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rickety old dug-out canoes up the swollen streams
in search of the elusive metal, and of the “pardner’’
that never returned. There is a story told of a party
of twelve young men, who having tasted of the bitter
disappointment of not finding the gold “that was
there,” decided upon trekking back to California
through Whatcom and Oregon. Before leaving British
Columbia they set about re-stocking of food for fur-
ther travel and two of their number decided to have
one last venture in following the bed of the Big Bend
of the Columbia. After plodding the river bed for
several miles they came to a ledge that had to
be scaled and to attain this objective it was necess-
ary to leave the stream and cut a path inland. Trees
were “blazed” along the route and upon arrival at
the top of the ledge darkness had set in. The younger
of the two prospectors was up and crawling down
to the ledge before daybreak next morning and when
the sun came over the mountain and shone directly
upon that ledge they had noticed the evening before,
behold! there in front of him, glittering in the sunlight
was free gold in the rock. But for every experience
such as this, there were a hundred who worked in-
tensely only to die for want of food.

The great majority came and went, a few remained,
some continued the search for the elusive metal in

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