one who fossicks, sc. worksamong the tailings of old gold-mines for what may be left.
1853. C. Rudston Read, `What I heard, saw, and did at theAustralian Gold Fields,' p. 150:
«The man was what they called a night fossicker, whoslept, or did nothing during the day, and then went round atnight to where he knew the claims to be rich, and stole thestuff by candle-light.»
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 87:
«I can at once recognize the experienced `fossickers,' whoknow well how to go to work with every chance in their favour.»
1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 32:
«Steady old fossickers often get more
Than the first who open'd the ground.»
1869. R. Brough Smyth, `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 612:
«A fossicker is to the miner as is the gleaner to the reaper;he picks the crevices and pockets of the rocks.»
1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1015:
«We had heard that, on this same field, years after its totalabandonment, a two hundred ounce nugget had been found by asolitary fossicker in a pillar left in an old claim.»
1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2:
«The fossickers sluiced and cradled with wonderful cradles oftheir own building.»