RETURNING FROM THE GOLDFIELDS, SOUTH AFRICA.

The following images are from the book "King's Empire" published in 2 volumes the early 1900s. The photographs were taken at the height of the British Empire. The books are available in higher resolution for download as PDF ebooks at www.ozebook.com

RETURNING FROM THE GOLDFIELDS, SOUTH AFRICA. This illustration shows a party of gold-seekers, after working in the goldfields, returning from the mines in their roughly-built waggon drawn by four mules. It is a hard life, and often a life of cruel disappointment, but it has its glorious moments, and it calls out in a high degree the qualitity of courage, self-denial, and endurance. It must be remembered, however, that in South Africa gold mining is now mostly conducted on a large scale, and the fierce conflict and excitement of the " placer-mining " in the old days in Australia is almost unknown.