3-012-011 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chaudière Gold-Fields, Canada: the gold-diggers' dwellings, 1864. 'The Chaudière...flows through a highly picturesque and cultivated valley...In its course the main stream, as well as its numerous tributaries, have been found to yield gold in greater or lesser quantities. Forty-eight years ago a woman, engaged in washing, found a large nugget of gold, which she sold for a trifle as a curious stone...In 1849 a small company was formed...and a great deal of gold was found, but not enough to enable the directors to declare a dividend. The operations were discontinued...Since the abandonment of the company's works a few of the neighbouring habitans have obtained considerable quantities by means of washing with tin pans. As few strangers visited the locality, they managed to conceal their great success until a year ago, when a new party struck upon a deposit so rich that secrecy was no longer possible. The result has been that a gold fever raged all last summer, and threatens to break out again with increased fury whenever gold-washing can be resumed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.