3-021-681 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Sutherlandshire Gold Diggings: Kildonan Burn, [in Scotland], 1869. 'The scientific results of the operations, so far as they have been carried on, are slight, but very interesting...For the most part the particles are small...The invasion of the solitary wilds of Sutherland by bands of miners armed with shovels and mattocks, with cradles, "long Toms," and sluices, has created a panic among the sheep-farmers and sportsmen. The loss of the sweet grassy haughs along the sides of the burns is a serious matter for sheep in the lambing season, when they found shelter there in the stormiest weather...As a sheep-farmer remarked, these borders of fine vegetation were like butter to the bread of the pasture...To the deerstalker the innovation is still more fatal, if prospectors are allowed to roam freely over the hills in quest of gold. These and other difficulties arising from so great a change in the country may possibly have the effect of putting an end to the new field of labour which has unexpectedly sprung up in the Highlands...The largest nugget yet found at Kildonan was of the value only of £9. It was picked up by a young lad near the surface of the soil, and was bought by a resident gentleman for presentation to the Duke of Sutherland'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.