Prospectors Return From the Wild Olympics

A party of three, consisting of Messrs. Waymire, Kellogg, and another gentleman whose name we have been unable to learn, arrived at this place last week from an excursion to the Coast Range, whither they had gone for the purpose of prospecting for gold. The party has spent some six weeks in the mountains, along the streams, and made two or three unsuccessful attempts to cross to the western slope of the mountains. They explored the country around Black Lake, around the head of Hood's Canal, and along the east of the mountains as far down as Port Ludlow. They describe the country in the vicinity of the coast range as very rough, and access to the mountains extremely difficult for pack animals. They ascended the mountains to a sufficient height to obtain a view of both the Pacific and the Sound, but were compelled to abandon their purpose of making a descent on the western side, in consequence of the immense canyons that surrounded the isolated spurs over which their course had been directed. The mountains are broken up in the utmost disorder—as is inferred, from volcanic eruptions—and a dividing ridge extremely difficult to locate. The smoke that hovered around one of the peaks, which was observed for several days, clearly designated it as a mountain torch, whose fires are yet burning, and whose eruptions may have contributed to the confusion around it. But few Indians were met with, and they exceedingly wild and wretched in appearance. Game was found in abundance, consisting of several species of elk, black and brown bear, and deer. The party, one of whom is an experienced miner, appear well satisfied with the result of their researches—finding abundant specimens of gold-bearing quartz, and their prospectings affording ample inducements for a further expenditure of time and labor.