Newspaper Article A Digger's Cradle.

A Digger's Cradle.

(By Ixion in the Australasian.)

A paragraph in the Argus mentioning that Mr. Cosmo Newbery had had a digger's cradle and sluice-box made for exhibition in the mineral department at the Melbourne
Technological Museum led to unlooked for results. Against his will they turned Mr Newbery into a public lecturer. It was no uncommon thing to see him followed about the grounds by thirty or forty stalwart men thirsting for information on the subject of gold seeking. He has even taken them as far as the excavation at the side, of the Supreme Court Buildings in order to show them " bed rook." His pupils have not always listened to the master in silence. Some of them " argufied," while others have spoken disrespectfully of washdirt, quarts, and even of the cradle itself. "What I want," said one student, "is to know exactly where I can put down a hole and come on gold. I don't want to waste my time digging one hole after another to find nothing at the bottom of it." The teacher explained that it was not given to him to be able to stand on a certain spot on the earth's surface and say, "Beneath me at a distance of 8ft. there is lots of gold. The only way he knew to find out was to sink and see." Another man put the following conundrum to Mr. Newbery:— " Hasn't gold got an affinity for quicksilver?" " Yes, clean gold and quicksilver have," he Answered. "Well, then, if I went about the diggings with some quicksilver in my hand and held it near the ground, shouldn't I tell by its creeping that it was near gold?" The only advice that could be given was " to try." The white and gray washdirt was shown to the classes and commented on. Said one member, "Is it always them two colours ?" " No," answered Mr. Newbery, " it's sometimes brown." " And is there always gold in it ?" "If it always carried gold there would be no further trouble," was the reply. It took time to make the classes understand that gold had to be looked for as churchmen say with abundant diligence, and caused shades of sorrow and regret to pass over the faces of the students. It was not exactly what they had bargained for. The cradle has not given entire satisfaction to those who have seen it for the first time. One difficulty was, "How are you going to save the nuggets from slipping through the little holes in the hopper ?" The general idea was that gold was obtained in pieces the size of walnuts, or even larger. When Mr. Newbery explained that the usual run of it was about the size of a split pea downwards the appreciation of gold depreciated a good deal.

The Queenslander
1894
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