Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 569
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17
DEPOSITS OF GOLD IN VICTORIA LARGE NUGGETS WITHIN A FEW FEET FROM THE SURFACE
These nuggets are generally from five to twenty ounces, and have been found at a less distance that four feet from the surface, they are frequently found in what are termed dry diggings water being at some distance off. The stuff is without fine gold and does not require washing.
MONSTER NUGGETS THIRTY TO FIFTY FEET DEEP.
In certain localities Nuggets of from fifty to sixty ounces have been obtained by sinking from thirty to fifty feet & in some Cases passing through no less than three, four, or even five bottoms of clay & then coming down to the bed rock at a depth of say from 30 to 50 feet, the deep sinking being from the rising eminences and the shallow in the flats, where the bed rock is found nearer to the surface. This additional superficial deposit on the bed rock being the result of water in greater or less tranquility [tranquillity] during the deluge - We even find the trunks of trees deposited in the alluvial & undulating ranges which is sufficient to attest this fact.
REMAINS OF AN ANTEDELUVIAN TREE FOUND IN A SHAFT SUNK AT BALLARAT DURING 1854.
The remains of this tree was [were] found by a party who had sunk their shaft to the depth of one hundred & fifty feet in tunneling [tunnelling] at that depth they came upon this antedeluvian
relic, the trunk of this tree readily broke with the force of a spade upon it. A Similar fossil was found in one of the Coal mines at Newcastle in
New South Wales during 1854.
BALLARAT. DEPOSITS OF GOLD IN GRAVEL FOSSIL REMOVED.
The gravel pits have turned out some of the heavier yields of gold ever found in that rich line.
On more than one occasion fifty pounds weight of gold have been taken from one single bucket of washing stuff. So highly is a chance upon this celebrated line prized that £600 have been offered for a single share in claims which are not yet bottomed. A party at these pits divided Thirteen thousand pounds to the produce of one
hole. One party whose claim has not yet been wrought out, was so satisfied with what he had already taken from it as to give it away to some friends who had not been so fortunate on the gold fields.
Strange times when a gold digger is content with what he got and of his free will gives away a claim still rich in gold. Another most extraordinary specimen has been turned out on the same line. A shaft which is now 148 feet deep had a tree right across it. This fossil had to be removed by an [?] as it was some two feet in diameter and in the centre was still hard. It had the appearance of having been a stringy bark tree. From the great depth to which the diggers on this line are now sinking, the uncommon richness of the line, the sharpness of turns to which it is subject, and from such fossils, the opinion now pretty generally entertained is that of all our lines centering in the Balaarat [Ballarat] flat is beginning to assume more definite shape.