Bendigo was another of the rich strikes of the early days.  It does a great quartz-mining business, now—­that business which, more than any other that I know of, teaches patience, and requires grit and a steady nerve.  The town is full of towering chimney-stacks, and hoisting-works, and looks like a petroleum-city.  Speaking of patience; for example, one of the local companies went steadily on with its deep borings and searchings without show of gold or a penny of reward for eleven years —­then struck it, and became suddenly rich.  The eleven years’ work had cost $55,000, and the first gold found was a grain the size of a pin’s head.  It is kept under locks and bars, as a precious thing, and is reverently shown to the visitor, “hats off.”  When I saw it I had not heard its history.

“It is gold.  Examine it—­take the glass.  Now how much should you say it is worth?”

I said: 

“I should say about two cents; or in your English dialect, four farthings.”

“Well, it cost L11,000.”

“Oh, come!”

“Yes, it did.  Ballarat and Bendigo have produced the three monumental nuggets of the world, and this one is the monumentalest one of the three.  The other two represent 19,000 a piece; this one a couple of thousand more.  It is small, and not much to look at, but it is entitled to (its) name—­Adam.  It is the Adam-nugget of this mine, and its children run up into the millions.”

Speaking of patience again, another of the mines was worked, under heavy expenses, during 17 years before pay was struck, and still another one compelled a wait of 21 years before pay was struck; then, in both instances, the outlay was all back in a year or two, with compound interest.

Bendigo has turned out even more gold than Ballarat.  The two together have produced $650,000,000 worth—­which is half as much as California has produced.

It was through Mr. Blank—­not to go into particulars about his name—­it was mainly through Mr. Blank that my stay in Bendigo was made memorably pleasant and interesting.  He explained this to me himself.  He told me that it was through his influence that the city government invited me to the town-hall to hear complimentary speeches and respond to them; that it was through his influence that I had been taken on a long pleasure-drive through the city and shown its notable features; that it was through his influence that I was invited to visit the great mines; that it was through his influence that I was taken to the hospital and allowed to see the convalescent Chinaman who had been attacked at midnight in his lonely hut eight weeks before by robbers, and stabbed forty-six times and scalped besides; that it was through his influence that when I arrived this awful spectacle of piecings and patchings and bandagings was sitting up in his cot letting on to read one of my books; that it was through his influence that efforts had been made to get the Catholic Archbishop of Bendigo to