termed the "Australian Cordillera," in which he had recently heard that gold had been discovered in small quantities, and in which he anticipated, from the similarity with the Ural Mountains, that it would certainly be found in abundance.
After these opinions had been made public, persons resident in Sydney and Adelaide sought for and found specimens of gold, which they transmitted to Sir Roderick, who thereupon wrote to Earl Grey, the minister for the colonies, in November, 1848, stating the grounds for his confident expectation that gold would be found in large quantities, and suggesting precautionary measures. Earl Grey never answered this letter, and neither took measures nor sent out private instructions to prepare the governor for the realisation of the predictions of the man of science. As he afterwards explained, he thought it better that the people should stick to wool-growing.
The first printed notice by Mr. Clarke appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1847, in which, following in Sir Roderick Murchison's footsteps, he compared Australia with the Ural.
In 1848 a Mr. Smith, engaged in iron-works near Berrima,[1] waited upon Mr. Deas Thomson, the colonial secretary, produced a lump of gold imbedded in quartz, which he said he had found, and offered, on receipt of £800, to discover the locality. On reference to the governor, a verbal answer was returned that, if Mr. Smith chose to trust to the liberality of the government, he might rely on being rewarded in proportion to the value of the alleged discovery. The government suspected that the lump of gold came from California, "and were afraid of agitating the public mind by ordering geological investigations." Nothing more has been heard of Mr. Smith.
On the 3rd of April, 1851, Mr. Edward Hargreaves addressed a letter to the colonial secretary, after several interviews, in which he said that if the government would award him £500 as a compensation, he would point out localities where gold was to be found, and leave it to the generosity of the government to make him an additional reward commensurate with the benefit likely to accrue to the government.
It seems that Mr. Hargreaves, while in California, was struck with the similarity between the richest diggings of that country and a district in the Bathurst country which he had travelled over fifteen years previously; and on his return to Sydney made an exploring expedition of two months, which realised his expectations.
The same answer was returned to Mr. Hargreaves as to Mr. Smith. He was satisfied, and on the 30th April wrote, naming Lewis Ponds
- ↑ Berrima, in the county of Camden, eighty-one miles from Sydney.
