CHRONICLES OF THE CARIBOO, _—s 8

“Look, fellahs!” cried Dunlevey, now excited as were all the others

having heard. ‘“He-says he knows’ where there’s lots of big pieces—

nuggets the size of beans!”

“Where? Where?” they all cried at once.
“Far in a mountin. One li’l river’—waving his arm to the north-
east. ,

To their eager entreaties as to how far, how long it would take
to get there, and would he show them the way, the Indian went to a
smooth patch of sand nearby and drew a rough map showing a river
of clear water, not like this dirty water-here, and a big lake into which
it emptied. Then a river: flowing out of the lake to the West until it
joined this river—the Fraser—and on down past here. The gold was
in the little river above the big lake. Another line he drew indicated
the Hudson’s.Bay Brigade Trail from Kamloops to Fort Alexandria,
and about halfway betwecn a small lake that he called Lac La Hache.
From there, he said, it was not:so far to the little river, in a North-
easterly direction through a pine forest. But, he said, he Was working
for the Hudson’s Bay Company, bearing important letters, and must
go on without delay to Fort Alexandria, and there the factor would
probably send him on another trip.

But Dunievey and his partners were unanimous in the belief that
the matter was worth looking into seriously. So they persuaded the
Indian to camp with them that night so they could talk it over and
make plans, finally the Indian agreed. Before-they slept that night
it was arranged that the Indian was to meet them at the Southeast
end of Lac La Hache, on the Brigade Trail, at the end of sixteen days.
They first said two weeks and then decided to add two days’in ¢ase
of delays. They further agreed that if either party was at the rendez-
vous before the other, it would wait one week before taking further
action. Also that if th factor at Fort Alexandria would not let
Tomaah off, the latter was to provide another Indian to take his place.

He said he kad a ffiend—another Hudson’s Bay runner called
Long Bacheese—probably Baptiste—who was even better acquainted
with that country than ke was. In the meantime, the Dunlevey party
was to make all haste in dropping down the river in their boat to
Lillooet, and thence ‘by way of Marble Canyon to Kamloops, whére
they were to go to Tomaah’s father, the chief, to arrange for pack- .
horses to pack a summer’s supplies, purchased from the Company’s
stores, to take in with them to the little river. Tomaah said the
Shuswap name for the little river meant “Wild Water.” When the
miners awoke the next morning the Indian was gone. ;

But it had transpired during the night’s talk that upon being
questioned as to what the Indians did with the gold nuggets they
found on the little river, Tomaah had explained they ‘made ‘little
trinkets of them by beating and. carving the*pieces mto shape. He
said some of the tribes even had rings which they had somehow beaten
and carved to shape and which had been held in great veneration

by certain families for generations past—evidently with some sort of