After sinking a small hole on the claim, and washing some of the earth from the bottom of it, we found a little gold--not what we thought "payable," and yet the "prospect" was so good that we did not like to forsake the claim. In hopes that it might contain richer "dirt" than what we had found, we determined to stay by it a while longer. To sink our shaft to any advantage, we needed a crowbar. There were some very large stones in the ground that could not be moved without one. A crowbar was an article we did not possess; and as we could not find one at the two or three stores established on Slaty Creek, I walked over, one evening, to Creswick Creek--a distance of some three or four miles--intending to purchase one there. By the time I reached the township, made my purchase, and started towards home, it had got to be ten o'clock. About half a mile from Creswick, on the road homeward, I had to pass a camp of native blacks. These people, in morality and social habits, are upon a scale, perhaps, as low, as humanity can reach. The sole object of their existence is, to obtain strong drink. For that, they will sometimes work at gathering bark and poles; or they will look about for stray specks of gold--in places where the miners have been working, and which have been abandoned. Any one, who understands the strength of their aversion to labour, may form some idea of the desire these blacks have for drink: when it is known that they will sometimes do the one for the sake of getting the other! An Australian native black, after becoming degraded by intercourse with the whites, will sell his mother, sister, or wife, for brandy! The party, whose camp I was compelled to pass, had evidently met with some success, in their various ways of obtaining brandy during that day, for from the noise they were making, I judged that all, or nearly all of them, must be in a state of intoxication. Not wishing to be annoyed, by their begging for tobacco--which I knew they would be certain to do, should they see me--I resolved to keep out of their way. Instead of following the direct path--which led on through the place where they had erected their "_mia-mias_" or huts--I made a detour of their encampment. After passing well round it, I turned once more towards the road to Slaty Creek, which, after a time, I succeeded in regaining. I had scarce got well upon the track, when I was confronted by a big "black fellow," apparently beside himself with drink. As a general rule, the native blacks, seen roaming about the _gold-fields_ of Victoria, are seldom guilty of malignant violence towards the whites; but the man, whom it was now my misfortune to meet, proved an exception to this rule: for the reason, no doubt, that he was maddened with alcohol.