The narrative is by an anonymous American from New England. The story about the gold rush days starts at Ballarat and ends in January 1856 aboard the clipper ship "Red Jacket", bound from Melbourne to Liverpool. The narrative gives detailed description of how miners dig for gold, drink, steal, gamble, are robbed, fight, eat, sleep, and how boarding housekeepers, settlers, missionaries, women and others live where the price of water is 25c a pail full, butter $1.00 a pound and eggs $4.50 a dozen; where four and five are hanged every month and the sentence of 6 months hard labor applies for stealing a horse and murdering a wife. The narrator tells how Melbourne had changed in the 2 years since he first arrived - stone buildings had gone up and streets were macadamized. The Canvas Town had become a city and railroads were being built to Geelong and elsewhere. Descriptions of Mt Franklin, Benalla and Wangaratta are inlcuded.