TEN DAYS WAITING. 145 



in the year 1893, in the course of which the 

 most terrible hardships were cheerfully en- 

 countered and overcome. 



On discussing the prospects of our hunt I 

 found that it had been decided to try and reach 

 the country near the headwaters of the Mac- 

 millan River, rather than follow the course of 

 the Stewart, as the latter river had been a good 

 deal travelled over during the last two years by 

 prospectors, traders and trappers, whilst the 

 former district was said never to have been 

 hunted at all. 



A small flat-bottomed stern-wheeled river 



steamer had been chartered to take our party 



as far as possible up the Macmillan, but as 



neither the boat nor any of the party except 



myself could be ready to leave Dawson before 



the 18th or 20th of Augnist, I found that I 



had ten days of weary waiting to look forward 



to. I spent one day pleasantly enough in a 



visit to the famous Bonanza creek, a tributary 



of the Klondyke River, where the rich deposits 



of gold which caused the great rush of 1897 



were first discovered. I gathered that most of 



10 



