The Victorian naturalist . manns Life Preserving Dropswhich were sold around the golddiggings, and no doubt, the Germandid a good trade. He is not remem-bered however for his pills (whichhe claimed would cure tuberculosis,gout, and bruises among other things). He was a partner with Louis Beyers,a fellow German, in a gold mine, andit was from this mine on October 19th,1872, that Beyers dug the nuggetknown now as Holtermanns nugget—a huge nugget, seven feet high, twofeet wide and four inches thick. Holtermann was lucky. He had soldhis share in the mine but managed tobuy it back before the strike
The Victorian naturalist . manns Life Preserving Dropswhich were sold around the golddiggings, and no doubt, the Germandid a good trade. He is not remem-bered however for his pills (whichhe claimed would cure tuberculosis,gout, and bruises among other things). He was a partner with Louis Beyers,a fellow German, in a gold mine, andit was from this mine on October 19th,1872, that Beyers dug the nuggetknown now as Holtermanns nugget—a huge nugget, seven feet high, twofeet wide and four inches thick. Holtermann was lucky. He had soldhis share in the mine but managed tobuy it back before the strike becameknown. One story is that it wasbecause of a premonition before thestrike was made. A large piece, weighing over twohundred pounds, broke off the nuggetwhile getting it to the surface, butthat was of little consequence. Theremaining nugget weighed six hundredand thirty pounds, valued at that timeat £12,000. Todays value would besomething like $100,000, thus eclips-ing by far the Welcome Strangerin size and value.*. Bernard Holtermann, standing alongside thenugget mined from a quartz reef.(Note—This photograph was taken after por-tion of the nugget had broken off.) Picture from the Mitchell Library, Sydney;by courtesy of Miss V. Tongs, Finley, * Comparison of the weight and the price ofgold at the time leads us to conclude that thenugget was, by no means, pure gold, but musthave contained a large amount of quartz. January, 1968 19 Holtermann apparently continuedhis business of medicine, and hisaffluence may be measured by hisappearance when photographed withthe nugget. There is now one remain-ing hotel in Hill End, a town whichonce supported over fifty. There is no story of mateship likethat of Deason and Oates of the Wel-come Stranger. Holtermann alwaysreferred to the nugget as his nugget, and it has become known as , the man who actually dugthe nugget, spent his share or gaveit away and ended his days a poorman. An interesting point to rememberis t
Size: 1250px × 1999px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdec, booksubjectnaturalhistory, bookyear1884
