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12 THE CARIBOO TRAIL

managed, good wages can be made almost anywhere
on the river as long as the bars are actually covered
with water. We have not yet been able to find a
place where we can work anything but rockers. If
we could get a sluice to work, we could make from
twelve dollars to sixteen dollars a day each. We
only commenced work yesterday and we are satisfied
that when we get fully under way we can make from >
five dollars to seven dollars a day each. The prospect
is better as we go up the river on the bars. The
gold is not any coarser, but there is more of it.
There are also in that region diggings of coarser gold
on small streams that empty into the main river. A
few men have been there and proved the existence
of rich diggings by bringing specimens back with
them. The Indians all along the river have gold in
their possession that they say they dug themseives, but
they will not tell where they get it, nor allow small
parties to go up after it. I have seen pieces in
their possession weighing two pounds. The Indians
above are disposed to be troublesome and went into
a camp twenty miles above us and forcibly took
provisions and arms from a party of four men and
cut two severely with their knives: They came to
our camp the same day and insisted that we should
trade with them or leave the country. We design
to remain here until we can get a hundred men
together, when we will move up above the falls and
do just what we please without regard to the Indians.
We are at present the highest up of any white men
on the river, and we must go higher to be satisfied.