HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 415 



ing and estimate showed the ore to be worth 

 nearly three thousand dollars a ton. 



"I'll make some more assays of the stuff and 

 then we'll go back and locate everything in 

 sight," said I to Ned. 



'What's the use of another assay?" he asked. 

 "You can't be more careful than vou were and 

 a few dollars more or less make no difference. 

 What we've got to do is to get back to that gulch 

 quick as we can and put notices around every 

 streak of ore we can find in that country before 

 any one gets suspicious." 



We told Mackenzie and Tim that the silver ran 

 light in the samples, but as they were taken from 

 the surface we wanted to follow the vein two or 

 three feet to see if it didn't improve but we didn't 

 want the other miners to know what we were do- 

 ing. We added John Burnet, a close-mouthed 

 miner-hunter, to our party and prepared for 

 another hunting trip. We started with tent, 

 rods, rifles, and provisions, and with two lightly 

 loaded burros. Mackenzie's cabin was near the 



