placed close to one another, at intervals of
not more than a yard. The noise produced
by the incessant  ' rock-rock' of these cradles
was like that of an immense factory. This —
together with continual hammering of a
thousand picks, and the occasional crashing
fall of immense trees, whose roots had been
undermined by some mole of a gold-digger —
made a confusion of sounds, of which you will
find it difficult to form a just idea."

Our correspondent's party was not very
fortunate in its researches at Ballarat. Having
explained this to us, he continues to give his
impressions of the place.

'' When we arrived there, the influx of
people was still going on; tents springing up
at the rate of fifty per diem. This continued
until the third week in September, when
the number of persons on the ground was
estimated at seven thousand. Strange as
was the appearance of the place by day, it
was still stranger at night. Before every tent
was a fire; and in addition to this general
illumination, there was not unfrequently a
special one—the accidental burning down of
some tent or other. These little conflagrations
produced splendid effects; the bright
glare suddenly lighting up the gloomy masses
of trees, and the groups of wild-looking
diggers.

"Noise, too, was a prominent feature of
' Ballarat by night.' From dusk till eleven
p. m., there was a continuous discharge of
firearms; for almost every one brought some
kind of weapon with him to the diggings.
Then there was a band which discoursed by
no means eloquent music: nine-tenths of the
score being monopolised by the drum. In
the pauses of this -- which occurred, I suppose,
whenever the indefatigable drummer had
made his arms ache —we would hear rising
from some of the tents music of a more
pleasing character. The party next ours
sang hymns very correctly in four parts;
and from another tent the ' Last Rose of
Summer' sometimes issued, played very
pathetically on the flageolet.

"Sunday was always well observed at the
diggings, so far as absence from work was
concerned: and there was Service held twice
a day by different ministers. Altogether,
though there were occasional fights —
particularly on Sundays— there was much less
disorder than one would have expected, where
a large body of such men were gathered
together. While we stayed, there happened
only one murder and two or three robberies.
You must not take the quantity of gold we
got as any criterion of the amount found by
other parties. Numbers made fortunes in a
few weeks. One party that I knew obtained
thirty pounds weight —troy— in seven weeks ;
and a youth of seventeen, who came out with
me in the 'Anna Maria,' received five hundred
pounds as his share of six weeks' work. These
are but ordinary cases. The greatest quantity
known to have been taken out in one day, was
sixty-three pounds weight, nearly three
thousand pounds worth.

"On Wednesday, November fifth, we packed
up, left Ballarat, and set off for Mount
Alexander, where we arrived on the Saturday
following. The Diggings there are not confined to one
spot, but extend for twelve miles up a valley.
The gold is found mostly among the surface-soil:
some I have even seen lying among the
grass. We tried first at a place where there
was only one party at work; and the trial
proving satisfactory, we stayed there three
weeks, and obtained thirty-six ounces of gold.
For a few days we did nothing; and then we
went over to some other Diggings about five
miles off. Here we went " prospecting " for
ourselves, and the first day found out a spot
from which we took thirty-five ounces in one
week —the last of our stay; eighteen ounces
we found in a single day.

"We then started off, back to Geelong;
for I was anxious to be back for the harvest.
We reached home on Saturday, December
twentieth."

Writing on the twenty-eighth of December,
our informant adds:—

"This gold discovery has sent the whole
country mad. There are now upwards of
fifty thousand men at work at the various
diggings; of which I have only mentioned
the two principal ones, Ballarat and Mount
Alexander. Everybody who can by any
means get away, is off. It is almost impossible
to obtain labourers at any wages. Half
the wheat in the country will most likely rot
on the ground for want of hands to reap it.
Fortunately we shall be able to get in ours
ourselves, for our man Tom is still with us, and
Mr. R.'s four brothers will lend us a hand.
We have a very good crop of wheat, for the
first year: the barley, of which we had an
acre or two, we have already cut and threshed,
and are going to send a load in to Geelong
to-morrow. I can handle the sickle and
flail pretty well for a beginner. We shall cut
the wheat next Tuesday. As soon as the
harvest is over, and the wheat threshed out
and sold, Mr. R. and I mean to make up
another party and be off to the diggings. We
cannot do all the work on the farm ourselves,
and hiring servants now is out of the question.
Men are asking seven shillings and sixpence
a-day wages, and will only hire by the week
at that rate. Things will soon be in the same
state as they are in California. All ordinary
employments will be put a stop to for a time:
but there will no doubt come a reaction in
the course of a year or two."

The reaction anticipated by the writer
will not consist in a disgust at gold, or a
decrease in the number of gold-diggers. It
will be less a reaction than a recovery
of balance. Although the gold in Australia is,
on the whole, peculiarly accessible, and so
abundant that a persevering worker cannot
fail to draw a livelihood out of the diggings;
yet there are very many workers who are