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GOLD STATISTICS.

MONSTER NUGGET FORTY SEVEN POUNDS WEIGHT DUG UP AT BENDIGO VICTORIA DIGGINGS

   ON 9TH October 1852

Another monster nugget or rather bar of gold 47 lbs weight has been dug up at Bendigo within yards of the spot where the 28lbs or Darcombe nugget was found. The bar is described as being but two feet long & five inches broad, entirely free from quartz and shaped somewhat like a twisted or French loaf & is nearly pure gold there being only two or three pebbles [in] if an eye witness describes this monster nugget as follows.
Yesterday evening about three O'clock P.M.  going from the post office to Bendigo while passing by the Commissioners barracks, I observed a number of people collected about of one of the huts, & was attracted by curiosity to see what they were about. When I got near I saw a man washing something in a bucket, which appeared at first sight to be a lump of burnt Clay, Closer inspection, however, soon revealed what it really was - a splendid nugget weighing 47lbs 9 ounces.
The man was washing the dust off with a shoe brush, previous to depositing it with the Commissioner for transmission by escort. The lucky finders were three men from Norfolk in
England. One of the them named George Patcher, the names of the [?] I did not hear. It was found in White Horse gully the same in which 28lb  24lb & several other large nuggets were found.
It is rugged in appearance, not bright,
 but like a lump of ironstone with the edges dotted with gold. It is thicker at one end than the other & about a [?] long. The men say that they
struck it with a pick about a foot under ground, while surfacing,  Immediately on finding it they started for the Commissioners [?] waiting to see if there was any more near it, They brought it in a Cart, rolled in a rug & blanket & gave or sold their hole to the owner of the Cart,
The gully in which it was found has been very rich although unpromising in appearance & was considered to be worked out long before this. I believe it is the intention of the men to take it to England, where no doubt they will realize something handsome by it. This is the largest lump that has been found entire in Victoria & a specimen will no doubt bring a high price. The sensations of the men on finding it may easily conceived, One of them said when he struck it with the pick and prized it up "his heart was in his mouth" It is astonishing what different sensations a person experiences on seeing & hearing of a nugget like this. Here was no perception, no hearsay, but the reality itself

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