other services, primarily for his own benefit, it is true, but also for the use of those who come after.  Very few recognise the immense value of the work carried out by prospectors who are not actuated only by the greed for gold, as I, who know them, can assert.  Some wish to satisfy a longing to determine the nature of new country, to penetrate where others have never been; others work for love of adventure and of the free bush life; while many are anxious to win what distinction may fall to the lot of successful travellers, though reward or distinction are seldom accorded to prospectors.  But beyond all this, there is the glorious feeling of independence which attracts a prospector.  Everything he has is his own, and he has everything that is his own with him; he is doing the honest work of a man who wins every penny he may possess by the toil of his body and the sweat of his brow.  He calls no man master, professes no religion, though he believes in God, as he cannot fail to do, who has taken the chances of death in the uphill battle of life “outside the tracks,” though he would perhaps be annoyed if you told him so; and it is only by intimate acquaintance with him that you can know that his God is the same as other men’s, though called by another name.  For the rest, he lives an honourable life, does many acts of kindness to those in need, never leaves his mate in the lurch, and goes “straight” to the best of his ability.  For him, indeed,

    “Two things stand like stone: 
    Kindness in another’s trouble,
    Courage in his own.”

As to his work, the results remain, even though he keeps no record.  Should he find good country or gold, the land is soon occupied—­sooner than if some officially recognised expedition had reported it.  For in the one case the man is known and trusted by his fellow-prospectors, while in the other there is not only the bushman’s dislike of anything official to be overcome, but the curious conviction, which most of them possess, that any one in the position of a geologist, or other scientific calling, must necessarily be an ass!  In the same way, if the country met with is useless, the fact soon becomes known amongst the prospectors, who avoid it accordingly—­though a few from curiosity may give it a further trial.  Slowly but surely the unaided and individual efforts of the prospector, bring nearer to civilisation the unknown parts of Australia.  Many are the unrecorded journeys of bushmen, which for pluck and endurance would rank with any of those of recognised explorers.

The distances accomplished by their journeys are certainly of no great length, as, indeed, they hardly could be, seeing their scanty means and inadequate equipment; and yet in the aggregate they do as great an amount of useful work as a man who by a single journey leaves his name on the map of Australia.  It has always seemed a shame to me, how little prospectors are encouraged.  No inducement is offered them to give information to