THE ROSE MOUNTAINS 277 



several years without success in locating a mining claim, 

 had come up on the Pelly, "to trap and prospect/' as he 

 said. "To trap and prospect!" the final stage in the ca- 

 reer of numerous unsuccessful prospectors in that north- 

 ern country. It means coming to the country full of hope 

 and ambition, lured to endure its hardships by a burn- 

 ing desire of finding the gold where nature has milled it 

 into dust and nuggets, so that the individual miner has 

 only to dig out the gravel and wash it. After a year or 

 two of hard work, in the midst of other men more suc- 

 cessful, the grubstake becomes exhausted before anything 

 is found, but the golden flame burns even brighter than 

 before. The prospector must then build his cabin far 

 off in the woods and trap through the winter in order to 

 secure enough fur to exchange for supplies sufficient to 

 enable him to work his claim during the summer. It 

 may not produce, and then he must try another. Re- 

 peated failures dim the flame and deaden the ambition, 

 and new country is sought where animals may be trapped 

 to exchange for a new grubstake with which to prospect 

 for a new discovery. By this time the man has become 

 accustomed to a life of mere existence and is unfitted 

 for anything else. Still, for some time he calls himself 

 a "trapper and prospector." After this stage, he soon 

 acquires the habit of living entirely alone, which often 

 marks the beginning of hallucinations, sooner or later, 

 usually, developing into insanity. In proportion to the 

 population of white men, there is more insanity in those 

 far northern countries than in any other part of our con- 

 tinent. 



