little bags of gold before sending the quartz to Aldershot to be crushed and assayed.
A couple of weeks later the sensation of the evening paper in Brisbane was as follows:
| Two tons of stone from the "Hen and Chicken" reef near Cannibal Creek, on the Palmer Gold Field, were crushed at Aldershot for the phenomenal return of 757 ounces of retorted gold. This reef was taken up by a gentleman from London who, in the early days of the Palmer discovered it while tramping on his way to Cooktown, to which place he was proceeding, almost dying from fever. This was twenty years ago, and the gentleman in question had the good luck recently to rediscover the reef which is in the wildest part of the ranges to the S. E. of Maytown, and which had eluded the notice of prospectors from that day until its recent discovery. Provision has been made to float the "Hen and Chicken" into a company in London, a very high price having been offered for it on the advice of a well-known London expert, who was fortunate enough to be in Cooktown lately on his way to examine some New Guinea property." |
Hen traveled by the first P. & Q. boat that started after he had lodged the gold in the bank and received a draft for it on London payable at ninety days to Chicken. His Palmer gold proved to be as good as any in the world and fetched over four pounds an ounce at the Sydney Mint.
So now, what with the gold itself and the purchase money for the mine, he was rich. As he came over the gangway of the steamer, a rather disreputable-looking digger's "swag" was being hoisted on board. Lashed to this were a pick, a shovel and a pan, with labels on them, "Sydney to London." They were old friends that had "seen him through," and in the heart of the
