A Mr.Milton had tried, it was said, about ten miles east of Dunvegan, but did not make a success of it.
Near the fort a raft was moored, on which had descended a party of four Americans.

They were from the State of Wyoming, and had made their way the previous summer, by way of St.John and the Pine River, to the Nelson, a tributary of the Liard.

They had had poor luck, in fact no luck at all; and this was the story of every returning party we met which had been prospecting on the various tributaries of the Peace and Liard towards the mountains.

The cost of supplies, the varying and uncertain yield, but, above all, the brief season in which it is possible to work, barely six weeks--had dissipated by sad experience the bright dreams of wealth which had lured them from comfortable homes.

Between seven and eight hundred people had gone up to those regions via Edmonton, bound for the Yukon, many of whom, after a tale of suffering which might have filled its boomsters' souls with remorse, had found solitary graves, and the remainder were slowly toiling out of the country, having sunk what means they possessed in the vain pursuit of gold.