236 Sport and Life. 



nineteen-twentieths of the entire province, for four shillings an 

 acre ! Men like Vanderbilt and Astor certainly missed a rare 

 chance to make themselves, at the cost of a few of their millions, 

 masters of a realm where the cost of government and the 

 maintenance of law and order would have been defrayed by others. 

 My offer having been accepted by the Government, the years 

 1883 and 1884 would have been busy ones for me, even without 

 any mining interests to look after. When in the early part of 1883 

 I inspected the " Big Ledge," of which perhaps I had in future 

 better speak as the " Blue Bell," which was the name which the 

 principal claim received, for the "Blue Bell murder" made it a 

 notorious spot, I was as much taken with its appearance as were 

 the others. Everywhere one put pick into the i5ft. or 2oft. wide 

 vein, solid chunks of galena could be prised off the mother lode. 

 Of bright, silverlike surface where it had been separated, heavy as 

 were it solid lead, which it almost was, one's imagination, of course, 

 invested this likely-looking ore with a Comstock-like contents of 

 the more precious metal, and one remembered the old yarns about 

 Indians shooting their game and their enemies with bullets of 

 almost pure silver. Silver, it must not be forgotten, had in 1882-3 

 not experienced the great depreciation which has since overtaken 

 it, and was worth almost double what it is to-day. The assays, 

 too, for some mysterious reason, ran to higher figures than was 

 warranted, probably in consequence of my having unwittingly picked 

 specially rich pieces. Quarrels out West come rather more quickly 

 to a head than they would in a civilised community, and the two 

 camps on the Blue Bell Claim, within rifle shot of each other, soon 

 had about them somewhat warlike features. Winchesters and 

 six-shooters were a good deal in evidence, and had the incident 

 occurred on American territory some "gun play," it is safe to say, 

 would have speedily occurred. 



The remoteness of the spot from Victoria caused the pre- 

 liminaries of the pending lawsuit concerning the title to the 

 mines to consume the best part of the summer. This in spite of 

 my personal efforts in Victoria, whither I had hastened after my 



