20 THE CARIBOO TRAIL

handhold on either side was one thing for the
Indian moccasin and quite another thing for
the miner’s hobnailed boot. The men used
to strip at these places and attempt the rock
walls barefoot; or else they cached their
canoe in a tree, or hid it under moss, lashed
what provisions they could to a dog’s back,
and, with a pack strapped to their own back,
proceeded along the bank on foot. The
trapper carries his pack with a strap round his
forehead. The miner ropes his round under
his shoulders. He wants hands and neck free
for climbing. Usually the prospectors would
appoint a rendezvous. There, provisions would
be slung in the trees above the reach of maraud-
ing beasts, and the party would disperse at
daybreak, each to search in a different direc-
tion, blazing trees as he went ahead so that
he could find the way back at night to the
camp. Distress or a find was to be signalled
by a gunshot or by heliograph of sunlight on
a pocket: mirror; but many a man strayed
beyond rescue of signal and never returned
to his waiting ‘ pardners.’ Some were caught
in snowslides, only to be dug out years later.

Many signs guided the experienced prospec-
tor. Streams clear as crystal came, he knew,
from upper snows. Those swollen at midday