While strolling along the shores of the creek in search of game, I noticed irregular clumps or nodules of clay which had accumulated in large quantities in the bed of the stream, especially where branches and logs had caused whirlpools and eddies to form.  They had the appearance of pebbles or stones, and were so heavy in proportion to their size that my curiosity was aroused, and throwing one of them on the bank I split it open with my machete.  My weakened heart then commenced to beat violently, for what I saw looked like gold.

I took the two pieces to my working table near our tambo, and examining the dirty-yellow heart with my magnifying glass, I found the following:  A central mass about one cubic inch in size, containing a quantity of yellowish grains measuring, say, one thirty-second of an inch in diameter, slightly adhering to each other, but separating upon pressure of the finger, and around this a thick layer of hard clay or mud of somewhat irregular shape.  It immediately struck me that the yellow substance might be gold, though I could not account for the presence of it in the centre of the clay-balls.

I carefully scraped the granules out of the clay, and washing them clean, placed them on a sheet of paper to dry in the sun.  By this time the attention of the other men had been attracted to what I was doing, and it seemed to amuse the brave fellows immensely to watch my painstaking efforts with the yellow stuff.  I produced some fine scales I had for weighing chemicals for my photographic work, and suspended these above a gourd filled with water.  Then I went down to the creek and collected more of the clay-balls and scraped the mud of one away from the solid centre of what I took to be grains of gold.  A fine thread I next wound around the gold ball and this was tied to one end of the balance.  After an equilibrium had been established, I found that the weight of the gold was 660 grains.  Next I raised the gourd until the water reached the suspended ball, causing the opposite pan of the scales to go down.  To again establish equilibrium, I had to add 35 grains.  With this figure I divided the actual weight of the gold, which gave me 18.9, and this I remembered was close to the specific gravity of pure gold.

Still a little in doubt, I broke the bulb of one of my clinical thermometers and, placing the small quantity of mercury thus obtained in the bottom of a tray, I threw a few of the grains into it, and found that they immediately united, forming a dirty-grey amalgam.  I was now sure the substance was gold and in less than five hours I collected enough to fill five photographic 5 x 7 plate-boxes, the only empty receptacles I could lay my hands on.  I could have filled a barrel, for the creek was thick with the clay-balls as far as I could see; but I had a continuous fever and this, with the exhaustion from semi-starvation, caused me to be indifferent to this great wealth.  In fact, I would have gladly given all the gold in the creek for One square meal.  If the difficulties in reaching this infernal region were not so great, I have no doubt that a few men could soon make themselves millionaires.