So far, this novel has depicted Buck's complete transformation from the Southland civilized dog, living in the peaceful society of Judge Miller's estate in Chapter 1 into a dog that, through his strength and instinct and cunning, is quickly able to master the law of club and fang, and then in the middle chapter of the novel, we saw Buck becoming the master of the entire dogsled team. In contrast, in the last half of the novel, we have seen him almost destroyed by the incompetency and ineptness of three people of the Southland — Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. In the last chapter, we saw proof of how thoroughly Buck became a creature of deep loyalty and admiration to a man fully deserving this devotion. This final chapter, then, will present yet another view of Buck: his complete reversion to the primitive, or in the terms of this novel, his final surrender to the "call of the wild."
Returning to the narrative, we realize anew that John Thornton is now in possession of sixteen hundred dollars. Thus, he and Pete and Hans are able to pay off their debts, which they do, and then the three of them take off in search of a fabled lost gold mine, a mine which many have heard of, and many have searched for, but most have died searching for it. Yet the legend of the lost mine persists: "Dying men had sworn to it . . . clinching their testimony with nuggets that were unlike any known grade of gold in the Northland."
Even though the lost mine might be fictitious, or nonexistent, yet John Thornton and Buck are delighted to start out on a journey through "infinite wandering in strange places." The search for the lost gold mine is a traditional search which fills many adventure novels of Western literature; likewise, the search for the fabled Fountain of Youth, as well as the search for the Holy Grail, are other quests well known in Western literature. In each search, the participants have to undergo many trials and tribulations, but it is the quest itself that is, ultimately, as important as the discovery. In this particular quest, Thornton, Hans, and Pete move farther and farther away from civilization, and thus they are immersed deeper and deeper into nature's primordial conditions. Meanwhile, Buck devotedly follows his master in search of the lost gold mine, and, likewise, he is brought closer and closer to the primordial wilderness and its primitive existence.
