Several stories can be told of these solitary seekers of the precious metal; but the pursuit was usually deprecated by men of good standing, for they believed that on the presence of gold becoming widely known their own little world would be turned upside down. Some persons who successfully prosecuted further researches were pronounced as enemies to the colony when they dared to disclose the facts publicly. But although the clamours of science and enterprise were silenced for the time, and gold, sent as specimens of the richness of the country, sceptically received and even said to be jewels and watches hidden by thieves and melted by bush fires, yet the fact of the existence of auriferous ground became at length so evident that the New South Wales Executive requested the English Government to send out an efficient geologist to examine the country. For this purpose Mr. Sutchbury, an eminent scientist, left England in September 1850. HARGRAVES, THE PIONEER MINER. While these discoveries were agitating the minds of a section of the agricultural and pastoral community, the one person who by his perseverance and intelligence initiated the practical working of the gold-fields of Australia was, like the father of Norval, tending his flocks and herds, and living quietly as a squatter near the town of Bathurst. The alternative droughts and floods occurring between the years 1844 and 1848 ruined many Australian settlers, and forced others to change their mode of life. Edward Hammond Hargraves was one of these latter unfortunates. He had been remarkably prosperous before this disastrous period, and even after it had sufficient to clear himself from debt. The discovery of rich mines in California about this time induced him to endeavour to regain his former fortune by searching for gold in the valley of the Sacramento. There he spent nearly two toilsome years seeking the precious metal. His industry was poorly rewarded. During summer the life at the diggings was tolerable, but in the winter the cold was very severe, and Hargraves' party suffered intensely. Even with every particle of clothing they possessed heaped upon them they had extreme difficulty in keeping the warmth in their bodies whilst sleeping, and in addition to this there was the danger of the tent being borne down by the weight of snow upon it, and the risk of being rudely aroused by the rough paw of any grisly bear that might take it into his ursine head to leave the surrounding forest in search of food. The rigours of the climate, added to their bad luck, so dispirited the party that at the close of the cold season they separated. Hargraves, with a heavy heart and a light pocket, made for San Francisco. All the hopeful imaginings which had warmed his blood when he embarked for the gold-country had now been entirely dissipated by the grim realities of mining life.