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TREADGOLD M.A. (Late Scholar of Hertford College, Oxford i SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF ''THE MINING JOURNAL, RAILWAY AND COMMERCIAL GAZETTE," ON THE GOLDFIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE. (LONDON, ENG.) With Maps, Practical Diaf^rams and Sections. PRICE FIFTY CESTS TORONTO GEORGE N. MORANG & COMPANY, LIMITED 1899 ^^/^'^ ^crc\ Entered accordingr to Act of Parliament of (^anada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine. by Georob N. Morano & Company, LiMiTKD, m the office of the Miniiter of Agriculture. REPORT ON THE GOLDFIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE V7i ••■'■ ii>ii.iii»W. I ij 4- \ \ \ 9s tm. -^- ^ -r. A --^^ V .A*'.-" V , .'f ' V» l?1 ^^ 9 > I' y It \ i, ' 1 I UJ O ■v.,,.,_^v •Tv' ♦.. t5 M O > •^ '"^'^ N ^.- ^ -4iv. >r- '■«. 'C *»• H •^f .r ^j t , \V ►vS!^'" .vsV" * * J pKjesi^ ^lae ^-f -^-: •=i«w UJ a o Q. < UJ y/ ^"l.. *• 'til ^^ .Vf kj tt \ 3 f r-i \ ^ niS ■-^ y) •■--^-v ~ '"'^"'TinT^-S''--. 5;*, ^ r oil II / t ■■*iilll )l IMIII Kl Ul i ll' ^'HWI— »— f ■WBtrP fliWm ii-a^B— ■*g<»g f #* II , i ! ii L ! 'i\ I \ -J^t WSSt" ID i ^.^^l ?i J^ii <> '^> ^/ '!« ..--^ >■ ' ^i ^5 ^ M. V**' \ 1} f **»"'M ! I ;' * « J^ it'^^ • v rvf*^ I t **r ..,^'^' ■*i' *» '.-* '/ <:7\yi. «.'■«* 7^- Siifinn Mi^k^^ ••^•■{•••••WWMillMRH '"^^ h^ % "^it •'/ .«^^ M ./ t A- Report ON The Goldfields OF THE Klondike, BV A. N. C. Treadgold, M.A. (Late Scholar of Hrrtford College. Oxford), SPECIAL COMMISSIONER To " The Mining /ourna/, Kailway and Commercial Gazette,- (London, Eng. ), on the Goldfields of the Klondike. ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS. CHARTS, DIAGRAMS, Etc. Price Fifty Cents. TORONTO: GEORGE N MORANG & COMPANY, Limited. 1899. ?lff£1 :i*!fti^l'c CONTENTS. 1. GENERAL REVIEW. page. The Journey to Klondike— Routes and Railway Policy- General Character of Canada west of the Rocky Mountains —Moss in the Yukon— Yukon Muskeg— The Streams of the North— The Products of the Yukon— Indians— Fish— Game— Berries— Grass— Horses in the Yukon— Oxen- Sheep in the Yukon i 2. GEOLOGY OF THE KLONDIKE. Hill Claims— Bench Claims— Creek Claims— Special Features of the Klondike Creeks— The Nature of the Gravels— The Arrangement of the Gravels— The Extent of the Pay Gravels in the Proved Creeks— The Production of the Klondike— Quartz 21 3. METHODS OF MINING IN THE KLONDIKE. Winter Drifting ^6 Summer Sluicing ci The System of •' Lays " eg 4. YUKON AS FIELD FOR CAPITAL. Openings for Capital 61 Cautions to Capital 6^ Requirements of Capital 66 1. Timber 55 2. Water 5- 3. Labour 68 4. Laws and Administration 69 5. Means of Communication 70 6. Seasons and Climate 71 5. GRIEVANCES OF THE KLONDIKE 75 6. CERTAIN POINTS IN THE MINING LAWS. Reprosentation of Claims 78 Royalty of 10 per cent 7g Rewards of the Prospector 82 7. THE FROZEN SOIL AND GRAVEL OF THE YUKON - 83 8. PROSPECTING IN THE YUKON IN .898 ... 85 9. RESULTS OF PROSPECTING IN 1898 - - . - 88 10. WHAT WILL BE THE METHOD OF FUTURE PROS- PECTING? 8 11. MOSQUITOES g3 i p A T Ci Bi Ti Dt Pa Dt Pa Fh Ro. Ah Sin Oil, EXPLANATION OF TERMS. The Yukon is the name of the river which, rising on the north side of the Chiicoot and White Passes in about lat. long. , flows in a north-westerly direction, and, after a course of some two thousand five hundred and fifty miles, empties itself into the Behnng Sea. The name is also applied lo the Canadian portion of the territory through which the Yukon flows. The river is not called Yukon until its two main component parts, the Lewes and the Pelly, have united at Fort Selkirk. Alaska is the name of the American portion of the land drained by the Yukon River. Placer = A\\\i\\3.\ deposit containing gold. Alaskan Boundary C««//" s m V "Nw V^' r---- S ■ s y jjT'ijj y g f ? I ■ f r \ '-si ^ risv- ^0 c \ /-CA^ t .-/ 7? J f N C X V V Jvil;.^., -H T- ^. ' -"K \S\ ^^- ( t f ■/-:.- I' t-N. ' ■ It ^ - / ^'' JS. .'^'' ./ fx: .:? K- -y Ji ....„ ,/:/. sw J / 1 » > ^" \ -^' \ - \ - <3", K *.i^ fc Vh-^-s^"^ / N •' A> *3N<.:.7>i.Nti X / -3**.^^ r> * ry^-.^sC^ / J fe iiXt?r!Frii™aTi3j?*3s^3i™:ifciEag!@^^ REIPORT ON THE GOLDFIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE. .. A / / The Klondike has produced this year (i8g8) not less than 500,000 ozs. of gold ($8,000,000). With this output the Yukon passes out of the hands of the fiction-mongers and becomes worthy of serious consideration at the hands of busi- ness men. Accordingly, a set of facts concerning the conditions of this sudden increase of the world's stock of gold may prove useful at a time when the attention of the business world is being drawn to the far North-west. What yesterday were but " infinite possibilities" are to-day industrial facts, and deserve attention. Canada has been very slow in showing herself as she is to the investing world ; it is but a little while since she lay confined to her own Eastern seaboard. Then she gathered her energies and passed the bounds away to the Western Prairies, where already she grows wheat and cattle for her- self and the old world. Then she passed the Rockies and revealed the mineral wealth of British Columbia. To-day she is just beginning to show the gold of the natural exten- sion of British Columbia to the Nor'h-west, called "the Yukon." And all the time both the whole and each several part of her have had to contend with prejudices innumerable within and without, prejudices which slowly disappear with lapse of years and increasing facilities for travel and increas- ing desire to use such facilities. The Englishman must travel if he would know Canada ; the Englishman and the Canadian of Eastern Canada must travel if they would know British Columbia, all three must travel if they would know the Yukon. In ignorance of the Yukon all three are alike. To know the Yukon involves long time and trouble ; so hard a thing it is to connect together countries separated by great natural difficulties or great natural distances. The Yukon has quite outstripped the natural order of development of territory in Canada. If we would approach it by land, whether from north, or east, or south, we must pass nearly a thousand miles of almost totally unexplored and uninhabited country — the nearest Hudson Bay Fort is nearly a thousand miles from Dawson City — while, if we approach it by sea, it appears literally as a transmarine possession of Canada, which we must enter through an American port and a few miles of American territory. The discovery of gold in Northern latitudes is no new thing ; everybody has heard of the great Siberian Placers so profitable to Russia, and in the American Yukon itself there has been profitable gold mining and trading on a small scale for many years, to the gain chiefly of Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. But the discovery of the Klondike gold deposit has precipitated the development of the Yukon before the Alaskan Boundary question could be decided, or the inter- vening thousand miles between the Yukon and the nearest settled part of Canada could be opened up. For this prema- turity the Canadian Yukon will have to pay the penalty for still a little while in dearness of supplies, owing to retarded transportation facilities and in lack of capital, due to general ignorance of her conditions of development. For indeed the ignorance of the far North-west is general, and for still a while the man who would tell all the truth about it is in danger of being smiled at by Canadians just as much as by the rest of the world ; so general a fault is it to think we know all when we have no means of knowing aught save a very little. This is a very general statement ; my meaning will be clear when I say that among the men who made the curious mistake of selecting the Edmonton or other strange routes to the Yukon last autumn or last spring were quite as many Canadians as Englishmen, etc. All intelligent men who have been through the Canadian Yukon agree with the old-timers, that the true story of the North has not yet been told — and will not be for a long time, I should like to add ; for it is a vast country, and even the little, little portion of it called the Klondike has been only very superficially examined J I \o new cers so f there Jl scale mcisco, deposit ore the e inter- nearest pr e ma- ul ty for etarded general eed the still a it is in as by ink we save a eaning de the trange uite as It men ith the et been o add ; on of it amined as yet. About no country has there been n- orejirresponsible talk in so short a time, more assumption o( knowledge by men who not only have never been to the '/ukon, but could not give an account of its conditions, even if ihey had. Briefly, the Klondike up to the present has been a news- paper property, and the newspaper correspondents have t, as a whole, been possessed of the qualifications of min( .id body needed by those who desire to convey inform, .on about so important a goldfield as the Klondike. The Klon- dike country, pending the construction of roads, is so diflicult for the ordinary traveller that it is small wonder if news- paper correspondents as a whole have sat still at Dawson and retailed second-hand information gathered from sources, at best, unreliable. When the discovery of Klondike gold excited nion in 1897 and started the first great gold rush of this generation, there was a great demand suddenly for knowledge of the North, especially of the Klondike. How was it to he supplied ? The geological survey of Canada could not supply it — their qualified explorers had never set foot in the Klondike ; the miners of the Yukon could not supplv it, for, even if able, they were too busy getting out their gold. Mr. Ogilvie, who had been doing careful work for the Dominion Survey in the Yukon for several years, tried to supply it, but, though he was listened to with all the interest which dis- coveries of gold us'ially excite in the business world, he never spoke as a practical miner or practical geologist, and there was a mathematical certainty about his pan:- iid calculations on El Dorado and Bonanza which gold miners were not in the habit of associating with the occurrence of gold, so that they regarded him more as a "prophet" of the Klondike than as a safe guide for capital. Inspector Con- stantine was too busy controlling the fall-rusii of 1897 to have time to send out much news of the country, about which his information, when given, has proved reliable. Thus, all the likely sources of information failed, and into the gap helped by the popular desire to be gulled, rushed the news- paper man, the option man, the trader, the transportation agent, all ignorant, all sellers of lies. From interest, wedded to ignorance, was begotten the Klondike " boom." Govern- ment, equally ignorant, was presently pressed into the service of " enterprisinj^' citizens," i.e., "boomers." There followed huy^e talk about routes, none of them properly known to any of those who talked. The air was full of schemes for reach- ing and robbing " the Golden North," and after much bandying to and fro of far-away Northern names, after much valuable time, even in Parliament, at Ottawa, the several parties were left face to face, no forwarder, save that, like Socrates, they had learnt that they knew little or nothing of their subject. Perhaps it could not have been otherwise. Perhaps the Canadian Government were bound to discuss railway policies at that early date ; for a Canadian or Ameri- can " boom" brooks no delay, and Parliament must help it along or go. In this particular case, Canada came out not committed to any big railway policy, and, in my opinion, the delay is good for the Yukon ; there is that in the Yukon which needs no "booming," but safe development by economical methods. The Yukon only needs good laws well administered at once, and railway facilities as soon as possible and it can pay its own bill for all that is done for it. While many men were saying many things about the Klondike during the winter of 1897, the North Country took stronger and stronger hold on the popular fancy. Already in the Autumn of 1897 there had been a little rush North in consequence of the arrival of a little gold at Victoria and Seattle. This rush raised the price of food at Dawson to the strange high figures so often quoted ; it gave rise to those many stories of hardships, some of them true, last winter in the North ; it had its pathetic side in the struggle over the Skaguay trail, and in the forced departure from Dawson to Fort Yukon of many new comers, owing to the want of food; it had its grotesque side in the United Stales " Reindeer Relief Expedition."* But in other ways it was very useful ; it called attention early to the difficulties of the trails, to the need of provisions, to the desirability of stationing police on the trails, and in general it prepared the way for what was * This relief expedition was originally projected to relieve Yukoners supposed to be starving in Dawson during the winter of 1897-8. It actually started from the coast of Alaska in April of 1898. I met it in the Alsek country on my way out in September, i8<)8. It was slowly proceeding North-west (7 men and 144 reindeer). The deer will be useful in the Yukon. h in and the nose r in the n to 30d; to be istof fiber, ill be to come. The rush came in kite winter and very early sprinj^ of this year ; no route, however fanciful, but had its sup- porters. Imaj^ine outfits jostlinj^ one another at Kd iionton to reach the Klondike ! At every point the Canadian Government was ready for them; the Mounted Police slunved once more how suitable a force they are for manaj^'iiij,'^ new- territory and all sorts and conditions ol' men. Canada is proud, and justly proud, of her Mounted Police ; but even Canada does not fully know what her Police had to {.\o in the Vukon gold rush of 1898. Let Major Perry and Captain Belcher say (1 am sure they will be the last to say) what it was like rifj^^ing- up a Customs House and collectinj^- toll on the Chilcat Summit last January. Everywhere alont;" the line the police were the friends of all, managin}^ everything,'-, and manatjini^ nearly all things well. 1 have no space to do more than briefly describe the rush of 189H. Mr. 0.<;ilvie's prophecies had gone forth into all lands and very eatl)' in the year a mixed multitude of many nations and languages began to converge on the Pacific points of departure for the Yukon. The want of or neglect of accurate information was at once apparent in their uncouth costumes, bristling with guns, revolvers, knives, cartridges, a wonder to staring stay-at-home folk, as they moved along the American and Canadian railway lines to the West. In the western ports they completed their equipment. then sailed north and landed at Skaguay, found it " tough," for a while made it tougher, presently crawled over the passes into British territory, British law, British order, and under the red coat and yellow stripe of the mounted police became themselves in outward behaviour British, even if they were not before. On the shores of Linderman and Bennett they built them boats in which they finally sailed down the Yukon, wl.cn the waters opened, and everywhere was good order and good fellowship, and a man could not tell which to admire more, the law-abiding crowd or the police that helped it to keep itself such. Hereafter men will tell of that strange race down the Yukon (there never was its like before), the little boats, the mighty river, the swift currents, the slow, ig-iorai . boatmen, the vague quest, the wonder of the old-timers t' see such a crowd so soon, the hii^h spirits, the merry banter, the brief revival round the evenint;' fire of the racy^American humour, the best side of frontier life. But will they remember how much the rush of 1898 has added to Canada's productive power? In crilicisinj^ the rush of men fit and unfit to the Yukon, writers have insisted mainly on two things : — (i) That the great expenditure incurred by the crowd of gold seekers is mainly wasted. (2) That it was too early to " rush " the Yukon. Both ol these criticisms are demonstrably false. The money spent in outfitting for the \'ukon was productively spent ; many lands, especially America, felt a stimulus to trade in supplying the needs of the gold-seekers ; and no development can be premature which shows so large a return of gold at the cost of so little hardship as was endured in the Yukon this summer. The unfit will return, if they have not returned already ; the fit will remain to get out gold in at least five districts of <^he Yukon. As with the development of the country as a whole, so also with the literature concerning it ; a new start has been made in 1898 ; Miss P'lora Shaw's letters in the Times are calculated to shed much needed light on matters too long uncertain. Miss Shaw marked herself off from the ordinary run of correspondents by her energy and honest endeavor to find out the truth for herself from all sources. 1 saw her perform the athletic feat of a trip up Bonanza when the trail was not at its best, so that she is well qualified to speak of the difficulty of a country which must remain hard until roads are made and packing by men abandoned. She has done another good thing in shaking off the practice of Yukon correspondents of advising men to visit or avoid the Yukon ; it is not the business of a correspondent to advise ; the correspondent has done his part when he has told what he has seen. Thus, at the present lime the Yukon needs capital ; it is the business of the correspondent to point out that need, and the conditions under which capital can be used in the "\'ukon. The Journey to Klondike. There is a prevailing impression that the Klondike is inaccessible. The tacts do not warrant this idea ; it is a far journey, but not a hard one. From London to Vancouver is 13 days, from \'ancouver up the inside passage, a natural ship canal, land-locked almost the whole way, is four and a half days to Skaguay. From Skatj'jr.y '' single day's walk over a trail, which in spring can be difficult, will bring the traveller to Bennett, where he takes a steamer for Dawson (three days from Bennett). It is as if the great river were anxious to help in the development of his territory that he extends one mighty arm so far South, so near* to the v/aters of the Pacific. Much has been said about the ditHculty of the Upper or Southern Yukon. What are the facts? There is one difficult bit of water between Lindcrman and Bennett, but nobody now tries it ; all start from Bennett, and the White Pass Railway is making for Bennett. From Bennetr down there is one difficulty ; for, though most people run, and safely run. Miles Canyon and the White Horse Rapids there is danger, and it is safest to use the tramway for private boats, and the steamers in any case tranship their passengers and freight. Pictures have been brought to me here in London of a steamer steaming up these difficult four and a half miles of v, ater ; but there is no steamer as yet on the Yukon, capable ot doing a feat like this, and there will not be for some time ; the current through Miles Canyon is about 15 miles per hour. There is no other serious difficulty on the Upper Yukon, and the best comment on its navigability is the fewness of deaths and accidents to boats on it this year in spite of the ignorance of a large proportion of the boats' crews navigating it. The better steamship companies, employing skilled pilots, show a singular immunity from accident, the more remarkable, inasmuch as this was their first year and their boats were built without any special reference to the models approved by the experience of years on swift Canadian rivers like the Saskatchewan. None of them is of very light draught, 27 inches to 36 inches being ordinary. I say nothing about the Lower Yukon. I say nothing of the Yukon below Dawson. There are places on the Upper or Southern Yukon where ■ It is not more than about i6 miles i'roni the I'acifie at Sle the Teslin or Hootalinqua River, thereby avoiding all need of transhipment due to the dangerous Miles Canyon, 10 Victoria and Vancouver get only a small share of that trade, but they have now begun to realize that the Yukon needs supplying, not "booming." Their merchants have begun to travel themselves to the Yukon, and to get to know it; to know even the little district which is called the Klondike is to know that the few miles (not more than loo), already proved richly auriferous on the creeks, will ensure a steady trade of considerable volume for some years to come. It is doubtful whether any through railway to the Klondike will pay ; and I do not see how any through Yukon railway policy can be seriously discussed before the settlement of the boundary question. Meanwhile a section of a railway, like that from Skaguay to the White Pass Summit, or better still through to Bennett, will be a useful help into the Yukon ; just as the Taku Inlet Railway, if carried through, would be a very useful help into the Atlin District and the Yukon. The White Pass Railway Company do well in making ready for tourist traffic as early as next summer. Scenery will not feed the hungry prospector, but there is plentv on the Yukon for the tourist who has means and energy to make this trip. The hunter, too, who is not afraid of a certain amount of inconvenience, such as must be in all new countries, will find the Yukon well worth a summer's visit. A through raihvay to Dawson would have the practical effect of lengthening the short Yukon summer season by eight days, by doing the journey in and out in under three days, where now about eleven days are taken, for all who desire to spend their winter on the outside. The effect of a railway in cheapening all articles and making the miner's life in the Yukon not harder than elsewhere, is too obvious to need more words at this time. In all questions concerning routes into the Yukon, it is well to remember that the early prospectors may generally be relied upon to find the nearest and best way ; their way should not be abandoned until it is proved to be the wrong way. To go round by Edmonton or Ashcroft or Peel Portage to get at the Klondike is as yet to be making the same kind of mistake as would be made by the man who should propose to travel from Newcastle to London by way of the Kentish coast. Such a one ought not to grumble if on the way he finds himself stuck in II the Goodwin Sands. Very many prospectors, or rather, prospecting- parties, made the mistake of choosing a long overland route, of which the best that can be said as yet is that it involved a magnificent amount oi' gratuitous exploring, which would be better done by prospectors in the course of several seasons. General Char.vcter of Canada West of the Rocky Mountains. From the Southern Boundary of British Columbia all the way to the Klondike (and I know not how much farther) stretches a vast mountainous area, as yet for the most part unexplored, but at certain points already proved rich in the precious metals. Of this area as a whole it is true to say that its development depends almost entirely upon the development of its mineral wealth. Doubtless a little farm- ing can be done here and there : for instance, in East Kootenay at the western end of the Crow's Nest Pass, and again in the Okanagan District; so too, in time, the Peace River Country may produce much food in the shape of grain and cattle. I have even seen valleys in the Yukon as far north as latitude 61" which might eventually yield agricul- tural produce. But whatever spots are now or may eventually be farmed throughout this area, they are and will be farmed for a neighbouring market, that is, tuey will serve the mines. In general, a man does not and will not go west of the Rockies to farm, but to mine. Disappointed men (common throughout this area) complain of the barrenness of the area, especially of the northern portion of it. Of course it is barren ; the whole 1,400 or more miles from Cranbrook on the south up to Dawson in the north is in the main a barren waste of mountains and will always depend upon Canada east of the Rockies for the major part of its food supplies. I can say nothing from personal experience of the moun- tains of Cariboo, Cassiar, Omineca: but there are features worth mention in those of the Wikon so far as I myself have seen them. If we start from the great coast range of Southern Alaska we find that the general elevation tends to 12 fall all the way as we go North until we reach a range about 20 miles north and northeast of the Klondike.* Of the mountains beyond this I cannot speak. The coast range shows a maximum altitude of about 19,000 feet, this altitude steadily diminishes as we go north, and the highest point ot the Klondike (the Dome) is only 3,900 (approx.). The voyager down the Yukon is conscious of this fact, perhaps, if he notices that the fartner north he goes, the higher the timber creeps up tlie mountains, until in the Klondike it passes right over the divides. But, really to see the mountain system of the Yukon, we must clitub high points of the interior, like Mount Maloney or Mount Farview. From either of these, in the clear atmosphere of the North, the view is uninterrupted from the back of the St. Elias Range on the south to the Yukon River Ranges on the north, from the White River mountains on the west to those of the Lewes and beyond it on the east. The genera) fall in elevation is easily seen, and with this fall the mountains grow more and more rounded, until in the Klondike no peak is to be seen at all. The traveller w' j stands on the Dome in the Klondike sees all the proved gold-bearing creeks heading at or near his feet. The low divides (averaging about 2,500 feet high) of Dominion, Sulphur, Quartz, Bonanza, and Hunker creeks stretch outwards in curious monotony, like green round-crested waves of an inland sea fixed fast in stone at some moment of most regular motion. To the fall in elevation and to the increased erosion (giving us in the Klondike smooth, round hills, where in the Dalton Range and still farther south we had high jagged peaks) add the fact that the winds from off the Pacific shed most of their moisture upon the Alaskan Coast Range, and it will be understood why we find the interior of the Yukon so dry. Add further the intensity and long duration of the northern sunshine from May onwards and it will be easily understood how it is that we can pass from winter on the Alaskan Coast as early as Ma}' into summer in the Yukon interior, though we be faring due north all the time. Even on the ist of June last year I had * This r.inge shows very prominently from the Klondike, where it is called the Rocky Mount.iins, but it has not been explored yet. .11 >3 severe winter with trying snow and rain and fog on the Chilcoot Summit. Four hours later I was at Linderman and it was spring. Later still, on the same day, I was in full summer at Bennett, and so on much farther north in summer all the time. It is mainly a question of elevation ; the fall in general elevation much more than counterbalances the advance* northwards. In the same way in Autumn, as we come south we shall come info winter on the Coast passes by about the 26th of September, whereas in the Klondike men do not trouble about winter till considerably later than that. The Pacific winds shed their moisture as snow upon the high mountains of the coast ; the low mountains of the interior during the summer get very little precipitation at all and that in the form of rain. It is the Alaskan Coast that has given men the impression that the interior of the Yukon is a land of almost eternal winter. {See further for this subject under '• Seasons in the Yukon.") In the Klondike itself not only is the general low elevation to be considered, but the low broad divides are important ecoywmically as adtnitting the full power of the northern summer sun to the open valleys and as throwing no obstacles in the way of future engineerings when it directs itself towards bringing in from the main river system of the Klondike the water that will immensely reduce the cost of working the creeks already proved auriferous. This absence of steep hillsides is particularly noticeable throughout the Klondike, and the country lying immediately to the east of it ; tyioss and light timber alone keep out the su/i, and both are easily removable. It may be useful to the prospector to know one or two general features of the Yukon mountains. The mountains of the Southern Yukon area have two points, at least, in common with all British Columbia, so far as I know — thick undergrowth on their lower slopes and steep upper slopes of mostly bare rock. Thus, in the Dalton Range, for example, and still farther west, the prospector will have hard work to I the ' We shall find no snow to speak of in the interior from May to September. H get at the exposed upper rock, but it is there for him, if he will climb. Soon after we pass the 6ist parallel in the White River Country the mountains have fallen 2,000 feet, the undergrowth is not nearly so dense, and the moss has begun to appear; but the mountains are still high enough to give us 1,000 or 2,000 feet above both timber and moss. As we pass the 62nd parallel, the undergrowth becomes less and less dense, the moss deeper and deeper, and so on to the 64th parallel, the level gravel benches common from the 6oth to the 63rd parallel, growing rarer all the time till we reach the Klondike, by which time the mountains are down to about 3,000 feet, and light timber and deep moss are found over the divides. The exposures of rock have grown rarer as we progress northwards, till in the Klondike they are rare. From the 63rd parallel the valley bottoms are commonly moss grown. Speaking generally, the whole of the Yukon, so far as known, is a land of gravel, but whereas in the southern gold districts (Lake Atlin and Roberts Creek), the gravel is either not covered at all, or but lightly covered with soil, the more northerly area of deep moss is also an area of deep black soil, moss appearing to be a main agent in forming soil, helped often by the presence of timber, especially where the valleys are flat. Moss IN THE Yukon. Above the 6ist parallel begins to appear the green moss (sphagnum) so often mentioned in connection with the Yukon. It grows deeper all the way up to the Klondike, where it may be expected everywhere where there is soil, especially on the northern sides of the hills. It grows about 9 inches long ; in the gulches where the fall is greater, it will generally be dry moss ; on the flat creeks it will be wet. In either case it is a serious hindrance, both to walking and to prospecting. It is responsible for most of the fatigue, both of men and horses, in the Yukon. It forms a blanket, keeping out even the hot northern sun from the icebound soil beneath. Once remove this moss and grass soon appears wherever I have been in the mossy area. It is generally fired in autumn, when the country is driest, but firing is not »5 always sufficient, and the removal of moss by other means adds slig'htly to the cost of opening- up a gold claim for summer sluicing. Yukon Muskeg. Swamps in the Klondike and North generally are due to the presence of moss and water and absence of fall ; farther south the moss of the Klondike will often be replaced by marsh grasses and shrubby growth of bilberry, dwarf birch, etc., but the typical swamp of the newspaper correspondents is nothing but moss and water, whether running or stagnant. This Yukon Muskeg is seldom or never dangerous ; a man will sink at most a few inches, and then find ice underfoot. Thus the expression "swamp," as applied to the Muskegs of the North, needs considerable qualification. The only dangerous bits of swampy ground are the so-called " mud- holes " on the Trails — they can be deep enough to be incon- venient at all times, and in spring, when water is most abun- dant, dangerous to horses. I did not find it necessary to use anything but ordinary walking boots up the Klondike Creeks last summer. The Streams of thk North. The whole river system of the Yukon depends upon the winter snowfall with, in summer, casual rain showers. It follows that the supply of water is lowest in autumn. In spring and early summer both rivers and creeks " boom." In spring the most innocent looking creek requires the greatest care, especially in the Southern Yukon ; for example, the glacier-fed tributaries of the Chilcat can be very danger- ous, and, in addition, on the Clehini and Chilcat rivers quicksands are found. Throughout the North, May and June tend to be the worst months for travel, because of the abundance of water in, or overflowing from, the streams. In the main, tne streams of the North will be found to be easily fordable, though the depth may prove a little deceptive, as is usual in the case of very clear water. I cannot think why anyone ever suggested gum boots for walking. They are, at best fit, very tiring ; and the ground, even on Bonanza, which i6 is much the worst in the Klondilte, is seldom wet enouf^h to make them desirable. It is far better to wear ordinary boots and carry a dry pair of socks for the journey's end. With g-ood boots (made in England), the dry pair of socks will seldom be needed. The Products of the Yi'kon. Thoujifh gold is the product which has brought the Yukon so quickly forward, yet there are certain other products which seem to merit attention, because they can be made very useful helps to the miner. These are Indians, game, Bsh, grass, berries. Indians. It is customary to look down upon the Indians in the North-west especially as they are less and less used for packing ; yet they are of great use and can be made still more useful as pilots, guides, hunters, runners, fishermen. Their love for dollars (and it is a strong love) and their usefulness increase together. There is a fine fellow in the service of the police at Dalton's Post ; he has proved himself of great use in many ways, for example, in securing the arrest of suspected persons who had passed the post but were caught up and passed by the Indian, who carried a letter of instructions to the police at the next post. The younger generation are unquestionably going to play an important part in the development of the Yukon. At some points they are taking rapidly to the ways of the white gold seekers. Like Indians in other parts of Canada, they only need careful treatment to be very useful indeed. The mistake has already been made of paying them on the Dawson scale of wages, and it will be very hard to bring them down to reasonable terms. I found them unreasonable all along the Dalton Trail. They are already capable of executing orders for dried fish, for dog feed, for moose and cariboo meat and furs ; and they can be made to be of great value to prospectors for selecting trails in new and difficult country. il 17 KiSH. The traveller cin rely upon findinj^ salmon, Arctic trout, and grayling in most of the streams of the North. In the V'ukon itself the salmon run very large. Thus, opposite Dawson, fish were commonly taken from 40 to 70 lbs. in weight, and the price of salmon at Dawson averaged about 25 cents per pound during the summer. Farther south, in the tributaries of the Alsek, the fish ran smaller, mostly 8 to ."5 lbs., and at places like Klukshu they were extraordinarily abundant. In streams like the Klondike River the grayling affords sport. On the big lakes, like Aishihik and Labarge, fishing is extensively done by the Indians, and they are in a position to meet extensive orders for dried fish for dog feed. CiAMii:. The Yukon produces abundance of bear (three kinds), caribou, moose, ptarmigan and duck. In some of the moun- tains the white mountain sheep (Ovis Dallii) may be found ; the mountain goat, too, is not uncommon. Duck and ptarmigan may be had almost anywhere, except in the Klondike, and prospecting parties will find a shot-gun and a spaniel very useful. The big game, must, as a rule, be hunted ; they will not come to the Trails to be shot. Big game was, earlier, very abundant in the Klondike, but it is rapidly growing scarce. That there is still plenty in the Yukon area may be seen from the fact that there were, at one time last summer, 17 moose delivered in Dawson within a week. Those who plan prospecting trips over warm fires at home, generally include in their plans plenty of hunting, but gold-hunting and game-hunting almost exclude one another ; each is a business and must be followed for its own sake to be successful. Bear, duck and ptarmigan wiU be found without hunting for them, but not much else. Berries, The Yukon in August and September produces berries in extraordinary abundance. I counted 13 species at one time and of these most were edible and three were good — the red currant, the marsh blue-berry and the low-growing cranberry. South of the 60th parallel the high-bush m 1 i8 cranberry comes In. All four species are important, and white men have begun to learn their value. Soon Indians will be extensively employed in gathering them to order. They will be wanted for jam. Grass. Wherever there is soil free from moss, grass grows readily in the Yukon. It is especially noticeable near the homes of men, as in the Indian villages, where it commonly grows close and luxuriant. It will pay at once to cultivate grass at many points to meet the demand for hay. It would have been of great value to many men to know that they could keep a horse anywhere in the Yukon in summer. Many prospectors would have taken horses last summer in with them had they not been under the impression that it was impossible to feed horses in the North, even in summer. I saw no country all last summer where I could not have kept a horse ; even in the Klondike, where the feed is usually scattered, it was still possible to find grass. There was abundance of marsh hay to be cut on the Klondike flats and on Dominion Creek ; not much on Bonanza and Hunker Creeks. Wherever the moss is fired, grass springs at once. In the country through which the Dalton Trail passes grass is abundant in most parts. To most it will be a revelation to be told that more than 2,000 oxen and 500 sheep were driven over the Dalton Trail this summer. Let me be not misunderstood ; I do not mean that the land is one green meadow (the North as a whole is too dry and gravelly for that), but there is plenty of grass to b.ci iound, bunchy in the drier places, close growing in the vver, where there is plenty of soil. Occasionally on the Dalton Trail there is consider- able extent of quite good feed, and these areas will be very much improved next year by this year's extensive cropping and manuring. Horses in the Yukon. At Circle City and Forty Mile horses have long been used, and they can be used throughout the Yukon, so far as it is yet known. From what appears elsewhere in this report about Trails for men, it will be seen that pack horses have no easy time. Heavy Trails, heavy packs, insufficiency of »9 food and rest account tor the hij^h rate of mortality among horses in the Yukon. There is an idea prevalent that the Yukon generates a kind of fever among- horses, especially in their first year. No sufiicient proof ol' this was given to me. 1 question whether there is any sickness among Yukon horses which could not be cured by lighter packs, more rest, and a feed of oats, in addition to such grass as they can find. In the Klondike, where packing is already well organized, and a sufficiency of good food is provided for the horses, the rate of mortality is very low. The only real difiiculiy with horses in the Yukon is to winter them while lack oi' transporta- tion facilities still keeps hay at a very high price during the winter. Up to now such horses as have been kept in the country for the winter have mostly been killed for i.\o^ feed, f.^'., of about 65 horses in Dawson in the fall of 1897 only about II ever saw the spring of 1898. This winter there are, of course, many more than that being kept through the winter. An interesting experiment is being made to winter horses out near Hutshi on the Dalton Trail. About 140 have been turned out. There is fairly abundant grass of a bunchy kind on the hills there, and the snow, judg^ing from the accounts of Indians and the tree slumps,* does not usually exceed a foot in depth in that part of the interior. It is expected that the horses will be able to paw through this depth of snow to the grass beneath, as they do on the Canadian and American prairies. If these horses winter successfully they will be valuable next spring, since the demand for horses will be great next spring in the Yukon, and acclimatised horses stand the hard wear of the Yukon much better than green ones. There is, of course, no ditfi- culty in wintering horses in the North, except that of the food supply. They stand the cold well enough. OxKN-. Many experienced men have expressed to me an opinion that steers would be better for packing than horses. They will do their 10 miles a day steadily, not wander far, find food easily, and carry 100 lbs. pack, and their use as beef, when the journey's end is reached, or sooner, is obvious. * The height of the stumps of trees cut in winter will give roughly the depth of snow in any part. T' f- i;l l^r 20 This is a question for the prospector to settle I'or himself. I question whether for all their advantages they will come into general use in the Yukon. My experience of men in the Yukon is that they commonly hate walking, especially when so much of the country is suitable for riding horses. Perhaps we shall see a combination of steers for packing and horses for the packers, but I think horses all round will prevail. Men used to the difficult trails of the British Columbian mountains, and of the Klondike have no idea how easy much of the Yukon country is for horses. Fifty miles a day is not impossible over much of the Dalton Trail for men travelling light. There are already (August 1898) to be seen on the Klondike flats steers grazing and a cow or two near to Dawson, and on Bonanza, and on the Clehini River. Sheep in »he Yukon. As yet sheep have been but little tried, but they do uniformly well in the Yukon. They have been for the most part taken down the river to Dawson, an easy enough method ; but anyone who has travelled much in the Yukon must have seen that its dry, gravelly, sandy benches and moun- tain slopes are in many parL.. very suitable for sheep. A flock of sheep driven over the Dalton Trail throve well and reached Rink Rapids in improved condition. I see no reason why the miner in all the Yukon should ever be short of fresh meat at reasonable prices. The main reason why the miner did not eat much fresh meat early this summer was that an extravagant price was asked for it. Later, when meat came down to 50 cents per pound, it was very generally eaten. This year it is likely to be lower than this, and in particular there will be much more mutton m the Klondike than there has been hitherto. As for the winter supply of fresh meat in the Yukon there is naturally no difficulty in a land where cold storage is so easily found, the soil being permanently frozen a short way beneath the surface. Such agriculture as is possible in the Yukon may very safely be left to the Canadians of the North-West ; they have shown such wonderful po»ver of winning supplies of food from apparently hopeless tracts of country that they will 31 leave no opportunity unused of providing' the miner of the Yukon with fresh vegetables, if possible, as well as fresh meat, both grown in the Yukon itself in due time. Geology of the Klondike. On the north side of the Klondike River chlorite schists may be seen in position, but in the highly-ruriferous area to the south of this river the country or bed-rock is almost uniformly of mica-schists highly altered, highly silicious, well marked off from any other schists I have ever seen. In many cases these schists are sericitic, very soft and shaly (the soft shale of the miners and correspondents) ; in other cases they are very hard and firm and of great beauty with their complement of quartz, for their quartzose nature must not be forgotten, since it is with this quartz that Klondike gold is associated. The " masses of 'ow-grade quartz " freely talked of by the Klondike miners usually prove to be masses of this highly silicious schi. *•. No one who has wandered up and down the worked creeks can forget the many and beautiful shades of pink, blue, green of the tailings-heaps composed of gravel derived from these variegated schists by erosion. Of granite, gneiss, quartz- porphyry, diorite, so commonly associated with the occur- rence of gold, and so abundant in oi^her parts of the Yukon, I have not yet seen any in situ, only tra.-^es of them in the pebbles of the Klondike River and in the gravels of the high drift of the hill which overlooks Dawson City. Occasionally a trap- dike intrudes as on ii, 12, 13, Eldorado Creek, more rarely a vein of limestone. The formation is thus remarkably simple throughout the area so far proved to be auriferous. Quartz veins, fairly numerous, traverse the schists and are often of very large dimensions. Narrow quartz veins run parallel with the schistosity. Both kinds seem to be barren or nearly so, at any rate upon the surface. From the schists and quartz veins have come the gravels found everywhere on the hill sides and in the valley bottoms. These gravels yield gold and certain geological remains ; thus there have been turned up on the creeks already tusks and teeth and bones of the mammoth (Elephas primigenius) horns and even two carcases of the bison (PBison priscus) as well as fossil 22 northern trees. It is to be hoped that such remains will be kept for the Museum at Ottawa in future ; up to now they have been kept in private hands or thrown away in the press <^ot gold. There is a widespread impression in the Klon '.ike that its climate was once tropical, but there is no discovery of fossils so far which would indicate a climate very different from its present one. I h.ive before mentioned the long, low rounded hills of Klondike, reminding me often of the hills of Exmoor. These hills rise with, as a rule, easy slopes from the valleys, and at various points, as we climb from the valleys, we shall find bench like areas of gravel that move wonder in the casual observer. These areas may be found right up to the divides ; the gravels are seldom very extensive in the first 400 feet of our climb from the valley-bottom, for tho.'ie first 400 feet are usually steeper than the higher levels and have lost most of their gravels, which have fallen to make the deposit of gravel in the present valley bottoms. But when we have passed the 400 foot level we shall frequently find very exten- sive areas of drift and their depth is often very great ; I have seen a 90 foot deep shaft in gravel all the way. All over the Klondike area these drifts are to be met with and though, in general, the signs of glacial action are obscured in the Klondike, there can be no doubt that these drifts are due to such action. It was thought until quite recently, even by such observers as Mr. J. E. Spurr, of U.S. Geological Sur- vey, that these gravels migh^ be marine, but I question whether that view can be held any longer. It was thought that the Yukon area lay outside the sphere of glaciation (see a book like Howorth's "Mammoth and the Flood ") but that cannot stand ; there are abundant proofs of glacial action in the Yukon basin. In the neighbourhood of Lake Aishihik (lat. 62) glacial gravels are clearly to be traced up to a level of G, 000 feet high and vast moraines abound in the same region. The data in the Klondike may be as yet insufficient for a confident assertion, but I think that the Klondike upper gravels will be found to be much like those of Cariboo, i.e., glacial drift (containing gold) through which nature's concentrating agents (streams of water) have made their way. It is time to see in a diagram the position of the Klondike deposits. 23 In this diagram I., letter A., shows us timbered black muck with gravel beneath, at an elevation of more then 300 feet above the present stream bed (L.) These gravels are of indefinite extent, and have as yet been very little worked at. Such shafts as have been sunk have revealed colours of gold, but no big deposit. Letter B. marks the Klondike hill claim (such I call it to distinguish it from bench claims properly so called), which occurs with some regularity on both sides of Bonanza i.nd Eldorado, at an elevation of about 300 feet or more above the present valley. The gravels of A. and B. are both unstratified. The gravels of D. , E., F. are of the ordinary stratified kind jus*^ like the gravels of the present valley C. ; they are all four (C, D., E., F.) stream gravels and D., E., F. mark earlier levels of the stream. Letter M. marks an outcrop of the country schist. Letter N. shows more black muck, moss, and timber (light stuff), and higher still \\p might expect to find, and actually do find, more gravel areas, and so on up to the divide, which will be some 2,000 feet higher. Letters G., H., K. mark occasional deposits of gravel ; usually the gravel in such places as G., H., K. has silted down from the higher level B., or may be, a slide on its way down to the valley has left matter behind, or, perhaps, we have the remains of a true bench at a point like K. with its gravel stratified. When diagram L is understood, we can consider the occurrence of gold briefly in '.he several kinds of Ciaims. The higher gravels need not deiain us because they have been very little tested, and, so ^,.: Hs 1 know, no great concentration of gold has been found i\: ♦' ?rn. Thus, gravels on the level of letter A. and higher n jd Mot be discussed yet. But at the 300 to 400 foot level above the present valley bottom we find a deposit of, in many places, phenomenal richness. At points along quite nine miles of Bonanza and five miles of F.ldoraUo we find it about the same level (270 to 400 feet above the present valley bottom). The deposit of gold occurs in a very quartzose fine gravel, mostly unstratified, yet on French Hill showing decided traces of stratification ; and it seems to be the remains of the lateral moraine of glaciers which moved down and fiUaliy retreated up Bonanza and Eldorado at a time subse- quent to the general glaciation of the district. Thus we may say that the gravels of letter B. are glacial, and the traces of TT- 24 ii CO — 4) S rt 0) o 4) ^ '-' ~ U C ,U 9j a- n — c c ? =: •= rl :« ^ ~ -^ - -^ E 'J t, 'j.-= 1J D > > (A Ju >« cS c« »i ^ -T- -r >^ >- !« . bc'bij^ = S I! II s are quite difTerent from those of the bench and creek els ims, showing at best only slight traces of stratification. Or the other producing creeks there are as yet no clear proois of glacier action, but very little of their side hills has been exposed, and it is too early to say that they have or have not been subjected to local glacial action. The prospectors and miners seem greatly puzzled by this glacial hill deposit. They stumbled upon the paying till* by accident ; finding the Creeks staked they had to look elsewhere, and finding gravel on the hills tested it, found some of it auriferous, and began to stake out all the hillsides in the district. What they can- not understand about the hill claims is that they are not continuous ; but, considering the persistent erosion by water and the frequency of slides in the Klondike District, the wonder would be if the till were continuous. If it ever v.as continuous, it must in any case by this have been largely washed down or carried down b} slides into the valley below; hence in these hill claims there are many surprises in store for the miner. He has not yet recovered from his early joy at finding what he still calls "hanging gold," and probably never will. In some of these hill claims the gold is very fresh and rough, especially on French Hill, where it cannot * Till- glacial drift. a8 have travelled far. It is both coarse and fine, as in the creek claims below ; no law as between coarse and fine is as yet discernible, another sign of the confused work of ice as a depositing agent. Bench Claims. Benches are clearly traceable on many creeks and gulches of the Klondike, and are to be regarded as the remains of earlier creek levels. Everybody is prepared to believe that a stream once flowed at a higher level than its present one. That this is true of the Klondike streams is proved by the exist- ence of benches whose gravels resemble the gravels of the present valley bottoms in material and in stratification {i.e., the arrangement of the gravel in strata or layers). At least three such earlier levels or benches can be traced on Bonanza, the lowest being about lo feet and the highest about 150 feet above the present valley (see diagram I. for relation of bench claims to present valley). These benches are to be expected everywhere in the Klondike, an area of great erosion ; but they have been proved as yet only on Bonanza, Eldorado, Bear, Hunker, Quartz, Last Chance, Dominion, Skookum, French ; benches were reported to me on Sulphur, but I had no time to verify the report. Of the many bench claims staked on the above-mentioned creeks it must not be supposed that all are rich ; two things are most noticeable about Klondike bench claims : — (i) Their gravels vary very much in extent. (2) Their gravels vary very much in richness. We should expect both these, and it would not be worth while to mention either, were there not so many foolish notions prevalent about Klondike. For obvious reasons the bench gravels must vary greatly in extent, according as more or less gravel was ever deposited, and according as more or less of ".t has been washed down into the present valley bottoms. The Klondike valleys wind considerably, and where their sides are steep and rocky we can have no benches ; such benches as were once, if ever, to be found there have been washed away in time, by the action of water, down into the present valley bottom ; where, on the other hand, the side hill slopes gently up, and especially where the stream has left a low projecting point, we shall usually find 39 extensive gravels. Of the many bench claims already worked a very fair number are rich, and very many paid from eight to twenty dollars per day per man. The chief economical interest is that in very many cases they yield an excellent return to the digger with very little outlay, but the gravels in them are not extensive enough to last long in most cases ; yet even here exceptions must be made ; for occasionally on Hunker, Quartz, Dominion and Skookum and others are found large areas of gravel, large enough to make it well worth the owners' while to work them on a big scale with machinery. Water is the chief want on them, and dumping ground for tailings the minor difficulty with most bench claims. Like the owners of hill claims, bench-diggers have nearly all to carry their water up from the creek to their rockers, and wash their dirt very slowiy indeed. A few for- tunate ones have been able to use the sluice-boxes of the creek claim below in cases where the creek claim was mined only in winter. In such cases the creek claim owner washed his winter drifted gravel by about, let us say, the end of June ; he then let his sluice-boxes for the rest of the season to the bench claim owner, who at once built a wooden chute to con- nect his claim with the sluice-boxes of the creek claim below. This done, the bench claim produces gold as rapidly as a creek claim can, i.e. the difference between creek claim and bench claim with regard to productiveness depends almost entirely on a difference in the method of working. Upon the bench claims, as upon the hill claims, Nature has laid a very heavy tax in withholding water. The miner has to use the rocker, carrying water to it from the creek below. Now with this method less than two cubic yards of gravel can be handled per day per man ; two men on the average handle less than three* cubic yards with one rocker. With sluice- boxes as used on the creek claims the average of gravel handled per day per man rises to quite four cubic yards. What a difference is here ! A difference to be overcome by capital, and capital only ; but this question is more fully dis- cussed under '• What is pay in Klondike ? " and " The mining methods of the future in Klondike." When I say that I have seen many bench claims producing ten ounces of gold ^1 * Three yards per day through one rocker is very good work, needing two good men. ^T 30 per day per man, I shall convey an idea of the unusual rich- ness of some Klondike gravels. Just as the bench claims vary in extent and richness, so also they vary in the char- acter of their gold. In some it is all fine, in others very coarse, in others rather coarse ; in fact it varies much as on the creek claims. I can discern no law for its variation as yet, a fact which tempts one to think that ice was the original transporting agent, as 1 have said in my recoarks on the general geology of the Klondike. By far the greatvJst proportion of so-called bench claims are hybrid claims of the kind marked G, H, K, in diagram I. These are not bench claims proper, but more likely consist, I think, of auriferous silt gravels derived from deposits of glacial drift higher up the hill, and lodging "n crannies of exposed country rock, afterwards covered in many cases by slide-debris or by soil and moss, or by all three of these. There is no doubt that the sidehills should be washed by hydraulic machinery all the way up the proved parts of the proved creeks. These casual deposits occur repeatedly in what the miners consider very unlikely places ; but when we consider the presence of a rich hill deposit (see B. in diagram I.), and the persistency of the natural causes, denudation and gravitation, I think we should expect casual deposits between the high level (B. in diagram I.) and the low level (C. in diagram I.); the auriferous material mist tend to fall from above to below, and it is often caught and retained on the way down to the lower level. Creek Claims. As already proved to be, in places, rich, we may accept Bonanza, Eldorado, Hunker, Bear, Gold Bottom, Dominion, Sulphur Creeks ; and there are about 75 miles of gravels of varying width in these creeks, at any point in which rich pay may be expected, though not always found. Bonanza has been most worked, Sulphur least. Special Features of the Klondike Creeks. (i) They are very wide valleys for such little streams. (2) They are very flat valleys. ! 3» They share these features with the Si valleys. The proved valleys are seldom less than 250 feet wide, in places they are 2,000 feet wide ; and their g'rade or fall is seldom more than two percent., often less. In such a valley, so wide and so flat, the present stream meanders prettily, attracting- but little notice, almost lost, save in spring when, swollen by the melting snows, it asserts itself and tears along-, a mighty agent of nature to shape the valleys after her fashion in the Klondike. From these two features follow at least two important economic results, (i.) The paystreak is wider in the Klondike than might be expected. (2.) The gold is more evenly distributed up and down the valleys than might be expected by the casual student of the modes of occurrence of placer gold; there are fewer blanks than elsewhere. We find these same two corollaries in Siberia ; there also it is common to wash out the whole width and much of the whole length of an aurifer- ous valley. From what I have said already it will be seen how close a parallel there is between the Siberian and the Klondike placers. I called berian auriferous J< St k fo m and lley. ■3 Z Bedroc botto of val »: .1 1 i : 32 attention to this as early as last sprini^, when I deprecated the idea that there was anytliinj,'- novel in the Klondike field save, perhaps, its occasional phenomenal richness. It is unfortunate that Siberian methods have not been more studied by Klondike miners, for (i) they have much to teach Klondike, both in prospecting- and in mining-, and (2) they make mistakes which, if known, would be useful warninj^-sto Klondike. But we shall see more of this parallel when we come to discuss methods of mining in Klondike. Let us now take a section of a creek claim in order to see, (i) the nature, and (2) the arrangement of the gold- bearing gravels. In this section is shown the solid bedrock which, when hollowed out to form a valley, acts as the receiver of any deposit afterwards made in that valley. In the Klondike valleys we find a deposit of fine gravel lying upon t'lv bedrock, and silted down into the bedrock wherever fissures in that bedrock allow such silting to have taken place. This fine gravel is of any thickness, from one toot to three feet (often more), and much of it is so fine p.s to deserve to be called grit. Above this fine gravel wc- shall find layers of coarser stuff, often quite considerable pebbles of a foot or more through ; but for all that a noticeable feature of Klondike gravels as a whole is their fineness ; the absence of very large pebbles is, perhaps, best marked on Dominion Creek. Above the one or more layers of coarse gravel there will be several layers of fine gravel and often one or two layers of sand ; perhaps another layer of coarse gravel will be found between two layers of fine. In all, the gravels deposited upon the bedrock will amount to a depth of not often less than seven feet or more than twelve feet. Above the gravels is found usually a layer of black vegetable mould, not often less than six feet nor more than twelve feet in thickness. Upon the black muck grow moss and spruce in abundance, and through the black muck the present stream cuts its channel (A. in diagram). The Nature of the Gr.wels. They consist of rounded pebbles of quartz and mica schist ; the same mica schist which still forms the country- 33 rock or bedrock of these valleys has given the m.ijor part of the gravels now found in their bottoms. These gravels have been deposited in recent geological times ; fossil bones and trees, etc., have been found in them, as 1 said above. Thk Akuancement ok the Gravels. They lie in layers or strata, that is to say they have been deposited in their present position by the stream which now tlows over them ; for in Klondike, as in Siberia, the gold-bearing gravels lie below the level oi' the present streams. The present streams never flow upon the bedrock of the valleys, but always above it upon the gravels which everywhere overlay the bedrock to a depth of in most cases from seven to twelve feet. The importance of this elevated position of the present streams will be noticed when I discuss methods of mining in Klondike. Let us now take a section from surface to bedrock to see how the gold lies in the creek claims. Sinking through the black muck we reach the gravel in which we shall find "colours" anywhere; but most of the gold lies in the three feet or less just above bedrock, and in the crannies of the bedrock. It lies in a fine grit which is Surface black muck. •y«i%?y: Auriferous gravels with most gold in lowest 3 feet of tliein and in crannies of bedrock. Bedrock. largely composed of quartz or the harder schists, but which often takes the form of a very fine rock flour derived from the softer sericitic schists, and often wrongly called " blue clay" by the miners. In some claims I have found the gold very deep in the fissured bedrock, and derricks are badly wanted to help to handle the fragments of bedrock which have to be moved to get at the gold. I have seen ten feet 3 ( ' rr 34 deep and more of bedrock mo' d with profit. The novice seldom takes up enouy^h bedrock ; I have a beautiful san.ple of lipoid in triturated blue schist which I fetched up with the pick from six inches below the level of the bedrock on a rich hill claim on I3(. anza. The owner thought he had cleaned his bedrock well. As between fim; and coarse i;"old there is g-reat ineg-u- larity in Klondike. The miner expects to find coarser gold the farther he goes up the creek and vice versa ; bui this expectation is not fulfilled in Klondike, where coarse gold is liable to be found at any point on any of the proved creeks. I have seen coarser g'old from eij'-ht miles below Discovery than from two miles above Discovery on Bonanza, coarser from a mile below Discovery on Hunker, than from four miles above, where during- my stay only fine gold was being mined. This irreg-ular occurrence of coarse gold in relation to fine gold may be due to a feeding of the main creek witii coarse gold from rulches at various points, or it may suggest to us an original transportation of the gold by local glaciers which deposited their detritus confusedlv after the manner of glaciers everywhere. It is too early to pronounce confidently on this c^uestion ; in fact throughout ilie field of Klondike geology, the danger at this early stage is not of say g too little, but, in the absence of data, of saying too much. In several cases it is already clear that the gold of a creek claim is coarse at and below the junction of creek and gulch ; but h^ v;ould be a v -ry foolish man who should assume that every gulch enriched the creek of which it is a tributary. First, we must know whether the gulch has ever had gold in it before we can say that it adds gold to the creek {see further under " Gulch Claims "). The Extent of the P.w Gr.avels in the Pro\ '-d Crkeks. The Klondike valleys are wide and flat and their bedrock is flat ; it is therefore natural that the gold-bearing gravels should be of wide extent. In Klondike, as in Siberia, they often extend from rim to rnn of the valley 200, 300, 400 feet and more \n width. But it is misleading to talk ot a " pay- streak " 300 feet wide as of common occurrence. Unques- tionably gold is disseminated throughout these creek gravels Jv"» but often so thinly '.at only improved metliotls of workini;' will make them nay. By such improved methods a rich return will be reat)ed from handling five cent dirt which will not pay as yet to mine in winter. Five cent dirt means gravel containing about '^ oz. of gold to the cubic yard. The paying claims are those which contain not less than Vi oz. gold to the cubic yard. This gold is found evenly dis- tributed over a wide area in some cases ; thus especially on Hunker the good claims show remarkably even distribution of their gold for a width i.-^'i^ frequently, 150 feet of very rich pay. So, too, sulphur shows even distribution of gold over, in cases, 300 feet of fairly rich pay. In other cases the paying gravels are patchy, giving out unexpectedly, e.g., on Lower Bonanza, and in places on Rldorado. Again, the gold may be concentrated in an old channel of :i tew feet wide, as frequently on Kldorado ; or we may find several such fo.-mer channels and so get the very best claims on all the proved creeks ; these very best claims, and they are many, combine great width (often 300 feet) oi rich gr.ivel with pockets and streaks of still richer gravel. By waiting until owQ of these claims shows its best dirt, a man can easily get a phenomenal pan of gold (I have taken 40 1^ ounces of gold from about 20 pounds of gravel) ; but the proper use of the pan is to wash, not to measure, gravel ; for accurate calculation the cubic yard is a less deceptive standard. The pan and bucket as standards <:>{ measure belong, with the rocker, to the " heroic age " o'i Klondike mining, ;md the sooner they all disappear, the sooner we shall arrive at a firm economic basis tor operations in that new field. I saw endless variety oi yields this season over all the field, and 1 think it may be taken for g. anted that grave! containing Jj ounce of gold to the cubic lard is called and is poor pay on any of the proved creeks (poor, I moan, for the methods of work in vogue up to now ; for improved methods on an extended scale H* oz. gold per cubic yard would be fabulously rich). I append a few instances of results which I saw worked out last spring and summer on claims widely separated from one another. On a fair claim on upper Bonanza a cut 120 feet by 30 feet yielded 980 ounces. On Eldorado a cut 120 feet by 30 feet yielded 12,000 rf^ h 36 ounces. On Lower Bonanza a cut 30 feet by 30 feet yielded 95 ounces. On another Lower Bonanza claim a similar 30 feet by 30 feet cut yielded 580 ounces. On Upper Hunker a cut 120 feet by 12 feet gave 69 ounces. On Lower Hunker a cut 100 feet by 50 feet g-ave 1,800 ounces. On Dominion the few claims at work showed an average of not less than two ounces per cubic yard, over an area of g-ravel nowhere less than 120 feet wide. For Bear Creek and Sulphur Creek I have such returns as were available, but they are not worth giving, because they do not come from a suffici- ently extensive am.ount of work. It will be noticed that I give only the bare yield of gold and say nothing about the cost of production. The cost of production will be found under "What is ' pay ' in Klondike?" We first want to know what amount of auriferous gravel exists already proved in Klondike, and how much gold that gravel contains. We can then discuss cost of extraction later ; such discussion of cost need no longer be in the dark ; for I watched right through several pieces of work last season, and can give the figures of cost and output by present methods. On the proved creeks (Bonanza, Eldorado, Bear, Hunker, Gold Bottom, Sulphur, Dominion) we may allow about 75 miles of auriferous gravel out of a staked length of about 120 miles on these same creeks. The 75 miles allowed are certain to yield a return even to the present methods of mining in the Klondike. The 45 miles which I do not al'ow rr.ust be mined, if at all, by other methods than winter drifting and summer sluicing. Of the 75 miles long of proved gravel what is the width? The width varies from creek to cree!;, and fn. .1 part to part of the same creek ; thus high up on Hunker it may be seen to be only about 50 feet wide : so also on the higher claims in Eldorado it is only from 100 to 150 feet wide as compared wiih a mit.imum of 200 feet wide on most claims on these two creeks. On Bear and the upper part of Dominion Creeks, the width is often not more than 70 feet to 100 feet ; but it remains true to say that even 150 feet wide is exceptionally narrow for the gold-bearing gravel ; as in the Siberian valleys, so in Klondike, there is usually one section richer than the rest, but the gravels on either side of this section are still rich enough to work. 37 In estimating- the width of gravel to be washed, I shall adopt an average width of 150* feet on the 75 miles of proved creek claims, and no one who has seen the creek :'laim« at work will question that I am a very safe distance below the actual width to be washed. In depth of y ravel to yield paying gold I shall allow an average of 3 feet. T know that a depth of 6 feet of gravel is sometimes found to pay for washing, and that there are commonly several fp-'t of bedrock to take up and wash ; but in my experience 3 feet deep of pay gravel is commoner than 6 feet deep, and I am tr\ing to arrive at a safe minimum ; therefore I take 3 feet deep as normal and omit bedrock. We now have as our three dimensions 75 miles Ic^g by 150 feet wide by 3 feet deep of gold bearing material. In assigning a value in gold to this body of gravel consisting of six million six hundred thousand cubic yards (about) (6,600,000 cubic yards) I shall allow an average of half-ounce of gold per cubic yard. On wliat I consider to be the richest piece of ground in the Klondike I have seen recovered from the handling of 27 cubic yards 2,500 ounces of gold, and from what I believe to be the third best claim I have helped to recover 620 ounces from 30 cubic yards ; but I am getting at an average for 800 claims and must not forget that even on Eldorado ther s some gravel which will not yield more than half-ounce per cubic yard. There is a good amount on Hunker and Boninzn yioMing not more than quarter-ounce per cubic yard. Therotorc 1 shall take half-ounce per cubic yard throughout, and ^o we get a total of three million three hundred thousand (3,300,000) ounces of gold as likely to be mined from the creeks o\' the Klondike already proved. My estimate will be ridiculed as entirely under the mark by all Kloiulikers ; but it mi st be remembered that Klondikers accustomed only to the rich claims are apt to judge the whole of the field by the high standard of the ground they know, and are, on that account, the last men to give a sound estimate of the field as a whole. I consider that the estimates of even responsible Klondikers suflfer very greatly from a tendency to calculate the Klondike yield on the basis of the highest results obtained rather than on the lowest. More than one London-Klondike co. npany * Not of equal richness but yet capable of being worked. 38 is already crippled by over capitalization in consequence. So I adhere to an estimate based on an average ol lo cent dirt, or halt-ounce of g'old to the cubic yard of gravel, admit- ting firstly l!iat most claim-holders in Klondike would be disappointed to find that their claims were of no better dirt than ID cent dirt, and secondly, that a very large number of claims will average about six times that amouiK throughout. I omil all estimate of the amount of gravel to be washed in hill and bench claims and on the Klondike river, on Indian river, on the gulches, because there is no possibility* of arriving at a reasonable estimate, cither of the amount of gravel or ot the contained value of gold in such gravel. On a moderate basis we still arrive at a very large amount of gold, and must admit the Klondike gravels to be phenomen- ally ricli. In Siberia, gravel containing only one-sixteenth oi' llie average oi' gold I have allowed for Klondike is mined under much tlie same conditions as in Klondike, and is called rich, and pays company dividends varying from 5 to 40 per cent, per luinum, and averaging 20 per cent, per annum. This is a striking fact and not generally known. Of course placer-mining in Siberia is much older than in Klondike ; in Siberia! there ^'.re many comp. -ies at work well organized and managed ; but Siberia has much the same difficulties of transportation as Klondike, and her labour, though much cheaper, \y much more ineffective than Yukon labour. It remains to notice the gulches^ oi' the Klondike. In sharp contrast to the wide, flat creeks, we find most of the gulches narrow and steep ; gradients of 6 per cent, and more are not uncommon on the gulches. On the other hand, water, which is not plentiful on the creek>, is still scarcer on the gulches, and many of them fail lo aflFord even one sluice- head oi' water at all constantly. So far as I know, there is no gulch in the Klondike at all thoroughly pro\ed, and this is the reason why I have not included any in n:y estimate. Of several it can be said that the claims at their mouth are ' There nre fully Htni miles of claims (on ffiilehes), not even prospected yet in the Klondike .iloiic, t Siberi.Tii placer-iiiiiiiiig is well described by MM. Sabachnikoflf and Lev,; . Trans- portation in some parts of Siberl.i costs £^o per ton ; from N'ancouver to Dawson by the White P.iss route it Cvists about £ya to XJSo at least per ton. } Gulch - tributary of a creek. Hi 39 good, but it is not yet clear whether the deposit there came down the gulch or not. To this uncertainty Skookum gulch offers a single exception. Skookum is rich and unquestion- ably has enriched the Bonanza claims lying below its junction with Bonanza. But even Skookum gulch has been but little prospected, c^nd no other gulch showed any adequate pros- pecting at all. Obviously gold may be expected in at least some of the gulches, but the supply of water is sure to prove quite inadequate for their proper mining. The amount of rioss, and therefore of surface muck in some of the gulches is very large. Twenty and even thirty feet of black muck lie above the gravels in some of them. The fact that the rich creeks are so flat tends to prejudice the miner against the steeper gulches, but wrongly so ; for, given bedrock to catch the gold of the passing stream, gold will have been retained if it was ever there even in the steep gulches oi' the Klondike just as in the steep gulches of other parts of the world. Per- haps I ought to mention that there is a considerable number of creeks which were considered promising enough to warrant testing this winter, but which had no extensive results to show last season. Such are Portland, All Gold, Henderson, Too Much Gold, Little Blanche, Friday, Quartz, Last Chance ; considerable work will have been done on all these this winter. Slides are of considerable economic interest in the Klondike. At any point in a valley slide debris may be encountered, encroaching sometimes as much as 30 or more feet upon the valley, and quite altering its conformation in places. Two kinds of slides are common : (i.) The country rock will fall in masses, for the Klondike schists are very liable to weather badly and fall in ruins down the side hills into the valleys. This is part of that process of the wearing down of hills, giving us low, rounded masses where once, perhaps, were high, jagged or peaked mountains. (2.) Imagine a slope, fairly steep, with abundant black soil and moss and timber growing upon it. When the surface black soil thaws in spring, and especi- ally when water percolates freely in and through 40 this black soil, the weight of the timber proves too great for the cohesion of the soil beneath, and the top layer of this soil is torn oflF, and trees, moss and thawed soil are precipitated together into the valley beneath ; in fact, the water perco- lating through between the thawed and the frozen soil, acts as a lubricant, and the top layer freely slips off over it, just as I have seen at Bath a stratum of gravel slide down over a layer of clay; water, which had penetrated the gravel and could not pass the clay, was in this case also the lubri- cating agent, making the slip easy and rapid. These Klondike slides, however caused, have in very many cases superimposed masses of di'-bris upon the creek surfaces at the sides of the valley. It often happens that what looks like the side of the valley is not such, and gravel is found beneath it by drifting in under it more commonly than by sinking through it. I mention slides because I have noticed that they quite materially alter the original outline of the valleys in many parts of the Klondike. I have seen a miner sink through 8 feet of slide-matter on a Bonanza side- hill, and come upon the gravels of an old bench rich in gold, which the slide-J''hris had quite hidden from view. I have also seen several creek -^laims on which good pay was found right in under what lookv'd like the side hill, but was really slide dt'bris covering up part of the valley bottom. There have been disputes between creek claim and bench claim owners as to where the creek gravels must be considered to end, and it has usually been quite easy to show that it was in each case slide-debris which caused the difficulty. To owners of bench and hill claims, slides can be very trouble- some in spring, descending from above down upon the workings of the lower claims, and spreading no little havoc ; but then, again, slides can be of use, for it sometimes happens that a claim owner finds the surface of his bench or hill claim partially stripped for him. Needless to say, this is rare ! The Production of the Klondike. It may be accepted that in 1897 not more than about 41 6o,ooo ounces of gold were produced. In 1898 {i.e., all the winter's work from November, 1897, to end of August, 1898), not fewer than 500,000 ounces were produced. In the absence of definite returns all sorts of wild statements have been made, and I have been guided by the amounts handled by the two principal trading companies, by the Bank of Commerce and by the Bank of British North America. Those who exaggerate the amount produced in the Klondike use the following statements in support of their estimate : — (i.) The excessive royalty causes consider ible under- stating of amounts produced. (2.) Much of the gold produced is kept in circulation in the country as money. (3.) Many miners bring out their own gold and on only part of it has royalty been paid. Of (i) it may be said that, though doubtless many miners make a false return of their gold, and therefore Government loses track of part of the gold, yet that gold nearly all finds its way to the banks or principal trading companies, and is therefore included in an estimate based on the receipts of the banks and companies mentioned. Of (2) I should like to say that the amount of dust in circulation has been gros xaggerated whenever I have heard it stated ; 5,000,000 ..ollars has been generally allowed for it, but I calculate that at most not more than half that amount was in use for money in August last. Of (3) it may be said at once that the miner '"ho brings out his own gold is the exception, by whatever route. It is one thing for the miner to grumble at the rate charged by the banks, etc., for drafts, it is quite another to ship out his gold for himself, and he seldom chooses so to do. We are thus driven back upon my first statement, that an estimate can safely be based on the amounts handled by the two trading companies and the two banks. It must be admitted to be an extraordinary amount of gold that the Bank of Commerce touched, whether bought for itself or kept on deposit for other people, an amount of about 260,000 ounces. Not more than about 160 claims were worked to produce the 500,000 ounces, distributed as follows : — 42 'F mi On Eldorado, about 28 claims. On Bonanza, about 70 claims. On Huni,> ,s cilled mid-November, a,,d 1,..," ,."""• I""-I'.'P.S quite ■•» "orth .vorki,, "',;'■';"« """" .I..U our d,-,i„, '-«.v«.e,„s. vVeLn:"!;;:".™"— Of ""»• own labor at a diilv ^ ^ """ '"'^ '"^"^P'oy claim let out to two or mor '^''"'' ''^' *'" '^''^'^''-'^I ^hat they do all the Zrkr ""T"' '" '-^""^''^'^n 'a^er in washing out h "m"" '" '" "''-' --' ^old pay part t'o the ol^^^^Z "'• '"^ '''''"'^ ^he rest as payment for v^ork do "^7 ""' '^^^P ^ ^^y is usually not ZsZ ^ ^' '^'^^"^'i'<- -d not more LmoiIJZ '-: "^ '-^' ^° ^-^. '"-a-^ure; the number of 'l-!:,,' '^'' '^"P^'-fi''''''^' or three on a lay • the nr\ ' '" '' "■'^^'^">' ^^vo h^'^ ^He ,.o J;; ;^^^^^^^^^^ to pay the royalty on tl . '""■' ^^'^^ '^^« ^« the lay.enf who e r: "'^"^' ^"^ '^'^ W'th the mininP- of surh ''^l '""P^"'^ connected ^^--erandl^ylrt^Tu^^ o-- aqueduct required fo '' ""'' °^ ^'^^ «"^^ On our claim 2 w^^M IvVr '^Tl; °"^ !'^ ^-'^• employ our own labourers , ' "' ^"' ^^•'" for the second step ' "^ '''' ""'' "^^^^^ -"cady 2. Dri/^zn^ out the Pay Gravp/ n v • for .''awi„, Pu^o^ tr ;b?K^ r "' -°<' are pern,ane„tly frozen T '^'°"''''"' f-'ravels on the side hills of tb- vail,, T°'' """" '"^ "^"t -■"often birch .rJw'frel^^^Y'^.'*''' spruce our wood we shall so arrange o„r'h:;;f4°ti: w^ 48 oiu' woikiiii; IkMiis wo iikiv al\\a\s havi- ilirf lolu>ist. This i> airan>;oil oil lui 1>\ lii inj; al niL;ht i>r bvlKi\in}4 two slialts ov inoioaiul a iliambor to LMv.h, so tliat whiK- wo arot!»awiiii4 !\\ liro tlio pay f^tavol ol" 0110 ol\ainlHM, wo may he lioistinj; pro- vioiislv tliawoii pa\ lii>ir, tlio olhoi. I s;;iil abo\ uiuloi " pro.spooliiiL; " llial wo lako oul ahoul six loot iloop iM i;ia\ol. It woulil bo bolloi to say ll\a.! wo thaw six loot, and i>t' lliis an)i>iinl al->init tlio lowosi lliio toot will pay to hoist lor washini; aloiit; with a ooitaiii aminiul ol boihool^ ; tho losi i>l iho thaw Oil L;ia\ol wo loa\o boiow as " wasto" loi lulmo iinpn>voil mothoils lohaiuUo at a piolil, poriiaps. 11 10 i;ooil minor pans ollon. to nial suro that lio is soiulini; up ilirt whioh uilipav w lion sjtiiiu; oonios, iho bad minor noi'lools lannint;. anvl somls np muoh miMO diit than ho nood, and uul ollon linds that ho lias w astos his labon I'h mado nothini; whon iho washup is ilono "dill' is hoistod In moans v^t a 1 udo windlass and "dmupoil" liom tho Inukoi all lomul Iho shall in a hoap "1 "dnmp' to wail h>i tho walor ol iho o»>mnu; Mint;, Asa lulo, uvo mnuis will j^ot oul iMi iv' iho dump not nioio llian ,> 01 .} ouImo yards poi vla\. t,'>no liio wdl tiiaw ,dn>nl (> lot) inohos i>r tho !a.o ol iho di iil o: fuimol im ohaiidior. As to lb amoiml t>( wihhI loquirod loi thawiiis,;, wo ma\ osiimalo ow Iho b.asis ol 01 \\ ooA Ivi o\ ory .| i'ubii 10 V 01 1.1 ^ ai Us >i>rO hilto S II a Pilo \h\ mado np li> S Wv loot 1 Ol', ■! tool \v iilo h\ 1 l^ot liit;h. III. maiu ;m .000 Ol>u'lS o( Wiiod will tv I U tl oloro tlio i>a\ r J «w all won «' (1 Oi;s; (>Ut. tho ooiirso ol om dnliini; wo may liiul iho pa\ i^i\o onl on om hands, ami wo shall Ihoti have to aUomp* \o K>oaK it aiow, wholhoi In luimol 49 '''"•"I'-.i. win '"^"'>' ^■'•'in.s I'av.- Ivo ^'••'"^ M.nk .nv.M.I.H"; , ■"■; ' '^'"'■'' -^"--::. ;x;;:'t^ -- •'— •..-„;..„/';, ,';;"''■' ^ ,-,■ -"" lv«i„sU. I,. '"""■•". -IMUI; ,1,0 -'"--w::;:r:r:;:;;:;;,;""-..'>^^ :;:;;:::;::rr;;:,-; ---:::.•::; III ">nit;il>lo .111 iiss t h,. . I , , "'-i.i;..*.' .ihoxi' mil I • '.ii'ii- "1 llK-h,ink..ril, . , •'M'K-vi.u,. i,v<.| -'V ':.::::::::';::: /"■■' ^'■■l-";,s|,i„p. I, ;_ , ;'^ "'■ "'V.I ,„r ^l">vl. .lunl.u-, ,■;"■' '•""■"''••"' -l.m i„ ■'■'■W./M,. «,,„,. „;';•:•,:''''-■• M- ■-"■"■.si, „,,„,„ ""''"■"l">l"'"-'l'.-".„,, "H- .i\ 01.1:^.0 vviWtli ot , (IiMt, . ■ , "; •'""" -i-m ', -" ' r ■■■*'■"•"-■■ , .„,, \W ' n gravel. The sluice boxes are each 12 feet long, about 18 inches wide, and 9 inches deep, and the number of them used depends largely on the fancy of the owner, but should not be fewer than four ; they are made narrower at one end than at the other, so as to fit into one another ; the narrow end of one is pushed a little into the wide end of another, and so the need of a joint is done away, for the boxes are fixed on an incline (usual grade is I in b or I in 12) in order that the water may flow rapidly through them to disintegrate the gravel better. The last box down stream is so built as to widen out into fully twice the width of the rest. On the bottom of the boxes we must fix moveable slats of wood or " riffles " which will offer obstacles to the rushing water and help to detain the gold. These riffles in the Klondike are usually "pole riffles," i.e., poles in sets of four or five fastened together at the ends, but with an interval of, say, 2 inches between each two poles, and laid lengthwise in the boxes. The riffles in the last box will be laid at« right ang; s to these and will usually be slats of wood. If we l.avp finished our boxes, set them in place, and coiu.ccted them with the flume, and if the middle of May is come, we may admit water to the flume by drawing up the sluice-gate built by us for that purpose in the bank of the stream just above our dam. We are now ready for — 6. Shovelling in the Pay Dirt. — This is no hard matter, especially if we have waited for the hot sun of the end of May thoroughly to thaw our dump and warm the water. As we shovel in the gravel the water disintegrates it and the heavier matter, (gold and " black sand ") falls and is retained by the riftles, while the lighter (the gravel) is carried on through the boxes into the " tail-race " and out at its end, to be shovelled aside by the tail- race man into the heap of "tailings" (gravel that has been washed), A really good man will, 5' under favourable conditions eisilv .h . • cuhic,ardsperdayor.oHour .t::;'/ us now at our r.»M ^ • '^emauis tor water and """'^^ -ence to turn off the 7. Clean up the Gold.—Thx^ we ^h^ll . „ end of one of the o '^-^ '."^^"''^'tv do at the favourite ti.e . vC 1 2 "^^ ^^^^^^ - a turn the water n, '^ '''" ''^^''^ ^hen iiuc, I nis done, we curr^r fu^ 1 , and plenty of "black sand" mKed wi h if ' to our cabin in pans. We h-,« !, n , ' "^ the black sand (oxide of iyonj.th '""°'" o"^ leisure, and then last of al t'.LnT"" ^' ^arry our ,^old down to Da I o , Z T"- '" work of all. '^^vson— the ha.ujst Such is the process nf H^.-fV 'n sun,n,er, drif.in/fs ,: diffeZt'" """" '" "'^ '^'™''"'- can be washed as Tt is ho ltd ^ h "•''" """ "'^ ''■''y *'■ On the other hand i su^^; " " " """"'^'' °"'>- °"«' drained, and so we shou rCe ' e""" ""^"" '""' '° ^^ tnvolved in sun,n,er as in wim: dHfti,:?^ ""■"^" "' ^'^P» -^-^rc::::-nrr:r™''-- process - summer-sluicino-." ^ °^ ^'^^ competing Su7n7nc}'-sluicing. The steps involved are •— -."^:t:"'^r-t-v^---- timber and'mos, in " "■■•" "''"'' ""^ ""= fires; espechM fi ' "","!"""'" «'th axes and -wntheV,;ri:;:r7r:,.:i:'"\;T" trenche F, , „?i " 7 """ ""^ ^ -- "f our '"""If, u, this new course the stream. Tf^ 52 helped by two or more men with pick and shovel, rapidly thaws the surface muck and lays bare the gravel. The surface muck is carried away by it, but the waste gravel must be wheeled away by us, and then we are through to the pay, and all the time we are using- no artificial thawing power, but the hot northern sun, helped by the flowing water, is thawing for us, and very rapidly too, after the second week of May. By, at latest, the second week in June, we can begin to shovel in our pay dirt, and need not stop, except for scarcity of water, until early in September. The processes for washing are the same in summer sluicing as in winter drifting. We can now compare the two methods. Both involve : — i. Prospecting. 2. Building a dam. Erection of flume. Slu're boxes. Shovelling pay dirt into these boxes. Cleaning up the gold. Each involves one process peculiar to itself; thus drifting involves artificial thawing of the pay dirt, while summer sluicing is only possible after the surface muck and waste gravel has been snipped off. We can now see the cost* of the two methods. Common to both methods are : — 1. Prospecting. Twelve holes or more, averaging 20 feet at not less than 5 dollars per foot sinking ... 2. Dam. Cost should not exceed - 3. Flume (with lumber 150 dollars per 1,000 feet), should not cost more than, at most Add separate items peculiar to drifting — 4. Sluice boxes, not more than - 200 (;^4o) 5. Excavating 10,000 cubic yards of ■ The figures of cost .ire to be reK-trJcd .is hifjh— .is, in fact, an outside estimate. The estimate for prospecting will commonly be exceeded, while for winter mining, it can be somewhat cheapened. 3- 4- 5* 6. Si, 200 (;j^24o) 1.500 {£3^) 2,000 (p^40o) 25,ooo {^5,000) 5>1 gravel, all previously thawed costs not less than . ' « •-^''ou-in,. xo.ooo cubic vards to '°'°°° ^^'°'°°°^ the averao-e claim, and' 4 cubic - *'"'''■' '^•'^ '' Sood days driftin- for ''":; "^^^"' '^ "-hom we allow 10 6 Cn^f"7P^^'"^^''^>-'"'-'^-^^^eseach.) (not less than i cord for everv 4 cub.c yards at a cost of not less than 10 dollars per cord, even "•hen cut on spot) (for one man on the average will "ot cut and deliver more than one cord per day, and his wages will not fall lower than ,0 dollars per dayyet awhile in the Yukon). 7- Co-^tofwashing out o-old from all this amount of pay. allowing average of 6 cubic yards per man per day (roughly) - ^ Add all these together '-Lj •„ " '°°'' (-^3,200) for sundries, we get a'^ec' " '"^^'"- ''^">'th'"& ^oilars (^,,; 3oo)'?or r^rXra^K';'';^ °!' "''''' ^^'°- We may safely add 4,000 dolla/^fi'; '' ' ' '" ^^•'"*-- -y that to work out the a JIhTJ bT dT^"^' ^"' ^00,000 dollars (^.0,000) or about ,oll ijT' ^'^^ ^n summer sluicing we have pros ^-^^ ^"' ^''"''^• Pecting and dam and flume and boxes as before, costing not less than Add items for '• stripping " Jn thj basis of a claim 500 feet long piece to be stripped 90 feet wide, depth ofsame 18 feet, consisting of6 feet ofblack muck, beneath that 6 feet of waste gravel, be- neaththat6feetofpav. Stripping off moss, timber, black muck (stream does most of the 5,000(^1,000 r^ 54 moving of the black muck, helped by two men) Wheeling away waste gravel, allow- ing 10,000 cubic yards, to be moved at the rate of 6 cubic yards per man per day at 10 dollars per day; roughly Shovelling in the bottom 6 feet of pay gravel, allowing 10,000 cubic yards of pay shovelling in at an average of 5 cubic yards per man per day at same wages To these add for draining For sundries (less for summer than for winter work) ... And we get a total of $5,OCO (/,I,G0O) 17,000 (^3.400) 20,000 (^4,000) 3,000 (^600) 52,500 (.-^10.500) This gives c)n average cost of rather more than five dollars (^?i) per yard. We find that summer sluicing is more economical than winter drifting, costing about half. But this is not all, the summer method allows better work in every way ; all is open and subject to inspection under it ; especially it renders the bedrock amenable to the careful miner's treatment, and brings into the class of "pay" large amounts of gravel which could not be washed in any other way, eg:, many a claim in the Klondike of no account would in Siberia be counted fabulously rich. Why then is the summer method not universal in Klondike ? I"or the following reasons : — 1. Drifting is the traditional method, and the Vukoner has not yet been forced to consider narrow margins of profit ; he has worked in rich ground for the most part. 2. The winter of the Yukon is not so unpopular among the Vukoners as the outside world imagines. 3. To mine all winter and wash out the gold in summer keeps the miner in continuous work in a land where it is both laborious and costly to move about much. Given easy access to, and egress from, the Yukon, .T3 4. Summer working requires in the Klondike a consider- able outlay of capilal. To "one,," ., k-i ^! Claim ror summer work will se,Zeo« ,t:ta: "P.tal „, the early history of the Yukon cZ pared w„h ,„i., o.,„„, ,,„, involves Terv I i^e' a 7; : ::: , '""^ -'r ^"" «" "^» --^ 'h"' cinu excavate his oav. borr pay, on security of his dump, and, i„ f; w money for flume, et( much more quickly {i„ th drift and '"g" ; but s e Klondike. I let, tap his riches sure to adva ummer sluicing is mean) by s m I h well as for its ch e often been asked wh "ce in favour for that ore thorough, av eapness. reason as ine of distinction bet that only sp u t is the true ( so shallow as th stances are- 'ecial circumstance ecn the two method ec My ononiical) answer is s can justify drifting in graveh ose of the Klondike. Such special circum- (i-) Scarcity of wat in the Klondik er, t'.,^., on many points of the creeks (2.) I for the no days of "n some parts of the dis e u-e cannot rely on one si summer continuoush nice head and waste gravel and the pay so are so thick (a trict the overlaying muck much as 24 feet) more economical, for drifi "arrow that, obviously, drift only bad when adopted t"ig is not bad in it; These and more effect m pref ing is ielf. that the wate special circumst ive method. erence to a cheaper ances mav hi at tht supply will, perhaps, 'b, lec pomts where it is now defe ■ modifi irtificiallv very much cheapened by th stream from the hydraul" ctive, and st c use of powder, as -' f mean increased ripping mav be well as the any case the question for th " VVill stripp I'c nozzle, upon the waste dirt. Jn e owner to a Pmg cost me more than th, twice my pay dirt?" If it n-ill d lu I hav rifting must be "swer is merely ■ing and handlinp- e compared the two methods as they used. now are, and 56 I have avoided all the fancy fii^urcs of the past, and estimated the respective expenditures on the basis of a lo dollars daily wage ; the amounts ot work done, and of material involved beini,r drawn from my own experience of workings all over the field. It is quite true that single Humes in some in- stances on Kldorado represent an outlay of $24,000, that to open up a claim has cost more than $40,000, etc., but fancy prices are already ^one from the Yukon (except for claims), and only hij^h prices remain. I could easily show that it would not be difficult greatly to cheapen both methods by introducing machinery into both and by mining only in summer whichever way is chosen, but this involves intelligent study of economy in a field where economy is not yet much studied. It is safe to say that a large number of owners will continue to drift in winter, and will continue to leave not a little g'old behind them in the ground for more economical methods later on. Before I discuss those methods, it will be possible to answer the question "what is ' pay' in the Klondike?" From the data given above, " pay" is seen to be gravel carrying not less than -3 oz. of gold per cubic yard if worked by winter drifting, not less than ' .; oz. of gold per cubic yard if worked by summer sluicing. These two values are called in the Klondike (roughly) 10 cent and 5 cent ciirt respectively. On hill and bench claims where the rocker is used, "pay" will mean not less than 25 cents to the pan, i.e., i^i oz. of gold per cubic yard of gravel. Last winter on the creeks with the " lay system," " pay " meant to *^he laymen 25 cent dirt. The System of "Lavs." A "lay" is a part of an alluvial claim let out by its owner to two or more miners, on condition that the miners pay all expenses connected with the mining and washing of the gold, the owner receiving half the gross output and pay- ing all the royalty due on the whole gross output. This system was widely prevalent last winter. Its advantages are obvious — 1. It relieves the owner of the trouble of overseership. 2. It does away with the need of capital, for by it the workers wait for their pay until they wash out their gold in the spring. .1/ !l 3. It inlroduces a spirit of co-oper;ition and protil-sliar- ing which jji'oos far to mitii,'^ate tlie severe strain of the northern winter for the older miners. 4. It makes an owner better able to worl< the claims separated tVom one another and distantfrom Dawson. 5. It leaves owners free to follow avocations other than mining;'. But its disadvantajjes are also obvious — It IS very expensive, reqi lirinir 2^ cent dirt at the verv least ; with lower yrade gravel than tliis, the lay- man usually found himself worse ofT in spring; than if he had worked for waires all winter. It tl leretore leaves muc h of the claim unmined, and leads to much "i^opherinij " of claims, /.f., burrow- inj;- in many spots to find richer dirt, so soon as panniiii;' shows that rich dirt has i^iven way to poorer dirt on the lay. 3. It is irrei;"ular ; the layman is very independent, and readily leaves a poor lay for a better one elsewhere. The lay system could not in any case be more than a mere temporary expedient desig-ned to meet the owner's want of capital and of minini;- knowledije, an expedient loo of use in retaining labourers when labour was scarce ; with labour and supplies already greatly cheapened, with capital and skill both becoming available, the system dies a natural death. This winter it is tolerated only on the more distant creeks ; it is wasteful, snatching a certain amount of gold in a short time without expenditure of capital, but not making the most of any ground, as owners begin to know, and im- possible on the poorer claims. The lay system belongs with the old time rocker to the heroic age of Klondike mining. Other faults there are, easy to see, in present methods, eg:, — I have noticed several dumps which had been deposited on undermined ground, and had to wait for water longer than had been expected. Before they could be washed, the ground beneath them had caved in, and so entailed considerable expense on their owners, who had to hoist the dump once more to wash it. The same want of forethought and absence of a connected scheme of work is especially noticeable in the case of the huge heaps of tailing deposited carelessly about the siirtacc of llie claims, as tlunit^h the system of drifting must last tor ever. As a matter of fact, (.IrilVin^'- will be to a considcrahle extent superseded hy summer sluic'inj^ and hydraulicin^'', and these heaps will have to he moved atjain in most cases. In the Siberian placers there is a law which prevents miners from depositing- tailintjs on any ground use- ful for minini^, and the \'ukon needs a similar law. Only ou the best nianatjed claims are tlie tailings carefully removed to be dumped on worked out j^'-round. Knouf,''h of present methods ; Klondike is already lookiiii,-' forward and the aj^e o\' machinery will soon be^'-in. Both drifting and ground sluicing are capable ot' being indefinitely improved and con- siderably cheapened. It must never be forgotten that there is enough alluvial in the Klondike alone to reward the ingen- uity of inventors who will devote themselves to improving the mining methods. Imagine a rich field on which the only machinery seen as yet amounts to one honi. lade derrick, one little steam scraper to help in stripping otV waste gravel, and a few home made but quite etVective overshot water wheels. Badly wanted are steam derricks, trams and light rails, steam tailings-elevators, giant powder, steam pumping apparatus, and especially hydraulic apparatus. Ail this means a railway. The real debt which the Yukon owestotlie Klon- dike is tlio railway. Only a very rich field could ha\e pre- cipitated the development of the Yukon at this early time, and suci"; a iield the Klondike is. h remains to discuss the future of hydraulicing in the Yukon. Many statements have been made, c.^':, that "hydraulicing is not possible in the Klondike." Such a statement, advanced as it has been under names which carry weight, has too often misled men who wish to know, but have no means of knowing the actual condition of mining in the Klondike. What are the needful conditions of hydraulic- ing in any country. They are : — (i). Presence of large bodies of auriferous gravel. (2). Sufficiency of water able to be delivered at a sutTicient pressure at the required places. (3). Satisfactory dumping ground for tailings with grade steep enough to enable them to be carried ofT down the bedrock drain. 59 The llrst ;iiid sccoiul ot tliosi.' are essential ; tlio third is capable ot" considerable modification now that the j^^ravel- elevator has conie inti^ use. The hydraulic elevator gets over any dillli ulty kIuc to too gentle gradients, and the tailings can be shot back into the simip* sosoim as the cut is big enough. How far are the needful conditions fulfilled in Klondike? I. The auriferous gravel-bodies are large enough, and onlv combinations of scattered interests are needed the case of ordinary claims. Th e concessions are big enough already to tempt enterprise. It is for each combination c\' claims and for each con- cession to show that it has gold enough to warrant a demand for capital. This will not be so easy as is commonly thought. The gravel deposits of the Yukon are not all auriferous ; auriferous gravels in that vast country are the exception, not tlu- rule, of course. The Klondike gravels are permanently frozen, but experience proves that this need be no bar to hydraulicing. Strip off the surface muck with its timber and moss and drain the bedrock through- out, and the northern sun, helped powerfully with powder, perhaps, and the stream from the nozzle, will melt all the difiicuity out of the frozen gravels. Especially important to remember is the function which hydraulic power can be made to perform in the operation of strippii If the present streams on the creeks can easily wash away the surface muck when turned aside into and forced to flow- through trenches cut in that muck, how much more easily will the mighty force o( the stream from the nozzle break down and clean off such surface deposit. Now appears the full advantage oi' the Klondike shallow gravels. Except on certain hills of the Klondike, deep gravels do not exist and deep leadst are unknown, bedrock being rarely more than 20 feet deep. Strip ofl" the surface layer and you will leave on any claim a deposit of gravel like •Sump = (here) hole from which all the auriferous matter has been mined. fLcad-p.TV siro.Tk. 6o I lliosL' o\' Atliii ;ind the Dalton Ran^'-e, pcnclrated and thawed by tlie liot iiorllicrn sun, shining almost contiiuuHisIy for about i lo d.iys in these wide open valleys. 2. But if the gravel is there with the },'old in it, the water certainly is not at hand on the creeks for washinj;- by hydraulic power. Concessions on the big strearns like the Klondike and Indian Rivers are well off with an inexhaustible supply ; hut on the creeks and gulches the supply is neither abundant enough nor continuous enough, and it may be said at once that hydraulicing on a big scale is impossible on them unless water be brought in from the big streams. To bring in water from the big streams will be very costly, but there is gold enough lo warrant the enterprise on every one of eight creeks and three hills already. If the facts of hydraulicing be studied, it will be seen that it usually involves the introduction of water from a distance. Water- supply companies have long been a feature of Cali- fornian mining and have earned large profits by the supplying of water at lo to 20 cents per miner's inch per 10 hours, and that with water conveyed for from 50 to 100 miles in ditches. .Ml that is needed in the Klondike is combination of separate interests under a scheme of vast advantages for all concerned. There is no special difficulty connected with the introduction of water on the creeks. 3. The Klondike streams are so gentle in their fall that the gravels will have to be elevated by steam or by hydraulic power just as in Cariboo. In other days this might have been considered a fatal bar to hydraulicmg; it is not so now ; it merely adds a very little to the cost ot production, and it is for owners to show that their ground is rich enough and exten- sive enough to stand working. So too after the gravel has been elevated and washed, the tailings will have to be disposed of by steam or other power and eventually shot back into the sump or hole from which they were washed by the stream from the 6i "ozzio and eleviti'il . .1 ^ ^''^' KT.ule is too ,.on le :, ' ^''" "^'''^' '^'^ ^ ^hed ; , ^^^w that ue have sea - t h "'' ! '"' ''" "''''' P^''^^- ^v'^it Klondike affords uv " ^ '''V''"'''^'''^''"^^ ^-"ands and -;"e parts of the field it is asy ^^ ''^ ^^^ ^-"-al. ,„ °ften with added cost, due to t • " '■' ^''''''^^'' ^''^u^'h Po^vder, perhaps to h 1 o dl T"'" "' "■^'^^'' ••'"^' "-d of f-^v places uhere the 'n " '"^''"^^^ '''' ^^'^^^^ ''n tl'ose ^-"ches and canons) ""^' '"""''''''^ (-■•• '^e steep -^^^^ too; in parts of Z' F^^^t^'^'": ^'' '^^ Walton Co orado Creek, also. And n .^L ' ''"''"'■^'^' '■••^- • on snallow anri „,,. r . *■' '" 'I" these cases fh« , , hyd rail \v and not frozen 'cng- under the ord "1 summer, off cases the ^^ravel season of about uo d dayh-y-ht be reckoned !m '^ry conditio "f-Mifr in fact a field f s are ■lys ; but if the h 'lis, with a su full y 220 d, fewer than 55 day 'O's ; there are "P, these ours of sunsh or mmer m "o days are equival the short Yukon _s of continuous dayhVh ine and ent to summer not n™,„,- need „evor cea.e, andVhe „„'T' "'"" ""-- "-'■'< "f hours of dayli^rh t each o 'lays will avera^re ,0 The Yukon AS It has b A Field for C are "poor men's d •een so commonh AJ'ITAL, believed. If '^•yin^'-s" that th said that the Klondik e d '■i^-ht to stake cl >t means that all e sayuiiT b-j '.i>''«'i'ii;s '^en, rich and over are poor men's d world IS not wanted f not win an ad ■ *"''""■'■' 't is true, but th *3 r\.-»,-. ^ -- t poi. •K^i,'-int,r.s. ifi^ on all d s come to bo ave OLjual ':>«-"i«-s all tlu ConsiderabI or minin^r in Klondik equate return, it is means that "-'' or that, if used. ^"apital it can- cl nd t ^ 'Capital is needed in ll"'''''^''""^ statement Klondik o want of capital consequent sick such as (i) bad h can be traced ousintr y part of t\ "lost of the evils of '>■' coun '"«■ over tht "^■'^■''- -• (2), fault ^'ravels for rich i^' and feedin^r ^f y minino- result tr}-, the miners with ^ in pick- -teadofwas^.^;; ,ch tr" ^^^""' "^o^^Her^-; "ected plan. In feet "'■^^*' " ' and poor 't is true to sav th K-ravels o, a con^ at the prevalence ot m wmmmmmmmmm ■■ 11 62 winter diU'tiny, which in many c;u es means a much dearer cost of production, is due to want of capital for the most part. To open claims for summer sluicing needs considerable outlay, as I have shown under "Methods of Mining-." In some wa} connected with the idea of "poor men's ditfi^'in^-s" is the ejuestion which I have so often been asked : "Are the dij,'-ijini^s permanent?" If rhis mean^: "Is paying- quartz already discovered?" it can be answered in ihe negfative. There is no paying- quartz located yet in ihe Vukon ; there i.^: some quartz carrying- values in g-old or copper or silver, or all three, which may eventually he founc'. to be worJi workii.t.':- ; but men g-o to the Yukon as yet for alluvial gold, and the question about permanency sliould be more clearly out. " Is there a certainty for companies heavily "capitalized that tliey will g'-et scope and return for their "money for a number of year;?" To answer this let us see what are the openings ioi capital in the Klondike. They are especially — 1. The purchase of proved claims, wnether hig-h g-rade or low g-rade. The highest price I ha\e known paid for a claim is 40,000/. It is easy to pay too much: prices are inflated. 2. The purchase of unproved claims (at lower rates than for proved claims, of course). This can be done on fa\ourable letms by a man who can command the cash on the spot, and a.n intelli<^eiit man can do much in this way. The formation of the country is simple, and a man can soon observe what are the likely places for g-old. 3. Lending- m.oney for development of claims, i.e., for workmg capital or merely for prospecting; them. 4. Senthng- out exploring- partiv.s to stake new finds. The Yukon 's very little explored as yet (sec under "Prospecting"). 5. Supplying- water for sluicing purposes to the many claims needing it. Owners of hill and bench claims have to carry up their water from the stream below. A supply of one sluice-head on such will, at the lowest, treble the output. On certain parts of creeks water is scarce and irregular after the end of Juno, and e\en sooner. 63 IS the Us. U-r II y Ims hv. the of of 6. Supplyiiii^r hy electricity he;it for thawitii,'- j^rinel in the drifts, wliether driftinj^ be done in winter or in summer. 7. Buildinj^- liyht railways on ever} proved creek (I beiie\e this is beiiiij;" done on Bonanza already). 8. Supplying- pure water from the Klondike River for use in Dawson City and Klondike City. 9. Supplyiui^'- machinery, especially pumps, derricks, tailiui^s-elevators, improved washing- machines. 10. Especially undertakintj to put up a hydraulic plant and so wash out a claim in ab'.ait an eiq-hth o( the time now required. Adjacent claims will come in and there will be i\o lack of work for enterprises of this kind at remunerative percentages of the ijold recovered. 11. The buildiui^ of bedrock drains down any or all of the proved creeks. A careful perusal of the abo\e will show that the e is a field for capital in the Klondike itself hard to equal. indeed, I think that when I have called attention to the presence o\' a rich deposit over a wide area (not less than 30 by 30 miles) on the one hand, and on the other to the almost total absence of machinery and of those combinations of separate interests which make so much for the economic extraction of the i,^old, I have done quite enoui,'-h to show a field for capital. .\dd to the Klondike already three other alhnial fields, and capital is li'.vely to find plenty of openiny;-s. in the Klondike itself there are more than 800 miles of creeks and ij-ulches staked but not yet prospected. These ma\' all prove barren but that is unlikely. I have not discussed the openings for ordinary trad- ing-, nor shall I. There must be many openings in a \ast country which produces hardly anything- for its popidatioii oi not fewer than 30,000 men, soon, it seems, to be still further increased. At the same time trading-- requires g-reat knowledg^e of local conditions in the V'ukon and energy and foresight too ; supplies, w hich at one place scarce yield a prolit for bring^ing- in, mav be worth six times as much at another. Of g^oods and pro\isions it may be said that there is a right moment at which to dispose of them at a big- profit ; I have known a fluctuation of from cost price to twelve times T- 64 the cost prico in tlie sellini,'- \;iliie o\' articles like butter and tobacco within a week. But such fluctuations do not affect, save very slii,'-htly, the value of g'ood mininj^ property ; such propcrt} increases in \alue every day. There is that in the Klondike which can pay for all commodities, and a good company can supply itself on very reasonable terms, and when it has properly washed out its own claims, it will still have a very lucrative employment for its plant in washing- over again'**' the ground which has been imperfectly mined already. Such ground can be profitably purchased from now onwards. A review of the wlnMe question sugg^ests that the real difficulty for capital will be to know on whiit points to concentrate itself, e.g., should a heavily capitalized development or other company aim at acquiring a number of properties to be worked out as quickly as possible or would it be better to work them out slowl)-, spreading' its work over 20 years (for example) with one or two sets of plant ? The former seems obviously right ; but local conditions modify the position, by which I mean that the cost of g^ettingf a plant to work up there is very heavy and therefore one plant must be made to do as much as possible. The final answer must, I think, depend upon the amoimt of combinations {of what are now the separate interests of many claim owners) able to be broug-ht about by the Company's manag^er on the spot. Cautions to Capit.\l. 1. See what you buy. Early dealings in claims have made all claims of equal value on the outside. In the Klon- dike they vary, even on the same creek, from .?iooo to $200,- 000. There are plenty of low grade or even blank claims in the 30,000 or more already staked. To one who knows two Klondike properties side by side it is droll to see both offered in London one for $10,000 the other for Sioo.ooo, both alike unprospected. They may be of those ditTerent values but no man knows it until they have been prospected. 2. Working Lvpenses vary from part to part of the Klondike field ; therefore additional care i.^: needed, in select- ing' properties, on this score. "But of course any comp.iny will jjo on .icquiring' mines of its own— tlio field is wide. 65 3- The titles to claims are often defective; therefore buy only in the Klondike, where you can prove the titles. 4. Prices are apt to be inflated, e.g., .'^50,000 i'ov a bench claim is excessive even for a rich one. We shall not s^et more than 7,000 cubic yards of pay dirt from it. Allow Sio per cubic }ard for workiiii;- expenses = 670,000 ; add purchase price $50,000 and we yet .$120,000, or about .'iri7 = one ounce of i,'-old per cubic yard before we i^-et any proiit. In the same way 8100,000 is dear for a creek claim. It will yield, say, 12,000 cubic yards of pay dirt ; allow 610 per cubic yard for working expenses and we get 8120,000 + Sioo, 000, or 8220,- 000 or rather more than an ounce of gold per cubic yard before we get any profit. Buyers do not always reniember that the claim cost the staker nothing, while the purchaser s production must be handicapped by the price paid. When to the above field for capital I add the fact that on the more recently staked creeks alternate blocks of claims have been reserved by Government, which is prepared to treat with companies showing strength for the working of such blocks, I am really >uggesting an opening in itself quite suffi- cient to induce a strong company to y;o to work {sir one section of a letter from the Hon. C. Sifton addressed to me on the subject of Yukon companies on the i h of January last). A block of 10 claims means about half a mile of ground, and this on certain creeks is well worth looking after. If a strong company can be sure of a man to select the right properties, and will erect a plant for such, it can be quite certain of applications from neighboring claim owners to wash out their dirt for them, I shall close this section of my report by saying that when I went up to the Yukon the question for capital was "Is there gold in sufficient vjuantities over a sufficient area to induce enterprise ;■'" whereas now the pro- blem is merely "How shall we get out that gold on terms favourable to ourselves?" The answer to this depends on two considerations, which are the same all the world over, in new^ fields especial'y. 1. The ability and rectitude of the local manager. 2. The strength of the home company; a really strong company can make its own terms. iflr^! r 66 We may :unv ask about the •^'oneral conditions under which capital will operate in the ^'uif moisture and abundance of black soil, 1 tlnnk ; and it is onl\- on the larj^a'r streams 'liat sulVicient moisture is found, the j^eneral fault of the north beint4' its aridity and, on the creeks and j^^ulches, lii^'-Ii elevation, both unfavourable to the j^rowth cif hea\y timiur. On the islands (^i the ^'ukon, especially where its larj^er tributaries Join it, \er\- fair timber i^Mows. luerywluie li^'ht spruci , Ivn-ch and poplar s^^ood for fuel may be expected, in the Klondike area e\en over the divides ; the iinly bare ridi,>^e in the Klondike is that oi which the Dome is the hi^diesl point. Tlu- policy o'i the nominion (unernment in the Yukon has been Ireely criticised by mainly ii^norant people on most points, especiall\ on the i.|uostion o\ timber concessions. It has I'.en blamed for j^'-rantiiii; limber to individuals antl companies, for curtailinj^- the "free miner's" ri^ht to cut at his pleasure ; but it is well to remember (1) The anumrU of i^-ood timber is limited in the Klondike, and your "free miner" is not the man to economise it ; he will not spare ^o\.-\i\ timber, if he needs iireudod. (2) Major V\'alsli reser\ed plenty oS. tirewood on the l.dls near Dawson and Just abo\e it for any man who chosi to cul for his own use but not for sale. There are in the Klondike, rs elsewhere, manv men who woukl like to see capital come into the country, Init hate the conditions loi advant;ij^e on which alone it can come in. Untiuestionably it is to the ultimate {^•ain iM" the country that the litnber should be worked as private properly. Only so will economy and elliciency be secure'l. The thieatened and, in part, actual ha\ockin^' away o( i^'ood timbii", where poorer qualities would sufTice, is a much 67 more '-- '-"Her n,..un„ac,urcd lo,- .1,.,, ■..„ ^ ''7"""" "v. niaiiv important -i im-v, ., 1/ .1 '■■> '. ^....,.. ;::;,.;::,';;■'-'•, "■ ^•'suivs a liitle a verv liul '"■'"^'^^ '\\ tlic summer sun """-.•i\(.t\ littlo sunn \- ()( ui),.,- ti • .t t,'uld,cs „,a| „,, ,i,H,t parts , ' '"T ' """' "' ""^ Hy ■•low ,s ,„ca,„ n.arcT ,o ,i,e m."^;;;^;^^;;;:;:;;^ ~ — 68 claims cannot rely on even a sinsjfle sluicehead continuously from mid-Mav to mid-September. Conclusive proof that there is real difliculty in the water supply is ''r>und in the fact that winter dumps, which should have easily been washed out, all of them by June 30, were not all disposed of until well into August last summer. Some of the richest parts are also most in want of water. Nor can the difficulty be ijot over by little reservoirs, such as are being built on Skookum gulch ; a gigantic supply system must be organized, as long ago, in California. The Atlin and Dalton trail new finds are in strong contrast with the Klondike herein ; in both plenty of water is to be had, at any rate on the creeks so far dis- covered to be auriferous. Labour. Whether another rush will be seen in 1899, northwards into the Yukon, no man can say. There is, however, sure to be a steady influx of miners for the prevalent good wages as the conditions of mining in the north become known, and especially as the railway pushes inwards. Under "Prospect- ing'" I have shown that it is important to distinguish between mining and prospecting. From mining in the Yukon there have already gone nearly all the hardships which earlier attended it. There will soon be left only the severe winter, which not even the six months of pleasant weather (April to September) will ever quite make up for. Some irregularity will no doubt be experienced by reason of new finds drawing away a portion of the miners engaged on a field already staked, but there is already, at any rate in the Klondike, a large number of men who prefer an assured good wage to the uncertainty of a prospecting trip. The so-called "stampede " seldom keeps a man away long. See more on this question under "Prospecting." There is a real induce- ment to the labourer in the Yukon ; he has a chance of some- thing really good, he can earn $10 a day for the greater part of the year, capital is rapidly flowing in to make his lot toler- able in respect of comfort, e.g., neat cabins with good windows are rapidly di-tplacing the old low ill-ventilated shacks with their whiskey-botMe windows ; living is rapidly growing cheaper and better, especially fresh meat will soon be within 69 reach of all. A man could live well on $2 per day last August; and this without a railway. Both to capital and to labour the need of through communication by rail is paramount. A railway will cheapen everything and lengthen the summer season by about eight days for the Klondike. I do not see why the wages of good miners should fall below Sio per day for some time still. Plenty of men (but good miners?) could be had for ••?5 per day last summer; but I should still estimate labour on the basis of §10 per day. The Laws and the Administration of the Yukon. The Yukon is under British rule, i.e., under the Domin- ion of Canada. It was administered until the autumn of 1898, by the Xorth-West Mounted Police, but an Admin- istrator with a Council took it over then; the Mounted Pi^'ice now support the Civic Government where once they ruled alone. There never has been any disorder worthy of mention -^n Canadian or American soil in the Yuk' n The AmericL^.i miners of Circle City in the American '' ""m to have been on the whole a very orderly set , d even if they did contain a disorderly element (which is '^'mI), the firm attitude taken up by Inspector (now Captain) (Jharles Con- stantine in 1894 (when Canada began to attend lo the Yukon) prevented any serious difficulty arising among them as they began to move more and more on the Canadian side. The test case occurred when Inspector Constantine sent 12 men up to Glacier Creek to hold a claim that summer against the jurisdiction of the miners as exercised in their meetings. The miners on this occasion obeyed the Mounted Police, as they always have since. The country is orderly, because — 1. Men who go north .^e mostly of the right sort as yet. 2. The police are rapid, simple, severe in their methods. 3. The country is a hard one for criminals, it produces little food ; and travel must be on definite trails all occupied by the police. Doubtless as the 'S'ukon grows easier for men, it will attract more and more people and a larger proportion of the w rong sort, but as yet the costliness of travel and livi nL' 70 combined with llie dinkully of the country, have kejit the general tone healthy and the records ot" crime abnormally low. I cannot miss an opporl unity of expressing my sense and tho general sense of gratituile to the many fine generous tellows who make up that remarkably ellicient body known in Eng- land as "the Mounted Police," in the N'ukon as "the Boys." Their rule is absolute in nearly all parts oi' the \'ukon, and they combine good fellowship with ruthless severity to an admirable degree ; about them, wherever they are found, there is the healthy ring of the natural man. The suspicious character cannot hnig survive among these watchful and energetic fellows ; he is sot>n told to move on and he usually takes the hint and moves on "down river." It is from the officers of boats plying from St. Michael's to the western ports o\' Canada and the States that the good stories of Yukon "loughs" come; in the Klondike they are very t;une indeed. The criminal (there have been a few bad cases), when caught, is quickly tried and sentenced ; the convicts are sent to the penitentiary at l*"orty Mile or (in lighter cases) set to do their "hard" at Dawson. There the}' may be seen hewing wood or drawing water attended by a guard of dis- honour, a policeman with a rifie, a useful object lesson to the idle and crooked. The above mentioned concurrent causes have combined to produce throughout the Yukon a sense of security of person and property, warranted by facts and hard to beat in the historv of the best mi nmg camps, W diall probably most of us agree that there is somcliiing healthy about a camp where they fined a man last August S50, not for gambling, but for gambling unfairly. Whatever may be the development of Duvson under civil government, its recorU for 1898 and earlier, under military rule, will be hard to beat, and young Dawson will remain a moiumient of what a motley thron^g' can achieve luidcr British mstitutions. Six days in the week the traders traded, the miners delved, the Recorder's office struggled to keep up with the crowd of stakers, the Post Office officials distributed letters from an evergrowing heap to a never diminishing crowd of applicants and all were busy as bees ; and in the evening such ;ls cjlttll and had money or dust, drank and gambled in the public saloons, usually within the limits of good order and fairness, 7» for public SL'iitinicnt aiul the pulice wore hard on tlie iinfair player and the drunken brawler. On the seventh day (thouj^h, what with the press o( business and the eternal daylif^'ht o\' the N'ukon Midsummer, men sometimes needed the police to help them to count !) tiie saloons all rlosei-l, the sawmills closed, the olVices and stores closed, many ot" the mines closed, and the six churches opened and hatl tlioir t'air turn, and ail this in a land where the summer is oniv about four niiMiths lonj^"-! l!ut if these are pleasant features on which \o tlwell, there are others not so. Thus there has been some sickness at Dawson. In sprint,' there were few patients, tiie \ictims of scurvy for the most part. It is hard to lind out ti)e cause of scurvy. One patient had lived the winter in a sh.ick whose only lit^lit was admitted throuj^h one wliiskoy bottle for window, and on\2 wee hole in the v.loor. Others were supposed to have contracted it from sameness o\ diet, especially from a partiality for lean ham rathei' than fat bacon. Dr. Chambers, a g'entleman o( loni,'' experience in the ^'ukon, is inclined to think that severe nervous strain and worry and over fatij.,''ue are the most active causes o\' scurvy in that country. Whatever the cause, the disease is not common. By the end of June dysentery beg'an to appear, ;nul by mid-July it was common, usually in mild form, but tending to become chronic, if neglected, and capable of being- danj^-'er- ous. In any case it was alarmintif to the timid. Chlorodyne was ail that most sufferers needed, but very few people take any, even the simplest medicines into the Vukon. It was the ordinary dysentery of canip life. Early in July typhoid was to be found, and it steadily increased, proving fatal to one or two most days up to the beginning of September. Needless to say, the town site of Dawson has been blamed for this, and part of it probably is unnea thi Dawson lies in this wav A sjravel flat covered with black muck, just like the gold-bearing gravels of the creek.s, roughly triangular in shape. The Klondike River forms the base of this triangle (about a quarter-of-a-miie in length) ; the two sides (about half-a-mile long each) are formed by the \'iikon on the west and the Dawson Mountain t» on the east, whicli twc- sides meet to form the vertex of the triaiig-le on the north. All the water front on Klondike River and the \'ukon is usually clear of water save for a very short ime in the sprinjjf flood, and ofl'ers excellent business sites well concentrated. The spurs, and in some cases, the slopes of he mountain olVer excellent dwelling sites, but there is not nearly mom \ov all of them or in Klondike City beyond the Klondike River. Therefore many dwell on the marsh which lies bet\\(.en the water front and the mountain, a healthy enous^ii site in winter, but wet, anH.kl ab„u> ,1,V 0, ; V""?' ■'" "'""'»-'-- I" loan, -"-H>.enc.U.aU:,,:;-:,J: /:;'';;. '^l-^-^Ve.,,,, a, i,, ""proved ,l,iss,i„„„„i„.„;„. , ■ "''"" '"'s sloadily ■nation „„„M „oJ a, „ , "'u '•""*''™"'"' " '"" --' -.-ani- »'oori,,l,roa^-h its '*■"""■■■"' -' "r officials ,„ '.'•-■-■ "r-nej^mrirurK, "n" '""^•' '--- """i- -Plit inlo so ,„ ,„v < and saloon e mmers a nee of a mere ^'es, and readv t( ■'''I'spicion. 'lys suspecting- re of new hnds make a griev- IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ■ 40 M 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 « 6" ► V] ■ ^^ w °m M Photographic Sciences Corporation 4% m. ■^ \ o 4 «> .m ^. ■ ^^ 23 WEST MAIN STR'EE'' WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4S03 o f/i l« I' 74 j^'- f" The chechakos or new-comers of this year, all of course chagrined to find that officials and old-timers had not reserved a claim for each of their 20,000 on the best part of Eldorado or Dominion, but, except for this fact, easy to distinguish into. {(I.) Australians, excellent fellows and good miners, used to laws cf their own, and not always liking to have to obey the Canadian laws, complaining for some time because "they had not been told that the Klondike " was mostly staked out," but after a time settling down to work, pushing further afield and doing well. (b.) British Columbians, also accustomed to laws of their own, convinced that the Yukon ought to figure as part of British Columbia, the mining province of the Dominion : yet I never heard one of them suggest that Yukon claims (250 feet) should be reduced to the iength of British Columbian claims ( 100 feet). (c. ) Genuine miners, of whatever nationality, in considera; le numbers with genuine griev- ances, partly remediable, partly not. (d.) A crowd of professional men and traders and " superior persons " all wanting claims, and expecting from the officials special facilities for acquiring claims. Some of them had been forbidden to practise law or medicine without Canadian diplomas. Many were adepts at " skinning " a new country, and hated to find that concessions from Ottawa barred their way in their quest for timber, firewood, hay, and rights of various kinds as for telephones, ferries, etc. (e.) Scum of all classes and trades and nations, ready to do or say anything for dollars and for the privilege to loaf at Dawson, especially dangerous to the newspaper correspondent, whom they frequently beguiled with their 75 loud-voiced complaint that there was nothing left for the "free miner," that ♦' the officials " kept all for themselves," &c., &c., that the "poor man had no chance of g'etting his " letter or his record of a claim," C:c., &c. A perusal of the above will show how plentiful a crop of grievances could be collected by a correspondent with an appetite for the garbage of a mining camp, and without that power of perspective which is so necessary and yet so difficult to exercise in hurried letter writing. I think that every correspondent who wrote upon " Yukon grievances " and "Yukon scandals " would probably write differently if he were asked to write again on the same subject. For it is beyond question that " grievances " and "scandals" were made on the outside to assume an importance which they never possessed in the Klondike itself. If I review the facts of the situation briefly, it is because I think such a review will be useful for the future ; only time and wise deliberation are needed utterly to do away Id The Genuine Grievances of the Klondike. 1. Unequal taxation (the miner pays nearly all the taxes — he was easiest to tax — money was wanted ; for the rest of Canada would not consent to pay the Yukon's bill ; so he was taxed— the trader escapes in most cases). 2. Want of publicity of claim-records (every miner should be able to see what claims have been recorded in the district, and that with as little delay as possible). 3. Want of surveyors (the miner has to wait too long to have his claim surveyed — it is questionable whether the miner ought to have to pay the surveyor his fee, in case of a dispute about boundaries, or whether the recording fee ought not to carry with it the right to an accurate survey free of charge. 4. Certain obvious defects in the mining laws {see under " Mining Laws "). 5. Want of roads (see under "The Law of Represen- tation "). 6. Want of adequate mail service and service and 76 delivery of mail (it is impossible to provide fully for such a vast crowd, but the post office was needlessly slow). 7. Want of recording officials on every creek. (This would keep the crowd scattered, and forestall the genuine grievance of the stakers who had to trudge many miles to Dawso! from every part of the Klondike to record claims). This is a formidable list of grievances, and it has been duly insisted upon and of course exaggerated by most critics. A glance at the list reveals the need of time and of a whole army of trained officials, with an unlimited purse, to do away these grievances. As yet there has been no time ; the rush of adventurers to the North passed the calculations of all those most likely to know ; nobody believed that a crowd of 25,000 would make its way to the Yukon by mid- June of 1898. i'll the season there was a steady influx of new officials ; but it would be idle to suppose that laws or officials can be satisfactory for some time. Canada in general is only just beginning to mine, and she certainly has no trained body of mining officials from which she could have sent a complete and efficient staff to regulate in one season a huge placer-mining camp like the Klondike. It is the rapid growth of the camp (from upwards of 5,000 souls in 1897 to upwards of 30,000 in 1898) that passes belief, and creates suddenly a volume of business in Dawson City hard for any officials to cope with, especially for such as have to learn their business, to some extent, as they go on. Canada as yet has no separate Department of Mines. She needs a Department of Mines in close touch with her Geological Sur- vey Department. The weak spot in the early history of the Klondike is the want at Ottawa of accurate information derived from competent geologists ; but I ought at the same to add that Dawson Camp is not yet two years old to the outside world. Failing accurate knowledge of the richness of the Klondike deposits, all Government action at Ottawa has been speculative and hampered with the fear that other provinces of Canada might be compelled to and might not care to pay the bill for the development of the Yukon. This season two of the best Canadian geologists were sent to inspect the Klondike, and their reports will furnish new and reliable data for future action of Government. 77 In the above list of Yukon grievances two stand out, not as being more important than the rest, but as being easy to remedy quickly. (i.) Difficulty of recording claims and of getting to know what claims have been recorded. (2.) Difficulty connected with the distribution of the mail. These same difficulties must always occur in new plarer camps in intensity proportionate to the size of the camp, but the Dawson authorities showed singular inability to improve the Record Office and the Post Office. At best they were both very slow indeed, and the miner who consented to accommo- date himself to their methods had to put up with great incon- venience and great loss of time. It is not too much to say that the inefficiency of these two offices was to blame for the loud talk on the outside as well as in the Klondike about *' Official Corruption." Such talk is puerile where the charac- ter of men like Major Walsh and Mr. Thomas Fawcett is in question. There is not a man living who dare openly sug- gest that either of them was corrupt. At the same time undoubted evils went long unreformed at the Record Office, and the Yukon miner, seeing no sufficient reason for con- tinued inefficiency, began to suspect and even whisper " cor- ruption," which he could never prove, to me at any rate, either in the Klondike or later on at Ottawa. Personally I saw but little that cannot very easily be made smooth by a telegraph wire to Ottawa, and a few changes in the mining laws ; the telegraph wire will do much more for the Klon- dike than will the incorporation of Dawson City, good though that also may be in due time. For all business pur- poses the Yukon remains still quite cut off from the Central Government at Ottawa, in harmful isolation so far as move- ment of capital into it is desired. The building of the tele- graph wire is the first and easiest step by which Government can foster the mining interests of a country that will amply repay it for all its care. Certain Points in the Mining Laws of the Yukon It might be expected that a new mining area would require special treatment from the legislator, and the Yukon P' 5'- ' l^/'i: if 78 requires such. There are in it special conditions which, as they become known, demand legislation of a special kind. The Dominion regulations for placer mining and for quartz mining require considerable modification in the Yukon, with regard especially to (i.) The Law of Representation of Claims. (2.) The amount of Royalty to be exacted. (3.) The rewards given to prospectors of new finds. It is not too much to say that there exist in the Yukon special conditions which, when fully known, will force from all legislators who have Canada's mining interests at heart the admission that the mining laws of the Yukon need amend- ing in every one of the three points above mentioned. All are of vital importance to the development of a vast territory whose main, perhaps only, industry is that of mining. As yet the mining laws of the Yukon are hard on the miner, especially by comparison with the American laws, which are generous to him. It is no answer to point to the numbers flocking into the Yukon under the present laws ; this is the first flush of Yukon mining ; the difficulty will be to keep them in the Yukon when, perhaps, their first efforts have failed. Very many prospectors passed the Klondike for the American side this summer, and that though an enormous area of known auriferous country lies almost entirely unex- plored on three sides of the Klondike. If we really see the need of encouraging the mining industry of the Yukon, we shall be able to criticise the present laws in the right spirit, the spirit of improvement, not of destruction. The Law of "Representation " of Claims requires the owner of a claim to " represent " it, that is, to do work on it for three months in the year continuously. During these three months he or his representative must not be absent from the claim more than 72 hours consecutively. The law is intended to prevent an accumulation of unworked ground in the hands of speculators and to secure quick development of ground by enforcing work on it. The remoteness of the Yukon, the need of capital to work ground there, are reasons which made Mr. Fawcett and his officials liberal in interpret- ing this law, and they were wisely liberal. 79 ke re le it I think it would be a great improvement if claim own«rs were allowed to commute this representation work yearly for a payment to the State of one quarter of the cost of such work. The cost of representation is not less than $500 per claim ; this would mean $125 per claim from owners (and they would be many) who chose to commute, and would be a g-real gain to both State and owner. In the Yukon especially it is a mistake to hurry owners to develop their properties ; the field no longer needs proving, and hurry leads to waste of money and failure to extract the gold. Combination is wanted, and that takes time. The advantages springing from such leave to commute would be : (i.) A large sum would accrue to Government from such commutation fees to be spent productively on road making, curtailing royalty, etc. (2.) No development work would be wasted. At present much of the "representation" work is wasted, wanted not ; is not serious in fact. The owner sends a man to "sit" on the claim for the required time, and he too often does nothing really to prove or work the claim. To prove it needs capital. (3.) The Yukon would be saved from a law which is largely a farce, and which, where not such, is often oppressive. A whole army of officials would be required really to enforce the present law. There need be no fear of the speculator ; he is wanted in the Yukon, and the gold of alluvial claims will never be allowed to lie long untouched where bedrock is so soon reached as it is in the Yukon. The final aim of the Government should be to encourage the thorough and economical extrac- tion cf the gold, not necessarily the hurried extraction at whatever cost to the ou er ; the more unhampered it can leave the miner in the early days of a severe country the sooner the severity of that country will be overcome. The Rovaltv of id Per Cent. The present royalty of 10 per cent, on the gross output of the Yukon mines marks a reversion to the days of big I ] I hi 80 royalties, when men rejjfarded mining- as an industry not amenable to the laws which g-overn other productive indus- tries. Nowadays the miner has already come to be regarded as an ordinary producer of wealth, giving to mineral lands (which without him have only a potential value) a value in fact during such time as he is working them and derivinjj benefit from them. This is the accepted view of the miner's position in the national economy, and we seldom or never hear any one maintain that the State ought to reserve areas of mineral lands for itself, i.e., for future generations; all countries encourage mining to-day ; so this Yukon royalty, which imposes on mining a tax which would cripple most industries, and which can be proved to prohibit mining in many parts of the Klondike, marks a reversion to a now antiquated type of mining legislation, and as such needs some special justification or, at least, explanation, as, for instance : Was it put on as part of a large policy of development for the Yukon ? Was it meant to provide payment for State- aided railways and roads ? But such advantages have not been given to the Yukon ; the royalty has been put on, but the only advantage given with it has been a more complex form of that government which the miner had before without pay- ing royalty. The land is still in the early stages of pioneer- ing for aught that Government has done, and yet is paying the high taxes of a highly organized, far developed country. Was it put on by mistake, in consequence of the absurd statements of men, who should have known better, about the richness of the Yukon gold deposits ? This might have been believed, were it not that the royalty still remains in force. Surely all know that the Klondike is not all rich, that there is a very large amount of low-grade gravel there. And still the royalty is not even lowered. It must then be regarded by the legislators as either necessary or expedient. It is a serious measure. Is it necessary ? Must, roughly, one ounce in every ten ounces won by the miner from a hard country go to pay the bill incurred by the Dominion Government for its share in developing the Yukon ? That share must not be underrated for one moment. The miners of the Yukon owe a very great St f-K-t.o,, of ,ho ,.over„„;e„ ,1 f. ^ """'■ Tho elementary ^"l■ '» '«> "^oded -- .» i. necessary to n, t ^ n ;',, •^^' '•"■ «"• i" anj "« f-»upporth,K- at onee. at I, '"■ ""^ ""'■ '"ritory retarded development due to ,, '' "*• "' ""■ cost „• '"•" " ? Miirh. it not rea o, .b H "t", "' '■'"''•'^" '" "Hn-e •"-■oftheVuko„„,„b,:V f,',^^ "f "■"' '"e develop! therefore be asked to help to 1 r '■'"*'■ "''''•■'' "'Wht ,vell ::; -^ have been ands.';, rr^Lm.'' r" T" ' '^«'' "« •ire there a .SO •' r .'ffi r> '^^''^■EnHanderv;" ..» u ="•"''«<". .He^neee' :.1;;r7;" '" ^""-^-^ O ',;Z' "— ry to raise the mon J" '" "'■" "" """ "ill. it' ";« 'he tax he spread cnCtir ,:;;° "" ""'• --""-.v? C «0"ld vote to reduce the ro4ltv f "■'■"'■'™""' ■">" "11 ^ Pend on mini„,, ,.,,^.^ .J'^^- for all k„o>v tha, they ro .'Tr^P^'" ">■ - high a : '• Yr"''" """ """" "e >■"> alty defended as a tax on alfe, '•' ""■""' '"'■"'•d the he,r wealth in Canada. HU^ ?'""' '" ^'--'P » »hare of •'On of the pioneers of the y ,k ' """ " ''"■»?' pmpor doubtfully wise to tax the ah ' "' Americans, Z kl Canada a Klondike. I, ,o„'d "'"""■■ ""^' has found C 'O- .0 wei,.h down with in „o ' ,hT" "'' "' 'T™— " " "» unusual in Canada, if tt ,t "''"'•■■-«"-=» -eal.h, "-» royalty that it is paid butth, " "'>'"' '" ''"'fonce o^ foyaUy is larj^ely evaSed Ind ,' '" ""' ""°"^' '™^' '"' 'he Jn«.ficatio„. Rirt ,,,.„f^ ■' ' ";re true, i, ,„„„ ,^, ^ -h.ch to measure sold m „ " ^; '*''\="-= "o »ea„dard b, lower the royalty ,:;,d u.^T^I " '", ^ 'll^on. Far bette one assessment for all the Vukon a' ' "' '"'"'"°' """ have l"t " 'o>^ royally ,o the Brit.r r , ^'"''"' ' ™" he pav- A.hn and a very little 4y ^fft .'i""'".'''''" «over„menr-t Domm.on Government. Popuia^ "'=«»'«'>■ high one to the of .he miner i„ evading th.lZt.TT'''' '' "" "" ""= »'d- 'he same motive to eva'de 1 1 f o^ nI "^ ^■?"" '- have J one. No cr,t,cism of this ,o 8a per cent, royalty can be exhaustive iitilil the Yukon accounts for 1898 are presented at Ottawa. We may suppose that fiscal needs caused it to be put on ; is it too much to hope that maturer legislation for the Yukon will lower it, finding less unpopular and less burdensome ways of raising money ? Always odious to the staker, it is often even prohibitive to the capitalist who is asked to buy from the staker. The Rewards of the Prospector in the Yukon. The discoverer of gold in situ is allowed to stake a creek claim of 500 toet long, and a party of two discoverers may stake 1,000 feet. After this each staker may claim 250 feet. Each may stake a bench claim of 250 feet long in the same district. Thus of alluvial ground the miner may stake a creek claim (250 feet) and a bench claim (250 feet) in each district. "District" is arbitrarily defined in the Klondike as '•tributary of the Yukon," it seems; for Hunker, Bear and Bonanza with Eldorado are all in the same "district." So too Quartz, Sulphur, and Dominion are all in the same "district." It is a mistake to define "district" in this way, and a reversion to the natural order, by which each creek with its tributaries forms a mining "division," will be found advisable; it is easy to settle "divisions" on the spot; helped by universal custom no recorder would go wrong if left free to constitute "divisions." Nothing is more urgently needed than a recorder on each creek, and to allow the miner to stake on each creek is to encourage him in a country where he needs encouraging. The Yukon mining laws, excellent in many ways, yet bear the impress of a fear of giv- ing too much. The danger is all the other way. The pros- pector pays for — License Recording Surveying not less than Renewal Representation - I. 2. 3- 4- 5- 10 dollars per annum. 15 dollars per claim. ;o 500 The Government reserves half the claims on every creek and exacts 10 per cent, royalty (but 5,000 dollars worth of gold are exempted from royalty on every claim). 83 O^ course fh.i r» • ■ »"" ■•".,■ comparison ,vir„ ^ '' """•"• Columbian law, -" ".e practical ro,.u' vts I^'T"'" '" "^ P-»pec V'. on „i i„^ ^,„^^, ..;":' „P-;j" Which .he vc., ,o„„,, °f "ew, Thai point of vieu ,u ' 7 ""^ -"'ner'.s poin^ the V J ""'"■>■ '"^ ""-"er ha hat h' """' "^-™-'° 'andn • "''" ^°"" "••' "^^ o'V'^ ';'"*f "'«Wered and "'■•"''point ,t w„„M r'"?*"- From a more jreneril "" eha North-West. rread 'Tl- ' '^ '""'"' ™= ™^-"e >-"^nce in the A.lin di^t' ,c^ f ' " """ *•"•«•■<' "•'••on -h^O" the land w„s ,„ Br ^'co, '"':' "'^" '"'' ""' ^-w Area of the Vukon. „ il ^^f"'™'"'-' "^ '" "-e Dominion '■•■•bitrary and useless line „f 7 ° ^"■•■■>' "'"' »uch Z -P. - an, rate from .rmfnit^r:"' " "°' '-""^' JZ '""" '"" ^™ ^■»-- - ™b V.,k-ov ^ ''ttle way bevonrJ tu^ ^ ^f^os. t-ound is the rule i , the Z,'t '""'"'" P— en.l, fro.en surface (more or les rf '""""■» ■•" a foot b^Jow e ac.e„s„c of the Dal,„„ trli, „ 'd Le 'Z'-" "^''^^es char, furn.sh numerous exceptions it?' ""■" ">"""-• «'ill »outh«rn sides, and occasion', ev "^ '' "P"''""^' "> 'heir even ,n the K.o„di,■ ,vest „f and t,mbe, especiall, moss t "^ ,'^""''- "-'h, Mos for a permanently fros..b„ud son R f "'"'"'^ responsible P^-^hnS- ; thus a li„|e „or,h ^f "'''^ "'," ^™e cases are very "■ne fee. o„ .he Nordenskiold r ! " ?'""'"■ " "»''-- '»>«■' 'he nver, struck no fro« \ ' ''"" *"'°''- 'he level of "'"'■■' -o miles fu^th rwel " '," '"' '"■"' 'a.itude but "ac,ly similar, frost was sTruc^ uh" T""'""^ ''PP-- ' >- he 6,s. parallel moss be,.", '.o ° '"' *'P- -"^'"rth of 'hrough the dense coverin; of "on " Z'T '" '""""'•'^' and d.ke no sun can penetrate. , i'l" ' "'""' ''" ">= Klon- ' not a question of drainage '1.' 84 clearly ; for the hills of the Klondike, whose drainajje mi^'ht be expected to be j^ood eiuni^'h, show us frozen g'ravels throii},'hoiit, thoujfh we may find three to eij^ht feet thawed on the surface of the southern side. It may be noted that moss and timber },'row densest on the north side of the hills. Mr. R. G. McConnell reports permanently frozen soil from the B'l^ Salmon River, and I have proved it west as far as the 140th meridian in lat. 162 ry,"a„d he was ri,-h, *- rh; '"' ;""■ P^^P^^'' ""■• "■"■•I. (,898) win be found u,co„^ 'Z""' "^ "■'•'' J""^'" P«lor.s ,aujj|,j . ex„ '""■'-'»' '" 'he new race of pros ;houu,::i;';:i,,';;:'\;;;™-n.e a™ „f ,.^„„^^_„, __ ho newspaper correspondent 'f '"."""*•' ''" "" ^'"kon ; 'he •• fever-s.ricken " lotnLT ''"'" "" """" "nd •hey have certainly frii^^^j" /™"; 'T'^ "'"' ",cK, Hut V""""'. and for „„ reason wh "'""'' '' »''>' "' "'e question of Vukon hardsh ''^'"'"''"- >" diseus.sin., the h-»een ntinin, a„d ptsp";;::: ""^' =" ■>- ".-".Kul h ■o«h 'o labour in the m'i„:n;'«;,.,J''^- f"" «ho «oes "o inherent hardships : the nr,? "■"" >•'"'"' >«'J.'es and "->■ country has ,0 ace the?",'"'' "■'° '''°" ■""•"' '" 'ry »uch pioneering all the word ""l''' ''"^P-^^le from ha'-d.ship.scomein? H^trd wl . ""'■ ^^^ere the,, do the -- has to carry much "n ^"^t:^" 'f™^" "ardship. if a B'.' for packing on the tacks of m " ''" '"'*"' *''■""«»• «0- «"le of Y„k„„ .. b^rt' ; '' T"' '« should have heard worth listening to. Of cot^'e ',' th^"' " "' ''''■ "^'"^ "- •he real life of the gold-s eke'r ,, , ^ v","'"'^' 'S''""''" of »P;n' still rages unchecked espc^lll """'' '"' ^---n >hen they return ",0 civi i ,tb ' ' ^ 7°"'"' '"^ ""successful fVom the editors of newspape s "e ""^ ""*' """ "en •he old, old story „f Herodotus of h"". '" "'"' °"'--<^ """•= tfuarded the Indians' goldf he ant ''^'=' "'^^ "'"» 'ha' S ■ the ants are the Yukon mos- m 86 iiUK ' quitoes, and the Herodotus is — well, learly every editor who talks about the V'ukon without knowing- it. We heard of no hardships from the early prospectors of the North, yet they must have had a much *' tougher " time than is now possible. Think how remote was their base of supplies, and now how near (Dawson City) ! Hardships became frequent when many men pressed in not fitted for work which requires strong, healthy, brave, even-tempered men. Men unfit by temperament, training-, tastes, crowd into Vukon, and from such there is nothing to learn ; they would be equally unfit for prospecting anywhere. What we want to know is the inherent difficulties, if any, for such as are already, or are by nature fitted to become prospectors. And the answer must be that the prospector who cannot afTord horses in summer will have to carry his pack, and that means hardship. I have seen no part of the Yukon where I could not find grass for my horses at need. All men hate even the lightest packs, and there will soon be very little packing done by white men in the Klondike, and the far prospecting will be done mainly in winter, ?.f., the supplies will be moved in winter with dogs and sleighs. In certain parts of the Yukon the mosquitoes are a real hardship to those whom they trouble, but they are not found every\ iiere. A man who cannot stand hard work is out of place in the North, where hard work is wanted. There will of course be the occasional hardships incidental to all pioneering, caused by our own or other people's mistakes or carelessness ; for instance, if you find at night-fall, when you camp, that you have allowed your kitchen horse to stray, it is a hardship to ^o without your supper after a hard day's work; that kind of hardship will probably not recur. Or again, suppose you are tied up to the river bank preparing supper on your stove in your boat and a crew of novices come barging down stream into you, and knock your stove and supper overboard to the bottom of the Lewes, that is a hardship not able to recur in that particular form, for you can't buy another stove till you get to Dawson ! The case of a man I met from the Kootenay ought to become historic. Faring down the Yukon towards Dawson with a scow containing 26cwt. of beef, he was frozen in by about mid-October close to an island a little south of »7 Seeiviirt kiVer. Th.. h , r ••ij,'h fiirure at DaJ o„ Ir'/'"'.'^'" "' ""'■""« "' - very -d 'ake ie down hi;,: "^ ^^■^'^'■'' '^^ -""" „e„. ,„, b Jf """« ;' cache for ,he'b ef' on r'l "Z '"'"^' ««"». "^ packed the heef i„to i, -,7 '"''""' '"""•■■ '3 feet hit* '■"■■l^d to „„,ic r„ ,h """'^''"' '" '"» •^''«- But he h 'd Jus. below his o„.;'" oM.:r7 °'^;^ .'■""""» -™- --™ J-™n,ed, cau.,i„,,a local re of " '"r"" ''P™'>' ""^ '« «"•••■)■ Lis cache and beef e erv „ h", ''/"'' "■'''^''' "''••icd "^ >vo„ld probably call ,1,1 ;^,r""^ '^'■•■■" ""^ »'^>-C'-cst of V ukon one for i,/,, be p d X " '""^" '-■"• """ "- the Such or similar hardshios Ik *•'"' '"'"'''''•■ ""ce n,ore « 'he world over. Of cj I '■'' '"""''" ">' '^e prospect"; f the Vukon hard «" k , "h" "/T- "^'^ ''' '"" "-■'"ate l>-dship for a„ En,,|il, '' f '^^^'"Pf '^ >« «" call i, ,! °»-" feet, to pitch hi o," ent for r: ""•' """""»'■"» - his Jii his favour will k, • '■Lowdividr '""'"'•"^"■-'- 2. Easy slopes. 3- Scanty brush. 4. Timber seldom dense 5. Most streams easily forded. Against him will h^ f,.. 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""'"'"""• '""""■=<'l»-"rpa,,e ,„.,,,,,, -Litem- George N.M„rang& Company Limited Publishers and Importers Toronto |i'!' n The Music Lover's Library In 5 Vols., each illustrated, lamo, $1.25 A series of popular volumes — hist jrical, biographical, anec« dotal and descriptive — on the important branches of the art of music, by writers of recognized authority. NOW READY The Orchestra and Orchestral Music By W. J. Henderson Author of "What is Good Music?" etc. With 8 Portraits and lUuttrationi. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS : Part I. How the Orchestra Is Constituted. Part II. How the Orchestra Is Used. Part III. How the C'chestra Is Directed. Part iV. How the Or.^hestra Qrew. Part V. How Orchestral riusic Orew Mr. Henderson's book is a guide to a perfect understand- ing of the modern orchestra and of the uses in tone coloring of the various groups of instruments composing it. The develop- ment of the conductor is also traced, and the history of orchestral music is sketched. 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COLLINGWOOD, B.A. This is the life of the author of "Alice in Wonderland." It is a work of deep interest, and the illustrations, which are re- productions of photographs, have excited great attention. Crown 8vo., Cloth, $3.00. With Nansen in the North. By Lieut. Hjalmar JoHANSEN. A record of the From expedition. With very numerous illustrations. This is a record of Arctic experiences that cannot be read witi:out a thrill of interest. Its characteristics are simplicity and straightforwardness. Crown Svo., Cloth, ^7.50 y Paper, ^S cents. By S. Frances Har- The Forest of Bourg-Marie. RISON. A story of French-Canadian life, which displays in a vivid and interesting manner the characteristics of the habitant. Its story element is strong. Crown 8vo., Cloth, $1.2^; Paper, 75 cents. A Sister to Evangeline: being the story of Yvonne de Lamourie. By Charles G. D. Roberts. This work, as its name denotes, deals with the scene already made famous by Longfellow's poem. It is a most interesting story. Crown Svo., Decile-edged. Cloth, gilt top, $i.go; Paper, 75 cents. Life of Jane Austen. By Goldwin Smith, D.C.L. The accomplished and learned author of this "Life of Jane Austen" has brought to the task a fulness of information and a literary insight that make this book a valuable addition to bi- ography. Crown Svo., Library Edition, half Morocco, Si -SO. AT ALL BOOKSELLERS, OR SEI^T POST-PAID BY THE PUBLISHERS