Discharged soldiers of the garrison were the first to take to the hills with pick and shovel. Nicholas Haley, an old-time prospector of Arizona, who came with the troops to Sitka, was one of the most energetic and daring of these. Year after year, with pick and shovel, with rifle and blankets, Nicholas attacked the rugged mountains. Rich specimens were brought in and yielded enough when brayed in a mortar to keep him in a grubstake, but it takes capital to develop a hard rock mine and capital was wary. So Nicholas toiled on year after year, keeping up his assessments and living on hopes until at last he passed over the Great Divide to a Better Diggings. Others tried it. In 1878 a mining company was organized at Sitka, but there was not yet a law under which a claim could be legally taken. Ledges were found, small mills were placed on the ground at the Stewart Mine, the Lucky Chance and elsewhere, and later great fakes were promoted at the Pande Basin and elsewhere. But it was years after that when two Indian boys, hunting on Chicagof Island, lay down to drink at a stream, and, behold, in the shimmering water was white rock with yellow, glittering particles dancing in the clear stream. With the fear it was but fools gold they took specimens and marked the place where they were found. When they reached Sitka they submitted these samples to Judge DeGroff, and to Professor Kelly of the Sheldon Jackson School. It was pronounced to be gold, pure shining, yellow gold, and richer than the most sanguine had hoped for. After much labor and many disappointments the ledge was located from which the float came, and today that mine, the Chicagof it is called, is known as the richest and best paying mine in the United States in proportion to the money invested, and more than one fortune has been taken out of the tunnels in the mountain. Off the shores of the continent, reaching far off to the westward almost to the shores of Asia are vast fishing grounds, perhaps the greatest in the world. A great submarine plateau stretches along shore, past the Aleutian Islands and into Bering Sea. There are estimated to be forty thousand square miles of cod and halibut banks that are known to the surveys. The fisheries of Gloucester and Cape Cod fade into insignificance and the famous Newfoundland Banks are but small in comparison.