| OCR Text |
Show BIGGEST NUGGET OF GOLD It Weighed M6 Pounds, and the Man Who Found It Has Just Died in Obscurity. A romance nnd tragedy were bound up In the life of Samuel 11 Napier, lately In chaigo of ono of the lumber supply stntlnns of Ollmour AV llughson of Ottnwa, which Is situated In tho wilds of the Gatlneait district, and whoso body, hnlf eaten up by rats, was found a few diss ago Ho died nil nlonc Jn the heart of tho rnnndlin pine forest, with no other companion s-iio a fnlth-ful fnlth-ful dog, who nttracted the attention of somo Wxltors to the lonely spot where the body of his master lay. Mr. Napier was once a successful gold miner and occupied Important public pub-lic positions In this country. In late jears, howeier, misfortunes crowded upon 111 m nnd swipt away his wealth, forcing him In his old age to seek n lliellhood ns n keeper of stores In a lumber tump far l.ej oiul the limits of tlilllzntlon in the Ottnwa laltey. He was the dlscoierer of tho gicatcbt nugget nug-get of pure gold that the world has eicr known Trnicllng with It from Aus-ttalla, Aus-ttalla, where ho had found It, to Iindnn, he became ono of the lions of thnt tnpltnl nnd tho guest of rojalty. lteturnlng to New Ilrunswltk he uni soon elected a member of the I'roilnclal Parliament for tils nntlio county of Gloucester. Glou-cester. Tho story of his great ilnd Is one for the latter-day noiellst. but with the Important fcntuie that It Is strictly true and a matter of history In somo lespects. In 1W3 tho world wns stirred by tho reports of great fortunes being won by tho pick In tho gold Melds of Australia. Napier was then a purser of n clipper sailing ship, pljlng between Llierpool nnd Melbourne. He left seafaring Ufa and Joined his brother nt the Klngownr digging". The brothers' claim was not a largo one, only thirty-six feet square, but In It wns hidden a treasure that made Hon the ojes of tho Queen of Hnglnnl sparkle. On August Kill their And was made, which gaio fortune to tho Napier brothers, and It was In the enr 1S57. The circumstances are best glicn In Napier's Na-pier's own language as related to Mr. l'njne, the Secretary to thti Minister of ltnilna)8 here, by Napier before he went up to the lumber camps last spring: "Wo had got down to tho plpo-clny bottom, which marked tho bed of an extinct tlicr, nnd wns tho thief characteristic of nil nlluilal diggings In Aus-tinlla, Aus-tinlla, when my pick struck something hnrd 1 knew nt once that It was not a boulder There was not the snme ring to It It struck dead Strnplng tho dirt nw ay I caught sight of tho bright jellow color of pure gold I knew nt onto thnt It was 11 miggct. but Its sUe I could not estimate. This huppenod ubout 10 o'clock In the morning. "Were 5011 excited?' "Kxcltcd? 1 tannot describe to jou how excited I was, especially when the nugget wns nt last got free. It wns all I could do to lift It, nnd I saw that It was solid, pure gold. It was two feet four Inches long by ten Inches wide nnd from ono nnd n half to threo and three-quarters thick. It weighed exactly ex-actly HO pounds four ounces and three pennyweights, nnd was actually tho largest and finest nugget of pure goll oier found anywhere In tho world Ono or two others wcro discolored thnt weighed as much, but they wtro not solid 01 'At dusk we secretly transferred tho precious lump to our tent, nnd nt mid-nlnht mid-nlnht when nil was quiet, we mado 11 hole six feet deep In tho middle of tho tent ' Into thli we Hid the negget nnd tilled In the earth with great enre. so as not to leaio a trace of our work. Then only did we feel safe. No one had seen the nugget snio ourselies-my brother and I-and It wns now burled so-"urely so-"urely from dl-coiery. Wo went to work as usual 01 cry day. nnd left our tent onen to avoid exciting suspicion In tho cimp For three months It lay thus burled and at the end of thnt time we washed out our claim Wo found a iimlcr if other nuggets In tho snmo hole, ono whirl, weighed eght pounds The ne ul the diggings nnd soon landed our prize In tho bank nt Melbourne. S n innxlel ty w s "t nn end The news then spread llko wllilnre, nnd tho,,. sa, ,l" ru "bed to tho Klnkowar gold Hells named tho famous nugget ,10 m .-.! JsKlny In honor nt tho beautiful daughter of the Ooiernor, and by ,t name ?. tho mode noil In the l.rltlsh mus.uni, known Tho bank gaic us nn lnu?anc" of JM0O0 for tho safe dellierj of tho nugget In I-on.h.n. and wo "Ct "On oOu?r"rril",I'0 wero m-idn lions of In London The Queen sent for us nnd So .Xednt "Zlr " " 7ZaSS' .nt- "f ;; -nd no wonder for of U, snnwcii ii itij ' u.,, w)(ih tn w jt Hn ;j; karats tine. It wns ono " ''.''"VTt 1- possible to get ll Then It wns put on "r, n",.'Z n XI 0M d paHce. for which Prlillego we were paid 3S0 n week Th.? as te-lfo somo th cL nonihs during which time Mr Uoier.ck Murchlson Ihls lasted nrmi a, museum The work wns so per- had a cast ,rm de 1 of the nugget 1 r -i mm n(her unm mj fetlly done hi .""""""".V, , ,,gget for IMOM It was. however, not worth lifted them 1 lnly'' the mgg roW miggH more than W '"'""'"V, ., 11.111 lis real inlue After a time It passed Into found, wo got 110 more , r . r l h n .0 keep for the llrltlsh tho hands of the lank nt i.ng. mnnnper nr dl.e.toiate tamo In n,1,r."".h. . .r n nnd reg"'t of tier5 one the nugget was melted down and "n'' T. . . nnei It yielded 10,000 soier.lgns .ml that was the lau of the i"r.'. " ", I V-lottawa ro,re.pondence m I.oul, aiol,e-eiiioecat |
