46 Reference This margin not to be used T 2680/2/ Date Description 13 sections of timber land & are going to build a saw mill I wish you (contd.) could see the timber they have from 2 to 6, 8, & 10 feet in diameter & nota limb for 100 feet up, the location is in a steep canyon & it will take time & perseverance & hard work to accomplish the undertaking. The parties wanted me to take a share in it but I declined the offer They have a reasonable supply of water if they put up the machinery correctly I think there will be enough (that is) at the driest season of the year to run a /n u ley saw & an Ledger fast enough to cut 4 or 5 thousand feet p day. the woods around will be good pasturage for cattle so that they can raise as much stock as they please. I may possibly go into the mines again next year & see some of the new diggins there are some great discoveries made lately of silver mines in Carson vall ey & gold at /Mono/ lake but the snow is deep on the mountains so that it is impossible to go now. 1 The letter also includes a detailed set of instructions for the construction of a flour mill. 14 "Good Friday" , Letter from George McLean, Young. New South /15 April 187 tales, Australia, to William /c. Williamson, Ahory, Richhill, Co. Armagh. t Doubtless you would like to know something of the climate & soil of Australia. I dare say a sketch of the gold fields would be interesting to you, the latter I know very little about the working off, although living/ what was Once in a very rich gold field I am told there was once about 20,000 digers on this gold field. It is now being worked by Companys who have put up mashinery & are working by steam power. Other companys are slushing but, very little miners now sinking & driving, except John Chinaman. There has been three or four new rushes near Grenfell lately some of the claims have paid 5 or 6 hundred per man for about 5 or 6 weeks work but the greater part of the clay wil not do more than pay good wages. Gold diging is both dangerous & uncertain I do not intend trying my fortune on the gold fields. Store keeping is a much shurer game. We have done a very large trade in the wholesale since those new rushes opened. As regards the climate of sunny Australia, it is much warmer here than what it is in the Old Country, our winter is much like Summer at home sometimes we have light frosts but the first rays of the morning sun clears it away. It was very warm about Christmas usualy from 100 to 120 deg. in the shade. I could hardly sleep at night for some time with the heat. I have often at night gone to the bath tub & plunged into the cold watter to get cold, We had a thunder storm soon after Christmas which cleared the atmosphere & plenty of rain since, the weather is most beautiful now, you can almos see the grass growing. After rain it springs up so fast. The soil about this district is very rich, strange to say the hills are, far the richest soil, deep volcanic soil, the flatts are usualy bare of soil they can grow nearly all sorts of fruit here of the finest quality. They can grow two crops of Potatoes in the year of the finest quality, they way the plant the Potatoe crop, they just plough N DL 76573