celebrated ‘Chinaman’s Hole,’ which yielded 3,000 ounces in a few hours. This led to the greatest rush which had ever been known in the gold- fields, for 60,000 people congregated there in a few weeks, and before a month had elapsed an immense town was systematically laid out. Shops, taverns and hotels, theatres and billiard-rooms, sprang up in the desert, like the mystic trees of Indian jugglers, and were quickly followed by a daily mail and a daily newspaper. Thus, within the space of two months, the magical power of gold converted a wild mountain gorge into a teeming city, where frontages were nearly as valuable as in the heart of London. [Illustration: GOLD-WASHING IN AUSTRALIA.] The great social disorganisation which distinguished the first few years of the Australian gold discoveries has long since passed away, together with much of the excitement natural to a transition state. Order now universally prevails, and the occupations of life are pursued with as much regularity as in the oldest States. The growth of the colony, which scarcely thirty years since was a mere unknown waste, is not the least marvellous of the many marvels that have been worked by gold. In the year 1851 the population of the province was 77,345 persons, of whom 28,143 were located in Melbourne. In 1860, it had already increased to 462,000, and probably the next few years will find it augmented to a million, while Melbourne already rivals our larger cities in size and wealth. The wonderful discoveries in California and Australia having made gold the all-absorbing topic of the day, it is not surprising that new Eldorados were now eagerly sought for wherever the geological formation of a country held out the hope of similar treasures. Fresh and highly-productive gold-fields have, within the last few years, been opened in British Columbia, and, still further to the north, in the Arctic wilds of the infant colony of Stikeen. Numerous diggers are at work in New Zealand, and in the deserts to the north of the Cape. A system of auriferous veins has been discovered in North Wales; the county of Sutherland, the Ultima Thule of our isle, claims to be ranked among the gold-producing regions; and numerous adventurers are on their way to the frozen deserts of Lapland, where the glittering metal is said to abound in the basin of the Ivalo.