Arizona republican., 1899-11-23
ENDURANCE OF INDIANS.
Hardships- of a Prospecting Party
Which Tested Their Mettle

| a lot OF prOspectCrS among the noun
tains CT Alaska and the northwest were
talking about the hard work of the trail
and the varying values of men and dogs
and mules as conyeyors of supplies.
when Mr. Gibson Taylor. lawyer and
prospector OF Seattle. got the floor
a ". Hager and l have just got
back" said ne. from a nine days trip
on the Fraser river. British Columbia.
looking for mine OF nolybdenlte. a
mineral used in it's raw state in the
manufactur of steel. and worth $500
ton. We had three Fraser river In
dams with us as packers, whose endur-
ance astOnished me. One of them. Chief
Jim, was sixty years old. five feet five
inches tall and weighed 12O pounds; his
son Henry. twenty-five years old. five
feet nine inches in height, weighed $50
pounds: the third. Bob. was eighty
years old. five feet eight inches tall and
weighed 1855 pounds. We had fifty miles
to so over an unbroken trail, through
primeval forest, from Spuzzum. on the
Canadian Pacific road, up SpuzzunI
creek. and the Indians started with
seventy-fve pounds on each mans
back, the old one OF sixty carrying as
much as the young enc of twenty five.
1t took US four days and a half to get
in. and it was the hardest going 1 had
ever experienced 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 time and distance. as pro-
visions were running short On the
second day we had nothing to eat ex-
cept 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, pull
ing themselves along by the wire
naples where there was no sign of a
trail. The going was over rocks and
logs and through almost impentrable
thickets. II was 10000 feet to the top,
and We were going from noon of one
day until o'clock the next evening.
Hard work? 1t was the worst I ever
saw. and 1 had no load at all. The In
dams. however, never kicked, and
seemed to like it.
AT night when we stopped on the
mountain side 70 camp. was more than
ever astonished to see those Indians eat
that venison. They built a fire of logs.
piled ten feet high. and cut q dozen
sticks about three feet long. on which
they spitted the meat in chunks weigh
ing q couple Of pounds each. These
splits were stuck into the ground around
the fire. and as soon rs the meat was
cooked an Indian proceeded to devour
it. They kept this up from : until Il,
consuming in that time fOrty-fiVe
pounds Of meat. forty of which was
eaten by Bob and Henry. the chief be
ing content with only five pounds. They
didn't seem % feel any bad effects,
either. and ate their usual breakfast
next morning. I may add that these
Indians We're members Of the Church Of
England. and always asked a blessing
before eating. and said their prayers
night and morning.
During the climb one of the old In
dams slipped and fell some distance.
ahghting 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 set him to throw away the ex-
but he would not. and after pulling
himself together awhile ne went ahead.
only giving up his gun for me to carry.
Going down the mountain on fair
trail took US five hours, and one of the
Indians told us he could make il in an
hour without a white man or a pack to
bother him. and I doubted his word. He
dropped his pack to show me now he
went down 4 mountain, and for two or
three hundred yards the way he jumped
ana ran would have made a mountain
goats hair curl. On the way out we
came across a peculiar natural forma-
lion in the shape of 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 mountain on one side. Its outlets
were two streams. one at one end. flow
ing to the north and one at the other
end flowing to the south. 1 never heard
of such d lake before. though there may
be others.
AS for the mine Of molybdenite,
continued Mr.. Taylor, Il will say there
wasn't any there. nor could We find
where it 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
Il hard job of nine days tramping, all
for nothing, but that is part of a pros
pectOr'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 of
the Indians caught speckIed trout of
the finest kind, Il 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 a
tooth intO.-NeW York Sun
THANKSGIVING 1895: