From there they descended to Smith's Portage, on
the Great Slave River, and wintered at Fort Resolution, on
Great Slave Lake.
In the following spring they were joined by Mr. McKinlay, the
Hudson's Bay Company's agent at the Portage, and he, accompanied
by Messrs. Holroyd and Holt, who had joined the party at Smith's
Landing, and by Mr. Simpson, went off on a prospecting tour through
the north-east portion of Great Slave Lake, staking, _en route_, a
number of claims, some of which were valuable, others worthless. The
untruthful statements, however, of one of the party, who represented
even the worst of the claims as of fabulous value, brought the
whole enterprise into disrepute. The members of the party mentioned
returned to England ostensibly to raise capital to develop their
claims, but nothing came of it, not because minerals of great
value do not exist there, but on account of remoteness and the
difficulties of transport.
In 1898 another party was formed in Chicago, called "The Yukon
Valley Prospecting and Mining Company," its chief promoters being
a Mr. Willis and a Mr. Wollums of that city. The capital stock was
put at a quarter of a million dollars, twenty-five thousand dollars
being paid up. These organizers interested thirty-three other men in
the enterprise, the agreement being that these should go to Dawson
at the expense of the stockholders, and locate mining claims there,
a half-interest in all of which was to be transferred to the
company.
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