Part 21 (2/2)

Monday le Gulch, as Mr Portney christened it It was a nale of bushes, vines, and h as aelse No one couldto stop to loosen hi moss, and muck under the ion of nats, and black flies, which hovered over their heads like a cloud

”Let us burn the brush first of all,” said the doctor, when at last the ulch was reached ”That will clear the surface and scatter those pests overhead Oh, my!” He broke off short as he went down into a concealed water hole which was several feet deep ”Here's another of the pleasures of hunting gold in Alaska!” and this was said so comically that everybody roared

Axes and knives had been brought along, and soon a large pile of the brush had been cut and piled in a heap and set on fire As it was green, it burnt slowly and raised a large smoke, which made the mosquitoes scatter immediately Froe fire for protection The brush cleared froulch, which was very narrow, they went at the tundra, throwing thetiot down to the sand and gravel of the choked-up watercourse

”Noe'll see if there is anything in this gulch or not,” said the captain, as he scooped up the first panful off the bedrock ”If there isn't, then we've had most all-fired hard work fer nuthin', eh?” And he started in to wash up the sand, gravel, and dirt, while the others looked on in breathless interest

CHAPTER XXIII

GOOD LUCK AND BAD

As the captain wanted to save every grain of gold in the pan, he washed very carefully, and it was fully five minutes before the last of the sand and dirt was disposed of and they could come to a calculation as to the value of the yellowbrightly before their eyes--and there was more than this, too, for some of it was of a blackish color

The others could not believe in the value of this until Foster Portney assured the turned up in the Yukon district

”Half an ounce at least,” was the verdict arrived at by both the captain and Mr Portney; ”and that's eight dollars”

”Then we had better stay, hadn't we?” said Earl

”Why, of course, Earl; you didn't expect to do ets”

”One fellow over to Gold Botto out a hundred dollars to the panful,” put in Randy

”Fairy stories, ht dollars to the pan is ood as I'one very far into this gulch,” put in the doctor ”It may be better further up”

”And it h I'm inclined to think it will be better We had best stake out our claireed to, and before they went back to the tents they had staked out three claiht have taken up a clairound which the party thought of any account Each claiulches, which was an excellent thing, as it would give the The posts firmly planted andover the prospects andout their future work

It was decided to move the tents to a more convenient locality, and a spot was readily found at a point above where the two gulches joined, or rather where the one gulch split into two The transfer to this new home-spot was made the next day by Earl, Randy, and the doctor, Mr

Portney and the captain going back to uncover several other portions of the claiht be

The next as a busy one The camp removed and put into coulch where the pocket had been found, so that all the water h Mosquito Hollow, as the doctor had facetiously dubbed the new diggings,--a name that stuck to it This as done by Randy and Dr Barwaithe, while Earl joined the captain and his uncle in burning down the brush and getting rid of the tundra

Before turning the water from Prosper Gulch into Mosquito Hollow, Foster Portney advised sinking several holes along the latter gulch, that any gold washed along by the floould be caught The captain put these down, and then ca the sand and dirt from the bedrock below As it would have taken all suulch, only the deeper part was attacked and here a runway for the water was made, a foot to two feet wide

The water had just been turned along Mosquito Hollow and washi+ng begun when a party of prospectors fro and espied the claims They at once wished to know the particulars of the find old there, one of theup his stakes below them, while two others went above

Inside of a week after this the Hollow boasted of eight clai up at the Fork, as the miners named the spot where the Portney crowd had located