Upper Yackandanda, Jan. 21st. 1853.

After what we had witnessed of the dogging of Braidy's party, it was clear that a vigilant look-out was kept for any sign of successful prospectors on the move to get to their newly discovered grounds. We saw that it would require the greatest caution to get away without being watched and followed. As we must take our carts with us, it would be impossible to prevent leaving traces of our wheels. Our best chance, we thought, lay in drawing first to an outside, and then to busy ourselves in apparent prospecting up the creek, as if we knew of nothing better farther off. We commenced at first by removing and encamping near the miller, as he had a short time before withdrawn himself to an isolated and retired spot on the higher part of Spring Creek, and was digging there for a blind. His tent was pitched in a solitary bend of the creek with high wooded hills on each side, and he and his men were digging in the banks of the creek, with all apparent zeal. It was a picturesque spot. High banks overhung the stream on the near side; and on the other, you looked up steeps thickly covered with shrubs, and solemn with giant growth of trees. The stream ran clear as crystal; and close to the tent lay a stupendous blue-gum tree, blown down, with its mass of roots and earth reared like a wall close upon the stream; and on these sat a tame gray magpie, and a green paroquet called a leek.