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Show 109 Chapter 10: Crazy Caribou Clyde Prospecting for gold on a six-foot string of hillside had its limitations. In fact, burrowing into a hill was not what any stampeder had in mind when he rushed to the Klondike with his pick, shovel, and gold pan. Like Snorin' Sam had said, the golden hills had been a late discovery, in March 1898. As two cheechakos were dragging firewood down the slopes, they saw gold shining in the furrows behind. They tried to keep it a secret, but as soon as they registered their claim, there was another stampede. There was gold in the hills, all right, but it could not be scooped up in pans as in the streams below. Shafts had to be dug to bedrock in search of the illusive White Channel which many years earlier had been the original stream bed amassing the gold. |