I also came across large quantities of alluvial tin, but this, again, was not of the slightest use, any more than it had been when I found it in very large quantities in the King Leopold Ranges.
The test I applied to see whether it really _was_ tin was to scratch it with my knife.

Even when large quantities of native gold lay at my feet, I hardly stooped to pick it up, save as a matter of curiosity.

Why should I?
What use was it to me?
As I have stated over and over again in public, I would have given all the gold for a few ounces of salt, which I needed so sorely.

Afterwards, however, I made use of the precious metal in a very practical manner, but of this more hereafter.

At one place--probably near the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia--I picked up an immense piece of quartz, which was so rich that it appeared to be one mass of virgin gold; and when on showing it to Yamba I told her that in my country men were prepared to go to any part of the world, and undergo many terrible hardships to obtain it, she thought at first I was joking.