches within a few miles of the town of the utmost beauty and picturesqueness. On their floors and sloping sides are giant eucalypti shooting straight up from the earth as if eager to reach a freer atmospheric stratum than that in which they were born. One of these gullies on fire on a hot summer night is a sight not easily forgotten. Flames rush up through the partially, decayed trunks of the older trees is if through a blast furnace; the branches of the consuming eucalypti are flame-tinged to their very tips; clouds swept of incandescent carbon are abroad on the wings of the wind, and every now and then a fresher puff will scatter a shower of glowing sparks, and cause the whole of the surrounding scenery to lit up with a glare of lurid splendour.

The route continues in a north-westerly direction through, good agricultural land, enriched at frequent intervals with comfortable-looking farm houses, most of them with orchards and vineyards attached, until Clunes is reached at a distance of twenty-three miles from Ballarat. Gold was found in the quartz of this locality as early as 1851, and the reefing industry has been pursue ever since, of course with the fluctuations that characterise this mode of money getting, but generally with highly satisfactory results. Since 1857, the Port Phillip company, using the very best obtainable skill and the most highly improved mechanical appliances, has compelled the quartz to yield up gold to the value of about two million sterling, while the New North Clunes company has realised about half that amount in one-half the time. Clunes has an excellent water supply, brought in from the Bullarook Forest, where it is collected in a reservoir having a capacity of two hundred and sixty-five million gallons. The town has had its trials by ordeal of fire and of water, and was at one time flooded out as regards its low-lying shops and houses, while those on a higher level were suffering a conflagration. Nevertheless it has triumphed over all its difficulties, and is now a flourishing and important settlement in the enjoyment of self-government and of all the appliances of civilisation. Four miles from its centre is Mount Beckwith, sixteen hundred feet high, and from the summit of this hill there is to be obtained a view seldom surpassed for its richness and beauty.

In the vicinity of Clunes is the famed Port Phillip company’s Victorian quartz mine with its reducing apparatus. The operations of this gold-mining association, the results of which have already been mentioned, illustrate the most successful methods of raising and treating auriferous quartz in Victoria. It commenced mining in March, 1857, on private property held on lease, and under covenant to pay a certain royalty on the gold obtained to the owners of the estate. This of course has been a serious drain upon the profits of the mine owners. During the first twenty years of the company’s operations, over nine hundred and fourteen thousand tons of its own quartz were raised and treated, and forty thousand one hundred and fifteen tons raised by tributers under the company were reduced at its works. The profit accruing from the twenty years’ work amounted to three hundred and thirty-six thousand one hundred and sixty-six pounds, of which the owners of the land received one hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and sixty-six pounds in the form of royalty, the balance going to shareholders in England and the colony. In addition to this much gold was got by other companies working in the Port Phillip company’s ground on tribute. The largest quantity of quartz crushed by the company in one year was sixty-nine thousand three hundred and nineteen tons; the highest yield of gold per ton for one year, was one ounce nine pennyweights, and the lowest, seven pennyweights twenty-three grains. The smallest yield of gold per ton that the company can make pay is four pennyweights, and this leaves nothing for the shareholders. The country operated on is basaltic, reaching to a depth ranging from a foot to one hundred feet, and under this, quartz intermixed with other minerals, so far as the mine ha; been explored. Much of the quartz treated came from depths of seven hundred and eight hundred feet, and richer stone is now being searched for at depths of one thousand feet and upwards. When the mine is in full operation four hundred men are employed, three hundred of whom work underground. The quartz is brought to grass in pieces varying in size from a cubic foot to grains of sand, and the larger pieces are submitted to the operation of two Appleton stonebreakers, whose inexorable steel jaws, closing upon the lumps, soon reduce them to the size of the largest road metal. Thence they are conveyed to the battery, where there are eighty head of stampers, of six to eight hundredweight each, and with a drop of nine inches. Each of them delivers seventy-six blows per minute, and it is under them that the first find of gold is made, in the form of quicksilver amalgam. In front of the stampers are copper plates in which are eighty-one holes to the square inch, and nothing can get away that does not pass through these perforations. The sand from the plates then passes through two mercury boxes, where further amalgamation takes place, and thence over inclined planes covered with a blanket, which in its turn licks up the floating particles of gold and amalgam. The sand from the blankets and that found under the stampers, when cleaning up takes place, is then put into revolving amalgamating barrels, with sixty pounds of mercury in each, where it is worked for sixteen hours, and then run over shaking tables. The next operation is to catch the contained pyrites, and make it yield up its gold. A hundred tons of quartz contain from one to two tons of pyrites, and about twenty-five per cent. of the whole yield of gold comes from this source. The pyrites and valueless sand are separated by means of gravitation in machines called "buddles," which are large circular revolving tables, sloping towards their centre. In these are revolving scrapers, set diagonally, which keep the material that is being operated upon always moving, upwards towards the circumference of the buddle, while a stream of water is at the same time washing it down towards the centre. In this way the desired separation is effected. The resultant mineral is next roasted in a furnace to drive off sulphur, arsenic, and other contained detrimental substances, and then ground with quicksilver in a Chilian mill, which revolves rapidly, while two great grindstones, with which it is fitted, revolve in an opposite direction to that of the pan; thence the gold is conveyed to a concentrator and shaking table to secure broken mercury, and then to the retorting-house. Here the gold and mercury are separated by means of great heat, which vapourises the latter and leaves the former in the form of cakes, the quicksilver being of course saved by condensation for future use. Finally, the cakes just mentioned are melted in crucibles to get rid of the remaining impurities, and there remains gold of twenty-three and a quarter to twenty-three and a half carats, sovereign gold being twenty-two carats. The Port Phillip company’s produce is worth four pounds two shillings and sixpence per ounce. This great mine in full operation presents a wonderful spectacle, and is full of interest for all whose minds are informed by intelligent curiosity. In some branches of its work high scientific skill and experience are required; in others business capacity; in others again, mechanical expertness while in all unremitting labour and care are indispensable to secure dividends for the company’s shareholders —to produce gold at a less cost than its price at her Majesty’s mint.

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