con, we were off for the sluice-boxes laden with the precious
metal.

As we walked along, the Captain told me that the geological formation
was something wonderful in that region, but with my lifetime of
experience I could see no reason for placer gold in the mountains. The
decomposed mountains showed considerable erosion but the rocks seemed
entirely devoid of granite or quartz, and there was no volcanic action
to be seen. There was considerable iron and sandstone, but no sign
whatever of gravel wash. The small particles of gold had surely been
deposited by some glacial wash from the north in the early formation of
the earth.

Soon we reached the cut where the Captain had done some wonderful work
in the shale rock. Where a large spring came out of the ground he had
piled the rock ten feet high on either side, and his dump where he had
piled tons of dirt was in splendid shape. Here was a notice framed in
the miner's style describing the veins, lodes, dips and spurs, running
fifteen hundred feet to the north-west and south-east, corner posts,
etc.

The sluice-boxes were soon cleaned and the sand and gravel reduced until
we could almost see the bottom of the pan--but no gold. After the entire
contents was retorted with quicksilver and burned out there was not
twenty-five cents worth of gold. The Captain assured me that his partner
had taken several ounces out of the claim and had sent it to the assay
office for melting and refining.

I said, "Captain, you are an old man and should go to the settlements
and enjoy the remainder of your life." He replied, "There is no place on
this earth so dear to me as these mountains. Here is where I have lived
and here is where I shall die--close to the nature god and his
beautiful works, among the flowers and birds of summer and the storms
and evergreens of winter."

It was enough. I caught the inspiration and could have remained with him
had I been so unconventional. But life held something dearer and I was
soon headed toward the cabin.

"Well, Captain," I said, "you will never find gold in these mountains,
but if you love the crags, and the wild winds and the deer, nature in
all its purity, the bursting of the buds in springtime, the flowers on a
thousand hills, the cold pure water, the frisking squirrels, the pure
air; then stay in the home of the miner, the prospector, the hunter and
the nature lover, until you cross the great divide which is allotted to
all men."

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