Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-04
ENDURANCE OF INDIANS.
Hardshfps of Prospecting Party
Which Tested Their MettIe.
From the New York Sun.

frnu luc Ne" 1crh Sill
A lot of prospectors among the noun
tains of Alaska and the northwest We're
talking about the hard work of the trail
and the varying values of men and dogs
and mules as conveyors of supplies, when
Mr.. Gibson Taylor, lawyer and prospector
of Seattle, got the floor.
"A. w. Hager and l have just got back
said he. from a nine days trip on the
Fraser river, British Columbia, looking for
a mine of molybdenite, a mineral used in
its raw state in the manufacture of steel,
and worth $500 a ton. We had three Fraser
river Indians with packers, whose
endurance astonished me- One of them,
Chief Jim, was sixty years old. five feet
five inches tall and weighed 100 pounds: his
son Henry, twenty-five years old five feet
nine inches in height, weighed 100 pounds:
the third. Bob, was eighty years old. five
feet eight inches tail and weighed 155
pounds. We had fifty miles to go over an
unbroken trail, through a primeval forest.
from SpuZzum, on the Canadian Pacific
road, up Spuzzum creek, and the Indians
started with seventy-five pounds on each
mans back the old one of sixty carrying
as much as the young one of twenty-five
1t took us four days and half TO get in,
and ii was the hardest going | had ever eX-
perienced up to that time.
Coming back was worse. We had been
delayed two days. and concluded TO take a
short cut across a mountain pass to save
II ng short On the second day had
nothing to eat except beef tea, but that
afternoon one of the Indians killed a fine
deer, weighing two hundred pounds. Every
part of it that could be used was saved
and each Indian added fifty pounds to his
pack making his load about one hundred
| pounds With this weight ON their backs
they went up the mountain. pulling them
selves along by the wire naples where there
was no sign of trail The going was over
rocks and logs and through almost impen-
| ! IL 11- n.AA
top, and We We're going from noon of one
day until I o'clock the next evening. Hard
work? 1t was the worst l ever saw and |
had no load at all. The Indians however
never kicked once, and seemed to like il.
| AT night when We stopped on the noun
| tain side to camp, L was more than ever
astonished to see those Indians eat that
| venison- They built fire of logs piled ten
| feet high, and cut a dozen sticks about
! three feet long, which they spitted the
meat in chunks weighing a couple of
| pounds each These spts were stuck into
the ground around the fire, and as soon as
the meat was cooked an Indian proceeded
| to devour it, They kept this up from Z
| until II. consuming in that time forty-five
| pounds of meat, forty of which was eaten
| by Bob and Henry, the chief being content
| with only five pounds They didn't seem to
| feel any bad effects, either, and ate their
usual breakfasts next morning. 1 may add
that these Indians Were members of the
| Church of England, and always asked
| blessing before eating, and said their pray
erS night and morning.
| During the climb one of the old Indians
| slipped and fell some distance, alighting on
| a stone on his breast with the whole weight
| of his pack on him. He was unconscious
| for half an hour, and when we brought him
| round we tried to get him to throw away
| the extra weight of meat he was carrying
| but he would not, and after pulling himself
| together awhile he went ahead, only giving
| up his gun for me to carry
| Going down the mountain on a fair trail
! took US five hours, and one of the Indians
| told us he could make it in an hour without
| a white man or pack to bother him. and
| l doubted his word. He dropped his pack
| to show me how he went down a mountain
| and for two or three hundred yards the
way he jumped and ran would have made a
| mountain goats hair curl. On the way out
| We came across peculiar natural forma-
| ton in the shape of a pretty lake in a
| mountain pass, situated on the divide The
| lake was several acres in extent and was
| fed by a roaring torrent from the noun
| tain at one side. Its outlets were two
streams one at one end, flowing to the
| north and one at the other end flowing to
| the south. never heard of such a lake
| before. though there may be others
| LAS Tor the mine of molybdenite" con-
| cluded Mr.. Taylor Il will say there wasn't
| any there, nor could we find where il was
| though the specimens we had seen and had
| been told came from there, indicated plainly
| that there was plenty more of the same
| material where the specimens had been
| found. 1t was a hard job of nine days
trampins, all Tor nothing, but that is part
| of a prospector's luck and his business.
Spuzzum creek, far up had never seen a
| white man till Hager and I struck it, and
| had evidently never been fished. for one In
| dian caught speckled trout of the finest
| Kind. d foot or so in length, faster than the
| rest of us could clean them. The water
| was ice cold. and they were the best eating
| l ever stuck tooth into