Perseverance Island; Or, The Robinson Crusoe of the Nineteenth Century

by Douglas Frazar

  CHAPTER XXVII.

  Discovery of gold. Turn the stream out of the lake, and build portable engine to separate the gold.

  I started with the canoe to the mouth of Stillwater Cove, having firstattended to my numerous flocks, and put on board two of my best guns,with some lead bullets and shot, and provisions for some time, andalso carrying with me my two inseparable friends, the pet goats. WhenI arrived, at the mouth of the cove, I entered the concealed harbor,and got out the steam yacht and commenced putting her in order. Isoon had a fire built under the boilers, and in an hour's time wasall ready to set out. Leaving the canoe behind me, I pushed out ofthe cove into Perseverance Bay, and made my way to the west about forMirror Bay. I arrived safely and in good season, and landed to examinemy treasure-ground, and found the grass growing over it nicely, and itseemed well concealed. Going on board again, I pointed the yacht up theriver towards the lake. I had heretofore always stopped before reachingthe latter, for fear of striking the bottom on account of shoal water,but I now made up my mind to proceed in a cautious manner into thelake itself, if possible. I thought that there was water enough ifI could keep clear of any boulders or rocks that might possibly beconcealed beneath the water. The yacht did not draw over three feet,and I felt confident that she could carry that draft to the lake if shecould be kept clear from any unknown obstructions. So I steamed alongvery carefully and slowly, and often left the helm to rush forward andlook over the bows, and, oftener yet, stopped the boat completely andexamined ahead before proceeding. In this manner I advanced towards thelake slowly but surely, taking land marks as I went on to enable meto return without injuring my craft by running her upon any submergeddanger. At last the lake opened before me, and with a few careful turnsof the propeller, I soon floated upon its surface safe and sound.The moment the yacht came in sight, numbers of swans and other fowlcommenced to rise from different parts of the lake, and take theirdeparture to more quiet and distant places. I knew, however, that I hadnot disturbed them greatly, and that they would return during the day,flock after flock. I kept on across the lake to the mouth of a littlebrook pouring into it, not over fifteen feet wide, and, entering this,I ran on for about a hundred yards, till the water commenced to shoaland to be filled with numerous rocks. Here I moored the yacht carefullyto the bank and went on shore. I had no occasion to build any fire orerect any habitation. The steam yacht served me for home, kitchen,bedroom, and parlor, and I had on board of her everything that possiblycould be asked for. Tethering out my two pet goats, I took with metwo of my guns and quite a lot of ammunition, and the small landingskiff, and made my way back again to the lake. I carried with me alsosome twelve or fifteen nice decoy ducks, that I had made of wood anddyed with black and red colors, similar to the ducks that frequentedthe lake. These I anchored at an easy gunshot from the shore, and then,landing, took out my guns and ammunition, which I carefully placed onthe sand, and, shouldering the boat, carried it into the bushes nearby and concealed it carefully. I then went to work with a hatchet andcut down some of the small cedar and fir trees with which the back partof the shore of sand was lined, and soon had them driven into the sandnear the edge of the water, and converted into a blind, from which Icould shoot into the flocks of ducks and geese that might come to mydecoys without being seen by them. Even whilst I was at work, severalflocks were almost willing to alight, hovering over my decoys, butfinally departing as they saw me at work. When I had everything to suitme, I retired into my blind and waited for a chance for a good shot. Iused to shoot well with a percussion gun in younger days, but I had toolittle lead now, and too little practice, to try and kill these birdson the wing with a flint-lock gun, and my only chance was to wait tilla whole flock settled down, when I intended, by a discharge of one gunwhilst they were in the water, and another as they arose, to get asmany as possible; and that it may not be thought that I must have hada great stomach for ducks, I would say that I intended to pick andpreserve these birds in saltpetre and salt, to use during the winterseasons, and to make of their feathers a nice soft mattress.

  I had not long to wait before a small flock settled to my decoys, and,after sailing about a little, became disgusted and made off before Icould fire. But after them came a larger lot that settled boldly down,and as I had found out that they would not long remain ignorant of thecheats that had enticed them, I let drive at once into their midstwith one gun, and gave them the other as they rose to fly away. As theresult of my fire, I counted eleven large ducks dead upon the water andthree badly wounded, which I soon despatched by hastening to the shorewith my light landing boat and killing them with a boat-hook, and,picking up my dead, brought onto the shore fourteen nice fat ducks. Ithen drew up my boat and waited for more shots, but the discharge hadmade the others somewhat wary; but finally my patience was rewardedwith two other good shots during the day, in which I bagged three geeseand seven more ducks. With this game I made my way back to the yacht,highly pleased with my day's sport. I had noticed, both to-day and inmy former trips to the lake, that the species of duck that I had shotwere divers, and seemed to get their food by seeking at the bottom ofthe lake for it, and particularly at this place where the spring waterpoured into it from this brook or inlet, which evidently arose in amountain back of me, and, fed by springs, enlarged so as to pour intothe lake quite a volume of pure water. As I had to name everything uponthe island, I called this brook Singing Water Brook, on account of thelow musical murmur that was wafted to my ears from the miniature fallsand rocks over which it bounded, gurgled, and found its way, furtherin the interior, where, from the sound, it evidently was more rapid inits descent from higher ground, but distant enough not to be noisy, butmusical, in its progress towards the lake.

  I first went to work and picked my whole twenty-one ducks and the threegeese, carefully saving all the feathers. I then proceeded to open thempreparatory to salting them away in casks which were on board of theyacht, that I had brought for that purpose. I had opened and dressed, Ishould think, some five or six, when I became curious to know what foodthey fed upon, and to know if it was to obtain it that they kept divingbelow the surface. To settle this problem I grasped with my left handthe gizzard of the duck that I had just dressed, and, observing that itwas well inflated, I drew my knife across it to expose its contents. Itseemed to contain the usual amount of sand and gravel, and a sort ofsemi-digested food that I was unable to determine as to whether it wasfish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring. As I was picking the mass topieces with my hands, I laid open to view quite a large pebble, fullyas large as a pea, that was as yellow as gold. I pounced upon it, for Ihad seen too much virgin gold in California and Australia not to knowit. I had it not one moment in my hand before my sight and its weightconvinced me that it was indeed, in verity, a pure golden nugget.

  Could it be possible? I had heard before of gold being taken from thecrops of chickens bought in Siam and on the coasts of Africa, but Inever before had credited the stories; but here before my eyes, inall its unmistakable purity, lay a piece of virgin gold. Then it wasthis that my ducks were gathering with their other food, mistaking itprobably for some kind of grain. To work, therefore, I went upon all ofthe gizzards of my slain, and my search was rewarded by the finding ofseven pieces more, two much larger than the first specimen obtained,fully as large as beans, and the others much smaller. When I had buriedmy treasure, I had kept out, to have on hand at the Hermitage, severalof the ingots of gold and two or three of the bars of silver; why,I do not know, but it was human to have a little amount of gold andsilver near at hand,--for what I cannot say; but it was natural, andprobably arose from former education and habit. I was not yet perfectlycontent with the evidences of my senses or the malleability of themetal before me, which I tested by beating one of the pieces with ahammer; but before I would wholly give myself up to the belief that mydiscovery was really gold, I intended to make a certain and positivetest. Stories ran through my head of vessels in olden times, which madevoyages to the East Indies, returning home with what t
hey consideredgold ore in ballast, which only turned out upon arrival to be simplymica or silica. Whalers also, as I had heard, had given up wholevoyages and filled their casks in different parts of the world withworthless earth, thinking that they had become possessed of the wealthof the universe. I was not to be deceived in this manner. I determined,as I have said, to make a final and complete test before I gave myselfup to the excitement that would undoubtedly attend my magnificentdiscovery, if true. For this purpose I left all my ducks and geese,except two for cooking purposes, and made my way as rapidly as possibleback to the steam yacht, and, although it was nearly sunset, got underway and started back to the Hermitage with my precious pebbles ornuggets with me. I arrived safely by the aid of a magnificent moon,and ran into Stillwater Cove and up to the Hermitage, when I mooredthe yacht and went on shore and into my bed; but a restless night Imade of it, and early morning saw me at work in the foundry at myproposed test. In the first place I went to work and made a nice pairof balances of steel, with little pans on each side to contain thesubstance to be weighed. I then went to work and made a mould of iron,by boring out a small oval hole with my steel drills in the face of twopieces of steel, which I hinged together exactly like a bullet mould,only much smaller.

  After having everything arranged I set to work and smelted a portionof one of my golden ingots, and whilst in this fused state I mouldedseveral golden bullets in my mould, some ten or twelve in number. Ithen put the remainder of the gold away, cleaned out the crucibleperfectly, and put my nuggets in it and smelted them, and with themmade also eleven impressions of my mould in the shape of bullets. Ikept these far from the others, so as not to get things mixed. I thenplaced one of the true bullets of gold in one pan of the balance, andadded small clippings of iron in the other pan, till it was exactlybalanced. I then took it out and replaced it by one of the bullets madefrom the metal I had found. The problem was solved,--they were exactlyof a weight, or, rather, so nearly so that a minute atom of iron dustadded to the pan preserved the balance, for my metal bullet, proved bythe very slightest degree to be the heavier. Yes, this was gold,--goldbeyond peradventure; but, to satisfy my mind, I weighed and weighedthem by one and by twos, and by fours and by fives; always with thesame result, scarcely a hair's breadth between them. Practically, theywere exact. I knew that no other metal could approach gold in weightso as to deceive me beyond this test. I was living on an island thatwas a vast gold mine, or at least contained it in large quantities;for it would be impossible for me to have found seven nuggets in a fewducks unless the bottom of the lake was strewed with them at or nearthe mouth of Singing Water Brook, which must have poured them into thelake for ages, carrying them along from their first resting-place, themountain, to the westward from which it took its rise. Convinced thatmy discovery was real and true, I gave myself up to all manner of daydreams, and it was a week before I made up my mind to return to thelake and explore further. At times I gave up the idea of gatheringany of this gold that I now knew lay at the bottom of the lake, andat others the desire to be possessed of it all swayed me also. But,finally, dreaming gave way to my natural temperament, and I made allpreparations possible to secure my prize. Should I pen in a portion ofthe lake opposite the mouth of Singing Water Brook, turn the latteraside, lay bare the bottom of the lake and sift and examine the sand?Alas, this would take great time and pains, and I was afraid also thatthe water would be forced back, after I had pumped it out, thoughthe sand of which the bottom was formed. Should I lower the outletof the lake so as to draw off the water in a degree? This was notvery feasible, as it was already quite deep, and it would take greattime and application to deepen it enough to draw off the water of thelake to any extent. No, I had another plan than this, which I finallydecided upon, and that was to use the submarine boat. Having fixedupon the means, I hastened to put them into execution. I made all mypreparations, and, taking the submarine boat in tow of the steam yacht,made my way back to Mirror Lake. I had some trouble in getting theformer into the lake, but finally succeeded after considerable labor. Ihad provided myself with some utensils, to pan out the sand with, andalso a rocker, that I had built to be placed on shore, and worked by abelt from a driving-wheel of the steam engine of the yacht, which I hadattached to it for that purpose only, intending to use it by anchoringthe yacht, disconnecting the propeller gear, and leading the belt fromthe rocker on shore to the engine room of the yacht, and thence to thedriving-wheel attached. Let it suffice to say here that during my longstay at Mirror Lake I made weekly trips to the Hermitage and attendedto my flocks, but gave up all idea of making butter, and only brought afew of my female goats to this side to give me milk.

  Having gotten the submarine boat into the lake, I made a descent init and examined the bottom. It was almost wholly of pure sand. Thewater varied from a depth of a few feet near the margin to about threefathoms near the centre. I saw several kinds of fish but none of largesize. Having made this examination, I commenced upon the work before meof finding the gold. I went quite near to the mouth of Singing WaterBrook, and descended and filled the tops of the tanks with sand fromthe bottom, failing to find any nuggets with the eye; but I afterwardsfound several in different trips, but never many or of very large size.Having loaded the boat, I arose to the surface, and beached her nearthe mouth of the brook, and landed my sand in baskets upon the shore. Ithen went to work with the pan and washed it in the mouth of the brook,and as the result of this one trip gathered together more gold-dustand small nuggets than I could hold in one hand. This was placer miningwith a vengeance, the cream of all mining while it lasts. But I feltthat I was going back-handed to work; so the next day, instead ofcoming on shore with my sand, I took the pan into the submarine boat,and as I pulled it up with a sort of long-handled shovel, washed itthen and there in the water of the lake inside the submarine boat;but this again was, during a long day, tiring to my brain, as I hadto keep renewing the air by rowing the boat ashore, for it was tooshallow to use the air-boat, and I had long ago given up the idea ofusing the spray-wheel except in case of actual necessity, the air-boatsuperseding it.

  Here I was in the ninth year of my captivity, working hard in my owngold-field. I worked nearly six months of this year, at all sparemoments, in this manner, occasionally shovelling sand into the rockeron shore, which I procured from the edges of the lake near the mouth ofthe brook, just under water, and extracting the gold-dust by means ofa belt from the steam yacht. I was quite successful with this methodalso, but the largest quantity of the dust had evidently been for agesswept into the lake opposite the mouth of Singing Water Brook. I alsoascended the brook several times during these months, till it led meto a mountain of some eminence, where it ended in little branches thattumbled down its side.

  I got "signs" of gold often,--in fact almost always at the eddies ofthis brook, and even in its branches,--but never in as large quantitiesas in the sand at the mouth, although I obtained one very large nuggetin the sands of a quiet pool fully half a mile from the lake. I alsoascertained that the mountain was composed mostly of quartz,--whichminers term the mother of gold,--and all the little pebbles that Ipicked up in the running brooks were of this description, several ofthem being prettily marked with little veins of gold. There was nodoubt whence the gold came; it had been pouring down from this mountainside in these small trickling streams for centuries, veining the piecesof quartz that contained it till the latter, by friction and water,deposited itself in the shape of sand, and the released gold as dustor nuggets, at the mouth of the brook, having been, perhaps, centuriesmaking the descent from the mountain side to the lake, a distanceperhaps of one mile. I knew perfectly well that the mountain containedthe inexhaustible mine from which this precious dust escaped, but Ialso knew that without quicksilver it was beyond my reach to gather it.For in quartz-mining I should need iron stamps, fuel, steam-engine,amalgamator, rocking-table, etc., all of which I could supply, perhaps,except the quicksilver; but this troubled me very little, for I knewthat there was more gold at the mouth of th
e lake than I could gatherin perhaps a lifetime, unless I could invent some way to come at itmore convenient than the ways that I was now employing. I had often,at the end of a day's work, at this time, nearly as much gold-dust as Icould hold in my two hands, much more than one handful, and in value,of which I could only guess, at least $200 to $250. After getting quitea quantity together,--say a week's work,--I used to transport it to theHermitage, take it to the workshop, smelt it, and preserve the buttonby burying it within the enclosure of the Hermitage.

  I had at the end of some six months become greedy and was not satisfiedwith my daily gains, but longed to extend my operations. During thesemonths I had not been idle, but had studied upon the problem of how toget at the bottom of the lake. I was thinking about this one day, whennearly half-way between the lake and the mountain side, passing thebrook once in a while and looking into its waters for quartz-pebblesmarked with gold. At once it struck me, why not turn the brook fromthe lake towards the sea, in a new direction. I struck my head withmy fist to think what a fool I had been for so many months; why,here, even where I stood, was a natural valley on my left, that wouldconvey the water to the sea. I dashed down my pan and worked my wayseaward. Why here was even a little mountain brook already tending inthat direction, and, following it about two miles, I saw it pierce thesand of the seaside, at least two feet wide, and discharge its tinycurrent into the ocean. I was crazy with excitement. I dashed backagain to the point where I had left my pan, and, picking it up, madefor the lake. When I arrived, I went to the inlet and examined it.I felt that I had the whole matter under my thumb, and without muchlabor, too; for if I should turn the direction of Singing Water Brookso that it would not pour into Mirror Lake, the latter at its outletwould be exactly as low as the bottom, over which a rapid current wasnow flowing, but which would, by this process, be in one sense broughtto the surface; and, as it appeared, I could work upon it, and cut itdown, and as I cut it down so would the lake be drawn off, till, if cutlittle by little, a passage-way which I could timber up to the depthof eighteen feet, all the water of the lake would be drawn off, andthe whole bottom exposed to my view, and the golden accumulation ofuntold ages beneath my feet to pick and choose from. It was feasible,fool that I was, not to have thought of it before. The very next day,armed with axes, tools, and shovels, which I had to make two trips toconvey, I found myself at the place on the brook where the naturalvalley leading towards the sea seemed to meet it, and where a littlefurther on to the seaward I had found the miniature brook, tricklingits way to the southward. At the point that I commenced work the brookwas not over ten or twelve feet wide, rapid to be sure, but with not avery great descent just at this point. I commenced in the first placeby cutting and opening on its southerly bank, towards the sea and intothe valley. I did not cut the bank away so as to let the water inyet to its new channel, but worked a little distance from it. For twowhole weeks I dug at this, making a good bed for the brook to rushinto in its new passage that I intended to give it to the sea. Havingthis to suit me, I commenced cutting down trees to fall across thebrook as it now ran, and these I filled in with pebbles and stones.It was hard work, but at the end of three weeks I had made such a damacross the original brook that I opened the passage for the water intothe new one, and kept on strengthening the former till all the waterin a day or two bounded down its new course to the sea as if it hadalways run in that direction. I restrained my curiosity, however, tolook for gold in the now dried up bed of the brook, but felled moretrees, and put in more stones, and banked up with more earth, till Ifelt convinced that even in a storm the brook would no longer seek anoutlet in the direction of the lake over such a barrier, and with thebed of its new course so well dug out by itself even now, helped asit had been by my labor of two weeks, before allowing it to seek it.Finally I felt my work complete, and, breaking up my camp that I hadso long made in the woods, I went back to the lake, looking once ina while into the now empty brook. I should have said that of course,before I undertook this work, I had taken the yacht and submarine boatout of the way,--the submarine boat to its old resting-place at StillWater Cove, and the yacht at anchor in Mirror Bay near the shore. Ihad been living a hard, rude life in the woods, and had only come outonce to go to the Hermitage for food and to attend to my flocks; and Ihurried down now to look at the lake, which I knew would be lowered toexactly the former depth of the water at the outlet, some four or fivefeet. As I came in view of it I saw at once the effects of my work; itlooked already woefully shrunken and belittled, but I did not stop tolook at it, or for nuggets either. I felt convinced that I had passedmany in the bed of the deserted brook, but at present I was intent uponmy work of changing the face of nature. In two trips I had all my trapsand tools conveyed to the outlet, and it was here that I established mynew camp. I had to go to the saw-mill and get some plank, and by theaid of the goats and wagon finally, after bringing them around in theyacht, got them to the outlet where I needed them. I commenced diggingin its bed, and the water soon began to pour out, as I did not have todig a great distance, as the decline was quite sharp. I found that Ishould not need my boards till I had gotten considerably down, if eventhen, for my work consisted only in shovelling the bed of the latestream out upon each side and in making a channel lower than the waterstill remaining in the lake. Suffice it to say that in three months Ihad the lake drawn off, so as to expose a very large margin of the latebottom. It would take too long to relate how I travelled over theseexposed sands and the deserted bed of Singing Water Brook; it will besufficient to say that my findings were immense, and in the bed of thebrook I found several nuggets in what had before been eddies, weighingas high as two or three pounds, as near as I could judge. I soon,however, got tired of tramping over the sand to try and find nuggets bythe eye, and arranged to go to work in a more thorough and satisfactorymanner. To do this, I left my gold-fields for several months, andwent to work at my forge to turn out a portable steam-engine, witha rocker or sand-washer attached. When this was finished I took it,in pieces, to the bed of the lake and erected it on wheels. It wasarranged with sections of pipe and hose so as to be placed near thesand that was to be washed, and the water pumped for that purpose fromthat still remaining in the lake, and which I had left for this verypurpose, intending to draw it off and expose more bottom by openingthe outlet whenever I should have been over the sands now exposed toview. It was well also that I should have had to make this engine, forthe fishes contained in the lake had commenced to die, and the air wasimpregnated with their effluvia, and the surface was covered with theirdead bodies. When I got to work with my rocker and engine it seemed asif the sands were inexhaustible. I often gathered, as far as I couldjudge, in one day's work, the sum of at least $500, and some days Imust have gathered hard upon $1,000, not to mention the nuggets largeenough to pick up with my hand, that I was continually coming upon.But at last I got absolutely tired of gathering this golden harvest,and abandoned it for other occupations, having already more than Iknew what to do with, and of not one dollar's value to me unless Icould escape or be rescued. After my fierce excitement was over in thisdirection, I returned to the old problem of escape.