6 CHRONICLES OF THE CARIBOO

revolver of the time. A first-rate all-round frontiersman.

_ Ira Crow was the typical lean and lanky all-round California
miner, and a good one; experienced and practical, yet with an almost
uncanny sensitiveness to “indications.” He was the partner who usu-
ally planned their mining operations; but practically nothing is now
known of his movements in the Cariboo after Dunlevey’s party
broke up.

Tom Moffitt and Tom Manifee were men of a different stamp
physically from the others, but much the same to themselves. Both
were rather slight men, but what there was of them was all to the
good—tough and wiry. Manifee was the comic of the bunch, a born
entertainer. Song and banter emanated from him “like scent from
a woman,” as Dunlevey would say; or “Like skunk pee!” as Crow
would snap when Tom’s unpredictable antics would exasperate even
; his good nature. But they all liked
him just the same. He always wore
a hat, indcors or out, and always
on the back of his head, which
gave him a devil-may-care air that
fitted him. His bright, close-set
: 3 eyes, lean, long face and jutting

. J lowcr jaw and chin whiskers gave

\ aus pa him a foxy appearance that fitted

Gn See him too. He was a foxy guy. When
<a ; " Dunlevey moved to Soda Creek
PN : ae from Beaver Lake in ’63, Manifee
Y ALM ule 7 isliwe took up the Mud Lake Ranch. He

Mibenleast ae ll so i died and was buried at Soda Creek.

TOMAA (SHUSWAP) Tom Moffitt was born at a little
r place called Williamsport in Indi-
ana, U.S.A. I knew him well for
many years at Alexandria, until he
“Whiteman’s friend in need died and was buried in Barkerville

and deed.” Cemetery. Apart from his mining

and farming, the most notable

thing about him, at least in those

early days, was his really uncanny

skill with cards, coupled with the unbelievable quickness of his eye-

sight and hands. This last must be a hereditary trait for it is notice-

able in some of his descendants to this day. He could take a deck

of cards after you had shuffled them to your liking, reshuffle them

and deal out four top poker hands, the winning hand to any player

he wished; and while he was doing it, both his hands and the riffling
cards were just a blur to the observer.

In other words he could stack a deck of cards right before your
eyes, and though you watched your darndest you couldn’t see how
he did it. Of course this entailed a remarkable quickness of eyesight
as well as of hands. For example, you could draw a card from a
deck lying face down on the table, place it on top of the deck without