第78章

I also came across large quantities of alluvial tin, but this, again, was not of the slightest use, any more than it had been when I found it in very large quantities in the King Leopold Ranges.

The test I applied to see whether it really WAS tin was to scratch it with my knife.Even when large quantities of native gold lay at my feet, I hardly stooped to pick it up, save as a matter of curiosity.Why should I? What use was it to me? As I have stated over and over again in public, I would have given all the gold for a few ounces of salt, which I needed so sorely.Afterwards, however, I made use of the precious metal in a very practical manner, but of this more hereafter.At one place--probably near the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia--I picked up an immense piece of quartz, which was so rich that it appeared to be one mass of virgin gold; and when on showing it to Yamba I told her that in my country men were prepared to go to any part of the world, and undergo many terrible hardships to obtain it, she thought at first I was joking.Indeed, the thing amused her ever after, as it did the rest of my people.I might also mention that up in the then little-known Kimberley district, many of the natives weighted their spears with pure gold.I must not omit to mention that natives never poison their spear-heads.I only found the nuggets, big and little, near the creeks during and after heavy rains; and I might mention that having with some difficulty interested Yamba in the subject, she was always on the look-out for the tell-tale specks and gleams.In some of the ranges, too, I found the opal in large and small quantities, but soon discovered that the material was too light and brittle for spear-heads, to which curious use I essayed to put this beautiful stone.Talking about spear-heads, in the ranges where I met Jacky Jacky there was a quarry of that kind of stone which was used for the making of war and other implements.

It was very much worked, and as you may suppose was a valuable possession to the tribe in whose territory it was situated.The stone was a kind of flint, extremely hard and capable of being made very sharp, and retaining its edge.Natives from far and near came to barter for the stone with shells, and ornaments which these inland tribes did not possess.The method of getting out the stone was by building fires over it, and then when it had become red-hot throwing large and small quantities of water upon it in an amazingly dexterous way.The stone would immediately be split and riven exactly in the manner required.

My very first discovery of gold was made in some crevices near a big creek, which had cut its way through deep layers of conglomerate hundreds of feet thick.This country was an elevated plateau, intersected by deeply cut creeks, which had left the various strata quite bare, with curious concave recesses in which the natives took shelter during the wet season.One of the nuggets I picked up in the creek I have just mentioned weighed several pounds, and was three or four inches long; it was rather more than an inch in thickness.This nugget I placed on a block of wood and beat out with a stone, until I could twist it easily with my fingers, when I fashioned it into a fillet as an ornament for Yamba's hair.This she continued to wear for many years afterwards, but the rude golden bracelets and anklets I also made for her she gave away to the first children we met.

In many of the rocky districts the reefs were evidently extremely rich; but I must confess I rarely troubled to explore them.In other regions the gold-bearing quartz was actually a curse, our path being covered with sharp pebbles of quartz and slate, which made ever step forward a positive agony.Wild ranges adjoined that conglomerate country, which, as you have probably gathered, is extremely difficult to traverse.Certainly it would be impossible for camels.