New Golden Sceptre Minerals and New Goliath Minerals will be voluntarily delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 15, but will continue to be listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Odds ‘n’ Sods The next morning Jim and I accompanied the geologists on an examination of the showings. About twenty samples of five pounds or more were taken and divided into two large canvas bags for us to pack down and put on the horses. It was a tough pack. I weighed less than 130 pounds at that time and had almost half my own weight to carry. By the time I got it down to the horses small windfalls across the trail, which I had hardly noticed on the way up, had become almost insurmountable obstacles.
It was growing late in the day and we had not time to waste if I was to get down to the beach camp before dark and Jim back to the cabin on the claims. We set about to put the load of samples on one of the horses, choosing the brown one which looked the strongest. The other was an old grey mare with one eye.
But the brown horse was also the craftiest. As we fumbled with the lashings it turned its head and looked at us disapprovingly, but little did we know what it had in mind. As soon as I untied its tether it got away from me and took off down the trail lickety-split and the grey one followed when I release d it. I had intended to ride the saddle horse but there was no way I could hold it either. I was left to follow them on foot.
I had not gone far when I came across the two sacks of samples on the trail and then, a bit further on, the blankets and pack saddle. That horse managed to shed everything but the bridle before it had gone a mile. I hurried on, but the shadows deepened under the tall timber until there was not enough light to see the track ahead and I groped my way ahead, tripping and stumbling over roots and rocks.
By the time I reached the ford across the Bedwell it was almost pitch dark. Rather than ford the river, I attempted to pick up the trail to where there was a cabin I had built with a partner two years earlier. I remembered that I had left a bug — a lantern fashioned with a candle in a pail — hanging on the wall inside. I found the cabin and groped around inside until I found the bug, but I couldn’t light it. I was soaked through with sweat and my matches were wet. There was nothing to do but stay there for the night. I had left my sleeping bag for the other men to bring down with them, but I found a part of a roll of tar-paper in a corner of the shack, rolled up in it and stretched out exhausted on the bare boards of the bunk.
The next morning I hiked over to the stables where the packer had caught and corralled the horses. I had breakfast there and got the horses organized for the return trip up the trail to meet my companions and pack out their gear. The packer advised me to ride the saddle horse and lead the others tied on behind nose to tail. I tried that when I reached the ford but evidently the horses were resentful of their treatment the previous trip and would have none of it. The saddle horse and the brown one got away from me and I was left with the old grey mare with one eye.
The geologists had of course expected me to meet them with three horses and were not pleased when I came up with one. But the grey mare was capable of packing all our gear so there was no real problem except they had to hike all the way down the trail and I had to make another trip to pick up the paraphenalia scattered along the way.
At this juncture one of the geologists left for town with the samples. The other man had some work to do at the Buccaneer mine and took Jim up there with him. I was left to organize the horses for the next project which consisted of an examination of some properties at the head of the main valley and an old prospect known as the You mine on a tributary 12 miles inland. My assignment was to pack a load of supplies to a cabin eight miles upstream and from there take a backpack and meet the others at the You mine.
The packer was away when I started out, so I put packs on the same two horses we had used previously and started up the trail with them. I thought I had become quite proficient at putting a pack on a horse by this time, but I had not gone far when the pack on the brown horse shifted and slid around so that it was under its belly with the buckle of the cinch-strap in the middle of its back. The packer told me later that it was a little trick this horse had. It would puff itself up when the cinch was being tightened. The remedy was to bring the knee up sharply under the horse’s belly when tightening the cinch to knock the wind out of it.
All I could do under the circumstances was to release the cinch and let the load fall to the ground. The horse leapt free and headed for the beach leaving me with a pile of goods in the middle of the track. I put what I could on the other horse and left the rest for a second trip that day.
By nightfall I had all the supplies at the 8-mile cabin where I would spend the night. The grey mare was unharnessed and released to go back to the tidal flats at the estuary to graze until needed again. I hung the saddle-blankets on a rope stretched across the front of the cabin to air but they stank so bad I couldn’t stand it and had to move them back into the bush.
The next morning I hiked up the trail with a light pack expecting to arrive at the You mine and join the others that afternoon. But I was unfamiliar with this part of the valley and missed the right trail, winding up at another prospect known as the Casino farther up the main valley. A good camp had been established here the previous year when they had actually been able to take horses right up to it. A large tent on a split-cedar frame remained with all the camp gear in it intact. I had comfortable accommodation for that night.
I was a bit concerned that Jim and the geologist would be anxious about me when I didn’t show up at the You mine as arranged. But when I got there the following day I was told they had had some difficulties themselves and had arrived late the previous night. It seemed they had under-estimated the time it would take them to get there and had started out a bit late in the day so that it got dark while they were on the trail. They were equipped with carbide miner’s lamps charged with the dry chemical but it was a dry season and they were high above the creek so had no water. They had to urinate into the water reservoir of the lamps through the small aperture. The geologist got inhibited and couldn’t do anything so Jim had to service both lamps. He said they were a bit sticky and smelly but worked fine.
There was a large log cabin on the You, which had been built about 1912 when they had attempted to put the property into production with a small mill. The cabin was on a side-hill far above the creek and had taken a list to the down-hill side but was still habitable. We made it our headquarters until the completion of the project.
It was my job to go back down for the horse and pack out from the 8-mile cabin to the beach. This necessitated another overnight stay at the cabin which was actually a big shed with an open front and earth floor. It provided a shelter from the elements but not from any beasts, real or imagined, that might be prowling around in the night. I tethered the old grey mare, which I had selected as being the easiest to get along with, out in front with a long tether so it could browse around for sparse grazing. After preparing a meal and whiling away the evening the best I could, I turned in for the night in my sleeping bag spread on a bunk near the back of the cabin.
At some time during the night I awoke and became aware of a ghostly grey presence hovering over me. It scared the wits out of me until I realized it was literally a “night mare”. The old horse had come into the shack and was standing beside my bunk with its nose only inches above my face.
The following year a truck road of sorts was completed to the two small mines and horses were phased out as a means of transportation at Bedwell River. By 1943, war-time conditions had
ended all activity in the area.
Death Valley Resources has changed its name to DVR Resources Ltd. (DRV:VSE) on a share-for- share basis. Transfer agent is Central Guaranty Trust Company.
Kaphearst Resource Corp. (VSE) has purchased a 100% interest in seven lots (15 claims) in La Trappe Twp., near Lac St Jean, Que., for $21,000 cash and 25,000 common shares of the company. The property hosts the Chabot copper-nickel occurrence and was purchased from Jean La Forest of Mistassini, Que. The property is subject to a 1.5% net smelter royalty.
Claimer Resources has changed its name to Canadian Strategic Holdings Ltd. (CSP:VSE) on a share-for- share basis. Transfer Agent is Royal Trust Company.
Terrace Bay Resources has changed its name to Terrace Bay Industries Ltd. (TBY:VSE) on a share-for-share basis.
Diepdaume Mines, Duncan Gold Resources and The Shield Development Co. have changed their transfer agent to Royal Trust Company.
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