"And was that the largest nugget ever found?" I asked.
"As far as my knowledge is concerned. At the other mines I have heard that immense pieces have been found, but I consider the rumor as exaggerated."
"You would be greatly surprised if we should happen to discover a piece worth as much," I remarked.
"I think I should," answered the inspector, dryly, slowly filling his pipe, and apparently dilating on the subject mentally.
"Well, we will not pledge ourselves to make such a strike as the one you have related, but we will guarantee to get more gold than two thirds of the miners at Ballarat," Fred said, confidently.
The inspector shook his head.
"You don't know the kind of work that you will have to undertake," he said. "In the first place, you have got either to buy a claim, or begin digging at some spot where no one would think, unless a new arrival looking for gold. All the dirt that you wanted to work out would have to be carried to the water, and you can see that our lakes and rivers are not very extensive.
"We will imagine that you have resolved to commence operations, and that a suitable spot has been selected. After a day's digging, you will find, that to prevent the earth from caving in and burying you up, timber is wanting. You make application, and find that to buy staves and planks will cost you as much as a small house in the States. Even a few cracked branches are valued at the rate of five or ten shillings per stick, and you can calculate how much the cost would be after sinking a shaft a hundred or two hundred feet, to say nothing of the chamber work."
We began to comprehend that mining was rather difficult and uncertain work.
"Then, according to your showing, the best thing that we can do, is to pack up our traps and return to Melbourne," Fred said, after a long pause.