234 Sport and Life. 



To make a long story short, Sprowle and his companions were 

 not the only party of prospectors on the look-out for mines on 

 Kootenay Lake in 1882. A rich capitalist from San Frisco, 

 Captain Ainsworth, the founder of the Oregon Navigation Co., 

 had sent a trustworthy prospector named Thomas Hammil to 

 Kootenay Lake. Hammil's outfit was better prepared than 

 Sprowle's to take speedy advantage of any discovery the party 

 might make. He had a number of men with him, and as 

 Ainsworth was at that time proposing to undertake a large 

 railway scheme in the Kootenay country, Hammil, who was a 

 pleasant mannered young Cornishman, had the command of all 

 the money he required. Hammil and his party struck the Big 

 Ledge very soon after Sprowle reached it, and, as the trial proved, 

 both parties were guilty of some sharp work in the way of 

 staking out claims on the ledge. Hammil had somehow managed 

 to induce the Wildhorse Gold Commissioner to visit Kootenay Lake 

 with him it was the official's first visit and he thus secured 

 priority on the register. This alone did not make good Hammil's 

 title, priority in the posting of the notices on the ground itself 

 being the important act. As a result of all this Sprowle saw 

 himself face to face w r ith a legal fight, in which he feared that he, 

 as a poor man, was bound to be the loser in the end. As a wise 

 man, Sprowle recognised the importance of interesting others in 

 his cause, and through an acquaintance he heard of a United States 

 Government official in Helena, to whom he offered a substantial 

 interest in the claims provided he helped him to fight the battle 

 against the Ainsworth party. This was in the winter of 1882, and 

 hearing from the Helena man the particulars, I accepted his proposal 

 to join the enterprise if .on a personal inspection of the claims I 

 found the details to be correct. 



One reason that tempted me to 'go in for this adventure was 

 the fact that I had commenced negotiations with the Government 

 of British Columbia with the object of obtaining a concession 

 for an extensive tract of land lying between the boundary line 

 and Kootenay Lake. This land, some 48,000 acres in extent, 



