Boyle began his fight with life as a boy and kept it up until he died after the World War. His father, who was a farmer living at Woodstock, in eastern Canada, had planned that Joe should become a lawyer or a preacher and with that end in mind had sent him to college. This was too tame for “J. W. B.” He left school and shipped before the mast as a sailor. Once, in going from the Island of St. Helena around the Cape of Good Hope, his ship sprang a leak. Boyle took charge of the crew at the pumps and kept them at work for four thousand miles until they sailed into Bombay. When he had risen to the position of quartermaster of a British vessel he gave up the sea and came home. A little later he struck out for the West, where he became trainer and manager for Frank Slavin, the bare-knuckle champion prize fighter. The two staked their all on Slavin’s success in a big fight, which was lost. They had exactly fifty cents between them when they decided to go up to the new gold mines of the Yukon. They “mushed” it from Dyea over the mountains, and got to the Klondike shortly after gold was discovered. For a time they worked together, and then Boyle engaged in placer mining with Swift-Water Bill Gates. At one time he and five or six companions ran out of supplies. They had started for the “outside” through Chilkoot Pass, where a blizzard caught them. Swift-Water was overcome, and Boyle carried him back into camp on his shoulders. After that the party came to a stream that only Boyle had the strength to cross. He took over the others one at a time and they went on their way. When at last they reached San Francisco they were given a big banquet and on the menu cards was printed the story of what Boyle had done. At this time Boyle was not doing as well as he had hoped at his mining. He looked over the ground of the Klondike Valley and conceived the idea that there was a fortune to be made in the earth the miners had left. Boyle stood on a little hill above the Klondike River, and determined to lease all the land within sight. This was when the mining in the creeks was at its height and the valley was so lean it was thought worthless.