The Grime That Isn’t A Criminal Offense By L. G. TEMPLE * HE QUESTION “When is a crime not a crime?” might be answered “When one salts a mine.” For the benefit of those who don’t read wild and wooly westerns, salting a mine means to add to the richness of the ore by putting in more raw metal. It is usually done with gold mines, and the purpose, of course, is to inviegle some unsuspect- ing sucker into buying a_ useless prospect as a paying mine. Like piracy on the high seas and holding up trains, it is a dying pro- fession, owing partly to the fact that people now get mining engineers to examine the mines before they part with any cash. However, in the palmy days of placer mining, such as along the Fraser bars and in the Cariboo creeks, salting a patch of useless gravel and then sticking a tenderfoot with it was a skilled trade. In the fiction world, it was con- sidered de rigeur to use a shotgun for the purpose; the shot was taken from the shell and replaced by gold dust and then fired at the area to be IMPERIAL PRODUCTS LAKE SERVICE GARAGE HENRY R. NASH, Prop. Complete Auto and Truck Repairs DODGE DE SOTO LAKE COWICHAN, B.C. Compliments f MacMILLAN & BLOEDEL LIMITED (Chemainus Division) * CHEMAINUS Page Twenty-eight salted. Actually, it is doubtful if this method was ever used; it certainly was a crude system, and unlikely to be very successful. The artists of the game devised much better, and more fool proof, systems. Tobacco and Gold Dust In the good old days of the Cariboo rush, when men chewed tobacco and women used smelling salts, some genius devised the scheme of mixing gold dust with his plug of tobacco. Following the sucker around the claim, whenever a pan of gravel was taken up to be washed, the seller managed to spit in the pan. This, of course, transferred the gold dust in the tobacco to the sample of pay dirt, which then was sure to show plenty of color, as the gold dust was called. At a later date, when cigarettes were used more than “eating tobacco,” this method was modified. Cigarettes were rolled with a good percentage of gold dust in the tobacco; at intervals the smoking seller of the claim flicked his ashes into the pan with the sup- posedly gold-bearing sand, thus mak- ing sure it was gold-bearing! Both these tricks had the advantage that the unsuspecting prospective buyer could dip up gravel anywhere he liked on the property and still have lots of color in the bottom of the pan, after washing it himself. Without a doubt many a worthless piece of river bar has been sold for a good price by these wily schemes. A still cruder idea was sprinkling gold dust directly on the gravel and mixing it up a bit; but then the victim had to be maneuvered into testing the property only in places salted. And even the dumbest tender- food might get suspicious if the seller kept pointing out the spots he wanted him to take gravel from! Wily Oriental at Barkerville The last salting of placer that is remembered was when a wily oriental thoroughly salted a placer property in the Barkerville district. He success- fully sold it to a syndicate, which spent a large sum bringing water for some miles by means of a flume in order to wash the valuable “gold- bearing” sands. By the time they dis- covered that there wasn’t any gold to wash out, the oriental had disap- peared; probably back to the orient. In the far north, where the gravel underlays a layer of dirt, and stays frozen the year around, the gravel must be thawed by building a fire on it before it can be put in a pan and the gold washed out. One bright character devised a new scheme; he cut a quantity of wood and had it ready so that a fire could be started for thawing operation. Then he salted the wood! Naturally, the one doing the testing used the ready cut wood to thaw out a few pans of gravel, and in so doing, released the gold to be mixed with the gravel GORDON STORES GENERAL MERCHANTS 4 LAKE COWICHAN B.C. HILLCREST LUMBER COMPANY LIMITED Manufacturers of British Columbia Lumber MESACHIE LAKE, B.C. Phone Lake Cowichan or Duncan THE SHOULDER STRAP