Aug 30. Coyotes howling all night round a dead horse not far from camp. Up early this morning & as soon as all could be packed up & prepared whole party set off Eastward. Rode on with Ashe to see some fossiliferous rocks he had found & also the seam of coal on the St. Mary R.. Party stopped for lunch at St. Mary R. Afternoon went on to small lake & camped. Rode N. with Crompton a couple of miles to see some exposures further down the St. Mary R.

Two of the teamsters Neil Campbell & Armstrong leave here having got their discharge to go prospecting in the mountains with ìBarney Hughesî an old miner. It appears he got some good indications near the N. Kootenie Pass on the W. side of the Mountains & now wishes to go back & investigate more fully. Barney is famous as a prospector having I am told discovered the 'Virginia City diggings in Montana. He was with a party of 13 when the indians came down on them & took all their horses except two. They then set out to return to some settlement, but when halted one day at noon Barney took a pan & began washing in a little brook & soon struck $4.50 per pan.'

The traders now camped a mile or two N of the line. One of them told me that they had got over 8000 robes last season. They have plenty good horses & lend them to 'young fancy