ock. It dropped to that shelf we had seen from the gully
below. It was too dark to do anything more; we knew the fellows back
at the camp on the ridge would be alarmed, but we were too far to
signal.'

'How far?' I asked.

'About twenty-two miles. We threw ourselves down to sleep. It was
terribly cold. We were high up and the fall frosts were icy, I tell
you! I woke aching at daybreak. Old Sandy was still sleeping. I
thought I would let myself down over the ledge and see what was below,
for there were no mineral signs where we were. I crawled over the
ledge, and by sticking my fingers and toes in the rocks got down to
about fifteen feet from the drop to a soft grassy level. I looked,
hung for a moment, let go, and "lit" on all fours. Then I looked up!
The sun had just come over that east ridge and hit the rocks. I can't
talk {25} about it yet! I went mad! I laughed! I cried! I howled!
There wasn't an ache left in my bones. I forgot that my knees knocked
from weakness and that we had not had a bite for twenty-four hours. I
yelled at Old Sandy to wake the dead. He came crawling over the ledge
and peeked down. "What's the matter?" says he. "Matter," I yelled.
"Wake up, you old son of a gun; we are millionaires!" There, sticking
right out of the rock, was the ledge where "float" had been breaking
and washing for hundreds of years; so you see, only eleven days from
the time we were going to give up, we made our find. That mine paid
from the first load of ore sent out by pack-horses.'

Other mines were found in a less spectacular way. The 'float' lost
itself in a rounded knoll in the lap of a dozen peaks; and the miners
had to decide which of the benches to tunnel. They might have to bring
the stream from miles distant to sluice out the gravel; and the largest
nuggets might not be found till hundreds of feet had been washed out;
but always the 'float,' the pebbles, the specks that shone in the sun,
lured them with promise. Even for those who found no mine the search
was not without reward. There was {26} the care-free outdoor life.
There was the lure of hope edging every sunrise. There was the
fresh-washed ozone fragrant with the resinous exudations of the great
trees of the forest. There was the healing regeneration to body and
soul. Amid the dance-halls and saloons the miner with money becomes a
sot. Out in the wilds he becomes a child of nature, simple and clean
and elemental as the trees