to £3 a month; but this move met so much resistance that it was almost immediately rescinded.
The dry weather setting in, the diggers in the course of January were reduced to 10,000 persons.
In January the new Legislative Council came to a series of resolutions adverse to the licensing system, and suggesting an export duty.
In the same month a working man found at the Forest Creek diggings the largest lump of solid gold yet discovered, weighing 27 lbs. 8 oz., perfectly pure, free from quartz or other impurity, which he sold to a Melbourne dealer.
In May, 1852, the numbers at Mount Alexander were estimated at from thirty to forty thousand souls.
Since that period the gold-fields round Mount Ballarat have been almost deserted, except by residents in the locality.
A TANDEM DRIVE FROM MELBOURNE TO BALLARAT, IN 1851.
"Having cleared the city we overtook the golden army of bullock-drays moving northward, surrounded by companies of men and lads: occasionally a female is seen. Four bulldogs pull one carriage, a great dog in the shafts of another, and a man pushing behind at a load of near five hundredweight.
"Presently the splendid panorama opened to view an extensive sweep of plains, encircled by mountain ranges in the remote distance. Far as the eye can reach, the pilgrimage, its line moving along the undulations, now hid, now rising into view English and Germans, Irish and Scotch, Tasmanians.
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"Sixteen drays at Yuille's Ford, and nearly two hundred people. It is nearly impassable, from the fresh current of yesterday's rain. But the men, tailing on to the ropes by dozens, pull both the horses and carts through. Some there are pulling, some cooking their midday meals, some unloading the drays, some moving off the ground. Over the ford the road is delightful, the scenery charming, the land more broken, and timbered like a park. Ladidak comes in view, a beautiful ravine formed by the convergence of several hills, at the base of which the river so winds that it must be crossed thrice.
"Where formerly was silence, only broken by the voice of the bell-bird, now bullock-drays, bullocks, and bullock-drivers, are shouting, roaring, and swearing up the hill, or descending splashing through the once clear stream. On, on until the expanse of Bacchus Marsh opens, until lately a favourite meet of our hounds.
"A camp of tents has been formed by those who think it discreet to
