252 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



low workman took the trip. Landing at Ashcrof t, they 

 have labored in this province ever since. 



There was a gold-mining operation away up in the 

 north, the road to it being over a trail four hundred 

 miles north of Quesnelle on the Frazer River. Some 

 parts of machinery were needed to equip a sawmill, so 

 as to commence sawing wood in the early spring, and 

 this lad, with six others, was hired to haul the much- 

 wanted machinery upon hand sleds. 



Each man had to pull a load of 150 pounds outside of 

 his own kit and provisions the total load being close 

 to 200 pounds each. The freight weighed a total of 

 1,050 pounds. It was found best to start each day's 

 work at two o'clock in the morning, for then the crust 

 on the snow was hard and glistening, but by that 

 same hour in the afternoon the snow was so soft 

 as to make it impracticable to travel over it. They, of 

 course, traveled on snow-shoes and, as seventeen men 

 were on the trail ahead of them bound for the same 

 mine, their path was well marked and easily kept. The 

 man who contracted to deliver the freight was paid 

 1.60 per pound, or a total of $1,680, and he made some 

 good money upon the contract. 



The start was made on the morning of March 13th 

 and the trip ended on the same day in the month of 

 April. Thirty-one days of walking and dragging a sled 

 heavily weighted for four hundred miles was no mean 

 achievement in that space of time. 



