The Coolidge examiner., 1938-09-29
WNU SERVICE

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we had pledged each other our
friendship" he said. Il knew what
you were when / first looked into
your pinched face. Alan. l knew
you'd stand by. You have. Now I
want you to hear my story"
And so, there, on the shore Of
the Talking, John McCord told Alan
why he had come into the heart Of
Labrador. bringing girl of seven
teen on a strange quest.
The years preceding the World
war had found him living in small
! town in Ontario with a young wife
and a little girl. Occupied as a
timber superintendent for a pulp
and lumber company. he had been
compelled to spend much Of his
time away from home on various
timber limits OF his employers.
Pleasure loving, his wife chafed at
his absences, at his limited means.
Rumors reached him of her actions
in his absence, but he brushed them
aside. BY the time the war broke
out she had left him and Heather
She loved life in the cities and went
and found it. Leaving the child
with his mother. he enlisted and
went over seas.
For two years he served In the
same battalion with a man who had
been a prospector and had talked
much of his wanderings from the
Yukon to Labrador
After Messines Ridge. where he
got the ugly cash on his forehead,
McCord found himself in the same
hospital with his friend. Aleck
Drummond. In Montreal. before the
war, Drummond had met a Hudson's S
Bay man who had once been sta
toned at Fort Chino, at the mouth
of the great Koksoak River which
rises somewhere in the heart of
Labrador and flows north into I'm
gava Bay.
Il see, now, why you asked me
to talk to Dessane about the Kok-
soak and the River of Skulls" in
terrupted Alan.
Wait a minute and you'll under
stand" replied McCord. continuing
his narrative.
The fur man had been told by
some wild Naskapi, who once came
to the post, of branch of the Kok-
soak called the River of Skulls, be-
cause of battle between Koksoak
Eskimos and Naskapi, in which
they had wiped each other complete
ly out Later, then Indians found
the bodies, they were afraid to bury
them because of the moaning of the
spirits of the dead in the gorge
above. So the skulls and bones lay
strewn along the shore and flats.
After this the Indians called il the
River Of Skulls. and the gorge. The
Gorge of the Spirits, Manitou Gorge
That's exactly the same story
Dessane told mel" observed Alan.
Yes, but listen to this" returned
McCord, and went on with his tale.
One year some Naskapi, more
daring than the rest, were camped
on the sand flats that reach long
way below this gorge. spearing carl
bou, for the deer were crossing here
and the Indians overcame their fear
of the spirits to get the deer. They
had built a Are against the roots,
full of clay and gravel, of spruce
that had come downstream and
grounded on the shore. The heat
of the fire softened the blue clay
stuck to the roots and one of the
Indians noticed some small stones,
as he thought, in the clay. He was
fooling with them when he realized
that the small particles were much
too heavy for stones. He scraped of
the clay, and pounding them found
them malleable and dull yellow in
color. These he brought to Chino
and showed to the Hudson's Bay
people. They were nuggets of pure
gold. But none of the company men
could get away to hunt gold in the
interior. 1t was long chance, any
way. This story the Hudson's Bay
man told to Drummond
ITO BE CONTINUED