However, I'll admit that after seven or eight years of it I'm poorer than when I started at the game." Blake made a sign of comprehension.

He knew the sanguine nature of the Westerner and his belief in the richness of his country; and he himself had felt the call of the wilderness.

There was, in truth, a fascination in the silent waste that drew the adventurous into its rugged fastnesses; that a number of them did not come back seldom deterred the others.
"We want to get as far north as the timber limit, if we can," Harding said.

"I understand that there are no Hudson Bay factories near our line, but we were told we might find some Stony Indians." "There's one bunch of them," the prospector replied.

"They ramble about after fish and furs, but they've a kind of base-camp where a few generally stop.