IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 [SBSfi I I.I 125 Z m 1112.0 1.8 11.25 ill 1.4 i 1.6 c^ k $im ^/,. ^^^ ■^ y /A CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian da microraproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Certains d^fauts suscepdbles de nuire d la quality de la reproduction sont notis ci-dessous. 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Les images suivantes ont «t« reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettet« de I'exemplaire film«, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol —^ (meaning CONTINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. The original copy was borrowed from, and filmed with, the kind consent of the following institution: Library, Geological Survey of Canada Maps or plates too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Un des symboles suivants apparaTtra sur la der- ni*re image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas- le symbols -•► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la g6n«rosit6 de l'6tablissement prdteur suivant : Bibliothdque, Commission Gfologique du Canada Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul clich6 sont filmies d partir de I'angle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la mdthode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 8 6 / "bi>aS2 V*; KLONDIKE A MANUAL FOR GOLDSEEKERS BY CHARLES A. BRAMBLE, D.L.S. E^ditorial Staff Engineering and Mining Journal, late Crown Lands Surveyor, Dominion of Canada NFAV YORK R. F, FENNO & COMPANY 9 and ii EAST i6th STREET THOMSON STATIONERY Co.. lUi., 800>*S£l i-ERS, NFWSDeAt.El»n »*^D PRIKiTER^, Copyright, 1S97 BY R. F. FBNNO & COMPANY mondike; A Manual for Goldseekers CONTENTS. PAQE A WOI D TO THE _»,is;ADER 8 Introduction 5 The Country 11 The Klondike Trail 67 Life at the Diggings 130 The Gold 155 Mining Methods 195 Prospecting 223 The Climate 232 The Outfit , 251 The Mounted Police 282 Canadian Mining Laws 290 Customs, Regulations, etc 804 Diseases of the Country 306 Miscellaneous 311 'ilOO ■%.V""V ii>*" A WORD TO THE READER. Just now all eyes are turned toward the gold- en valley of the Yukon. No possible doubt ex- ists that one of the richest, if not absolutely the richest, placer deposits ever discovered has been found within the past year in far-away Alaska. At the present moment, therefore, such a book as this is wanted, especially as a flood of cheap, unreliable "Yukon*' literature has been put upon the market. My experiencco in the North- west Territories and Canada have enabled me to select only what is valuable from amid the vast quantities of matter already published. My knowledge of mining and of the Northwest has been fully as much exercised in eliminating false statements as in accumulating paragraphs of worth. I claim little as original in this book, but I ex- pect it nevertheless to be of very great value to any prospective gold seeker who shall aim at ac- quiring some of the virgin gold of the North. Chas. a. Bramble, D. L. S. m INTRODUCTION. A CLEVER California writer has said no one should venture to set out for the Alaska diggings without a good pardner. The word must not be confounded with partner. Partner has a smart, business-like sound. It is precisely defined by law, and though it may by courtesy involve some- thing of special favor, its equities at last rest upon the decisions of courts without regard to sentiment. But a pardner glories in sentiment. He expects to give his mate all that the law re- quires and call that only a beginning. Men may be chums in easy, prosperous times, but it is not until they pass together through a succession of dangers and hardships that they become pardners. Congeniality and implicit confidence are at the base of a pardnership; and for better or for worse the two men stand as one under all vicissitudes, doubling each other's joys and dividing sorrows and failures. If one falls by the way the other gives him more than the devotion of a brother. Gold mining eventually is a business conducted by large capital, but placer diggings afford an opening to any one who can stake and work a 6 Introduction. claim. The two pardners begin operations on the ground-floor, share their discoveries, tent to- gether, and cook fo^- each otlier. Their qualities and traits are complementary. Pardners are closer than mess-mates in the arm}' or navy. The soldier or sailor is under the care of a boun- tiful provider. His food, clothes and shelter are furnished by the government, and his comings and goings are regulated by orders. Pardners, on the other hand, must skirmish together from the start for subsistence and plans of operation. They fight the battle of life for two under haz- ardous conditions, far from families and friends, satisfied for the time being with bare necessi- ties. Under such a test pardners are forged as steel is forged. It is not likely that the mining camps in Alaska will permit any one to starve, but they have a regulation for shipping those lacking means or resources out of the country. In a community of pardners a high sense of gen- eral humanity will prevail, but there must be prudence as to feeding drones during the long season when the lines of supply are interrupted. Alaska will furnish a great growth of friendship, with the pardner as its top flower. No man can utterly fall there who has a good pardner, and is one. The following condensed Alaskan "nuggets" have been culled from various sources: Introduction. The first discovery of gold on the Klondike was made in the middle of August, 1896, by George Oormack. The only way heretofore into and out of the Klondike in winter has been by way of Juneau. The best way to live is • > litate the Indians in dress and habit. It is i; 8s to wear leather or gum boots. Good mocca,..n8 are absolutely necessary. The colder it is the better the traveling. When it is very cold there is no wind; and the wind is hard to bear. Indian guides are necessary to go ahead of the dogs and prepare the camp for night. In the summer the sun rises early and sets late and there are only a few hours when it is not shining directly on Alaska. In the winter the sun shines for a short time only each day. It is 2,500 miles from San Francisco to St. Mi- chael's. It is 1,895 miles from St. Michaers to Dawson City. In summer the weather is warm and tent life is comfortable. The winter lasts nine months. There are two routes by which to reach Dawson City. One touching St. MichaeFs Island and the other via Juneau. By steamer it costs 1150 to go from San Francisco to Dawson City. Dogs are worth their weight in gold. A good long-haired dog sells for $150 or $200. The Yukon River is closed by ice from Novem- bt to the latter part of May. On the Klondike the thermometer goes as low as 60 degrees below zero. There is a great variety of berries to be found all through the country in summer. Game 8 Introduction. ii i 1! i Hi is very scarce near the mines. Vegetables of the hardier sort can be raised. Stock can be kept by using care in providing abundantly with feed by ensilage or curing natural-grass hay and by housing them in the winter. In summer abun- dance of fine grass can be found near the rivers. In appearance the natives are like the North American Indians, only more lithe and active, with very small feet and hands. They live in temporary camps both winter and summer, either in the mountains or on the river banks, accord- ing to the habits of the game they are hunting. Gold was first discovered in the vicinity of Sitka by Frank Mahoney, Edward Doyle and William Dunlay, in 1879. As regards the strictly American possessions the following are worth remembering: Purchased in 1867 from Russia, for $7,200,000; purchase negotiated by William H. Seward. Area in square miles, 531,409. Population, census of 1890, 30,329, of whom but 4,416 were whites, 8,400 Esquimaux, and 13,735 Indians. Estimated present population 40,000. IT ncipal cities, Sitka, the capital, Juneau, Wrangel, Circle City. Principal rivers, the Yukon, more than 2,000 miles long; the Kuskok- wim, the Colville and the Copper. Principal mountains. Mount Logan, altitude, 19,500 feet; Mount St. Elias, 18,100; Mount Wrangel, 17,500 feet. Principal occupations of the people, hunting and fishing. Gold first discovered in 1879. Estimated prod- uct of gold to date, $30,000,000. Product of gold in 1896, $4,670,000, Introduction. 9 Klondike in English is Fish River. Klondike go d fie ds are in British territory, aid iCmol net 18 disposed of in the United States. ^ Ihe scene of the present excitement is alone the upper Yukon and its tributaries. ^ dike from Seattle by water, and thirty or fortv days by the Chilkoot Pass route. ^ ^ KLON^DIKE. THE COUNTRY. Alaska's chief river, the Yukon, is one of the grandest streams on the continent, and m size is surpassed only by the Mississippi, if, in- deed, it is not the larger — at least, in point of volume. At the old Hudson Bay post, Fort Yukon, now abandoned, the river attains its northermost latitude, being just within the Arctic circle. At a point just above Fort Yukon the river has been found to have a width of seven miles. Just above Fort Yukon the channel of the river is subject to frequent changes by reason of shifting sand, but this offers the only considerable obstacle to navigation from the mouth of the Yukon to Fort Selkirk, a distance of 1,600 miles. Such is the volume of water discharged by this mighty stream that it is said that fresh water is found in the ocean ten miles out from the chief mouth of the river. The entire length of the river is estimated at not less than 2,000 miles, and the probability is that it is much greater. 12 Klondike. In W Those who have traveled some of the navigable portion of the river describe the Yukon Valley as most beautiful in scenery, fully equaling, even exceeding, anything offered by natural scenery in the United States. The boundary of the upper part of Alaska Territory between the United States and Canada, from Mount St. Elias to the Arctic Ocean, is very clearly defined in the treaty as the 141st meridian. The only difficulty about this part of the line is in locating that meridian. There is some slight difference between the American and Canadian surveys, but that differ- ence can be easily settled. It has been stated by Canadian newspapers to involve a strip not more than sixty feet wide at the point where the line crosses the Yukon. Some question has arisen from the fact that in the treaty the meridian was described as crossing Mount St. Elias, whf r^^ ts it has since been found to be a little east of M ut peak. The treaty between Great Britain and Russia made in 1825 provided that the line should start from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island and ascend to the north along Portland Channel, as far as the 56th degree of north lati- tude; thence should follow the summit of the mountains parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection with the lilst degree of west longitude. "Wherever the summit of the moun- ii! "ill • A Manual for Gold Seekers. 13 tains parallel to the coast proves to be more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the boundary line is to parallel the windings of the coast not more than ten marine leagues therefrom. But a very limited section of this vast area, which was purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867 for 17,300,000, is known to civi- lized man. The far greater portion is as yet un explored. The territory, according to the latest figures, coriprises 580,107 square miles. The mere figures convey but a faint conception of its extent. The Territory of Alaska has an area very nearly equal to the combined areas of Con- necticut, Delaware, District cf Columbia, Flor- ida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachussetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia; it nearly approximates one- fifth of the area of all the rest of the United States. Alaska's coast line on the mainland is about 7,860 miles, or greater than the eastern coast line of the United States. The coast line of the mainland and islands is nearly four times as great as all the other coast lines of the United States combined. Dr. Dawson, who made geological explorations in the upper Yukon region, testified as follows: "With regard to the gold on the Liard River, 14 Klondike. HI! m !li,i % I . Ml which is a tributary of the Mackenzie, I may state further that remunerative bars have been worked east of the country down toward the Mackenzie. The whole appearance of this coun- try leads to the belief that important mineral deposits will be found in it besides those placer mines. There are large quantities of quartz ledges along the rivers in many places on the Liard River; half the river gravel is composed of quartz, and the whole country is full of quartz veins, some of which are likely to yield valuable minerals." Q. Is it a gold-bearing quartz? A. Yes; because we find gold in the bars, though not, so far as I have discovered, in the loose quartz. In fact, the whole country at the headwaters of the Liard, and running across to the Yukon, forms part of the metalliferous belt which runs from Mexico to Alaska and includes a great area of that country which is as likely to be rich in minerals as any portion of that metal- liferous belt. We should remember that in Brit- ish Columbia and on the headwaters of the Yukon we have from 1,200 to 1,300 miles of that metalliferous belt of the west coast. This is al- most precisely the same length of that belt con- tained in the United States, and I think there is every reason to believe that eventually it will be found susceptible of an equal development A Manual for Gold Seekers. 15 from a mining point of view. From circum- stances to wliich I need not now refer, it has so far been more developed in the United States than on this side of the line. Q. What is the average width of that belt of 1,200 or 1,300 miles? A. About 400 miles on the average. Fort Selkirk, or the ruins of Fort Selkirk, at the mouth of the Lewis River, which is one of the main branches of the Yukon, is about 1,000 miles due north of Victoria, without taking into ac- count ten degrees of longitude which it is west, but it gives an idea of the depth of the country which is worth remarking. You find a country here 1,000 miles north of Victoria in which there is no doubt you can still grow barley and hardy cereals, a distance as nearly as possible identical with the whole width of the United States on the Pacific coast from the 49th parallel to Mexico, yet at Fort Selkirk we are still 750 or 800 miles from the Arctic Ocean— nearly twice as far from the Arctic Ocean as we are here in Ottawa from the Atlantic. Q. That would make a square area of 520,000 miles. Is that what the committee are to under- stand? A. That will express the area of the metaVif- erous belt in a general way, and may be taken as a minimum figure. This Yukon country was first 16 Klondike. I [Ijri ' ' ' li! j i \\ li;:; hi :. 111. l' hi I' ■ "! I ; I hi' I li ih it ! • i 1' ' i ^ prospected in 1880, by miners who came across by this Chilkoot Pass. Since then a yearly in- creasing number of miners has been going in. This last summer there were about 250 men, nearly 100 of whom are wintering at Forty-Mile Creek, near the international boundary. The gold which was taken out of that country last summer, not counting the Ci ssiar country to the south, but merely the Yukon district, was estimated by the miners at $70,000, but that is a very rough estimate indeeu, because there is no way of checking it except by allowing so much per man on the average. There is an almost unprece- dented length of river bars from which gold is ob- tained in that country. I have not tried to esti- mate it, but here and there on nearly all those rivers gold is found in paying quantities. The gold-bearing river bars must be reckoned in the aggregate by thousands of miles in length. Q. All those rivers, meaning the Yukon and its branches, and the Liard and its branches? A. Yes. Though the Coppermine River lies east of the Mackenzie and far from the Yukon, it may be interesting to give here the testimony of Dr. Dawson in regard to copper in that river. He said, speaking of the Coppermine River particu- larly, that "there is every reason to believe there is a repetition along that river and in its vicinity I A Manual for Gold Seekers 17 of tiiose rocks which contain copper on Lake Superior, and which have proved so rich there." But that region seems to be beyond the reach of the prospector at present. "I see a good many newspaper criticisms in which the prophecy is ventured that not more than one-tenth of tne parties going to Alaska 'will come back prosperous,' " said one returned Yukoner. ''This is a mistake. There is no ques- tion of their finding gold in any part of the Yukon Valley, the only question being whether they can find it in paying quantities. It is there, everywhere. We traveled over 1,000 miles of the interior and found gold wherever we dug for it. "I never in all my life saw a country where there is so much and so many variations of light as in Alaska. I don't think it ever rains in the interior. The sun shone with dazzling brilliancy during our entire trip, and no sooner had it set, than the aurora boreaiis overspread the skies with its fantastic and shifting colors. At nighl, it was truly a country of fairyland, the shadows and tones of these northern lights being simply wonderful. I have seen them so bright that I could read by their light. "I believe that I stated to you that the inte- rior is destitute of game. This is true, with but one exception. The Yukon River is full of little 18 Klondike. H' !!' - ;i 1 1' iiiiih r K'i !l 11: ii ■ k black ducks during the summer. They live on mussels and are continually diving for them. They are far from being wild, and I have seen them swim up close enough to touch our canoe lots of times. They are not good eating, how- ever, having a rank, fishy taste. "There seems to be but three varieties of vege- tation in the interior. Fir and yellow cedar forests cover the land, and the rank, waist-high moss. It resembles more nearly some variety of cactus, and is so full of saws, prongs, etc., as to be impenetrable. The cedars and firs are none of them very large, but appear to be very old, some, perhaps, having grown there for ages." A correspondent of the Washington Evening Star, says: "It is not necessary for everybody to feed on dog meat on the Upper Yukon River and in the vicinity of the Klondike gold field in win- ter, as a member of the party which was up there said several of the members did. He refused the dish, but at the same time he acknowledged that more than once after food had been thrown to the dogs, literally speaking, he had snatched it away from them before they could eat it. Fish which small worms had appropriated to themselves he did not hesitate to eat, he said, and was glad to get it. "That is one of the great troubles which will be encountered by persons visiting the gold A Manual for Gold Seekers. 19 fields. The further up the Yukon one travels the scarcer becomes the food supply, until in the Klondike region and ther^^abouts it ceases almost entirely. There is practically no large game, with the exception of one or two moose and rein- deer, which have become separated from the rest of the herd and wandered out there. So that prospectors who intend visiting the field should not rely in the least on the resources of the coun- try to feed them. There may be a few rabbits, ducks and geese in the spring, which disappear very quickly. These are not sufficient to supply even the wants of the few natives who wander nomadically about the region. '* Lower down the Yukon, at certain seasons of the year, there is abundance of game, probably from 400 to 500 miles from the Klondike River. The moose is about the largest of the animals, while the reindeer is fairly plentiful. As the population has increased, the game has corres- pondingly decreased, and in the winter the Indians there have a hard time securing food, as they are very improvident. During the season when it is abundant they never think of laying by a supply. There are beavers on the streams, and various kinds of deer, bear, and caribou. In the winter months these go south or disappear almost entirely. The polar bear is found several degrees further north, never ap- pearing in that vicinity. 20 Klondike. I ■!; lil.i' >>'il i I : :H I, In the mountain streams which f'^ed the Yu- kon River, up toward its head, near the Kathul Mountain, there are mountain trout of good size and flavor. Many of these streams dry up in the winter, as they are fed by glaciers, which, of course, in cold weather are frozen entirely. The salmon is found in the Yukon in immense num- bers in summer. The whitefish M'hich is found near the Klondike River, is said to be excellent eating. It ranges in size about the same as our black bass, and is one of the chief mainstays of the Indians. In winter, if it is not too cold, holes are cut in the ice, and the fish pulled out by means of bone hooks. They are more plentiful than any other kind, and the ice-cold water ap- pears to be their natural habitat. Early in the spring water lowl, such as ducks, geese and swan, put in an appearance, but they do not tarry long, and wend their w^y after a stay of only a few days. They are very plenti- ful when they do appear, and the natives kill them by hundreds. The trouble is, however, that things of the kind do not last as they do in warmer climates. Reindeer formerly were seen in very large numbers on the Yukon, some two or three hun- dred miles from where the Klondike flows into it, and a gentleman who spent two or three win- ters there several years ago has stated that he had "fffiT' lill! pij II 1 j. 1! ; '■■{■.■ 1 : ; JHii! hi ! r- A Manual for Gold Seekers. 21 seen a herd of at least 5,000 cross the river on the ice in one day. Klondyke would-be prospectors should bear in mind the fact that in that region, where game is scarce, the appetite is something wonderful. All kinds of food are eaten with rPiish, particularly anything that has fat or grease about it. The sharp air increases hunger nearly a hundred fold, and it is necessary to have plenty of provisions in order to withstand temperatures sometimes as low as 68 degrees below zero. Persons who have passed the winter there state that it is much better not to touch alcoholic liquors, as the after effects from indulgence in them are much worse than any benefit which may be de- rived from temporary stimulation. Tea is considered one of the best things which can be taken, and it is drunk in large quantities, strong, and as hot as possible. This seems to keep the heat in and the cold out better than anything else. All kinds of canned goods are excellent, and dried '^uits or lime juic3 should be included in every bill of fare, as scurvy is pre- vented by making use of them. It is necessary to use large quantities of salt meats, which often produce the disease. It it believed by travelers up the Yukon Kiver that vegetables that grow rapidly could be raised profitably in the summer months. Potatoes, it ■■■■I 22 Klondike. il.:; 'ii '!- ■ ;ii i'.. :liH i.' M 1. , 'III;' ill Mi 'i: ,1, I; ii I is thought, could be brought to fruition without trouble, and turnips also. The latter have been raised successfully by missionaries 400 or 500 miles or so from the source of the river. The sun there has naturally very much power in the three or four months of summer, and in hothouses lettuce and other vegetables could be raised easily. When Humboldt expressed the opinion that j^old came from the north he did not adduce much evidence in support of his theory. We have had a wonderful demonstration of the truth of his suppositions in the Yukon Valley. The more we reflect upon the extraordinary gold deposits there, the more bewildered we be- come. Every claim which has been operated on the gold-bearing creeks has become a producer. We have yet to hear of a single locator who failed to find gold if he went down to bed rock. There are a great many claims yet to hear from upon which no work has been done yet, and as there are winter diggings, we shall not hear from these for a long time yet. Experience proves that mines in a mineral country are discovered in proportion to the number of prospectors out. It is therefore quite reasonable for us to assume that we shall hear some interesting news from the interior, when ^he hundreds of miners who have recently gone down the river have had time A Manual for Gold ISeekers. 28 .V.W to spread themselves over the country. The district in which Bonanza and Eldorado Creeks are situated forms but a small portion of an im- mense mineral belt. The few hundred men who were in the country at the time the discovery was made took up claims one after the other on the creeks which were known to carry gold, and in many instances sold them for large sums with- out putting in a pick or panning out a shovel full of gravel. Of these, some remain to live a life of hilarity at Dawson, and others, more prudent, are coming out with their fortunes intact. Such wa-^ the conditions of affairs before the popula- tion of the district was augmented by the spring arrivals. Now there will be vigorous and sys- tematic prospecting done, and the country will be closely examined for many miles around the present diggings. Hitherto the best results have been obtained in the fall, and we may look with some certainty for a result from this summer's prospecting. Even in the most favorable of times the life of a miner on the Yukon could not be an easy one. A practical mining-engineer publishes, in one of the Ottawa papers, a catechism which, he says, every would-be gold-hunter should ask himself before he starts: "Have I a capital of at least $500? Am I subject to any organic or chronic disease. I i I ■HI 24 Klondike. ■Jli ''i: ill i! i:l»S!!i ill i'l . j mil ■i especially rheumatism? Am I physically sound in every way and able to walk thirty miles a day with a fifty-pound pack on my back? Am I willing to put up with the rough fare, sleep anywhere and anyhow; do my own cooking and washing; mend my own clothes? Can I leave home perfectly free, leaving no one dependent on me in any manner for support? Can I do entirely without spirituous liquors? Can I work like a galley-slave for months if need be, on poor fare, and sometimes not enough of that, and still keep up a cheerful and brave spirit? Am I pretty handy with tools and not subject to lazy fits? Can I swim, and handle boats and canoes; put up with extremes of heat and cold, and bear incessant torture from countless swarms of mos- quitoes, gnats and sand-flies?" For men who are healthy and strong, who love adventure and beautiful scenery, who have money to keep themselves for two years — or more if they don't make a strike — for such men to go into this country is all right, and a good thing. Owing to the gold discoveries at Klondike much interest is lent to any fresh information regarding that region. The oflBcial report made to the census office in 1890 contains a mass of information bearing indirectly on the general section of the country in which the Klondike is situated, and the appended extracts will bo found worthy of attention. A Manual for Gold Seekers. 25 The mighty stream known as the Yukon does not appear by that name on the map until the conflnence of the Pelly and Lewis Rivers is reached, about longitude 137 degrees 3 minutes west, in British Northwest Territory. Both of the latter are large rivers. The Lewis River is the best known, having been used for the past six years as the highway from southeastern Alaska to the gold diggings on the Yukon, near the east- ern boundary of Alaska. Its length from Lake Lindermann, one of its chief sources, to the junction with the Pelly is about 375 miles, and it lies entirely in British territory, with the excep- tion of a few miles of the lakes at its head. The Pelly River takes its rise about Dease Lake, near the headwaters of the Stikine River, with a length of some 500 miles before joining the Lewis to form the Yukon River. The union of these two streams forms a river varying from three-quarters to a mile in width. For many miles the northern bank is a solid wall of lava, compelling the swift current to follow a westerly course in search of an outlet to the nor^h. The southern bank is Comparatively low, formed of sandy, alluvial soil. A few miles above the White River the stream takes a northerly course through a rugged, mountainous country, receiv- ing the addition of the waters of the "White River on the south, so called from the milky color of 26 Klondike. ii'ip' m its waters, and a few miles further on the waters of the Stuart on the north. The current is exceedingly swift here, especially at a high stage of water, as I saAV it, being at least six or seven miles an hour. From Stuart River to Fort Reliance both banks are closed in by high mountains, formed chiefly of basaltic rock and slaty shale. Many of the bluffs are cut and worn in the most picturesque shapes by glacial action. At Fort Reliance, an abandoned trading post, the general course of the stream changes to northwest, continuing thus for a distance of about 500 miles, or as far as the confluence with the Porcupine River, which flows from the norih. Some forty miles from Fort Reliance the mouth of Forty-Mile Creek is passed, where is located the miners' trading post. On that creek, or river, we find the chief gold diggings known at the present time. Some thirty-eight miles from there the river crosses the eastern boundary of Alaska. Here was located for the last two seasons the camp of one party of the Alaska boundary survey, it having been previously the camp of the Canadian government party. For 100 miles after crossing the boundary the river runs in one broad stream, confined on either side by high banks and a mountainous country, known as the ''upper ramparts." It then widens out, and for a distance of 150 miles is a network of ,, .1 \\ A Manual for Gold Seekers. 27 channels and small islands. At old Fort Yukon, an abandoned Hudson Bay post, it attains its highest northern latitude, being just within the Arctic circle. From main bank to bank the dis- tance has been found to be seven miles at a point just above the site of Fort Yukon. This place is probably the only serious obstacle to navigation that is met with from its mouth to Fort Selkirk, a distance of over 1,600 miles, the channel here shifting from year to year, and being at certain stages of water difficult to find. From Fort Yu- kon to the mouth thu river has been frequently traveled and described, rendering further de- scription unnecessary. Without actually taking measurements it is exceedingly difficult while traveling on the river to determine the immense volume and magnitude of the stream. The population of the Yukon country is very sparse. At certain times during the year a trav- eler might pass down the Yukon from Forty- Mile Creek to Nuklukayet and hardly see a score of natives in a distance of 800 miles. The dif- ferent villages or communities seem to be under the guidance of chiefs and subchiefs, though there does not appear to be much authority ex- erted by them, and I could never ascertain that this chieftainship was hereditary. Their mode of transportation in summer time is by rafts, boats, and birch-bark canoes, and is Klondike, ii ,' I J! \ i : ; entirely confined to the streams and water courses; in tlio winter time sleds are used, drawn by dogs, men or women. Their hmguage is known to the missionaries as a dialect of Tukudh (Takuth), but tiiey converse with the traders in a jargon called "Slavey," a mixture of Canadian French, ai.d hybrid words of English, something in the nature of the * "Chinook" of Southeastern Alaska. In winter a species of mudfish called blackfish, found in the lakes, is a great food source, being caught in quantities in traps during the fall and winter, allowed to freeze and then **aten raw. Ijarge quantities of water fowl eggs are obtained in season, also the birds themselves, it being the summer home of many varieties of ducks, geese, swans, and other aquatic fowl. In winter the only means of traveling is in sleds drawn by dogs. Mining cannot be called a success on the Yukon up to the present time. Since the first excitement in 1886, there have been few instances of individuals taking out of the country more than $2,000 for two, and even three seasons of privation and hardship. There are but a few iso- lated cases of more than that amount being taken out. The majority of the miners are working on prospects with a heavy account at the store against them. The hardships of travel- il!t iii A Manual for Gold Seekers. 29 ing to prospect, the short working season, and the frozen ground are obstacles difficult to over- come. The prices of supplies at the store are high considering the small means at the disposal of the miners, but they are not much more than barely remunerative to the trader, owing to the expense and risk of transportation. The merchandise is carried on the river by means of stern-wheel steamers, the two prin- cipal ones belonging to the Alaska Commercial Company; one of 200 tons and the other of 30 tons capacity, carrying freight and passengers. On the larger boat there is a white man for captain and another for engineer; but both captain and engineer are unlicensed and with- out papers; the rest of the crew are Indians. There are three other small steamers, two be- longing to the Russian and Catholic missionaries respectively, and one to the trader at Fort Sel- kirk. All supplies are received at St. Michael, on Norton Sound, 80 miles north of the mouth of the Yukon, the furs and gold obtained being turned over to the Alaska Commercial Com- pany's agent there, and shipped to San Fran- cisco. Once a year, in June, missionaries and traders assemble at St. Michael, and for a few days that place is doing a rushing business. It has ^become a regular fair for the natives, who gather in numbers from various points on the 80 Klondike. 1 1 1 1 coast and river, getting a few days* work from the company and having the satisfaction of see- ing the new stock of merchandise. The influx of miners in the country'has pro- duced marked changes among the natives, and not to their benefit morally. The illicit manu- facture and use of liquor, both by the traders of the company and miners, is certainly demoraliz- ing the natives to a great extent. It is openly carried on both on the upper and lower river. At Andreafsky, on the lower river, it is a com- mon sight to see intoxicated ^natives, more especially in the winter, and the natives have now learned the process of making liquor for themselves, more particularly on the coast, and on the lower Yukon. On the coast the temperature varies from 70 degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 40 degrees and 45 degrees below zero in winter. The late sum- mer and fall is usually stormy and wet, the snow- fall in winter being from three to five feet on a level. Navigation is closed to the outside for seven months in the year by heavy ice on the sea. The Yukon River is closed by ice from Novem- ber to the end of May. In the interior the climate is drier and warmer in summer, but many degrees colder in winter, the thermometer going as low as 60 degrees below zero. The snowfall is excessive, but less wind prevails here in winter than on the coast. A Manual for Gold Seekers. 31 In speaking of the physical features of the great Yukon Valley and of its native inhabitants I prefer to begin with the coast region and deltoid mouth of the river, following it up and giving my impressions just as they struck me during my gradual, frequently interrupted, ad- vance from the low seaboard to the rocky gorges of the upper river. The observant traveler, standing upon the deck of one of the small stern-wheel boats labor- iously pushing its way against the powerful cur- rent of turgid, rolling waters, will be struck with the immense area of alluvial soil which has been carried bodily for centuries and ages from the far interior to the verge of Behring Sea. The land here is being made and unmade under our very eyes. The ice-laden freshets of each re- turning spring never leave unchanged the con- tour of the shores which but imperfectly confine the rushing waters. A solid cake of ice, caught in an eddy and set into swirling motion, grinds against the loosely constructed bank, and under- mines it until a mass of sand or clay falls down upon it. The impetus given by the precipatated earth drives the ice cake out of the eddy and sends it adrift upon the current, to be carried on and on, until stranded again upon the low beaches of the delta, or some distant island of the sea, when its cargo of soil will be deposited lii :!ii 32 Khndihe. as a gift of the great Yukon. On the other hand, hind-making is going on just as constantly. The accidental lodgment of one of the gnarled giants of the inland forests on its way seaward may cause the formation of a muddy bar or island within the space of a few years. Thickets spring up from twigs of willow dej>osited by the passing flood, or from seed carried by the wind, and strengthen the new ground, binding to- gether its component parts with their roots until it can resist the ordinary pressure of rushing flood and grinding ice. Even a sudden rise of a few feet in the water, or an unusually heavy for- mation of ice on the upper river may undo in a few moments what nature has been years in creating. The little island will then dissolve like snow before the sun, and its component parts be torn away, and carried suspended in the raging flood until the neutralizing action of op- posing tides causes them to settle and scatter broadcast over the shallow bottom of Behring Sea, contiguous to the great river's mouth. Under more congenial skies this vast accumu- lation of the richest soil would doubtless attract a teeming population; and who knows whether this mighty water power may not now be build- ing for the future, when some slight deviation In the axis of our whirling globe may unlock the icy fetters that now bind the land., compelling I ( . ^ ^ i A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 83 man to rely upon the products of the sea alone for his subsistence, and tefiching him to look but for scanty favors from Mother Earth. Should that time come in some far distant period, there will be here a field of agricultural wealth and greatness surpassing in range and possibilities that of the acient Nile. The very sea is aiding in building up and enriching this possible gran- ary of future geologic ages, by sending its finny denizens by countless millions up into every vein and artery of the vast, surging and throbbing water system, impregnating both soil and water with minute deposits of highly fertilizing quali- ties. The main features of the boundary line be- tween Alaska and Canada are the irregular line extending from the head of Portland Inlet in latitude .56 degrees, around the waters of the great archipelago Alexander, at a distance not greater than ten marine leagues from the con- tinental shore, to the 141st meridian west of Greenwich, and the straight line running thence to the Arctic Ocean on that meridian. Where this irregular line meets the 141st meridian rises the great Mount St. Elias, which is in latitude 60 degrees 17 minutes and 34.4 seconds, and lon- gitude 140 degrees, 55 minutes and 19.6 seconds. This peak is about twenty-seven statute miles from the ocean shore. 84 Klondike. From a point on the 141st meridian and prob- ably in nearly the same latitude as Mount St. Elias, the boundary line runs true north to Demarcation Point on the Arctic . hores — a dis- tance of 6G0 statute miles. In this great distance the line crosses compar- atively few large streams; at 100 miles it crosses the head waters of the White Kiver, a tributary of the Yukon, flowing to the north-northwest; at 205 miles, an unnamed tributary of the White Kiver. At the last distance on the boundary line the Yukon River lies forty miles to the east- ward at a well-known bend and gorge known as the Upper Ramparts. The river continues on a northerly course nearly parallel with the bound- ary line for seventy-five miles to old Fort Reli- ance, near the Klondike, and thence trends seventy-five miles northwest by north, to where the boundary line crosses it at 335 miles from Mount St. Elias. The boundary line next crosses a little-known river called the Big Black, a tributary of the Lower Porcupine, at 445 miles; and the Porcupine River, one of the great tributaries of the Yukon, at 510 miles; this is the last river of much size that it encounters. As it runs northward it meets the upper waters of the Old Crow River, which heads in Turner's Pass of the Davidson range; crosses this great range at 595 miles, where the elevation was esti- f A Manual for Gold Seekers. 35 mated by Turner to be 7,000 feet; and at 660 miles reaches Demarcation Point on the Arctic shore, about 150 miles west-northwest from the delta of the Mackenzie Kiver in Canada. This boundary line traverses an almost un- known country; it passes over mountain ranges, reaching 10,000 feet elevation; and the country is utterly impassable for the first 100 miles north of the St. Elias range. The longest stretches of reconnaissance on the line were made by young John H. Turner, of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- vey, from Camp Colonna on the Porcupine, which is sixty miles north of the Arctic circle. With three aids and dog teams he crossed the hitherto unknown Davidson range, at the pass named after himself, at an elevation of 3,500 feet, encounter- ing one blizzard when the temperature was 50 or 60 degrees below zero. His second trip was forty miles south of his camp, toward his colleague, John E. McGrath, at Camp Davidson on the Yukon. He thus reconnoitered 200 miles of the boundary line, through a country never before traversed by a white man, and in his zeal con- tracted a chronic disease, which carried him off two years after his return home. Where the Yukon crosses the boundary line its course, which is northwest by north from Fort Reliance, continues in a general direction to the northwest for 235 miles to the deserted Fort mmmfmamm 36 Klo7idike, Yukon at the mouth of the PorcMpine. All that part of the Yukon Kiver to the eastward of the 141st meridian, and all its principal tributaries come from the southeastward; the principal river under different names reaching within a few miles of the head waters of the Stickeen. The headwaters of the main tributary, the Lewis River, reach nearly into Alaska Territory at the White Pass, the Chilkoot Pass and the Chilkat Pass, just north of Lynn Canal. The geograpliical position of Fort Reliance, an old station of the Hudson Bay Company, on the right bank of the river, is latitude 64 degrees 13 minutes, longitude 138 degrees 50 minutes, or 50 statute miles east of thr boundary line of the 141st degree. The stream named Klondike Creek enters the Yukon about six or eight miles higher up than Fort Reliance, and on the same side of the river. So far as known it comes from the east-northeast for about one hundred miles, and is reported *navig«ble by canoes for forty or fifty miles from its mouth. Whatever doubt has been cast upon the posi- tion of the whole Klondike district being in Brit- ish Columbia must have arisen from a misunder- standing of the dispute existing upon the proper location of that part of the boundary line lying eastward and southward of Mount St. Elias. The north or meridian line of the boundary has A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 37 been accurately determined at three points — near Mount St. Elias, at the crossing of the Yukon River, and at the crossing of the Porcupine River. The determination of the southern end was made in 1892 by John E. McGrath and John H. Turner, of the United States Coast Geodetic Survey, in combination with a hydrographic party, which carried chronometers for the diiler- ence of longitude between Sitka and Yakutat. At Sitka was Fremont Morse, of the Coast Sur- vey. At the Yukon River Mr. McGrath and party spent two years at Camp Davidson, twenty- three miles below Forty-Mile Creek, observing meridian transits of the moon, and occultations of stars by the moon, for longitude. His observ- atory being a little distance off the 141st meridian, he measured to that meridian and marked it. Mr. Ogilvie, on behalf of the Cana- dian Government, also observed for the longi- tude at another and independent point, and then measured to the 141st meridian. The latest information places the two inde- pendent determinations of this meridianal boundary line within the width of a few feet. So there cannot be the remotest possibility of any friction between the two governments upon this question. We know the strong and high character of Mr. McGrath, and Mr. Ogilvie has likewise a reputation of the highest character. The only 88 Klondike. local dispute that could possibly arise would be in the Forty-Mile Creek district; because the boundary lino crosses sharp, steep, mountain ridges 3,500 and 3,000 feet high and an inferior instrumental means might cause a slight doubt of the direction in some case. However, no dispute has arisen in the district, nor is it likely that any will occur. There is no doubt that the line has been satisfactorily laid down by Mr. Ogilvie or some of his assistants. In quitting the subject, the longitude station of Mr. Turner may be referred to. After ob- taining a series of satisfactory results he made a topographical reconnaissance of the Porcupine to its mouth, a distance of 140 miles as the crow flies. There is little doubt that the Klondike gravel deposits, as far as they go, are the richest ever discovered. In the early days of placer mining in California as rich deposits were found in pockets here and there, but never extensive deposits which averaged as high. There have come no competent opinions or accounts from mining experts, and there are at hand no state- ments of what any of the deposits have averaged to the cubic yard or ton, but the stories of the generally inexperienced miners, the results in gold dust, and the prices of $50,000 or more for which claims have been sold, establish the H A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 39 general richness of the fields. The excep- tional concentration of alluvial gold is undoubt- edly due to the geographical, or rather topo- graphical conditions under which nature washed the gold into the big sluices, which the valleys are in effect. Descriptive accounts by intelli- gent mining engineers, mineralogists, and geol- ogists, will be read with great interest whenever they arrive. The Klondike fields are comparatively limited in extent. The Klondike is a small tributary of the upper Yukon, and the richest deposits are found in the beds of some of the short and small creeks that empty into it. Whether any other placers as rich exist in that region remains to be seen. The placers which have been worked with fair success for five or six years by an increasing number of men are in the beds of water courses, fifty to a hundred miles down the Yukon on the Alaskan side of the boundary, and close to the point where the boundary, the Yukon River and the Arctic circle cross each other. These have now all been abandoned for the far richer dig- gings found fifty miles or so across the boundary, as it is unofficially supposed to be located. For the time the placer diggings engross atten- tion, but more significant than the gold found in the frozen gravel of the water courses is the evi- dence they present of the existence of rich quartz 40 Klondike. ! 1 ledges, from which the gold has been eroded. The veins from which nature has milled this gold are hidden somewhere above, and will be found. A great quartz-mining development in the inte- rior of Alaslca, and in the most northerly region of the Northwest Territory, may be confidently predicted. No quartz ledges have yet been found, and none have been looked for. There are the most insuperable difficulties presented by any gold region of the world to overcome before the era of quartz-mining makes a faint begin- ning. The country is extremely difficult to prospect. The summers are short, the ground is covered by thick, stunted growths and tangled moss, and is perpetually frozen a little under the sur- face. The transportation of anything in the way of mining machinery would now be enormously expensive. But the quartz-mining era will come. Already coal deposits of value are announced. The Government of British Columbia is moving to accede to the popular de- mand for the opening of a trail to the new region through British territory, and already the rail- road, which would be pushed north with the aid of provincial subsidies if sufficient resources were discovered, is vaguely talked of. Rich veins of gold, quartz-mills, and railroad locomotives inside the Arctic circle reasonably meet the prolonged A Mcmual/or Gold Seekers. 41 vision. A few months ago a member of the United States Geological Survey, who made a superficial reconnaissance of the Yukon country, predicted the discovery of quartz veins through- out a region 300 miles long. The Yukon country presents strange and new problems for mining engineering. Present oper- ations are of the crudest, and the gold-pan stage of development has not been passed. The rich gravel lies a few ftet under the streams, which are frozen up most of the year. The gravel has to be mined out during the winter, when every- thing is frozen solid, by sinking shafts and drift- ing in below the frozen streams, by alternately thawing the ground with fires and hoisting the dirt to the dumps. When capitalists get hold of some of the richer claims, and send in skilled mining engineers, there will be a field for ingenu- ity and reports of much scientific interest. Professor J. Edward Spurr, of the United States Geological Survey, has this to say about the Yukon district: **Our party crossed to the headwaters of the Yukon by the Chilkoot Pass, and proceeded by boat down the Yukon to Forty-Mile Creek. All of the known placer deposits were examined, and the origin of the gold in them was traced to veins of quartz along the headwaters of the vari- ous streams entering the Yukon. i.i! 42 Klondike. I i ' ^'Sufficient data was secured to establish the presence of a gold belt 300 miles in length in Alaska, which enters the Territory near the mouth of Forty-Mile Creek and extends west- ward across the Yukon Valley to the lower ramparts. Its further extent is unknown. It is the opinion of the geologist in charge of the ex- pedition that it is entirely practicable to prose- cute quartz mining throughout the year in this region. He discovered along the river large areas of rocks containing hard bituminous coal. Running in a direction a little west of northwest through the territory examined is a broad, con- tinuous belt of highly altered rocks. To the east this belt is known to be continuous for 100 miles or more in British territory. The rocks constituting this belt are mostly crystalline schists associated with marbles and sheared quartzites, indicating sedimentary origin for a large part of the series. These altered sedimen- tary rocks have been shattered by volcanic action. * 'Throughout these altered rocks there were found veins of quartz often carrying pyrites and gold. Many of the veins have been cut, sheared and torn into fragments by the force that has transformed sedimentary rocks into crystalline schist, but there are others containing gold, silver and copper that have not been badly broken. ^^ill \ A Manual for Gold Seekers. 43 "These more continuous ore-bearing zones have not the character of ordinary quartz veins, al- though they contain much silica. Instead of the usual white quartz veins the ore occurs in sheared and altered zones of rock, and gradually runs out on both sides. So far as is known these continuous zones of ore are of relatively low grade. Concerning the veins of white quartz first mentioned, it is certain that most of them which contain gold carr^ it only in small quanti- ties, and yet some few are known to be very rich in places, and it is extremely probable that there are many in which the whole of the ore is of comparatively high grade. "The general character of the rocks and of the ore deposits is extremely like that of gold-bear- ing formations along the southern coast of Alaska, in which the Treadwell and other mines are situated, and it is probable that the richness of the Yukon rocks is approximately equal to that of the coast belt. It may be added that the resources of the '^'in.st belt have been only par- tially explored. "Since the formation of the veins and other de- posits of the rocks of the gold belt an enormous length of time has elapsed. During that time the forces of erosion have stripped off the overlying rocks and exposed the metalliferous veins at the surface for long periods, and the rocks of the % 44 Klondilce. gold belt, with the veins which they include, have crumbled and been carried away by the streams to bo deposited in widely diilerent places as gravels, or sands, or mud. In Alaska the streams have been carrying away the gold from the metalliferous belt for a very long period, so that particles of the precious metal are found in D'jarly all parts of the Territory. **It is only in the immediate vicinity of the gold-bearing belt, however, that the particles of gold are large and plentiful enough to repay working under present conditions. Where a stream heads in the gold belt the richest diggings are likely to be near its extreme upper part. This upper part of the current is so swift that the lighter material and the finer gold are car- ried away, leaving in many places a rich deposit of coarse gold, overlaid by coarse gravel, the pebbles being so large as to hinder rapid trans- portation ' ' water. **It is such conditions that the diggings whi(^ . ow being worked are found, with son inportant exceptions. The rich gulches of the Forty-Mile district, and of the Birch Crr ek district, as well as other fields of less importance, all head in the gold-bearing formation. A short distance below the heads of these gulches the stream valley broadens, and the gravels contain finer gold more widely distributed. A Manual for Gold Seekers, 46 "Along certain parts -of the stream this fine gold is concentrated by favorable currents and is often profitably washed, this kind of deposit com- ing under the head of bar diggings. Gold in these more extensive gravels is often present in sufficient quantity to encourage the hope of suc- cessful extraction at some future time when work can be done more cheaply and with suitable machinery. The extent of these gravels which are of possible value is very great." The future agriculturist and stock-raiser in the region of which Dawson is now the gilded capital, must take into consideration the long and severe winter season, and the frozen moss- covered ground. The land, however, can be made serviceable by turning the surface mosa and opening the soil to the influence of the sun and air in summer time. In this way some small areas have .^een brought under cultivation. The returned miners r port that many large stretches of burnt country have undergone a complete change of vegetation after two burn- ings. The cereals have hardly been experimented with, though there is a tradition that the Hud- son Bay Company at Fort Yukon had a small quantity of barley coming to maturity. Barley has been raised in small quantities at FoH-y-Miie Creek, Potatoes J?'"^ done well at 46 Klondike. -i- all points on the river, but the seed has been difficult to obtain. Stock can be kept by using care in providing abundant winter feed by ensilage, or curing natural grass hay, and housing it in the winter. In summer time an abundance of the finest grass is to be found almost everywhere for hur- dred of miles in the neighborhood of Dawson. The ingrefs of gold-seekers along the Klondike has visibly a.'ected the modes of living among the natives, who are now forsaking their more primitive habits for those of the miners. At Forty-Mile Creek members of the Takudh tribe have built themselves log cabins which they in- habit the year round, and they fully appreciate the advantages of stoves and clothing from "the States."' The younger Indians are more fastidi- 0U3 in their dress than the average white man. They are industrious and fairly enterprising, many of them working successfully at mining for wages paid by the whites, and some are min- ing on their own account. As far back as 1860 a deposit of gold was found in the basin of the Yukon by a prospector named George Holt. He also reported the find- ing of coarse specimens along the Hootalinqua Eiver. But it was the discovery of gold near Sitka in 1873, followed by the finds in the vicin- ity of Junea'^ n 1890, that drew att^ution to the t A JIanual for Gold Seekers. 47 possibilities of the newly acquired Territory of Alaska as a gold-producing country. The great abundance of gold was lirst made known by Joseph Juneau, who prospected in the region around the city bearing his name. In 1885 min- ing prospectors began to scatter themselves along the rivers Pelly and Hootalinqua, and in the year following much mention was made of the Stuart River as a field for the enterprising gold-hunter. Rich strikes were made in 1893 by prospectors along Miller Creek, a tributary of Sixty-Mile Creek. The progress made in finding gold along the Alaskan and British Columbian Rivers, although giving high promise of ture discoveries of gold, was not followed by any- thing which created a widespread adventurous spirit among people who were outside the min- ing region. To the daring spirit of Peter the Great belongs the honor of the Russian expeditions which led to the discovery of Alaska. The czar conceived the ambitious project of founding an American Russia, and thus extending his dominions over three continents. The leadership of these ex- plorations he intrusted to Vitus Behring, a Dan- ish captain in the Russian service. On February 5, 1725, the expedition set out overland through Siberia, and three days later the czar died, but hia instructions were faithfully carried out by Catb-^ erine, his wife, and Elizabeth, his daughter. 48 Klondike. Ifj.; III' This arduous work of exploring the Siberian coast and waters continued for sixteen years be- fore the Alaskan coast was sighted. The second Kamschatkan expedition was six years in cross- ing Siberia. It was. in the spring of 1714 that Behring and his lieutenant Chirikof put out into Behring Sea, whose waters his chief had discov- ered on a previous expedition. They had two small vessels. One was commanded by Behring, the other by Chirikof. The little craft became separated at sea, and were never reunited. Chirikof bore away to the east, and during the night of July 15, 1741, sighted land in latitude 55.21. It was afterward disclosed that this was thirty-six hours in advance of Behring's discovery of the mainland of America. Chirikof sent a parly ashore in one of his small boats, to explore the immediate country and secure fresh water. Soon after leaving the vessel they passed around a rocky point and dis- appeared from sight. As they failed to return at the appointed time, another boat's crew Wc i sent ashore. Soon a great smoke was seen aris- ing from the shore, and kWO large canoes, filled with threatening natives came out from the land. They refused to board the strange ship, and it dawned upon Chirikof that all the men he had sent ashore had been massacred. This reduced his crew to small numbers, and Chirikof decided to return to the Kamschf ^^an coast. i^- i A Marmot for Gold Seekers. 49 ►■ I The return voyage was attended with frightful hardships and suffering. Scurvy attacked the men, many died, and the others were rendered helpless by sickness. After weeks of this suffer- ing, the vessel reached the Kamschatkan coast, with only the pilot on deck. Chirikof was one of the first stricken with scurvy, but recovered. Behring's party suffered even greater hardships. After sighting the coast and making a landing, Behring gave orders to lift anchor and return to Kamschatka. The ship becam'3 lost in the maze of islands, and was wrecked upon a barren is- land. There the survivors passed the winter, many of them dying. Caves were dug in the sandbank of a little stream, and a scanty and un- certain food supply was obtained by killing sea animals and resorting to the flesh of dead whales cast upon the beach. Behring died on this island December 8, 1741. In the spring the handful of survivors con- structed a boat from their wrecked vessel and succeeded in working their way back to the Siberian coast, where they were received with great rejoicing, having long been given up for dead. Among the peoqle who have Just returned from the new Klondike gold mines are men who had been for more than ten years facing the dangers and hardships of the frozen North in : 50 Klondike. the hope of making a rich find, and signally failed. Now tliey come back with fortunes stowed in their gripsacks and stories of untold millions to be picked up in the country of which so little is known. The new El Dorado lies just across the Alaskan boundary, in British terri- tory. It is of recent discovery; but already there are at least 5,000 people on tlie ground, and more are flocking in that direction. The dis- covery of the Klondike region presents a story that is uncommonly interesting. Around Forty- Mile Camp, on the Yukon, is a tribe of Indians known as the Slickers, and with them is a man who, years ago, was known as George Cormack, but who is now called **Slick George." In Sep- tember last, at the head of a party of Indians, he left his hut near Forty-Mile Camp, and started in a southerly direction, saying that he intended to find a new gold field before his re- turn. He came back two weeks later and startled the miners with the announcement that forty miles away there was gold to be found in plenty. The streams abounded with the yellow metal, and all that was needed was for somebody to pick it up. Many persons flocked to the place, and in time the word reached Forty-Mile Camp that untold riches could be found along the bottom of Bonanza Creek and its tribu- taries. Men who had failed at the former camp i \:\ A Manual for Gold Seekers. 51 \ r X immediately packed up their belongings and set out for the new fields. It was a hard and trying journey, but that was nothing with the promise of millions at the end of the route. The Yukon River, which crosses Alaska from east to west and empties into the Pacific a little south of Behring Strait, is said to be a mightier stream than the Columbia. River steamers nav- igate it hundreds of miles from its mouth. Pas- sengers from Seattle are usually transferred from ocean steamships to these vessels at St. Michael's Island, near the mouth of the Yukon. The source of the river is in British territory, 300 or 300 miles south of the point where the stream crooks away westward into Alaska. In fact, it may be said to drain very jiearly the same moun- tain slopes as the Fraser, Columbia, Peace, and Stickine. It was natural, therefore, to expect that gold would be found along the main chan- nel of the Y'^ukon or some of its tributaries. Explorers were sent out from two bases. One set went up the river from its mou^h, traversing the whole of Alaska from west to east, and another pushed up from the south, from the vi- cinity of Juneau, through Chilkat Pass. An American company established trading stations near the source of the river five or six years ago. Most of the prospecting has been done either be- tween this locality and the point where the river 62 Klondike. m crossed into Alaska, or within the first 100 miles over the line. Fine gold dust in small quanti- ties was found at the mouth of the Porcupine River, a stream that joins the Yukon about 100 miles west of the boundary, and also near the mouth of Forty-Mile Creek, most of whose course lies in Alaska, but which crosses into British ter- ritory before emptying into the big river. Fort Cudahy is situated here, and Circle City, where there were other mining camps, is about fifty miles further west. These places are about 1800 or 1900 miles from the sea, if one travels by steamboat, and in the winter are completely cut off from the outer world. The Klondike Kiver is not to be found, or, at least, is not easily identified on most maps; it is a small stream, like Forty- Mile Creek, and discharges into the Yukon not many miles from the eastern boundary of Alaska. Still, Seattle papers advertise transportation to the Klondike region to Fort Cudahy and Circle City, by ocean steamers that transfer to river boats at St. Michael's Island! The district is intersected by the 65th parallel of north latitude, and has an Arctic climate. The gravel is frozen solid all the year except for a few weeks, or at most two or three months, and has to be thawed out in some way before the gold can be separated. The streams which supply the water for washing the dirt also A Manual for Gold Seekers. 58 freeze up. Hence placer mining must be con- ducted there under great disadvantages. The new camp is peculiar for several reasons. The nadian provincial police do not allow the men to carry arms. If the miners get drunk and fight they use their fists, and the land laws are so good that no claim-jumping is possible. Daw- son City now has 4,000 people, and it is ex- pected that 2,000 more will swarm in before snow flies and the trail from Juneau is closed for the winter. The strike was made in the Klondike region in August and September, 1896, but the news did not get even to Circle City until December 15, when there was a great stampede over the 300 miles intervening between there and the newer fields. During the winter, when the streams entering into the Klondike were frozen solid, work in 100 claims was prosecuted, and heaps of frozen gravel were piled up on the banks of the streams awaiting to be thawed out in the spring. The gold is found under from 13 feet to 20 feet of sand and gravel at the bed of the creek. Through the ice the miners burned holes with fire, and then blasted out the pay dirt on the benches of bed rock. On August 12 George Cormack made the first great strike on Bonanza Creek, and on August 19 seven claims were filed in that region. Word got to Forty- 54 Klondihe. Mile and Circle City, but the news was looked upon as a rumor. On December 15, however, authentic news was carried to Circle City by J. M. Wilson, of the Alaska Commercial Company, and Thomas O'Brien, a trader. The towns of Circle City and Forty-Mile, on the Yukon, were deserted a week after the news reached there late in the spring, and the residents adjourned en masse to the Klondike. The country covered by Klondike camp is small in ares, extending from the mouth of the river only nine miles west. There is an immense reach of country beyond which has not as yet been prospected. At this rate Alaska's popula- tion will be trebled in a year. Those who made the 300 miles iirst struck it richest. Of all the 200 claims staked out on the Bonanza and Eldo- rado Creeks not one has proved a blank. Not less than 300 claims have been staked out. The largest nugget yet found was picked up on Claim No. 6, on the Bonanza, and was worth $260. Some have brought out but a portion of their clean-up, preferring to invest other portions in mines they knew to ^e rich. Among the most lucky are J. J. Clements, of Los Angelos, who has cleaned up about $170,000; he brought out $50,- 000 and invested the res;; Professor T.C. Lippy, of Seattle, who brought out about $50,000 and claims to have $150^000 in sight, and thinks his it i A Manual for Gold Seekers. 55 k mine is worth $500,000 or more; William Stan- ley, of Seattle, who cleaned up $100,000, and Clarence Berry, the same. All this gold is the clean-up of last winter's work. The stories of the returned miners vary only in the details of their good fortune. L. B. Rhodes, an old miner, tells the following story: **I am located on Claim No. 21, above the dis- covery on Bonanza Creek. I was among the for- tunate ones, as I cleared about $40,000; but brought only $5,000 with me. I was the first man to go to bed rock gravel, and to discover that it was lined with gold dust and nuggets. The rock was seamed and cut in V-shaped streaks, caused, it is supposed, by glacial action. In these seams I found a clay which was exceed- ingly rich. In fact, there was a stratum of pay gravel 4 feet thick upon the rock, which was lined with gold, particularly in these channels or streaks. The rock was about 16 feet from the surface. That discovery made the camp. It was made on October 23, 1896, and as soon as the news spread everybody rushed to the dig- gings from Circle City, forty miles away, and every other camp in the district. There was a lack of food. We had nothing but what was sledded from Forty-Mile. Flour sold as high as $45 a sack, and shovels at $18. I invested my money in another claim^ a two-thirds divided in- I If 66 Klondike. ■ I terested in Claim No. 23. If I had not bought in I could have brought out at least $25,000, but the investment there is the best security, and pays interest from 15 to 25 per cent, a year.'* The Alaska MinUig Record, published in Juneau, contains letters stating that the stories told are not exaggerated. "One hundred dol- lars to the pan is very common. One can hardly believe it, but it is true, nevertheless. A very hard country to live in on account of the mos- quitoes and poor grub, but healthy and a show to make a ten-strike. There is nothing a man could eat or wear that he cannot get a good price for. First-class rubber boots are worth from an ounce to $25 per pair. The price of flour has been raised from $4 to $6 and was selling at $50 when we arrived, as it was being freighted from Forty-Mile. One boat has already reached here, and another is expected to-day. Big money can be made by bringing small outfits over the trail this fall. Wages have been $15 per day all winter, though a reduction to $10 was at- tempted; but the miners quit work." Another letter says: ''It will pay to bring anything here which can be carried in; the demand is good, and prices such that there is money in anything that can be brought in." In speaking of American miners in the Yukon and through Canadian territory, Governor Mack- i A Manual for Gold Seekers. 67 intosh, of the Northwest Territories, said that those who have made discoveries and complied with the laws are on the same plane as British subjects, and entitled to the same rights, privileges and protection. This, according to Governor Mackintosh, is in line with the policy of the Canadian Government in its desire to encourage the best American miners, who are considered the best miners in the world, to go to the Northwest Territory and assist in its development. He then spoke of the unwritten laws of the district and of the sense of honor that prevails among the men who have gone into the district as miners. Inspector Strickland had told him that he had walked into a cabin in which more than a quarter of a million dollars lay unpro- tected. While its value was recognized on all sides, no attempt was made at any time to steal it. Food that is cached along the trails is un- molested. If a hungry man passes along he takes a nibble, but that is all. There are un- written laws of the miners that have a founda- tion of honor, and if any violation of the customs of the district were perpetrated it would be a sorry day for the person who tried to take ad- vantage of the trust imposed upon all. Governor Mackintosh said that in this much- discuss^ district the gold area is not confined. ! m .1,1 ' 'i 58 Klondike. There are nearly 9,000 miles of waterways con- necterl with and tributary to the McKenzio, Porcupine, Laird, Peily, Lewis and Yukon Rivers, not mentioning the. Stuart and Hoota- linqua Kivers. Some of these are very large creeks from twenty to fifty feet wide. All have gold-bearing gravel. For instance, Dominion Creek appears to prom- ise quite as rich a yield as the Klondike. "To be candid," said Mr. Mackintosh, "it would seem as though this placer area will be inexhaust- ible, and possible to work for years to come, while the old Hudson Bay explorers state that some of the quartz mines north and west of the Yukon will yield from $200 to $300 per ton, free-milling ore. Added to this the timber sup- ply in various sizes follows all of the water stretches. Coal has been found in the valley of Forty-Mile Creek and at other points." The governor states that his disposition is not to encourage wild excitement or to foster an un- desirable quality of emigration. He does not think that any one should go who is not well provided with everything demanded by the con- ditions of the rigorous climate. The area hastily examined during last season is but a portion of the great interior of Alaska. That gold occurs over a large extent of country has been d^^^rmined, but the richness of the •|-!f ' i : i» A Mcmual for Gold Seehers. 69 various veins and lodes remains to be ascer- tained by actual mining operations. Gold is known to occur in the great unexplored regions Bouth of the Yukon, ber^uso of its presence in the wash of the streams, ctnd it is quite probable that the Yukon gold belt extends to the north and west, but this can be determined only by further exploration. There is a comparatively unknown region north of Cook's Inlet. M'ps show that the Alaska Mountains are broken down north of Cook's Inlet, and that the Sushitna River ex- tends almost directly north 150 miles, when it branches, one large tributary coming from the west and another from the northeast. The latter was followed up northward 200 miles to a large lake. "Talk about it being hot here to-day," sr^id one bearded Yukoner to a Seattle man, "whj*. this is cool weather compared to what we get during the Alaskan summer along the valley of the Yukon. The sun swings around there in a circle for three months, just dipping below the horizon part of the time for a night which is from three minutes to three hours long. It is one day for six weeks, when the sun never sets, and the only night is one conjured up in the imagination. Talk about it being hot. Why, up in the Yukon Valley in the foothills, the 60 Klondike. average temperature during the summer is 105 to 120 degrees. It never rains and the heat is pitiless. The atmosphere is dry, however, and one can stand the heat better than in India, say, where the heat is mixed with humidity.'* "There is a peculiar thing about the valley of the Yukon and all southeastern Alaska, in fact," says Mr. Swineford, who from 1885 to 1890 was governor of that part of the United States, and is now government inspector of surveyors-general and district land officers, and who owns large mining properties in Alaska. "That is the per- petual verdure during the summer months. No matter how hot it is nor how dry — the rain may not fall from the beginning of June until the close of summer or the last of August — yet the grass and shrubbery will be as green and luxuriant as it is here now. Your verdure this summer, on account of the excessive rainfall, is something like that in the interior of Alaska, dark green and sturdy, full of life, like a healthy, robust man. In Alaska, however, the luxuriance and virility of the verdure is due to the fact that the ground never thaws below a depth of six to ten feet. No matter how hot it is, the hotter the better, the frozen ground continually gives up to the roots of the grasses and growing grains a life-giving moisture. "The Yukon Valley is like the valley of ^he Eed itii A Manual for Gold Seekers. 61 \ Kiver of the North in Minnesota. Although the mines are rivh and easily worked it costs a small fortune to get them in condition to mine, and it costs lots of money to live and to transport the gold dust to a market. The average young man who makes up his mind to strike for the Yukon gold fields imagines that his journey is ended when he reaches Juneau — that he has but to step across the country and he is at the Yukon. He will find, however, that he is greatly mis- taken. On arriving at Juneau ho will have to get an outfit that will cost him from ^500 to $600, and then he will have to cross a wild mountain- ous country, along Indian trails. He will have to cross four large lakes and make three portages before he reaches the Yukon River. Arrived there, however, it is comparatively easy sailing uutil he comes to a likely tributary, up which he will have to work to a placer field. "In summer the heat is something awful in the valleys of those little tributaries, and the miner is compelled to wear a closely-woven mosquito netting over his face and gloves on his hands, to keep from being blinded by the mosquitoes and black flies, which swarm in countless numbers in the valleys. So bad are they that the sleeves at the wrists and the trousers at the ankles must be tied tightly, or the little pests will crawi iTiside. Their sting ^ms to be more venomo ' than Ml 11 I' w IRMi 62 Klondike. Ui iS ; ^ ; ii that of the mosquito and black fly here. It is impossible to keep domestic animals in the val- leys — the flies will blind them in a day. All the wild animals, the reindeer, elk, etc., remain on the mountains during the summer. *'\Vhat the country needs above all things is communication with the outside world. If the government at Washington would make some arrangement whereby the Canadians could get a port of entry on the disputed part of the coast, it would be a great boon to Alaska, as well as to this part of the Northwest Territory. Most of the men who ''hit it" are Americans, whose gold will go to San Francisco and the United States. Because of the lack of adequate communication with the civilized Avorld the miners are in con- stant fear lest supplies should give out. Many articles can be had but for a limited time after the arrival of a steamer, and those who are not fortunate enough to get a supply at that time must do without for weeks and months, no matter how much gold they may have to make purchases with. The scarcity may be one of provisions, window sashes, or gum boots, but al- ways there is a scarcity there of some important article. Generally there is never enough of any- thing, and only the opening up of communica- tion with the coast by some other route than the mouth of the Yukon offers any pn^speot of ade- ) I A Manual for Gold Seekers. 63 quate relief. If the Canadians had a port of entry they would have commerce coming down the river from the direction of Junean, and the country would not be dependent upon the scanty supplies coming 1,900 miles up the Yukon from Behring Sea." There are lots of creeks as yet unprospected and lots of gold to be had, and it is all right if you go fully prepared for the worst. The first year must be practically lost, so the only show is for a man to buy some claim or go to work. The rate of wages will fall, and he will be again badly off. The country is well timbered about Klondike. The summer is dry, hot and pleasant. Grain is mostly a failure. Turnips and radishes will flourish, and potatoes, though small, will grow well. Cabbages will not head at all. Fodder is abundant, and cattle could be easily kept if they were taken into the country. The growth of plants is rapid after the snow disappears. In June the sun sets about 10:30 P.M. and rises about 3 a.m. Even at midnight, however, it is almost as light as at noonday. The mean temperature of Klondike for the four seasons is as follows: Spring, 14.22; summer, 59.67; autumn, 17.37; winter— 30.80. Think of it — a mean winter temperature of I- li; i I! ! 64 Klondike. thirty degrees below zero! The winter fall of snow is between five and ten feet. The following table of distances on the over- land trip will be found of interest: MILES Seattle to Juneau 899 Juneau to Dyea 100 Dyea to foot of canyon 7 Foot of canyon to Sheep Camp 6 Sheep Camp to summit .... 5 Summit to head of Lake Lindermann 9 Lake Lindermann (length) 6 Foot Lake Lindermann to head Lake Bennett 1 Lake Bennett (length) 26 Foot Lake Bennett to head Tagish Lake 2.7 Tagish Lake (length) 16* Foot Tagish Lake to head Mud Lake 6 Mud Lake (length) 20 Foot Mud Lake to Grand Canyon 8^ Grand Canyon to White Horse Rapids 2 White Horse Rapids to Tahkeena River 16 Tahkeena River to head Lake Le Barge 14 Lake Le Barge (length) 81 Foot Lake Le Barge to Hootalinqua River 80 Hootalinqua River to Big Salmon River. 84 Big Salmon River to Little Salmon River 87 Little Salmon River to Five Fingers 60 Five Fingers to Fort Selkirk 58 Fort Selkirk to Stuart River 118 Stuart River to Sixty-Mile 21 Sixty-Mile to Dawson City 49 Dawson City to Forty-Mile 52 Forty-Mile to Fort Cudahy 40 Fort Cudahy to Circle City 240 f i \l t A Manual for Gold Seekers. 65 The following tableg ives the places and dis- tances when making the outride trip by way of St. Michael's: MILES Seattle to St. Michael's 8,000 St. Michael's to Kutlik 100 Kutlik to Andreafsky 125 Andreafsky to Holy Cross 135 Holy Cross to Koserofsky 5 Koserofsky to Anvik 75 Anvik to Nulate 225 Nulate to Novikakat 145 Novikakat to Tanana ... 80 Tanana to Fort Yukon 450 Fort Yukon to Circle City. 80 Circle City to Forty-Mile 240 Forty-Mile to Dawson City 52 From Juneau the distances to various points are as follows: MILES To Haines (Chilkat) 80 To head of canoe navigation 106 To Summit of Chilkoot Pass 115 To Lake Lindermann Landing 124 To head of Lake Bennett 129 To boundary line between British Columbia and Northwest Territory 189 To foot of Lake Bennett 155 To foot of Caribou Crossing 158 To foot of Takou Lake 175 To Takish House. 179 To head of Mud Lake 180 66 Klondike. MILES To foot of Lake Marsh 200 To head of canyon 325 To head of White Horse Rapids 228 To Tahkeena River 240 To head of Lake Le Barge 256 To foot of Lake Le Barge 287 To Hootalinqua 320 To Cassiar Bar 347 To Little Sahnon River 390 To Five Fingers 451 To Pelly River 510 ToStnart River 630 To Forty-Mile Creek 750 From Juneau to Sitka the distance is 160 miles; Juneau to Wrangel, 148 miles; Juneau to Seattle, 899 miles, and to San Francisco, 1,596 miles. i> 1^ 11' \ i ■..,«.»».M(«.<»*i--n».*>» ' r ■0 The'Ascent of Chilkoot Pass,— Page 67. ? I J ; 'i'\ • I i !! i kr M: A Manual for Gold /Seekers, 67 THE KLONDIKE TRAIL. There are at least six routes to the Klondike. The first and easiest is by steamer from San Francisco, or Seattle, to St. Michael's Island near the mouth of the river. The second is over the Chilkoot Pass. The third crosses the White Pass. The fourth leads from Telegraph Creek on the Stickeen River to the headwaters of the Lewis branch of the Yukon. The fifth is an overland trail from Edmonton to the headwaters of the Pelly. The sixth is by water down the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers to Fort Simpson, and from thence over the mountains to the head of the Porcupine, a tributary of the Yukon. This route may be varied by making Winnipeg instead of Edmonton the starting point, and so reaching the Athabasca by way of Lake Winni- peg- All will be found described in the following chapter. The all-water route, by way of the mouth of im T- I es Klondike. till I li iir; the Yukon, is a fifteen days' voyage from Seattle to St. Michael. One goes straight out into the Pacific toward Japan for 1,800 miles. Then one turns through Unimak Pass to the Aleutian Islands, and touches for a day at the port of Dutch Harbor. Thence one sails away to the North across Behring Sea and past the Seal Islands, 800 miles beyond, to the port of St. Michael. This is a transfer point, and the end of the ocean voyage, At St. Michael, after a wait of anywhere from a day to two weeks, grant- ing that the river is open, one may go aboard a flat-bottomed river steamer for another fifteen or twenty days' voyage up the Yukon. If the traveler should arrive at St. Michael as early as August 25, he would be almost assured of reaching the mines before cold weather closed river navigation, but arriving later than that his chances would be good for either wintering on the desolate little island of St. Michael, or traveling by foot and dog sled the 1,900 miles to the mines after the river had frozen into a safe highway. As to the probabilities of the ocean route, a boat leaving Seattle or San Francisco by August 10 should make safe connections at St. Michael. As early as August 1 the New York Sun warned its readers that: "People who have the gold fever do not realize that ships and steamers n" A Manual for Gold Seekers. 69 starting for St. Michael, except in few cases, cannot hope to get through to Klondike the same year. It has already been reported tliat there is very little water in the Yukon this year, and it is doubtful whether the regular river steamers can get through before the winter freeze-up. Parties starting for the gold fields in steamers, on the decks of which are sections of river boats, cannot put their portable craft together in time, on reaching St. Michael, to float boats and reach Dawson City before the season closes. At no season can gasoline launches be used to advan- tage on the river, except for transporting goods part of the way up stream." The only practical vessel for river trade is a small flat-bottom river steamer drawing from one to two feet of water, which can pass over the sand bars. When the present rush for St. Michael is over a crowd of fortune-seekers will head for the Juneau route, which is open nearly all the year. A number of steamboats will be put on the Yukon next summer; twenty are now building. At present, however, there are but three boats plying above St. Michael on the Yukon. They are flat-bottomed, stern-wheel boats, such as are used on the Missouri River. A fourth one is building. The two companies own- ing these boats having a monoply on the supplies of the region. ¥ h ■ 1, ii. i Ms I* it 70 Klondike, The North American Transportation and Trading Company run three steamers from San Francisco to Seattle, thence to St. Michael, and river boats from St. Michael up the Yukon Biver to Circle City. A ticket on the steamers Portland or Excelsior, from Seattle to Circle City costs $150, and it takes the boats fifteen days to make the trip. This will not suit your purpose if you want to start earlier than May 1. The last boat leaves San Francisco on August 30. "We have about 5,000 tons of provisions on the river," said Louis Sloss, president of the company, ''and we will send in as much more as possible. It is impossible, however, to know whether there will be enough for the people, for I understand that by the close of the open season Dawson will have three or four times as many people as it did a month or two ago. If there are not enough provisions the Alaska company may bo blamed, but it will not be our fault. Our boats can carry only so much, and if that is not enough it is not our fault. We advise every one to travel overland from Juneau, taking pro- visions with them. If this were done a probable famine would be avoided. "The Excelsior will sail from here to St. Michael, where it connects with the river boats to Dawson. These river boats are stern- wheelers, like the Sacramento river boats, and A Manual for Gold Seekers. 71 each of them tows a barge loaded with provisions. The boat that connects with the Excelsior will be the last to go up the river this season. It will arrive at Dawson early in September. The river usually freezes from the first to the fifteenth of October. Our boat can return down stream to St. Michael before the river closes, but it can not go up again until next year.'* The Excelsior allows 150 pounds of baggage to each passenger and no more. The space is too valuable to allow additional accommodations. The distances from Seattle by the ocean route, according to Mr. Sloss, are: MILES To St. Michael 2,850 " Circle City 4,350 " Forty-Mile 4,600 " Klondike 4,650 Five out of every six miners, however, that start for the Yukon gold regions before June, 1898, will probably go in by way of Juneau and either the Chilkoot or the White Passes. All the first of the rush has been through the former, and hundreds of tons of freight are already piled there aw^aiting shipment. Foui days after leaving Victoria, British Columbia, you are at Juneau. You already begin to sniff the placers from afar. Away off to the north are ■»«'' l> i 72 Klondike. tho huge white bulwarks which you must cross before you can reach tlie Ehlorado. Between you and their summits are tlie leaguo-long levels of snow, and cold Nature's white death rose. You will find Juneau a strange little town, damp, half-frozen and huddled close to the mouth of an island bay. The queer little houses are dis- maying. The strange-looking Chilkats walk about peering from beneath their hooded furs. Fish, not gold, is their ambition. Occasionally one appears leading in leash half a dozen wild-looking dogs. As the camel is the ship of tho tropic desert, so are these dogs the little steam engines of the Arctic. The dominion authorities have sent customs officers to the head of the Lynn Canal and to Lake Tagish. There is a collector at Fort Cudahy, only fifty miles from Dawson City, and these arrangements, backed up by a strong force of police, arc considered ample for the protection of revenue just now. The greatest question of all is one of corumu- nication. It is reported that a pack trail exists for twenty of the eighty miles which separates the coast from the first post to be established at GO degrees of north latitude in undisputed Brit- ish territory. If so, -i ) irrow-guage railway can be built where iher'3 is a pack trail. Tho cost would not bo gieat, and if cars could be hauled A Manual /or Gold Seel'ers. 7:1 twice u (lay over the nioiuitains facing the const, ti troincjidoua obstacle would be overcome; be- (;aiise in winter it is impossible to cross tlu! mountains except at tbe risk of life, and to l)e caugbt in a storm would be fatal. Tbe mounted police force will be increased from 20 to 100. Mounted police posts Avill be established at distances of fifty miles apart up to Fort Selkirk. These will be used to open up a winter road, over which monthly mails will bo sent by dog trains. If possible a telegraph line will be con- structed over the mountains from the head of the Lynn Canal to tlie first post. By the present method of transportation over the pass, by horse and Indian packing, it is estimated that it will require six months to get the present accumula- tion out of the way, to say nothing of that now daily piling up at Dyea. The distance over to the divide is thirty miles, and the ordinary outfit of the miner is 1,H00 pounds, three days being consumed in making a round trip. Two hun- dred pounds is a load for a pack animal, while the liidians carry from 75 to 150 pounds apiece. There are now 200 Indians and JJOO horses en- gaged in packing over this trail, assisted by 1,000 miners, and icnderfeet. It is sugf^ested that army officers or good road engineers miglit find an easy solution by organizing the entire gang, and constructing a 74 Klondike. first-class wagon road, a feat that could be ac- complished in less than thirty days. One correspondent writes: "There is plenty of good prospecting ground for years to come, but it is better to go about it in a systematic manner than to rush ofE at half-cock. As to reaching the diggings by the way of Dyea, I have to say this: I will go in that way in the spring, and by using a sled carry 1,000 pounds of supplies, whereas the men who are now attempting that route will have a hard time to get in with 250 pounds. You see in the spring all the gulches from Dyea to Lake Lindermann are filled with snow and ice. You can drag your sled over them easily. At present you must pack your goods or hire Indians. * 'These Indians are sharp and will get white men to bidding against each other. The man who pays the highest will secure their services. Already the Indians have run the price per pound up to twenty-five cents and more. After you reach Lake Lindermann you build a raft of poles and push along to its end; then you have a portage of a couple of miles before you reach Lake Bennett. Here you want a boat; but if you think you will get it easily you may bo greatly mistaken. The timber is small; it is hard work to get a tree that will produce 60 feet, and you need about 350 feet." .'/' iu.dnni*^'^'^'^'^'"^'^^^-'"'^ '"" A Manual for Gold /Seekers. 75 In approaching Juneau the vessel is often sub- jected to the tierce winds which sweep down the valley of the Takou Kiver. If there is a strong north or northwest wind it comes like a demon roaring out from the Takou, lashing the water into foam in its rage, and tossing volumes of spray clear over the top of Grand Island. When the steamer has come around to the head of the island it takes the scow in tow, and in about twenty hours from the time of leaving it enters the mouth of the Dyea Kiver near Chilkoot, and the salt water journey is ended. Here on a sandpit about a mile below Healy & Wilson's trading posts, the outfits are taken from the scow and piled upon the beach. Each man must look out for himself now; the guar- dianship of your baggage by any carrying com- pany is ended. Juneau is nearly a hundred miles behind you. Immediately in the fore- ground is the ranch and store owned by Iloaly & Wilson, and beyond in their mantles of snow rise the coast mountains, cold and severe, striking a feeling of dread into many a heart; and beyond this frozen barrier there stretches away hundreds of miles the vast country of the Yukon, an ex- panse so wide that it is limited only by the ox- tent of man's endurance. But haste must be made in the sorting of outfits and getting them above tide water. Most miners camp near by in m » 76 Klondike. \l the edge of the woods, perhaps taking one or two meals at the trading posts, which can be had at the price of fifty cents each, others find both board and lodging there until they are ready to push on. Now for the first time the miner begins to realize that the proper outfit for a trip of this kind is the result of experience, and the longer he has been in this country, and the more thor- oughly he knows it, just so much more care is used in the selection and packing of his outfit. A careful and thorough examination should be made to see that nothing has been lost or for- gotten. Here he bids farewell to hotels, restau- raunts, steamboats and stores — in fact to civiliza- tion, and is a "free man" to pursue his course how and where he will; beyond all conventional- ities of society, and practically beyond all law, so far as it is the outgrowth of organized govern- ments. Going up the Dyea Eiver, five miles on the ice will bring one to the mouth of the canyon. Here in the woods a comfortable camp can be easily arranged. The tent is pitched on top of the snow, the poles and pins being pushed down into it. While some are busily engaged in build- ing a fire and making a bed, the best cook of the party prepares the supper. If you have no stove a camp fire must be built. :i^iaiiiiiM«i«8«ii*^^ .,a»M