LETTER FROM THE GOLD DIGGINGS. A letter just received in Liverpool from an English emigrant in Australia gives a graphic description of the sufferings endured by those who went to the Palmer diggings. The letter is dated Brisbane, June, and the writer says: “Since the 17th of March I have been very ill, but I am thankful to say I am perfectly recovered. Since I last wrote I have had something fearful to undergo, and I am one of the lucky ones to have escaped as I have. Hundreds of poor fellows have lost their lives, and what fearful deaths some of them have had ! Some died from starvation, some were drowned, others were killed by blacks, and hundreds were carried off by dysentery. Even grass and rotten horseflesh were eagerly devoured. There were three others who started with me. One died, and the other two are now in hospital, and it is doubtful whether they will ever recover. We were nearly shipwrecked, and to save the vessel we had to smother 76 horses, among which were three of mine, worth £75. Anyhow I managed to reach the gold field, and in one day I got £4 10s. worth of gold,, and the fever with it. After being unable to walk, or scarcely stand, for about ten days, I started to walk back to the seaport – 200 miles. All the provisions I had to carry me down were six pounds of flour and four ounces of tea – neither sugar nor anything else. I counted 23 fresh graves on the road, all of which had been made since I went up about a fortnight before. Some had been travelling alone, and had lain down and died; and there the bodies lay till the next traveller came along, and if they were not too much decomposed they were buried. If too far gone, a few branches were thrown over them and there they were left. My expedition cost me £140, and I got £4 10s. in return. ======================================================= barb, ontario, canada.