Below Baptiste Creek, however, the yield had been satisfactory, and several miners had made from $2.00 to $2.50 a day over their living expenses.

Above the Baptiste there was nothing doing; indeed, we did not pass a single miner at work on the whole route, and it was the best time for their work.
The gold is flocculent, its source as mysterious as that of the Saskatchewan, if the theory that the latter was washed out of the Selkirks before the upheaval of the Rockies is astray.
A fresh moose head, seen lying on the bank, indicated a hunting party, but no human life was seen aside from our own people.
Indeed, the absence of life of any kind along the river, excepting the song-birds, which were in some places numerous, was surprising.
No deer, no bears, not even a fox or a timber wolf made one's fingers itch for the trigger.

A few brent, which took wing afar off, and a high-flying duck or two, were the sole wildings observed, save a big humble-bee which droned around our boat for an instant, then darted off again.

Even fish seemed to be anything but plentiful.
That night's camp was hurriedly made in a hummocky fastness of pine and birch, where we found few comfortable bedding-places.
In the morning we passed several ice-ledges along shore, the survivals of the severe winter, and, presently, met a canoe with two men from Peace River, crestfallen "Klondikers," who had "struck it rich," they said, with a laugh, and who reported good water.

Next morning a very early start was made, and after some long, strong pulls, and a vigorous spurt, the mouth of the Lesser Slave River opened at last on our sight.
We had latterly passed along what appeared to be fertile soil, a sandy clay country, which improved to the west and south-west at every turn.