The very severity of the struggle with Nature seemed to make the gold
hunters kindly toward one another. The latch-string was always out,
and the open hand was the order of the day. Distrust was unknown,
and it was no hyperbole for a man to take the last shirt off his back
for a comrade. Most significant of all, perhaps, in this connection,
was the custom of the old days, that when August the first came
around, the prospectors who had failed to locate "pay dirt" were
permitted to go upon the ground of their more fortunate comrades and
take out enough for the next year's grub-stake.
In 1885 rich bar-washing was done on the Stewart River, and in 1886
Cassiar Bar was struck just below the mouth of the Hootalinqua. It
was at this time that the first moderate strike was made on Forty
Mile Creek, so called because it was judged to be that distance below
Fort Reliance of Jack McQuestion fame. A prospector named Williams
started for the outside with dogs and Indians to carry the news, but
suffered such hardship on the summit of Chilcoot that he was carried
dying into the store of Captain John Healy at Dyea.
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