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the same year two settlers named M ' N a b and O'Niel, from Burnbank, customers of his, called and settled an overdue account, when M ' N a b said that one of his m e n had picked up a gold nugget in a gully. T h e m a n so referred to, looked in some time after, and informed O s m o n d that M ' N a b had left for England, and carried away a quantity of gold. M r . George Wharton, an old Melbourne architect of unimpeachable testimony, declared that he was well acquainted with Mr. T. J. Thomas, who in days of yore, kept a jeweller's shop where the Commercial Bank n o w stands in Collins Street and that bushmen occasionally called there with exhibits of mica, and samples of gold, in which but little interest was taken beyond regarding them as curiosities. A n individual known as " Old Yorky," used to say that he was positive there was gold to be got at the Plenty, but no account was taken of his sayings. F r o m a lengthy and interesting communication supplied by Mr. J. W o o d Beilby, an old and enterprising colonist, I extract the following with reference to an alleged early gold discovery:— " T h e discoverer's n a m e was William Rickfould, a shepherd or hut-keeper in the employ of the late W . J. T. Clarke, at Heifer Station Creek, north of the Pyrenees. I found him on the site of his discovery there early in 1845, but some years elapsed before circumstances induced him, while subsequently in m y employment, to confide his discovery to m e . H e then reminded m e of our first meeting, described the locality of his discovery minutely, and referred m e to Mr. Stephen Henty and Messrs. Purbrick and Tulloh, all of Portland, as having sold gold for him in Tasmania. Mr. Henty, on m y inquiry afterwards, fully bore out Rickfould's statement, but he understood the gold to be the produce of Africa, and brought here by a sailor. H a d he known the gold to be Victorian I do not believe he would have bought or sold it. Even to date of 22nd May, 1851, persons digging in search of gold or removing it were declared 'liable to be prosecuted civilly and criminally' by special proclamation of His Excellency Sir Charles Fitzroy. T h e discoverer (William Rickfould) bound m e to secrecy until his death, which he then shortly expected, and which I understood took place before I divulged the fact. I arrived in the colony in 1841, continuously resided in Melbourne, joined the Press in February, 1845, and never heard anything of the facts as stated, though for obvious reasons there was no doubt a strong motive for the concealment of any bond-fide gold-finding. T h e first intimation on the subject that I can discover in the old newspapers is a false alarm, when in August, 1845, Mr. David Howie, a resident on King's Island, picked up amongst the rocks there a few metallic lumps the size of a pigeon's egg. Thinking they were gold he hastened with his treasure to Melbourne, where the ' eggs' were ascertained to be iron ore, and the finder was laughed at, and returned h o m e sadly disappointed." Dr. George H . Bruhn, a German physician, previously mentioned, in January, 1851 (before Hargreaves' discovery at S u m m e r Hill), started from Melbourne to explore the mineral resources of this colony; and in April he found indications of gold in quartz near M r . Parker's station, and, on arriving at Cameron's station, was shown specimens of gold found at what were subsequently known as the "Clunes" diggings. This information he promulgated through the country, and mentioned to Esmonds, at the time engaged in erecting a building at Mr. James Hodgkinson's station. Dr. Bruhn forwarded specimens, which were received by the Gold Discovery Committee on the 30th June, 1851. T h e localities of Campbell and Michel's discoveries were divulged on the 5th, and of Esmonds' not until the 22nd July. Michel and party were adjudged to have "clearly established their claim as the first publishers of the discovery of a goldfield in Victoria." Licenses to digforgold there were issued on the 1st September, previous to their issue upon any other goldfield, and about 300 persons were at work when Ballarat was discovered. Mr. T h o m a s Hiscock found gold at Buninyong on the 8th August, a fact publicly notified on the ioth. Th.s discovery of Hiscock, by attracting large numbers of diggers to the neighbourhood, was the cause of the discovery of Ballarat diggings, which are upon the same range as Buninyong, at six or seven miles distance. T h e discovery of the "Golden Point" at Ballarat was claimed by two parties, both of whom went first to Hiscock s diggings, and then extended their searches, one on one side, the other on the other side of that grand focus of attraction. Where so m a n y rich deposits were discovered, almost simultaneously, within a radius of little more than half-a-mile, it was difficult to decide to w h o m was