to try some one or the other of these "side-doors." The
movement overland seemed about to surpass the wonderful
transcontinental march of miners in '49 and '50, and those who loved
the trail for its own sake and were eager to explore an unknown
country hesitated only between the two trails which were entirely
overland. One of these led from Edmonton to the head-waters of the
Pelly, the other started from the Canadian Pacific Railway at
Ashcroft and made its tortuous way northward between the great
glacial coast range on the left and the lateral spurs of the
Continental Divide on the east.

The promoters of each of these routes spoke of the beautiful valleys
to be crossed, of the lovely streams filled with fish, of the game
and fruit. Each was called "the poor man's route," because with a few
ponies and a gun the prospector could traverse the entire distance
during the summer, "arriving on the banks of the Yukon, not merely
browned and hearty, but a veteran of the trail."

It was pointed out also that the Ashcroft Route led directly across
several great gold districts and that the adventurer could combine
business and pleasure on the trip by examining the Ominica country,
the Kisgagash Mountains, the Peace River, and the upper waters of the
Stikeen. These places were all spoken of as if they were close
beside the trail and easy of access, and the prediction was freely
made that a flood of men would sweep up this valley such as had never
been known in the history of goldseeking.

As the winter wore on this prediction seemed about to be realized. In
every town in the West, in every factory in the East, men were
organizing parties of exploration. Grub stakers by the hundred were
outfitted, a vast army was ready to march in the early spring, when a
new interest suddenly appeared--a new army sprang into being.

Against the greed for gold arose the lust of battle. WAR came to
change the current of popular interest. The newspapers called home
their reporters in the North and sent them into the South, the Dakota
cow-boys just ready to join the ranks of the goldseekers entered the
army of the United States, finding in its Southern campaigns an
outlet to their undying passion for adventure; while the factory
hands who had organized themselves into a goldseeking company turned
themselves into a squad of military volunteers. For the time the gold
of the North was forgotten in the war of the South.

II

However, there we