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1 2 3

IT- %^

1% '

Placer ^;ININ(^ Hydraulic System.

IN Richest Alaska

AND THE

Gold Fields of the Klondike

How they were found, How worked, What fortunes have been made, The extent

and richness of the Gold Fields, How to get there,

Outfit required, Climate,

Together with a History of this Wonderful Land

From its discove ry to the present day, a graphic description of its unh'mited
mineral re* ources, its topography, animal and vegetable products,
its people, government and institutions, and prac-
tical information for gold seekers.

Prepared under the special supervision of A. J. Munson, the well-known author,

and editor of " Facts and Fiction," the leading Western

monthly, and written especially

By ERNEST INGERSOLL. ESQ.

Author of " Knocking Round thb Rockibs," " Ckbst or ths Contimsnt," " GuiDs

Book to Wbstbrn Canada/' " Thb Icb Qubbm," " Thb Silvbr Cavbs," Etc.,

Etc. Also an bxtensivb travbler throughout all that North-

WBSTBRM RbGION FOB THB UnITBD StATBS GboLOGICAL SuRVBV

AND THB Smithsonian Institution, and who has sfbnt
YBARS in Alaska and thb Klohdikb rbgions,

And Assisted by HENRY W. ELLIOTT, Esq.

Agbnt or thb Unitbd Statbs Oovbrnmbnt fob Twblvb Ybars in Alaska.

profusely illustrated

THE DOMINION COMPANY, PUBLISHER

356 Dearborn Street, Chicago, U. S< A.

LIBRARY
IHUVERSiTY OF ALBERTA

INTRODUCnON.

When one of Baronov's Slavonian hunters stood before him
in the privacy of a special meeting at Sitka, in 1^04, and took
out from his pocket a handful of golden nuggets and scales, say-
ing as he did so that he knew where there was "plenty more," the
old Russian Governor chilled him with a fierce gesture of disgust,
then said to him: "Ivan, I forbid you to go farther m this under-
taking; not a word about this, or we are all undone; let the Ameri-
cans and the Englishmen know that we have gold in these moun-
tains, then we are ruined; they will rush in on us by thousands,
and crowd us to the wall — ^to the death."

Baronov was right as a Russian fur-trader; he knew that
word of Ivan's discovery, if given voice, would bring that scourge
of fur-bearing districts, the miner, into the very depths of Rus-
sian America instantly, and so he suppressed the news; he and his
successor also, suppressed it well.

But the successors of Baronov were not his equal in money-
making as fur-traders and managers; they ran into debt, and these
debts of the Russian American Company induced the Imperial
Government to part with Alaska to the United States of America
in 1867. The Russian authorities turned Alaska over to us with
a good word for its furs and fisheries, and nothing else.

•••

^236170

"^-^ iH..m^iii^si:i.a::

INTRODUCTION.

Thousands of our people went up to investigate the natural
resources of Alaska in 1867-70; they found the fisheries and the
fur seals very quickly, but they were disappointed in the profitable
search then for precious metals and coal; the timber and growing
of useful crops were disappointments too.

Matters quieted down to a common understanding that there
was no particular mineral wealth in Alaska until the great Tread-
well mine was opened late in the "seventies/' and the mining
camp and town of Juneau became firmly established early in the
"eighties;" since then the opening of one mining camp after
another has steadily progressed until to-day hardy men are busy
digging for gold throughout the length and breadth of Alaska.

The man who "prospects" for gold in Alaska has an infinitely
more difficult task than he has in California or any of the min-
ing districts of the Rocky Mountain States. In the Alaskan coun-
try moss, or "sphagnum," and lichens rankly grow all over the
earth and rocks of the great interior, so as to completely conceal
the character of it, while the strange, luxuriant growths of shrubs
and ferns, grasses and vines completely cover, up to the mountain
snows, the entire surface outcrop of rocks and soil of the Alaskan
coast line between our foot of the "30-mile strip" at Fort Simpson,
up to the confines of Cook's Inlet.

Searching, therefore, for indications of valuable "mineral"
in Alaska is tedious, and success is purely accidental — necessarily
so, for every foot of new territory must be uncovered before the
least indication of what it really is can be secured.

No ranches or farms up there where the tired and hungry
prospector can refit with food at any season of the year, as he can
in the States; he encounters there a climate that chains him to

INTRODUCTION.

one place, wherever he may be, when inland, from November till
the next June following.

But man possesses an elastic physical organization, and there
is nothing in the country of Alaska, or in its weather, that will
successfully bar him out from thoroughly developing its mineral
wealth wherever it is found within the broad area of that region.
Life in its borders, and especially in the great interior, is disagree-
able when contrasted with existence on the gold fields of Califor-
nia; but that will count for nothing in the minds of men, who,
seeking for gold, find it in Alaska: because, rough and unpleasant
as country and climate on the Yukon and its tributaries make the
life of a miner, yet it is a healthy air he breathes, and he is not
troubled with sickness of any unusual form. Mosquitoes in the
summer, of venomous energy, and intense dry cold of the winter
within the Yukon interior do not destroy him, though they do
annoy and retard his progress.

Broadly speaking, yet entirely correct, Alaska possesses three
distinct rones, the Sitkan and Cook's Inlet district, the Aleutian
Island and Peninsular district, and the Great Interior or Yukon
region. Gold has been found in all of them, but chiefly in the
first and last named districts; it is the climate peculiar to these
districts that separates and defines them sharply, not the land as
viewed with regard to itself, but rather the lay of the land with ref-
erence to the ocean. The Sitkan and Aleutian regions get the
warmer influence of ocean currents setting north in the g^eat
Pacific, so as to greatly modify those degrees of cold in winter
and heat in summer that prevail in the Yukon region. But this
modification in climate does not give those regions any agricul-
tural or pastoral possibilities even — ^not an acre of the cereals ever

■*^:r...

INTRODUCTION.

ripened in Alaska or ever will, as climatic conditions pre-
vail.

So, it is a country in its length and breadth which I described
in detail, twenty years ago, using the following summary:

"In view of the foregoing what shall we say of the resources
of Alaska viewed as regards its agricultural or horticultural
capabilities?

"It would seem undeniable that owing to the unfavorable
climatic conditions which prevail on the coast and interior, the
gloomy fogs and dampness of the former, and the intense pro-
tracted severity of the winters, characteristic of the latter, unfit
the Territory for the proper support of any considerable civiliza-
tion. ' .

"Men may, and undoubtedly will, soon live here in compara-
tive comfort, as they labor in mining camps, lumber and ship
timber mills and salmon factories, but they will bring with them
everything they want, except fish and game, and when they leave
the country it will be as desolate as they found it.

"Can a country be permanently and prosperously settled that
will not in its whole extent allow the successful growth and ripen-
ing of a single crop of corn, wheat, or potatoes, and where the
most needful of any domestic animals cannot be kept by poor
people?

"We may with pride refer to the rugged work of settlement
so successfully made by our ancestors in New England, but it is
idle to talk of the subjugation of Alaska as a task simply requiring
a similar expedition of persistence, energy, and ability. In Mass-
achusetts our forefathers had a land in which all the necessaries
of life, and many of the luxuries, could be produced from the soil

INTRODUCTION.

with certainty from year to year; in Alaska their lot would have
been quite the reverse, and they could have maintained themselves
there with no better success than the present inhabitants. Atten-
tion should be directed to the development of its mineral wealth,
which I have reason to think will yet prove to be considerablcj
and efforts should be made to stimulate and protect the present
available industries of the fur trade, the canning of salmon, etc."*

Twenty years of intelligent and active investigation by thou-
sands of our people since the publication of this analysis has con-
firmed its truth beyond cavil or doubt. But the development
of Alaskan mines and mining, and its salmon canneries, has prac-
tically ruined ihe fur trade — these industries cannot thrive side by
side.

Alaskan mining for the precious metals is in its infancy: not
one thousandth part of the min'^ral-bearing surface rock and soil
of that region has yet been examined; that work is slow and
tedious in so rugged a country, even for the hardiest and best-
conditioned prospectors, and the success and the failure of these
men will from this time forward be constantly in our sight.

Henry W. Elliott.

» A Report on the Condition of Affairs in the Territory o/AUukat hj Hemy W.
Elliott, Washington, 1875 ; pi^es 18 and I9.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THB DISCOVERY OF THE KLONDIKE DIGGINGS.

The first newt from the Klondike — Excitement in San Francisco on the arriral
of the '< Excelsior" — The glad news carried around the world — «On to
the Klondike!" — Scenes along cj ivharves of Seattle — The goldsn treas-
ures of the returned Argonauts — Si aie of the first citizens of Dawson
City— The women of Bonanza an 1 El Dorado Creeks — Some good claims
and those who own them—** > .7 dii i, ' and where it is to be found, . . .

PAGE

CH/P'iER II.

THE YUKON RIVER, ITS PLACER FIELDS AND THEIR DISCOVERY.

Crater Lake — The Yukon, Alaska's gigantic inland highway — The great rivers
of the world — River craft — The rival trading companies — Hudson Bay
officials the first explorers — Gold bars on the Big Salmon — The first big
strikes— The tented banks of the El Dorado and Bonanza — McCormick
the original Klondiker — A buckskin bag and its story — The arms of the
Yukon— Thawing and freezing at the diggings 30

CHAPTER III.

ROUTES TO THE ALASKAN INTERIOR.

Dyea the base of supply for overland travel— The Chilkoot Pass and Lake
Lindeman trail— The Stick Indian packers— Boat-building on the lakes —
Shooting Miles Cafton, White Horse and Five-Finger or Rink Rapids—
Sucking supplies by the way— The White and Chilkat Passes— Taku
Iniet and Fort Macpherson routes — All the way to the Klondike by water
— Fkoposed railway* to pierce the ^old fields,

.^!¥m^m'^t

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

THE OUTFIT OF AN ARGONAUT.

PACK

The qualifications of a successful miner — One temptation of the gold-digger —
Provisions for the journey to Dawson City — Camping outfit and cooking
utensils — ^Th tool chest of a Lake Lindeman boat-builder — What to wear
in low temperatures — Supplies for a year's stay — Turnips by the pound —
The Dawson City storekeeper's scale of prices — Reasons for lower prices
— ^The custom houses at Dyea and Lake Bennett — ^A few pointers for pros-
pectire Alaskans, . . .' 79

CHAPTER V.

THE MINING CAMPS OF THE UPPER YUKON : THEIR LIFE AND LAWS.

Phases of human existence in the ice-bound towns — Circle City as a base of
supplies and the metropolis of the Yukon country — Fort Cudahy and the
famous Forty-Mile Post — Dogs by the hundred — Homes without the Tani-
ties of civilized regions — Gambling with big stakes — Liquor traffic and its
evils — The boom at Dawson City — Some strange things about the mail
service — A small fortune spent in delivering each mail bag — Bottles of
gold the legal tender — ^The Canadian moimted police 95

CHAPTER VI.

PLACER MINING.

ilncient and modem methods as applied to the Klondike fields — How the
riches are carried from mountain to gulch and plain — Pans, rockers,
' sluice-boxes, and other implements of the miner's craft — Watching for the
yellow metal in the streams of muddy water— The wonders of hydraulic
operations — ^Methods in vogue on the frozen gravels of Alaska — Opinions
of experts on the present and future, 121

CHAPTER VII.

ALASKAN QUARTZ MINES AND MINING.

The location of gold deposits on the coast of the southeast — ^The Great Tread-
well Mine on Douglass Island — The largest quartz mill in the world —
Thousands of dollars a day from low-grade ores — Other mines of the section
— ^The quartz veins of the Klonkike country — Large amounts of capital
being gathered to work them — The rich promise of the future — The rules
which the prospector must follow in his search for hidden treaanre—
Methods employed in working the golden veins — Processes of the rock-
Iveaker, stamp-mill, and concentrator, ....... ^ ^ «. ^ , .... , 145

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MARKETING, SMELTING, ASSAYING, AND COINING OF GOLD.

PAGB
VHiat the miner does with the unrefined product of hb stamp-mill and concen-
trator — Processes which the yellow metal must pass through before the
world sees it as coin — The chlorination and cyanide operations — Acid
baths to separate the baser metals from the treasure — ^The great smelting
furnaces and their daily flood of, riches— Among the ingots of pure gold
at the mint — The assayer's difficult task — The world's output of gold in
four hundred years, 167

CHAPTER IX.

MINING LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AND NORTHWEST TERRITORIES.

Early laws on the Yukon — Gold and silver mines the property of kings — ^The
establishment of a gold commissioner at Fort Cudahy — ^The newly promul-
gated Canadian mining regulations — Alternate claims reserved for the
Crown — ^The levying of royalties — Chartering of companies in the North-
west Territories — Fees for incorporation— Application of the United States
land laws to A laska — ^The Mining Acts of 1866 and 1872 — The miners'
meetings — Size and location of claims — llie camp recorder and his fees,

191

CHAPTER X.

THE NATIVE POPULATION.

Dark-skinned people found by the miner in the frozen North — Eskimo, Atha-
bascan, and Thlinget — Uncertainty about the origin of the Innuits — The
language and customs of a curious race — Strange modes of life near the
Arctic Circle — The mysteries of the Totem Pole — Dead houses of the Stick
Indians — Miners of gold who knew the Klondike field long before the
white man entered the land, aaj

CHAPTER XL

RESOURCES OF ALASKA.

President Johnson's <' ice-box " — Thirty-five years of Alaskan exports — Dense
forests of spruce, cedar, and pine — United States Department of Agricul-
ture's Experimental Station — Alaskan flora — Cranberries and other berries
—Grain and grass growing — Bituminous coal — Marble — Big game of the
interior — Bears the one-time terror of the Klc ^dike — Foxes and other fur-
coated animals — ^Thedeer and their threatened extinction — Salmon six feet
deep— The cod banks — Whaling, ................ 239

^mmm^mtifimmmmimA'^..-.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII.

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.

The wide difference between the climate of the coast and the interior What

gold-seekers will find in the way of weather— Mean temperature at various
points compared — Influence of the Pacific currents— The highest and
lowest points of the mercury— The topography of the country— Grandeur
of scenery on mountain and plain— Remarkable tides of the ocean, . . .

CHAPTER XIII.

PAGE

268

CIVILIZED ALASKA.

The government, trade, and cities of the oldest parts of the Northern Teiri-
tory — Settlements of the coast and how they are supported — The great
salmon canneries — The strong hand of Uncle Sam— The Greek Church
and its work among the natives — The capital and metropolis of the
territory — What the intrepid missionaries have done for Alaska, 283

CHAPTER XIV.

NOTES FROM ALASKAN HISTORY.

Vitus Bering, an emissarjf of Peter the Great — Discovery of Mount St. Eliafr—
Fourteen lost sailors — Alexander Baranof and the inception of the Russian
American Company — Spanish attempts to possess Alaska— Russian oppres-
sion and cruelty — An idyll of Baranof Castle — Purchase by the United
States— A blood-stained flag — The naming of the territory — Military occu-
pation and civil government — Governors past and present — Proposed
Inflation, 503

CHAPTER XV.

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE.

Two ends of the international dispute — Mt. St Elias a settled point — ^The
passage of 141st meridian through the gold fields — The Olney-Paunce-
fote treaty — The evidence of old time treaties — Behm or Portland
canal ? — Canadian claims to territory administerrd by the United States
— Changes in Canadian map — ^The removal of the Metlakatia Indians
from Canadian to United States territory — ^The possession of Juneau and
D7«*» ..,*»....

320

CONTENTS.

XIU

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PRIBYLOVy OR FUR SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA.

PACK

Chase of the sea otter— Piribylov's discovery — ^The Seal Island — Educating
the young — System of reproduction — Movements of seal herds — Male
seals fighting — Killing bachelor seals — Shooting and spearing — Killing
young males only — Blaine's plan — Blunders — Vain efforts at pension-^
The boundary question, 335

CHAPTER XVII.

REINDEER IN ALASKA.

Alaskan dogs must go — Introduction of reindeer by Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jack-
son — Both food and raiment — Purchasing station in Siberia — Distribu-
tion in Alaska — Fleet of foot and easily supported — Reindeer train
service to the Klondike — Reindeer milk for Yukon babies — A Siberian
moneymaker — Reindeer to harness — Character of the fur — Some figures
on the reindeer industry in Finland, 353

CHAPTER XVIIX.

THE GOLD FINDS OF HISTORY.

Gold in the days of Abraham — Solomon's expeditions to Ophir — Edomites as
Argonauts — Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru — Early attempts by the
English to find gold in America — North Carolina an <* El Dorado " — The
Geoi^an " Intrusion " — The days of the Forty-niners — John Marshall and
his end — Australian and Klondike nuggets compared — The Frazer River
craze — ^The " Kaffer circus *' — South African mines capitalized at
$1,500^00,000— Four hundred years of gold digging — The gold kings of
the world, 367

CHAPTER XIX.

BONANZA KINGS.

Smne of the favioos princes of the gold-mining world — From poverty to
sudden riches — The miners' cabins changed for great palaces and lux-
urious living — Great fortunes easily acquired and rapidly thrown away —
Nuggets of pure gold picked up by chance — The best-known cases of
finding lumps of the pure yellow treasure, 405

xiv

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XX.
Alaska's silent aTV.

PAOB

Anronl display during Augnit — Awe-inspiring mirages—" Dick " Willoughby's
negatiTe — A splendid business venture — Prince Luigi's Tision — ^Tbemost
famous mirage anywhere to be found — L. B. French's story of the Silent
City — How Willoughby made his find — A stone pile for a record vault —
President Jordan investigates — ^The scientific explanation of mirages —
Wuen and where they occur, 450

CHAPTER XXI.

t THE GLACIERS.

Wonders of the northern territory — ^The great ice fields — ^The formation and
action (^glaciers — What is known of the remarkable Malaspina glacier —
Some freaks of nature which man studies with intense interest — Some
mysteries in the frozen land which he cannot solve — ^The Muir» Guyot,
Seward and other glaciers, 459

CHAPTER XXn.

HUNTING AND FISHING.

Wild country for the huntsman — Bi^' game in the chasms and on the mountains
— Opportunities of the fishermen — Mallards and canvasback duck — I^ce
of game in the Sitka market — Native Alaskans not sportsmen — Mosquitoes
and the Bnuans — Suicide rather than die by the attacks of insects —
mcholai Huley the hero of a fine bear story — Native huntsmen, .... 479

.;r'i '».'

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGS

Sitka, Chief City of ALikSKA, 17

Steamer « Queen" and Muir GLAasR, 36

Street Scene in Dawson City, 53

Interior of Miner's Cabin, Dawson City, 53

Group of Indian Women and Pappoose, 7a

Miners En route to Klondike, 89

Chilkoot-Mountain Route to Mines, 108

Mount St. Elias and Muir Glacier, 108

Old Russian Block House, 125

Hydraulic Mining in Silver Bow Basin, Near Juneau, . . 144

Group of Miners and Indians, 161

Group of Klondike Gold Miners 161

Miner's House and Native's Totem Pole, 180

Ten Thousand Seals, - . . . 197

Klondike Indian Curios, . . . . ai6

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Oldest House in Juneau, 233

Old RussiA>r Stockade on the Yukon, 25a

Ikdian Burying Ground, 269

Chilkoot Coat, 288

Shooting the Rapids En route to Klondike, 305

Entering the Rapids, Overland Route to the Mines, . 324

Passing the Miners Over the Chilkoot Pass, ..... 341

Climbing the Mountain Over Chilkoot Pass, 360

FoRTv-KiLE Creek, 365

Camping Out on the Chilkoot Mountain, 376

Bonanza Creek Valley, 381

Unloading Supplies for the Miners at Dawson City, . 388

Third House Built in Dawson City, 397

Steamer "Portus B. Weare" Ice Bound at Circle City, 404

Miner's Cabin on the Klondike, 409

Klondike Gold Mining, Showing Sluice, 420

Saw Mill Owned by Jos. Ladue, 425

Juneau— -Nearest City to Chilkoot Pass, . . . . ... 432

Placer Mining — Hydraulic System, 441

XODAKERS on THE YuKON, * . . . 448

CHAPTER I.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE KLONDIKE DIGGINGS.

The first news from the Klondike — Excitement in San Francisco on the arrival of
the *' Excelsior " — ^The glad news carried around the world — " On to the Klon-
dike !"— Scenes along the wharves of Seattle — The golden treasures of the re-
turned Ai^onauts — Some of the first citizens of Dawson City— The women of
Bonanza and El Dorado Creeks — Some good claims and those who own them
— '* Pay dirt," and where it is to be found.

THROUGH the Golden Gate and into the beautiful
waters of San Francisco Bay steamed the modest
little craft "Excelsior" on the morning of July 14, 1897.
No salvos of artillery marked her arrival, not a whistle
in the harbor blew a " Welcome Home !" no dipping
pennants indicated that a few hours later her name
would be carried around the world and be on the lips of
millions of people. As had happened many times before,
the good ship made slowly to her wharf and ten minutes
after she had made her hawsers fast the glad nev/s of the
gold-finds on the Yukon and the Klondike had been
spread broadcast over the land, from ocean to ocean,
from Texas to Maine, and before long had crossed the
seas to other lands.

Such was the arrival in San Francisco of the forty
hardy spirits who months, and some even years before,
had gone out to the frozen lands of Alaska in the attempt
to wrest fortune from the hands of fate, and who now re-
turned triumphar", bearing with them their pots of pre-
cious gold. The stories they told, many of them well

S:'^^mt

THE GOLD CRAZE OF 1897.

authenticated, of fortunes made in a night, of nuggets of
pure gold worth twenty double eagles, of single " pans "
worth from $500 to $1000, of cities but a few months old,
of rivers and lakes unknown to geography, of hardships
and terrible sufferings and of the princely claims on the
Bonanza and £1 Dorado — these and other stories like
them flew over the land like fire over a parched prairie.
The gold craze of the year of our Lord 1897 ^^^ begun I

HALF A MILLION IN GOLD.

This vanguard of fortune finders brought with them
over a half million of dollars worth of gold. Not one of
them carried less than $5000 and from th**; figure the
amounts secured ran up to almost $90,0 . Some of
this wealth was in the shape of nuggets the size of hazel
nuts and from this went down through various sizes to
the proverbial dust. It was carried loose in pockets, in
tin cans, in canvas bags, in wooden boxes and some of
it wrapped up in paper.

Three days after the arrival of the ** Excelsior," the
country was again stirred up by the announcement diat
the "Portland," another ship engaged in the Alaskan
trade, had put into Seattle fourteen days out from St.
Michaels with another band of successful miners from the
Klondike country. There were sixty in this party and
they carried with them in native gold about $700,000.
If the hamlets and cities of the United States were look-
ing for confirmation of the stories flashed over the world
earlier in the week, the arrival of the " Portland " afforded
it Immediately men, and some few women, of all sorts

>»

tskan
St.
the
and
,000.
look-
rorld
irded
lorts

I
n

RUSH TO THE GOLD FIELDS.

and conditions, representing every trade and profession,
from every State in the Union, those who had thriving
businesses of their own and those who had none, high and
low, rich and poor, weak and strong, venturesome and
timid, those who had seen service in other mining coun-
tries and those absolutely without experience, began the
rush toward Alaska and the rivers of promise. The
scenes during the past weeks along the wharves of
Seattle, San Francisco and other Pacific ports baffle de-
scription. So great at times has been the struggle for
positions on boats going to the northern ports, that the
passengers on the down trip have left the boats with
difficulty on account of the press due to those seeking to
take their places. The rush shows no sign of abatement
and is likely to assume even greater proportions along
toward the end of the next spring, when the passage
to the gold fields by way of the Yukon River opens up.

FIRST WHITE WOMAN THERE.

Among the most fortunate of them who have thus far
returned to this country bearing gold with them is Prof.
J. S. Lippey, who was formerly connected with the Y. M.
C. A. of Seattle, as its secretary. He brought down
with him about $85,000 in bullion. , His wife accom-
panied him all the while he was in Alaska, having been the
first white woman to cross the great divide, and at the
time she left she had the further distinction of being the
only woman in camp. The Lippeys went to the Klon-
dike from Forty Mile Creek, where there were quite a
number of women. Mrs. Lippey is a smdl, brown.

LIFE IN THE KLONDIKE.

haired, brown-eyed woman, tanned unul her face is as
brown as her hair and her eyes. She has this to say
about her experiences in Alaska :

"The country is beautiful, and quite warm in sum-
mer. It is different, you know, in winter. Still, even
in the coldest weather, I went out every day, though not
very far. I was the first white woman to reach Klon-
dike Creek, and was the only one in our camp. Mrs.
Berry was the only white woman I had to speak to
while I was there. She was with her husband in the
next camp, a mile away.

*' How did we live ? " repeated Mrs. Lippey, in answer
to a question. "Well, at first we lived in a tent. It was
twelve feet by eighteen, eight logs high, with mud and
moss roof, and moss between the chinks, and had a door
and window. Mr. Lippey made the furniture — a rough
bed, table, and some stools. We had a stove — there
are plenty of stoves in that country — and that was all
we needed. The cabin was cosy and warm. I looked
after the housekeeping and Mr. Lippey after the mining."

"As to eating," continued Mrs. Lippey, "well, we had
no fresh meat, no fresh milk, no fresh fruit, no eggs ; it
was all canned food, but still we kept in good health."

RETURN OF THE FORTUNATE.

William Stanley, formerly a blacksmith in Seattle,
went to Alaska two years ago, and was among those
who returned on the " Portland." He had with him jjii 5,-
000 worth of gold, found on Bonanza Creek, about five
miles above Dawson City.

SOME OF THE LUCKY ONES.

Henry Anderson, a Swede, who is well known in
Seatde, came back with a good supply of gold dust and
^45,000 he had received for half his claim on the Klon-
dike.

Frank Keller, of Los Angeles, Cal., went to Alaska
last year, and returned with $35,000 received for his
claim.

William Sloat, a former dry goods merchant of Naina-
mo, B. C, has $52,000 received for his claim.

A fellow resident of Nainamo, named Wilkinson, sold
his claim for ^^40,000.

Jack Home, a professional pugilist of Tacoma, was
among the few who might be called unlucky. He brought
back only $6000 worth of dust.

Frank Phiscator, of Baroua, Mich., has $96,000 worth
of dust and nuggets, He was one of the first to go to
the Klondike.

MILLIONS IN NUGGETS.

Joseph Ladue, who originally came from the rural dis-
tricts in the vicinity of Binghamton, N. Y., and spent
most of his life working about the farms of the neighbor-
hood, was fortunate enough to have staked off the claim
upon which most of the present city of Dawson is located.
He had been in Alaska for five years, having spent most
of his time, until the gold fever struck him, running a saw-
mill, cut of which he claims to have made money, notwith-
standing that labor was scarce at $15.

The luck of Clarence J. Berry, formerly a fruit raiser
in Southern California, is the greatest thus far on record.
He made a trip to the country around Forty Mile Creek

A THOUSAND OUNCES OF DUST.

a couple of years ago, but through lack of funds was un-
successful. He returned to California and after marry-
ing decided to return to the gold fields with his newly-
wedded wife, and it was a fortunate move for him. In
five months he succeeded in removing J^ 130,000 from one
of his claims, of which sum he paid out about j^20,ooo in
wages to his men. In the meantime, his wife worked a
little claim of her own at odd moments and made about
$10,000 out of it. The couple have returned to San
Francisco, where Berry has received an offer of $2,000,-
000 for his Alaskan holding.

Robert Kooks brought back $14,000 in gold dust and
$12,000 he received for his half interest in a claim. He
has an interest in another claim, and intends to return
after he has had rest and enjoyment.

J. B. Hollingshed, after two years spent in the diggings,
can show $25,000 worth of dust, and still possesses a
claim, to which he intends to return.

M. S. Norcross was one of those who were looked
upon as unfortunate. He selected a claim but became
ill and could not work it, so he was compelled to sell out
for $10,000.

Thomas Flack has only $6000 worth of dust, but he
has a claim at Klondike for which he has been offered
$50,000. He intends to return to work it himself

Con Stamatin returned with a third share of $33,000
worth of dust taken out in forty-five days* work.

PLENTY OF GOLD IN ALASKA.

"I brought down just 1000 ounces of dust and sold it
to the smelting works/' said William Kulju. " I sold my

PROSPECTING ON THE KLONDIKE.

claim for $25,000. When I went to Klondike last sum-
mer I had only a few dollars and a pack. Now I am
going home to Finland, but I am coming back next year."

John Marks, another of those who came down on the
" Pofidand," had with him $1 1,500 in dust. In a conversa-
tion recently, he said: — "There is plenty of gold in
Alaska, more, I believe, than the most sanguine imagine,
but it cannot be obtained without great effort and endur-
ance. The first thing for a poor man to do when he
reaches the country is to begin prospecting. As snow is
from two to five feet deep, jprospecting is not easy. Snow
must first be shoveled away, and then a fire built on the
ground to melt the ice. As the ground thaws the shaft
must be sunk until bed rock is reached. The average
prospector has to sink a great many shafts before he
reaches anything worth his while. If gold is found in
sufficient quantities to pay for working, he may begin
drifting from the shaft, and continue to do so as long as
he finds enough gold to pay."

Frederick Lendsseen returned with $13,000 worth of
gold after two years spent in Alaska. He sums up his
opiiiion as follows : — "I have had considerable exper-
ience in mining, and say, without hesitation, that Alaska
is the richest country I have ever seen. I have an in-
terest in a claim near Dawson and am going back in the
spring."

Greg Stewart brought back $45,000 received from his
claim and a good quantity of dust he had taken out
before selling.

Hollingshed and Stewart who worked as partners had
$25,000 worth of dust.

REPORTS NOT EXAGGERATED.

M
il

it i

il:

H-

Mrs. Eli Gage, daughter-in-law of Secretary Lyman
J. Gage, and daughter of Portus B. Weare, Manager of
the North American Trading and Transportation Com-
pany, returned to Chicago on July 27th from a trip to
the Yukon country. Her husband represents the com-
pany at Dawson, and she has been with him three
months. She has returned to Dawson to spend the
winter, sailing in August for the iar northland, where
wealth is now to be obtained with such comparative ease.
Mrs. Gage is enthusiastic about the country she has
visited. She investigated its resources, had every op-
portunity to see aright what the real situation there is,
and declares that none of the reports regarding the rich-
ness of the Alaskan land for the gold-seekers has been
exaggerated, though about other matters in the Klon-
dike region many false reports have reached the United
States.

Mrs. Gage says there is an immense amount of gold
ir the Yukon district. Any man who hr^s pocket money
and about $500 for "grub-staking" a claim can safely
go to the Klondike region and expect to reap a liberal
reward for his efforts. If he goes poo "ly equipped and
supplied, he may be compelled to suffer for his lack of
wisdom, but he will not find himself among hard-hearted
people. He will be helped if he deserves assistance.

On her way home, Mrs. Gage was compelled to hide
in a drawing-room on the cars when it became known
that she had just come from the Klondike country.
Everybody was anxious to learn about the gold discov-

h !

ARRIVAL OF THE GOLD-HUNTERS.

eries, Mrs. Gage says the stories of probable starvation
have little foundation, the supplies taken from Seattle
and San Francisco by the two trading companies being
sufficient to prevent suffering during the coming winter.

Here are some of the interesting things this wide-
awake American woman finds to say about her future
home and her experiences there :

" We waited several days at St. Michael's for the river
steamer for Dawson City. When the boat arrived it
was loaded with the gold-hunters and their spoils. The
gold was carried in bags, bottles, and sacks, and one man
had his fortune in an old boot. They came tumbling on
the deck of the 'Portland' in all sorts of outlandish
costumes.

" No one would say how much he had himself, but he
very willingly made a guess at what his neighbor had.
Their talk would excite the coolest head. There was
nothing but gold in the Klondike. I absorbed the pre-
vailing excitement and listened to the wonderful stories
with a thrilling pulse.

" We sailed from St. Michael's July 3d. It is wonder-
ful how fascinating the life on the frontier becomes. The
man or woman who gets a taste of it and succeeds and
thrives by it rarely gets to like anything else.

" It was most interesting to study the men and women
who had taken the desperate chance and had won. Some
of them had gone into the region with barely enough to
keep body and soul together. They had only made the
attempt as a last resort. Having failed to make a sue-

ABANDONED CLAIMS.

cess at home, they had resolved to make one plunge and
die or come out rich.

" The most pathetic story of this kind was that of Mr,
and Mrs. Berry. They went into the Klondike without
even a grub stake. They were on their wedding tour,
and when they left they told their friends they might
never get back to Fresno alive.

" This pair sat on the deck of the * Pordand ' fifteen
months after their departure, and their plans embraced
bigger things than scheming to find a man who would
loan them $60 while they risked their lives trying to get
over the mountains and into the placer district. They
were like two children — Mr. Berry planning to buy the
farm i:pon which he has been unable to make living
wages, and Mrs. Berry getting ideas on the newest
things in diamond rings. She had been forced to omit
this feature of the ceremony when they started for
Alaska, but, like all women, she was pleased that the
ring could now be bought.

*' The abandoned claims will make many a man, not
yet on the scene, rich. There are many claims along
the best known creeks that have been abandoned. The
prospectors would be digging on them contentedly earn-
ing big money every day. There would them come a
report from some neighboring place of fabulously rich
finds, and there would follow at once a wild rush. In
this way claims that had paid moderately were passed
in search of others that would banish poverty in a
month."

THREE MONTHS' WORK.

William Stanley, one of the argonauts who returned
on the " Portland," was formerly a resident of Seattle, and
lived on Taylor Street, four blocks below Jackson. His
story runs as follows :

" My son and myself and two partners, whom we
picked up on tne way to Juneau, had been wandering
through the Yukon districts for several months with
little or no success, when, in the latter part of last Sep-
tember, we heard of the Klondike discoveries. At this
time we were en route along the Stewart River, being
bound for Forty-Mile, and were at Sixty-Mile when the
news of the strike first reached us. We hastened to the
Klondike, stopping first at the mouth of the stream.
The day following our arrival the little steamer * Ellis,'
with 1 50 wildly excited miners, who had also heard of the
news, arrivM. There was a rush and a mad run for the
new disco /eries along Bonanza and EI Dorado Creeks.
We brought up first on El Dorado Creek, locating claims
Nos. 25, 26, 53, and 54. That was about the first of
October. We prospected 25 and 26 until we satisfied
ourselves that we had good pay dirt in each. Then we set
about making permanent improvements for the winter,
such as building cabins. This done, we set to work
sinking prospect holes in different parts of the gulch.
We had no blankets. Good pay dirt was taken from
every hole, and at the end of three months' work we
cleaned up $1 12,000. In getting this much gold we did
not drift over 200 feet altogether up and down the
stream. Nor did we cross-cut the pay streak. We

AVERAGE OF PANS.

I !

calculate that these two, and also 53 and 54, will run up-
wards of $1,000 to the lineal foot, and I figure that we
have fully $2,000,000 in sight in the four claims. There
is little or no difference in the 55 and 56 claims on El Do-
rado. In fact, there are no spotted claims on the creek.
It is a case of all gold and yards wide and yards
deep. Anywhere you run a hole down you find the
pay streak.

"Our pans will average $3 throughout all of the
£1 Dorado claims. Many go as high as $150, and some
still better. I took out $750 in five pans, and did not
pick the pans, either. I took the pan against my breast
and simply scooped it in off the bedrock.

" To make a long story short, I think El Dorado Creek
is the greatest placer proposition in the world. There
has never been anything discovered on the face of the
globe like it.

" In my opinion, there will be a number of them, too.
Bear Gulch is almost another El Dorado. There is a
double bedrock in Bear Gulch, though but very few
know it. The bedrocks are three feet apart. The gold
in the lower bedrock is as black as your shoe, and in
the top bedrock it is as bright as that found in the
El Dorado.

*'We own No. 10 claim below discovery on Bear
Gulch, and also 20 and 2 1 on Last Chance Gulch above
discovery. We prospected for three miles on Last
Chance, and could not tell the best place to locate dis-
covery claim. The man making discovery of a creek is

TROUBLE SECURING LABOR.

entitled by law to stake a claim and take also an adjoin-
ing one, or, in other words, two claims, so you see he
wants to get in a good locality on the creek or gulch.

" Hunker Gulch is highly looked to. I think it will
prove another great district, and some good strikes
have also been made on Dominion Creek. Indian
Creek is also becoming famous.

" What are we doing with all the money we take out ?
Well, we paid $45,000 spot cash for a half-interest in
claim No. 32 El Dorado. We have also loaned $5,000
each to four parties on El Dorado Creek, taking mort-
gages on their claims, so you see we are well secured.
No ; I don't want any better security for my money
than El Dorado claims, thank you. I only wish I had a
mortgage on the whole creek.

" We had a great deal of trouble securing labor in the
prospecting of our properties. Old miners would not
work at any price. We could occasionally rope in a
greenhorn and get him to work for a few days at $15 a
day. Six or eight miners worked on shares for us for
about six weeks, and when we settled it developed that
they had earned in that length of time $5,300 each.
That was pretty good pay, wasn't it ? We paid one old
.miner $12 for three hours' work, and offered to continue
him at that rate, but he would not have it, and went out to
[hunt a claim of his own. I am g .Ing back to the Yukon

the spring, but not to work. When I threw down
ly shovel and pick it was for the last time,"

^mtma

CHAPTER 11.

THB YUKON RIVER, ITS PLACER FIELDS AND THEIR

DISCOVERY,

Gnter Lake— The Vukon» Alaska's ^gantic inland highwaj—The great rivers of
the world — River craft — The rival trading companies — Hudson Bay officials
the first explorers-— Gold bars on the Big Salmon — ^The first big strikes — ^The
tented banks of the El Dorado and Bonanza — McCormick the original Klon-
diker — ^A buckskin bag and its story — The arms of the Yukon — Thawing and
freezing at the diggings.

ALMOST at the loot of Chilkoot Pass in the Kotusk
Mountains there lies a little body of water known
as Crater Lake. From this diminutive inland sea^there
stretches away a continuous water-course to Bering Sea,
a distance of almost 2,000 miles. Such is the extent of
the mighty Yukon and its headwaters. What the Ama-
zon and La Plata are to South America, what the Missis-
sippi is to the central portion of the United States, and
what the Kongo and Niger are to Central Africa, this
and more is the Yukon to Alaska. It is the great natu-
ral inland highway without which the opening up of the
vast interior to civilization and trade would have been
arduous and to a great extent impossible. The Yukon
River proper extends from Fort Selkirk, at the conflu-
ence of the Lewes and Pelly Rivers, in the Northwest
Territory, in a northwesterly direction 400 miles to the
Arctic Circle, and then to the southward 1,350 miles to
the sea, its total length to Fort Selkirk being 1,750. Of
this distance 1,500 miles lies in United States territory.
The 360 miles of waterway from Crater Lake to Fort
Selkirk are made up of a succession of lakes con-

TERRITORY DRAINED BY THE YUKON. ^I

nected by streams of varying length, passing finally into
the Lewes River. Pelly River, which unites with the
Lewes to form the Yukon, lies to the northward of the
latter, and is about 275 miles in length.

The firitt accurate description of the Yukon River was
furnished by Dr. W. H. Dall, of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion. He was a member of the expedition sent out in
1865 by the Western Union Telegraph Company to
make the preliminary surveys for a telegraph line to join
the old world with the new, the same to be carried over
Bering Strait into Siberian Russia. While the party was
at work in Alaska the Atlantic Cable was put into suc-
cessful operation and the expedition was recalled.

The territory drained by the Yukon and its tributaries
has been approximately estimated at 33i,c)cx> square
miles. Its size may be judged better by comparison
with the other great rivers of the world which are esti-
mated as follows :

Names. Length in miles. Area drained in sq. miles.

Mackenzie, 2,400 440,000

Missonri-Mississippi, 4,200 1,250,000

Amazon 4»ooo ......... 2,506,000

La Plata, 2,300 1,250,000

Hoang-Ho, 2,700 540,000

Lena, 2,550 600,000

Yang-tsi, 3,300 ......... 500,000

Kongo, 3,300 1,500,000

Niger, 4,000 1,400,000

The Yukon varies in width during the lower part of
its course from one to ten miles, and its delta spreads
out to a width of sixty miles. As it falls away to the

TRAFFIC ON THE YUKON.

sea from the Arctic Circle its channel is cut up by thou-
sands of islands. The current in places is strong and
it is reported that at certain seasons the waters of Ber-
ing Sea are fresh fully fifteen miles from the mouth of
the Yukon. For the better part of its distance the river
is shallow, and only navigable to light-draught boats,
under four or five hundred tons burden. The stern-
wheel type is the only craft used on the river, and even
during the high-water season extreme caution has to be
used in threading the channels. It is believed that a
powerful light-draught boat of not more than one hun-
dred and fifty tons would be able to pass Five-Finger
Rapids and go three hundred miles further through
Hootalinqua River to the head of Teslin Lake. Among
tributaries of the Yukon reported navigable for light
craft are the Andreafski for 50 miles, the Shagluk for
50 miles, Innoko for 50 miles, Tanana for 300 miles,
Klanarchargut for 25 miles, Beaver Creek for 100 miles.
Birch Creek for 150 miles, Koyukuk River for 300 miles.
Porcupine for 100 miles, Stewart for 150 miles, Pelly for
250 miles, and the McMillan for 200 miles; but these
estimates are largely guesswork.

Traffic on the Yukon River is largely controlled by the
Alaska Commercial Company and the North American
Transportation & Trading Company, both companies
having stations on St. Michael's Island and at various
points along the river. The former company has two
vessels, one of two hundred tons and the other of three
hundred; the latter has a fleet of six boats, the "Weare,"

DISOOVERIES MADE.

by the
erican
panics
Irarious
as two
three

the "Cudahy," the "Hamilton," the "Healy," the
" Power," and the " Klondike." All these steamers
carry both freight and passengers.

Except during ten, or, at the most, twelve, weeks dur-
ing the summer the Yukon is ice-bound from its mouth
to the headwaters. Some years it opens up about June
I St, but usually it is nearer the middle of the month before
the boats begin their trips. About September ist trafific
ceases, and severe weather is experienced.

The history of the development of the Yukon gold
mines extends back a great many years; in fact,
long before the northwestern territory came into the
possession of the United States. As has been the case
in other fields, the earliest discoverers of the yellow
metal in the country deserve little credit, inasmuch as
they failed to follow up their findings, and hence the dis-
coveries have had little or no influence on the progress
of the country and absolutely none on the more recent
developments around the head-waters and along the
valley of the gigantic Yukon.

This country was originally explored by the agents of the
Hudson Bay Company, in 1 840, and as early as 1 860 it was
reported that gold in small quantities had been unearthed
by these officials, but little was heard of it. George
Holt, who, in 1878, made the trip from Lake Lindeman to
the Hootalinqua River, which runs into Lewes River, prob-
ably deserves the credit for opening up the Yukon gold
fields. Returning by the same route, he reported having

'"^m

MINERS AND PROSPECTORS.

made finds along the Hootalinqua, which is the miners'
name (due to a mistake) of the Teslintoo River, which flows
down from Teslin Lake, on the British Columbia border.
He never went back to the interior, but the news he fur-
nished of the country caused Edward Bean to lead a
goodly train up over Chilkoot Pass and down the chain of
lakes which lead to the Yukon, during the early 8o's.
Bean came from Sitka, and was one of the original owners
of the Treadwell mine property. The party met with in-
different success, finding the coveted treasure, but not in
sufficient quantities to encourage them in further effort
The opening was made, however, and miners and prospec-
tors began going over the Chilkoot Pass in large numbers.
These parties did their work for the most part on Cana-
dian soil and principally along the Lewes River and its
tributaries. They ascended the Big Salmon and found
the precious metal on all its bars. The finds on Cana-
dian soil, however, until quite recently, were none of
them suf!iciendy alluring to cause a stampede towards
them.

FINDS IN THE YUKON DISTRICT.

Up to 1886, the finds in the Yukon district were con-
fined almost entirely to territory traversed by its head-
waters, embracing the White, Stewart, Pelly, Lewes and
Hootalinqua Rivers. In that year, what may be called
the middle division of the Yukon, extending from Fort
Selkirk to the mouth of the Tanana River, was first
opened up by the discovery, on Forty Mile Creek, of
gold in goodly quantities. This caused a general cessa-
tion of operations along the nead-waters, and the largely-

liners'
I flows
arder.
le fur-
ead a
ainof
8o's.
vners
thin-
lotin
effort
spec-
ibers.
^ana-
d its
ound
^ana-
le of
^ards

con-
Lead-
and
died
Fort
first
k, of
issa-
rely-

..I!^l,<■•: .,-..,,...■ .<-ijSte,,J»;

% ^

^Hb '

THE FIRST GOOD STRIKE.

increased working force due to this source caused claims
on Sixty Mi^ , Miller, Glacier, Birch and Koyukuk
Rivers to open up in rapid succession. Forty Mile and
Sixty Mile Creeks rise in the Ratzel Mountains, which
divide the Tanana from the Yukon valley, and flow
into the Yukon from the west. They receive their
names from the fact that they were considered respec-
tively forty and sixty miles from the trading-post, Fort
Reliance, which, up to 1896, was the commercial centre for
thlo section of the Yukon country. The real distances
are somewhat greater, measured as are all these dis-
tances along the windings of the river, which is the high-
way of travel.

UPBUILDING OF CIRCLE CITY.

The first good strike on Birch Creek was made in
1893, 2ind this gave rise to the upbuilding of Circle City.
This remained the most important mining camp in this
part of Alaska until December, 1 896, when it was almost
wiped off the map by the exodus to the Klondike, where
Dawson City speedily arose at the junction of the Klondike
and Yukon Rivers. J. O. Hestwood, of Seattle, who has
recently returned from the gold fields, has told how gold
was first found on the Klondike.

"The discovery," he said, "was made by an old
hunter named George McCormick, a former resident of
Illinois, who is called "Siwash George," and has been
I on the Yukon for eight years. He is married to a squaw
and has several half-breed children. McCormick went
up in the spring of 1896 to the mouth of the Klondike

I ' !

I I

-g NO CLAIM-JUMPING THERE.

to fish, as salmon weighing ninety pounds are caught
where this stream meets the Ynkon. The salmon didn't
run as usual and McCormick, hearing from the Indians
of rich places nearby, where gold could be washed out
in a frying pan, started out to prospect.

"Near what is now Dawson City, on July 9th, he
struck very rich pay dirt in a side hill. As soon as news
of his discovery spread, men from Circle City and Forty-
Mile rushed in. The richest claims are in Bonanza Creek,
which empties into the Klondike from the south, three miles
above Dawson City. There are three claims in that dis-
trict, each 500 feet long, exjtending clear across the
creek on which it is located. No one can file an addi-
tional claim until he has recorded his abandonnk n-: nf
his old claim, according to Canadian law, and it must liOt
be forgotten that this river is far within the Canadian
boundaries.

" In the adjoining Hunker district there are 200 claims.
The two districts have been well prospected, but further
up the Klondike is much territory which has never been
even traveled over.

" Old miners declared that the north side of the Yukon
was worthless, so no prospecting was ^one until McCor-
mick started in. There is no claim-jumping, as the
Canadian laws are rigid and well enforced by the presence
of the Mounted Police.

THE RUSH FOR KLONDIKE.

"There was a rush for Klondike as soon as the dis-
covery was made known and I was among the first to

PROSPECTING IN THESE REGIONS.

get there. I had poor luck qt first and after a few days
started to leave, but I had only got a short distance down
the river when my boat got stuck in the ice and I went
back to Dawson City. I bought a claim and it proved
one of the richest in the district.

" In the region now worked there are a score of
creeks, each rich in gold deposits. The creeks compris-
ing the bonanza districts are Bonanza, El Dorado, Vic-
toria, Adams, McCormick, Reddy Bullion, Nugget Gulch,
Bear, Baker and Chee-Chaw-Ka. In the Hunker district
are the Main Fork, Hun>er and Gold Bottom Creeks.

CREEKS RICH IN GOLD DEPOSITS.

The banks of these streams are dotted with white tents
of miners, and a prettier sight it would be hard to find.
Over on Dominion Creek gold has been found, and 300
miners started for that place the day we started for San
Francisco. The surface prospects are quite as favorable
as on the Bonanza."

McCormick was not allowed to be the sole proprietor
of the Klondike for a very long period. About the mid-
dle of August his supplies ran low and he dispatched
two Indian assistants to a settlement on the Yukon, half
way between Forty-Mile and Sixty-Mile Creeks, to re-
-'enish ag larder. The *'P. B. Weare," of the North
American Transportation and Trading Company, hap-
pened to be stopping at the settlement at the time the
Indians arrived and their tales of the rich finds en the
Klondike caused the entire crew of the vessel to desert
and hasten away to the new El Dorado. After getting

' I

THE TRAGIC TALE.

a native crew together, the " Weare " pushed on down
the river and spread broadcast through the mining camps
the news which since has electrified the world.

Among the romances which will be forever associated
with the history of the Yukon none savors so strongly
of the rough and ready country through which it wends
its way than does the story of the founding of the North
American Transportation & Trading Company. In
the winter of 1892 Porteus B. Weare, of Chicago, and
Captain John J. Healy met in Chicago after a separation
of years.

They had c companions in the fur trade with the
Indians at old 1 ort Benton, on the Missouri River, in
1865. Mr. Weare had returned to civilization and
taken up his residence in Chicago, but Captain Healy
had penetrated to the head of Chilkoot inlet, established
the trading post at Ty-a (now known as Dyea), which
bears his name, and continued his traffic with the Indians
until he became known as " Chief of the Blackfeet."

In the course of their reminiscent talk Healy drew
from his pocket a buckskin bag and displayed to his old
comrade of the camp and trading post the yellow con-
tents of the crude purse. Then he told the tragic tale
of how the gold had come into his possession. The
substance of his narrative was this :

One fearfully cold day in the latter part of Decem-
ber, 1 89 1, two or three Indians entered the post and
offered foi barter the bag containing several hundred
dollars* worth of dust. Healy eagerly inquired where

ORGANIZATION OF A COMPANY.

and how they secured the gold. Their answer was that
it had been obtained from Tom Williams, a trapper, who
had made the long pilgrimage from the interior, along
the Yukon, but had died before reaching the post.

The Indians were able to give the trader a general
description of the locality which the dying trapper had
described to them as the spot where he discovered what
he believed would prove to be a rich gold field.

As Mr. Weare knew his friend to be a practical
miner, his faith in the sagacity and the judgment of the
latter was strong. The story also awakened in him the
latent longing to taste once more the pleasures of
frontier adventure. The result was the organization
of a company which sent steamers to the headwaters of
the Yukon and opened up the country. Captain Healy
has been in Alaska fifteen years, and is one of the best
known men in the countrv.

The territory around the mouth of the Yukon is very
low. In fact, the reason for the chief trading station for
this section of Alaska being placed on an island sixty
miles above the usual entrance to the river is that the
delta for miles around is entirely covered in the late
spring or early summer by freshets due to the ice melting
in the river. Owing to the way in which' the Yukon spreads
out as it passes into Bering Sea the water is very shallow
and eight feet is about the maximum depth reached in
any of the numerous channels.

The two most interesting arms of the Yukon are the
Lewes and Pelly Rivers, which unite to form it. The

CHIEF TRIBUTARY.

former is all- important on account of the part it plays in
the overland route from Juneau to the gold fields. Its
chief tributary, the Hootalinqua, is the stream over which
the Canadians expect to see carried the bulk of the inland
travel. The Pelly River rises in Pelly Lakes, near the
crest of the Rocky Mountains which there form the
divide between the basins of the Yukon and MacKenzie
Rivers. These lakes are precisely where the 129th
meridian crosses the 626. parallel of latitude; and
thence the river flows northwesterly over 500 miles
before reaching Fort Selkirk. The country through
which it passes is mountainous and wild, and has been
explored but a very slight extent. The Yukon, after
passing Fort Selkirk, varies from one-half to three-
quarters of a mile in width. On the northern side
it is bounded by an almost continuous wall of rock
of volcanic origin, and on the south the bank is low and
sandy. After passing the White River the course is
almost due north through a mountainous country. The
scenery is wild ind most picturesque. On both sides
great granite cliffs rise hundreds of feet above the bed
of the river, which, receiving the waters of the Stewart
from the north, flows on toward Dawson City with great
rapidity, sometimes as high as seven miles an hour. At
just about the centre of the present mining district the
Yukon changes its course to the northwest and continues
in this direction for about 3CX) miles, or to a point near
where the Porcupine River crosses the Arctic Circle,
and empties into the parent stream. The width on the

DIFFICULTY EXPERIENCED.

Alaskan side of the boundary line averages about one
mile, but as it approaches the Circle it spreads out
among islands at the mouth of the Porcupine, till
it is several miles from shore to shore. A good deal of
difficulty is experienced in navigating the Yukon at this
point on account of :he shallowness of the water and
the sandy formation of the bed, which causes the channel
to shift from month to month and season to season.

There is never a complete thaw of the soil which
makes up the country through which the Yukon flows.
In some places during the summer months the ground
is soft to a depth of three or four feet, but in less
favored places eighteen inches is a maximum. This
layer of frozen soil extends down six or eight feet, and
below that ice is rarely encountered. Various explana-
tions of this phenomena have been advanced, but it is
generally believed to be due to poor drainage and to the
dense layer of moss which covers the entire country,
and which acts as a blanket, preventing the intense heat
of the midsummer sun from penetrating far below the
surface, and also keeping in the cold.

I ;

;

CHAPTER III.

ROUTES TO THE ALASKAN INTERIOR.

Dyea the utse of supply for overland travel — The Chilkoot Pass and Lake Linde-
man trail — The Stick Indian packers — Boat-building on the lakes — Shooting
Miles Cafion, White Horse and Five-Finger or Rink Rapids — Stacking supplies
by the way — The White and Chilkat Passes — Taku Inlet and Fort Macpherson
routes— All the way to the Klondike by water — Proposed railways to pierce the
gold fields.

THE miner or tourist who proposes penetrating the
Alaskan country to the placer diggings of the
upper Yukon Basin has, broadly speaking, the choice
of two routes. The one which has been most generally
used, up to within a very recent time, is all the way by
water. Leaving Puget Sound, or San Francisco Bay,
the steamer sails out to the northwest across the Pacific
Ocean to the Aleutian Islands, between which a channel
leads into Bering Sea. Safe in these latter waters the
steamer is put on a direct northerly course to Fort Get
There, on St. Michael Island, which lies on the far western
coast of Alaska, about sixty-five miles above the mouth
of the Yukon River. There a transfer is made to a
light-draft river boat, and in this the rest of the voyage
to Circle City, Fort Cudahy, or Dawson is made. It takes
between four and five weeks to make the trip in this way,
under the most favorable circumstances, and owing to the
fact that the Yukon is frozen hard and fast during eight
months of the year, this route is only open from about
June I St to the middle of September.

ROUTE TO DAWSON CITY.

The other route, and the one which is being taken by
thousands of miners and others at the present time, is
part of the way overland. Having arrived in Juneau by
water from Seattle, the traveler goes up Lynn Canal to
Dyea, or Taiya, as the Canadians call it. This town is
at the head of Chilkoot Inlet, which runs parallel to and
to the east of Chilcat Inlet, the latter also emptying into
Lynn Canal. At Dyea the overland journey begins, and
just beyond its gates the rise to the Chilkoot Pass, 3,500
feet above the sea, commences. Lake Lindeman, twenty-
seven miles from Dyea, is the first piece of water met
with after making the pass. This is the first of a series
of lakes, which, with their connecting streams, must be
traversed before the Thirty-Mile, Lewes, and finally
Yukon Rivers are reached. This, in brief, is the route
to Dawson City, over which the great bulk of Alaskan
gold-field travel is now making its way.

There are numerous conditions which must necessarily
affect a decision as to choice of routes. Perhaps the main
argument in favor of the overland route as opposed to
the all-water one is the difference in time required for
the two journeys. The distance from Seattle to Dawson
City via Juneau and the lake country is 1,459 miles,
while to take the ocean course requires that a circuit of
4,200 miles must be made. The time actually required
to cover the two routes is not governed altogether by
the number of miles they measure. The season of the
year, the size and make-up of the party, the state of the
weather, the amount of baggage, and a dozen other

VESSELS USED.

items, including luck, enter in to make the nicest calcu-
lations go wide of the mark.

Inasmuch as the Yukon route is out of the question
until next summer's sun shall have thawed out its ice-
bound channel, the greatest interest at the present time
attaches to the overland route outlined above and the
manifold variations to which it is subject. Both San
Francisco and Seattle have been used as points of de-
parture. The regular lines of vessels plying between
these ports and Juneau, the metropolis of Alaska, have
been largely supplemented. Craft of every description
capable of living on the high seas have been drafted
into the service. Barges, tugs, side-wheelers, and
merchantmen, large and small, have been brought out
of retirement and made to do valiant service in speedmg
the bands of gold-seekers on to the newly-found El
Dorado. The excitement along the wharves where
Alaskan-bound vessels have been moored has been
intense. As a usual thing, long before the vessels were
ready to heave anchor the docks have been so packed
that it became almost impossible for a person to wedge
his way through the mass of people so as to get a look
at the steamship.

These crowds were not drawn altogether by personal
interest or friendship for those who were about to take
the long, tiresome, and dangerous journey into the Yukon
gold fields, although many that were present doubtless
were influenced by those motives. The main actuating
sentiment, however, was the feverish excitement which

FIRST STAGES OF THE JOURNEY.

seems to prevail throughout all classes of the commu-
nity in regard to the Klondike.

To those who could not go there was some undefined
satisfaction in looking upon the more lucky ones, who
were more favored by fortune, and who might possibly
be the future millionaires of the Coast.

The first stages of the Klondiker's journey have been
more or less familiar to the American tourist for years.
Leaving the terraced slopes of Seattle in the back-
ground, the good ship plies her way down Admiralty
Inlet, past the city of Everett, and into Port Townsend,
the United States port of entry for Puget Sound. Clear-
ing from this port, the course lies directly across the
Straits of Juan de Fuca northward to Victoria, B. C.
This city, the capital of the province, occupies a com-
manding site at the southern extremity of Vancouver
Island. Thence the course runs to the eastward of
Vancouver Island into the Gulf of Georgia, and threads
its way through narrow channels and past islands,
named and nameless, until, passing out of Chatham
Sound, the vessel once more enters American waters
and ties up for a short while at the Mary Island wharf
lor freight. The next stop made is at Fort Wrangel,
which is reached on the morning of the fourth day out.
Here the first real insight into Alaskan life is gained.
IThe wharf swarms with Indians who e ' ^ose for sale all
[manner of wares, while the crew busies itself with the
idjustment of the cargo. The next stop is Juneau,
"his is a seaport and mining town, and before the gold

DOCKING FACILITIES.

excitement began its population ranged from 2,000 to
3,000 souls. It has schools and churches, three news-
papers, electric light plant, water-works, two excellent
wharves, mercantile establishments of generous propor-
tions, good hotels, theatres, paved streets, and a well-
organized fire department.

The fare from Seattle to Juneau is $32, first-class, and
ftiy second-class. From the same port direct to Dyea
a tariff of $40 is asked for first-class and $2$ for sec-
ond-class passengers. These tickets allow for 150
pounds of baggage. Anything over this up to 1,200
pounds will be carried at the rate of 10 cents per pound.
Having been landed in Juneau, it is possible to take any
one of a large number of small boats and continue the
journey to Dyea, 96 miles further up the Lynn
Canal. The fare on these boats is jjio. The average
time from landing to landing is about twenty-f hours.
The docking facilities at the northern port are not of a
very high order, and when the waters of Dyea Inlet,
which is a fresh-water branch of Chilkoot Inlet, are
rough, considerable difficulty is experienced in trans-
ferring passengers and freight from the boats to the
shore. The present bustling town was originally an
Indian village and trading post, and lies about a mile
from the mouth of the inlet, in a beautiful level valley
one mile wide. The traffic of the place has increased so
rapidly during the past few months that the warehouse
facilities are entirely inadequate to meet the demand,
and by far the largest part of the freight destined for

A DANGEROUS CROSSING.

the Klondike country has to be stacked on the low-
rolling beach preparatory to its being carted further up
the trail toward Chilkoot Pass.

Dyea Inlet is open for canoe navigation for six miles
above the town, but as the packing into boats hardly
pays for the short run, it is the general practice either to
pack it on horses or bring small carts in use for the trip
to Sheep Camp. About half this distance is through a
comparatively level valley, the surface of which is com-
posed of loose glacial rocks of all sizes, which afford a
very uncertain footing for either man or beast.

There is so little soil in the valley after the first
mile or two above Dyea that the trees and vegeta-
tion are of sparse and stunted growth. Along the
sides of the mountains, hov. ever, the timber is heavy.
The latter half of this pack-trail is shelved along the
side of a cafton several hundred feet above the
stream until the last mile, when it zigzags down to
the valley again.

In winter it is possible to use pack horses to within a
half-mile of the summit of the Pass. The distance from
Dyea to Sheep Camp is twelve miles, and the rough
trail crosses Dyea Inlet six or seven times in that dis-
tance. The waters of this stream spring from two giant
glaciers, one on either side of Chilkoot Pass. The
fords constitute at times a dangerous feature of the trip,
as men have been drowned crossing this furious icy tor-
rent. Sheep Camp is a point just at the timber line
where the streams from the two glaciers unite and form

AVERAGE LOAD TO CARRY.

the Dyea. Here travelers often have to wait many days
for fair weather to cross the range.

It is at this point of the journey that the Indian packer
is brought into service. For the actual crossing of the
Pass he is absolutely indispensable. From long experi-
ence in crossing and recrossing this dar.gerous defile he
knows its every nook and cranny, and can make the
ascent and descent loaded down with provisions for his
employer with considerably more ease than that same
employer can without the embarrassments of a pack.

The average load for the men is 1 20 pounds, but
thirty or forty pounds more is not uncommon, r\nd as
an example which may be taken as about the limit, one
of these men of burden has been known to carry an
organ weighing 220 pounds over the Pass. Not as
many squaws as men are at work, and their loads
average a little lighter. Generally every member of
the family — and this may be understood to include the
dogs — carries a pack. Every Indian wants flour or
bacon, because they constitute the most compact and
easily adjusted load to carry ; but those who cannot get
fiour, having no special ** pull " with the boss packer, have
to be contented with camp-stoves, guns, shovels, rope, and
other awkward things to carry. The dogs are loaded
with from fifteen to fifty pounds, but it is necessary in
some places for them to have assistance, and so their
master puts down his pack and carries the dog and his
load through some of the more difficult or narrow pas-
sages among the rocks or across streams.

CACHEING SUPPLIES ALONG THE TRAIL.

The Indian's personal belongings that he usually takes
with him are a bag of dried fish and a blanket and pos-
sibly a small bucket or a tomato can for a teapot. Dried
salmon is both bread and meat to him and also to his
dog, but the latter gets his share only at night. There
is very little sunshine in the life of a Siwash dog. He
is overworked, and it is only through a most unaccounta-
ble oversight that he ever gets enough to eat.

The rate which the Indians charge for packing is a
variable quantity, largely governed by the demand for
their services. For some years past the price has been
comparatively stationary at 14 cents a pound, but dur-
ing the laLt few months this has gone up to as high as
$23 a hundred. And at the latter figure every packer
in the district has been kept more than busy. Thousands
of tons of provisions and freight are stalled at Dyea and
Sheep Camp, owing to the scarcity of packers. Quite
a few of the on-rushing miners have essayed the task
of doing their own packing. But this involves return
trips, and the work involved is very arduous to one un-
accustomed to it.

A striking custom which is worthy of note is that of
cacheing supplies along the trail. Flour, bacon, blankets,
or whatever it may happen to be are left at any point to
suit the convenience of the owner, A miner leaves a
certain portion of the food upon which his life depends
and goes on hundreds of miles in serene confidence that
he will find it again when he comes back in the fall.
Sometimes a tent or fly of ducking is put up for a ahel-

DANGERS DESCRIBED.

ter. If It is intended to leave the cache for several
months, a platform on four posts is erected eight or ten
feet above the ground to protect it from dogs and wild
animals. Hungry Indians pass this food every day, and
sometimes hungry white men, but it is rare indeed that
a cache is maliciously violated. Of course there is a
feeling of their dependence upon each other among these
isolated men of the Yukon. If any one should come into
the country without any supplies he would be received
with poor grace, but should he come as the rest do, and
by any misfortune lose his outfit, he is always welcome
to a share anywhere he goes.

The trail from Sheep Camp becomes steeper and
steeper as the Pass is approached. Vast snow-fields
have to be traversed, great boulders of granite have to
be avoided by long circular cuts, and steep ice-covered
declivities scaled with a sure foot. The trip to Lake
Lindeman is described as possessing all the dangers and
excitement of mountain climbing among glaciers, snow,
ice, and boulders.

Tvvo miles above Sheep Camp is a very interesting
glacier which has no local name. Its depletion from
crumbling and melting has been faster than the onward
progress of the whole mass, and consequently it has
receded to a point 2,000 feet higher than the creek.
The front wall or face of it is 200 or 300 feet high, and
has a width of a half mile. The glacier is almost unap-
proachable.

The great body of ice creaks and groans almost con-

* • •,'i

Street Scene in Dawson City.

'.1. ;;i.;v

t: ^^^M

"'.ill
. 1

l^LTM

INTERIOR op Miner's Cahin, pAwsojf ^iTy,

ENTRANCE TO THE GOLD FIELDS.

tinually. At times the disturbance increases to such an
extent as to make one think, at a distance of two miles
away, that the whole thing was tumbling down the
mountain. The color of the superficial part of the
glacier is pale blue, but the fissures, with their varying
depths, run from blue to the deepest indigo color. From
the foot of this, which has been called Sheep Camp Gla-
cier, may be had a very comprehensive general view of
Chilkoot Pass. For two miles the course extends
straight away and upward through fields of perpetual
snow and seems to terminate at dark stone walls. The
summit of the pass is not visible, as the defile turns to
the left and then abruptly to the right through gateways
of granite. In many of the depressions around the
higher points of this part of the coast range there are
ice caps or glaciers, but they are rarely visible from the
valleys immediately below.

Chilkoot Pass is 3,500 feet above the level of the sea.
The nearest settlement to the summit is Stone House,
which is 2,400 feet below, and the real struggle lies be-
tween these two points. The view from the top is not
an extended one. Crater Lake, 500 feet below, can be
seen. It is the source of that arm of the Yukon which
affords the entrance to the gold fields via Chilkoot Pass.
Beyond the little lake, less than a mile in extent, is a low
line of hills, and in the distance rises a range of bare
mountains. A dim trail leads down the hill and across
the frozen lake, disappearing into the caflon beyond.

The abrupt passages near the summit are better

f i

I i

NO TIME FOR REST. ,

accomplished by hauling supplies on sleds. After the
summit is passed, if the journey is continued before the
ice breaks up, it often happens that long distances may
be made by means of sails raised on improvised masts
on the sled. The sledge should be about seven feet four
inches long, seven inches high, and sixteen inches wide,
of strong but light timber, and the runners shod with
either brass or steel, the former being preferable, be-
cause the sled will glide over the snow more smoothly in
intensely cold weather, while steel is inclined to grind
and lug very much, as if it were being hauled over sand.
When the weather is cold, if water is taken into the
mouth and held a moment, then blown over the runner,
a coating will immediately form, and if this process is
repeated when it becomes a iittle worn off, one will be
surprised to find how much smoother and easier the sled
will draw. It is preferable to use the Eskimo mode of
making sledges for Yukon traveling. They use no nails
or bolts, binding the joints together with strong cords.
There is much less danger of breaking, if made in this
way, should the sled be overturned, as the joints will
yield when thus tied together.

From the summit to the head of Lake Lindeman the
distance is nine miles. The descent for the first half-
mile is steep, then a gradual slope to the lake. But
there is little time for resting and none for dreaming, as
the edge of the timber, where the camp must be made,
is seven miles from the summit. Taking the camping
outfit and sufficient provisions for four or five days, the

A NEW FEATURE.

sleio^h is loaded, the rest of the outfit is packed up, or
buried in the snow, shovels being stuck up to mark the
spot. This . precaution is necessary, for storms come
suddenly and rage with fury along these mountain crests.
The first half-mile or more is made in quick time, then
over six or seven feet of snow the prospector drags his
sleigh CO where there is wood for his camp-fire. At
times this is no easy task, especially if the weather be
stormy, for the winds blow the new fallen snow about so
as completely to cover the track made by the man but
litde ahead; at other times during fine weather and with
a hard crust on the snow, it is only a pleasant run from
the Pass down to the first camp in the Yukon Basin. In
all except the most sheltered situations the tent is neces-
sary for comfort, and the stove gives better satisfaction
than the camp-fire, as it burns but little wood, is easier
to cook over, and does not poison the eyes with smoke.
It is a noticeable fact that there are fewer cases of snow
blindness among those who use stoves than among those
who crowd around a smoking camp-fire for cooking or
for warmth. Comfort in making a trip of this kind will
depend, in a great measure, upon the conveniences of
camping, suitable clothing, and light, warm bedding.
Yes, upon provisions, too, though often more depends
upon the^cook than upon what is in the larder.

Once on Lake Lindeman a new feature of the jour-
ney presents itself. Those who make the trip in sum-
mer will find the ice out of the lakes, but if an early start
were made they would be able to cross Lake Lindeman

CONSTRUCTION OF BOATS.

and the other lakes of the chain by means of ice boats
temporarily constructed. After the ist of May the
lake course opens up and fairly good boats are a
necessity.

Until the last year it was necessary for every miner to
carry a whip-saw with him with which to cut the timber
for his craft, and whip-sawing was one of the picturesque,
although not especially inviting, incidents of the trip.
But a saw-mill has recently been constructed. The only
timber used in the construction of boats on the lakes is a
local kind of spruce. In the first place, the timber has
to be discovered, and this is not the easiest thing in the
world, because the timber around the lake is nearly all
burned off, and there is none suitable for boat building.
After the timber has been found comes the construction
of a saw pit. To construct a saw pit it is necessary to
find trees so arranged as to support cross-pieces, the
stumps being cut at a proper distance from the ground
so as to take the notched cross-pieces in. This requires
four trees about equi-distant from one another, and the
cross-pieces have to be fixed very firmly in place so as
not to slip, as the log which is to be sawed is likely other-
wise to be the cause of an accident. Often a good
woodsman will be able to fell the tree which is to be
sawed in such a way that it will fall into the pit, which
saves the time and trouble of skidding the log up and
rolling it in place after felling, which is frequently a very
difficult task. From the slabs and boards thus roughly
made the flat-boats are constructed, upon which the miners

DANGEROUS WATER.

ice so as

traverse the chain of lakes extending north from Chilkoot
Pass.

From the head of Lake Lindeman, on both sides to
Lake Bennett, the general character of the country is
mountainous, with narrow benches skirting the shore.
The distance across Lake Lindeman is nearly eix miles,
and from the foot of this lake about fifty yards of a
portage is made of the one-mile river to Lake Bennett,
because this stream is very crooked and full of rocks,
making boat passage difficult and dangerous.

Lake Bennett is twenty-six miles in length and is
separated from Tagish Lake by a six-mile river. This
lake is some fifteen miles long, and empties into
Mud Lake through an outlet three miles long. Mud
Lake is about ten miles in length, and at the foot of it
open water is usually found in April. Open water will
probably be passed before reaching this point in the
rivers connecting the lakes, but firm ice at the sides
afT .'ds good sledding; but at the foot of Mud Lake a
raft or boat must be built. Dry timber can be found
along the shores with which to build a raft, which will
take everything to the Lewes River Canon, about forty
miles to the northwest. The river cuts through high
banks of cement and sand, where millions of martins
have their nests. The little birds have usually bur-
rowed into a stratum of sand which lies just under the
crest of the perpendicular bank. For mile after mile
the coping of this canon is decorated with a frieze of
martins* nests. Usually there is a single line of these

I I

PASSING THE RAPIDS.

holes only a few inches apart, but somelimes it hap-
pened that there are one or two lower deposits of the
same quality of sand, and wherever the material oc-
curs it is always utilized by the martins. For hundreds
of miles down the river there is an almost unbroken
throng of these little fellows, and they seemed to subsist
wholly on mosquitoes.

Miles Canon is the first piece of dangerous water
encountered. Nineteen men have lost their lives during
the last three years in the three miles of the Lewes
River, which include this pass and the White Horse
Rapids. The canon is about fifty yards wide with per-
pendicular granite walls on either side. About midway
there is an enlargement of the bed, which causes the
formation of a very treacherous whirlpool. The natives
believe that anything caught in this suction never re-
appears. Its effect is to throw the water upon a central
ride. To successfully pass these rapids one must keep
his boat on top of this central crest. After emerging
from the canon for about two miles the river runs
through a flat country, and then it is crossed at right
angles by a chain of hills similar to that at the canon,
and again the river is hemmed in and is forced through
a similar narrow and contracted outlet. White Horse
Rapids, although in this case the water is confined for
only a very short distance. At the rapids the hills do
not approach very near to the river, but there is a
margin, a plane of rock on either side, where one may
approach and almost touch hands with those shooting

A DROP TOO MUCH.

the rapids in a boat. It is in the apparent advantage
that those projecting shelves ofter that the danger lies.
In these three miles the river bed drops thirty-two feet.

Two portages are made at White Horse, both of them
short ones. The landing for the first is on the left or
west bank. Sometimes a boat can be lowered through
the first pitch with a rope, but the portage is safer.
Below the portage the boat is paddled to the head of the
last drop. This is " a drop too much" for any boatman
to run. The channel closes in and the water goes down
through with an angry roar. Fortunately, however, the
portage is only about ico feet long.

The rest of the river run to Lake Lebarge is clear.
Lake Lebarge itself is thirty-one miles long and five
miles wide. It is usual to steer straight for the island in
the middle, and under its shelter work around to the
east or west shore, according to the direction of the
wind.

From the foot of Lake Lebarge to the mouth of the
inflowing Hootalinqua or Teslintoo River, the current is
rapid and there are many rocks, but it is not dangerous.
Below the junction with the Hootalinqua the river is
large and calm, and there is easy going for about 130
miles to the Five-Finger Rapids. This is one of the two
or three obstructions that interfere with the free naviga-
tion of the river. A ledge of rock lies directly across
the stream with four or five openings in it, that afford a
scanty outlet for the congested current. The largest
passage and the one commonly used is the one at the

SHOOTING THE RAPIDS.

right shore. There is a considerable fall, but the water
is not badly broken, the gateway being succeeded by
several big waves, over which a boat glides with great
rapidity, but with a smooth and even motion. Shooting
this rapid is an exhilarating experience, but with careful
management is not considered dangerous, as there is no
record of any one being drowned here. It is well to
have the boat fairly light before running the rapids.

The run should then be made, landing on the right-
hand side. Following the right-hand shore all the way
for about five miles. Rink Rapids, one and a half miles
in length (caused by a chain of rocks reaching nearly
across the river) are reached. The right-hand side or
east shore must be followed closely all the way. From
this point the river is easy to navigate to its mouth.
About fifty-five miles below the foot of Rink Rapids old
Fort Selkirk is reached. It is situated near the conflu-
ence of Pelly and Lewes Rivers. Here a trading post is
run by an old-timer named Harper, and this is also a
winter port for steamboats plying on the Yukon and its
tributaries. The fort was pillaged and burned by coast
Indians in 1852, and ruins of what were once chimneys
only being seen.

Continuing the journey, Stewart River is passed on
the right ; then White River on the left, so named on
account of its milky-looking water ; the next tributary
on the same side is Sixty-Mile Creek, so called on
account of its being considered sixty miles above Fort
Reliance. Here the Yukon is over two miles in width.

DISTANCES FROM DYEA. 5*

The Klondike River and Dawson City are the next
points of interest.

James Ogilvie, surveyor for the Dominion Govern-
ment, has made the following table of distances from
Dyea or Ty-a, using ;;he Canadian name :

MILKS.

Headof canoe navigatiot I, Ty-a River, 5.90

Forks of Ty-a River 8.38

Summit of Chilkoot Pass, i4-7<^

Landing at Lake Lindeman, 23.06

P^oot of Lake Lindeman, 23.49

Head of Lake Bennett, 28.09

Foot of Lake Bennett, 53-85

Foot of Cariboo Crossing 5644

Foot of Tagish Lake, 73-25

Head of Marsh Lake, 78.15

Foot of Marsh Lake, 97-21

Headof Miles Caflon, 1 22.94

Foot of Miles Cafion, 123.56

Head of White Horse Rapids, 124.95

Foot of White Horse Rapids, 125.93

Tahkeena River, 139-92 .

Head of Lake I^barge, * 53-^7

Foot of Lake Lebarge 184.22 •''•

Teslintoo River, 215.88

Big Salmon River 249.33 •

Little Salmon River, , 285.54

Five-Finger Rapids, 344-83

Felly River, 403.29

White River 499-1 1

Stewart River, 508.91 '

Sixty-Mile Creek, 530-4i

Dawson, 575-7°

Of all the overland routes to the Yukon gold fields
the one via the Chilkoot Pass has been the most used by
the miners. This is the oldest of the many routes, and

jifi

III ni

A NEW TRAIL.

having been explored frequently by official expeditions
of one kind and another vhe objections to it are pretty
well understood, and many of its hardest places have
been smoothed over. All along this route enterprising
individuals have made improvements for the benefit of
those who use it. The boarding-house at Sheep Camp,
where meals are served at 50 cents apiece, and the saw-
mill on Lake Lindeman, where boards are sold at jjio
a thousand feet attest this fact.

The trail leading up over White Pass it is believed
will eventually very largely supersede the Chilkoot route.
By taking this road the steej declivity just to the south
of the Chilkoot Pass will be avoided. For even an
Indian this is a hard bit of going, and especially when
loaded down with from one to two hundred pounds of
provisions. At the present time the argonauts at Dyea
seeking an entrance to the gold fields are at logger-
heads as to the relative merits of these two trails.
Skaguay, the starting point for the White Pass, is five
miles distant from Dyea, on the Skaguay River. The
trail runs parallel with Chilkoot Pass, and at no great
distance from it.

Though the land carriage is somewhat longer by this,
it appears to present less difficulty ior the construction
of a practical trail or road. The distance from the coast
to the summit is seventeen miles. Five miles of this are
level bottom land thickly timbered. The next nine miles
are in a narrow canon-like valley, where heavy work is
encountered in constructing the trail. The remaining

ROUTES COMPARED.

distance of three miles to the summit is comparatively
easy. The summit has an altitude of 2,600 feet. Be-
yond .the summit a wide valley is entered, and its descent
to the first lake is not more than a hundred feet. The
mountains rapidly decrease in height and abruptness
after the summit is passed, and the valley divides, one
branch leading to the head of Windy Arm of Tagish
Lake ; the other, down which the water drains, going to
Taku arm of the same lake.

This route being over level country as compared
with that over Chilkoot Pass, is much better adapted
to the use of pack-horses and trains. It has been re-
ported that parties with horses have been able to get all
the way through to Lake Bennett. Firmly convinced
that it will eventually prove the most feasible, about nine
hundred miners are now working on this trail, filling in
its bogs, cutting away boulders where they obstruct the
path, -^nd putting things in shape for heavy travel.
When finished, two days is the estimated time for the
trip over this route.

A couple of Englishmen have erected wharfs at Ska-
guay, for the use of which they charge $2.50 a ton.
Rather than pay this many of the miners take their
freight from the steamers on rudely-constructed rafts
and stack it on the beach. It has been reported that
horses and catde are thrown overboard and made to
swim ashore.

The Canadians put great faith in the trail named after
the Stickine River. A grant has just been made by the

A PACK TRAIN ESTABLISHED.

Dominion Government to J. C. Galbreath to cut through
a distance of 1 50 miles from the headwaters of Telegraph
Creek to Lake TesHn to make the route feasible. Enter-
ing the Stickine River just above Fort Wrangel, this
route goes up that river 175 miles to Telegraph Creek,
and then almost due north along Telegraph Creek to
the end of canoe navigation.

From this point to Lake Teslin, a distance of 150
miles, the trail has been cut and a pack train established.
The steamer " Alaska " is now carrying passengers to
Telegraph Creek. The country over which the trail
runs is reported to be a comparatively level plateau or
tableland, and very few of the hardships to be encountered
by miners traveling the Juneau route are to be met with.
From Lake Teslin everything is described by members
of Galbreath's party as being smooth and open-water
traveling, without a break clear down through the outlet
of the lake, Teslintoo or Hootalinqua River, into the
Lewes and Yukon Rivers.

A route from the head of Taku Inlet was explored by
the Western Union Telegraph Survey thirty years ago ;
and emissaries of the fur traders and occasional pros-
pectors kept open the knowledge of the Indian trail.
The first modern account of it, however, was given by
the late Lieutenant Schwatka, U. S. A., who re-explored
the route in 1891 during his third and last trip to Alaska.
With him went Dr. C. Willard Hayes of the U. S.
Geological Survey, two photographers, and a large party
of helpers. ,

.:V

EXPERIENCES DESCRIBED.

Leaving Juneau in the beginning of May of that year
accompanied by eighteen natives, Schwatka went through
Taku and traveled up the Taku River with his party in
canoes until they reached the headwaters of that stream.
Several manuscripts in which Lieutenant Schwa .ka de-
scribes his experiences are extant. In one of these he
says:

"We reached the headwaters of the Taku fifteen days
after we had started out from Juneau, taking plenty
of time over our trip. We went up as far along the
headwater stream as we could get, and only stopped
when our frail canoes grounded on the soft gravel and
could go no farther. Although I had left civilization
with the distinct belief in the reports brought in to me
by Indians concerning the existence of a trail over table-
lands between the Taku and Lake Teslin, it was with a
feeling of great relief that I discovered these reports to
be correct. Each of our Indians carried 200 pounds,
and we all started out with our feet wrapped in rags of
moose and caribou skins. We had many strange expe-
riences on this trip, coming across most peculiar changes
in the contour of the country. Led by three Indians
who had been with me on my trip in 1888 when I left
Juneau for Lake Lindeman, we soon struck a trail, and
for two days going was very light. Not knowing what
we would have to encounter before we got to the end of
our journey, I was content to made ten miles per day.

"On the third day out, however, we found ourselves
crossing such dangerous country that it was impossible

DANGERS ENCOUNTERED.

r ■

to travel faster than five miles in twelve hours of travel-
ing. The mosquitoes were terrible, and bit our ears,
eyes, and all exposed parts so much that we had to stop
for hours at a time to try to get relief from their bites.
The Indians, with their heavy loads, suffered consider-
ably in the latter part of the trip, their feet being badly
swollen and galled. On the morning of the fifteenth
day out from Taku we reached a mountain pass, about
5,000 feet high, and on turning down into a sharp de-
clivity came in sight of Lake Tes'l Heen, as the Indians
call it. It looked like a long, narrow strip of blue as far
as we could see. That night we reached the water,
unslung our portable canoes, and were once more afloat.
The first use we made of our new position was to cap-
ture ptarmigan and fish, a welcome relief from the
carried canned provisions we had lived on so long."

A second letter of Schwatka's, written to a friend in
Juneau, and dispatched by Indians, over the tedious
route he had already compassed, contained the fol-
lowing :

" When Naniwak starts with this letter, we will be
away up the Hootalinqua River in our canoes. I will
probably go on to the Thirty-Mile, come down into Lake
Labarge, and then on through the Fifty-Mile River and
Mud Lake into Bennett, where I will continue through
Lindeman, and join you in civilization once more
down my old stamping ground through the Chilkoot.
The result of my exploration, so far, I am confident, will
establish for the people of Juneau a route into the

RESULT OF EXPLORATION.

Yukon country far superior to any yet discovered, far
shorter and far more easy of action. As far as that old
Stickine River route that so many people run wild over
is concerned, I think that our trail from the headwaters
of the Taku knocks it out of consideration completely.
To show the difference in the time taken from the head-
waters to Lake Taku by men who know this newly-
discovered trail, and by men tha't don't, you ought to
know that last year a party of miners took eighty days
to make it, but they had no trail to guide them, and
simply trusted to luck. We had the bulge on the trail,
however, and did it in exactly fifteen days. They can
send their exploration parties out wherever they want
to, but I know enough about Alaska to be certain that
the Taku route is the only way that people of Juneau
will want to get to the Yukon country, when once they
understand its immense advantages. I reckon that it
beats the Stickine route forty days, besides being better
traveling, and you must consider that even the old
Stickine route beats my first run up through Lake
Bennett just as much. The new Indian pass can easily
be made practicable for pack-trains or wagon road, and,
if necesFary, can be made to tap the Canadian Pacific
Railway as well as the Yukon River country. The mos-
quitoes still stay with us, and are committing terrible
ravages on every one of our party. Nothing seems to
keep them away."

After reaching Lake Teslin, it will be noticed that
Schwatka's route covers the same ground as the Stickine

SCHWATKA'S TRAIL.

trail, the great difference between the two being in the
manner in which they reach the foot of the lake. There
seems to be a great deal of discrepancy between the
accounts given of the nature of the tablelands lying
south of the lake by Mills and Schwatka. if what Mills
says is correct, then the topographical features of the
country must change in an alarming manner between
very short points of distance, although even his roseate
announcement about the conditions discovered by Call-
breath's party does not obliterate the fact that their route
is considerably longer than Schwatka's.

After leaving Lake Teslin, no serious obstacle is en-
countered, although the water toward its mouth is swift.
From there the canoes run down the Lewes River, join-
ing the regular line of overland travel.

Schwatka returned from the Hootalinqua up through
Lake Bennett, and reached Juneau safely in the latter
part of 1 89 1, but stayed there only two days, leaving
for the south by steamer before he had formulated any
report of the new trail to Lake Teslin. He never re-
turned to Alaska, dying at Portland, Ore., in Novem-
ber, 1892. There is no doubt that several miners
who went into the Taku River country last year followed
over this path to reach Lake Teslin, guided in all proba-
bility by members of the same Indian tribe as had piloted
Schwatka through.

A route to Dawson City, which was used some during
the last summer, leads up over the Chilcat Pass, at the
head of Chilcat Inlet, and thence follows what has been

ng in the
. There
ween the
ids lying
hat Mills
is of the
between
5 roseate
by Call-
eir route

:le is en-
is swift,
'er, join-

throupfh
e latter

leavincr
ted any
2ver re-
^ovem-

miners
allowed

proba-
piloted

duringr
at the
s been

1 1 ■

DALTON'S TRAIL.

■ if

dubbed Dalton's trail entirely overland to the Yukon
River, just below old Fort Selkirk. It is particularly
adapted for driving cattle into the interior.

Quite a number of miners started for the Klondike
this summer over the Hudson Bay trunk line. This line
of traffic has been in use for a greater part of the way
for over one hundred years.

Leaving St. Paul at nine o'clock in the morning, by
the Canadian Pacific Railway, the international bound-
ary at Portal will be crossed at four o'clock the next
morning. The following morning Calgary is reached,
where the branch line of the Canadian Pacific north-
ward is reached. After traveling to Edmonton, a point
200 miles from Calgary and 1,772 miles from Chicago,
the rail portion of the journey ends. The railroad fare
from Chicago is $53.65.

A stage ride of 96 miles will bring one to Athabasca
Landing. Here is to be found a continuous waterway
for canoe travel to Fort Macpherson, near the mouth of
the Mackenzie River, where Peel River enters from the
south. From Edmonton to Fort Macpherson is about
1,816 miles.

So far as navigation is concerned it would be feasible
to float down these rivers and lakes to Fort Macpherson
or to the Arctic Ocean. The Hudson Bay Company
have long had a service of steamboats the whole distance
during the short summer, and will take any quantity of
passengers or freight, for which they have room. Indian
canoe routes and trails lead overland from Fort Macpher-

i A

FEASIBLE ROUTES.

son to another post on Bell River, and up that stream
and over a ^ass to the head-waters of Pocupine. This
may be descended to Fort Yukon, or one may portage
over rough mountains to the head of the Tatonduc River
and descend almost straight to Forty-Mile.

It is quite likely that some persons will take this route
from Canada to the Yukon gold fields next year ; but at
present it is too long, hazardous, and unknown to be
recommended to any one.

The foregoing include all the overland routes which
are from present information at all feasible.

The sea route from either Seattle or San Francisco is
only open for three months of the year at the most. It
is by far the most attractive route from a standpoint of
comfort. From Seattle to St. Michael is 2,500 miles, and
from St. Michael to Dawson is 2,200 more. Using San
Francisco as the port of departure, the trip is lengthened
by 400 miles. The cost of passage from Seattle to St.
Michael, provisions included, is $165.

The first boat up the Yukon in the spring reaches
Circle City toward the end of June, and the last one
leaves there early in September on the return trip to
St. Michael's Island. Between the coming of these
boats there is no communication with the outside world
except by dog sledges over the mountains. The trip of
1,300 miles to St. Michael's Island can be made by dog
sledge over the frozen river, but at that point the voy-
ager would be but little better off than he was at Circle
City or Klondike, as the ocean steamers only run in

ill

VARIOUS ROUTES.

connection with the Yukon River boats. The last
steamer for this season left Seattle for St. Michael's
Island early in August, and, if there is no unforeseen
delay, ics passengers will be landed in Dawson City, the
tented metropolis of the gold fields, about Septem-
ber 1st

A number of schemes for penetrating the territory
traversed by the Upper Yukon by railroads have been
under way for some time, and the recent heavy travel
in that direction has ca'ised work on them to be pushed
in earnest. What is generally considered the most
feasible of these routes calls for a mixed rail-and-water
route from Sault Ste. Marie, on Lake Superior, to the
Yukon River. In an air line the distance from the " Soo **
to Dawson City is about 2,100 miles, but an air line is
out of the question, owing to the rugged country lying
between. The projected route, wh' h is proposed in
sober earnest by men of prominence and means, who
have been figuring upon the matter for the last year,
calls for the building of about 625 miles of railway
and the utilizing of practically all of the great navigable
streams of the western half of British Columbia, as well
as of Hudson's Bay.

The first and longest stretch of railway would be be-
tween Sault Ste. Marie and Hudson's Bay, touching at
the mouth of the Moose River, a distance of about 400
miles. By building the first section from Missanabie, on
the Canadian Pacific Railway, Hudson's Bay would be
reached by 250 miles of rail. But the intention is to
build the line to the Sault ultimately, independent of the

NAVIGATION.

Canadian Pacific, although that road may be utilized at
first from Missanabie to Lake Superior. From the end
of the first rail line, at the mouth of the Moose River,
there is a stretch of 1,300 miles of salt water, on the
bay and on Ch'jsterfield Inlet, to the head of navigable
water. The season of navigation on Hudson's Bay
probably would be nearly as long as on Lake Superior,
the salt water counterbalancing the more severe
climate.

From Chesterfield Inlet, 175 miles will reach Great
Slave Lake, an enormous fresh-water sea, second only
to the great lakes of this ^ountry in size. The outlet of
Great Slave Lake is the Mackenzie River, one of the
largest streams on the continent, and freely navigable
without rapids or falls to the Arctic Ocean, a distance
of 1,400 miles. The delta of the Mackenzie is only fifty
miles from the Porcupine River, one of the principal
affluents of the Yukon, which is navigable by steamers
of large draft from the point where it is proposed to
reach it with the fifty-mile strip of rail from the Mac-
kenzie. The distance from the point where the rails
would connect the Mackenzie and Porcupine Rivers to
the mouth of the Porcupine at its junction with the
Yukon is about 400 miles, the Porcupine emptying into
the Yukon a short distance from Circle City. Dawson
City, the main settlement of the Klondike region, is
about 300 miles up the Yukon.

The total distance of the proposed route from Sault
Ste. Marie, the outlet of Lake Superior, to Dawson City
would be about 4,025 miles, of which there would be ap-

DISTANCE COMPARED.

proximately 625 miles of rail and 3,400 miles of wa^.er
transportation. This distance compares most favorably
with the shortest route at present known from the great
lakes, which is overland to Seattle or Vancouver, thence
by water to Juneau, over the mountains to Lake Ben-
nett and thence down the Yukon River on a raft or boat.

The three different sections of railroad would not be
especially difficult to build, with the exception of the
drawbacks suffered from short seasons. It would re-
quire very much less to the mile to build than the Cana-
dian Pacific has cost, partly because of the cheaper
methods of construction, but mainly because the to-
pography of the country through wh^ch the rails are to
be laid presents fewer difficulties to the road-builder.
The 250-miie section from Missanabie to St. James Bay,
the lower part of Hudson's Bay, would lie along the
valley of the Moose River for the entire distance of 250
miles, and having rail connection at its southern end, it
could be built as cheaply as any other of the roads
of northern Ontario. The hills on the route of the
175-mile section, between Chesterfield Inlet and Great
Slave Lake are of only moderate elevation. The fifty-
mile strip to connect the Mackenzie and Porcupine
Rivers would pass through an almost level country, the
extreme northern spurs of the Rocky Mountains fading
away 100 miles to the southward.

The intense cold of Alaska and of Arctic and sub-
arctic British North America would not prove the bar to
the building of railways and permanent occupation and
development of the country which might be thought by

TEMPERATURE.

residents of more favored climes. The temperature at
Fort William, the principal Lake Superior port of the
Canadian Pacific, and at the northern angle of the lake,
often exceeds 50 degrees below zero, and it has reached
60, while eighteen months ago, in Minnesota, a short
distance west of Duluth, the temperature dropped to 67
below zero. The coldest weather reported from Alaska
or the Northwest Territory is but 72.

It is also proposed to run a railroad from Telegraph
Creek at the head of the Stickine River, on the coast of
British Columbia, to Lake Teslin. It is claimed that the
building of this road would be comparatively easy, and
much the shortest rail route to the navigable inland
waters. It runs through a mineral country which
promises great future development of quartz mining.
The Treadwell mine on Douglass Island is near its
western end, and in the east it taps the western slope of
the Cassiars. Like conditions will doubtless be found
to prevail through almost its entire length, and the
development of quartz iedges along its route will give
it regular and continuous traffic in addition to supplying
the through trade on the Yukon, all of whose gold-
bearing tributaries are in easy reach.

To the Yukon Mining, Trading & Transportation
Company, proposing this road, t!ie Parliament of British
Columbia at its las*, session gave full power to build its
line and a land grant of 750,000 acres, wnich grants
were confirmed by the Dominion Parliament at Ottawa
last May, with additional privileges and concessions.

CHAPTER IV.

THE OUTFIT OF AN ARGONAUT.

The qualifications of a successful miDer — One temptation of the gold-digger — Pro*
visions for the journey to Dawsoa City — Camping outfit and cooking utensils —
The tool chest of a Lake Lindeman boat-builder — What to wear in low temper-
atures — Supplies for a year's stay — Turnips by the pound — The Dawson City
storekeeper's scale of prices — Reasons for lower prices — The custom houses at
Dyea and LaKe Bennett — A few pointers for prospective Alaskans.

TO be well prepared is half the battle won. This is
the substance of an old adage which is peculiarly
adapted to the case of one starting out to the Alaskan
gold fields in the search of wealth, or even of a simple
livelihood. The conditions of life in any newly-discov-
ered mining country are such as to place a man on his
metde, to bring out everything that is in him, to make
him resourceful and self-reliant. But these things being
equal, it is the one who has just the right equipment
who will have the advantage when the going is hard
and to all appearances pretty even.

To be sober, strong, and healthy is the first requisite
for any one who wants to battle successfully for a year
or two in the frozen lands of the far North. A physique
hardy enough to withstand the most rigorous climate is
an absolute necessity. With a temperature varying
from almost one hundred decrrees above zero in mid-
summer to fifty, sixty, and even sevtnty below that point
in winter, with weeks of foggy, damp, thawing weather,

' ; SI

I' ]

GOOD JUDGMENT REQUISITE.

and with winds that rage at times with the violence of
hunicanes, the man with a weak constitution is bound
to suffer untold hardship. No one with weak lungs or
subject to rheumatism ought to think of wintering along
the Yukon. In short, making the venture means, ac-
cording to one who has tried it, "packing provisions
over pathless mountains, towing a heavy boat against a
five to an eight-mile current, over battered boulders,
digging in the bottomless frost, sleeping where night
overtakes, fighting gnats and mosquitoes by the mil-
lions, shooting seething cailons and rapids and enduring
for seven long months a relentless cold which never rises
above zero and frequently falls to eighty degrees below."

If a man is able to mee t these conditions he is almost
sure of making a good living and takes chances with
the rest in making a fortune. It is not alone to the
physical side of the question that one should look.
Temperament counts for a great deal in the miner's life.
Men should be of cheerful, hopeful dispositions and will-
ing workers. Those of sullen, morose natures, although
they may be good workers, are very apt, as soon as the
novelty of the country wears off, to become dissatisfied,
pessimistic, and melancholy.

Good judgment is also a prime requisite. Once in
the atmosphere of the gold country one hears constantly
of newly-found placers which are reported to be vastly
richer than anything yet discovered. With each such
report scores of miners leave diggings which are vastly
•uperior to those which they propose to seek six, twenty,

WILD STORIES.

or one hundred miles away. If one is constantly on the
jump from claim to claim there is evidently no time left
for the only work that counts, separating the gold from
its containing earths. One of the returning miners on
the " Excelsior " said that the hardest work he had to do
in the Klondike region was to keep pegging away at his
claim, which, by the way, was a very good one, and give
a deaf ear to the stories of fabulous wealth being found
just beyond the nearest range of mountains. These
stories are often put in circulation by people who are
anxious to see certain claims forsaken by their owners
that they themselves may step in and become the
owners.

As to the outfit, both that part of it which bears on the
journey proper and those things which are to form the
basis of existence for the stay in the gold country, the
greatest care must be exercised. To meet with the
largest measure of success and in order to be in a po-
sition to move and work rapidly, which amounts to the
same thing, one must Jtrike a happy medium between
taking too much and leaving behind some of the numer-
ous essentials. Joseph Ladue, who has spent years in
this country and who is given credit for having founded
Dawson City, says in regard to this :

" It is a great mistake to take anything except what

is necessary. The trip is a long, arduous one, and a

man should not add one pound of baggage to hie outfit

that can be dispensed with. I have known men who

loaded themselves up with rifles, revolvers, and shot-
4

lis

, *'i

WINTER CLOTHING.

guns. This is entirely unnecessary. Revolvers will get
you into trouble, and there is no use of taking them with
you, as large game of any character is rarely found on
the trip. I have prospected through this region for
some years and have only seen one moose. You will
not see any large game whatever on your trip from
Juneau to Dawson City, therefore do not take any fire-
arms along."

In addition to the great inconvenience of carrying a
great deal of luggage it is a matter of continual expense.
It is said that the Indians are disposed to gauge a man's
ability to pay by the amount of baggage he takes with
him, and scale their prices accordingly. At 15, 20, or 25
cents a pound for packing over the Chilkoot Pass it
makes considerable difference whether a man has with
him a hundred weight or half a ton of freight. Then
there are steamer charges, wharfage fees, and often
portage expenses to be defrayed, to say nothing of cus-
toms duties. One hundred and fifty pounds of baggage
is all that is allowed for a passenger on the Yukon
River boats and those sailing from Seattle and San Fran-
cisco for Alaskan ports.

The general practice as to clothing for miners who re-
main over winter is to adopt the dress of the natives.
Water boots are made of seal or walrus skins ; dr\
weather, or winter boots, from various skins, fur
trimmed. Trousers are made of Siberian fawn and
marm^. skins, while the upper garment, combined with
a hood, called tarka, is made of marmot trimmed with

PROVISIONS.

long fur, which helps to protect the face of the person
wearing it. Flannels can be worn under these, and not
be any heavier than clothing worn in a country with zero
weather. For bedding, woolen blankets are used, com-
bined with fur robes. If the former are used it is well
to be provided with two pairs.

The best robes are of wolf skin, but they cost jiioo
apiece. There are cheaper ones made of bear, mink,
and fox skins. A good, stout pair of rubber boots is
also essential. The boots made by the natives sell from
$2 to $5 a pair.

As to provisions, it is impossible to lay down any defi-
nite scheme. The first consideration is to have enough
to last for the journey from the coast to the interior.
Figuring on thirty days as the shortest time possible in
which this trip can be made, the supply ought to be about
as follows : Twenty pounds of flour, twelve pounds of
bacon, twelve pounds of beans, four pounds of butter,
five pounds of vegetables; five pounds of dried fruits,
four cans of condensed milk, five pounds of sugar, one
pound of tea, three pounds of coffee, one and one-half
pounds of salt, five pounds of corn-meal, a small portion
of pepper and mustard, and baking-powder.

To one accustomed to camp life there are many things
in the way of utensils and apparatus generally that can
be dispensed with which, to the man new to such modes
of living, are, or seem to he, absolutely necessary. A
pretty complete outfit includes matches, cooking utensils
and dishes, frying pan, water kettle, duck tent, rubber

^-0

•a

I '

(I. 1'

GNATS AND MOSQUITOES.

blanket, bean pot, drinking-cup, two plates, tea-pot,
knife and fork, large cooking pan, small cooking pan. A
fine addition to the culinary department will be a good
assortment of fish-hooks, gill nets, and fishing tackle.
These ought to be graded through the medium and small
sizes. Alaskan fish are for the most part gamey.

Ample provision must be made for the boat, raft, and
sled building, which is a feature of every journey over-
land. To this end these items will be found not only
useful but absolutely necessary: One jack-plane, one
whip-saw, one cross-cut saw, one rip-saw, one axe, one
hatchet, one hunting-knife, one two-foot rule, six pounds
of assorted nails, three pounds of oakum, five pounds of
pitch, 1 50 feet of rope.

Inasmuch as gnats and mosquitoes abound all over
the Alaskan interior, some means of protection from their
assaults must be provided. Mosquito netting is recom-
mended, and it is well to buy that with the smallest mesh
obtainable. Snow spectacles and a simple medicine chest
ought to find a place in every outfit. One man ought
never to try the trip alone, and where four or five pool
their interests one tent, one stove, and one set of tools
will suffice for the party.

After the supplies for the trip to the mines have been
decided upon, the more extensive task of laying in pro-
visions for the stay can be taken up. A good, safe rule
is to estimate on remaining on the Yukon a full year.
If one decides later to prolong the time it will be easier
to send back or go back to Juneau for further supplies

!«

A YEAR'S NECESSITIES.

than to be burdened with them during the first months
of life in camp, and more especially when making the
first trip over the mountains.

A miner who, after spending long years in the Col-
orado camp, went to Alaska to tempt fortune on the
Klondike, gives the following list his indorsement as
containing everything necessary for one man for one
year: Flour, 400 lbs. ; corn-meal, 2-ios, 20 lbs.; rolled
oats, 4-9S, 36 lbs. ; rice, 25 lbs.; beans, 100 lbs. ; sugar,
75 lbs. ; dried fruits (apples, peaches, apricots), 75 lbs. ;
yeast cakes (6 in pkg.), 6 pkgs. ; candles, 40; dry salt
pork, 25 lbs.; cvap. potatoes, 25 lbs.; evap. onions, 5
lbs. ; butter ; bacon, 1 50 lbs. ; dried beef, 30 lbs. ; ex-
tract of beef (4 oz.), J^ doz. ; baking-powder, 10 lbs.;
soda, 3 lbs. ; salt, 20 lbs.; pepper, i lb. ; mustard, ^ lb, ;
ginger; coffee, 25 lbs.; tea, 10 lbs.; condensed milk, 2
doz.; soap (laundry), 5 lbs.; soap (toilet), 5 cakes;
matches, can of 60 pkgs. ; tobacco ; compressed soup,
3doz. ; compressed soup vegetables, 10 lbs.; Jamaica
ginger (4 oz.), 2 bottles ; stove, i ; gold pan, i ; granite
buckets, 2 ; knives and forks, i each ; spoons, 3 tea and
3 table ; Quaker bread-pan, i ; cups, 2 ; plates (tin), 3 ;
whetstone, i ; coffee-pot, i ; picks and handles, i ; sleds ;
hatchet, i ; saws (whip), i ; saws (hand), i ; shovel, i ;
nails, 20 lbs. ; files (assorted), J^ doz.; axe and handle,
I ; draw knife, i ; plane, i ; brace and bitt, 1 ; chisels
(assorted), 3 ; butcher knife, i ; compass, i ; revolver,
I ; evap. vinegar, i qt. ; rope (yi inch), icx) ft.; medi-
cine case; pitch; oakum; fry pan, i.

*::;

SCALE OF PRICES.

'i i

As a general rule miners find it to best advantage to
buy the larger part of their outfits in Juneau rather
than in the United States or on the Yukon. Buying in
the United States one has to pay the freight to Juneau
or Skaguay, and perhaps wharfage at those points. The
prices prevailing in Juneau for the necessary commodi-
ties are not prohibitory at all. But the same cannot be
said of the tariff in vogue among the storekeepers of
Dawson City» as witness the following scale of prices :
Flour, per loo lbs., $12 ; moose ham, per lb., $1 ; cari-
bou meat, per lb., 65 cts.; beans, per lb., 10 cts. ; rice,
per lb., 25 cts. ; sugar, per lb., 25 cts. ; bacon, per lb., 40
cts. ; butter, per roll, $1.50; eggs, per doz., $1.50; better
eggs, per doz., fi ; salmon, each, $1 to $1.50 ; potatoes,
per lb., 25 cts. ; turnips, per lb., 15 cts. ; tea, per lb., $1 :
coffee, per lb., 50 cts. ; dried fruits, per lb., 35 cts. ;
canned fruits, 50 cts. ; canned meats, 75 cts. ; lemons,
each, 20 cts. ; oranges, each, 50 cts. ; tobacco, per lb.,
$1.50; liquors, per drink, 50 cts. ; shovels, {^2.50; picks,
J^5 ; coal oil, per gallon, $1 ; overalls, $1.50; underwear,
per suit, $$ to $7.50; shoes, $5 ; rubber boots, JJio to
^15 ; lumber, per 1,000 feet, $150.

In some of the camps further back from the river even
higher prices prevail. Some idea of them can be gained
from the following: — Bacon, per lb., 75 cts.; coffee, per
lb.,$i ; sugar, per lb., 50 cts. ; eggs, per doz., $2 ; con-
densed milk, per can, $1 ; picks, each, $1$; shovels,
each, $15.

Of course, a few months will make a great difference

CLOTHING OUTFIT.

In these matters. Already the steamboat companies
doing business on the Yukon are making plans to send
thousands of tons of food supplies and clothing to the
gold fields when the ice breaks up next summer. Their
efforts will be largely supplemented by private enter-
prises of one kind and another, so that it is confidently
expected that the exorbitant rates which now obtain on
the Klondike will be materially reduced next summer.

A good clothing outfit for a year's stay is this:—
Two pairs heaviest wool socks, one pair Canadian lara-
gans or shoe packs, one pair German socks, two pairs
heaviest woolen blankets, one oil blanket or canvas, one
mackinaw suit, two heavy flannel shirts, two pairs heavy
overalls, two suits heavy woolen underwear, one pair
rubber boots (crack proof preferable), one pair snow-
shoes, heavy cap, fleece-lined mittens.

To the prosperous mechanic or business man this list
may look a little scant as to some of its numbers. For the
enlightenment of those who would be thus critical be it
said that it is the custom among miners to resort to fre-
quent washings and mendings rather than to carry along
a great variety and large number of the various articles
of apparel.

The situation in Alaska as regards the collection of
customs duties is, to say the least, a little complicated
at the present moment. Acting under orders from
Secretary Gage, the newly-appointed collector for the
territory, Mr. Ivey, of Oregon, has established a sub-
port of entry at Dyea. Of course, after the machinery

TREATY PROVISIONS.

of this new custom house has become sufficiently clock-
like in its workings, goods from the United States des-
tined for the Klondike, will be inspected, tagged, and sent
in bond over the passes to the Canadian custom house
to be established on Lake Bennett in just the same way
as it is done with baggage belonging to passengers on
Michigan Central trains going from Buffalo to Chicago.
Twelve Canadian customs officials have started for the
interior where they will set up an office on the portage
between Lakes Bennett and Tagish, a point by which all
Yukon or Klondike travelers must pass if they start
from Dyea or Skaguay. The rate of duty will average
about JJ30 on the average outfit of a Yukoner. The
officers are well armed, and will have the assistance of
the mounted police to enforce the collection of duties.
Further down the river will be stationed guards to in-
tercept any one who might elude the vigilance of the
officers. '

American miners who have investigated the ques-
tion, assert that the treaty between Russia and Great
Britain provided that the Yukon, Porcupine, and Skeena
Rivers should be free for commercial purposes and ex-
empted from the imposition of customs duties. The
Canadians evade the point at issue by claiming that
prospectors crossing the mountain ranges to the lakes
or headwaters of the Yukon do not go into the terri-
tory ma any of the rivers mentioned, but that they cross
Canadian territory, and before they can reach the Yukon
the duty is exacted.

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CACHE OF PROVISIONS.

The Canadian officers are taking with them a full
year's supplies, and with the assistance of the mounted
police propose to maintain an official monthly mail
service, for official purposes only, between the Klondike
and Ottawa.

In conclusion, here are a few pointers dictated by ex-
perience for the benefit of the Klondiker. For the most
part their observance will involve but little trouble, and,
on the other hand, will add vastly to one's comfort while
in the frozen lands :

Don't waste a single ounce of anything, even if you
don't like it. Put it away and it will come handy when
you will like it.

If it is ever necessary to cache a load of provisions,
put all articles next to the ground which will be most
affected by heat, providing at the same time that damp-
ness will not affect their food properties to any great
extent. After piling your stuff, carefully heap heavy
rocks over it. Take your compass bearings, and
also note in your pocket some landmarks near by, and
also the direction in which they lie from your cache —
i, e.t make your cache, if possible, come between ex-
actly north and south of two given prominent marks. In
this way, even though covered by snow, you can locate
your "existence." Don't forget that this may be the
proper name for it at some future time.

Shoot a dog, if you have to, behind the base of the
skull ; a horse between the ears, ranging downward.
Press the trigger of your rifle. Don't pull it. Don't

IMPORTANT POINTS.

[ I

catch hold of the b-^rrel when thirty degrees below zero
is registered. Watch out against getting snow in your
barrel. If you do, don't shoot it out or the gun may
and probably will burst.

A little dry grass or hay in the inside of your mittens,
next your hands, will help retain the heat, especially
when they get damp from the moisture of your hands.
After taking off your mittens, remove the hay ond dry
it. Failing that, throw it away.

If by any chance you are traveling across a plain (no
trail) and a fog comes up, or a blinding snowstorm,
either of which will prevent you from taking your bear-
ings, camp, and don't move, no matter what any one may
urge, until the weather becomes clear again.

Keep all your draw-strings on clothing in good
repair. Don't forget to use your goggles when the sun
is bright on snow, A fellow is often tempted to leave
them off. Don't you do it.

Travel as much on clear ice toward your goal as pos-
sible in the spring. Don't try to pull sledges over snow,
especially when it is soft or crusty.

If you build a sledge for extreme cold don't use steel
runners. Make wooden ones, and freeze water on them
before starting out. Repeat the process if the sled
begins to drag and screech.

In building a sledge use lashing entirely. Bolts and
screws rack a sledge to pieces in rough going, while
lashing will "give,"

Take plenty of tow for packing possible cracks in your

POINTS CONTINUED.

boat, also two pounds of good putty, some canvas, and,
if possible, a small can of tar or white lead.

Establish camp rules, especially regarding the food.
Allot rations, less while idle than when at work, and
also varying with the seasons, a man requiring less food,
or at any rate less of certain kinds in warm than in cold
weather.

Keep your furs in good repair. One little slit may
cause you untold agony during a march in a heavy storm.
You cannot tell when such a storm will overtake you.

No man can continuously drag more than his own
weight. Remember th s is a fact.

Be sure during the winter to watch your foot-gear care-
fully. Change wet stockings before they freeze, or you
may lose a toe or foot.

Keep the hood of your kooletah back from your head
if not too cold, and allow the moisture from your body
to escape that way.

If your furs get wet dry them in a medium tempera-
ture. Don't hold them near a fire.

When your nose is bitterly cold stuff both nostrils with
fur, cotton, wool, or anything else soft enough. The
pain will cease.

Don't try to carry more than forty pounds of stuff
over a stiff climb, at least the first day.

In cases of extreme cold at toes and heel, wrap a piece
of fur over each extremity.

Keep your sleeping-bag clean. If it becomes inhab-
ited with vermin freeze the inhabitants out.

i^m

POINTS CONCLUDED.

Remember success follows economy and persistency
on an expedition like yours.

White snow over a crevasse, if hard, is safe ; yellow
or dirty color, never.

Don't eat snow or ice. Go thirsty until yc i can melt it.

Shoot a deer behind the left shoulder or in the head.

Choose your bunk as far from tent door as possible.

Keep a fire hole open near your camp.

The man who knows little now will come back know-
ing more than he who knew it all before starting, -

CHAPTER V.

THE MINING CAMPS OF THE UPPER YUKON : THEIR LIFE

AND LAWS.

Phases of Human Existence in the Ice-Bound Towns — Circle City as a
Base of Supplies and the Metropolis of the Yukon Country — Fort
Cudahy arid the Fairious Forty-Mile Post — Do^s by the Hundred —
Homes Without the Vanities of Civilized Regions — Gambling with
Big Stakes — Liquor Traffic and Its Evils— The Boom at Dawson
City— Some Strange Things About the Mail Service — A Small For-
•tune Spent in Delivering Each Mail Bag — Bottles of Gold the Legal
Tender — The Canadian Mounted Police.

NOWHERE else on earth will the student of hu^nan
nature find more to interest him than in the
mining camps of the frontier. In no other spot will he
find the conditions which surround the existence of man
so strangely varied. The sudden gathering of all
classes, races and ages, widely separated in birth and
breeding, character and customs and tongue, confronted
by the greatest hardships, surrounded by the extremes
of human joy and human sorrow, brings about a situa-
tion that forms a basis for many startling chapters in the
book of life.

The ice-bound camps of the great Yukon have not
been very different in history from those which have ex-
isted elsewhere in other times, but some of the phases
of life familiar in the outposts of civilization, where the
greed for gold has been the great factor of the day, have
been accentuated by the isolation and the peculiar hard-
ships which the men who lived there encountered. There
has been a notably small amount of the more important

tAWIyESSNSSS.

forms of vice. The people seem less indifferent to the
rights of their neighbors, less careless about the sanctity
of human life than in other mining camps. This may be
because the inhabitants of the ice bound camps feel that
the great distance of the places from outside help, makes
It necessary that they should, by simple laws of their own,
keep in check the dangerous tendencies of such com-
munities, or it may be because the red record of other
mining towns has taught humanity a lesson that is not
to be soon forgotten. Lawlessness there is, and probably
always will be where men are gathered under such cir-
cumstances, but the verdict of the best authorities seems
to be that Dawson City is morally a better place in 1897
than Leadville was in 1879, or Cripple Creek was in 1895
and 1 896. In the scramble for treasure, the sordid selfish-
ness of humanity has not covered up the tenderness and
sympathy and generosity that is in the hearts of
nearly all men, and there are many cases in the annals
of the Yukon country which go to show that the sunny
side of life shines quite as brightly sometimes in the arc-
tic regions of the United States as it does in the metrop-
olis of the nation.

Circle City was up to the time of the Klondike dis-
covery the most important town of the Yukon country.
It was a base of supplies for hundreds of prospectors,
and in its palmiest days was a lively town. Until last
winter the miners spent most of their time in the town,
as they had not learned the trick of working the frozen
ground. This made different forms of amusement popu-
lar, and the town boasted in addition to its gaming and

.,,,'')'■•

CIRCI^E CITY.

small dance halls, two variety theatres. Circle City
stands ou a level plain near the most northern bend of
the Yukon River. It obtains its name from its proxim-
ity to the Arctic Circle. In the back-ground is the low
range of hills, across which runs the now well-known
portage of six miles to Birch Creek.

Circle City is a log town. Four hundred buildings
constructed of roughly hewed logs line the streets. The
style of architecture is unvaried. Whether the building
is large or small it is low and square with wide project-
ing eaves and a roof covered with dirt. The cracks be-
tween the logs are chinked with mud, moss, paper and
old clothes. The smaller cabins can be built by a couple
of men in a few days, and when completed, they rent for
$15 or Ji20 a month. The lots on which they are built
can be bought for $2.50 from the town clerk, and the
house and ground together bring from $300 to $500 ac-
cording to location. The building logs are rafted down
the river froii* some wooded islands twenty miles above.
Some simple methods of sawing have now been adopted,
and by paying a good price, crude boards can be ob-
tained.

It was once said that there were more dogs in Circle
City to each inhabitant than in any other town in the
world. There were so many that no attempt was made
to feed them all, and as a result, in their foraging for
food, they became a nuisance. So ravenous were many
of them that even miners* boots, brushes and other valu-
able articles were torn in pieces and devoured by them.
Every available dog has been hurried off to the Klondike

* '-a

^i:

mmmmrmu mijili ^ .

BSKIMO DOOa

as a beast of burden, and no doubt, more than one of
them will have fallen a prey to the appetite of man before
they see Circle City again

Robert Krook, the Swedish Klondike miner, says
that Eskimo dogs will draw 200 pounds each on a sled,
so that six dogs will draw a year's supplies for one man.
He, however, puts in the proviso that the sleds should
not have iron runners, because the snow sticks to the
iron and increases the friction so much that the dogs
cannot haul more than 100 pounds apiece. With brass
runners this drawback is obviated. Last winter Eskimo
dogs cost from $y$ to $200 apiece, and he does not think
the price will increase materially, because when the de-
mand is known the supply from other parts of Alaska
will be plentiful at Dyea and other points along the Yu-
kon. Sometimes the feet of the dogs get sore and then
the Indians fit mocassins on them ; as soon, however, as
the tenderness is gone from their feet, the dogs will bite
and tear the mocassins off. In speaking of the dogs, he
said that they need no lines to guide them and are
very intelligent, learning readily to obey a command to
turn in any direction or to stop. They have to be
watched closely, as they will attack and devour stores
left in their way, especially bacon, which must be hung
up out of their reach. At night, when camp is pitched,
the moment a blanket is thrown upon the ground they
will run into it and curl up, and neither cuffs nor kicks
suffice to budge them. They lie as close up to the
men who own them as possible, and the miner cannot
wrap himself up so close that they won't get under his

_l "_W

QtSER tBAMS.

blanket with him. They are human, too, in their disin-
clination to get out in the morning.

Where sleds cannot be used, the dogs will carry fifty
pounds apiece in saddlebags, slung across their backs
in pannier fashion. Nature has fitted these dogs for
their work, and mastiffs and St. Bernards are not as
serviceable. The two lat.er breeds cannot stand the
intense cold so well, and though at first they will draw
the sleds cheerfully, their feet cannot resist the strain,
and begin to bleed so freely that the dogs are useless.
The pads under the feet of the Eskimo dogs are of
tougher skin. • "

Circle City came into existence when some half-
breed Indians discovered gold in considerable quantities
on Birch Creek, several years ago. Supplies from
down the Yukon River began early to pass through
the town and over the portage to Birch Creek.
The cost of transportation is JJ45 for 100 pounds and
upwards, which high rate is felt severely by the miners.
Once on Birch Creek the supplies are sent up the stream
by boats, which are propelled by the slow poling process.
One of the queer teams, until recently, engaged in the
supply traffic to the creek, was composed of a moose,
which had been caught when a calf and trained, and a
mule. The moose, which was the pride of its owner, a
Circle City merchant, was shot one day by a tenderfoot,
who had heard many stories of Alaska game, and
believed the animal had wandered into the town in
search of food.

The theatres in Circle City are not supplied with th^

;: 111

i!:4f

100

THEATRICAI^.

best talent in the land, but there is frequently a "show"
at one or the other, and if the scenery and surroundings
are not of the most pretentious, the result is not seen in
a small audience. One of the theatrical troops which
visited Circle City last winter was composed of six
young women and five men, who walked something like
500 miles in the course of their journey for the purpose
of amusing the miners. They were all dressed in
Mackinaw suits with trousers.

The present conception of the popular taste in
Alaska seems to be that the public wants a strong show,
and in the attempt to meet the demand the managers
cannot find anything up to the standard in books and
are driven to the point of inventing new features. ** The
man from Douglas Island " was an original drama that
was offered to the people of Juneau. The title had
local significance, as Douglas Island is just across the
channel from the town. It was a very successful play.
The hero was a barkeeper named Charlie, and the hero-
ine, to use the hero's own words, was a " perfect lady,"
who had a desire to see something of the town with a
fancy, rather unusual in a person of that description, for
incidentally "hitting the pipe." There was a bootblack,
a Chinaman, an Irish policeman, a dude and a number
of sports and "ladies " in the piece. After the requisite
amount of adversity and bad luck had been ground out,
the hero, with the help of the bootblack, triumphed over
the dude, got a "pull" with the policeman, married the
heroine and otherwise attained brilliant success as the
proprietor of the "finest joint in the town," to quote his
own language again.

DISTRIBUTINO UAH.

101

Up to within the last few months it was the custom in
Circle City for the postmaster, upon the arrival of the
mail, to stand upon a shoe-box before the assembled
populace and read off the address on each letter. Each
fortunate man would step up as his name was called
and get his letter, and be envied by his lucky fellow citi-
zen. There were some touching scenes on these occa-
sions. Many of the men had not heard from home and
friends for many months, some of them not for years.
There were many surprises in the letters. Some of
them brought joy to the hearts of those who read them,
but there were others to whom the missives meant only
disappointment and grief, and so smil s and tears mixed
in the motley gathering.

There are three or four doctor and as many lawyers,
though briefless ones, for the days of litigation have not
v^ome, and nearly every walk of life is represented for
better or worse in this arctic city. Nobody bothers
about free or any other kind of coinage. Dust is the
legal tender and it is passed about in bags and bottles,
big and little, with the same freedom that the Philadel-
phian exchanges his coins for pins and potatoes. Of
course, much of the dust which has cost so much to
gain in labor and time and hardship goes easily and
rapidly over the bars in the saloons, and into the pockets
of the men who shuffle dirty cards for a living, and into
the hands of painted-faced women, who dance very
badly for the amusement of their motley audiences.

When a Circle City man has been there long enough
to acquire a quantity of p-old dust, in the absence of a

I'm

' . ii

< 'll

I02

BUCKSKIN GOI^D BAGS.

bank, he takes it around and puts it into Jack McQues-
tion's or Capt. Healy's safe ; that is, those who do not
care to keep it themselves. Miners are susceptible to
the fascination of the dance hall and to the click of ivory
chips, and they know it is better not to have their gold
too convenient. They are much addicted to tossing
their nuggets over the bar and saying : *' Here, Mack
— never mind the change; I'll dance it all out !"

\So they take their buckskin bags and hand them over
the counter. Some are long and slender, with more room
than dust in them, while others are bulky and well-filled
like shot bags '; but the striking thing about it is that
there is no account taken of them. The owner's name
is generally written on the bag, but the dust is not
weighed, nor is any entry made or receipt given for it.
In their relations to each other these men are much like
a big family. In one safe were nuggets and dust to the
amount of something over $100,000.

Fort Cudahy and Forty-Mile Post are on opposite
sides of Forty-Mile Creek at the point where it joins the
Yukon. Being in British territory where they are under
the eyes of the Canadian police, law and order are pre-
served with somewhat less difficulty than at Circle City.
The latter town suffers much from the constant influx of
undesirable characters who escape across the border in
search of safety on the American side. Forty Mile is
the most important of the two settlements, and the indi-
cations point to a prosperous future for it. There are
some 250 cabins there and the number is being con-
stantly added to. No animal save man and dog was

AI4ASKA COMMERCIAIv COMPANY.

103

seen in its streets until recently, and there is not a wheel-
ed vehicle in the place.

The Alaska Commercial Company has a two-story
building for its agents' office, and there are others ; a
few saloons and stores and the Pioneer Hotel, but there
is one form of architecture that seems to fill all the re-
quirements of the climate and of taste. It is a log
house twenty feet square, with a perfectly flat, dirt-
covered top. The top of the house is a hanging gar-
den, which, if the structure is more than a year old, is
covered with a rank growth of weeds. When the town
begins to take some note of its appearance the mowing
of the roof will be one of the householder's regular
duties.

It would be hard to find anything else than dirt that
would keep out the cold. In building such a house
there is a groove cut in what is to be the underside of
each log, that it may fit down snug to the timber just
beneath it, and there is a packing of moss put in all the
joints between the logs to fill all possible inequalities.
Moss is the best non-conductor of heat or cold that the
country affords, and it is put to a variety of uses in
building. To make a roof a course of stout poles is first
laid across, and after that a thick coating of moss ; then
the flower garden is put on — that is, about a foot of dirt.
There is no floor, except the natural one, and the furni-
ture is an after consideration, made to suit the require-
ments of the occupants ; a bedstead made altogether of
poles, as is usually the table also, chairs of great variety
of design and finish, a moose-skin rug or two, and the

; I'iJl

M-

■] i»

( ,:

^ U

I04

FORTY MILE HOUSE.

invariable Yukon stove. The latter is made of sheet-
iron, and weighs about twenty-five pounds. There are
no vanities of any sort about a Forty Mile house. It is
made primarily to keep out the cold. It has a single
door — extending no higher or lower or wider than is
necessary for getting in or out — and a single window of
four small panes of glass. In winter another sash is
put in to make a double thickness.

forty Mile suffers, as do all the towns of the Yukon
country, because of the uncertainty about supplies. Each
boat on tlie river carries goods to its utmost capacity,
but even that is not enough, and when the next boat
happens to be a week of two late the price of provisions
rises as rapidly from day to day as does wheat in the pro-
duce exchange in biill times. Arrangements are, how-
ever, being perfected to do away with this difHculty, and
human ingenuity will undoubtedly succeed at this task.

The great man of Forty Mile is at present a Swede
named Johnny Miller. He has been in Alaska eight
years, and hope had nearly failed him when last winter
he started a hole in the ground out of which he took
within a few weeks more than 250 pounds of the yellow
metal, and he is still taking it out.

The gold diggings of the Yukon are graded according
to their depth as winter and summer mines, a classifica-
tion that has been recognized only within the last two
years. Until within that time the miners considered it
impracticable to do any work in the winter, and so they
hibernated for eight long, dark months, consuming what
they had earned during the short summer season. Win-

WINTB& WORK.

105

ter was a time for gambling and dissipation, and they all
collected at Forty Mile, and whiled away the long night
of self-imposed imprisonment.

Though the people of Forty Mile still expect quite a
muster from the mines at the approach of cold weather,
there is a very radical change from the old order. They
have discovered that they can accomplish more in winter
than in summer, and as a consequence the working year
is three times as long as it used to be. And here comes
in the utility of classifying the diggings according to their
depth. If the gold lies only from two to six or seven
feet from the surface it is necessary to remove all the
worthless ground, throwing it to one side until after the
pay dirt is taken out, after which it may be piled where
it was originally taken from. The difficulty of such min-
ing is increased threefold by the fact that the ground is
frozen. Every foot of it, either in sinking or drifting, has
to be thawed by small fires. The shallower mines — the
whole process being in the open air — are worked in
summer. In the other kind, where the gravel is more
than seven feet from the surface, they sink a shaft for a
beginning, and then burrow or drift under the superficial
part, removing only enough dirt to allow space to work
in. These operations being under ground, where the
miner is protected from the weather, are better adapted
for the cold season. So the miner builds his cabin at
the mouth of his shafts gets in a supply of wood to the
most accessible place, and tranquilly views the approach
of cold weather.

If he is of provident habit it is not necessary for him to

io6

DAWSON CITY.

expose himself greatly. He must bring to the surface
and dump possibly a ton of "dead" ground in a day,
and also carry and leave in a safe place a few hundred
pounds of pay gravel. There is no necessity for being
out of doors more than a minute or two at a time.

If one is prepared, for them, the winters at the mines
are not billing bad by any means. Seventy degrees be-
low zero is about the coldest, but that is not of frequent
occurrence. There is a good deal of dry, still weather,
with the thermometer from io°to 30® below, and as much
probably, early and late iii the season, when it hardly
falls below the zero mark.

August and September are the months for preparing
for winter and also for prospecting. During that time a
great many of the men hunt for awhile and endeavor to
lay in a supply of fresh meat.

West of tfie Klondike River at its junction with the
Yukon and on the north bank of the latter is located the
now world famous camp called Dawson City. It is the
metropolis of the Klondike country and if not the largest
city in the world, it now takes first rank among the live-
liest and most thriving. For months thousands have
turned their eyes toward it longingly. Hundreds have
arrived there within the last few weeks and hundreds
more are striving with all the energy and persistence
man is capable of to get there. Unless something un-
forseen occurs it will have many thousands within its
fold before another year has passed. In the meantime;
all isbusde. Homes, ofHces, stores, churches and all the
other requisites of a big town in the way of buildings are

Ml'

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mppqinf

Piwpp

rikce
day,
dred
>eing

lines
i be-
uent
ther,
nuch
irdly

mng
nea
jr to

I the
I the
3 the
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bave
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ence
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[the
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Chilkoot Mountains — Route to Mines.

Mt. St. Elias and, Mum Glazier,

BUSINESS HOUSES.

109

being hurried to completion for present and future uses
and hundreds of busy hands are delving in the gulches
and canons and mountains and streams beyond for the
yellow treasure that brought Dawson into existence.

Dawson City is in the character of its buildings and
inhabitants much like its sister camps. There are at
present two stores. One of the Alaska Commercial
Company, the other of the North American Transporta-
tion and Trading Company. On these two establish-
ments everyone who goes to Dawson without provisions
must rely mainly. Even those who have a good outfit
will find it often necessary to patronize one or other of
the stores. Prices are on an average three times as high
as at Juneau or St. Michaels and four to five times as
steep as in San Francisco. When the winter is nearly
over and supplies begin to run short prices are, as a
consequence, raised. Toward the close of last winter
before the new supplies came up the river prices were
doubled. All through the winter men arrive at such
mining towns as Dawson City, bringing with them from
one to two tons of food and clothing. They go up the
streams and peddle their goods, taking care to lose
nothing for their time and trouble.

There is but one blackirmith shop and to this place all
the miners for miles around must go to have their tools
repaired or for the purpos'j of getting implements made
to order which the stores cannot supply.

Dawson City can boast of two good practicing physi-
cians — Police Surgeon Wills and another doctor who
went from Circle City tc Dawson last year. They carry

I lif.iiyi» " » —

IIO

WAGES PRBVAIUNO.

■■■ I.;

their own supplies of staple drugs and medicines, so as
to be able to compound their own prescriptions. Ordi-
nary remedies are to be obtained at the two trading
stores. There was one lodging-house in Dawson last
winter, though the name lodging-house is a courtesy in
this case. It was a low, log house and is now being re-
placed by a better one. Laborers in the mines and
handicraftsmen fare about the same, though carpenters
last winter obtained $20 a day, whereas miners got $15.
The difficulty is to find men willing to work at their
trades.

The cost of living at Dawson for a man living alone
varies from $5.00 to $10.00 a day. Single m 's have
been costing $1.50. There are two assayers nd fifty
will be there by next spring probably. Overalls cost
$3.00 a pair; stockings, $1.50; coats and trousers,
$10.00 each and upwards ; shoes, $8.00 a pair ; shirts,
JJ5.00; flour, $12.00 per hundred; pans, $2.50; picks,
$7.00, and so on.

Joseph Ladue, one of the most celebrated of the
Alaska bonanza kings, was the founder of Dawson City
and the owner of the site. He has done much to insure
the future prosperity of the city by encouraging the
building of a school house and promoting other institu-
tions. While there has been much of the usual excite-
ment of the mining camp at Dawson, considering the
character of the population very litde trouble of any
kind has thus far been reported. Gambling for high
stakes is to be seen on every side, but the Canadian
government is making a desperate effort to curb the

NO I^IQUORS.

Ill

liquor traffic and its consequent evils. The law against
carrying fire arms is as strictly enforced as is possible,
and the result of this is noteworthy.

Collector Ivey, who has gone to Alaska to assume
charge of the customs district of that Territory, it is
understood, has specific instructions from the Treasury
Department to enforce to the letter the executive order
restricting the importation and sale of liquors in Alaska.

Under the laws governing the Territory of Alaska, no
liquors, malt or vinous, can be imported, manufactured,
or sold there, save by a special permit, allowing their
use for medicinal, mechanical or scientific purposes.
Despite this regulation, there are now in Alaska fi\ ^
breweries in operation, and 142 other places where
liquors are sold. Alaska is in the internal revenue dis-
trict of Oregon, and during the year 1896 there were
147 special taxes collected from persons engaged in sell-
ing liquor. There are numerous saloons in Juneau,
Sitka, and other Alaskan towns where liquor is obtained
for the asking, and no attempt is made to conceal the
fact that this business is being carried on. The special
tax which every one in the liquor business is forced to
pay is not issued as a license, or to afford any protection
to the holder, as it is expressly stated thereon that the
same shall not be in conflict with any municipal, county
or State laws concerning the regulation of the liquor
traffic.

The sale of liquor in Alaska is only allowed under the
Executive order for medicinal, mechanical or scientific
purposes, by persons who obtain a permit to do so from

i'i

112

8PBCIAL RBGUI^ATIONS.

the Governor of the Territory. Before the permit is
issued the applicant has to make an affidavit and furnish
a bond in not less than $500 that he will not sell intoxi-
cating liquors to any person not known to him, or duly
identified, nor to a person in the habit of becoming in-
toxicated, nor on his premises, and that he will make full
returns of the disposition of liquor he is permitted to
have. Every person under the regulations who secures
a permit from the Governor to sell liquors for medicinal,
mechanical and scientific purposes is required to secure
from the Collector of the Oregon district a special tax
receipt as a liquor dealer. Two of the breweries pay a
special tax on the manufacture of 500 barrels of beer
or over, and the remaing three on less than 500. The
other special taxes are issued to druggists and retail
liquor dealers.

Just ho y five breweries and 142 other places can find
it a paying business to sell liquors only for medicinal,
mechanical and scientific purposes is the question that
Collector Iv^y has to wresde with. It is understood that
he has explicit instructions to enforce the regulations
against liquor in his district, and, if he does, the law,
hitherto more honored in the breach than in its obser-
vance, is likely to become odious, and be followed by a
strong effort to secure the removal of the present re-
strictions.

On the American side the only laws which are en-
forced to keep order in the camps are such as the peo-
ple themselves have made. Lynch law and the regula-
tions of the Vigilantes, who are organized in the larger

MOUNTED POUCS.

towns, are the only codes really effective, as the forces
of the American government do not at present extend
beyond the older settlements of the coast. But on the
Canadian side the case is different.

Here and there among the mass of matter that has
been written concerning the wonderful Klondike mines,
brief allusions have been made to the fact that a little
body of mounted police has been patrolling the district
ever since the excitement began, keeping perfect order
and preserving among the constandy swelling popula-
tions of the various camps as peaceable conditions as
can be found in the heart of any highly civilized commu-
nity. And in all the speculation concerning the future
of the locality, its probable immense growth and the fear
of starvation, sickness and death, no fear has ever been
expressed that anything in the nature of lawlessness or
crime may get the upper hand and run rampant, or that
property rights and safety of the person will be in the
least danger. *

Though the excellent British mining laws, or rather,
laws founded by the Canadians on British precedent, are
in the main responsible for this feelin^ of security, the
men who undertake their enforcement are, after all, en-
titled to a great share of the credit, for good laws, illy
enforced, are worse than useless. The Northwest
Mounted Police of Canada, a body whose wonderful dis-
cipline and bravery have given the Dominion food for
most of her later literature, are the officers in whose
hands has been placed the carrying out of these laws,
and at this time, therefore, something concerning that

114

INDIAN TROUBI^ES.

organization and. its internal workings should be of
interest.

The Northwest Mounted Police, whose scarlet tunic is
the symbol of law and order in the Northwest, were
organized when Alexander Mackenzie was Premier, and
were one of Sir John Macdonald's inspirations, and after
his return to power, in 1878, they always remained under
his own eye. The nucleus of the force was got together
at Manitoba in 1873. They originally numbered 300,
and by their coolness and pluck, at critical periods, they
accomplished much in reducing the Indians and lawless
whisky traders to a state of order. The police built
posts and protected the white setders and the surveyors,
who had already begun parceling out the country and
exploring the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In
1877, nearly the whole of the little force was concen-
trated on the southwestern frontier to watch and check
the 6000 Sioux, who sought refuge in Canada after their
defeat and massacre of Custer and his little command
on the Little Big Horn. It was through the efforts of
the Mounted Police that the Sioux were finally induced
to surrender peacefully to the United States authorities
in 1880-81. After the outbreak of the half-breeds under
Louis Reil, in 1885, the force was increased to 1000
men, their present number.

The Mounted Police, like the Royal Irish Constabu-
lary, on which it was modeled, is in the eye of the law a
purely civil body. Its ofificers are magistrates, the men
are constables. But so far as circumstances will allow,
its organization, internal economy and drill are those of

POI^ICE ORGANIZATION.

a cavalry regiment, and when on active service in a mili-
tary capacity the officers have army rank. The affairs of
the force are managed by a distinct department of the
Government at Ottawa, under tlie supervision of a
Cabinet Minister. The executive command is held by
an officer styled the Commissioner and ranking as Lieu-
tenant-Colonel. The Assistant Commissioner ranks
with a Major, and after three years' service as a Lieu-
tenant-Colonel. Ten superintendents, with captains'
rank, command the division:^, with about thirty-five in-
spectors as subalterns, who correspond to lieutenants.
The medical staff consists of a surgeon, five assistant
surgeons and two veterinary surgeons. The non-com-
missioned officers are as in the army, while the troopers
are called constables.

The rank and file are not excelled by any picked corps
in any service. A recruit must be between twenty-two
ad forty-five years old, of good character, able to read
and write English or French, active, well-built and of
sound constitution. The physique is very fine, the aver-
age of the whole thousand being five feet nine and a half
inches in height, and thirty-eight and a half inches
round the chest.

There has always been an unusual proportion of men
of good family and education in the service. Lots of
young Englishmen who came out to try their hand at
farming la the far west have drifted into the police, as
also many well-connected Canadians, Waifs and strays
from everywhere and of every calling are to be found in
the ranks. The roll call would show many defaulters if

? 1

ii6

POSTAI« FACIUTIBS.

no man answered to any name but his own. There is
at least one lord in the force and many university gradu-
ates.

The officers' pay is not large, ranging from $2400 a
year to the Commissioner to $1000 to the inspectors,
with, of course, quarters, rations, fuel, etc.

The Klondike is even more squeamish on some points
than some older diggings, like Gotham and Paris.
Bloomers don't go. Capt. Constantine, of the Canadian
mounted police says so, and from his words there is no
appeal. The new women can straddle Chilkoot Pass in
bloomers if they like, but in the chaste and refined so-
ciety circles of Dawson and Cudahy, skirts are "en
regie " — even if ** de trop."

No one ever locks a cabin door. You can leave a few
thousands in gold dust lying around loose, and on one
will steal it. This forbearance is not so remarkable as
it seems. If a thief did steal when there is nothing to
break through he couldn't spend his money or leave the
country unsuspected.

It will be of interest to know that there are post office
facilities for the gold fields of Alaska, and the Northwest
territory, for many persons have started for that region
and their friends will naturally be anxious to hear from
them. Additional contracts for the delivery of mail have
been made in the Post Ofifice Department in view of the
influx of Americans there.

Since July ist contracts for mail over what is known
as ''the overland route " from Juneau to Circle City have
been made by the department. The round trip over the

VARIOUS PLANS.

117

Chilkoot Pass and by way of the chain of lakes and the
Lewes river takes about a month, the distance being
about 900 miles. There will be a mail carrying party to
leave regularly on the first of each month hereafter.
The cost is about $600 for the round trip. The Chilkoot
Pass is crossed with the mail by means of Indian carriers.
On the previous trips the carriers after finishing the pass
built the boats, but they now have their own to pass
the lakes and the Lewes river.

In the winter, transportation is carried on by means of
dog sleds, and it is hoped that under the present con-
tracts there will be no stoppage, no matter how low the
temperature may go. The contractor has reported that
he was sending a boat, in sections, by way of St. Michael,
up the Yukon river, to be used on the waterway of the
route, and it is thought much time will be saved by this,
as in former times it was necessary for the carriers to
stop and build boats or rafts to pass the lakes.

In addition to this for the summer season, contracts
have been made with two steamboat companies for t<vo
trips from Seatde to St. Michael, and three from there to
Seattle. When the steamers reach St. Michael, the mail
will be transferred from the steamers to the flat-bottomed
boa^ running up the Yukon as far as Circle City. It is
believed tlie boats now run further up.

The contracts for the overland route call for only first-
class matter, whereas the steamers in the summer season
carry everything up to five tons a trip.

Some extracts from the ofificial report of the second
assistant postmaster general for the fiscal year ending

f .1'

f i

ii8

BBDDOE'S REPORT.

June I, 1896, will prove of interest. Under date of Sep-
tember 23, 1896, contractor Beddoe wrote to the depart-
ment concerning the trip to Circle City, the establishment
of that post office having been authorized March 1 9, 1 896:

He says:

" I have just returned from my first round trip through
to Circle City with the United States mail, under con-
tract route No. 78,103, and in accordance with your in-
structions, corroborating those received through the
superintendent of the Pacific coast, at Seattle, I delivered
the return mail from Circle City to the postmaster at
Seattle and accompanied to Juneau such mail as remained
for that point.

*'I have already delivered (or have en route) the mail
for June, July, August and September. It will be im-
possible for any other mail to leave here until spring,
outside of the winter contract.

"If you were familiar with the conditions which obtain
in the Yukon you would be in a bette' position to re-
gulate the dates of departure and arrival for said service.
For instance, I left this point on June 10 for Dyea; for
sixteen hours it was impossible to land owing to storms,
and as the landing is made in small boats, the condi-
tions must be favorable. I took with me sufficient
lumber to build two boats; the ones I had already built
could not be taken over the summit in consequence of
excessive snow storms. Upon my arrival at the base of
the summit the Indian packers refused to go over with
the lumber. I was compelled to abandon it there, hav-
ing paid $67.50 for packing it. The packing of sup-

DIFPICUI^TIES OVERCOME.

119

plies, etc., cost $320 additional. However, I pushed on
and upon arriving at Lake Lindeman, a distance of
thirty miles, I built a raft, there being no lumber in that
locality, and upon this raft we journed to Lake Bennett,
where we found sufficient lumber to build a boat. A
start was made in five days after arrival, although the
lumber had to be cut from the trees, and from there on
we traveled day and night until our destination. Circle
City, was reached and the mails delivered in good order.

"The question now was to get the return mail to
Juneau the quickest moment. It was impossible to
start up the river in consequence of the rapid water,
the current averaging eight miles an hour for 500 miles.
If I remained in Circle City until July 30 it would
probably take forty-five days to pole the boat up the
river. I therefore decided to go on down to St. Michaels
and come out through Bering Sea. I was fortunate in
getting there in time for the steamship "Portland," which
sailed from that point to Seattle, via Unalaska — 3,500
miles. At Seattle, I took the Alki and reached here in
due course, having traveled 6,500 miles in addition to
the regular trip, and saving thereby over a month of
time in the delivery of the return mail; and I owe it to
myself to say that I was the last man into the Yukon
and the first one out this season, which is evidence that
no unnecessary delay occured.

"The Yukon trip is a terrible one, the current of the
river even attaining ten miles an hour. Miles Canyon is
a veritable death trap into which one is likely to be drawn
without notice, and the White Horse rapids, known as

■It

;

I20

WHIT9 H0RS9 RAPIDS.

the miners' grave, to say nothing of the Five Finger and
Rink rapids, both of which 'are very dangerous. All of
these dangers are aggravated by reason of the defective
maps and reports of the country.

" It is my intention to submit to the department a map
with many corrections, although in the absence of a
proper survey it will necessarily be only an approximate
reflection of the river's course. You are probably not
aware that for a distance of 1 50 miles, commencing at
Circle City, and going north, the river is fifty miles be-
tween banks, and contains thousands of islands, very few
of which appear on any map.

"It is impossible to perform this mail contract without
having at least three parties fully equipped, the distance
being so gi'eat and it being out of the question for the
first party to return in time to depart with the succeeding
mail, and the expense of each will be about the same. I
shall have made four round trips by the end of this month.
The last mail in should arrive at Circle City in one week
from now. The return mails I am looking for daily. At
the end of this month the north end of the Yukon river
will freeze and the ice will gradually form to the south,
and the same, as a waterway, will become impassable
and remain so until midwinter.^'

CHAPTER VI.

PLACER MINING.

Ancient and modern methods as applied to the Klondike fields — How the riches are
carried from mountain to gulch and plain — Pans, rockers, sluice^boxes, and
other implements of the miner's craft — Watching for the yellovr metal in the
streams of muddy water — The wonders of hydraulic operations — Methods in
vogue on the fi'oze& gravels of Alaska — Opinions of experts on the present and
future.

IN spite of the fact that gold has been known to man
and struggled for since pre-historic times, it is only
within the last half-century that any satisfactory methods
have been employed for its extraction from the earth.
The discoveries in California in 1849, followed almost
immediately by thor' in Australia, turned the energies
of thousands of able, active, intelligent men into this
new channel. In the mad race for wealth which then
ensued, the primitive methods in use up to that time
were found to be too crude and too slow to satisfy the
ambitions of modern gold diggers. This is particularly
true of the methods then and now in vogue for working
the poorer alluvials and low-grade reefs which remain
after the rich shallow placers and superficial pockets of
gold quartz have been exausted on a claim.

Without going deeply into the subject of the forma-
tion of the element known to the world as gold, it is suf-
ficient to say that the mineral is deposited in ledges or

121

122

QUARTZ MINING.

veins of quartz, ranging in thickness from the leaf to
several inches. There are instances, though very few,
where these veins have reached several feet of almost
pure gold. These veins extend from the surface of the
ground, in a slanting direction, sometimes several thou-
sand feet into the earth. The surface ends of these
ledges are often exposed on the edge of a mountain, and
have come to be known in the mining world as the " out-
croppings." Often, however, they are covered by sev-
eral feet of forbidding gravel and earth and only the
patient labors of the gold seeker reveal them. Undoubt-
edly thousands of these precious ledges remain unknown
to man, and probably will remain so always unless some
strange chance, such as revealed some of those in the
Klondike and elsewhere, should lead daring and ambi-
tious miners to the places where they rest.

The taking of the yellow metal from the ledges is
known comprehensively as quartz mining, and the pro-
cesses by which it is done are varied according to local
conditions.

Ages have elapsed since the deposit of the gold in
the rock ledges, and the forces of nature have proved
themselves more active and persistent in extracting the
precious metal than the host of hungry, anxious miners
will ever oe. As time passed the action of the water
and other agencies on the rock masses caused them to
crumble and liberate the exposed treasure. This gold,
once free, has been carried to lower altitudes and de-
posited in the caftons, gulches, flats, and river bars from

METHODS PURSUED.

123

the mountains to the sea. The gathering of this loose,
drifted gold is what is known as placer mining.

In Alaska, thus far, vein or quartz mining has been
attempted only on the coast. In the Yukon districts
placer mining is the only form in use. This is due to
various causes. The main obstacle up to the present
time has been the cost of labor, which, in the interior,
very rarely gets below $15 a day, and often exceeds
that figure. Then, again, vein mining requires the trans-
portation and erection of costly and heavy machinery,
which, in a country as poorly provided with transporta-
tion facilities as is the interior of Alaska, would involve
untold expense. There is every reason to believe that
the interior is richly endowed with gold quartz, and with
the development of the country will probably come the
development of this feature of gold mining. This has
been the history of the California fields — first the placer
and then the veins, and history will probably repeat itself.
The sequence is a natural one. Man will surely seek
the source of his supplies, whatever they may be, sooner
or later.

The usual methods pursued in placer mining are very
simple. Even the most improved process, though saving
much time and labor, is still not an intricate one. The
specific gravity of gold is much greater than that of any
rock, gravel, or earth with which it 's found. It is many
centuries since man discovered this fact, and upon it all
the methods of extraction are based. The gold-bearing
gravels, sands, and muds are turned into a receptacle

124

USE OF THE " PAN."

of some kind when with the aid of water the precious
metal is worked to the bottom, the lighter substances
removed, and the treasure revealed.

The most common implement among placer miners is
the "pan." It costs only a few cents, and with it any
man in a rich district can make fair wages every day,
and many a lucky one has turned a fortune out of it.
This receptacle closely resembles the ordinary milk-pan.
It holds usually about six qi arts, and is made of heavy
tin or zinc. The miner goes to the gravel banks along
the streams, where deposits of precious metal are be-
lieved to be, and fills his pan. Conveying the material
to the water, he selects a place where there is little or
no current, immerses his pan entirely in the water, and
then shakes the gravel in the pan thoroughly under
the water. The pan is held with both hands, and so
shaken that the gravel is given a circular motion,
two or three motions being sufficient to precipitate
the gold to the bottom of the pan. The pan, still
beneath the surface of the water, is then held so that
the outer edge dips downward at an angle of ten or
fifteen degrees, and the gravel is made to slowly slide
out of the pan by a backward and forward movement,
care being taken, after a portion of the gravel has been
expelled, to again give the pan the circular motion, so
as to be sure that the gold is kept at the bottom. Not
more than a half-minute is required to get rid of the
gravel, and there will be nothing left in the pan but a
little "black sand" (magnetic iron), which always accom-

NHP

COLORS FOUND.

127

panics gold in gravel, and whatever particles of gold
were contained in the gravel. The pieces or specks of
gold are then easily seen, and by their number or quality
the prospector judges somewhat as to the wages he can
make by washing the gravel. The specks of gold are
called "colors "by the old hand. A very few of these
welcome " colors " in a single pan will demonstrate to
the miner the value of the gravel in which he is prospect-
ing. If he is a poor man or lacks energy he will proba-
bly continue to use the pan like thousands of others,
putting the few bits of yellow metal away in bags and
botdes day after day, until he has by laborious effort
gleaned enough to satisfy him or worked out the gravel
in that location.

But the energetic miner uses the pan only by way of
experiment. Once having found the " colors " with the
aid of that crude implement, he turns to other methods
to develop his find. Next after the pan in the way of
invention came the " rocker." It is not unlike the crude
bed in which our grandparents slept as babies. It is a
box on rockers, about four feet long, two feet wide, and
several inches in depth, with the upper end elevated so
that the water will pass through freely. A hopper, or
riddle box, with perforated sheet-iron bottom, occupies
the upper half. Under this is an apron of cloth or sheet-
iron, sloping downward toward the upper end. Two
cleats are nailed across the bottom, one in the middle
and one at the lower end. The riddle box being filled
with auriferous dirt from the bank, the miner rocks the

w '

128

THE SLUICE-BOX.

cradle, pouring water in meanwhile to dissolve the mass.
The latter is carried through the perforations upon the
apron and thence down over the bottom of the "rocker"
to the lower end and out into the stream. The gold,
being heavy, is lodged behind the cleats or '* riffles," and
there the miner gathers them and repeats the operation.
The finer particles of gold are often lodged on the apron,
and this is frequently washed in a bucket and the metal
taken from the bottom.

After the locker came the "Long Tom," which is a
rough trough ten or twelve feet long, narrow at the
upper end and wider at the lower. It is placed on an
incline. It has an iron plate on the bottom which is per-
forated so that the gold will drop through in the washing
process. This invention, it will be readily seen, is a
development of the rocker.

The sluice-box was the next step taken by miners.
The one who has found "pay-dirt" and desires to get
the gold to the mint as quickly and in as large quantities
as possible, soon drops his pan and rocker and turns to
the sluice. The " sluice-box " may be constructed of three
boards twelve feet long and one foot wide ; one board
forming the bottom and two the sides of the box — sim-
ply a long, narrow, open box or trough. The box must
be set on such a grade (usually five or six inches higher
at the head of the box thati at the foot or " tail") that the
water running through will carry off quickly the stones,
dirt, and general debris. Upon the bottom of the box
are placed "riffles," made of long, narrow strips oi

HOW CONSTRUCTED.

129

boards or of small poles, which permit the gravel to run
over them, but into which the heaviest materials, in-
cluding the " black sand" and gold will settle and remain
secure. The •' riffles " are practically slats made into a
frame and wedged or nailed to the bottom of the box so
that they will not rise in the water. The water neces-
sary to run the sluice-box must be brought into it from
a point above, so that grade sufficient to bring a steady
flow of water and allow for the increased grade of the
box will be secured. The water is usually conducted by
what are termed "lead-boxes," made similar to the sluice-
box itself. Water enough, say three or four inches deep
in the box, with a five-inch grade, to carry off quickly
the gravel shoveled into it, is necessary for good and
rapid wo-ik. After the miner has shoveled into his box
what he considers a good day's work he then turns off
nearly all the water and takes up his riffles. Water
enough is left running to still carry off the bulk of the
dirt, sand, and small gravel that has become packed in
the riffles, leaving nothing behind on the bottom of the
box save the gold, some sand, and perhaps a few peb-
bles. The water is then entirely shut off, and everything
left in the box is carefully and thoroughly swept into a
pan. It is then a simple matter to pan this residue down
to the clean gold, and if the miner finds that he has, say,
half a teaspoonful of gold, he is making considerably
more than living wages. v

In constructing the sluice-box care should be taken to
have the bottom-board perfectly sound; that is, free

1 1:

i!!

ISO

IMPROVED METHODS.

from knots or cracks — even a nail-hole in the bottom
would be sure to lose a large portion of the gold. After the
side-boards are firmly nailed on, even if the box seems
perfectly tight, the side seams should be strongly calked
with old cotton rags. It is well to have the bottom-
board planed, that it may be swept easily, for fine gold
adheres so closely to a rough board that it is almost im-
possible to sweep it off. The best thing to sweep the
box with is a brush made of split bamboo or cane, that
may be purchased in the mining towns.

In many cases there is deposited behind the riffles
a fine black sand, which is magnetic iron ore. In order
to separate the gold from this a small quantity of quick-
silver is placed behind the cleats. The quicksilver is
useful also in holding many particles of " flour gold " so
inmute that otherwise they might be lost. The sluice-
box was for a long time by far the most important con-
trivance in placer mining, and is still in common use,
though here and there money and brains have combined
to bring about more satisfactory methods. Even where
the latter have been adopted the sluice-box is called
into service to work over the " tailings " of previous
operations, that name being applied to dirt that has once
been worked and deposited by the water after leaving
the *'tail end" of a sluice, rocker, flume, etc. Sluices,
often called flumes, are sometimes several hundred, and
even thousand, feet in length. Often it is necessary to
elevate the dirt in what are known as " dry diggings," or
to carry it to some distance to a point where water

HYDRAULIC OPERATIONS.

131

can be used to advantage, and various devices are
adopted, the m( t common being large buckets swung
upon cranes. In some places where hydraulic mining is
not practicable, "drifting" is resorted to. A tunnel is
run into the hill and " drifts " are run from it, the dirt
being brought out for washing, or else a shaft is sunk
and the dirt sent up to the surface in buckets. In some
places long series of sluice-boxes may be found con-
taining thousands of feet of lumber.

All placer mining is of necessity hydraulic, since water
is always used to separate the gold from the dirt. But
the name ** hydraulic " is generally used to designate the
method of washing down auriferous banks by turning on
them a powerful stream of water, the gold being caught
m long flumes or ground sluices, through which the muddy
liquid is made to flow. It is in this form of mining that
the most capital is invested in the placer operations.

Ofte:. the flumes and tunnels of the hydraulic systems,
which sometimes pass through hills and even mountains,
are paved with stone, instead of wood, the stone catch-
ing the fine gold better than the wooden riffles. Stone
flumes are not so easily robbed by sluice-box thieves as
the wooden ones, aiid thus operate as a partial protec-
tion against the operations of midnight miners. The
work of making a " clean-up " by taking up the stone
bottom, removing the amalgam, and relaying the stones
again, takes more time, but the wear and tear on long
wooden flumes by the heavy rocks carried through them
by the strong current is an oflset to this, and clean-ups

I '*

i I

U 11

132

MACHINERY USED.

are not made very often, in some mines only twice a
year. The hydraulic system ha«= developed through a
series of years, beginning in 1852, in Nevada City, Cal.,
when a miner turned a small canvas hose against the
bank with a pressure of sixty feet of water, and reaching
a point where water is forced through a nozzle ten inches
in diameter with a pressure of 500 feet, a resistless tor-
rent thrown upwards of 300 feet. Not many of these
powerful streams are in use, a nozzle of from three to
six inches and a pressure of not more than 400 feet
being found the most serviceable and economical. The
water is carried down into the mine from some elevated
point in huge pipes of boiler iron, strongly riveted to
resist the tremendous pressure, and is discha^oe*
through machines known as " monitors " or " little
giants." The machine is double-jointed at the base,
and can be depressed or elevated or turned to either
side at the will of the operator, who has thus perfect
control of the stream discharged from it, and may direct
it at any portion of the bank desired. The force of a
column of water 400 feet high, compressed from an
eighteen-inch pipe to a six-inch orifice, is not easy to
realize. The torrent rushes forth with a roar, and hurls
itself in an almost solid mass against the bank, which
melts as though it were a heap of snow. A discharge of
1,000 miners* inches of water is not unusual. This is
equivalent to 1,500 cubic feet per minute, or 7,000,000
gallons in ten hours. At the estimated average this
would excavate nearly 3,000 cubic yards of earth.

AN ESSENTIAL FEATURE.

^33

When the mine is not so situated that a flume can be
built along the ground with a proper fall for the " tail-
ings," it becomes necessary to tunnel through a hill for
an outlet. Some of these tunnels are necessarily very
long and expensive, and it is in such enterprises that
large capital is required in hydraulic mining. The
tunnel is paved for a sluice, and often a long flume
extends beyond it for the same purpose. Much inge-
nuity has been displayed in constructing flumes so as to
save as much of the fine gold passing through them as
possible, and yet much of it is carried away. This is
shown in a few favorable localities by persons who have
constructed flumes in the beds of streams into which
tailings are discharged, by which they take profitable
toll for letting the tailings again pass over hundreds of
feet of rififles. ^

The discharge of tailings into streams flowing into the
Sacramento Valley has caused much trouble in Califor-
nia, and the detritus, debris^ or " slickins " has filled up
the beds of the streams, covered the fertile bottom lands
with a sterile deposit, and produced more frequent floods
and overflow of low lands. In Oregon and Washington
bis trouble has not occurred, since the topography is
ucch that the tailings from hydraulic mines are not de-
r /sited c ^ agricultural lands, and do not fill up the beds
of streams running through them.

An essential feature of a hydraulic mine is a water
ditch running either from some unfailing stream or
natural or artificial reservoir. Some of these ditches

I
I it

* I!

mmm

W, i!

■ Mm '

134

WATER RIGHTS DEnNED.

are many miles in length, and are carried for part of the
distance through tunnels or across gulches in high
wooden flumes. Some of the reservoirs constructed to
supply the ditches hold nearly a billion cubic feet o^
water. The construction of such large ditches and reser-
voirs calls for the investment of much capital. In places
these ditches are constructed by companies and the water
sold to the miners using it; also to farmers for irrigating
purposes when favorably situated. The capacity of
mining ditches varies from 500 to lo.ocx) inches of water.
An inch varies in different localities, but the usual stand-
ard is the quantii ^ vt will flow in twenty-four hours
through an aperture ae inch square, with the water six
inches above the point of discharge. This equals 16,725
gallons.

The courts of the Pacific Coast have firmly established
the principle of absolute property in water. By their
decisions, given after much long and expensive litigation,
they have affirmed the principle that a water right of a
definite number of inches may be located on any stream
where prior rights do not exist, and that the quantity
located may be taken out, even to the draining of the
original stream, may be conveyed away, sold, and never
returned to the original channel. One right may be
located above another, but only for such surplus water
as was not located by the prior claim. This doctrine
has been found as necessary in irrigating districts as in
mining sections It is a complete reversal of the old
common-law doctrine of riparian rights, established under

sal I fl

MODIFICATION NECESSARY.

135

conditions far different from those prevailing on the
Pacific Coast.

Most of the hydraulic mines are worked in the chan-
nels of an extinct system of rivers, running in places at
right angles with the present water-courses. This fact
was not disclosed for many years, but as the working
progressed it was seen that the auriferous gravel, or
cement, occupied well-defined channels running tortu-
ously along in the usual manner of water-courses. The
conclusion has been reached that these were pre-glacial
streams, and that since the ages in which they accumu-
lated their present store of gold the topographical con-
tour of the mountains has been completely changed and
the present water-courses been opened up. It may be
said that these ancient channels have only been tapped
here and there, and that hundreds of miles of these
auriferous banks yet await the dissolving touch of water.

While placer mining must necessarily be conducted
in much the same general way the world over, the con-
ditions which are presented in the Klondike country
make some modifications necessary. The extreme cold
of most of the year in that latitude brings with it obsta-
cles which are hard to overcome. Man will overcome
them, because he knows that gold is there, and because
he wants it, but at present he overcomes them slowly
and laboriously. His reward is great enough, however,
in many cases to make him forget the hardships.

In addition to the dangers to health the great difficulty
that the miner has to contend with is the fact that the

! i

136

VALUE OF EXPLOSIVES.

ground is frozen solid nearly all the year, and even in
summer thaws only a few inches. This makes it neces-
sary to thaw the ground artificially, and this is done by
"burning." Fires are built on the surface and the
ground is thawed a few inches beneath the surface. This
is then dug out; another fire is built in the hole, and this
process is continued until bedrock is reached. Then
fires are built against the side of the shaft, and drifts
and tunnels are thawed out. All the dirt thus taken
out is piled outside until the stream opens in the spring.
Then the sluice-boxes are set up and the winter's dig-
gings washed out. Thus a miner is enabled to keep
busy about all the year. -

This method of burning out a shaft and tunnels is by
no means nev/, for it has been carried on for many years
in the basins of the Amoor and Lena Rivers in Siberia,
where the conditions are very similar to those in the
Klondike region. Placer mining in Alaska really differs
from placer mining in warmer climates only in that the dirt
has to be thawed ont, and that water for washing can be
obtained there only a month or two in each year. And
even when bedrock is reached it is in many cases filled
with cracks and seams which are rich in gold and well
worth the digging out. As to the value of explosives in this
frozen soil authorities differ. The Mining and Scientific
Press said recently that they can be used effectively,
while the Mining and Engineering yournal, in speaking
of the Siberian mines, where the conditions are similar,
says their effect is simply to mat the ground together

WEALTH UNTOUCHED.

^Z7

harder. For this same reason, says the latter journal,
the ground cannot be dug with a pick and shovel until
thawed out. As is almost invariably the case in cold cli-
mates accidents have been somewhat frequent in Alaska
in the use of explosives. The sticks of dynamite which
the miner uses in hi3 work freeze easily, and in thawing
them out, great car?? must be used. They are often
placed in a pan near the fire or in the ovens of the crude
stoves used by the miners. Carelessness, in a number
of instances, has led to their explosion.

Scientific men in the United States and abroad
were by no means surprised when the stories of
great gold finds first came out of Alaska. For years
geologists, mineralogists and mining experts have been
studying Alaska and making frequent trips both along
its fringed coast and far into the interior. The discover-
ies they have made — geological, mineralogical and
geographical — have all pointed toward the eventual lay-
ing bare of rich mineral deposits. It is now the consen-
sus of belief among these men that the discoveries have
only begun, that the wedge has only entered.

Professor S. F. Emmons, of the United States Geolog-
ical Survey, recently said : —

"The real mass of golden wealth in Alaska remains
as yet untouched. It lies in the virgin rocks, from which
the particles found in the river gravels now being washed
by the Klondike miners have been torn by the erosion
of streams. These particles, being heavy, have been
deposited by the streams which carried the lighter matter
onward to the ocean, thus forming, by gradual accumula-

.'.,'St

\ i

138

GOLD-BEARING GRAVEL.

i„;i',. -;:

ii|i!

i i|!

tion, a sort of auriferous concentrate. Many of the bits,
especially in certain localities, are big enough to be called
nuggets.

MONEY PICKED OUT OF THE DIRT.

" In spots the gravels are so rich that, as we have all
heard, many ounces of the yellow metal are obtained
from the washing of a single panful. That is what is
making the people so wild — the prospect of picking
money out of the dirt by the handful literally. -*

" But all this is merely the skimming of grease from the
pot ; the soup remains, and precious rich soup it is. The
bulk of the wealth is in the rocks of the hills, waiting
only for proper machinery to take it out. For you must
remember that the gold was originally stored in veins of
the rocks, which are of an exceedingly ancient formation.
Nobody can say how many millions of years ago the
metal was put there, but it must have been an enormous-
ly long time back. ..

" The streams wore away the rocks, carrying gold with
them, and this process continued for ages, making im-
mense deposits of rich, gold-bearing gravels. Eventually
these deposits were themselves transformed into rock —
a sort of conglomerate in which pebbles, small and big,
are mixed with what was once sand. To-day the strata
composed of this conglomerate are of immense extent
and unknown thickness. The formation closely resem-
bles that of the auriferous ' banket * or pudding stone of
the South African gold fields ; but the South African
pudding stone was in far remote antiquity a sea beach,
whereas the Alaskan formation is a deposit made by
streams, as I have said.

ONLY THE FIRST BITE. , ^^

"In a later epoch the stream continued to gnaw away
at the hills, bringing down more gold and leaving it be-
hind in the gravels of their bottoms. It is these com-
paratively modern rivers which are responsible for the
pay dirt of the Klondike district and of all that region.
Naturally, because it was easily got at and worked, the
miners have struck this surface alluvium first. The
streams at various times have followed different courses,
and it is in the gravels of the dry and disused channels
that the gold miners dig with such fabulous profit.

A GOLDEN FEAST.

"You will observe from what I have said that the gold
of that region exists under three widely different condi-
tions — in the gravels, in the conglomerate or pudding
stone and in the ancient rocks of the hills. When the
modern stream deposits, now being worked, are used up,
the miner can tackle the conglomerate, which represents
the gravels of ages ago. Finally, when they are pro'
vided with the requisite machinery, they will be in a po-
sition to attack the masses of yellow wealth that are
stored in the veins of the mountains. At present we
can hardly consider that the first bite has been taken of
the golden feast which Alaska offers to hungry man."

Last summer the government sent a commission of
men from the Geological Survey into Alaska. At the
head of this party was Josiah Edward Spurr. He has
recendy made his report. He says, as to the Forty
Mile district, that, in the latter part of 1887, Franklin
Gulch was struck, and the first year the creek is esd.

':;

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140

OUTPUT OF THE MINES.

mated to have produced $4,000. Ever since it has been
a constant payer. The character of the gold there is
nuggety, masses of $$ weight being very common. The
yield the first year after the discovery of Forty Mile has
been variously estimated at from $75,000 to 5(^150,000,
but $60,000 probably covers the production.

The discovery of Davis Creek and a stampede from
Franklin Gulch followed in the spring of 1888. In 1891,
gold mining in the interior, as well as on the coast, at
Silver Bow basin and Treadwell, received a great im-
petus. The event of 1892 was the discovery of Miller
Creek. In the spring of 1893 many new claims were
staked, and it is estimated that eighty men took out
$100,000. Since then Miller Creek has been the heav-
iest producer of the Forty Mile district, and, until
recently, of the whole Yukon. Its entire length lies in
British possessions.

The output for 1893, as given by the mint director for
the Alaskan creeks, all but Miller Creek being in Ameri-
can possessions, was $198,000, with a mining population
of 196. The total amount produced by the Yukon
placers, in 1894, was double that of the previous year,
and was divided between the two districts. In 1895, the
output had doubled again.

Forty Mile district, in the summer of 1 896, is described
in the report as looking as if it had seen its best days,
and,'unless several new creeks are discovered, he pre-
dicts that it will lose its old position.

The Birch Creek district was, last summer, in a flour-
ishing condition. Most of the gulches were then run-

STAMPEDE TO THE KLONDIKE.

141

ning, miners were working on double shifts, night and
day, and many large profits were reported. On Masta-
don Creek, the best producer, over 300 miners were at
work, many expecting to winter in the gulch.

As to hydraulic mining, the report says :

••Some miners have planned to work this and other
good ground supposed to exist under the deep covering
of moss and gravel in the wide valley of the Mammoth
and Crooked Creeks, by hydraulicking, the water to be
obtained by tapping Miller and Mastadon Creeks near
the head. It will be several years before the scheme
can be operated, because both of the present gulches
are paying well and will continue to do so at least five
years."

•• With the announcement of gold in the winter of
1896-97," says the report on the Klondike district, ''there
was a genuine stampede to the new region. Forty Mile
was almost deserted. But 350 men spent the winter on
Klondike, in the gulches and at the new tov/n of Daw-
son. The more important parts of the district are on
Bonanza and Hunker Creeks. There is plenty of room
for many more prospectors and miners, for the gulches
and creeks, which have shown good prospects, are
spread over an area of seven hundred square miles.

ALASKAN GOLD PRODUCTION FOR 1 896. '

"The estimated Alaskan gold ^j -oduction for 1896,
made by the Spurr report, is $1,400,000. The report
points out the difficulties in the way of speedy develop-
ment of the country. First, the climate, with its short

^'\

i,'f

r! I

1 1«"*

',■ X'

, 1

IA2 FUTURE OF ALASKA.

summer season and long, cold winter. Prospecting is
done in the winter more and more every winter because
frozen ground renders traveling over the swampy, moss-
covered country more easy, and the miner is thus able to
begin work with the first spring thaw.

LABOR AT A PREMIUM.

" Whatever Alaska may be in the future, it is not now
self-supporting agriculturally. Moose, caribou and hare
are variable in quantity, abundant one time and disap-
pearing from the region for twelve months at a time.
Ten dollars a day is the general wage paid, twelve dollars
for a day of ten hours being paid in some of the more re-
mote gulches. In winter the pay for labor is from five to
eight dollars per day of six hours. Many times the miners
have been at the point of starvation, and there has
hardly been a winter when they have not been p"t on a
ration basis. Universal suffrage is given, and have
an equal vote. Penalties include : For stealing, banish-
ment from the country, in some cases also whipping ;
threatening with weapons, the same ; murders, hanging ;
but there have been no murders so far."

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CHAPTER VII.

ALASKAN QUAixTZ MINES AND MINING.

The location of gold deposits on the coast of the southeast — The Great Treadwell
Mine on Douglass Island — The largest quartz mill in the world — Tbousands of
dollars a day from low-grade ores — Other mines of the section — The quaxtz veins
of the Klonkike country — Large amounts of capital being gathered to work
them — The rich promise of the future — The rules which the probjjector must
follow in his search for hidden treasure — Methods employed in working the
golden veins — Processes of the rock-breaker, stamp-mill, and concentrator.

THE progress made in the location of gold deposits
on the southeastern coast constitutes a separate
chapter in Alaskan mining history. It is recorded
that Doroshin, in 1848, made small finds of gold near the
present site of Fort Kenai, on the Kakni River, on the
Kenai Peninsula, far to the westward of Juneau. A few
years later he continued his prospecting in these re-
gions, but meeting with indifferent success and encoun-
tering the opposition of the Russian-American Com-
pany, which at that time controlled the country, he
abandoned the work. Tradition has it that even before
the days of Doroshin an emissary of the Russian Gov-
ernme. t found gold on the northern end of Baronov
Island, upon which Sitka is situated. Pressure was
brought to bear upon him I / the then all-powerful
trading company, and his su' cess was never brought to
light. It was the constant policy of the Russian-
American Company to keep out the white man, as it

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THE TREADWELL MINE.

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was feared that the development of the natural re-
sources of the country would in time have a depressing
influence upon the trade in furs, skins, etc., upon which
the company depended. This same policy was pursued
by the other companies trading in these parts.

The next find in southeast Alaska was in the imme-
diate vicinity of Sitka, in the year 1873. This caused
the first interest to be taken in prospecting in Alaska.
Miners from British Columbia crossed the border in
great numbers, and in 1880 the yellow metal was
brought to light in the immediate vicinity of Juneau.
In fact, Joseph Juneau, after whom the village was
named, was the first man to show that gold occurred
in Alaska in any considerable quantities. After the dis-
covery of gold in the clifTs above Juneau, came the loca-
tion of the great Treadwell claim on Douglass Island,
about two miles from Juneau and beyond Gastineau
Channel. It was in 1 88 1 that miners first set foot in this
region. The island itself was named by Vancouver for
his friend, the Bishop of Salisbury. Among the early
claims were two owned in partnership by men named
Bean and Matthews. They became indebted to John
Treadwell, a San Francisco builder, for a loan of $150,
and put up their rights on Douglass Island as security.
Failing to make payment, the property passed into the
hands of John Treadwell. He was not any too well
pleased with his bargain, but soon became convinced
that the land could be worked for its gold with profit.
He bought out a neighboring claim held by a character

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ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

147

well known about Juneau, who rejoiced in the sobriquet
of " French Pete." The latter received $300. Tread-
well associated with himself four other men, among them
Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, and active work was
begun on the development of the property.

Mr. Treadwell stood on the ground which afterward
became the site of one of the most remarkable quartz
operations in the world, and fought the squatters who
insisted on washing the surface for gold until the organic
act secured his title. Since then Ji 1,000,000 have been
expended on the works. Many thousands were spent
in constructing a ditch eighteen miles long to bring the
necessary water to the ground, and over ^300,000 was
involved in various experiments in improving the chlor-
ination process. The great mill of 240 stamps remains
now the largest of its kind in the world, and has never
stopped, night or day, save for repairs, since it was
started. Six hundred tons of ore are milled every day,
at an average profit of ^4. each, so that it can be seen
that many good-sized fortunes have passed into the
pockets of its fortunate owntis. The ore is quarrieH in
three large open pits, and, falling th-nce through ore-
shoots to cars in three tunnels below, is ^^oved 1 y gravity
through each process. The heavy smoke from the Tread-
well chlorination works has killed vegetation for a mile
up and down the island.

While the ore from the Treadwell is of such a lo^v grade
that in most places with the ordinary proces it would
not be worked at all, it is present in such quantities that

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148

BEAR'S NEST MINE.

many years must elapse before the stream of riches
ceases to flow from this one property. The experience
gained from the Treadwell property in working these
low-grade ores will in time be of inestimable value to
other operators in similar fields.

The Mexican mine adjoining the Treadwell on the east
is owned by the same company. Here 60 stamps are at
work. In the two properties 1 75 men are employed.

Another important mine of that locality is the Bear's
Nest, which, owing to disagreements among its English
and German owners, is not being worked at present.
The promise of its future built up the neighboring town
of Douglass City.

Many mining experts who have examined the enor-
mous gold deposit on Douglass Island think it is a freak,
a chimney of quartz which is not paralleled elsewhere on
the island. But the most experienced engineers confess
themselves puzzled by the geological formation of
Alaska. It seems to be unlike any other. The general
formation is slate, which, with granite, holds the quartz
veins, but the latter are often broken and confused. Dr.
George M. Dawson says in a paper on the subject: " It
presents none of the characteristics of an ordinary lode
or vein, being without any parallel or arrangement of its
constituents and showing no such coarse crystalline
structure as a lode of large dimensions might be ex-
pected to exhibit."

Miners* wages in these mines are not large, Indians
getting f2 and white men $^ per day.

SILVER BOW BASIN.

149

Sixty miles north of Juneau on Berners Bay are the
works of the Berners Bay Mining & Milling Company,
which is operating the Comet mine at Seward City. This
mine, which is owned by a syndicate including several
members of the Rothschild family and Mr. D. O. Mills,
produced $2,500,000 in 1896.

Some operations have been carried on in the valley of
the Stickine River, several hundred miles below Juneau.
As early as 1861 gold was discovered there, and by 1874
several thousand miners were at work. It was esti-
mated that the yield from the placer mines that year was
more than a million dollars. Later, when the placer
claims seemed exhausted, and expensive machinery was
needed to operate in the quartz, many of the miners
disappeared, and only a few are at work there now.

In the Silver Bow Basin, at the head of Gold Creek,
and near Juneau, extensive mining operations are being
carried on. The deep bowl here has long received the
washings from the great mountain walls which sur-
round it, and thousands of dollars were taken from the
placer grounds annually, until they were worked as low
as the water system would permit. Since then the
Silver Bow Basin Mining Company has bought many of
the claims, as well as quartz claims, in the mountains
around, and running a tunnel three thousand feet in
length in from Charlotte Basin below, has succeeded in
keeping a big stamp-mill busy with the ore obtained.
A number of other companies are also engaged in
similar enterprises.

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150

QUARTZ VEINS UNTOUCHED.

These are some of the more important of the gold
discoveries in the southeastern coast section, but the
yellow metal has been found in varying quantities at a
large number of other points, and lies hidden in many
places where man has never sought it. In a number of
places not specially mentioned it is even now being
mined at a large profit.

The quartz veins of the newly-discovered gold coun-
try have as yet been almost untouched. The location
of a few are already known, and, judging from the rich
deposits of the placer grounds, many more will in the
course of time be discovered. Just at present the trans-
portation facilities do not admit of the carrying in of
necessary implements and machinery for the quartz pro-
cesses, but undoubtedly, the near future will see these
difficulties overcome. Man has the habit of securing
gold in some way when once his eyes are fastened on it.
Already there is a long list of companies which have
been formed, representing immense sums in capital from
all over the world, to work in the new fields. Some of
them no doubt for the time being will confine them-
selves to placer ground, but few of them will be satisfied
to stop short of the big quartz lodes which are known to
exist. Some of the more important of these companies
and their capital are as follows : — Cudahy-Healy Yukon
& Klondike Mining Co., $25,000,000; Boe & Barnes,
1^950,000 ; Alaska Syndicate Co., «f 400,000 ; Acme De-
velopment Co., $150,000; Alaska Co-operative Co.,
jJioOiOQo; Yukon-Cariboo Co., $5,000,000; New York

MINING COMPANIES.

151

& Alaska Gold Exploration Co., $1,000,000; Norse-
American Gold Co., $750,000; Alaska Klondike Co.,
f 600,000; Gold Syndicate, $5,000,000; Kootenay-
Cariboo Co. (Ltd.), $2,500,000; Exploration Syndicate,
$100,000; Philadelphia & Alaska Gold Mining Syn-
dicate, $500,000; Alaska Co-operative Develop-
ment Co., $200,000; Northwest Mining & Trading
Co., $5,000,000.

In nearly every city of any size throughout the land
companies are being formed. Colorado Springs has the
Alaska-Klondike Company, with a million-dollar capital,
and William P. Bonbright as president. Columbus, O.,
reports a $500,000 company, with a West Virginia char-
ter ; this company will charter several ships, load them
at Montreal with goods and machinery likely to be
needed in the Alaska gold fields, thus escaping customs
duty, and sail around the Horn with them. They will
also engage in mining, but trading is the principal object.
Seattle reports that $1,000,000 has been invested in in-
corporated companies, with ever so much more in irregu-
larly organized concerns. Victoria, B. C, reports that it
has been in the Klondike business for a long time. At
the last session of the British Columbia Legislature four
companies were chartered and liberal grants of land
secured from the unsuspecting legislators. In other
places the story is the same. Money that has been tied
up with studious care during the hard times is feeing put
freely forth to snare the treasures of Alaska.

There can be no settled rules laid down for the pros-

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152

MECHANICAL ACCIDENTS.

pector in seach of gold veins. Conditions are different
in each new section discovered. The best-known laws
of the geological world have their exceptions, but there
are some general principles which the seeker for gold-
bearing rock will do well to study.

In every quartz mining region there are fissure sys-
tems which are more or less regular, much depending
upon the kinds of rock in which they are formed. The
miner or prospector soon finds that very important rela-
tions exist between dikes and other bodies of igneous
rock and ore deposits. Whatever the nature of the
stratified rocks, sections of the country where no bodies of
eruptive rocks are found are but poor in minerals. This
is on account of the dikes opening a passage during the
process of their upheaval from those deep-seated regions
whence rise mineral-charged vapors and emanations from
metals in fiery depths, therefore the part they play in lode
formation is more mechanical than chemical. They merely
open a passage upward from nature's secret laboratory, in
unknown and unknowable subterranean depths.

The fissures in which the mineralized veins are formed
are what might be termed mechanical accidents, as they
owe their existence to the yielding of the superincum-
bent country rock at the point of least resistance at the
time of the upheaval. The fissures thus formed, the
process of filling commences, some doubtless affording a
better and more free passage than others to the ascend-
ing mineral-charged vapors.

The veins spoken of by miners as being " contact

SECONDARY FISSURES.

153

veins" are usually such as are in contact with some in-
truded rock on the surface, being situated at the junction
of stratified rocks with those of igneous origin, either in
the shape of mountain masses or as narrow dikes. Other
veins are at the surface in slate or other stratified rock,
with no igneous rocks visible in the immediate vicinity.
The lodes found so situated would not be spoken of by
a miner as " contact veins," as they have the same rock
for both walls. At a lower depth below the sedimentary
rock granite, diorite, or some other igneous rock, will
be reached, when the lode will be found to be a contact
vein lying between the intruded igneous rock and the
superincumbent stratified rock. Thus it will be seen
that all lodes are doubtless contact veins at some point
below the surface, but in most cases at a greater depth
than is likely to be attained by the miner. Were the
overlying sedimentary rock suflficiently tough and yield-
ing to bear the strain of upheaval without cracking
there would be no veins thus formed except contact
veins, as all would lie between the uplifted stratified rock
and the intruded igneous dike.

The secondary fissures are the result of fractures pro-
duced in the stratified rocks while they are being lifted
during the elevation of mountain masses of granite, or
the upheaval of dikes of other igneous rocks, and they
have both walls of the same kind of rock. The real
contact fissures would be found above, at the point where
the stratified rock abuts upon the intruded igneous rock.
This contact fissure might be very small, merely a part-

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154

TRUE FISSURE VEIN.

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ing between the two kinds of rock, filled with crushed
material from the walls, while below, in the overlying
stratified rock, would be found very much larger fissures,
and in some one of them — that having the best open-
ings and most favorable situation — would be found the
principal lode formation. In the other parallel fissures
would be found other veins, all exhibiting the character-
istics of the principal lode.

The regularity and smoothness of the fissures depend
much upon the character of the country rock. If the
overlying rocks do not cleave well and regularly the
lodes found in them will be bunchy, as when bodies of
serpentine lie in the line of the fissures. Fissures are
generally very much more jagged and irregular on the
cross sections of slate or slaty rocks than those that run
parallel to the cleavage, and as the fissures are so are
the lodes with which they are filled. The broader veins
are so much the more regular is their course. The
broadest veins are usually the longest. The greater the
length of a vein the greater the depth to which it will
probably extend.

A " true fissure " vein is one which traverses the
country rock independently of its stratification, cutting
through slaty rocks across the course of their cleavage.
These veins sometimes cut across dikes of intruded
igneous rocks. They are supposed to have been pro-
duced by deep-seated plutonic forces, while contact veins
and their accompanying groups of parallel veins are the
result of forces acting nearer the surface.

"CHIMNEYS" OR "SHOOTS."

155

There are contact veins which lie between two kinds
of igneous rocks. A dike of diorite may be upheaved
in such a position as to form a contact with granite, or
with an older dike of diorite or other intruded rock. In
places where there are parallel groups of veins, as on
the " mother lode," a diorite dike often forms the foot
wall of one vein and the hanging wall of another. The
black slate of that great mineral belt is in one place the
hanging and in another the foot wall, while in many
places it forms both walls.

If the gold comes from any of the wall rocks it must
be at a great depth, where there is intense heat and great
chemical action — at a point where all the metals are
much more abundant than near the surface. The
nature of the mineral solutions and the metallic vapors
filling and passing up through the fissures have more to
do with the character of the vein formed than have the
wall rocks.

Mineral veins frequently intersect one another. When
the intersectinof vein fills a fissure in the intersected it
shows it to be the more recent, the younger of the two.
Some veins are intimately combined at the point of
junction, showing them to have been filled at the same
time. As a rule, the work of filling immediately follows
the formation of the fissure. A vein intersected by a
younger vein is generally rich, as it receives a double
charge of mineralized solutions.

" Chimneys " or " shoots " of ore in a vein are prob-
ably owing to a considerable extent to the character of

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156

SUCCESSION OF PINCHES.

the fissure at a greater depth. Though open and
roomy near the top the fissure may be narrow or wholly
closed at a deeper level, thus permitting the metallic
vapors to ascend only at certain points. Thus we see
steam rises in columns along the open fissures of hot
springs, not in a continuous sheet. Wide places in a
vein are more favorable to ore formation than narrow
ones. In narrow places the motion of the ascending
mineral-bearing solution or vapors is more rapid, there-
fore not so favorable to the formation of deposits as the
wider places. This may cause the apparent " pinching
out " of a vein. At such places no sign of the vein vill
be seen except a seam of clay, but if this is followed it
is apt to lead to a broad place in the vein, filled with
both quartz and ore. In some veins — owing to the
irregular fracture of the rock forming the walls — there
are found a succession of such pinches.

It is quite certain that mineral veins have been ^lled
by circulation in the fissures in which they are found, of
heated water, aqueous vapors, and various gases, all
more or less mineralized. All veins have not been
formed in the same way nor by means of vapors and
emanations of the same character. No two veins are
exactly alike in all respects. Had the veins been filled
by means of molten matter from below (as many sup-
pose) their metallic contents would have been the same
in all parts, and would have been evenly distributed.
There would have been seen no " bonanzas " or •* chim-
neys " of rich ore, with barren spaces between. There can

nil

THE WORK OF AGES.

157

be nothing found in or about any lode which shows it to
be the result of a quickly completed process. On the
contrary, all goes to prove that the formation is the result
of a long-continued or periodically repeated process,
with modifications at various times of the chemical con-
ditions, degrees of heat and pressure, and variations in
the nature of the mineral solutions or metallic vapors.
Even the hydrostatic pressure in a column of minerals
ill solution in a fissure may exert a great influence in the
disposition of ore. What might not be affected at a
depth of a few hundred or 1 ,000 feet might be accom-
plished under the tremendous pressure of 5,000 feet.
Doubtless most veins were formed at much greater
depth than we now see them. They have become acces-
sible to us through the upheaval and the erosion of what
lay above them.

Lodes will more commonly be found in the neighbor-
hood of plutonic rocks — rocks that have solidified be-
neath the surface — than near volcanic rocks, for the
reason that lodes of value could only be formed at a
considerable depth under a solid covering. It is useless
to look for lodes in sections of a country covered with
lava and similar volcanic rocks. Paying mineral veins
are much more likely to be found in the older than more
recent rocks, whether sedimentary or igneous. They
are generally to be found in places where dikes of igne-
ous rocks have been pushed up through the sedimentary
rocks, either at the point of contact, between two kinds
of rock, or at no great distance on either side.

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WHAT EXPERIENCE SHOWS.

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In Cornwall almost the whole of the mineral wealth
occurs within a space of two or three miles on each side
of a granite and slate contact, but the veins are not
richest on the immediate line of contact. In Australia
the richest veins are found when the diorite, and other
intrusive plutonic rocks, have formed dikes in the strati-
fied rocks. And we see that in California the most noted
mines are near dikei of igneous rock. Dikes, not con-
tinuous on the surface, may continue underground, some
parts being pushed to a greater height than others at
the time of their formation. A dike, which is continuous
at no great distance below the overlying rock, may appear
on the surface as a series ol ** humps." These may be
from half a mile to a mile apart, but from them the pros-
pector will be able to get the course of the dike. Also,
where a dike that shows on the surface appears to come
to an end, the prospector may take its course and be
guided by it in making explorations, in the sections
wholly covered by the country rock. The veins lying
near the line of the dike will generally prove most
valuable.

Usually, when a rich quartz vein has been discovered,
there is a " rush " made for *' extensions" on the course
of the strike of the vein, and at times these locations ex-
tend for miles. Let the miner who does not reich the
scene of the discovery in time to locate a first extension
give no further thought to extensions, but turn his atten-
tion to a search for a parallel vein. Systems of parallel
veins, more or less regular, depending upon the nature

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PARALLELS AND EXTENSIONS.

159

of the country rock, are found in almost every quartz
mining district of California. The chances for finding a
paying parallel vein are often much better than for
locating the extension of a newly-discovered lode, and,
as has often happened, a parallel vein may be found
which will prove richer than the first of the system
located.

In California the miner found, when he first turned
his attention to the quartz veins, that he was poorly
provided with methods and implements for his task, but
in the years which have ensued experience and brains
have solved the problem of wresting the gold from the
rock, and the operation is now performed, in a well-
equipped plant, with comparative ease and celerity.

Prior to i860, quartz mining operations were in an
experimental stage, but about that time the great lodes,
which were the source from which the rich deposits of
the California placer fields came, were discovered, and
p"^n began mining them seriously. As a rule then, the
miner blasted and picked out his material with crude
implements, crushed and pulverized it in a ponderous
machine, and extracted the gold by amalgamation
on copper plates. This was an operation on the
hasii of the "free milling" process. But much more
than half the gold escaped the seeker in the course of
this operation, and only the richest material would pay
the expenses of working. Only a small percentage of
the gold in the average quartz lode is present in a free
state, and for the rest intricate processes must be used

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NATIVE GOLD.

to rescue it. Even with present-day methods a consid-
erable percentage still is lost to the miner.

Native gold as found in the lodes is never quite pure,
being almost invariably alloyed with silver and not in-
frequently it contains small proportions of copper and
iron. The gold-bearing ores consist chiefly of quartz,
and in some cases they contain slate, baryta, and talc.
Occasionally the metal is found in leaf or crystallized
form between the layers of rocks, but generally it is
scattered through in small particles, often so minute as
to be scarcely visible to the naked eye.

When the vein lies close to the surface, it is the prac-
tice of the miner to strip the ground from it and attack
the rock from the top, as far as permissible, but when it
dips into the earth it is necessary to tunnel or sink a
shaft to follow it. The underground method is, of
course, vastly more expensive than the first mentioned.
The gold-bearing rock being removed from its resting-
place by the ordinary methods of blasting, is sent to the
surface in buckets lowered and raised in the larger
mines by machinery. The appearance of the valuable
ore is not encouraging. The average man would fail
often, even with the most careful examination, to detect
any signs of treasure in the mass. A long and some-
what expensive process must be gone through with
before the golden riches will be revealed.

Rock-breakers and stamps are used first, and then the
free gold is amalgamated in the battery by various con-
trivances. After the ore reaches the mill it is weighed.

GKuLI' of MlMKS AND INDIANS.

Group of Klondike Hold Minlks,

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THE MILLING OPERATION.

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It is then crushed to the proper size for its reception by
the stamp machines, and here the milHng operation
proper really begins. When, in the stamp mill, a suitable
degree of fineness has been reached, the free gold is
caught by amalgamating it. This operation may be car-
ried on in the battery box itself or on tables outside, in
mercury wells, or by special apparatus in pans, or,
still again, by a combination of some or all these.
Then the escaping pulp, which in most cases contains
much the largest proportion of gold, is treated by some
of the concentration methods to obtain the yellow metal.

There are still many cases where the rock, when first
brought from the mine, is broken by hand with a heavy
hammer, but this process is usually performed by a
machine known as a rock-breaker. There are two main
types of these machines. Both are made of heavy cast-
ing, and are box-like in form with fly-wheels on either
side. In one the stone is crushed between a flat, fixed
jaw and a reciprocating one, and in the other the fixed
jaw is circular and the movable one gyrates inside. In
both cases the wearing faces of the jaws are fitted with
dies which may be renewed, and they must be changed
frequently in the course of the severe task they are put
to. As a general rule, the stone, which is fed to the rock-
breaker, should come from its mouth of a size to pass
through a three-quarter-inch ring when it is ready for
the stamp-mill.

The original stamp-mill consisted of a stone mortar
and pestle. The mortar was filled with the vein stuff

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164

BASIS OF THE MODERN METHOD.

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and the whole ground to powder. Then the larger
grains of gold, which being malleable were not reduced
to powder, were sifted out. Finally the siftings were
placed in a prospecting pan and washed for the fine
gold. This system is the basis of the ordinary modern
method.

The California stamp-mill, which is the one now gen-
erally used, crushes the bits of ore by means of the
action of a heavy piece, the stamp, which is lifted by
appropriate mechanism and allowed to fall, under the
action of gravity, upon the material in the mortar. It
thus consists of three essential parts. The first is the
mortar box proper, with its screens and other attach-
ments, the mortar block, which forms the foundation,
and the dies, which are the wearing face of the anvil
upon which the ore is crushed. Second, is the stamp,
which consists essentially of a long stem carrying at its
extremity a head into which is fitted a removable shoe,
which constitutes the wearing face of the stamp. With
this is included also the tappet, which is, correctly speak-
ing, a part of the lifting mechanism, but as it adds to
the weight of the stamp is classed with it. Thirdly,
comes the lifting mechanism, which consists of a horizon-
tal shaft on which are keyed cams acting on the tappets,
and also a pulley, which transmits the power to the
shaft. The mortar block is usually constructed of sound,
heavy pieces of timber bolted together. The mortar-
box is made of iron, as are the other important parts of
the machine.

PROCESS OF AMALGAMATION.

>6S

In most cases amalgamation is commenced inside the
mortar box, and to this end copper plates are fastened
there. Five stamps usually compose what is known as
a battery. The action of the stamp is two-fold, namely,
crushing the ore in the first place and afterwards ex-
pelling the pulp, which consists of minute particles of
ore suspended in water, through screen apertures. A
Supply of clean water, is required, which is so arranged
as to run constantly into each battery when in operation.

After the crushing process is completed, the process
of extraction of the gold commences. It has already
been shown that the gold occurs in its ores in two
forms, amalgamable and non-amalgamable. The former
is obtained sometimes in the crushers and sometimes
after the pulp leaves the mill. In the former case
mercury, to about the amount of three times the antici-
pated gold, is dropped in the mortar-box. Falling
among the ore it becomes suspended in the mass, by the
action of the machine, and coming into contact with the
particles of gold amalgamates them. This amalgam is
in turn caught by the inside copper plates and by other
similar devices outside. There are many contrivances
based on the general principle of this process, but
enough has been said to give an idea of the methods
employed by the miner.

When the pulp that is pushed from the stamp-mill
contains gold which refuses to amalgamate, still another
scheme must be resorted to, which is known as the con-
centration process. All those minerals which carry gold

I !

■:

1 66

SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF MATERIAL.

with them are comparatively heavy. The specific gravity
of them may be taken at 5.5, while that of the non-
metallic and worthless portions of the pulp may be placed
at about 3. The object of the concentration process,
briefly stated, is to separate in the pulp mass all those
particles of specific gravity of 5.5 from those of 3. The
mechanical principles followed in doing this are simple,
though the process is of necessity somewhat difficult!
All bodies that are acted upon by any force would be
propelled by this force at equal velocities, if there were
no resistance to their movement and if no friction ex-
isted. This theoretical condition is, of course, never
realized, as every body meets with more or less resist-
ance from the medium which surrounds it. But when
by the aid of the stamp-mill the ore is ground to a
powder, the particles of which are approximately spheri-
cal in shape, and a pulp fo:rmed by the aid of water, and
the whole sent to a concentrator, there to be subjected
to the action of a force which may be gravity or a
mechanical impulse, the result is that the bodies, light
and heavy, moving in a given direction are separated.
Thus the miner is enabled to take his heavy mineral
particles from the lighter worthless stuff.

The types of concentrators are three in number,
those in which the heavy particles are allowed to settle
under the action of gravity, those in which the latter
action is assisted by external means, as in the case of
buddies, and those in which force is communicated to
the mass by mechanical action.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MARKETING, SMELTING, ASSAYING, AND COINING OF

COLD.

What the miner does with the unrefined product of his stamp-mill and concentrator-
Processes which the yellow metal must pass through before the world ^es it as
coin — The chlorination and cyanide operations — Acid baths to separate the
baser metals from the treasure — The great smelting furnaces and their daily
flood of riches— Among the ingots of pure gold at the mint — The assajer'a
difficult task — The world's output of gold in four hundred years.

AFTER what are termed sulphurets have been ob-
tained by the miner in the form of concentrates they
must pass through still other processes before the world
handles them in gold coin, jewelry, and plate. These other
processes are not in this day regarded as a part of the
mill man's duty, and the material is usually sent to outside
assay and reduction works where it is treated generally
by one of two methods, the wet and the smelting.

It is interesting to note here what modern methods
have done in the way of improvement in the securing of
irold from ores. The Robinson mine in South Africa
furnishes an admirable illustration of this as does also
the Treadwell mine in Alaska. After the treatment of
the Robinson ore by ordinary stamping and amalgama-
tion methods the return of gold in a recent year was
$^885,583. The tailings from the stamp-mill were then
passed over Frue vanners by which concentrates amount-
ing to nearly three thousand tons were obtained. This

167

fi I

^t ,:

168

HALF A MILLION SAVEt).

product was roasted and treated by chlorination and
Jj2i9,5' I resulted. The tailings from the concentrators
were in turn passed through the cyanide works and
yielded jj289,722, more than half a million dollars being
reclaimed, which under old methods would have gone to
waste.

Gold, when it comes from the concentrator, usually
contains silver. Some gold ores contain nearly all the
metals used in the arts, and it will thus be seen that the
material sent to the assayers and smelters is of the most
heterogeneous description, and many methods must Le
used to purify the mass. The most important of these
are the nitric acid process, the sulphuric acid and the
electrolytic. The latter is little used outside the largest
smelting plants.

Acid-parting processes depend for their success upon
the solubility of silver, copper, and other metals in a
liquid which will not attack the gold. Nitric acid was
first used in Venice for this purpose, and for many years
no other method was known. The operation consists of
assorting and proportioning the bullion, granulation ol
the same, solution of the outside metals in acid, and
treatment of the thus parted materials by washing,
drying, and melting.

Thoroughly satisfactory as is the nitric acid process,
so far as its effectiveness is concerned and the high
grade of gold which it yields, yet the comparative high
price of the acid and the necessity for using either
platinum or porcelain vessels in the operation led to its

SULPHURIC ACID PROCESS.

169

being superseded in many plants by the sulphuric acid
process.

The electrolytic process gives the most satisfactory
results when the bullion to be parted has been refined
in a cupel furnace until it contains not over two per cent,
of impurities, such as lead, copper, bismuth, and the
like. The material is cast from the cupel into flat plates
about eighteen inches long, ten inches wide, and one-
half inch thick.

These plates form the anodes, and are suspended by
three lugs cast on one of Lie long sides. They, there-
fore, hang with the greater length horizontal. Tanks of
California redwood planks are very carefully made,
eleven feet long by two feet wide and twenty inches
deep (inside measure). Six partitions are placed cross-
wise in a tank so as to give seven separate cells or
"baths." In each cell three plates or anodes are sus-
pended, alternating with four cathodes. These latter
are thin-rolled sheets of pure silver, thirteen by twenty
by one-thirty-second inches thick, weighing fifty troy
ounces each. The distance between anode and cathode
is about one and three-ouarter inches.

Both anodes and cathodes are suspended by conduct-
ing wires from copper rods resting on the edges of the
tank. Two copper bars traverse these top edges, and
are connected with the respective poles of the dynamo.
The cross rods supporting the plates rest on these bars,
but one end of the rod carrying an anode is insulated
by a rubber band, while the opposite end of the rod

f 1'

: \

170

CONDUCTING THE CURRENT.;

carrying a cathode is insulated in like manner. The
current must therefore pass from one conductor to the
anodes, through the solution and the cathodes, to the
return conductor. It will be seen that the current is
divided between these seven cells and that we have
twenty-one anodes connected in multiple with twenty-
eight cathodes.

A model plant consists of fourteen such tanks contain-
ing seven cells each. Ten of these tanks are constantly
in circuit, four being in turn cut out for charging, dis-
charging, and possible repairs. These ten tanks are
connected in series. The dynamo furnishes a current
of one hundred and eighty amperes, with an electro-
motive force of ninety volts. Such a current requires
twenty-two horse-power. The total cathode surface is
ten square feet in each tank. There is, therefore, a cur-
rent density of eighteen amperes per square foot of
cathode surface. *

Each anode is inclosed in a muslin bag, that serves
to catch the undissolved metals, which fall as a black
slime. In this are found all the gold and bismuth, the
greater part of the lead as peroxide, together with some
silver and copper. Below this system of anodes, cathodes,
and bags in the bath, is stretched on a box-like frame a
piece of cloth, on which is gathered the deposited silver
as it is scraped from the cathodes by wooden " brushes."
These brushes straddle the cathodes without touching, and
are kept moving to and fro by machinery, and they serve,
not only to brush off the silver as fast as it is deposited,

" rj

KEFPING THE SOLUTION UNIFORM.

171

thus preventing short circuits, but also to keep the soki-
tion uniform by gentle agitation.

The solution is one of silver and copper nitrate, to
which about one per cent, of nitric acid is added. The
acid tends to prevent the deposition of copper with the
silver, and about one pint is added to each bath every
twenty-four hours. Three-eights of one volt will decom-
pose silver nitrate, while copper nitrate requires one-
sixth of a volt more and lead nitrate a still higher volt-
age.

The chlorination process, which is familiar to all gold
workers, was invented in 1848. It depends upon the
fact that chlorine has a strong affinity for native gold,
and readily combines with it, firming the soluble auric
chloride. The solution containing the gold can be filtered
off from the residue with ease. The subject to be treated
is first properly moistened, in the improved method, and
then shoveled into a vat with a double bottom. The
upper false bottom is perforated and supports a suitable
filter. Chlorine gas is passed into the space below this
false bottom, and gradually rises until the vat is full.
The lid is then adjusted and the whole allowed to remain
until the action is complete, when the soluble chloride of
gold is washed out through the filter into other vats, where
the gold is precipitated. Various precipitants, such as
ferrous sulphate, charcoal, sulphuretted hydrogen, and
others are used for this purpose.

The presence of any substance which chlorine attacks
necessarily causes a waste of the gas and a hindrance

l^i

4 H

(< '

172

PREVENTING WASTE.

to the process. It Is, therefore, best to calcine the concen-
trates as perfectly as possible before attempting chlori-
nation.

All concentrates can be treated by the smelting pro-
cess. Smelting can, however, only be practiced when
suitable ores are available for mixing to makt a proper
furnace charge. When argentiferous lead ores, such as
galena, are smelted in the blast furnace it is necessary
to add a flux of which oxide of iron is an essential in-
gredient, the products of fusion being base bullion, con-
sisting of metallic lead which contains all the gold pres-
ent in the furnace charge and a slag consisting of silicates
usually of iron, lime, alumina, magnesia, and so on,
according to the nature of the fluxes employed. Aurifer-
ous concentrates, consisting say of iron and arsenical
pyrites, can be employed in this process by being first
calcined. There will result an auriferous oxide of iron,
which could be added as a flux to the other ingredients
of the furnace charge. Almost all the gold present will
alloy with the lead produced, and will be found in the
base bullion from which it is afterwards separated.

According to the nature of the other ingredients, it is
not infrequently an advantage to have a certain amount
of cruiihed quartz lef!, in the concentrates when they go
to the smelter, but in general it is the rule of the mill
man to send his material there as clean and rich as pos-
sible.

A bath of copper may be substituted for the lead in the
smelting process — that is, the former metal is used in-

THE COPPER BATH.

stead of the latter to collect the precious particles in the
course of the operation. This process is particularly
suitable when the concentrates contain a notable pro-
portion of copper pyrites as the copper thus becomes
one of the available ingredients of the product. Coarse
copper is produced by a series of smelting processes
carried on in reverberatory and blast furnaces and run
into slabs, which are refined by electrolysis. During the
electrolytic process the gold in an impure state is de-
posited in black mud at the bottom of the vats and re-
fined by cupellation.

The cyanide process is still another branch of the re-
finer's art. It is not yet well understood, and can be
applied to only a limited class of ores, though these are
abundant in quantity. The process is declared by ex-
perts to have a promising future. It will extract gold
often from products, such as old tailings, upon which
other methods have failed. It has its basis on the fact
of the solubility of gold in a solution of cynanide of
potassium. As the solution has no action upon native
sulphides, usually occurring in concentrates, it is unlike
chlorine, and calcination can be dispensed with. It is
therefore cheaper.

The process consists simply in allowing a weak solution
of cyanide of potassium to percolate through crushed
ore. It is found that such a solution dissolves a large
proportion, perhaps ninety per cent, of the gold con-
tents of the ore while scarcely attacking any of the base
metals contained. The soluUon then contains gold in

■' ■

'74

THE CYANIDE APPARATUS.

?5 *■

•It

the form of potassic aurocyanide, and is filtered off
when the gold is precipitated. The apparatus consists
of dissolving tanks, in which the solution is prepared,
storage tanks in which it is diluted to the desired extent,
leaching vessels, in which the lixiviation proper is carried
out, and precipitating vats in which the precipitation takes
place.

The purified bullion is ready for issue in either of the
two fields, industrial or coinage. The consumption of gold
and silver in the industrial arts is much greater than is
generally supposed. During the year ending June 30th,
1 895, gold and silver bars for industrial use were manufac-
tured in the Philadelphia mint and the assay office at New
York to the coinage value of j^i 7,818,581, in about equal
proportions as to value. Private refineries furnished not
less than ^5,000,000 more. This first cost for what to the
gold-beater, jeweler, watch-case maker, etc., is simply his
raw material, represents an enormous industry when we
consider the amount of high-grade labor which is be-
stowed on gold and silver wares. These bars are 0.999
fine, and are furnished to the public by what may be
called a system of exchange.

A depositor may bring crude bullion in any quantity
(^100 or more in value) and receive either fine gold bars
or coin, at his option, to the full value of the gold in his
deposit, less a trifling charge for melting, ass>iying, part-
ing, etc. These charges vary according to the nature of
the deposit, but may amount to five cents per ounce.
The bars or coin are delivered from stock on hand as soon

THE SYSTEM OF EXCHANGE.

175

as the value of the deposit is ascertained by assay, usually
the following day. For the silver contained in gold
deposit the owner may either receive pure silver bars or
be paid in silver dollars or currency, at the market value
of silver.

Having a stock of refined gold and silver nearly pure,
the first step toward conversion into coin is to make an
iilloy with copper, in such proportions as will produce
standard planchets or " blanks " in the hands of the
coiner. While the standard fineness of gold and silver
coin is the same, yet, as will appear later, the quantity of
copper to be used in the two cases differs a little, yet
materially.

Weighed quantities of gold and copper, or of silver
and copper, are melted together in a large black-lead
crucible. Tlie molten metals thoroughly mixed are then
poured into cast-iron molds to produce what are known
as ingots. These are rectangular bars, differing in size
according to the kind of coin for which they are intended.
The ingot for silver-dollar coinage is i ^ inches wide by
one-half inch thick and 1 2j/^ inches long. Some 70 such
ingot bars, are made from one "melt," and weigh col-
lectively about 3,300 ounces (220 pounds). All the
ingots are stamped with the melt number, of which a
record is kept by the melter and refiner, by the assayer,
and by the superintendent.

The crucible is set for the day's work in a furnace
peculiarly adapted to the purpose, and a continuous fire
maintained, using the best stone coal and a natural draft.

176

INGOTS CUT BY MACHINE.

tfei

Five or six melts are made in each furnace during the
eight hours ; and if the crucibles were taken out of the
furnace at each time of pouring much time would be lost
in resetting and surrounding it with a fresh fire.

The metal; when melted, is thoroughly mixed by
stirring with a tool not unlike a churn-dasher, and it is
then ladled out into the molds with what is called a " dip-
ping cup." This is a small black-lead pot made with a
lip on one side and a straight edge on the opposite side
so formed as not to be crushed when firmly gripped by
a pair of nipping tongs.

The molten metal is slowly poured from the dipping
cup into upright molds, of which some twenty are placed
in a shallow iron pan convenient to the furnace. As
soon as a mold is filled it is removed by an attendant
helper, and passed by him to another, who opens it on an
iron-covered table and throws out the red-hot ingots.
These are chilled in water and then immersed for a few
minutes in very dilute sulphuric acid. This latter removes
a slight coating of copper oxide and gives the ingots a
bright matte color. The gate end of the ingot is then
cut off in a machine which has a shear knife. Th»2 little
fringe left on the ingot by the parting line of the mold
is removed with a file, and then each ingot receives a
number indicating the melt from which it is made.

Standard coin is composed of 900 parts of gold and
100 parts of purest copper. While the law allows a
sli^:U variation in the fineness of coin, to provide for the
limitations of human workmanship, yet this margin is

TRl

KEEPING THE RECORD.

^17

sharply defined and is but a small fraction of i per
cent.

The manufacture of gold ingots is much less trouble-
some than silver. The crucible which has a holding
capacity of, say, 3,300 ounces of standard silver will
serve for a gold melt of 6,000 to 6,500 ounces (400 to
430 pounds avoirdupois).

The fineness of gold bars is furnished to the melter
and refiner by the assayer to the tenth of one-thou-
sandth. Bars, preferably of identical fineness, are
weighed off in proper quantity for a melt, and placed on
a hand-truck with a melt number tagged to each little
pile of bars. A sufificient number of such are prepared
for a day's melting. A chest of drawers mounted on a
truck carries suitable-sized boxes, each having a perma-
nent number plainly marked on it.

The copper requisite for melts Nos. 1, 2, 3, etc., is
placed ir, boxes i, 2, 3, etc., and the trucks with bars and
the one carrying the boxes of alloy meet in the melting
room, wbere the distribution is made, a single melt at a
time — bars and alloy — to each furnace.

A stric t record is kept, and the melting room is charged

widi weight of all metals sent into it in the morning. At

the close of work for the day and before the workmen

are dismissed, all returns from the room, whether ingots,

tops, filings, etc., are weighed, when any shortage, real

or apparent, will be noted. Of course the returns never

exactly equal the charge sent out, since somt: little metal

will adhere to the crucibles and some will be found in
It

'. ■»:

•# ■ 1

:li

178

THE ACTUAL " SWEEPS."

the ashes. This is afterward recovered as "sweeps."
But for the time being these shortages are unknown
quantities. Experience, however, has shown what may
be expected to pass into the sweeps, and an allowance
is made in comparing the charge and returns from the
day's work.

The sweep is a very broad general term in mint prac-
tice, and includes every kind of waste material known
to contain, or likely to contain, gold or silver, except
actual sweepings. The floor of the melting room is
swept each day, but the gatherings from the broom are
carefully mingled with a suitable flux and thrown into
one of the crucibles, still hot and surrounded by the fire
left from the day's work. A crucible is selected which
has seen such service as to entitle it to retirement from
age. On the following morning the contents of the
crucible will be found to have " sweated " down, the flux
to have fused into a glass, and a lump of metal or " king "
will be found at the bottom on breaking the crucible.
This king is weighed, credited to the melting room, sent
to and charged to the refinery.

The actual ** sweeps '* consist of broken crucibles and
dipping cups, all ashes from the fires, burnt gloves,
aprons, saw dust, and packages in which bullion has
been sent to the mint, settlings in catch wells and in roof
gutters ; in short, everything which may contain bullion
without its being visible to the eye. ^

All material of this kind is sent to the sweep cellar,
and such as needs crushing is passed under heavy cast-

f- m

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I ^'

MiNKK'S lIoU^K AND NAIIVh'-i ToTKM VolJi,

THE FRENCH SYSTEM EMPLOYED.

I8l

iron rollers mounted in a mill similar in principle to the
Chilian. The advantage of the roller crushing is that
while brittle materials are reduced to a coarse powder,
any pellets of metal will be flattened out and caught in
the sifting operation which follows. These metallic
scales are melted down and find their way to the refinery.

The assaying of gold is still another important process
which must be gone through with at the mint and else-
where to ascertain its fineness and value.

Gold received at the mint for refining or coinage,
cither in a manufactured or native condition, is of every
variety of fineness, the alloy in a majority of cases being
silver, with a smaller proportion of base metal. In some
cases of low-grade gold the alloy is largely composed
of copper. The object of the assay is to ascertain these
different proportions, both in order to base the calcula-
tions for value and for subsequent minting operations.
For this purpose a small sample is cut from each bar
after melting. The fineness of this sample must, if the
melting has been properly conducted, be the fineness of
the gross amount.

The fineness of gold being expressed in thousandths
(pure gold being 1,000), it has been found expedient in
assaying to employ the French system of weights, using
the demigramme as a unit of 1,000 parts with the deci-
mal divisions to the ten thousandth of that weight. The
demigramme is rather less than eight grains. From the
sample, after it has been laminated for convenience in
chipping, there is accurately weighed one demigramme

1 I'

I82

REMOVING THE BASE METAL.

on the assay balance. This assay balance is so con-
structed as to be of the utmost precision and delicacy,
and so fine is the adjustment that it is sensitive to the
fiftieth of a milligramme.

To the gold, after being accurately weighed, there is
added sufficient fine silver to make about twice (accord-
ing to one system) or thrice (according to another
method, now less used) the estimated amount of silver
which may be contained in the alloy, extreme care being
necessary that the amount of silver added varies as litde
as possible from this proportion, as in any marked di-
vergence the result would be liable to inaccuracy.
Practice enables an expert to judge of the fineness of
the gold within a few thousandths, thus securing the
proper basis for the addition of silver. It is needless to
say that the added silver is accurately weighed. If the
gold or assay is of low fineness, or contains a large
amount of base metal, where it is impossible to estimate
the quality, it is customary to make a preliminary or
approximate assay as a basis or guide for a subsequent
rigid assay. '

The gold and silver, each having been weighed, are in-
closed in a piece of lead foil about ten times the weight
of the assay. A very little copper is added, merely to
assist the cupellation. These are now ready for what
may be termed the first part of the operation, that of
removing the copper and other base metal. This is
effected by the cupelling process. The cupel is a small,
shallow cup made from the ash of bones or the pith of

OXIDIZING THE BASE METAL.

183

animal horns. It possesses the qiiaHty of absorbing the
oxides of the metals, but not the metals themselves.
The bone or pij:h is first well burned in open air and
thoroughly ground, after which it is moistened with
water and pressed in a mold to the desired shape.

The assay furnace is oval in cross section, about one
foot in height, made of fire brick. Extending across the
furnace about the centre is what is known as the
"bridge" (this is also made of fire brick), and is de-
signed to support the muffle. The muffle is the oven
for the reception of the cupels. It is flat-bottomed, with
an arched top, its lengtn nearly corresponding to the
depth of the furnace. The modern furnace is arranged
for burning gas ; the flame completely surrounding the
muffle subjects it to a high heat, easily controlled, and
regulated.

The front of the furnace has an arched opening cor-
responding to the muffle ; through this opening the
cupels are introduced by a long pair of spring tongs.
When in operation the muffle is nearly closed by a door,
allowing, however, the entrance of a regulated current
of air, which, passing over the assay, oxidizes the lead
and base metals, their oxides being absorbed by the cupel.
At the back of the muffle is a slit or opening, which
allows the exit of the unabsorbed fumes formed by the
oxides of the metals, which are not absorbed by the cupel.

The furnace having been properly heated, the cupels
are placed therein and brought to a uniform temperature,
of which the assayer must judge from experience. .

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IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

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THE CORNET OF FINE GOLD.

Each leaden bullet, with its contents, is then placed in
its cupel and the furnace closed. The lead, in which the
gold and silver is inclosed, is rapidly changed to a fluid,
vitreous oxide, which, exerting an oxidizing effect on the
base metals in the gold, causes their absorption into the
pores of the cupel. The lead likewise serves to form a
more uniform alloy between the gold and silver. The
precious metal is allowed to remain in the cupel until all
agitation ceases, when it presents a bright surface, which
indicates that the base metals have oxidized and ab-
sorbed. The cupel is now allowed to cool gradually and
the button of pure gold and silver detached.

The next step is to extract the silver, which is accom-
plished by digesting the rolled-out button in nitric
acid. The object of the original addition of the silver
is to make an alloy in which the particles of gold shall
be so far separated from each other that the action de-
sired shall not be interfered with. The button is ham-
mered and rolled into a thin sheet to give the widest
possible surface for the action of the acid. The sheet
is rolled loosely into what is termed a cornet. The lat-
ter is introduced into a small vessel, where a boiling
process in acid takes place. When the digesting process
is completed it is presumed that all silver has been re-
moved. The acid is poured off, the cornet well washed
and placed in a small clay crucible to be dried and an-
nealed. The cornet, which is then fine gold, is taken
to the assay balance and its weight ascertained in thou-
sandths of a demigramme. The number of thousandths

THE DUPLICATE ASSAY.

185

which it weighs expres^ses the fineness of the original
sample.

In assaying fine (or nearly fine) gold the proof is
weighed to 1,000 parts of the »:est gold ; but in assaying
ingots for coinage and the ordinary class of deposits a
proof of 900 parts is used, and in lower grades of gold a
synthetic proof is used corresponding to the approximate
or supposed fineness of the metal, the object being to
subject an alloy of known composition closely similar to
that under test to identical treatment.

After the ingots have been made, the first and last
ingot from every melt are carried to the assay room and
a sample slip taken from each. These are assayed
separately and their fineness reported to the melter and
refiner. The ingots or melts which may be too far from
the legal standard, or fail to show a uniformity of fine-
ness in the assays, are condemned. They are then re-
melted with the proper addition of either gold or copper,
as the case may require, to bring them to standard.

With every sample of gold assayed there is also a
corresponding duplicate assay made, to guard against
any error which might possibly occur in the various
assay processes. Besides this, thii duplicate serves to
show if the alloy be of a uniform fineness throughout.
If such is not the case (as shown by the v^ ration of the
assays), the mass from which the sample was taken is
remelted and stirred to make it homogeneous, after
which it is assayed in duplicate as before.

In case the gold for assay be of low fineness, or if

A^^

I •

i86

COIN FROM THE INGOTS.

there is but a small proportion of gold in the alloy, it is
found to be expedient in preparing the assay to add
sufficient fine gold so that the assay may contain 900
parts of gold in the thousand. By this course the exact
fineness of the alloy is ascertained, otherwise an allow-
ance^ would have to be made for a slight absorption of
gold by the cupel, which will happen when a large pro-
portion of alloy is present. When the weight of the
cornet is ascertained, the amount of fine gold which was
added must be deducted, the difference being the fine-
ness of the original alloy.

It sometimes happens that the ordinary amount of
lead is insufificient to cause the entire elimination of all
the base alloy in the gold. It may be, too, that the
cupel is not capable of absorbing the entire amount of
lead which such an assay would require. To avoid these
difficulties it is customary to vveigh the assay at one-
half the usual weight, adding fine gold as described
above, thus diminishing in like proportion the amount
of base metal to be oxidized and absorbed by the cupel.

The ingots as received from the melter and refiner by
the coiner vary in size and weight according to the de-
nomination of the piece for which they are to be used.
The first operation in converting ingots into coin, called
" breaking down," is the passing of them between heavy
rolls, which results in the ingot being formed into
"strips.** To more clearly understand this, it maybe
said that the ingots are divided into drafts of from forty
to sixty ingots, aid each draft passed between the

I #

IN THE POINTING ROLLS.

187

" break-down " rolls a number of times, determined by
the malleability of the metal. After each operation the
rolls are tightened and brought closer together by means
of wedges under the lower roll, which wedges are worked
by means of a worm wheel. Such tightening of the rolls
is shown by an indicator similar to a clock dial.

In " breaking down " ingots the metal becomes hard
and springy, and too much rolling without softening
causes the strips to crack and split. To avoid this they
are annealed as follows : Inclosed in copper canisters,
sealed with potters' clay to ei elude air and thus prevent
oxidation, the strips are placed in a furnace heated to
about 1,500° F., where they remain for about one hour
and a half, the time depending upon the heat of the fur-
nace and the size of the strips. After being cooled off
in water and each strip wiped dry they are ready for
further reduction in the finishing rolls.

Double eagles and eagles are passed through the
finishing rolls three times, half-eagles and quarter-eagles
four times.

The strips, upon leaving the finishing rolls, are again
annealed, cut in two for convenience in handling, and
taken to the pointing rolls, where the end is flattened to
permit of an easy passage through the dies of the draw-
bench. The draw-benches are double, and each section
is independent of the other in action. Each has two
dies, regulated by set screws. Between these dies the
pointed end of the strip is passed, and being seized by
the jaws of the carriage, which is drawn by means of an

■■I

isa

PREPARED FOR THE DIES.

endless chain, the strip is passed through and reduced
as near as may be to the standard weight. The opera-
tion is similar to that of wire drawing. When the strips
are drawn to the proper weight, which is ascertained by
weighing, each piece is weighed in the adjusting room, and
if found to be heavier than the legal limit, is reduced within
the limit by filing the edge of the planchet ; if lighter
than the legal limit, it is condemned and returned to the
melter and refiner to be remelted. Those planchets
which have been adjusted are then taken to the milling
machines to undergo the operation of having the raised
edge (technically termed "milling") put on them. The
milling protects the surface of the coin from abrasion.

In the milling machines the planchets are fed by hand
into a vertical tube, and, one by one, are caused to rotate
in a horizontal plane in a groove formed on one side by
a revolving wheel and on the other by a fixed segment of
a corresponding groove. Each piece as it passes through
this narrow groove has its edge evenly forced up into a
border or rim. The milled pieces are then taken to the
cleaning-room to be cleaned. To facilitate the cleaning,
as well as to soften the pieces for the imprint of the dies,
they are again annealed by heating to a cherry red, then
dipped into a solution of sulphuric acid and water suffi-
ciently strong to clean and brighten them. After being
thoroughly rinsed in boiling water they are hand-riddled
in sawdust to dry them, and are then ready for the
stamping-press.

The most important operation in the stamping of a

THE DEVIATION IN WEIGHT.

189

piece is the adjustment of the dies in the press. This
adjustment requires great skill and long experience,
much depending upon the character of the metal to be
operated upon. The pieces are fed to the press through
a vertical tube, and as each piece reaches the bottom
of the tube steel feeders carry it over between the dies,
place it in a steel collar, when the dies close upon the
planchet and the obverse and reverse impressions are
made. The inner rim of the collar is reeded or fluted,
and the planchet before being struck is slightly less in
diameter than the collar ; but the pressure upon the dies
causes the piece to expand in the collar and takes from
it the reeding on its edge.

There is a limit of tolerance on individual pieces, but
all coins are far within this limit. Those pieces that are
heavier than the standard weight are termed ** heavies ;'*
those that are lighter than standard weight are termed
" lights." Gold coin is put up in drafts of $5,000 each.
The legal weight of $5,000 in gold coin is 268.75 ^^^y
ounces, but there is a deviation allowed by law of one-
hundredth of an ounce from this legal weight. In mak-
ing up the drafts the "lights," " heavies," and ** stand-
ards " are mixed so that the deviation from 268.75 ounces
shall not exceed one-hundredth of an ounce.

The production of gold in Alaska in 1 895 was 78,000
ounces ; in 1896 it reached 120,000 ounces.

The following table is of great interest, showing, as it
does, the world's output of gold in the last 400 years,
according to the United States government report :

ill

190

THE WORLD'S OUTPUT OF GOLD.

PSMOD.

Gold.

Annual average for period.

Total for period.

Fine ounces.

Value.

Fine ounces.

Value.

I493-I52O, . .

186,470

13,855,000

5,221,160

1107,931,000

I52I-I544, . .

230,194

4.759,000

5.524,656

114,205,000

1545-1560,. .

273,596

5,656,000

4,377.544

90492,000

I56I-I580, . .

219,906

4,546,000

4.398.120

90,917,000

I58I-I6OO, . .

237,267

4,905,000

4.745.340

98,095.000
113,248,000

I6OI-I62O, . .

273,9«8

5,662,000

5,478,360

I62I-I64O, . .

266,845

5,516,000

5.336,900

110,324,000

I64I-I660, . .

281,955

5,828,000

5,639.110

116,571,000

I66I-I68O, . .

297,709

6,154,000

5,954,180

123.084,000

I68I-I7OO, . .

346,095

7,154,000

6,921,895

143,088,000

I7OI-I72O, . .

412,163

8,520,000

8,243,260

170403,000

I72I-I74O, . .

613,422

12,681,000

12,268,440

253,61 1/)00

1 741-1760, . .

791,211

16,356,000

15,824,230

327,116,000

I76I-I78O, . .

665,666

13,761,000

«3.3"3,3I5

275,211,000

I78I-I80O, . .

571,945

11,823,000

",438,970

236464,000

I80I-I8IO, . .

571,563

11,815,000

5.715,627

118,152,000

»7

I8II-I82O, . .

367,957

7,606,000

3.679,568

76,063,000

1 821-1830, . .

457,044

9448,000

4.570444

94479,000

1 831-1840, . .

652,291

13484,000

6,522,913

134,841,000

I84I-I85O, . .

1,760,502

36.393,000

17,605,018

363,928,000

1851-1855,. .

6,410,324

132,513,000

32,051,621

662,566,000

I856-I86O, . .

6,486,262

134,083,000

32431,312

670415,000

I86I-I865, . .

5,949,582

122,989,000

29,747.9»3

614,944,000

1866-1870, . .

6,270,086

129,614,000

3 >. 350,430

648^)71,000

I87I-I875,. .

5,591,014

115,577,000

27.955.068

577,883,000

I876-I88O, . .

5.543."o

114,586,000

27,715.550

572,931,000

I88I-I885, . .

4,794,755

99,116,000

23.973.773

495,582,000

1886

5,135,679

106,163,900

5.135.679

106,163,900

1887. . . . .

5,116,861

105,774.900

5,116,861

105,774.900

1888

5,330,775

110,196,900

5,330,775

110,196,900

1889, . . . .

5.973,790

123489,200

5.973.790

123489,200
118,848,700

1890, . . . .

5.749,306

118,848,700

S.749,306

I89I, . . . .

6,320,194

> 30,650,000

6,320,194

130,650,000

1892

7,094,266

146,651,500

7,094,266

146,651,500

1893

7,618,811

157,494,800

7,618,811

157,494.800

1894

8.783,342

181,567,800

8,783.342

181,1,67,800

1895

Total, . .

9,694,640

200406,000

9.694,640

200406,000

424,822,381

8,781,858,700

CHAPTER IX.

!i . i

MINING LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AND NORTHWEST

TERRITORIES.

Early Laws on the Yukon — Gold and Silver Mines the Property of Kin^—
The Establishment of a Gold Commissioner at Fort Cudahy— The
Newly Promulgated Canadian Mining Regulations — Alternate
Claims Reserved for the Crown — ^The Levying of Royalties — Char-
tering of Companies in the Northwest Territories — Fees for Incor-
poration — Application of the United States Land Laws to Alaska —
The Mining Acts of 1866 and 1872— The Miners' Meetings— Size
and Location of Claims— The Camp Recorder and His Pees.

MINING has been going on along the Yukon for a
good many years, and but little attention has
been paid to the statutes covering claims. There has
been room for all, a few rudely-framed rules were estab-
lished and in general observed, and for the rest might
gave right. The U»uted States Government has never
until quite recendy shown any disposition to enforce
laws of any kind in the Alaskan interior. Naturally the
mining code of the United States has played but an
insignificant r6le along the Birch and other gold-produc-
ing waters. The same is true of the territory on the
Canadian side of the boundary line. The Dominion
Mining Laws, enacted in 1889, were nominally in force
within a very recent date, but as no provisions were
made to carry out their vanous clauses, they have been
honored more in the breach than in the observance.
However, when the great finds along the Klondike and
other Canadian waters became known, the Dominion
officials saw fit to revise these laws and also to provide

-.:.«

|i 'i :

tl\

192

GOLD COMMISSIONER.

for their enforcement. No restrictions have been placed
upon Americans in working claims upon Canadian soil,
and, unless some change is made later on, the American
citizen on the Klondike will work on an equal footing
with subjects of the Queen. Gold and silver mines have
always been looked upon as the property of the sover-
eign by virtue of the royal prerogative. Acting on this
principle, it has been the disposition of most states to
treat gold and silver mines as public property, and a
part of the natural domain worked by the state on its
own account or granted by the state to individuals to be
worked by them under certain restrictions.

In order to carry out the newly-promulgated laws, the
Canadian Government has established at Ft. Cudahy
a Gold Commissioner invested with extraordinary
powers. In order to strengthen his hands in carrying
on the arduous duties of his post, the force of Mounted
Police in the district has been materially strengthened.

Copies of the regulations now in force along the
Yukon River and its tributaries in' the Northwest Terri-
tories ol the Dominion of Canada, with such changes as
may be made in them from time to time, can be obtained
by applying to the Department of the Interior, Ottawa,
Ontario ; or to the Gold Commissioner, at Fort Cudahy,
Yukon District, Northwest Territories, Canada.

These laws, as they now stand, read as follows :

** Interpretation.

" ' Bar diggings' shall mean any part of a river over
which the water extends when the water is in its flooded
state, and which is not covered at low water.

MININO TERMS.

193

'' Mines on benches shall be known as bench diggings,
and shall for the purpose of defining the size of such
claims be excepted from dry diggings.

" ' Dry diggings ' shall mean any mine over which
a river never extends.

•* ' Miner' shall mean a male or female over the age
of eighteen, but not under that age.

*' ' Claims ' shall mean the personal right of property
in a placer mine or diggings during the time for which
the grant of such mine or diggings is made.

'"Legal post' shall mean a stake standing not less
than four feet above the ground and squared on four
sides for at least one foot from the top. Both sides so
squared shall measure at least four inches across the
face. It shall also mean any stump or tree cut off and
squared or faced to the above height and size.

"* Close season ' shall mean the period of the year
during which placer mining is generally suspended.
The period to be fixed by the gold commissioner in
whose district the claim is situated.

"'Locality' shall mean the territory along a river
(tributary of the Yukon) and its affluents.

"'Mineral' shall include all minerals whatsoever
other than coal.

NATURE AND SIZE OF CLAIMS.

** First, Bar diggings : A strip of land one hundred
feet wide at high- water mark and thence extending along
into the river to its lowest water level.

" Second, The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall

i i

■I

194

SIZB OP CLAIMS.

be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right
angles to the stream, and shall be marked by four legal
posts, one at each end of the claim at or about high-
water mark, also one at each end of the claim at or about
the edge of the water. One of the posts at high-water
mark shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner
and the date upon which the claim is staked.

" Third, Dry diggings shall be one hundred feet
square, and shall have placed at each of its four corners
a legal post, upon one of which shall be legibly marked
the name of the miner and the date upon which the
claim was staked.

^* Fourth. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet
long, measured in the direction of the general course of
the stream, and shall extend in width from base to base
of the hill or bench on each side, but when the hill or
benches are less than 100 feet apart, the claim may be
100 feet in depth. The sides of a claim shall be two
parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to
the stream. The sides shall be marked with legal posts
at or about the edge of the water, and at the rear
boundaries of the claim. One of the legal posts at the
stream shall be legibly marked with the name of the
miner and the date upon which the claim was staked.

** Fifth, A bench claim shall be 100 feet square, and
shall have placed at each of its four corners a legal post
upon which shall be legibly marked the name of the
miner and the date upon which the claim was staked.

''Sixth. Entry shall only be granted for alternate
claims, the other alternate claims being reserved for the

PBNALTI^.

195

crown, to be disposed of at public auction, or in such
manner as may be decided by the Minister of the In-
terior.

** The penalty for trespassing upon a claim reserved
for the Crown shall be immediate cancellation by the
Gold Commissioner of any entry or entries which the
person trespassing may have obtained, whether by orig-
inal entry or purchase for a mining claim, and the re-
fusal by the Gold Commissioner of the acceptance of
any application which the person trespassing may at any
time make for a claim. In addition to -^ich penalty, the
mounted police, upon a requisition from the Gold Com-
missioner to that effect, shall take the lecessary steps to
eject the trespasser.

** Seventh. In defining the size of claims, they shall be
measured horizontally, irrespective of inequalities on uie
surface of the ground.

"Eighth. If any person or persons shall discover a
new mine, and such discovery shall be established to the
satisfaction of the Gold Commissioner, a claim for the
bar diggings 750 feet in length may be granted.

" A new stratum of auriferous earth or gravel situated
in a locality where the claims are abandoned shall, for
this purpose, be deemed a new mine, although the same
locality shall have previously been worked at a different
level.

** Ninth, The forms of application for a grant for
placer mining and the grant of the same shall be those
contained in forms ' H ' and ' J ' in the schedule hereto
attached.

! .\

■■h \

"i^^pl^lpip

196

PBBS AND ROYAI/TIBS.

Tenth, A claim shall be recorded with the Gold
Commissioner in whose district it is situated within three
days after the location thereof, if it is located within ten
miles of the commissioner's office. One extra day shall
be allowed for making such record for every additional
ten miles and fraction thereof.

''Eleventh. In the event of the absence of the Gold
Commissioner from his office, entry for a claim may be
granted by any person whom he may appoint to perform
his duties in his absence.

" Twelfth, Entry shall not be granted for a claim
which has not been staked by the applicant in person, in
the manner specified in these regulations. An affidavit
that the claim was staked out by the applicant shall be
embodied in form * H ' of the schedule hereto attached.

" Thirteenth, An entry fee of ^15 shall be charged the
first year and an annual fee of J 100 for each of the fol-
lowing years. This provision shaH apply to the locations
for which entries have already been granted.

** Fourteenth, A royalty of ten per cent, on the gold
mined shall be levied and collected by the officers to be
appointed for the purpose, provided the amount so
mined and taken from a single claim does not exceed
five hundred dollars per week. In case the amount
mined and taken from any single claim exceeds five
hundred dollars per week, there shall be levied and
collected a royalty of ten per cent, upon the amount
so taken out up to five hundred dollars, and upon the
excess, or amount taken from any single claim over five
hundred dollars per week, there shall be levied and col-

ftm

•*i!

ii'

' 1

■I

)i j

'. *i

'.;|

I ^

; I

FAI^B STATBMBNTS.

199

lected a royalty of twenty per cent, such royalty to form
part of the consolidated Revenue, and to be accounted
for by the officers who collect the same in due course.
The time and manner in which such royalty shall be col-
lected, and the person who shall collect the same, shall
be provided for by regulations to be made by the Gold
Commissioner.

Default in payment of such royalty, if continued for
ten days, after notice has been posted upon the claim in
respect of which it is demanded, or in the vicinity of ^uch
claim, by the Gold Commissioner or his agent, shall be
followed by cancellation of the claim. Any attempt to
defraud the Crown by withholding any part of the revenue
thus provided for, by making false statements of the
amount taken out, shall be punished by cancellation of
the claim in respect of which fraud or false statements
have been committed or made. In respect of the facts
as to such fraud or false statements or non-payment of
royalty, the decision of the Gold Commissioner shall be
final.

** Fifteenth, After the recording of a claim, the removal
of any post by the holder thereof, or any person acting
in his behalf, for the purpose of changing the boundaries
of his claim, shall act as a forfeiture of the claim.

'* Sixteenth, The entry of every holder for a grant for
placer mining must be renewed, and his receipt relin-*
quished and replaced every year, the entry fee being
paid each year.

" Seventeenth, No miner shall receive a grant for more
than one mining claim in the same locality ; but the same

,p ■'

IIP

«>v

itt!

200

SAI^B OR MORTGAGE.

miner may hold any number of claims by purchase, and
any number of miners may unite to work their claims
in common upon such terms as they may arrange, pro-
vided such agreement be registered with the Gold Com-
missioner and a fee of $5 paid for each registration.

" Eighteenth, /.ny miner or miners may sell, mortgage,
or dispose of his or their claims, provided such disposal
be registered with and a fee of $2 paid to the Gold Com-
missioner, who shall thereupon give the assignee a cer-
tificate in form " J " in the schedule hereto attached.

^^ Nineteenth, Every miner shall, during the continu-
ance of his grant, have the exclusive right of entry upon
his own claim for the miner-like working thereof and the
construction of a residence thereon, and shall be entitled
exclusively to all the proceeds realized therefrom ; but
he shall have no surface rights therein, and the Gold
Commissioner may grant to the holders of adjacent
claims such rights of entry thereon as may be absolutely
necessary for the working of their claims upon such
terms as may to him seem reasonable. He may also
grant permits to miners to cut timber thereon for their
own use upon payment of the dues prescribed by the
regulations in that behalf

'* Twentieth, Every miner shall be entitled to the use
of so much of the water naturally flowing through or
•past his claim, and not already lawfully appropriated, as
shall in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner, be neces-
sary for the due working thereof, and shall be entitled to
drain his own claim free of charge.

Twenty-first, A claim shall be deemed to be aban-

MINER'S RIGHTS.

201

doned and open to the occupation and entry by any
person when the same shall have remained un worked
on working days by the grantee thereof or by some
person on his behalf for the space of seventy-two hours,
unless sickness or other reasonable cause may be shown
to the satisfaction of the Gold Commissioner, or unless
the grantee is absent on leave given by the Commis-
sioner, and the Gold Commissioner, upon obtaining evi-
dence satisfactory to himself that this provision is not
being complied with, may cancel the entry given for a
claim.

^^Twenty-second, If the land upon which a claim has
been located is not the property of the Crown, it will be
necessary for the person who applies for entry to furnish
proof that he has acquired from the owner of the land
the surface right before entry can be granted.

** Twenty-third, If the occupier of the land has not re-
ceived a patent therefor, the purchase-money of the sur-
face rights must be paid to the Crown, and a patent of
the surface rights will issue to the party who acquired
the mining rights. The money so collected will either
be refunded to the occupier of the land when he is enti-
tled to a patent therefor, or will be credited to him on
account of payment for land.

*' Twenty-fourth, When the party obtaining the min-
ing rights cannot make an arrangement with the owner
thereof for the acquisition of the surface rights, it shall
be lawful for him to give notice to the owner or his
agent, or the occupier, to appoint an arbitrator to act
with another arbitrator named by him in order to award

I:.

I»'L

202

ARBITRATORS— HOW SWORN

the amount of compensation to which the owner or oc-
cupant shall be entitled. The notice mentioned in this
section shall be according to form, to be obtained upon
application from the Gold Commissioner for the district
in which the lands in question lie, and shall, when practi-
cable, be personally served on such owner or his agent,
if known, or occupant, and after reasonable efforts have
been made to effect personal service without success,
then such notice shall be served upon the owner or
agent within a period to be fixed by the Gold Commis-
sioner before the expiration of the time limited in such
notice. If the proprietor refuses or declines to appoint
an arbitrator, or when, for any other reason, no arbitrator
is appointed by t- .e proprittOi in the time limited there-
for in the notice provided by this section, the Gold Com-
missioner for the district in which the lands in question
lie shall, on being satisfied by afifidavit that such notice
has come to the knowledge of such owner, agent, or
occupant, or that such owner, agent, or occupant, will-
fully evades the service of such notice, or cannot be
found, and that reasonable efforts have been made to
effect such service, and that the notice was left at the
last place of abode of such owner, agent, or occupant,
appoint an arbitrator on his behalf.

''Twenty-fifth, (a) All arbitrators appointed under the
authority of these regulations shall be sworn before a
Justice of the Peace to the impartial discharge of the
duties assigned to them, and they shall forthwith proceed
to estimate the reasonable damages which the owner or
occupant of such lands according to their several inter-

CERTinCATB OP ASSIGNMENT.

ao3

ests therein shall sustain by reason of such prospecting
and mining operations.

"(b) In estimating such damages the arbitrators shall
determine the value of the land, irrespectively of any
enhancement thereof from the existence of mineral
therein.

"(c) In case such arbitrators cannot agree they may
select a third arbitrator, and when the two arbitrators
cannot agree upon a third arbitrator the gold commis-
sioner for the district in which the lands in question lie
shall select such third arbitrator.

"(d) The award of any two such arbitrators made in
writing shall be final, and shall be filed v/ith the gold
commissioner for the district in which the lands lie.

" If any cases arise for which no provision is made in
these regulations, the provisions of the regulations gov-
erning the disposal of mineral lands other than coal
lands, approved by his Excellency the Governor in coun-
cil on the 9th of November, 1889, shall apply."

The following is the form which a certificate of assign-
ment of a placer claim assumes :

"Form *J.' r ,

" No. -.

" Department cf the Interior.

"Agency, ■ ,18 — .

" This is to certify that (B. C.) has (or have) filed an
assignment in due form dated 1 8 — , and accom-
panied by a registration fee of ♦wo dollars, of the grant

to (A. B.) of , of the right to mine in

■ (insert description of claim) for one year from

— . 18—.

■I ii

^ M

f! 1;

4>*

204

RIGHTS CONVEYED.

" This certificate entitles the said (B. C.) to all

rights and privileges of the said (A. B.) in re-
spect of the claim assigned — that is to say, the exclusive
right of entry upon the said claim for the miner-like
working thereof, and the construction of a residence
thereon, and the exclusive rights to all proceeds there-
from for the remaining portion, of the year for which said

claim was granted to the said (A. B.) — that is to

say, until the , i8 — .

" The said (B. C.) shall be entitled to the use

of so much of the water naturally flowing through or
past his (or their) claim, and not already lawfully appro-
priated, as shall be necessary for the due working there-
of, and to drain the claim free of charge.

" This grant does not convey to the said (B.C.)

any surface rights in said claim or any rights of owner-
ship in the soil covered by the said claim, and the said
grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless the claim is con-
tinually and in good faith worked by the said (B. C.) or
his (or their) associates.

*' The rights hereby granted are those laid down in
the Dominion Mining Regulations, and are subject to all
provisions of the said regulations, whether the same are
expressed herein or not.

((

*'Gold Commissioner**
A specimen application blank for grant for placer

claim and affidavit of applicant is as follows :

"FormH.
*'I, (or we) of ' , hereby apply under the Do-

CI^AIMS CONTINUED.

205

minion Mining Regulations for grant of a claim for placer

mining as defined in the said regulations in (here

describe locality), and I (or we) solemly swear :

" First That I (or we) am (or are) to the best of my
(or our) knowledge and belief the first discoverer (or
discoverers) of the said deposit ; or,

^* Second. That the said claim was previously granted
to (here name the last grantee), but has remained

unworked by the said grantee for not less than .

'* Third, That I (or we) am (or are) unaware that the
land is other than vacant Dominion lands.

" Fourth, That I (or we) did on the day of

mark out on the ground in accordance in every

particular with the provisions of the mining regulations
for the Yukon River and its tributaries the claim for
which I (or we) make this application, and that in so
doing I (or we) did not encroach on any other claim or
mining location previously laid out by any other person.

*' Fifth. That the same claim contains as nearly as I

(or we) could measure or estimate an area of —

square feet, and that the description (and sketch, if any)
of this date hereto attached signed by me (or us) sets
(or set) forth in detail to the best of my (or our) know-
ledge and ability its position, form, and dimensions.

^^ Sixth. That I (or we) make this application in good
faith to acquire the claim for the sole purpose of mining,
prosecuted by myself (or us), or by myself and asso-
ciates, or by my (or our) assigns.

" Sworn before me , at — — this day

of . 18—.

(Signature.)

»»

#'V

2o6

PI^ACBR CLAIM GRANT.

A grant for a placer claim reads thus :
" Form ' 1/

*' Department of the Interior,

"Agency, , i8 —

'* In consideration of the payment of the fee prescribed
by clause 1 2 of the mining regulations of the Yukon
River and its tributaries by (A. B.), accompany-
ing his (or their) application No. , dated — ,

18 — , for a mining claim in (here insert descrip-
tion of locality), the Minister of the Interior hereby

grants to the said (A. B.), for the term of one

year from the date hereof, the exclusive right of entry
upon the claim (here describe in detail the claim).

** Granted, For the miner-like working thereof and
the construction of a residence thereon, and the exclu-
sive right to all the proceeds derived therefrom. That

the said (A. B.) shall be entitled to the use of so

much water naturally flowing through or past his (or their
claim, and not already lawfully appropriated, as shall be
necessary for the due working thereof, and to drain his
(or their) claim free of charge.

** This grant does not convey to the said (A.B.)

any surface right in the said claim or any right of owner-
ship in the soil covered by the said claim, and the said
grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless the claim is con-
tinuously and in good faith worked by the said

(A. B.) or his (or their) associates.

•* The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the
aforesaid mining regulations and no more, and are sub-

POWERS OP ASSEMBI^Y.

ao7

ject to all the provisions of the said regulations, whether
the same are expressed herein or not.

* ' ** Gold Commissioner,**
The local government of the Northwest Territories,
now having a standing as a representative part of the
Dominion of Canada, is in the hands of a legislative
assembly. The territorial assembly is empowered to
incorporate companies with purely territorial objects,
except railway, steamship, canal, transportation, tele-
graph, insurance, and street railway companies. Ap-
plications for charters for companies not coming within
the classes thus excepted must be made directly to
the Dominion Government.

Those companies which are incorporated by the terri-
torial government are licensed to do business by the
issue of letters patent given by the lieutenant-governor
under a general enactment known as " The Companies*
Ordinance," which is about the same thing as ** The
Companies' Act," of the Dominion Parliament. The
stipulations of the territorial law not held in common
with that of the Dominion are as follows : -

1. The number of applicants for charters must be at
least three.

2. One month's notice must be given in the Terri-
torial Gazette^ and in the local news sheets which are
published nearest to the chief place of business of the
company in the territories.

3. The petition may be presented at any time within
two months from the last publication of the notice.

,ij

2o8

PBBS RBQUIRBD.

4. The number of directors shall not be less than
three, nor more than nine.

The fees which the territorial enactment call for upon
the issuing of letters patent or upon the filing by a for-
eign corporation of its charter are as follows :

When capital stock is $400,cxx> and upwards, J200
when capital stock is $200,000 and under $400,000, $1 50
when capital stock is $100,000 and under $200,000, $100
when capitjal stock is $50,000 and under $100,000, $50
when capital stock is $40,000 and under $50,000, $40
when capital stock is $10,000 and under $40,000, $30
when capital stock is under $10,000, $20— in addition to
advertising charges.

All joint stock companies and corporations other than
those incorporated under it or by the Parliament of
Canada, or insurance companies licensed thereby, shall,
before proceeding to do business in the territories, file
in the office of the lieutenant-governor a certified copy
of its charter of incorporation authenticated as such by
its president and secretary, failing in which said com-
pany shall incur a penalty of $500, to be recovered at
the suit of the lieutenant-governor in any civil court in
the territories.

The public land laws of the United States do not ap-
ply to Alaska, and neither do the coal land regulations,
which are distinct from the mineral regulations. The
Territory of Alaska is expressly excluded from the oper-
ations of the public land and coal laws by provisions of
the laws themselves. The Hon. Bruger Hermann, Com-
missioner of the United States General Land Office, has

MINBRAT^ LAND LAWS.

209

authorized the statement that the following laws are ap-
plicable to the territory :

First, The mineral land laws of the United States.

Second. Town-site laws, which provide for the incor-
poration of town sites and acquirement of title thereto
from the United States Government by the town-site
trustees.

Third, The laws providing for trade and manufactures,
giving each qualified person 1 60 acres of land in a square
and compact form.

The territories have no title to the unappropriated
minerals in the public lands. Prior to the Act of Con-
gress of July 26, 1866, the United States had not done
anything which amounted to a dedication to the public
of the minerals in the public lands. Congress, prior to
1866, passed some acts reserving mineral lands from
sale, but did nothing else in regard to the mineral lands.
In July, 1866, a general act was passed, throwing open
to exploration and purchase by any citizen of the United
States, or anyone who has declared his intention to be-
come such, all the mineral lands in the public domain.
This act, in connection with one passed the following
year, created three distinct classes of titles : (i) a title
by right of possession, which is the lowest grade of title
known to the mineral laws ; (2) the equitable title, which
accrues upon purr^haseand entry; and (3) the fee simple,
which is acquired by patent.

The original act provided that the mineral lands should
be open to exploration and purchase by all citizens of the
United States and those who have declared their inten-

•• k

210

RIGHT TO MINE.

tion to become such. In this point of citizenship being
requisite to the exercise of their right, there has been
no change in the law.

No where in any of the various United States or
State codes is any distinction made on account of age
or sex, and the female, who comes within the terms of
the law, is capable of making a valid location as also is a
minor.

The right to mine can be given, whether by State or
federal laws, only in public lands. When the lands have
become the property of an individual, the government's
right over them is gone. '^ * J

There are in the United States three sources of bind^
ing regulations as regards -mines and mining: (i) the
Federal laws, as enacted by Congress; (2) the State
and Territorial laws, as enacted by the State and Terri-
torial legislatures; and (3) the community laws, as
enacted by a miners' meeting. They take precedence
in the order named. Up to 1866, all mineral lands were

held by virtue of compliance with the third class named.
There were no absolute titles recognized by the Govern-
ment. In other words, there were no mineral lands,
prior to 1866, which had passed beyond the control of
the Government. The act of 1866 gave practical recog-
nition to the laws of the miners* community, and titles
were issued accordingly. The regulations of the com-
munity are still recognized as being official.

The character of the mineral lands open to explora-
tion was not designated by the Act of 1866, but in 1872
an act was passed stipulating that it must contain "valu-

STATUTE PROVISIONS.

211

able mineral deposits." Non-mineral lands may be
located as mill sites, either in connection with a lode
location or separate therefrom, but only to the extent of
ten acres. Mineral lands are not subject to entry and
settlement under the homestead acts. The statutes de-
fine a placer to be any form of deposit, except veins of
quartz or other rock in place. Where a person is in
possession of a placer claim, which includes one or more
lodes or veins, he must, in his application for a patent,
state that fact, or the lodes will be excluded from his
patent, provided that they are known to exist at the
time of such application. If they are not known to exist
at the time, then the patent for the placer ground will
convey all the mineral and other deposits within the
boundaries thereof. If made on surveyed lands, the
location must conform to the United States surveys as
near as possible ; bat where they cannot be so made, a
survey and plat may be made as on unsurveyed lands.

In many of the codes it is stipulated that the vein or
lode must not only be located, but laid bare, exposed to
view, and this for some distance along its course.

Under the Act of 1866, no single locator could claim
more than two hundred feet on the same vein, except
that an additional two hundred feet was allowed to the
discoverer of the vein, nor should a patent issue for more
than one vem or lode. No association or persons, how-
ever large, could take up more than three thousand feet
on any one ledge.

Th€: Act of 1872, changed this by providing that no
claim located after that date should exceed fifteen hun-

212

VAI^ID CtAlMd.

dred feet along the middle of the vein at the surface, nor
should it exceed in width three hundred feet. It further
provided that no mining regulation should ever limit the
width of the location to less than twenty-five feet on each
side of the middle of the vein. -

Most of the states and territories have cut down the
Federal figures on the size of claims and in some states,
notably Colorado, they vary with the different camp. It
is not necessary that the vein should lie along the middle
of the claim. It is a miner* s trick to make the vein
almost form the boundary on one side, and by so doing
another vein on the opposite side can thus be brought
within the boundary of the claim. • "-

A valid location of a mining claim can be made only
when the ground is open to exploration and appropri-
ation. Discovery and appropriation are the sources of
right and development the condition of continued pos-
session. In taking up a claim usually one hundred dol-
lars worth of work must be done before the miner gets
a standing in the eyes of the miners' community. This
amount of work must be done each succeeding year until
the patent is granted. This is supposed to show his
good intentions. The digging of a hole ten feet deep in
most settlements is taken as a guarantee of good faith.
This amount of work done, the claim can be recorded on
the camp's record books. A year from this date must
elapse before application can be made to the Federal
Government for letters patent. In the meantime five
hundred dollars worth of work must have been put in
on the claim. Application for letters having been made

REQUIREMENTS BV CONGRESS.

2t3

the surveys are made by the Federal authorities, and
every chance given for contesting the validity of the
claim before the miner enters upon his undisputed pos-
session. ) V . V

The certificates of location issued by the camp re-
corder — an official elected by the miners' meeting, are
presumptive evidence of discovery, and every reasonable
presumption should be indulged in in favor of the integ-
rity of the locations.

All that is required by the acts of congress is that the
location shall be along the vein or lode ; that it shall be
distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries
can be readily traced ; that the record shall contain fmch
description by reference to some natural object or per-
manent monument as will identify the claim, and that all
the lines shall be parallel. All other details are left
to be governed by the rules and regulations of the
miners in each district, which are valid and effectual if
not inconsistent with the act of congress or any State
law. '"■■'■■■'■■- ^/'.^ '■"— • - ■■ - ,: ■. ■ . ■, .. -

The acts of congress do not require that any notice
shall be posted on the claim, only that one shall be re-
corded. But all rules and regulations of miners and the
statutes of most states and territories do require the
posting of such notice on the ground as well as its record
in the proper office. The verification of the location
notice must state the date of the location of the mine.

While the acts of congress do not expressly require a
record of a mining location, they provide that all records,
if such exist or are required by any mining regulation,

P I

M.
f

••*

" I

214

MINER'S REQUIRBMBNTS.

shall contain the name or names of the locators, the date
of the location and such description of the claim located
by reference to some natural object or permanent monu-
ment as will identify the claim. As has been stated, the
miners in each district may enact additional requirements
which shall nowise infringe on the laws of the state or
nation. In all mining districts calls for meetings must
be signed by at least six miners.

It is further provided in the statutes that any one run-
ning a tunnel for the development of a vein or for the
discovery of mines, shall have the same right of posses-
sion of all veins or lodes on the line of each tunnel within
three thousand feet of the face thereof, which shall be
discovered on such tunnel and which were not previously
known to exist, as if the discovery was made from the
surface. If other parties shall, while such tunnel is being
prosecuted with reasonable diligence, locate on the line
of such tunnel, any vein not appearing on the surface,
such location shall be invalid. A failure for six months
to prosecute work on the tunnel constitutes an aband-
onment of all undiscovered veins on the line thereof

The question of abandonment is principally one of
intention, whether the ground was left by the locator
without any intention of returning and making a future
use of it. Forfeiture means the loss of a previously
acquired right to mine certain ground, by a failure to
perform certain acts or observe certain rules, and differs
from abandonment in that it involves no question of intent
A failure to perform the annual work required by statute
works a forfeiture of the mining claim, and the same

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SUBJECT TO RE-tOCATlON.

217

becomes open to re-location, unless the original locators,
heirs, assigns or legal representatives, resume work
upon such claim before a re-location has been made. A
failure to comply with local rules or customs works a
forfeiture, if the local rules so provide. To suffer tail-
ings to run away, without any effort to retain or confine
them, constitutes an abandonment of them.

Where the owner of a mining claim has failed to com-
ply with the statutory requirements, or the claim is for-
feited by reason of non-observance of any local rule or
custom, the same is subject to re-location.

Any person may then enter peaceably upon the claim
for the purpose of making a location thereof, unless the
original claimant has resumed work thereon.

A re-location is made in the same manner as an orig-
inal location. And the re-lccator of an abandoned min-
ing claim has the same time to perform the acts required
by law or custom as the original locator had. A re-
location is an admission of the validity of the original
claim, and also a claim of forfeiture, as to the original
locator. A party may, under proper circumstances, re-
locate his own claim, or that which he holds in common
with others.

Priority of location confers the better tide; where both
parties rely on possession alone, priority of possess^ion
gives the better right.

Where veins intersect or cross each other, the prior
locator shall be entitled to all ore or mineral contained
withia tiie space of intersection, the subsequent locator
being entitled to a right of way through said space ;

Ml'

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■iH;

MT:'

21$

TH^ tOCATION UNBS.

where two or more veins unite, the oldest location takes
the vein below the point of union, including all the
space of intersection.

Those who have created a mining district may change
its size or boundaries if vested rights are not thereby
affected. A mining corporation may be represented at
meetings in mining districts by any of its officers or its
agents.

One who has made location in accordance with law is
entitled, so long as he complies with the laws of the
United States and with State, territorial and local regu-
lations not in conflict threewith, to the exclusive right of
possession and enjoyment of all the surface included
within the lines of his location, and all veins, lodes and
ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of
which lies inside of such surface lines extended down-
ward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges
may so far depart from a perpendicular in their down- .
ward course as to extend outside of the side lines of the
location, but such rights shall not be extended beyond
the end lines of the location projected in their own di-
rection till they intersect the veins or ledges. This is
called the apex rule.

Until a patent issues, the fee to mineral lands in the
public domains remains in the United States. But any
person coming within the provision of the acts of Congress
acquires a right to purchase them from the government
by complying with those acts. ^

The applicant for a patent must file an appl'cation
under oath in the proper land oftice, showing a compli-

IN tnn LAND OFI^IC^.

219

ance with the law, together with a plat and field notes,
made by or under direction of the United States sur-
veyor-general, of the claim or claims, and shall post a
copy of the plat, together with a notice of the applica-
tion, on the land ; he must file an afifidavit of the posting
of such notice and a copy of the notice itself in the land
office. The register of the land office shall post the
notice in his office for sixty days, and shall publish it
for the same period in the newspaper nearest to the claim.

The claimant must also file with the register the sur-
veyor-general's certificate that $500 worth of labor has
been expended or improvements made upon the claim
by the applicant or his grantors.

At the end of sixty days the applicant shall be entided
to a patent upon payment of $5 an acre, if the claim is
for a lode location, and $2.50 an acre if for a placer loca-
tion, unless during said sixty days an adverse claim shall
have been lodged with the register and receiver of the land
office in which the application is filed ; after which time
no objection to the issuance of the patent made by third
parties shall be heard. Any adverse claims must be filed
within the sixty days, and must be under oath of the
adverse claimant. Thereupon proceedings shall be stayed
until the controversy shall have been settled by a court
of competent jurisdiction.

The adverse claimant must, within thirty days after fil-
ing his adverse claim, commence proceedings in a court
of competent jurisdiction to determine his rights, and
prosecute the same, with reasonable diligence, to find
judgment, or his claim will be deemed as void. The

'**»■

1 1 »

230

AN EXCB^tlOIf.

party in whose favor judgment is rendered shall, upon
filing a copy of the judgment roll with the register, and
complying with the other provisions for obtaining a
patent, be entitled to a patent for the claim or such por-
tion thereof as the decision of the court shows him enti-
tled to. These sections do not apply where a person,
before the required publication has gone through all the
regular proceedings required, to obtain a patent for min-
eral land and has received his patent.

The transferable character of mining locations has
always been recognized by the courts and the title of the
grantee enforced. It is not necessary that the transfer
should be in writing, as a transfer of the possession is
sufficient, except in those States that have statutes re-
quiring that the conveyance must have the same form
and solemnity as the conveyance of any other real
estate. The patent is also assignable. There is no
implied warranty in the sale of a mining claim.

The following definitions of mining terms are recog-
nized by the statutes :

Ore — Minerals in natural condition.

Lode or Vein — A flattened mass of metallic or earthy
matter, differing materially in its nature from the rocks
or strata in which it occurs ; a fissure in the earth's crust
filled with mineral matter, or aggregations of mineral
matter, containing ores in fissures. The term, as used
in the acts of Congress, is applicable to any zone or belt
of mineralized rock lying within boundaries clearly sep-
arating it from the neighboring rock. The words vein,
lode and ledge are nearly synonymous.

COMMON MINING TERMS.

221

A Mine is a way or passage underground, a subter-
ranean duct course or passage, and is distinguished from
a "quarry," which is a pit wrought from the surface.

Face of Tunnel — This term, as used in section 2323
of the Revised Statutes, is held to be the first working
face formed in the tunnel, and to signify the point at
which the tunnel actually enters cover.

Location and Mining Claim — These terms do not
always mean the same thing. A mining claim is a parcel
of land containing precious metal in its soil or rock. A
location is the act of appropriating such parcel according
to certain established rules. But, in time, the location
came to be considered among miners as synonomous
with the mining claim originally appropriated. A mining
claim may include one or several locations.

Apex — ^The end or edge of a vein nearest the surface.

Level — ^The word, as used in mining, means a work-
ing, and is not necessarily a plane.

Dip — The direction or inclination towards the depth.

Along the Vein — ^Along the longitudinal course or
strike.

Placer Claim — Ground within defined boundaries
which contains mineral in its earth, sand or gravel ;
ground that includes valuable deposits not in place — that
is, not fixed in rock, but which are in a loose state, and
may, in most cases, be collected by washing or amalga-
mation without milling.

The act approved May 17, 1884, providing a civil gov-
ernment for Alaska, has this language as to mines and
mining privileges ;

(«

322

APPLIED TO ALASKA.

" The laws of the United States relating to mining
claims and rights incidental thereto shall, on and after
the passage of this act, be in full force and effect in said
district of Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be
made by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by
the President."

* ' Parties who have located mines or mining privileges
therein, under the United States laws applicable to the
public domain, or have occupied or improved or exer-
cised acts of ownership over such claims, shall not be
disturbed therein, but shall be allowed to perfect title by
payment so provided for."

In the Klondike country the claim is generally 500
feet for gulch diggings from rimrock to rimrock ; but in
some gulches not paying well an effort is being made to
stake claims 1,320 feet long. Crowded creeks, too, are
staked 300 feet to the claim, and no man is allowed to
stake more than one claim in his own name, save the
discoverer, who is allowed i ,000 feet.

As to the size and boundary of districts, it has been
the custom along the Yukon to consider each tributary
stream as a separate district, and for each such district
one recorder is elected. He is paid for his services by
the collection of fees. Formerly, the fee for each record
made was JJ5, but this has recently bf er* raised to JS15.

CHAPTER X.

THE NATIVE POPULATION.

Dark-skinned People Found by the Miner in the Frozen North— Eskimo,
Athabascan and Thlinget — Uncertainty About the Origin of the'
Innuits — The Language and Customs of a Curious Race — Strange
Modes of Life Near the Arctic Circle — The Mysteries of the Totem
Pole — Dead Houses of the Stick Indians — Miners of Gold who Knew
the Klondike Field Long Before the White Man Entered the Land.

THE native population of Alaska has an interesting
and romantic history, but much of it is shrouded
in a mystery unusual, even in the case of a barbaric and
ignorant race. It seems probable that the Innuits are
of Asiatic origin, but authorities differ on this point.
Professor Dall, in his work on the distribution and origin
of the native races of the Northwestern territory, states
his belief that the Alaska Innuits once inhabited the
interior of America and that they slowly retreated to
their present residence before the inroads of Southern
tribes.

Mr. L. M. Turner, who spent many years among the
islands of the Bering Sea and along the coast, in his re-
port to the Smithsonian Institute takes the ground that
the Innuits or Eskimo are of the same race as the
natives of Greenland, and he finds no difificulty in tracing
the relationship.

Professor Otis T. Mason, in common with many other

3a|

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I If t

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i i

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224

MONGOWAN ORIGIN POSSIBIyE.

^ ,

authorities, asserts that the Alaska Innuits are of Mon-
golian origin, as shown by their physical as well as
mental developments.

Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, the well-known authority of
Philadelphia, in commenting on the last stated view, says:
" A favorite theory of some writers has been that they
migrated out of Asia by way of Bering Sea, but those
who have studied their culture on the spot do not advo-
cate this opinion. These observers have, without excep-
tion, reached the conclusion that the Innuits were origi-
nally an inland people, that their migrations were toward
the North and West, and that they have been gradually
forced to the inhospitable climes they occupy by the
pressure of foes. Dr. Rink, who passed many years
among them, would look for their early home elsewhere
in Alaska, but Mr. John Murdock and Dr. Franz Boas,
two of our best authorities on this tribe, incline to the
view that their primal home was to the south of Hudson
Bay, whence they separated into three principal hordes,
the one passing into Labrador and reaching Greenland,
the second moving to the Arctic Sea and the third to
Alaska. These form respectively the Chiglit, Greenland
and Cadjak dialects of the common tongue."

The Alaska Innuits are, at this time, essentially a
maritime and Arctic people, occupying the coast and
adjacent islands from the Straits of Belle Isle, on the
Atlantic, to Icy Bay, at the foot of Mount St. Elias, on
the Pacific, and extending their wanderings and settle-
ments as far uo as 80 degrees north latitude, where they

ONCE ON THK DELAWARE.

225

are by far the northernmost inhabitants of the earth.
From the reports of the '^ :\y Norse explorers, and from
the character of relics found on the Atlantic Coast, it
does not seem improbable that they once extended as
far south as the mouth of the Delaware River.

In appearance the Innuits of pure blood are of medium
or slightly undersize, dark in color, the nose prominent
and sometimes aquiline, hair dark brown or black, mod-
erately strong on the face, and the eyes are dark brown
and occasionally blue. The skull is generally long, but
is sub^iect to extensive variations, ranging from almost
globular to exceptionally long and narrow specimens.

In spite of the hardships of their life, the Innuits are
of a singularly placid and cheerful temperament, good-
natured among themselves and much given to mirth and
laughter. The ingenuity with which they have learned
to overcome difficulties of their situation is quite sur-
prising. In a country where wood and water are scarce,
the temperature very lew much of the time, and yielding
for them no edible fruit or vegetable, they manage to
live and thrive. Their principal source of supply is the
sea. They build boats called kayaks, which are made
from the bones of the walrus and seal skin. Their
winter houses are of blocks of snow, laid up in arch
shape to form a dome. In some instances they have
been shrewd enough to form windows with sheet ice.
These homes are warmed by means of stone lamps, fed
with blubber oil. They clothe themselves in bird skins
and furs, and they show much skill in the preparation of

••J

226

DOGS ARE PLENTIFUL.

a sort of leather. Dogs are plentiful among the Inn»:!:t6,
and are useful both as beasts of burden ^nd for hunting.
With their tools of bone and stone, the Indians fashion
many curious and useful articles, displaying some invent-
ive faculty and an eye not wholly devoid of artistic qual-
ities. Most authorities regard their .picture writing as
far superior to other similar work found north of Mex-
ico, in the delineation of objects of all kinds, and especi-
ally in the matter of animal forms. .

In the winter, when the Indians are confined much to
their houses, they amuse themselves with music and
song, of which they are very fond. They also have a
large stock of imaginative tales and some of the usual
Indian legends. A gifted singer enjoys great popularity,
as does the story-teller. Some of the poems known to-
day among these Indians are believed to be of great
antiquity. As is the case with other tribes of the Indian
race, their singing is not regarded by the white man as
melodious, but that is a m.atter of opinion. As a fact,
showing how strong a hold song has upon the hearts of
this strange tribe, it is told that when trouble occurs
between these individuals or families, instead of settling
differences by physical means, a kind of singing-bee is
held. An evening is appointed, and the aggrieved par-
ties sing at each other in the presence of an invited
audience. At the close, the latter decides in favor of
one or the other, and the verdict ends the trouble.

For their religion, these people have a belief in a
Supreme being and in a great army of inferior spirits,

THE INNUIT REUGION.

227

and also a long list of evil monsters. They worsn.p the
former and endeavor to propitiate the latter. They
believe that each individual is endowed with two souls,
one of which is irrevocably connected with this earth
and passes from father to son. The other soul goes at
death to either a good land within the earth or a bad one
in the sky, thus reversing the usual order. The lights
of the aurora borealis, so familiar to the Eskimo, are
believed to be signs of the presence of spirits in the
world beyond. These people have authorized priests,
who occupy a place somewhat similar to the sorcerers
and conjurers of the Orient. The language of these
""'idians is highly agglutinative, the affixes being joined
CO the end of the word. The verb is most complex,
having over 3,cxx) modified forms, each one different
from the others and all invariable. It is like the Greek
in its three numbers — singular, dual and plural.

The Aleutian branch of this race occupies the long
chain of islands of that name. It is now a certainty that
this race here and elsewhere is dying out. There are
now oniy 14,000 of them in Alaska, whereas in the last
cent • y the island district alone had some 30,00c ouls.
St^tisii-s show that the average number of children
resul ' -g from each marriage is only two, and it requires
double tiiis num-L>er to keep a population stationary.

The Eskimo are by far the largest race of Indians in
Alaska, but there are also two other important tribes,
and these in turn are divided into several classes. The
A habascans, familiarly known as the Stick Indians, are

!' It

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'it

228

NUMBERS OP TWO TRIBBS.

the interior inhabitants, and they number in all only
3,439. The Thlingets, numbering 4,737, occupy the
southern coast country for the most part, but some of
them have followed the gold seekers to the interior, as
have also the Eskimo. * ^ .

The Chilcoot Indians, who pack him over the pass
bearing their name, are but an offspring of the Chilcats,
one of the most powerful of the Thlinget tribe. After
taking up the line of travel down the lakes, from Lin-
deman to the Yukon, the miner's only native companions
are the Sticks. They p 'dominate on the Yukon
numerically and in every ot. way, inasmuch as the
1,500 Eskimos who inhabit its basin are a good deal
more reserved, and do not care so much for the white
man's society or his gold as do their Stick neighbors.

A writer who has some experience with these Indian
packers says of them : " The Indians are even more
capricious and uncertain than the weather. They have
been reaping a harvest for several years by packing over
the pass for the Yukoners, and they are very shrewd in
barter, and they have naturally come to know the value
of combmation to sustain prices. Members of other
tribes coming in to do packing are held in the same
division as are ' scabs ' by the labor unions in the States,
and so far the Chilcats have been able to almost name
their own prices for work.

"A Stick Indian,'* whose Boston name is Tom,' as his
letter of recommendation had it, came with his squaw
from* the interior to do packing. He had made a bargain

A STICK'S SHREWDNESS.

229

with the geological party, who had waited several days,
to pack from Sheep Camp to Lake Lindeman at $9 a
hundred pounds, when the Chilcats held the price at $1 1.
The Stick and his squaw had their bundles made up and
were just ready to start, and one of the white men was
to accompany them. A few other Indians were standing
around scratching, which is a sign of absolute pre-
occupation of mind, and apparently taking no interest in
the proceedings. Tom raised his load to adjust it to his
back, and then suddenly put it down again. Without a
word he took off his pack straps, put the goods back in
the tent, and sat down, and no amount of questioning
could get even a sign out of him. A partial explanation
came when, twenty minutes later, a number of Chilcats
from over the pass came into camp. They had a letter
from the guide, advising the party to pay the price of 1 1
cents a pound, but it has ever since been a puzzle to us
how Tom got the word before the Indians were within a
mileofus." ,v-.r...^^:>- — ;- ^ -^ ^.- ■.:--. y-:-^...

The Thlingets, physically, are a strong and sometimes
tall people, light in color, with black or slightly reddish
hair; eyes horizontal and aquiline noses. They have
developed an uncommon appreciation of property, which
is usually taken to indicate a high order of intellect.
Their aristocracy and the selection of their chiefs are
entirely on a property basis. The richest obtain the
highest places. Dr. Brinton says of them and their
habits: "The Thlinget villages are permanent, the
houses solidly constructed of wood, sometimes with

I :i

230

THE THUNGi$T fiOM^

p
i

the additional protection of a palisade. The carving
and painting upon them are elaborate, the subjects
being caricatures of faces, men and animal forms.
The chiefs erect, at one side of their doors, carved and
painted * totem posts,' some of which are nearly fifty
feet high. Seaworthy canoes are hewn from the trunks
of the red cedar, hides are dressed and the leather
worked into a variety of articles ; lamps, mortars and
utensils were formerly chipped or ground out of stone,
and they are handy in beating out ornaments of silver
and copper. The Thlingets have always been active
merchants, and when the first navigators visited their
villages they were surprised to find them in possession
of iron knives and other articles obtained by trade over
East Cape or from the South. The usual currency was
the dentalium shell, found along the coast. One of the
staple articles of trade were slaves. They were bought
from the neighboring tribes and treated with great
cruelty. ^, -h^

"Thlinget mythology is rich, having a coherent cre-
4.t on and deluge myth, the principal figure in which is
Jelchs, the raven. He is the Promethean fire-bringer,
and sets free the sun, moon and stars from their prisons.
The religious rites are in the hands of priests, who, as
usual, exert a great and injurious influence."

The numerical strength of this once powerful tribe
has been constantly declining, due very largely to epi-
demics of small-pox, black measles and grippe. The
eleven tribes of this race were estimated by the Russians

DECREASING IN NUMBERS.

231

as numbering 25,000. Halleck's estimate of 1869 puts
the number at 12,000 or 15,000, and in the last thirty
years they have been reduced much more than half. The
word, Thlinget, is their name for "man" or "people."
The Russians called them Koloschians, from the Aleut
name Kaluska, little trough, because of the labrette
worn in the lower lip. There are many legends among
them of supernatural origin, floods, a sole surviving
couple, and so on. They have no legend to point to an
Asiatic origin, as has been claimed, but there is a tradi-
tion among them that they came from the South. Their
propitiation of evil spirits, their belief in the transmigra-
tion of souls, their worshipful regard for the ashes of
their ancestors and other customs, would seem to indi-
cate Asiatic origin. Some of their myths, their carving
and constructions, as well as many of their words, are
Aino, while their methods, tools and postures at work
are like the Japanese. The totem poles, for which they
are famous, are like the New Zealand tiki, and there are
many notes of resemblance in their rites to those of the
Maori people. Their sun and nature worship with offer-
ings to the wind and mountains, approach the Aztec cus-
toms. They have the same dances and masks as the
Zunis, and their totem pole is also familiar in the history
of the Delaware, Omaha and Huron Indians. The
Thlinget people look down with contempt on their Stick
brethren.

Totemism is the base of the Thlinget social organiza-
tion, the tribal mark or totem distinguishing the dwelling

■J

':f

i«

It ■*

232

TOTCMISM AMONG THE INDIANa

and all other . belongings. Only animal totems occur,
and they live under the guardianship of these creatures
who are believed to have been the ancestors of the race.
The crow and raven, representing the creative principle,
and the wolf the fighting agent, are the great totems of
the coast, and each one is subdivided into clans. Men
may not marry women of their own totem, that bond
being stronger than the one of the family or tribe. Men
often elect individual totems, when inspired by dreams,
during the fasts preceding their majority and initiation into
the clan. These elective totems are added to the clan
and family tokens, which accounts for the storied images
on the poles. Contrary to the belief of many, these
poles have no religious significance, and are not made
the subject of idolatrous worship. The designs are dis-
played in much the same way as the nobility of civiliza-
tion parade their coats of arms.

Thlinget language is the harshest of all coast tongues.
Horatio Hale has noted that these harsh tongues cease
at the Columbia River, where the climate changes so
markedly. The common speech has been much cor-
rupted by Russian, English and Chinook. Lieutenant
Emmons has found among them evidences of an older
language, a classic to all Thlingets. Mr. Charles
Walcott notes *'the Japanese idioms, constructions,
honorific, separative and agglutinative particles." Like
the Japanese, they cannot pronounce "1," and like the
Chinese, they cannot use the "r." Captain Cook first
noted the txl terminations of the Aztec. The country in

^i[

ar
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to
fu]

Til
the
res

bo(

are

aqi

foil

anc

feir

eld(

intr

siar

piei

mat

whi(

hug

part

pain

tinui

THBY UVB IN CANO^.

235

which they live is one of the rainiest parts of the earth,
and these people spend their lives in canoes. The
result is seen in their tongue, which has been compared
to the speech of a man with a long-standing cold. It is
full of hoarse, gutteral, clicking sounds, and the person
who attempted to take it down by phonetic signs would
be balked at every word.

In common with all the northwest coast people the
Thlingets have inherited a magnificent development of
the shoulders, chest and arms. This is undoubtedly the
result of generations of canoe paddling. The rest of the
body is, however, usually stunted and deformed. They
are bow-legged and shambling in gait, moving much as
aquatic birds do on land. It has never been the custom
among them to flatten or elongate the skull, but they
follow the barbarous practice of carrying large nose, lip
and ear ornaments. The labrette was formerly the
feminine badge of rank and age, but it is only seen on
elderly women now. Young girls are still, as formerly,
introduced socially at a certain age, just as their Cauca-
sian sisters are. The debutante's lower lip was formerly
pierced and a copper or silver pin worn there. After
marriage the pin was replaced by a bone or wood stud,
which gradually increased in size until dowagers '^ore a
huge block, sometimes concealing most of the lower
part of the face.

Painting and tattooing have been universal. They
paint at present only for dances and potlatches, but con-
tinue to black their faces as a summer protection from

» i

236

PACB BLACKING FORBIDDEN.

the sun and insects. This coating is a mixture of seal
oil and soot. Governor Swineford found it desirable to
forbid this face blackening, as it proved a hiindrance to
the enforcement of laws, offenders thereby hiding their
identity. There are sometimes notable exceptions to
the regulation heavy, flat jaws and high cheeked faces.
Some of the women show istrong faces of more regular
mould. Woman is the family arbiter and indeed is
supreme in every way, the family possessions descend-
ing through her. Polygamy is quite commonly practiced.
Upon a man's death his widows pass to the oldest male
in his mother's family. Younger brothers and nephews
arc allowed to escape the widows if they so desire by
paying a good round sum in blankets.

The Thlingets have their political societies. All of the
same totem contribute to the potlatches of their chief,
working sometimes for years to make an extravagant
display. The potlatch is usn^lly given at the full of the
moon, and the host's clan and totem do not accept gifts.
The seating and serving of guests is as precisely
arranged as at the dinner of a diplomat. Hospitalities
are invariably returned in kind. They are inveterate
dancers, and songs and dramatic representations go
with everything from a feast to a funeral. They have
many games of chance, the favorite being a fan-tan
played with fifty-two cylindrical sticks differently marked.
The sticks are either drawn and matched, or players
guess the number, position and odd or even of those the
dealer hides under a mass of cedar shreds. The dealer
and players join in a chant

W }

CURING THE SICK.

237

In illness the Thlinget sends for his shaman or medi-
cine man, who, continuing his fasts alone in the forests
throughout life, continues to receive inspiration from his
guardian spirit. He uses chants and other means for
curing. The missionaries have done much to stop the
old practice of cremation of the dead. Many of the
tribes have long known the art of forging copper, and
gold and silver are plentiful among them.

The Athabascan or Stick Indians, of the interior, rank
intellectually below their neighbors. Their temperament
is inclined to be gloomy and morose and, in spite of their
apparent stolidity, they are much given to panics and
temporary hallucinations. Their chiefs are chosen with-
out formality, either on account of their daring in war
or for the number of presents the} distribute. Their
entire number scattered over the Yukon and Klondike
countries is only 3,439. They make excellent bark
canoes and a few implements. They have come much
in contact with the miner of late years and have caught
the gold fever. Many of them are engaged in either
helping the white miners or digging for gold themselves
in a desultory way. - - ^ .

Some of the dead houses of the Sticks are exceed-
ingly ornate with glass windows and some fanciful
touches in carved and painted woodwork. The Sticks
of the upper Yukon are cremationists, but are not very
thorough in their work, as they want enough of the
remains left to hold a satisfactory funeral over. Farther
down the river the Indians are growing out of the cus-

I I

r/iM

238

CURIOUS FUNERAI, CUSTOMS.

torn of cremating their dead. The Tinnehs of the mid-
dle Yukon bury their dead off-hand in a coffin in a shal-
low grave, over which they then plant a tamarack tree.
The roots of the tree encircle the coffin like the grasp of
a hand, and are supposed to protect it against the rav-
ages of wild beasts. The Eskimos place their departed
ones in a rude box and then cover it over with a pile of
stones, but usually this safeguard is not effective, and
the ultimate casket of the deceased Eskimo is the polar
bear that has jurisdiction over the district. The shamans,
or medicine men, of the Eskimos, are allowed to choose
their burial places, a privilege that is not accorded to
every one, and they select ingeniously difficult places of
access that their final sleep may be undisturbed ; as, for
instance, a rocky pinnacle, which can only be reached by
their devoted followers at the imminent risk of their
lives in carrying out the request.

CHAPTER XI.

RESOURCES OF ALASKA.

President Johnson's " ice-box " — Thirty-five years of Alaskan exports — Dense forests
of spruce, cedar and pine — United States Department of Agriculture's Experi-
mental station — Alaskan flora — Cranberries and other berries — Grain and
grass growing — Bituminous coal — Marble — Big game of the interior — Bears
the one-time terror of the Klondike — Foxes and other fur-coated Animals —
The deer and their threatened extinction — Salmon six feet deep — The cod
banks — Whaling.

TIME alone can demonstrate the full magnitude of
Alaska's resources. When it first came under the
jurisdiction of the United States, it was generally believed
that the dictates of diplomacy and statecraft were alone
responsible for its purchase, and few there were who
imagined that, before the century had run its course,
Alaska would have paid for itself many times over. It
was even suggested to President Johnson that he visit
"this land of snow and merchantable ice." During the
first five years of our possession, it made a return of eight
per cent, on the investment. The two tiny Seal Islands
paid four per cent, on the original $7,200,000, and in their
first lease returned a sum equal to the purchase money to
the Treasury. The gold mines, not including that taken
out this year, have produced over $8,000,000, and in six
years, 1884 to 1890, the salmon industiy yielded $7,500,-
000. The commerce of Alaska, in 1867, was reported to
be $2,500,000 ; it is now ten times as great. In seals
this country has received $35,000,000 in thirty years from

(239)

I ;l

II'

*■»

240 INDUSTRIES.

its northwestern dominions. These figures show what a
tremendous factor Alaska is in the world's game of barter
and trade. The industries thus far developed pertain
mostly to the coast, but with the opening up of the Yukon
country to the outside world, great things are naturally
to be expected from that quarter. The following table
gives in a concise form very close figures on the value of
the eight leading Alaskan exports since the Territory
passed into the hands of the United States:

Furs i ^53, 000,000

Canned Salmon , 10,000,000

Whalebone 10,000,000

Gold and Silver 6,000,000

Whale Oil 3,000,000

Codfish 1,600,000

Salted Salmon ,, 800,000

Ivory 160,000

In this table the gold exports do not include the pro-
duct of this year's mining.

The day is not far distant when the Alaskan lumber
rejjions will be famous. It is estimated that the available
timber now standing in the Territory might alone meet
the ordinary demand of this continent for half a century.
Though the extreme northern part of Alaska is treeless,
its southern shores, both of the islands and the mainlands,
are covered with a dense forest growth, the Aleutian
group excepted. ^^

Southeastern Alaska is well timbered, the prevailing
varieties being spruce and hemlock, red and yellow cedar,
maple and birch. The spruce and hemlock found Ir-ue
are usually of large size, often a hundred feet high and

TIMBER LANDS.

241

six and eight feet in diameter. Yellow cedar trees eight
feet in diameter have been cut in the southeastern por-
tion of Alaska. It must certainly be a cedar of magnifi-
cent proportions out of which the nadve Haidas can hew
and construct a canoe seventy feet long, capable of carry-
ing one hundred men.

This wood is a beautiful variety, admitting of high
polish and especially adapted for the manufacture of fur-
niture. The yellow cedar is fine for ship-building, and is
torredo-proof; that is, it is impervious to that marine
pest known as the boring worm. It may easily take the
place of mahogany and other tropical and sub-tropical
woods. The yellow cedar grows many feet in height,
straight and clear, without any defect whatsoever. The
wood, when polished, presents a beautiful yellowish hue
and is hard and compact, though easily worked. Little is
known of the extent of the yellow cedar in the interior,
but no doubt explorations will discover considerable
areas of this valuable wood.

These virgin forests of Alaska, which have never felt
the stroke of a white man's axe, ar* ^uly magnificent.
They present a growth exceedingly denst: and peculiar, the
branches of the tall trees being often draped with Ion pf
black and white moss, dry and fine as hair, which it resem-
bles. This characteristic is similar to the effect pioduced
by the Spanish moss in the thick woods of Louisiana. I he
fallen trees and stumps in these Alaskan forests are cov-
ered with a bright green moss ten inches in thickness, anr'
in the tangle of creeping vines are seen the deep red clus-

»'

242

VARIOUS KINDS.

ters of the bunchberry. Good judges say the timber is
as fine in quality as that of Oregon and Washington.

From Sitka westward the forests become scrubby and
the timber small in size, but alder and willow are found in
many places. The timber line extends to a height of about
1,500 feet. The timber along the lower portion of the
Yukon is composed principally of willow, alder and Cot-
tonwood. Towards Norton Sound it grows to a fair size.
Spruce is also found, as a rule, on most streams empty-
ing into the Yukon River and Behring Sea. The rivers
entering the Arctic as far north as latitude sixty-seven
degrees are more or less timbered with the same variety.
Along Wood River there are some fine groves of large
spruce timber, and back in the interior, and along the
banks of the rivers on level stretches of country, fir
timber is also found to a considerable extent. Dwarf
spruce, Cottonwood, alder and willow are also found in
the Nashagak and Kuskoqum regions. The willow usu-
ally found along the coast west of Mt. St. Elias is scrubby,
but in the moraines of that mountain and along the delta
of the Copper River it grows to a height of fifteen feet or
even higher. In the vicinity of the Noatuk River, in
latitude sixty-seven degrees north, spruce, birch, and
Cottonwood are found of a stunted growth, fit only for
firewood and the construction of log-houses. The spruce
which is found near running water is usually good
sized and vigorous.

It attains not unfrequently the height of fifty to one
hundred feet, with a diameter of over three feet near the
butt ; but the most common size is thirty or forty feet, and

PREVAILING VANITY.

243

twelve to eighteen inches at the butt. It is quite durable.
Many houses, twenty years old, built of this timber, when
examined were found to contain a majority of sound
logs; when used green, without proper seasoning, it will
not last over fifteen years. These trees decrease in
size and grow more sparingly near Fort Yukon, but are
still large enough for most purposes.

Several kinds of poplar are to be found in Alaska. But
as timber, it has little value; the extreme softness of
the wood is often taken advantage of by the natives
with their rude iron or stone axes, to make small boards
or other articles for use in their lodges. They also rub
up with charcoal the down from the seed-pods for tinder.

In the Yukon country, from Five Fingers all the way
to Koserefski Mission, the timber growing along the
banks is willow, alder, and spruce, the latter being
the prevailing variety. It is generally scrubby, but
many good-sized trees are to be found. The islands
in the river from Five Fingers to the mouth are generally
well-timbered, the larger islands being better wooded
than the mainland.

The Alaskan timber lands are, for the most part,
quite convenient to the numerous fine harbors which
line the coast, and where ships could be readily loaded.
The lumber exports for 1885 amounted to $50,000.

As far as definite information goes but little can be
said about Alaska's future as a grain-growing, farm-
ing, and gardening country.

The United States Government, authorized by a special
act of Congress, sent out during the past summer, an

244

EXPERIMENT STATIONS.

expedition whose object is to gather preliminary data
with reference to the contemplated establishment of one
or more agricultural experiment stations in that Arctic
province. Congress has appropriated $5,000 to pay for
the investigation, and under existing law an institution of
this sort would be entitled to a subsidy of $15,000 per
annum from the government.

Botanist Allen, of the Department of Agriculture, and
Dr. Killen, of the Oregon Agricultural College, with one
or two others, compose the party. They will make
a tour through the Sitkan region, and the Aleutian chain,
looking for the most favorable place for the establish-
ment of an experimental station. They will pay partic-
ular attention to the great island of Kadiak, which is of
such size, ninety miles long by sixty brocid that alone it
might be a granary for the whole of Alaska. Two-thirds
of it is treeless, and the fertility of the soil is evidenced
by the extraordinary luxuriance of the grasses with which
its hills are covered. This wealth of wild grasses is equal
to anything that can be seen on the prairies of Iowa or
Minnesota.

The expedition will choose a location for at least one
experimental station. When once it is started, the work
of the establishment will be of a very elaborate and
comprehensive description. It will be scientific farming,
conducted with a view to finding out how the conditions
of the region may be utilized to best advantage for the
production of every possible field and garden crop. But
this is not all, for it is desired to learn what domestic
animals may be reared to advantage in Alaska. At the

NO DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

245

present time there are practically no domestic animals
in the territory, though the country is well adapted for
sheep, pigs, and goats, and in the Sitkan region, as well
as on the islands of the Aleutian chain, catde will keep
fat all the year around widiout much care, subsisting on
the nutritious sfrasses. Further to the north it would be
necessary to give them shelter during two or three
months of severest winter weather. Poultry can be
raised to great advantage in Alaska.

In short, Alaska is believed to be a country of great
agricultural possibilides. The coastal belt and the low-
lands of the Yukon region are covered as soon as spring
arrives with a luxuriant growth of grass and flowers.
Among the most valuable grasses is the familiar Ken-
tucky blue grass, which grows as far north as Kotzebue
Sound, and another is the blue-joint grass, reaching four
or five feet in height. These make most excellent forage.
Barley has been tried at Port Yukon in small patches, and
has matured, though the straw was short. Rye and bar-
ley ought to succeed, inasmuch as these grains are grown
in very high ladtudes in Europe. The Island of Kadiak
is in the same latitude, with tem.perature and rainfall
about equal, as a part of Scotland which produces much
barley and rye. Oats are hardy and will grow very far
north.

The growth of plants in that far northern region is
astonishingly rapid. The snow has hardly disappeared
before a mass of herbage has sprung up, and spots which
a few days before presented nothing but a white sheet
are teeming with vegetation, producing leaves, flowers

fi^

246 ALMOST TROPICAL LUXURIANCE.

and fruit in quick succession. Indeed, during the short
and hot summer the vegetation attains an almost tropi-
cal luxuriance. Every plant is rushed as fast as possible
to a ripening, in order that its seeds may be produced
before the early frosts of autumn nip it. Plants, of course,
are accustomed in temperate latitudes to sleep at night,
and it is interesting to observe that the vegetation of
Arctic Alaska pursues a similar habit for so many hours
in each twenty-four, even though the sun is in the
heavens for months together without sinking below the
horizon, the somnolence being marked by drooping
leaves. ^

A singular phenomenon is observed on the shores of
Escholtz Bay, in Kotzebue Sound, where bluffs of solid
ice thirty to sixty feet in height are covered with a layer
of soil in which, to use the words of the famous botanist.
Dr. Seeman, '• herbs and shrubs are flourishing with a
luxuriance only equalled in more favored climes." One
question to be investigated by the Alaskan experiment
station will relate to the modifications of the rules of ordi-
nary agriculture, which must be made to suit the latitude.
Such modifications are adopted in Finland, which is so
wet that the grass has to be transformed into hay by let-
ting the wind blow through it.

There are practically no tree fruits suitable for food in
Alaska, though a wild crab-apple is found in the Sitkan
region, but small fruits grow spontaneously in greater
profusion than in any other part of the world. There are
wild strawberries of exceptional size ; also red and black
currants^ gooseberries, cranberries, raspberries, blueber-

BERRIES IN ABUNDANCE.

247

ries, bearberries, dewberries, mossberries and roseberries.
The last are the ffuit of a species of rose called Rosa
Cinnamomea. Wild roses quite generally produce fruits,
which in some cases are edible, but the cultivated varieties
are " doubled " to such an extent as to petals that the
flowers are rarely fertilized. From many of the ber-
ries the Russians prepare most piquant and delicious
preserves. Already the Alaskan cranberries are being
brought in large quantities to the San Francisco market,
being purchased by traders from the natives, who pick
them.

These cranberries are bright scarlet in color, and about
the size of a pea. They are highly prized by the Alaskan
Indians, who depend to a considerable extent on these
and other berries for food. The shrubs that bear blue-
berries form a large part of the forest undergrowth in
the low country, and the fruit is collected in great quanti-
ties by nati' *'s, who preserve the berries, crushing and
drying them. The salmonberry, the fruit of a spreading
bush, is likewise much esteemed. It has the shape of a
red raspberry, and is an inch long. The Indians crush it
in a wooden bowl, and eat it with seal oil. This is one
of the oldest gastronomic practices of the natives, who
regard seal oil as the natural accompaniment of pretty
nearly everything edible. They even eat strawberries
with seal oil, as we would put sugar on them.

When small fruits grow wild in such surprising abun-
dance, it is reasonable to suppose that they might be
cultivated successfully. This is one of the problems to
be taken up by the experts, who may be placed in charge

248

THE PROBI^EM OF CULTIVATION.

of the experiment station. They will try to find out how
the fruits and vegetables also may best be preserved for
winter use. The production of eggs, butter, and cheese
will demand attention at their hands. Nothing could be
more absurd than the present fact that the people who
are pouring into Alaska are obliged to bring their food
with them, because tiie country will not yield them a sup-
port. They are actually obliged to fetch what they need
to eat from San Francisco or from Puget Sound. It is
all because the resources of the country are undeveloped.
Dr. Dall says that within a century from the present time
Alaska will be exporting great quantities of ship timber,
butter, cheese, wool, mutton, and beef. Very likely her
berries will find a wide demand.

Turnips and radishes flourish in Southern Alaska.
Potatoes do well, though the tubers do not attain a great
size. Cabbages do not " head." Lettuce is successfully
grown, though it does not ripen seed. The turnips, above
referred to, reach a weight of five or six pounds, and
have an excellent flavor ; the Russians preserve the tops
in vinegar for winter use. Wild peas grow in abundance
on the Aleutian Islands. Along the coast of the mainland
to the northwest of Sitka, and on some of the islands off
shore, all of the cereals except corn can be grown to per-
fection. Kadiak, Afognak, and other islands possess a
most fertile soil, with a milder and more equable climate
than that of the Western States. Wild timothy grows
lujfuriantly in Southeast Alaska. There are large areas
of excellent grazing lands, notably on the great islands
of the Kadiak and Aleutian archipelagoes. There is no

FERTILB SOIL OF THE ISLANDS.

249

reason why Alaska should not rival Montana or Wyom-
ing in the raising of stock. All along the coast millions
of cattle and sheep might subsist on the wild grasses,
with a much less percentage of loss from winter cold
than in the western part of the United States, the climate
being far milder and more equable. Indeed, the climaie
of the Sitkan and Aleutian regions is not more severe
than that of Maryland or Virginia, and exhibits fewer
vicissitudes.

On the Upper Yukon the summer climate is delight-
ful. In that region there is much arable land, with a soil
from which farm and garden products of nearly every
kind can be obtained. During the last spring and sum-
mer there were eighty-five days of "growing weather"
in that country — equal to at least 1 20 days in the latitude
of Ohio and Indiana, the sun shining throughout the
twenty-four hours.

The most extensive efforts at gardening of all places
in the interior have been carried on at Fort Selkirk for
several years. Here they have raised potatoes, cabbage,
turnips, and other vegetables. They have to irrigate the
gardens to some extent by pumping water from the river,
and it is necessary to blanket the plants early and also
late in the season. For probably six weeks of mid-
summer the latter protection is not necessary. The soil
is very fertile, and produces better after two or three
years' cultivation. Although much care is entailed in
raising a garden crop on the Yukon, it pays very well,
as potatoes are easily worth $10 a bushel at any season

2 CO CROPS WHICH PAY.

of the year. The potatoes grow to fair size, and an acre
will produce two hundred bushels.

Omer Maris, who has spent a great deal of time in
various parts of Alaska, has this to say as to the present
condition of agriculture in the territory :

" The biggest real practical farm that I have seen is
about 60 by loo feet in size, but the owner of it is pro-
gressive, and is taking another strip fully as large ; but
in spite of his limitations it is said his sales already this
season amount to hundreds of dollars, and the appear-
ance of his lettuce and onion beds would seem to justify
the statement.

" Up to this time there had never seemed any excuse
for farming here. For the last few years grain and all
kinds of produce have been very cheap on Puget Sound
and in California. The shipping rates do not add very
materially to the cost, and consequently food has been
cheaper and more abundant than in the Eastern States.
This, coupled with the fact that wages have always ruled
high, has made farming impracticable. The ^Jn\y oppor-
tunity at present seems to be in the few garden products
that will not stand a voyage of a week or two. If the
necessity should ever arise, however, the country might
certainly be made to produce about everything that is
required, with the exception of grain.

" It is true that clearing the ground would be an almost
desperate undertaking. To accomplish it in a season or
two would be like mining, for something like four feet
solid of big logs and wreckage would have to be removed,
and, unlike a similar undertaking in the States, it would

DIFFICULTY ABOUT CLEARING.

2^53

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not be practical to burn it. But the land will not always be
incumbered in that way. It will take many years to make
a considerable showing, but it will naturally follow the
cutting of the timber for lumber and fuel. The obvious
rotation will be lumber-cutting, grazing and farming in
the order named.

" Grass grows wherever the sun shines, and it is a kind
of forage that cattle thrive exceedingly well on. As a
practical instance, a dairyman took up a claim of twenty
acres north of Juneau, where the timber had all been cut
off. His cows make their way among the stumps and
logs, and find plenty to eat. When the sun is let in, the
wood decays rapidly, so in a few years the patient dairy-
man will have a smooth, clear tract of land without any
heart-breaking effort. Though the soil is as fertile as is
any in the world, it has been demonstrated that it im-
proves in productiveness with a few seasons' cultivation.

" A few years ago a man started a cattle ranch at the
mouth cf Lemon Creek. There is a fine expanse of
several hundred acres of tide-flats that produced grass
of wonderful growth and quality. He brought in a herd
of cattle that made good growth during the summer
season. Nearly all new fields for enterprise have to go
through an experimental stage, which generally entails
more or less disappointment In this case the obstacle
encountered was in the curing of the hay. The season
was wet at cutting time, the grass would not dry, and
cciisequently spoiled. On this account the project was
not regarded as feasible, and the cattle were disposed of
at the approach of winter. Since then there have been

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^54

THE SILO SHOULD BE USED.

more favorable seasons, and a good deal of hay has beett
successfully cured. It has been found, however, that a
surer way to save the forage is in a silo. Later experi-
ments have been made in that direction, and ensilage is
regarded as the most dependable winter food for stock.:.

"At Wrangel there have been several attempts made at
raising apples, but for climatic reasons they were unsuc-
cessful. The trees did not live. It is possible that other
and hardier varieties may yet succeed. The Alaskan
coast is the greatest of berry countries. Wild straw-
berries are as prolific and fine in quality as the best culti-
vated varieties in the States. There are kinds of small
fruits here that are not found anywhere else. Among
the products of the country that grow wild in great pro-
fusion are salmonberries and huckleberries, wild black
currants, and high-bush cranberries. The Indians gather
great quantities of the cranberries, and put them up—
or down — in seal oil — a valuable suggestion for ambitious
compilers of original bills of fare. There are also sarvis-
berries, blueberries, thimbleberries, and another fruit
very like a dewberry, that grows singly on a little annual
vine like a potato plant."

The coal resources of Alaska are lying dormant be-
cause tlie time does not seem to have arrived for the
necessity of the opening up of the mines. A number of
small veins or seams have been found on several of tike
islands in the Southeastern Alaskan country. Those
which, perhaps, so far have attracted the most attention
are on Chicagoflf Island, near Killisnoo, where every in-
dication promises an extensive deposit All the coal

PETROLEUM DEPOSITS.

255

found in Alaska is bituminous, and of a very good qual-
ity. Deposits have been found on the headwaters of the
Chilkat River, Lituya Bay, Cook Inlet, Unga Island, and
Port Mollar. The most extensive coal fields or deposits
are in the Cook Inlet country, cropping out on the beaches,
and along many of the streams. Unga Island has three
distinct veins of coal extending a distance of two miles
upon the sides of the mountains, each of them being
several feet thick. Some work has been done here within
the last few years and government vessels have experi-
mented with the coal, but find it contains a considerable
amount of ash and clinker. Doubtless when a grreater
depth is reached it will improve in quality. North of
Unga Island, about ten miles inland from Stepovak Bay,
is a trail or portage about ten miles long leading to
Herendeen Bay, at Port Mollar, on the Bering Sea side.
An excellent quality of coal is found here in large
quantities. The Alaska Commercial Company, the prin-
cipal owners of the mine, have shipped considerable coal
to their station at Unalaska ; and its quality, both for
steaming and house purposes, is found to be superior to
that found at Unga.

Extensive coal fields exist at Cape Lisburne, on the
Arctic side, extending for thirty or forty miles parallel
with the coast, and for a number of miles back into the
interior. It is of a lignite character, and the government
vessels, Corwin and Thetis, have taken coal for steaming
purposes from here, and have found an excess of ash and
clinker, which seems to be the general fault with all coal
thus far discovered in Alaska. Strong indications of

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256 SHEEP IN THE MOUNTAINS.

•

petroleum are found back from the coast a few miles, in
this cold Arctic region, and also between Icy Bay and
Cape Yaktaga. On the North Pacific coast, west of
Yakutat Bay, there are thought to be extensive deposits
of petroleum. Practically all the coal used by vessels
navigating the Alaskan waters, and in the mills and towns
of Alaska, is brought from the Puget Sound country and
British Columbia. It is bought at the mines for about
three dollars per ton, and the expense of shipping to the
Southern Alaska ports is five or six dollars per ton. The
expense of opening up a coal mine is so great that, until
there is a large demand in Alaska, it is doubtful if any
of the mines will be worked. Beds of white marble, of
a very fine quality, are known to exist on Baranoff and
Admiralty Islands. • ■ '

In the interior of Alaska, moose, caribou, reindeer,
bear, and other kinds of big game abound. However,
the miner in passing through the country is liable to see
very little of these animals. The natives have been sc
ruthless in their attacks upon them that they have for
the most part retired to the mountain fastness or to the
northward beyond the gold diggings. Occasionally a cari-
bou will be seen along the upper Yukon lakes. The big-
horn, or mountain sheep, and mountain goats — the ibex
— can be found by climbing the mountains for several
thousand feet above the lakes. Their wool is long and
fine, and when nicely cleaned and tanned makes beautiful
rugs. The horns of the sheep are made into bowls and
ladles by the natives.

It is reported that it is entirely due to the bears that

THE BROWN BEAR.

257

the Klondike River was not long ago made to give up
its golden treasures. These animals were very thick in
this section of the interior at the time of the earlier dis-
coveries, and on account of the trouble they gave the
first prospectors the latter moved on to other diggings
where they could work unmolested. Alaska affords
several varieties of bears, including the polar or white
bear, the brown bear, and the grizzly bear, known to
science as the Ursus horribilis. In the colder months of
the year droves of polar bears may be seen as far south
as St. Matthew's Island, in Bering Sea, but when
the ice begins to break up ther *, they strike out for the
farthest north, as far as the Arctic Ocean. . Their habits
are of a maritime character ; they are great swimmers ;
" they do not mind a swim of from 1 50 to 200 miles if
they can find an occasional iceberg to rest on. They are
ferocious, and have no fear of any enemy, so that the
sportsman who is fond of adventures with a spice of
danger in them can find genuine happiness in hunting
the polar bear, which, however, it must be said, has a
habit of killing and devouring such persons as may seek
sport at its expense."

The brown bear of Alaska is a huge and shaggy bear,
varying in length from six to twelve feet, and weighing
from 800 to 1,500 pounds, and is a dangerous adversary,
the terror of the natives. It is an expert fisher, with a
good appetite for salmon in its season ; and when the
year's run of that dainty fish is over it takes to the hills,
where small game awaits consumption. The brown bear
has been particularly useful as a road-maker in Alaska,

I I-

2 eg BELIEF OF THE NATIVES.

treading the river-banks and plains in a purposeful man-
ner, so that the traveler, by following its footsteps, will
find the easiest routes to the hills, and to the best fording
places. Its habitat is believed to run as far north as the
Arctic Ocean. As to its ferocity, the natives have almost
a monopoly of the stories. Yet there is an authentic
report that some time ago two men killed seven brown
bears in one day upon the mainland adjacent to the island
of Unga, and exhibited the skins in proof of their good
faith. This story ought to give encouragement to those
sportsmen who like a spice of luck as well as of danger
in their sport.

It is hard to tell whether the grizzly bear of Alaska is
more ferocious than the polar bear or the brown bear of
that part of America. But some of the men who have
traveled near Mount St. Elias say that the grizzly found
there is unequalled for ferocity, being fiercer even than
the Rocky Mountain variety. The Indian will never
attack it ; he takes to flight at the sight of it. It has no
fear of bullets. It is happy when it lays eyes on a human
being; humanity is but provender for it. The natives
believe that it possesses supernatural powers, and can
hypnotize the man who goes out to kill it. Yet it is re-
lated that upon one occasion a party of two Americans
in the Mount St. Elias region saw a grizzly at a distance
eating fish upon the banks of a stream, and determined
to try conclusions with it. They got reinforcements by
which their party was raised to the number of six. The
six men raised their rifles and poured a volley into the
body of the enemy, which thereupon rushed toward th:

THE ALASKA BEAVBR.

259

firing party. As the animal approached they peppered
it with their bullets until its life was extinct The skin-
ning of it was the next thing; and it was one of the
members of the party of six who said : " When the skin
was stretched out it looked to me bigger than the biggest
bullock hide I had ever seen ! "

That was an adventure for sportsmen who have no
fear of danger, but rather like it. In truth, there is no
part of the American continent where an adventurous
hunter can get livelier experiences in bear hunting than
those which are to be found in Alaska. He can take his
choice between the polar bear, the brown bear, and the
biggest grizzly on earth. He can hover about Mount St.
Elias, take observations upon the mainland near Unga,
or go stalking among the ice fields which border the
Arctic Ocean, some distance this side of the North Pole.

Among the land animals sought after on account of
their coats of fur the otter is the most widely distributed.
It is found in all parts of Alaska in large numbers.
Its hide is used for the making of an imitation seal-skin.
Beavers, too, are to be found in many places, although not
in such numbers as formerly. The species seems to
have suffered a considerable thinning out on account of
the recent severe winters. During the early days of the
Hudson Bay Company's history a beaver skin was valued
at about twenty-five cents, and all over the northwest
country was used as the equivalent of an English shilling.
Since the thinning out of these animals the price of their
skins has appreciated, and to-day a single beaver skin is
worth from SJJC to twelve dollars, The tourists look upon

5 I*

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26o

THE RARE SILVER FOX.

the flesh as a rare delicacy, and it forms the main dish at
all social functions. The long incisors of the beaver are
used by the natives for the manufacture of chisels, small
adzes, and other wood and bone-making tools.

Of foxes, Alaska can boast of an enormous supply.
Red foxes, black or silver foxes, and blue foxes are the
chief varieties, although long, unrestricted, inter-mixture
has given rise to a number of kinds of foxes which can-
not be classified under these heads. The red fox varies
in size and in the quality of its fur from a specimen as
large as the high-priced Siberian fire-fox to the small,'
yellow turgid creature that is to be found in such num-
bers on the Aleutian Islands. He lives on fish, flesh, and
fowl. Nothing in the animal kingdom seems too poor to
afford him food, even going so far as to eat mollusks, and
other shell-fish. His fur is of little value, and the natives
rarely eat his flesh, and then only when driven to it by
the pangs of hunger. Two or three dollars is about the
price of a good, red-fox skin. ?

The black or silver fox is the most valuable of the
vulpine family. He inhabits, for the most part, the higher
country, and has his lair in the mountain fastness. He
is of large size with long, soft, silky fur, varying in
color from the silver tint to a deep jet black, the latter
being the rarer and the most highly prized. The price
of a fine skin sometimes goes as high as forty or fifty
dollars. Black foxes of an inferior quality are found on
the sea-coast, on the shores of Norton Sound, in the in-
terior of Kotzebue Sound, along the Yukon, and on the
Colville River. They are quite plentiful on Kadiak

A WHITE PROWLER.

261

Island and most of the Al'^utian Islands ; but thev have
been transplanted by man's agency to many of thv.se
points.

Along the southwestern coast there are many islands,
removed from the shore a few miles, uninhabited and
never visited by natives. In a number of instances white
men have gathered a few pairs of blue, black, and silver
foxes, when young, from the natives, and taken them to
these islands and turned them adrift. They arrange with
the natives to carry food to them at stated periods, and
they become, in a measure, tame. They increase very
rapidly, and in three or four years become a source of
profitable industry for the projectors of the enterprise.
On the seal islands the propagation of the blue fox has
been carried on for some years, only a certain number
being killed each year. The blue fox was first discovered
on the Aleutian Islands in 1741. It has been protected
against intermixture with other and inferior foxes, and
the skins are of the finest quality and command a high
price in the market.

A species of white fox is found along the continental
coast of Alaska, from the mouth of the Kuskoquim River
northward to Point Barrow. Its fur is snowy white, soft
and long, but is not durable ; hence it does not command
a high price in the market. The white fox is fearless,
and will enter villages and dwellings in search of food,
or out of mere curiosity. It will eat anything to satisfy
hunger, and in the depth of winter the natives find it un-
safe to leave any article of clothing, dog-harness, or boat

\ *

262

THE DEER FAMILY.

material where these thieving little animals can find
them.

Mink, lynxs, muskrats, and wolverines are also to be
found in certain parts of Alaska. The skins of the latter
are rarely exported, as a ready market is found at home.
The natives of the Kuskokwin and coast districts prefer
this shaggy, piebald fur to any other trimming for their
wearing apparel. It is also prized highly among the
Eskimo, as it serves as an excellent protection for their
faces against the severe blasts of the north country
when sewed in around their hoods.

The deer of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions have
been confounded with the reindeer of other localities.
While they certainly belong to the same family, they are
what is called the barren ground caribou, which differs
from the upland caribou and domesticated reindeer in
being smaller in body and horns. Owing to the ruthless
manner in which they have been slaughtered their num-
bers have been greatly diminished during recent years.
After a long winter in the interior, when their food sup-
ply has been exhausted, they will drift down to the coast
in search of more favorable conditions. Here they are
waylaid by the natives and slaughtered in great numbers
for their hides. Deer forms one of the main food sup-
plies of Alaska, and an effort is being made to make
their killing unlawful for a term of years. Unless Con-
gress authorizes this the extinction of the species will
not be far off. They are hunted, in the rutting season,
by a call made from a blade of grass placed between two
strips of wood, which produces a very clever imitation

CATCHING HUMMING BIRDS.

263

of the cry of the deer. This call leads them to the
ambushed hunter ; and so deceptive is it that it is not
unusual to get a second shot should the first fail. The
wolves play great havoc with the deer ; and it is remark-
able that they exist in such numbers among so many
ruthless enemies. *' • -

Bald anu gray eagles are numerous throughout South-
east Alaska, and are also found, to some extent, in the
interior wherever there is large timber. The natives kill
them in large numbers and pluck thr feathers, leaving
nothing but the down. When cleansed the skins are
sewn together, about thirty of them being required to
make a robe, which is, at once, rich and beautiful.

Humming birds in large numbers, having the delicate
plumage of those found in warmer climates, flit from bush
to bush in Southeast Alaska. Native boys tie small
pieces of red flannel on a limb, and cover them thickly
with pitch. The bright color attracts th« tiny birds, which
alight on the flannel. Their little feet adhere so tena-
ciously to the pitch that they cannot extricate themselves,
so they become an easy prey to the youngsters who trap
them, only to worry them to death with savage cruelty.

In all the waters of Alaska, whether in the southeastern
country, the interior, or Arctic regions, ducks and geese
in every variety are found in vast numbers. Alaska ap-
pears to be especially adapted as a natural breeding
ground. The smaller varieties of land and timber birds
are as numerous as the water- fowl, and the graceful
swans are found in large numbers in many parts of the
territory.

254 HUNDREDS OP VARIBTIES OP PISH

In Arctic Alaska the disappearance of the snow and
ice is immediately followed by the arrival of birds from
the south in large numbers, and, in a few weeks, the
Eskimo revel in the variety and number of eggs found
among the grass and tunora. Besides the wholesale
robbing of nests for eggs the young fledglings are eaten
by the Eskimos with a keen relish. Their stay is brief,
however, for none, save the most hardy of the Arctic
birds, remain to pass the long months of winter in this
region. *• «'.?.^ .7;j r; ^iVr-vi^a- - i

Next in importance to the seals and the gold mines,
on which this chapter does not touch, ^he salmon and cod
fisheries must take rank in any account of Alaskan re-
sources. Upon the authority of Prof. Brau, of the United
States Fish Commission, it may be stated that more than
one hundred varieties of fish are found in Alaskan
waters. ?

Salmon is found in great numbers in the streams from
the lower extremities of Southeast Alaska to the Arctic
Ocean. The most favored varieties are those known as
the red or silver salmon, weighing from eight to twelve
or fifteen pounds each, and the king salmon often weigh-
ing as high as fifty pounds. The latter variety is found
only in a few localities in Southeast Alaska and in the
Yukon, many miles above its mouth. It is said that
specimens have been caught weighing over one hundred
and twenty pounds.

The first salmon cannery in Alaska was erected in
1878, and at the present time there are nearly fifty; most
of them are in operation each season.

WHITE LABOR EMPLOYRD. 265

Two-thirds of the entire salmon pack of Alaska is
furnished by the ten canneries on the Kadiak Islands,
which are almost entirely supplied from the Karluk River.
This stream, which is on the west coast of Kadiak, is only
sixteen miles long, from 100 to 600 feet wide, and less
than six feet deep. These figures give the dimensions
of the almost solid mass of salmon that used to ascend
the Karluk to a mountain lake above, before the canners
began operations with traps and gill-nets in 1 884. The
largest cannery in the world is at Karluk. In these
canneries, in 1890, there were 1,1 cx> employes, and over
200,000 cases of 48 one-pound tins contained the 3,000,-
000 salmon packed that year. A single haul of the seine
has beached 1 7,000 fish. The company which operates
on the Karluk, is composed of San Francisco people,
who own the boats which carry away the product and
thus avoid paying license to the United States Govern-
ment. The labor is altogether imported from the States.
Only in a few small canneries are the natives employed.

After the salmon industry had taken hold in Alaska
it increased so rapidly that it was soon found that the
supply exceeded the demand. A sort of salmon trust
was formed, some of the canneries were abandoned, and
each cannery received its pro rata share of the proceeds
of the canneries in operation. The total output for 1889
was over 700,000 cans.

Cod are found in large quantities along the Aleutian
chain of islands, as far west as the Alexander archipelago,
and in a general way they may be said to exist along tlie
whole southern coast of Alaska.

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366

A PBRIU)US OCCUPATION.

In the vicinity of the Kadiak group of islands, and
still further south to the Simeonoff, and at the Shumagin
group, about the islands of Magipopf and Unga, cod are
found in great abundance. In Bering Sea, towards the
lower Siberian shore, they are also. Popofif Island, oppo-
site Unga, is the headquarters for the cod-fishing fleet
There are large warehouses at Humboldt Harbor and
Pirate Cove. Most of the cod are taken to California to
be cured.

Halibut, which is found along the northern coa^t and
to some extent in Bering Sea, is a staple article of diet
with the natives. This is also true of the herring, which
are to be found in large quantities.

Whales are found in all the deep waters. Upwards of
seventy-five vessels are now engaged in the whaling busi-
ness, and they must penetrate several miles above Ber-
ing Strait before they encounter any of them. The
business is hazardous, and great risks must be run. In
the summer of 1877 nearly fifty vessels were lost, and a
number of crews perished, preferring to remain on the
vessels rather than risk making their way across the sea
to land. This catastrophe led the government to estab-
lish a rescue station at Point Barrow, the most northern
point of Alaska, which is provisioned with supplies suffi-
cient to last one hundred men a year. It is in charge of
a government official whose outy it is to render aid and
succor to shipwrecked sailors.

t «

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Wf %h

(

CHAPTER XII.

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.

The wide difTerence l>etween the climate of the coast and interior — What gold-
seeker* will find in the way of weather — Mean temperature at various points
compared — Influence of the Pacific currents — The highest and lowest points of
the mercury— The topography of the country — Grandeur of sccLery on mountain
and plain — Remarkable tides of tlie ocean.

GENERAL statements as to climate applicable to
Alaska as a whole are entirely out of the question,
on account of the difference ii: conditions which obtain
on the coast and in the interior, even thirty miles back
from the sea. The climate of southeastern Alaska can
be compared with that of southern Norway, It is much
milder than the climate in the same latitude on the At-
lantic coast. This is due to the warm current of the
Pacific that sweeps up from the southwest, having the
same effect that is produced by the flow of the Gulf
Stream in the Atlantic. Summer weather on the coast
is much more liable to be wet and cloudy than in the in-
terior. May, June, and part of July are usually all one
could desire, but from that on to the opening of winter
disagreeable weather is the rule and not the exception.
At St. Michael, during this period, rain falls four days in
seven. In October the winds shear round from the
southwest to the north and fine weather sets in. During
the fall wind storms are of^ frequent occurrence.
368

■ ' !

FOUR YEARS COMPARED. ' 271

The mean temperature for the four seasons and the
year, at four different points in the lower Yukon district,
are given in the following tabic. The first point is Fort
Get There, on St. Michael ; the second, the Greek
Mission at Cogmute, on the Yukon, 1 50 miles from its
mouth ; the third, at Nulato, a Roman Catholic Mission,
several hundred miles further up the river, and the fourth
at Fort Yukon :

Means. St. Michael. Cogmute. Nulato. Fort Yukoi

Spring .!9.3 19.62 29.3 14.22

Summer, 53.0 59*32 60.0 59-67

Autumn, 26.3 39.05 36.0 17.37

Winter 8.6 0.95 14.0 23.80

Year, 29.3 26.48 27.8 16.92

Chief Willis L. Moore, of the Weather Bureau, has
furnished some interesting facts about the climatic con-
ditions in Alaska, and touching particularly on the Klon-
dike region. •

The general conception of Alaskan climate is largely
due to those who go down to the sea in ships, and this
is not stranore wlen we consider the vast extent of shore
line — over 26,000 miles — possessed by that Territory.
The climates of the coast and interior are unlike in many
respects, and the differences are intensified in this, as
perhaps in few other countries, by exceptional physical
conditions. The natural contrast between land and sea
is here tremendously increased by the current of warm
water that impinges on the coast of British Columbia,
one branch flowing northward toward Sitka, and thence
westward to the Kadiak and Shumagin Islands.

• V

272

TEMPERATE ALASKA.

The fringe of islands that separates the mainland
from the Pacific Ocean from Dixon Sound northward
and also a strip of the mainland for possibly twenty miles
back from the sea, following the sweep of the coast, as
it curves to the northwestward to the western extremity
of Alaska, form a distinct climate division which may be
termed temperate Alaska. The temperature rarely falls
to zero ; winter does not set in until December ist, and
by the last of May the snow has disappeared except on
the mountains. The mean winter temperature of Sitka
is 32.5, but little less than that of Washington, D. C.
While Sitka is fully exposed to the sea influence, places
farther inland, but not over the coast range of mountains,
as Killisnoo and Juneau, have also mild temperatures,
throughout the v/inter months. The temperature
changes from month to month in temperate Alaska are
small, not exceeding 25 degrees from midwinter to mid-
summer. The average temperature of July, the warmest
month of summer, rarely reaches 55 degrees, and the
highest temperature of a single day seldom reaches 75
degrees.

The rainfall of temperate Alaska is notorious the
world over, not only as regards the quantity that falls,
but also as to the manner of its falling, viz., in long and
incessant rains and drizzles. Cloud and fog naturally
abound, there being on an average but sixty-six clear
days in the year.

Alaska is a land of striking contrasts, in climate as
well as topography. When the sun shines the atmos-

FROM GLORY TO DESOLATION.

273

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phere is remarkably clear , the scenic effects are magnifi-
cent; all nature seems to be in holiday attire. But the
scene may change very quickly ; the sky becomes over-
cast ; the winds increase in force ; rain begins to fall ;
the evergreens sigh ominousl)', and utter desolation and
loneliness prevail.

North of the Aleutian Islands the coast climate be-
comes more rigorous in winter, but in summer the differ-
ence is much less marked. Thus, at St. Michael, a short
distance north of the mouth of the Yukon, the mean
summer temperature is fifty degrees, but four degrees
cooler than Sitka. The mean summer temperature of
Point Barrow, the most northerly point in the United
States, is 36.8 degrees, but four-tenths of a degree less
than the temperature of the air flowing across the sum-
mit of Pike's Peak, Col.

The rainfall of the coast region north of the Yukon
delta is small, diminishing to less than ten inches within
the Arctic Circle.

The climate of the interior, including in that desig-
nation practically all of the country except a narrow
fringe of coastal margin and the territory before referred
to as temperate Alaska, is one of extreme rigor m
winter, with a brief, but relatively hot, summer, espe-
cially when the sky is free from clouds.

In the Klondike region, in midwinter, the sun rises
from 9.30 to 10 A. M., and sets from 2 to 3 p. M.,the total
length of daylight being about four hours. Remember-
ing that the sun rises but a few degrees above the hori-

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THE WINTER GLOOM.

r <i

zon, and that it is wholly obscured on a great many
days, the character of the winter months may easily be
imagined.

We are indebted to the United States Coast and
Geodetic Survey for a series of six months* observations
on the Yukon, not far from the site of the present gold
discoveries. The observations were made with standard
instruments, and are wholly reliable. The mean tem-
perature of the months October, 1889, to April, 1890,
both inclusive, are as follows: October, 33 degrees;
November, 8 degrees*; December, 1 1 degrees below
zero; January, 17 degrees below zero; February, 15
degrees below zero ; March, 6 degrees above zero ;
April, 20 degrees above. The daily mean temperature
fell and remained below the freezing point (32) from
November 4th, 1889, to April, 21st, 1890, thus giving 168
days as the length of the closed season of 18S9-90,"
assuming the out-door operations are controlled by
temperature only.

The lowest temperatures registered during the winter
were : 32 degrees below zero in November, 47 below in
December, 59 below in January, 55 below in February,
45 below in March, 26 below in April.

The greatest continuous cold occurred in February,
1890, when the daily mean for five consecutive days was
47 degrees below zero. The weather mode»*ated slightly
about the ist of March, but the temperature still re-
mained below the freezing point. Generally, cloudy
weather prevailed, there being but three consecutive

SNOW ONE DAY IN THREE.

275

days in any month with clear weather during the whole
winter. Snow fell on about one-third of the days in
winter, and a less number in the early spring and late
fall months.

Greater cold than that here noted has been experi-
enced in the United States for a very short time, but
never has it continued so very cold for so long a time.
In the interior of Alaska the winter sets in as early as
September, when snow storms may be expected in the
mountains and passes. Headway during one of these
storms is impossible, and the traveler who is overtaken
by one of them is indeed fortunate if he escapes with his
life. Snow storms of great severity may occur in any
month from September to May, inclusive.

The changes of temperature from winter to summer
are rapid, owing to the great increase in the length of
the day. In May the sun rises at about 3 a. m. and sets
about 9 p. M. In June it rises about 1.30 in the morning
and sets at 10.30, giving about twenty hours of daylight
and diffuse twilight the remainder of the time.

The mean summer temperature of the interior doubt-
less ranges between 60 and 70 degrees, according to
elevation, being highest in the middle and lower Yukon
valleys.

As a rule, in the coast country it is clear but a few
days in the year. Usually, however, in June and July,
the sun pierces the heavy clouds and brightens the whole
landscape. The rains are not so cold and chilly as else-
where even in southern latitudes.

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A HEALTHY COUNTRY.

Notwithstanding the marked variations in the climate,
Alaska is essentially a healthy country. The only pre-
vailing diseases are those of a bronchial nature, and in
most cases these troubles can be directly traced to im-
prudent exposure.

The snow of the interior partakes much of the char-
acter of frost, sifting slowly down in intensely cold
weather until it lies several inches deep, light and fluffy ;
but at times, in warm weather, it thaws and settles into
a hard crust, affording excellent surface for sledding.

The great precipitation and humidity of the atmos-
phere in Southern Alaska cause the entire coast region
to be clothed in a mantle of perennial green. Vegeta-
tion is dense and the forests magnificent. The soil is
rich, though in the heavily timbered section it is shallow
and from the most eastern point of the territory to
Kadiak root crops are easily grown.

The remarkable labyrinth of islands which skirt the
coast of Alaska, the great plains of the interior, inter-
sected by deep rivers, gigantic snow-crowned mountains,
the active volcanoes and the mighty ice fields, with many
other singular, beautiful, and awe-inspiring gifts of
nature, combine to make the country of the new gold
fields one of notable grandeur and wonder.

Alaska is, topographically speaking, naturally divided
into two great divisions — Southeast and Western
Alaska. Mt. St. Elias marks the dividing line between
Western Alaska and Southeast Alaska, at 141 degrees
west longitude, running north from this point to the

MT. ST. ELIAS ON THE LINE.

277

Arctic Ocean. For a number of years it was supposed
that Mt. St. Elias was within American territory, but
late surveys show most of its base to be just over the
line in the Canadian Dominion.

Many of the islands in the inland, or tourist route,
have the appearance of half-submerged mountains, and
water two hundred fathoms deep is often found, where
the breadth of the channel can be almost spanned, by the
length of the ship.

Fiords are numerous, some of them winding in ser-
pentine fashion a distance of twenty or more miles, into
the islands or mainland. The gi eat rivers of the in-
terior drain immense valleys, with mountain ranges
everywhere visible. Lakes are abundant, often sur-
rounded by tundra or swamps, very frequently impene-
trable, covered with brush, rank grasses, and other
vegetation. After the interior is reached — and by this
is meant after the coast mountains are crossed, in many
places, only twenty or thirty miles from the coast — the
soft earth and luxuriant vegetation of the coast country
give place to frozen ground, and lichens and mosses on
the mountain sides and in the valleys. But though the
vast plains of the interior are completely within the
grasp of the ice king for eight months of the year, with
the advent of the long days of summer water runs,
flowers bloom, and grasses spring into life as if by
magic, and their growth is at once luxuriant and rapid,
even though in many places the soil is never thawed
beyond a few inches below the surface. In the far

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''3 WEST MAIII STREET

WESSr^R, N.Y. 14580

(716) S73-4S03

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278

BORING THROUGH ICE FOR WATER.

north at St. Michael, and at Point Barrow, wells have
been dug through sixty feet of solid ice, and the same
condition has been noted on the Yukon, at Forty-Mile.

The Aleutian Islands, stretching far out into the North
Pacific, surrounded by rocks scarred and battered for
ages, by the boisterous wav«s, are without trees, but
they are thickly covered with a low growth of luxuriant
vegetation. Between the mountains and the sea are
small plateaus or prairies, with soil enriched by vege-
table mold, and suitable for domestic gardening. Grass
grows abundantly here, sometimes to a height of six
feet. It is cured by the natives, to feed a few small
Siberian cattle, and they also braid it into useful and
often ornamental articles, such as baskets, hats, and
mats.

Many people familiar with Alaska deem Cook Inlet,
which lies to the north of Kadiak, to be the pleas-
antest portion of the country for residence. Its skies
are always bright in summer.

The guiding landmarks of Alaska may be said to be
its grand mountains, volcanic peaks, and mammoth
glaciers. Mt. St. Elias lifts Us ermine top over 18,000
feet above the level of the sea. In the distance it seems
to have its base on the very shore of the ocean, although
in reality sixty miles distant. From the south side of
Mt. St. Elias eleven glaciers slowly make their way
oceanward, one of them, named Agassiz glacier, being
estimated to be twenty miles in width and fifty in length,
covering an area of one thousand square miles.

PEAKS AND VOLCANOES.

279

Mt. Fairweather, one hundred and fifty miles south
of Mt. St. Elias, is about 15,500 feet high; Mt. Crillon,
15,000; Mt. Perouse, 14,300, and Mt. Wrangel is over
19,000.

There are thirty or more volcanoes in Alaska, six
or eight of which are in an active state of eruption.
Shishaldin, which is 9,000 feet high, is certainly burning,
and its smoke may always be seen in clear weather. It
is situated on Unimak island near the pass of the same
name, usually followed by vessels in entering Bering Sea.
Pavlof, about one hundred miles to the eastward, is
another smoking mountain; the glow from its crater
may be seen reflected against the heavens. Mt.
Makushin, at the eastern extremity of Unalaska island,
is about 5,500 feet in height, and gives evidence of being
more or less active ; while the tops of Pogrumnoi and
Shishaldin, on Unimak island, serve as beacons at night
or in foggy weather for vessels on their way into Bering
Sea, as they can be seen distinctly, towering above the
dense atmosphere. Akutan island has a smoking vol-
cano, 4,000 feet high; and on Atka island there are
several volcanoes, from 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height,
which occasionally emit smoke.

Mt. Logan, the highest known mountain in North
America, unless it may be Mt. Wrangel, has an ele-
vation of 19,000 feet. Some surveyors claim that
Wrangel is a loftier peak than Logan, but its exact height
is unknown. Wrangel is clearly within Alaska, but Loga(i
is a few miles east of the line, in Canadian territory.

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THE LOFTIEST PEAK.

Hot mineral springs abound all over the various
groups of Alaska, especially those stretching from the
Alaskan peninsula westward toward Asia. About fifteen
miles south of Sitka hot springs are found which seem
to contain remarkable curative properties. The Indians
ha/e for many generations used the health-giving
waters, and the white man follows in his dark brother's
track.

The aspect of the land about Bering Strait is moun-
tainous but not remarkably precipitous. The strait is
only forty-eight miles wide, and the narrow passage is
partially filled by some islands. It is not without the
range of probability that the day will come when a rail-
road around a large part of the circumference of the
world will pass over this now silent strait.

It is considered physically impossible to span Bering
Strait with a bridge, owing to the swift current and the
vast quantities of ice which, in winter, are continually
flowing through, and which would speedily demolish
such a structure. It may be possible, however, that the
strait could be tunneled, and it has been suggested that
it could be filled in with rock, allowing sufficient open-
ings for the waters to run through and for vessels to
pass, thus forming an adamantine roadway between the
extreme west and east, as represented by the United
States and Siberia.

The mountains that mark the westernmost point of
the continent at Cape Prince of Wales are rocky and
barren, the ledgts standing upc n high pillars, with shat-

A POSSIBLE ENGINEERING FEAT.

281

tered sides and uneven surfaces. Toward the base,
facing Bering Strait, the slope is gradual, extending into
a low sandy beach reaching out into the strait a mile or
more and then bearing to the north. Endless quantities
of rock could be taken from these mountains of solid
stone and dumped into the strait, until a roadway,
similar to the great wall of China, but deeper and
broader and stronger, would rise from the bottom of the
shallow waters. The expense, it is true, would be enor-
mous — and no attempt is here made to discuss scientific
difificulties in the way- -but let it be remembered that all
great engineering projects have been first ridiculed and
denounced as chimerical, as witness the Suez Canal,
Nicaragua Canal, the Panama Canal, and other great
triumphs of engineering skill. The practicability of the
Panama Canal, in which the French people invested tens
of millions of dollars, though yet uncompleted, has been
fully demonstrated. To carry so gigantic an enterprise
to a successful completion unlimited capital and labor
would be required. In the matter of labor, if white men
cnuld not be found, Eskimos could be utilized.

The tides of the Pacific coast of Alaska differ from
tliose we are familiar with on the Atlantic seaboard.
Lieutenant Ray, in reporting to the Hydrographic Office,
speaks of them as "perplexing tidal irregularities."
During the summer months of May, June, and July there
occurs but one high and one low water during each
twenty- four hours, high water at the full change of the
moon occurring about midnight and varying but slightly

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SOME TIDAL NOTES.

from that hour during the entire six months. The
springs range from eight to ten feet, the neaps from four
to five feet. The tides are almost stationary for two
hours on either side of high and low water, unless
affected by strong winds outside.

During August, September, and October, there are two
high and low waters during twenty-four hours, a superior
and an inferior tide. During the winter almost a re-
versal of these rules appears to take place. In Novem-
ber, December, and January the twelve-hour tides again
occur, but the high water appears at noon, instead of
midnight. In February, March, and April there are two
tides, the superior high water occurring in the afternoon.
Thus it may be said that in the summer the tides are low
during the day, the highest occurring during the night,
and in winter the opposite is the case. The tides during
those months when two occur every day are far more
irregular than at the time when there is but one. Another
anomaly is that the greatest range frequently occurs at
the first and last quarters, instead of at the full and
change of the moon.

)»

-^ : CHAPTER XIII. /

' CIVILIZED ALASKA. .0

The Government, Trade, and Cities of the Oldest Parts of the Northern
Territory — Settlements of the Coast and how they are Supported —
The Great Salmon Canneries. The Strong Hand of Uncle Sam — The
Greek Church and its Work among the Natives — The Capiu A and
Metropolis of the Territory — What the Intrepid Missionaries Hav!
Done for Alaska.

SINCE the sending of Russian missionaries to Alaska
more than a century ago, the march of civiHzation
in that part of the frozen North has been steady,
though somewhat slow. Perhaps no other element has
contributed so much to the progress as those unselfish,
determined missionaries and the ones who succeeded
them. If they endured all manner of privations and
hardships in their work, they nevertheless had the satis-
faction which comes to all in viewing the successful issue
of their labors. What has been accomplished for civili-
zation is now to be seen on every side in the way of
thriving towns and prosperous industries, which speak
volumes for the glorious future of a country which, with
all the evils of its climate and remote situation, is sin-
gularly blessed in many ways.

The hand of civilization has not as yet extended far
from the coast in Alaska, but it is certain that with the
new discoveries of gold, and the tide of population flow-
ing into the interior, the pleasant conditions existing in

283

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284

SITKA.

the towns of the southeast, the comforts and many of
the luxuries, the schools and industries, the courts and
other safeguards, will soon follow.

Sitka, while not the largest town in Alaska, that posi-
tion being held by Juneau, is the capital of the Territory,
and in addition to its being the seat of government terri-
tory, has other claims to the distinction of being regarded
as the centre of its civilization. It is situated on Baranof
Island, the best known of all the islands in the Archi-
pelago. It is 1 20 miles long and 30 miles wide. Here
Alexander Baranof, a Russian merchant, established a
trading post as long ago as 1 799. The present town is
situated about three miles south of the site of that post.
A fort was early established at Sitka and continued until
the transfer of the territory to the United States. After
the withdrawal of the Russian troops the natives de-
stroyed much of the property and sacked the town, but
order being restored again the town has grown steadily
since then, though its population even now numbers
something less than 3000.

Sitka is the official residence of the Governor of the
territory, the United States District Judge, and other
officers. It is also the home port of men-of-war and
revenue vessels patrolling the surrounding waters. The
town is built on level land at the mouth of the Indian
River at the foot of Mt. Verstovi. Lincoln, which is the
main street, extends from the government wharf to the
old Russian sawmill, one of the ancient landmarks of the
island. A large parade-ground fronts the harbor. A
granite monument in the centre is the United States

BARANOF MANSION.

285

Astronomical Station. Mail steamers remain at Sitka
twenty-four hours, and others for a shorter time. The
chief objects of interest are the "Castle," once occupied
by the manager of the Russian Fur Company, the Greek
Cathedral Church, the Indian village, the block house
and Russian cemetery, and the museum and industrial
school.

The barracks and custom-house are relics of the Rus-
sian dominion, and in the former is the territorial jail and
offices of the Government. A long flight of steps leads
to the/* Castle," where the whites protected themselves
from the natives in 1867. On this site Baranof first built
his home. Later the Russian Governor erected a man-
sion there, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1847,
and rebuilt. It was a massive and in some respects a
unique structure. Built of cedar logs, it was joined by
copper boil' ~, and riveted to the rock foundation. It
had a glass cupola, which was formerly the harbor light-
house. The building was richly furnished and decorated,
but was looted during 1867 after the departure of the
Russian troops. In 1893 it was restored, but soon after
wrecked by a fire.

Baranof built a small chapel at Sitka in 18 16, but when
Ivan Veniaminofl" was made Bishop of Russian America
he erected a cathedral in 1844. It occupies a quadrangle
on Lincoln Street. The chime of six bells was sent from
Moscow. The interior is richly decorated. The treas-
ury contains rich and beautiful vestments. The chapel
of St. Mary, nearby, is used for services in winter. The
altar picture there of the Madonna and Child, shadowed

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286

BLARNEY STONE.

with heavy silver draperies, is much admired, as are some
similar works elsewhere in the cathedral and chapel. So
it will be seen that even in this far away land art is not
forgotten. The Czar of Russia, as the head of the
Greek Church, maintains the churches and chapels of
Alaska, numbering some seventy. He transferred the
Bishop's see from Sitka to San Francisco at one time,
but removed it to Unalaska, and then back to Sitka.
Thus some of the old glory of St. Michael's Cathedral
has been restored. The Bishop occupies a long, green-
roofed, comfortable mansion.

The Lutheran Church, built by Governor Etholin in
1840 for the Swedes and Finns employed in the foun?
dries and shipyards, was the garrison church after the
transfer, but was later abandoned and torn down.

One of the largest buildings in Sitka is the big log
structure, now occupied by a general trading store, was
formerly the chief office of the Russian- American Fur
Company. There is an eminence in the northern part
of the town, where a Russian race-track was formerly
located, which has been reserved for the erection of an
executive mansion either by the National Government
or the Crmmonwealth when Alaska is admitted to the
Union.

Sitka had at one time a large ice trade, the product
being shipped down the coast to the cities of the Pacific
seaboard, but the cheap method of making ice by machine
has ruined this industry.

The "Blarney stone," a square block on the beach, is
supposed to endow those who kiss it with a magic tongue.

Chilkoot Coat.

MRS. TOM.

289

The Sitka Mission and Industrial School was founded by
the Presbyterians in 1878, and is a prosperous and use-
ful institution. The native village fronting on the harbor
north of the Sitka wharf has been transformed since
1880. Prior to that time the Indians lived in great com-
munal dwellings surrounded by filth, but Captain Glass
had the village cleaned at that time and the houses num-
bered for record and sanitary inspection. The enforce-
ment of rigid rules and the stimulation of the Indian
pride have wrought much change for the better. Mrs.
Tom, who is sometimes called th lueen, is by no means
of princely lineage, but comes of thi: commonest Yakutat
stock. She has shown a rema.\aWr' ability as a money-
maker. She is one of the shrewdest traders in the ter-
ritory, and owns lands and schooners worth a very nice
fortune. The Sitkan Indians number about louo. They
are descended from wanderers and renegade*? of many
tribes, and are regarded with contempt by almost all the
other Indians of Alaska.

The fur trade has long been Sitka's chief industry, but
the gold discoveries in the last thirty years have been
very demoralizing to it. In 187 1 Edward Doyle found
float gold on the shores of Silver Bay near Sitka. He
uncovered a quartz stringer on Round Mountain and
another on Indian River. The Haley and Rogers lode
on Salmon Creek was first worked by the garrison offi-
cers. The Stewart mill, on a neighboring claim, was
built in 1877, and the Bald* Mountain claims were soon
after discovered. Governor Swineford's energy revived
the languishing mining interes* in 1885, ^^^ since then

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290

GOVERNMENT OF ALASKA.

a number of more or less valuable claims have been
opened, and many of the citizens of Sitka are directly or
indirectly interested in mining enterprises.

The government of Alaska as carried on at Sitka is
the usual one applied to all the Territories of the United
States, with some modifications necessary to adopt it to
the peculiar conditions. The Governor and Secretary of
the Territory are appointed by the President, and live
and carry on their duties at Sitka. By far the most
onerous duties, however, fall to the share of the court
officers. At the head of the judicial branch is the United
States Judge, appointed by the President. There are
also the United States Marshal and the Commissioners,
the former having deputies in various other towns. The
active force at hand to carr)' on the work of government
is at present small. The police force consists of the
eight deputy marshals. There are in all eight Commis-
sioners and eight deputies. In case of serious trouble
the marshal could summon a posse of citizens to enforce
order. The laws of the United States are rigidly en-
forced in Southeastern Alaska, but, of course, with so
small a force at his disposal the marshal must largely
depend on the citizens themselves to enforce order in
the new gold-fields of the interior. There is also a land
office at Sitka, and it is probable that two others will
shortly be established at Circle City and Dawson.

Captain Ray, of the United States Army, and several
officers of his command who are familiar with Alaska,
are at present in the Territory, with a view to making a
report on the necessities of the case there in the matter

■■■I

JUNEAU.

291

of preserving the peace. It is not unlikely that one or
more companies of the regular army will be ordered
north in the spring.

The metropolis and gateway of our big northwest ter-
ritory is Juneau, a town about twenty years old. In spite
of the immensity of the couutry it is hard to find room
enough on the coast to build a town on, and conse-
quently Juneau is much crowded for space. The
streets are hardly half the usual width, and the houses
reach up the foot of the mountain as high as it is
safe to build them on account of the risk from snow-
slides.

As there is plenty of timber everywhere, all the houses,
including the Federal building, are of wood. Even the
Indians live in fairly good frame houses. The law, as
far as it extends, is administered by the United States
authorities. A Federal commissioner hears all cases that
come up, disposing of the smaller ones and holding the
more serious offenders to the United States Court. Most
of the cases are for violation of the liquor regulations.
For the most part the liquor laws are a dead letter.
Dozens of saloons are run openly without paying any
kind of license. An occasional arrest is made, but it
does not serve as a check on the business. Public
opinion is against the enforcement of the law. The only
offence of this nature that is regarded seriously is the
selling of liquor to the Indians. Public opinon condemns
this, and there are occasional convictions for it.

The Indians give more or less 1 rouble in their tribal
relations. They seem to be unable to understand that

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292

KYACKS.

they cannot make and enforce their own savage laws as
they once did.

A slight hill, or ridge, divides the business portion of
Juneau from the Indian town. Standing on this ridge at
any time in the day one may enjoy an animated picture
on the beach below. The one important item in life to
these Indians is their fishing. Their houses line the beach
at a safe distance above high tide, and all the interme-
diate space is filled with the appurtenances of their craft.
Their long, boats, or kyacks, turned up at both ends, and
which cut the water like a knife, are drawn up out of
reach of the surf, and are generally covered over with
skins or cloths to protect them from the weather. And
of very good workmanship are these boats. Some of
these are six feet across in the widest place, and may be
twenty or thirty feet long, hewn from a solid piece of
timber. From the care and accuracy bestowed upon
them it looks as though it might easily take a good work-
man a year to make such a craft. These boats are very
speedy, and the Indians fearlessly undertake any sort of
a sea voyage in them. Sometimes the Alaskan Indians
go all the way down to Puget Sound for the sake of a
month's work during the hop-picking season and for the
incident excitement. Their chief dependence is fishing.

Juneau is an ideal mining camp. Every building in
the town, and everylnhabitant, bears the aspect of activity
and prosperity peculiar to live mining camps.

With but few exceptions, the inhabitants have not
found time to clear their lots of the stumps or. gnarled
roots that litter as well as make a rustic ornament for

METROPOLIS OF ALASKA*

293

every door-yard. But there are a number of handsome
residences and neat business houses ; and a system of
water works that draws its supply from the purest of
mountain streams, and an electric light plant which for
four months of the year gives way to the brilliant light of
heaven's sun, taking its turn again for four months in the
winter, excepting only a few hours at midday.

All roads lead to Rome, it is said, and all routes in
Alaska lead to Juneau. The Yukon miner comes here
to outfit for his long and hazardous trip into the interior ;
all travellers who come to Alaska, whether for business
or pleasure, and even the United States Court, if in
session at Sitka, the capital, comes here for nineteen-
twentieths of its jurors, without whom it could not trans-
act business. Juneau is righdy called the metropolis.
Whether she will retain this prestige remains to be seen.
If so, one of two things must occur. She must plane
down the sides of her mountains or erect sky-scraping
buildings with elevators to accommodate her populace,
for nearly every foot of available ground is already
occupied.

The population of Juneau numbers about three thou-
sand souls ; and the enterprise of the people and vol-
ume of business are shown by the support given to the
three newspapers here published : The Mining Record,
the oldest paper published here, is devoted especially to
the mining interests of the country; the Searchlight, a
metropolitan-appearing journal, and the News,

Juneau was founded in the winter of i88c>-'8i, six
months after the discovery of gold (August 15, 1880),

294

FORT WRANGEL.

by Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris. It went under
the name of Harrisburg at first, and afterward was
called Rockwell, but the miners, at a meeting about
a year after its foundation, decided to rechristen it in
honor of the discoverer of gold.

Fort Wrangel is an important station, on an island by
that name, off the mouth of the Stikine river. It was the
second settlement in Alaska, and commands a broad,
mountain-walled harbor that lies eighty miles in from the
ocean. This gives it a warmer and a drier climate than
places on the outer coast. The thermometer often
reaches 90° in the summer, and extreme cold is almost
unknown. Admiral Wrangel founded the first settle-
ment on the island. United States troops occupied a
fort there for the ten years following 1867, but they were
then withdrawn. With the decrease in the mining in-
terest on the Stikine river, Fort Wrangel's trade was
almost lost, and the little village is now supported
almost entirely by the lumber trade. It is destined to
see much of a revival now, however, for it is on one
of the <main routes to the Klondike country, and all the
boats stop there.

The Metlakatlan Indians, who emigrated to Alaska
from British Columbia, have an interesting settlement
on the Annette islands in the Alexander archipelago, and
a few white people live among them and direct their
labors, which are devoted largely to canning salmon.
Some 8000 cases of salmon are shipped away annually.
These people publish a newspaper. They have a photo-
graph gallery, jewelry making stores, schools, and vari-

f ,-irfmBU,9,i= tmv- unynmimi^mKt

^f^

VHMI

KILLISNOO.

295

It in

ous other establishments. There are many salmon-can-
ning settlements along the coast, but the largest estab-
lishment is at Loring, at the entrance of Naha bay. The
canning industry represents an investment of several
million dollars, and the output of all Alaska amounts at
present to over half a million cases.

Killisnoo, on Kenanow Island, is the site of large oil
and guano works. There is a post-office, a government
school, and a Russian chapel.

Fort Kenai is located on Cook's inlet, which extends
160 miles inland between the Chignik range and the
mountainous Kenai peninsula. This inlet and the settle-
ments along its shores have long figured prominently in
the talk of the gold-fields of the north. Sheltered on
all sides, its shores enjoy a mild climate. The warm,
dry summers won for it the name of " Summer Land "
from the Russians. Fort Kenai was garrisoned by the
United States troops for some years, but it is only a
trading-post now. There are three canneries on the
inlet. Gold was found there as early as 1855, and pros-
pectors are now camped in large numbers along the
shores.

St. Paul, with a population of 500, is on the northeast
shore of Kadiak island, and was the first headquarters
01* the Shelikoff and Baranof fur trade. Furs to the
value of <f 300,000 are shipped yearly.

On the island of Unalaska is the town of Iliuhuk,
"the curving beach,** better known as Unalaska, which
is a port of entry for all ships passing in or out of Bering
Sea. It is the metropolis of the west, though its popula-

: \:

if
H

I' *

296

DR. SHELDON JACKSON.

tion is less than 500. A United States commissioner
and deputy collector of revenue reside there. The
Greek Church is the second in size in A^laska. Beside
the Russian parish school there is a government day
school and a Methodist mission. It is die headquarters
for the Alaska Commercial Company. The ships of the
Pacific-Arctic whaling fleet call there for supplies, and
during the modus vivendi in the early nineties it was the
headquarters of the American and British fleets. There
is direct communication with Sitka, 1250 miles distant,
by monthly mail steamers, and frequent communication
with San Francisco, 2100 miles away.

To Dr. Sheldon Jackson, who first visited Alaska in
1884, is due, in a large measure, the present excellent
condition of the Alaska school system. While the mis-
sionaries had been working faithfully to ameliorate the
condition of the natives since late in the last century,
their progress had been slow. Through Dr. Jackson's
efforts, Mrs. A. R. McFarland, an energetic, capable
woman, took up the work at Fort Wrangel, where a
native teacher had long sought unaided to elevate the
moral status of his people. Mrs. McFarland became
nurse, doctor, undertaker, preacher, and teacher. No
marriage ceremony then existed among the natives, and
polygamy, slavery, and devil dances were common. Her
untiring efforts did much to eradicate these evils and
further substantial progress. She left Fort Wrangel a
few years later, and is now engaged in the same work
at the lower portion of Prince of Wales Island, where
she is loved and respected by the natives.

REINDEER.

297

In 1885 Congress made an appropriation for the Alaska
public school system, and Dr. Jackson was appointed
General Agent of Education for the Territory. In this
capacity he has established schools in the most advan-
tageous points throughout the whole Territory, and the
apportionment of the public moneys among the already
established church denominations has made the mission-
ary work of Alaska a mighty bulwark of religious strength
for the welfare of the natives. Dr. Jackson is truly a
pioneer Christian worker. After many years of arduous
duty in a number of the Western Territories he sought a
new field in the great Alaskan Territory. He was con-
fronted by the totally unorganized state of the country,
devoid of laws or government ; but his indomitable spirit
was not held down by difficulties — he gained the ear of
the powers at Washington — and his earnest, fervent faith
is daily proved by his works. To Dr. Jackson also be-
longs the credit of importing reindeer from Siberia to
Arctic Alaska. While in search of new fields for mis-
sionary and school work he discovered that the Eskimos
were starving. He at once interested Government in
the cause, and to-day the industry of domesticating rein-
deer in that section is an assured fact.

In this connection it is proper to add that this humane
proposition was at first met with severe criticism and
opposition on the ground that it was impracticable and a
useless expenditure of public money. And were it not
that Mr. Harris, United States Commissioner of Educa-
tion, gave it his hearty support and encouragement, the
most beneficent act ever extended to a worthy and

298

INDIAN SCHOOLS.

Starving people would not have become as it has, an
assured success. And to this broad-minded and worthy
official, who has stood faithfully by the cause of education
in Alaska, is also largely due the credit of its advance-
ment in this far-off Territory.

The first school in Alaska was organized at Kadiak
by Gregory Shelikofif in 1784. And the first church
building was also there erected ; it still exists, but the
school has been extinct for a quarter of a century.

The Indian industrial training schools have proved
excellent institutions. Among these three deserve espe-
cial mention. They are located at Sitka, Koserefsk jn
the Yukon, and at New Metlakahtla. The founder and
director of the latter is Mr. William Duncan, to whose
work reference is made elsewhere in this volume. The
school at Sitka is partially aided by this government, and
is under the management of the Presbyterian Board of
Home Missions, and that of Koserefski is under Roman
Catholic supervision.

In these schools the boys are taught painting, carpentry,
shoemaking, and other trades. The girls are instructed
in cooking, baking, sewing, and all branches of plain house-
keeping, the purpose, in short, of these schools, being to
civilize and christianize the native children.

The number of private schools, supported by various
religious denominations, is nineteen, while the number
supported by the government is sixteen. The Russian
church, established so long ago, has many communicants,
but many of them retain their belief in witchcraft, polyg-
amy, and kindred barbarous practices.

MISSIONS.

299

The indefatigable efforts of teachers and missionaries,
their absolute devotion to the work of civilization and
Christianizing the natives of Alaska has been of incal-
culable benefit to this hitherto neglected people. There
has been mental, moral, and physical growth, whose
influence is far-reaching, and which should command
the hearty sympathy and support of all humanitarians,
irrespective of class or creed.

The Greek Church, so early in the field, had a few
priests who did good work for the natives.

Father Tosi, of the Roman Catholic faith, has labored
long years with devotion on the Yukon. Father Althoff,
after sixteen years of Alaskan labor, has been appointed
to work in Vancouver, British Columbia. He opened
the mission work in Juneau, founded there the school
and hospital of St. Ann's and the Roman Catholic
Church. Through many discouragements and uncer-
tainties. Father Althoff and the good. sisters labored at
Juneau, receiving nothing for their services save their
their frugal board and modest apparel.

There are three principal Episcopal missions — St.
James, Fort Yukon, and Circle City — that administer to
about 2000 natives, 1 300 of whom are baptismal mem-
bers of the church, and there are several other stations
besides these. Much painstaking work has been done
in offering them the Scripture in a way that they can
understand. Many of the Indians can read in their own
language, which, as printed, consists of a literature of
translations of the Bible, Prayer-book, and Hymn-book.
These Indians seem particularly susceptible to religious

j
^

•|

•I ;;

1;%

300

MAGNIFICENT DISTANCES.

teaching. A little education seems to show more quickly
when applied to an Indian than it does on any other race.
It shows on the surface. It smooths out the wrinkles on
his forehead, as if the tangled threads of life had been
set aright. He looks much better, and no doubt the
effect is far reaching.

A thousand miles is as nothing in the jurisdiction of
Bishop Rowe, of the Episcopal Church. It is more than
that far from Anvik to Circle City, and yet they are
spoken of as neighbors. The Rev. J. L. Prevost has
charge spiritually of the few hundred miles of the river,
which includes the mining towns and the post at the
mouth of Tanana river, which latter place is called Fort
Adams although the mission is designated St. James.
Mr. Prevost has made that station his residence for two
or three years. They have a boarding-school for natives
there, and among other enlightening influences he has
started a small newspaper, which is now issued from
the press twice a year, and it is a very interesting little
paper, for it contains the news of the country — some-
thing of all that is going on — from Herschel Island to
the mines, and from Bering Sea to Mackenzie River.
Mr. Prevost will have a small steamboat at his disposal
next year, and will be enabled to move thoroughly over
his field. The work of religious teaching at Fort Yukon
for the most part has been deputed to a native cate-
chist.

Other Protestant denominations have missions on the
Yukon and along the coast of Alaska, notably the Pres-
byterians and the Methodists^

PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES.

301

The work of the Protestant missionaries will be facili-
tated by the introduction of the little Siberian reindeer,
provided the experiment proves a success, which now
seems likely, although it will be rather slow in practical
benefits. The Eskimos will need to be patiently taught
new traits. Their natural inclination is to kill and eat.
This likewise is the ruling passion of their dogs, and both
must be trained and restrained.

The majority of the Protestant missionaries are mar-
ried, and, of course, have their families with them.
There are those, especially of the Church of England
missions, who have almost grown old in this particular
field. Bishop Bompass, of the Selkirk diocese, has been
in the country since the establishment of the mission,
thirty years ago. It is said he can take a slab of dried
salmon in each pocket, and for a few days out-travel an
Indian courier. And the worthy bishop, while extending
the sway of the Gospel, has taken some thought at odd
times of worldly matters. His wealth is estimated at
J2 50,000. The Jesuits enter the field, of course, to
stay.

Supported distinctively by the Amr-*can Province of
the Moravian Church, the mission in Alaska dates from
the year 1884, when in response to the invitation of Dr.
Sheldon Jackson, A. Hartmann and William H. Wien-
land were sent on a tour of exploration to the Nushagak
and Kuskoquim Rivers in northwestern Alaska. The first
permanent missionaries, William H. Weinland and John
H. Kilbuck and their wives, together with Hans Tor-
geirsen, who was to go out temporarily to aid in erecting

302

TORGERSEN DROWNED!

the needful houses, landed at the mouth of the Kusko-
quim River, on June 19, 1885. On August K> Torgersen
was drowned whilst sailing up the river with supplies for
Bethel, as they named the station they founded. The
first converts were received into Church fellowship on
September 10, 1888. A second station was founded at
Carmel, on the Nushagak, by Frank E. Wolff, in 1887,
who was accompanied by his wife and Mary Ruber.

CHAPTER XIV.

NOTES FROM ALASKAN HISTORY.

Vital Bering, aa emisiary of Peter the Great — Discovery of Mount St. Elias — Four*
teen lost sailors — Alexander Baranof and the inception of the Russian American
Company — Spanish attempts to possess Alaska — Russian oppression and cruelty
— An idyll of Baranof Castle — Purchase by the United States — A blood-stained
flag — The naming of the territory — Military occupation and civil goternjient —
Governors past and present — Proposed legislation.

THE history of our northwest possessions begins
with the voyages of discovery by Vitus Bering, an
officer in the Russian navy. In 1728, bearing a commis-
sion from Peter the Great, he found the strait, between
Siberia and America, which bears his name. In 1 741, at
the behest of the Empress Anne, he started to find Vasco
d^ Gama's fabled land. After encountering and weather-
ing a severe storm he reached Kayak Island on St. Elias
Day, July 1 7th, 1 741, saw and named the great mountain
that to-day is one of the monuments which set the line
between the American and British possessions. A few
days later this intrepid old sea-dog was shipwrecked on
the Comandorski Islands and lost his life. His scurvy-
stricken crew put back into a Siberian port, carrying
with them a few skins of seals whose flesh had kept them
from starvation. Immediately Russian traders sent out
expeditions to get more of these rich furs. Tschirikow
was in command of one of these parties, and arriving on
the coast near the present site of Sitka, sent a boat's

303

304

RUSSIAN AMERICAN FUR CO.

crew to make a survey of the bay. They failed to come
back, and a second crew was dispatched to make search.
After waiting for three weeks Tschirikow sailed for
home short of fourteen men and a number of boats. This
experience put a damper on Alaskan exploration, and
there was but little activity in this direction until 1783,
when Gregory Shelikoff, a rich Siberian merchant, estab-
lished a post on Kadiak Island. He took into partner-
ship with him Alexander Baranof, a Russian merchant,
who had been ruined by the loss of his caravans. They
seem to have been a very energetic firm, and did much
to establish their business on a firm basis. In May, 1 799,
Baranof built a stockaded post on the island which bears
his name, three miles north of the present city of Sitka.
That same year Emperor Paul VIII granted a charter to
the Russian A^merican Fur Company. This corporation
was the result of a consolidation of nine rival Siberian
trading concerns, and had a number of the imperial
family as stockholders. Up to this time the Romanoffs
had given but little attention to their American domains.
The new company was given absolute control of the
country for a period of twenty years, and Baranof was
made the resident manager.

In the meantime the news of Tschirikow's discoveries
had reached Spain and had aroused the cupidity and
interest of the reigning monarch,

Spain took alarm at the apparently important nature
of the Russian explorations. In order to neutralize
what she evidently considered an encroachment on her

C/3

PEREZ EXPEDITION.

307

claimed rights to all territory not chartered, Spain,
through her cabinet, ordered an exploring expedition to
proceed along the coast to the northward of California.

This expedition, which was under Perez, added some-
what to the then slight knowledge regarding the Alas-
kan peninsula. Perez sighted and mapped two capes,
to which he gave the names of Santa Margarita and
Santa Magdalena. The Perez expedition did not land
at Santa Margarita, and the observations of the Alaskan
territory recorded by the leader of the expedition were
based upon his experience at Santa Magdalena.

Unquestionably the mapping of the coast by Perez
was crude and faulty, and it would scarcely call forth
comment but for the fact that some of the members of
his expedition rescued from the hands of the natives an
old bayonet and other implements of a civilization of
which the Alaskans were not supposed to have cogni-
zance. The conjecture of the pilot of the expedition
that these relics were but grewsome mementos of the
lost sailors of the Tschirikow expedition was doubtless
well founded. The suggestion of cannibalism, which
here intrudes itself has no other basis than conjecture.

Another Spanish expedition was sent out in 1775. and
a landing made. The whole territory was claimed for
the Spanish crown, but the Castilian government failed
to follow it up very actively. In 1787 the Viceroy of
Mexico was instructed to dispatch an expedition with a
view to exploring the northwestern coast for the pur-
pose of finding if possible desirable locations for settle-

^' I

MEXICAN EXPEDITION.

U-

ment. An expedition was sent from Mexico and
anchored at Pueilo des Flores, where they took posses-
sion and remained for a time in friendly intercourse with
the natives. From this point they proceeded to Kaclich,
where the chief of the colony impressed upon the Span-
ish commander the fact that the Czar had firmly estab-
lished his title to this domain as far south as 52° of
latitude. At this time the Russians in Alaska were
represented by six settlements colonized by about 400
men, who were in control of six vessels.

Shortly thereafter the Russian empress ordered Jacobi
to report on the best means of finally establishing Rus-
sian dominion over the islands of the Eastern ocean and
the northwest coast of America, and the best system of
government for the same. In an exhaustive report
Jacobi, among other things, recommended the dispatch of
a fleet from the Baltic to protect navigation in the Pacific.

Though constant quarrels between rival trading com-
panies constituted a drawback to the colonization of the
new region, it had thus far been attended by a fair
amount of success.

In the year 1783 the Siberian merchants increased
their facilities for operating on a larger scale in the new
country. They sent to Alaska a company of 192 men,
which was the largest force that had been sent from the
Siberian coast at any one time. Another party sent to
the new colony at this time encountered forces of hostile
natives, and after severe fighting a number of them were
killed. These were the conditions which led up to the

OPPRESSION AND CRUELTY.

309

the

chartering of the Russian American Fur Company as
above set forth.

The history of this company's rule is one of oppression
and cruelty. The natives were pressed into the service
of the company, and forced oftentimes to work without
remuneration, except as the scanty food and clothing
furnished them might be looked upon as such. The
resident managers and their assistants led lives marked
by debauchery and crime. New Archangel, named after
Russia's great Arctic port, and which at a later date was
given the name of Sitka, was the principal settlement,
but the company had about forty stations. They ex-
ported annually 25,000 skins of the seal, sea-otter,
beaver, etc., besides about 20,000 sea-horse teeth.

The company's charter was renewed in 1 819 and again
in 1839. In 1863 tl'^ Russian American Fur Company
closed its career, t^ie last charter having run its course.
Neither party to the agreement seemed anxious for a
continuance.

It was about this time that negotiations looking toward
a purchase by the United States began. So great was
the popular opposition to the scheme that it would cer-
tainly never have been consummated had it not been for
the steadfastness of Secretary of State Seward. In view
of the steady growth of the territory under United States
government, and particularly in the light of recent de-
velopments, some of his utterances at the time seem
almost prophetic. To accomplish the transfer was his
heart's desire. He was ably seconded in his aims by

1»

,.j

3IO

PRICE AGREED ON.

i! iii

Charles Sumner, whose speech in the Senate on " the
cession of Russian America" was one of the finest
oratorical efforts of his career.

Conjecture is never idle, and various reasons have
been assigned why Russia disposed of her vast posses-
sions on this continent.

It has been said that the United States commenced
the neorotiation to remunerate Russia, under the guise of
purchase, for her friendly attitude toward us during the
civil war. Many also believe that Russia sought to dis-
pose of this territory to the United States that England
might not, in aome way, absorb it, and so strengthen her
already powerful hold on this continent. The most
reasonable solution of the question, however, is, that she
wished to be relieved of the care and protection which
her subjects so constandy required of her in maintaining
the semblance of a government on this continent, so
far removed from her own shores. This view is also
strengthened by the fact that Russia at no time from the
earliest acquisition of the territory manifested any special
interest in its development, and that the motives that
actuated her in holding her possessions were largely in-
fluenced by the Russian American Fur Company.

In the earlier negotiations during the presidency of
Franklin Pierce, $5,000,000 was informally suggested to
the Russia government as a fair price for the territory.
The Romanoffs seemed to think that this sum doubled
would be more equitable. Seven million two hundred
thousand dollars was the price finally agreed upon.

TREAT/.

The treaty between Russia and the United States
was signed March 30th, 1867, and finally ratified by the
Senate on June 20th of the same year. The ceremony
of the transfer was very simple. Had one been in Sitka
a certain bright October afternoon in 1867 he would
have seen beautiful Sitka Bay gay wich the fluttering
Stars and Stripes on three United States warships,
the "Ossipee/' the "Jamestown," and the "Resaca,"
while from every staff and roof of the village waved the
emblem of Russia's power. In front of the old castle
on its lofty natural elevation were drawn the troops of
both countries, silently awaiting the first salute from
one of the United States ships, at which signal the order
was given to lower the castle's Russian flag. Scarcely
had the sound of the American guns lost themselves in
echo when the Russian batteries boomed forth, and the
American flag gayly mounted to the top, while both
countries' guns sounded a duet, after which the Russian
governor formally resigned his badge of office to Amer-
ica's representative, and the land belonged to Uncle
Sam. That night there was a banquet and ball at the
castle, and then the Russian families, many of whom
were cultured, educated people, prepared to leave the
country in possession of the new owner, so that in a few
months the natives and United States troops, together
with unscrupulous adventurers, were the sole occupants.
Gradually the latter class were superseded by honest
prospectors and rugged pioneers whose accounts of the
beauty of the land attracted the tourists who now an-

•%1

312

JO. ROTHROCK.

P; !

Hi!

nually flood the coast region where some of the grandest
scenery in the world is displayed.

Joseph T. Keefer, who lived at 608 Thirteenth Street,
Washington, D. C, was present at this ceremony. He ac-
companied the Seward State Department expedition to
Alaska in 1867, as aid-de-camp to Capt. T. E. Ketchum.
The flag that was unfurled by which Alaska was officially
and formally taken possession of was the first ever hoisted
over Russian America. As far as can be learned Mr.
Keefer is the only surviving member of the famous expe-
dition, having been at the time the trip was made into the
far North a mere lad of seventeen, while the other mem-
bers of the party were well advanced in years.

According to the best records obtainable the last
member of the party to perish was Jo. Rothrock, a
young photographer, who died about ten years ago in a
Philadelphia insane asylum. The poor fellow could
never get warm after making a second trip to Alaska,
and while dying he was wrapped in blankets and placed
by the furnace, although the heat of the summer was
almost unbearable to the ordinary person. No explana-
tion was ever offered for his strange condition.

In 1894 Mr. Keefer was prompted to institute a search
for the historic bit of bunting which carried him to
Alaska. Greatly to his satisfaction the flag was found
in a box behind the original Declaration of Independence,
in the State Department. Upon being unfurled it was
discovered that a large portion of the blue field had been
entirely destroyed by moths, while the remainder of the

INDIAN HOSTILITY.

313

ensign was in comparatively perfect condition. It seems
that the portion of the flag which had been destroyed
was once saturated with human blood. The story behind
this blood stain is harrowing, but will afford much satis-
faction to all those patriotically inclined. As told by
Mr. Keefer, it is as follows :

" When the United States took possession of Alaska
it was inhabited by a low class of people, and aside from
the half-civilized natives, there were numerous ticket-of-
leave men and ex-convicts from Russia. This latter
class knew very well that when Americans came upon
the scene they would have to seek other climes, and
therefore tried to make our lot as hard a one as possible.
They told the credulous natives that we were coming to
make slaves of them ; that having purchased the country
we had almost bought in all the inhabitants. These wild
stories made some of the Indians feel resentful toward
us, and they did everything to bother and hamper our
work. We first hoisted the Stars and Stripes on the old
custom-house in Sitka, and afterward floated it to the
breeze from a Fort Cosmos flagpole. While the feel-
ing was running strong against us, a native happened
by the fort, and before we knew it had torn down the
precious piece of bunting. As he was about to stamp
on it a rifle shot rang out, the native whirled about and
fell across the starry field, his life-blood oozing from a
wound in the temple. After this occurrence there were
no more attempts at flag destruction."

PrincQ Pemetriw^ Mf^ksontoff wa§ th^ last rnjlitary

.1*

K. ...

3^4

BARANOF CASTLE.

governor of Russian America, and was the last subject
of the Czar to disburse hospitality in the historic castle.
Baranof Castle was built in 1813.

It was situated on the top of a hill and commanded a
view of the broad expanse of the ocean and of the beau-
tiful harbor, which was studded with many small islands
covered with the freshest of evergreen trees and a profu-
sion of the loveliest and brightest verdure. The channels
between these islands admit of the passage of the largest
ocean steamers, and on a sunshiny day the view is most
charming.

The castle, an imposing structure, built of logs of huge
dimensions, was divided into capacious rooms. On one
side was a banquet hall running the whole length of the
building, and here, during the occupancy of the Russians,
many wild scenes of revelry were enacted. In order to
preserve this structure from decay, our government ex-
pended j^ 1 1,000 three years ago, but just after the work
was completed it took fire through some mysterious
cause and was burned to the ground.

Many stories are told, some of them replete with wild
romance and crime of early days when Russian barons
and beautiful princesses passed days and nights within
the castle in joyous living. It is said that Olga Arbuzoff,
a niece of Governor Mooraveff, committed suicide by
thrusting a dagger into her heart on the 5 th day of
March, 1826, the very day of her marriage to Count
Nicholas Vassileff, The count was old, ugly, and of
coarse morals, and the lovely princess very naturally

DOUBLE SUICIDE.

315

hated him. Her uncle, however, compelled her to marry
him, though she insisted that she would take her life if
he persisted in his demands. The princess was very
much in love with a young midshipman named Demetrius
Davidoff, who was young, handsome, and an accomplished
gentleman, and whom the governor, when he found they
were in love with each other, sent away on a six months*
cruise. In the meantime the nuptials between the
princess and the count were hurried to a consummation.
The very night of the wedding the young lover returned
and went immediately to the castle. As soon as the
princess saw him she uttered a cry, and rushing into his
arms, snatched his dagger from its sheath and plunging
it into her breast, fell to the floor dead. The horror-
stricken youth immediately drove it into his own heart
and fell dead by the side of his sweetheart. The follow-
ing day they were both buried in the same grave. From
one of the windows in the banquet hall their last resting
place is pointed out, a single Greek cross marking a
single mound.

Having been known as Russian America up to this
time, a new name had to be found. ** American Siberia,"
" Zero Islands,'* and other appellations were suggested,
but the present name was finally chosen on the solicita-
tion of Sumner. It means the " great land," and was
the native name for the southern peninsula.

The most informal military occupation was the only
sign of the new order of things in Alaska until in 1870
it was made a collection district with the port of entry

^4^

,• ii

■J

' 1

3i6

FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

, ii ^

at Sitka, the ancient as well as the modern seat of
government

A civil form of government was not provided for the
territory until May 17th, 1884. The administration of the
law was then put into the hands of a governor. John H.
Kinkead was the first governor from 1884 to 1885.
Then followed Alfred P. Swineford, 1885 to 1889;
Lyman E. Knapp, 1889 to 1893 ; James Sheakley 1893 ^^
1897, and President McKinley has just sent out Mr.
J. G. Brady, of Indiana, to hold the office during what
will be the most exciting period Alaskan history has
known. /

The territory has never been represented in the
United States Congress and the only recognition she
has received from the Federal government indicative of
an equal standing with other Territories was an invita-
tion to be represented at the World's Fair. Both the
Republican and Democratic National Conventions have
received and seated delegates from Alaska.

In 1889 the Republicans of the territory drafted a
memorial to the Republican members of the United
States Senate and House of Representatives, and as it
shows what all parties in Alaska v»'an\: in the shape of
legislation from the Federal govensHient it is interesting.
It reads as follows : • -

*'We, the Republicans of Alaska in convention as-
sembled, respectfully represent to your honorable body,
that on this the fifth day of November, 1889, ^ ^^V when
the Republicans in the various St?^te^ and Territories of

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS.

317

the Union are contesting for the principles of our great
party, we are denied that sacred privilege.

" Among the great territories of the West we alone
stand a monument representing complete and utter
isolation and non-representation. With an area suffi-
cient to form a dozen States, with resources unnum-
bered and unlimited, with no manner of expressing our
just needs or to demand our just rights, with a popula-
tion of upwards of ten thousand whites and fifty thou-
sand natives, among whom are many intelligent and
industrious, we come to you for relief.

"With no means of acquiring title to property in
which our capital is invested and our labor is expended,
we ask the passage of such laws as will afford us relief
in this direction.

" With many of our people desirous of securing land
upon which they can engage in farming, stock-raising,
dairying, and other pursuits of husbandry, we ask that
the homestead laws be extended in such manner as will
open up this domain for that class of our citizens.
I " With hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in
the fish industry we ask the passage of such laws as will
secure titles to their property, and encourage the de-
velopment of one of our greatest resources, and one
which is fast becoming valuable to the nation at large.

" With vast forests extending throughout the territory
we ask that the present laws relative to the cutting of
timber be so modified as to allow it to be used for do-
mestic purposes by the canneries in the packing and

^•J

ij
i
I

•'•II

-.1
'J

■Hull

11 ;

318

JUDICIARY OF ALASKA.

exportation of their fish, and by parties actually engaged
in manufacturing enterprises within the territory, and
the exportation of furniture and other wooden-wares,
etc., etc., and manufactured from our native timber.

" The judiciary of Alaska is anomalous, lying between
and dependent upon the general laws of the United
States and the general laws of the State of Oregon, and
having no true basis from which it can be interpreted.
Therefore we ask that a code of laws be enacted for the
District of Alaska, suitable to our wants and circum-
stances and made applicable to our growing industries
and communities.

" To-day Alaska stands alone among the great terri-
tories of the West without a representative upon the
floor cf Congress, and we deem it unjust that a longer
denial of the rights accorded other portions of our
country should be imposed upon us."

In the fall of 1894 this paper was indorsed by a
people's convention, held in Juneau, and Thomas S.
Nowell wrs chosen delegate to Congress.

Very few people in the United States, even among the
more intelligent and educated classes, fully appreciate
the immensity of the territor; which was added to the
public domain by the purchase of Alaska. The total
area of the United States proper, including the fully
organized territories, is 2,970,000 square miles. Alaska
proper in the mainland contains an area of 580,107
square miles ; the islands of Alexander Archipelago, off
the southeastern coast, contain 31,205 square miles, and

?aged
and
ivares,

•

tween
Jnited
n, and
•reted.
or the
rcum-
istries

terri-
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onger
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by a
las S.

ig the
sciate
o the

total

fully
laska
3,1 07
o, off
, and

SIZE OF ALASKA.

3^9

the Aleutian Islands, 6,391 square miles. In other words
Alaska with its adj ont islands embraces more square
miles of territory than twenty-one States of the Union
east of the Mississippi River ; that is, all the New Eng-
land States, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland,
Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Virginia, and West Virginia — States that are represented
in Congress by forty-two Senators and two hundred rep-
resentatives. The numerous islands, creeks, and inlets
of Alaska lengthen out its coast line to 7,860 miles, an
extent greater than that of the eastern coast line o£ the
United States.

;
' 1.

• ;'

I .'*'

!^l

3^ : CHAPTER XV. W

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE.

Two Ends of the International Dispute— Mt. St. Elias a Settled Point— The
Passage of 141st Meridian Through the Gold Fields— The Olney-
Pauncefote Treaty— The Evidence of Old Time Treaties-Behm or
Portland Canal ?— Canadian Claims to Territory Administered by the
United States— Changes in Canadian Map— The Removal of the
Metlakatla Indians from Canadian to United States Territory— The
Possession of Juneau and Dyea.

THERE are two distinct and separate features in the
discussion which has been carried on during recent
years between the United States Department of State and
the British Foreign Office anent the Alaska boundary.
It is difficult to decide which of these issues is the more
important. The one refers to the location of the 141st
meridian in its passage from Mt. St. Elias to the Arctic
Ocean. The Yukon gold fields lie about midway be-
tween the two extremities of this part of the Alaskan
boundary line, and in view of the greatly enhar-ed value
of this territory both nations will insist on the greatest
accuracy being observed in its location. Inasmuch as
the 141st meridian is an imaginary line, indisputably de-
fined as to its direction by astronomical considerations and
rules, its final placing is only a question of time and the
accuracy which is brought to bear in placing the defining
monuments by the engineers making up the dual com-
320

ANGLO-AMERICAN DISPUTE.

321

mission which will eventually be appointed by the high
contending parties to carry on the work.

The other main feature of this Anglo-American dis-
pute refers to the boundary line in its passage from
the peak of Mt. St. Elias in a southeasterly direction
down the coast to Portland Canal, as the United States
claims, or only to Behm Canal, as Canada proposes.
This side of the contention gains its importance from
the fact that upon its settlement rests the jurisdiction
oyer Dyea, which controls the entrances to the Chilcat
and Chilkoot Passes and the gold fields of the Yukon,
and many other points of commercial vantage on and
near the coast. ^

v - DISPUTED BOUNDARY LINE. ^

With the intention of definitely clearing up the north-
ern end of the boundary dispute, ex-Secretary Olney
and Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Ambassador at
Washington, drew up a treaty which was to provide for
the location of the 141st meridian, and the same was
Jaid before the Senate on February 23d of the present
y^'ar. That the time is ripe for a definite adjustment of
m^'-.e differences may be seen from the fact that in the
rn o:.t recent map published by the Dominion Govern-
m r^, both Miller and Glacier Creeks are claimed for
the British empire. If this claim should be allowed to
Great Britain, it would mean that the major part of the
<^jggings on Forty-Mile Creek, and nearly all on Sixty-
Mile Creek would be on Canadian soil, and the owners

I '

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' a

322

UNITED STATES JURISDICTION.

thereof would be subject to the onerous laws which
have recently been enacted by the Dominion Govern-
ment. But fortunately for the American miner on the
Yukon and its tributaries, the home government does
not propose to accept this Canadian dictum. A recent
report of the United States Surveyors, as to the bound-
ary line in this region, said : '" In substance, these deter-
minations throw the diggings at the mouth of Forty-
Mile Creek within the territory of the United States.
The whole valley of Birch Creek, another most valuable
gold-producing part ^f the country, is also in the trjrri-
tory of the United Sf^ Most of the gold is to the

west of the crossing of the 141st meridian, at Forty-
Mile Creek. If we produce the 141st meridian on a
chart, the mouth of Miller's Creek, a tributary of Sixty-
Mile Creek, and a valuable gold region, is five miles
west in an air line, or seven miles according to the wind-
ings of the stream — ^all within the territory of the United
States. In substance, the only places in the. Yukon
region where gold in quantities has been found, are,
therefore, all to the west of the boundary line between
Canada and the United States."

These words were written, of course, before the dis-
coveries in the Klondike valley, which is indisputably far
within the Canadian territory.

This official utterance shows that the United States
believes itself to have jurisdiction over nearly all of the
gold-bearing country of the far north that has been thus
far discovered, except Klondike Riven

hich
ern-
the
iocs
cent
und-
2ter-
)rty-
ates*
lable
:r;rri-
» the
3rty-
on a
ixty-
niles
vind-
nited
Likon
, are,
iveen

! dis-
lyfar

tates

f the

thus

S3
z

H
X
H

U
H

<
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(4

X
H

O
Z

H
Z

TERMS OF THE TREATY.

325

2
z

O
H

C6
H

u
Z

Congress adjourned without ratifying the treaty above
referred to, so that until it reconvenes there is no chance
of further light being thrown upon the subject, except
through surveys made by private parties, which latter,
of course, will have to h^. proven and ratified before
they can become a part of an international understand-
ing. On the proposed treaty being gone over by the
Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, it was feared
that the clause in which Great Britain gives us Mt. St.
Elias in most gracious condescension might be a catch
by which our acceptance of the mountain might be taken
as an abandonment of our claim to a southeastern
boundary within " ten marine leagues of the windings
of the coast." Mt. St. Elias is within twenty-eight
miles of the coast, and hence it is contended it is Amer-
ican territory anyhow. In view of this the Senate Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs, as a precautionary measure,
recommended that the treaty be amended so as to declare
specifically that the acceptance of the peak as a bound-
ary mark in determining the 141st meridian shall not be
construed as a concession of any territory which the
United States may claim under its purchase from Russia
along the sea-coast. ^

THE AMENDED TREATY. ,,

The following is a full text of the treaty, as sent to
the United States Senate and British Privy Council for
ratification :

Article i. — Each Government shall appoint one com-

' f

I!!

326

IN CASE OF DISAGREEMENT.

missioner, with whom may be associated such surveyors,
astronomers, and other assistants as each Government
may elect.

The commissioners shall at as early a period as practi-
cal proceed to trace and mark under their joint direc-
tion, and by joint operations in the field, so much of the
141st meridian of west longitude as is necessary to be
defined for the purpose of determining the exact limits of
the territory ceded to the United States by the treaty be-
tween the United States and Russia, of March 30, 1867.

Inasmuch as the summit of Mt. St. Elias, although
not ascertained to be in fact upon said 141st meridian,
is so nearly concident therewith that it may conveniently
be taken as a visible landmark whereby the initial part
of said meridian shall be established, it is agreed that
the Commissioners, should they conclude that it is advis-
able so to do, may deflect the most southerly portion of
said line so as to make it range with the summit of Mt.
St. Elias, such deflection not to extend more than twenty
geographical miles northwardly from the initial point.

Article 2. — ^The data relating to determinations al-
ready made at this time by either of the two Govern-
ments concerned, of points on or near the 141st meridian
for the purpose of fixing its position, shall be submitted
by each Government to the Commissioners, who shall
decide which of the results of the determination shall be
adopted by them.

In case of disagreement between the Commissioners
as to the correct geographical co-ordinates of one and

'!i

RATIFICATION OF THE TREATY.

327

the same point determined by either of the two Govern-
ments, separately, a position midway between the two
locations in question, of the 141st meridian, shall be
adopted, provided the discrepancy between them shall
not exceed 1 ,000 feet. e. '. :

In case of a greater discrepancy a new joint determi-
nation shall be made by the Commissioners.

Article 3. — The location of the 141st meridian as
determined hereunder shall be marked by intervisible
objects, natural or artificial, at such distances apart as
the Commissioners shall agree upon, and by such addi-
tional marks as they shall deem necessary, and the line
when and where thus marked, in whole or in part, shall
be deemed to permanently define for all international
purposes the 141st meridian mentioned in the treaty of
March 30, 1867, between the United States and Russia,
and in the treaty of February 28-16,* 1825, between
Great Britain and Russia.

)4
i

f% i

WORK OF THE COMMISSIONERS.

The location of the marks shall be described by
such views, maps, and other means as the Commis-
sioners shall decide upon, and duplicate records of
these descriptions shall be attested by the Commis-
sioners jointly and be by them deposited with their
respective Governments, together with their final re-
port hereinafter mentioned.

* That is, February i6, old style, the Russians at that time not using the reformed
calendar.

.:.■:*. -■v,'«vA'-i.Nv.V_.N .

328

THE LINE OF DEMARKATION.

ApTiCLE 4. — Each Government shall bear the ex-
penses incident to the employment of its own ap-
pointees and of the operations conducted by them,
but the cost of material used in permanently marking
the meridian, and of its transportation, shall be borne
jointly and equally by the two Governments.

Article 5. — The Commissioners shall diligently
prosecute the work to its completion and they shall
submit to their respective Governments from time tc
time, and at least once in every calendar year, a joint
report of progress, and a final comprehensive report
upon the completion of the whole work.

The present convention shall be duly ratified by the
President of the United States of America, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof,
and by her Britannic Majesty, and the ratifications
shall be exchanged at Washington or in London as
soon as possible within twelve months from the date
hereof.

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries,
have signed this convention and have hereunto afiftxed
our seals."

Done in duplicate in Washington, the thirtieth day
of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-

^ * Richard Olney. [Seal.]

Julian Pauncefote. [Seal.]

Up to 1884 both countries were practically at one as
to the boundary line from Mt. St. Elias to the southeast.

TEN MARINE LEAGUES.

329

According to the terms of the treaty between Russia and
Great Britain, the United States, in purchasing Alaska in
1867, acquired all of Russia's rights. In describing the
southeastern boundary the Anglo-Russian treaty reads:

TERMS OF THE TREATY. •

"The line of demarkation between the possessions
of the high contracting parties upon the coast of the
continent and the islands of America to the northwest
shall be drawn in the following manner : Commencing
from the southernmost point of the island called Prince
of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of
54 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, and between the
131st degree and the 133d degree of west longitude, the
same line shall ascend to the north along the channel
called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the con-
tinent where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude ;
from this last-mentioned point the line of demarkation
shall follow the summit of the mountains situated par-
allel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of
the 141st degree of west longitude (of the same
meridian), and finally, from the said point of inter-
section, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its
prolongation as far as the frozen ocean, shall form the
limit between the Russian and British possessions on the
continent of America to the northwest.

LIMIT OF BRITISH POSSESSIONS.

"Whenever the summit of the mountains which ex-
tend in a direction parallel to the coast from the 56th

-r

.1,

!J'

lii^

IK,

Hi!

III

330

UNITED STATES POSSESSIONS.

degi«-e of north latitude to the pouit of intersection of
the 141st degree of west longitude shall prove to be at
the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the
ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the
line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above
mentioned (that is to say, the limit to the possessions
ceded by this convention), shall be formed by a line par-
allel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never
exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom."

On all maps from 1825 down to 1884 the boundary
line had been shown as, in general terms, parallel to the
winding of the coast and thirty-five miles from it.

Now, however, the Canadians claim that as there is no
chain of mountains "parallel to the coast" from the head
of Portland Canal, northwest, that the language of the
treaty calls for the placing of this line on the summits c
those mountains that are nearest to it ; this would bring
the line fairly down to the ocean itself, and hardly leave
more than a suggestion of mainland possession for the
United States.

That claim is very properly disputed by our people.
It seems to me quite clear that the Russians, when they
developed this boundary in 1825, having full knowledge
of the cou-ntry, which the British did not, made that ten-
marine league limit to insure themselves against being
cut off from absolute control of the coast in question ;
that control they were bound to have, and they easily
secured it in this treaty ; they also exercised it. The
Russians knew that no continuous mountain chain was

ll'

OBJECT OF THE CANADIANS.

331

there, although the only good charts of that region in
1825, were Vancouver's, and indicated such a range.
These maps of Vancouver were the ones studied in
framing the convention, and guided the British.

The first suggestion on the part of Canada that we
did not hold this "thirty mile strip," was durl:ig the
Cassiar mining rush up the Stickeen River from the coa«?t,
in 1876-77. A Canadian customs house was hastily put
up at the mouth of that river, and duties were levied ;
but our miners denied the levy — declared that it was
made on American territory, and the Canadians then
moved their custom house up to a point full thirty miles
above the mouth; there they were secure, and the duties
were collected.

The object of the Canadians in pushing this claim is
to have control of the mouths of the Stickeen, Chilkaht
and Tahko Rivers, and the control of the deep-water
ocean inlets between the foot of Mt. St. Elias and Ft.
Simpson. As it is, we command all practical ingress and
egress from that British American region above the 56th
degree of north latitude, from and to the sea.

American prospectors have evidence of great mineral
wealth in the ravines and ledges of this "thirty-mile
strip," which belongs to Alaskan territory ; they have
been pushing the State Department for several years to
settle definitely the boundary line. The Canadians have
thus far outgeneraled our people by staving off the set-
tlement, and getting a joint commission appointed, in
1892, which was not permitted to define the line, but to

. *
1 \ y

':^

rawer

ici

332

INTERPRETATION OF TREATY.

gather data. This commission was appointed in Au-
gust, 1892, and it was terminated on the ist day of Jan-
uary, 1895.

In this way Canadian engineers have been permitted
to accurately inspect and survey every foot of our coast
line in that "thirty-mile strip," and locate every topo-
graphical feature of its mountains, hills, plains and val-
leys. This gives them a great advantage not hitherto
possessed by them.

The Canadians, with great shrewdness, in 1 884, began
to work upon an interpretation of Article I, of that Treaty
of Cession from Russia to the United States, March 1 3,
1867, which defines the limits of the regions conveyed.
That boundary between the British possessions and
Alaska, as specified in this Treaty of Cession, is precisely
word for word as defined in that convention betv/een
Russia and Great Britain of February 28, 1825, as given
above.

In 1884 an official Canadian map showed a marked
deflection in this line at its south end. Instead of pass-
ing up Portland Canal (as the Portland "Channel" men-
tioned above is now always called), this Canadian map
showed the boundary as passing up Behm Canal, an
arm of the sea some sixty or seventy miles due west of
Portland Canal, this chan^^e having been made on the
bare assertion that the words *' Portland Channel," as
inserted, were an error. By this change the line and an
area of American territory about equal in size to Con-
necticut was transferred to British territory.

LATEST OFFICIAL MAP.

333

There are three facts which militate acrainst this
seizure. In the first place, the British Admiralty,
when surveyincr the northern limit of the British Colum-
bian possessions in 1868, one year after the cession of
Alaska, surveyed Portland Canal and not Behm Canal,
thus by implication admitted this canal as the boundary
line. (2) The region now claimed by British Columbia
was at that time occupied by a military post of the United
States without objection or protest on the part of British
Columbia. (3) Annette Island, in the middle of this
region, was, by an Act of Congress four years ago, set
apart as a reservation for the use of the Metlakatla
Indians, who sought asylum under the American flag to
escape annoyances experienced under the Canadian gov-
ernment, and the British government did not enter any
protest

THE GRAB AT LYNN CANAL.

Of vastly more importance than the preceding is the
grab made at Lynn Canal, the northernmost extension
of the Alexander Archipelago, which runs north of
Juneau, and is the land outlet for the Yukon trade. The
official Canadian map of 1884 carried the boundary line
around the head of this canal ; another Canadian map
three years later carried the line across the head of the
canal in such a manner as to throw r:s head-waters into
British territory; still later, Can idian maps carry the
line not across the head of the canal, but cross near its
mouth, some sixty or seventy miles south of the former
line so as to practically take in Juneau, or, at least, all the

'■•l

334

SUB-PORT OP ENTRY.

land immediately back of it. And the very latest official
map, just published at Ottawa, while it runs no line at
all southeast of Alaska, prints the legend ** British
Columbia" over portions of the Lynn Canal that are
now administered by the United States. In fact, the
It must be remembered, however, that these aggres-
sions of Great Britain, or rather Canada acting for Great
Britain, are largely on paper, as the United States, while
negligent of Alaska, has never abandoned its three ma-
rine leagues claim, and hence the grabs have not yet
been incorporated la Canadian territory. The probable
futility of these ten years of effort since 1887 is shown
in the fact that Dyea, which Secretary Gage designated
the other day as a sub-port of entry in the Juneau dis-
trict, is well within the lines of Canada, according to
British claims in 1887 and in 1897, and yet they have
done nothing to molest United States administration
there nor United States control of Lynn Canal, nor of
the Chilkoot Pass.

liipi

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PRIBYLOV, OR FUR SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA.

Chase of the Sea Otter-:-Pribylov's Discovery — The Seal Island — Educating
the Young — System of Reproduction — Movements of Seal Herds —
Male Seals Fighting — Killing Bachelor Seals — Shooting and Spear-
ing — Killing Young Males Only — Blaine's Plan — plunders — Vain
Efforts at Pension — The Boundary Question.

ONE of the most interesting and valuable features of
the Russian-American purchase by our govern-
ment in 1867, was that fur seal industry of Alaska, as
embodied then, on the Pribylov Islands in Bering Sea;
and it is remarkable that, at the time of the transfer of
this territory, very little or nothing was known of it in
this country, even to a single soul.

It was my fortune to land on the Seal Islands in April,
1872, as the agent of the Smithsonian Institution and the
Treasury Department, for the sp ial purpose of making
a study of these animals and collection'^. During the
seasons of 187 2-* 74 and '76 inclusive, 1 give the rook-
eries my undivided attention, and again in 1890, by the
authority of Congress, I again visited them. T have,
therefore, by the accident of my life, been the tirst to
publish a succinct and connected life history of these
animals and their habitat ; this study of the fur sp-l put
forth by me in 1874-82, has been confirmed and un-
changed by the review of many naturalists who have
come after me.

335

! J:i

\\:

33^

CHASK OF THE SEA OTTER.

But, while the life and nature of the fur seal have not
varied in its details, yet the condition of the herds on the
Pribylov Islands has altered so much since the date of
my earliest work, as to be fairly described by a single
word to-day, *' ruined ". The fierce greed of man has
well nigh ruined the industry — it will do so, as matters
are now in hand at Washington and Ottawa.

The fact that I have been fortunate enough to see these
Pribylov fur seal herds before they were decimated by
the hand of man, and to have made indelible records of
their fine form and condition at that time, recurs with
great pleasure to me whenever I now take the subject up.

The chase of the sea otter by Russian and Cossack
" promyshlineks " or hunters, opened Kamschatka to
them, and then Alaska was discovered in turn by Bering,
during 1741-42 : a horde of eager sea otter hunters
followed him, so that by 1 762 they had located the Aleu-
tian Islands and progressed as far east as Kodiak. By
1 780, the abundant supply of sea otter in Alaskan waters
ceased, and the Russian fur hunters began seriously to
consider what was next in order. They found that the
Chinese market made a good demand for fur seal skins,
and that as many as could be secured at any one season
never affected the price. The manager of the Oonalas-
kan district of the Aleutian Chain, for one of the several
trading companies, determined to search for the landing
place of these animals, either in the Bering Sea north
of the Aleutian passes or south in the Pacific ; he noted
the fact, that every June and July great numbers of fur
seals were seen swimmi«^g north through these passes,

PRIBYI^OV'S DISCOVERY.

337

not

the

te of

|ngle

has

tters

and every October and November they swam back again
through these same channels into the broad waste of the
Pacific Ocean out of the Sea of Bering.

The old Aleut shamans also had a legend that the fur
seals bred on an island in Bering Sea, somewhere north
of the Island? of Oomnak and Oonalaska, but where,
they could not say. So, thus stimulated, Russian search
was made with great energy, chiefly in the Ocean, south,
rather than in Bering Sea, north, for these Islands upon
which the fur seal must breed, as its antarctic brother did
in the southern hemisphere.

Finally, after six years of steady search, Captain Gear-
man Pribylov, commanding a small sloop, the "Saint
George ", ran upon the object of his desire in a thick fog
one close, dull day in July, 1 786. He had discovered the
breeding islets of the Alaskan fur seal, and the group
has ever since been known under his name. The dis-
covery of Pribylov could not be kept secret ; a dozen
vessels sailed with hunters, in his wake, and from 1787
until 1 804, the butchery and waste of life on these islands
was something brutal and greedy beyond all record.

The whole Russian- American territory passed by order
of the Emperor Paul into the hands of a single corpora-
tion in 1799 : by 1804, the iron-hand of old Baranov was
laid upon the Pribylov Islands, and this cruel killing was
then and there checked.

Very soon these seal islands of Alaska became the
sole solid financial backing of the Russian-American
Company ; but, as the business of the company grew
more and more embarrassed by bad management at

■■.. .t I...

338

THE SEAL ISLANDa

Sitka, even these sources of revenue failed to float the
corporation.

The Pribylov group of seal islands consists of two
small islands, St.. Paul and St. George, with two islets,
Otter and Walrus Islands, which are ranged around St.
Paul, the former six miles south and the latter six miles
east. St. Paul, which has only thirty-three square miles
of superficial area, with forty-two miles of shore, is the
largest of the quartette ; St. George has twenty-seven
square miles of superficial area and twenty-nine miles
of coast line ; Otter Island about one square mile, and
Walrus Islet a mere rock of less than five acres of sur-
face just elevated above the surf line.

St. Paul is the chief resort of the fur seal ; it held in
1872-74 just seventeen-eighteenths of the entire num-
ber of 4,500,000 fur seals of all ages which I ascertained
to be on the fifteen different " rookeries " or breeding
grounds that are well known on the islands. This
group of seal islands is, in round numbers, 200 miles
distant from the nearest point of the mainland of
Alaska, Cape Newenham, Bristol Bay ; and Oonalaska
Island of the Aleutian Chain, is about the same distance
from it in the south, while St Matthew Island, almost
equidistant, in the north. The Russian Seal Islands are
750 miles directly to the westward, and they, in turn, are
situated about 100 miles off the Kamschatkan coast in
this same sea of Bering.

On the Pribylov Islands the fur seal found, ages ago,
that perfect isolation from deadly enemies like men and
polar bears, which combined with a cool, moist, sunless

EDUCATING THE YOUNG.

339

I'i

climate, makes its existence secure on this earth. Its
intelligence prevented its landing to breed and rest even
for an hour on any other land in all Alaska or the lower
Northwest coast. But, since man finally discovered its
retreat in 1 786, the fur seal has had several close calls
to utter extermination. One is now pending at this hour.

The fur seal is the best organized of all amphibians ;
it is equally at home on land or .in the sea. But it draws
all its sustenance by fishing and repairs to the land for
the chief purpose of breeding. It cannot bring forth its
young in the water ; the new born fur seal cannot swim,
and requires a land residence of three to four months after
birth, before it can go to sea. Indeed, it cannot swim
when it first blunders into the water. It has to apply
itself diligently to learning how to keep its head above
the surface by many successive lessons before it suc-
ceeds. These lessons are, however, self-imposed. The
little fellow's instinct tells it that this must be accom-
plished. When he once becomes able to master his
body so as to sport easily in the water, the young seal
rapidly reaches the perfect stroke, and becomes the
most skillful of all watermen.

The fur seals are born about equal in number as to
sex : the males and females grow for the first year with
little difference in size, shape or color. Then the males
begin to lengthen out and increase their weight far in
excess of the females. When the male is mature at
six years, he will weigh 400 to 500 pounds, have a length
of six-and-one-half to seven feet, while the female is
aduH at three years, and weighs but eighty or ninety

1 ■

i
hi

340

SYSTEM OF REPRODUCTION.

i /

pounds, with a length of body scarcely exceeding three-
and-a-half feet.

The order and system of reproduction of the fur seal
on the Pribylov rookeries or breeding grounds is a very
remarkable and interesting one. No other wild animal
has the elaborate and regular method about its move-
ments during its breeding season that is characteristic of
the fur seal ; and, with the single exception of those
immense herds of the buffalo on our western plains as
seen by our pioneers sixty or seventy years ago, no
other mammal of a high organization ever massed itself
in such great numbers that the knowledge of a naturalist
can cite.

The Pribylov Islands* of Alaska, the Commander
group of Kamschatka, and a small rock in the Okotsk
Sea are the only known breeding places of the fur seal
in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Antarctic there are
over twenty well-known islands which were during 1786
and 1 814 visited as fur seal resorts, until by 1860-62 they
were practically swept clean of this seal life by the greed
of human butchers, and to this day the Antarctic rook-
eries are desolate — only a scattered band or so of tens
and hundreds now is found there, in place of those hun-
dreds of thousands and millions that originally existed.

Let us follow the movements of the fur seal as it
boldly and quietly orders them on the Pribylov Islands.
The breeding season closes, and the pups are all weaned
by the middle or end of October, then the fur seals all
leave the islands. Striking out due south directly for the
Pacific Ocean through the large passes of the Aleutian

I *' (

' 1 18

MOVEMENTS OF SEAL, HERDS.

343

Chain ; they journey in the open ocean south-east by
east, so that by the middle or end of December, their
advance agents are in sight, off the California, Oregon,
and Washington coasts ; then the herd turns up along
the trend of the northwest coast, back into Bering Sea,
so as to return as a body by the 4th to 15th of July ;
the old males are all on the islands as early as the ist
of June, and all classes are back by the 20th of July.

In this order of progression, the fur seal never lands on
any land, inlet, rocks, or reef, while going from and re-
turning to the islands of its birth ; it makes an oceanic
transit of over five thousand miles in this migration, and
subsists upon pelagic fishes and squid and crustaceans
while out in the deep sea; then, when going up the
coast on soundings, it feeds fat upon the runs of herring,
cod, sculpin, salmon, and numerous other piscine forms.

The adult male fur seal lands first of all his kind, and
alone ; he "hauls out" on the breeding ground, or "rook-
ery", as early as the 6th of May, and all of his class are
there by the ist of June. The first females never arrive
before the 4th to loth of June, and the great body of
their kind do not put in an appearance until the loth to
20th of July.

The normal ratio of males to females on these breed-
ing grounds is about fifteen or twenty of the latter to
one of the former. This makes the fur seal an eminent
polygamist. The breeding grounds rise on rocky slopes
directly from the waters edge, above tide and surf wash,
and are barred from all approach to the young males or
" bachelors " by the determined opposition of the adult

344

MALE SEALS FIGHTING.

and old males, or "seacatchie." The adult male only, can
hold his own in fighting with his species. He must attain
the age of six years and have a weight of at least 350
pounds, before he can ever presume to successfully battle
with an older male.

From the hour that the male fur seal hauls out onto
his station early in May until the end of the breeding
season early in August, he never leaves his post on that
ground for a single moment, day or night. In other
words he presents the anomalous spectacle of enduring
a fast of three consecutive months and sustaining himself
during this long period without food or water, by the
absorption of his own fat. During this period he is sel-
dom asleep ; he is incessantly on the move, and until the
arrival of the females in June and July, he is busy a large
portion of the time in fierce fighting with his rivals which
occupy the posts around him.

The females land in obedience to the necessity of
giving birth to their offspring on land, and they seldom
come ashore until the hour of their delivery is close at
hand. They give birth to but one pup, twins having never
been recorded. The time of the gestation is almost ex-
actly twelve months. After the pup is born, the mother
seal rests a few days, suckles her young one, then goes
off to sea to feed on fishing grounds, often 100 to 180
miles distant. She will be absent two or four days be-
fore returning ; she singles out her own pup and permits
no other to nurse from her nipples. Again she remains
only a few days, ere she puts off to the feeding grounds
at sea, to return as before. This going and coming to

ni'

KILLING BACHKLOR SEALS.

345

feed and nurse the pup, continues with that mother seal
until she weans her offspring in October or November.
She weans it by abruptly abandoning it to its own devices.

The young males from one year old up to six, are
obliged to keep away from the rookeries by their fear of the
consequences of meeting their old sires. They haul out
on the sand beaches and the uplands between the breed-
ing grounds in troops of hundreds ?ind thousands by
themselves ; they also, like the females, feed at frequent
intervals and do not sustain any protracted fasting as
the breeding males do.

Until the development of the open water or •* pelagic "
hunting of fur seals in 1886 was made, the killing of
these Alaskan animals was confined to a selection of
100,000 young " bachelors " on these islands annually:
but, when thv. pelagic fleet, chiefly Canadian hunters,
fairly got to work, the pressure of death on this fur seal
herd of the Pribylov Islands, was too great. The industry
has been ruined, and to-day, the seals are not one tenth
of their number, as I found it in 1872-74.

The practice of killing on land was to select out of the
herds of young males only the best grades, i. e. the two,
three, and four year-old males ; those younger did not
possess as good fur on their s.kins : while the older ones
had that fur harsh and ragged on their necks or withers,
where it grows roughly like the mane on a horse, and is
known as a "wig" in sealing parlance.

Two or three thousand of these young males were
daily driven up to the killing grounds, near the salt
houses on the islands, during the season, June istto

I li

' 'i

* )i

It'

I •!

346

SHOOTING AND SPEAKING.

July 20th, killed and skinned there, and the pelts cured
in large kenches or salt bins; then these skins were rolled
into bundles of two skins each, corded up securely, and
so shipped to London, via San Francisco and New York.
The pelagic catch goes also to London, via Victoria and
New York.

. If the killing is properly conducted on land it is a dis-
criminate and legitimate operation ; it will not injure the
regular supply of fresh male life for service in the rook-
eries, and no females are ever disturbed, much less
destroyed by this method. That this land killing can be
and has been abused is true ; but tha is the fault of the
supervision, and not of the system.

The pelagic killing is done by shooting and spearing
fur seals in the open waters of the ocean as these ani-
mals are feeding or sleeping. A peculiarity of the fur
seal is that it rests as comfortably in the water sleeping
on its back, with its flippers folded onto its breast and
abdomen, as it does on the land. When so resting at
sea, if a hunter drifts down upon it with care as to wind,
so as to come up to it from the leeward, he can get near
enough to hurl a spear into its body and secure its skin.
The seals also when traveling at sea or feeding, always
rise at intervals to put their heads and necks high out
above water for several moments to breathe and to sur-
vey. This is the moment that the hunter enjoys to shoot
them in. He uses a rifle, but generally a shot gun with
buckshot. A great many wild shots are made neces-
sarily, as the weather and the water combine to toss
the boat, and much loss of life must ensue that is not
tallied by the seal skins secured.

■V

« Ml

KILUNG YOUNG MAIZES ONLY.

347

The present order of killing on land so as to kill
nothing but young males has been in vogue ever since
1835 ; the pelagic system of hunting fur seals has been
understood ever since 1874, but not actively prosecuted
by white men until 1 886. - ■ ■

The combined work of killing on land and in the
water, therefore, since 1 886, has rapidly diminished the
numbers of these unhappy animals ; so much so that
their whole massing on the islands this year will not
equal the tenth part of their fine form and condition
which I recorded them as possessing in 1872-74. There
were 4,500,000 of them then.

In 1887, amidst a general discord in the ranks of our
people as to whether we really had any exclusive rights
to shut up the open waters of Bering Sea, and so pre-
vent pelagic hunting, three small Canadian schooners
were seized some forty or sixty miles distant from the
nearest land in Bering Sea. They were taken because
they were engaged in the hunting of fur seals without a
license from the Secretary of the United States Treasury,
agreeably to provisions of Section 1956, Revised Stat-
utes of the United States.

After much discussion our best lawyers said the seizure
was a violation of international law: that Bering Sea was
not a mare clausum, and so Secretary Bayard released the
schooners and began to try and secure an international
agreement with Great Britain, so as to regulate and check
this hunting of fur seals in the open sea. Bayard >vas
unable to carry out his plan before his term of office
ended, and on the 4th of March, 1889, Mr. Blaine suc-

! i

'•I

348

BLAINE'S PlyAN.

ceeded him. Instead of taking up the course of Bayard
as it was left to him, Blaine resolved to try another plan
of settlement: he revamped that claim of jurisdiction
in the high seas only so as to cover the killing of seals, and
invented his argument of contra bonos mores. The
Canadian's took advantage of Mr. Blaine's want of pre-
cise and accurate knowledge as to seal life details, and
they furnished a reply to his letter that simply crushed
him. . ,

In 1890, the writer of this sketch returned November
17th, from an investigation into the condition of the
Alaskan fur seal herds, having been sent up again, as in
1874, by order of a special Act of Congress. He urged
Mr. Blaine to drop all legal arguments into the jurisdic-
tion question, together with those based on the idea of
having a property right in a wild animal, and take up in-
stead the case of saving the seals alone, by an agreement
with Great Britain. He devised a modus vivendi by which
all killing of seals on the Pribylov Islands should be pro-
hibited for a term of seven years, and all open water
sealing at the same time in the Bering Sea, to be declared
illegal by Great Britain. Then, this done, to have a joint
commission of experienced men to visit the islands and
report fairly on the subject.

This proposition was bitterly opposed by the Canadians
and also by the lessees on our side, but the sense and
decency of this settlement, when it was made known by
its author, was so strongly endorsed by public opinion
in Great Britain and this country, that it was put into
operation June 15, 1891.

r^-^

■ m

BI^UNDERS.

349

From this moment a series of wretched and humiliating
blunders have been made by the officers of our govern-
ment, who have been in charge of the business. The
case of the United States as made up in Washington
contained all of those idle legal claims of jurisdiction and
property right. They were openly opposed by our
ablest lawyers in this country, and by the consensus of
the press. Then, our sealing argument was basely mur-
dered by being brought down to the low level of making
an uninterrupted plea that no harm was ever done or
would be done to the seals by the method of land killing,
while all the most extravagant vaporing about the work
of pelagic sealing was soberly incorporated. This sad
mistake on our side, gave the Canadians their opportunity:
and they improved it so well, that they secured the vic-
tory. Thus, they have proved anew the truth of that
old saying, that "having the strongest end of a contro-
versy does not signify, if your opponents have the brighter
men to cope with you."

The award of the Bering Sea Tribunal was made on
August 15, 1893 ; it decided against our claims of juris-
diction in the open waters of Bering Sea ; it denied our
claims of a property right in a wild animal like the fur
seal ; it then queerly split the difference between the
claims of our agents for the land butchers and those of
the British for the pelagic butchers. In short, under the
regulations, ordered by the Court, the modus vivendi, by
Elliott, which is superseded by them, is a real protection,
while the new articles simply facilitate the destruction of
the herd. Yet, at the time these idle and costly regula-

k';

i f

. t

350

VAIN EFFORTS AT REVISION.

tions were ordered by this Tribunal, our agents at Paris
declared that they had won a great victory, and had
saved the seals from pelagic hunting !

These regulations of the Tribunal were first put into
effect in the season of 1 894. The result of their operation
was to demonstrate their utter worthlessness as a means
of saving the fur seal from indecent and cruel slaughter.
More seals were killed at sea under their license than
ever before in the history of the business. This was
demonstrated by those figures of the catch beyond the
shadow of a doubt. Then, ever since, our government
has been trying to secure a revision of the regulations :
but, up to the writing of this chapter, nothing has been
effected. Inexperienced naturalists and ignorant officials
have, on our side, so bungled the case, that the Canadians
have easily kept the lead and still hold the whip hand, and
it is safe to predict, that as matters are being directed,
they will retain the great advantage which they secured
at Paris, in 1 893. Therefore, as long as fur seals exist on
the Pribylov Islands, the Canadian hunter will hunt them
at sea : and as far as a source of revenue to the public
treasury of the United States goes, these fur bearing
rookeries of the Pribylov group have ceased to be. They
are now and have been ever since 1 890, a large annual
bill of expense to the government, without a dollar of
revenue to balance the books.

Unless we free ourselves from the present manage-
ment of our fur seal case, which degrades our position
in British eyes to the same level of seal-skinning and
gain that we charge the Canadian case with, the com-

THE BOUNDARY QUESTION.

351

had

plete extermination of the industry on the Pribylov
Islands is right at hand ; indeed, the rookeries have been
commercially ruined, and it would require at least ten
consecutive years of complete prohibition of seal killing
on the islands and in Bering Sea, from date, if they are
to be restored.

There has been an undue amount of talk about what
we may demand of Great Britain in the way of revising
these regulations ; we have no ground, moral or legal,
to make any demands on Great Britain. What we had,
we lost entirely and forever, at Paris, in 1893 ; we fairly
forced that settlement, and we are bound to lay in the bed
of our making. That we were beaten at Paris, is humili-
ating and galling, because we had the best ground for
argument,but we frittered away our credit and our prop-
perty by putting the business of making up our case for
the Tribunal into incompetent hands — so incompetent
that they did not know that they were beaten at each
and every point when the award was made.

r''

CHAPTER XVII.

REINDEER IN ALASKA.

Alaskan Dogs Must Go — Introduction of Reindeer by Rev. Dr. Sheldon
Jackson — Both Food and Raiment — Purchasing Station in Siberia —
Distribution in Alaska — Fleet of Foot and Easily Supported — Rein-
deer Train Service to the Klondike — Reindeer Milk for Yucon Babies
— A Siberia n Moneymaker — Reindeer to Harness — Character of the
Fur — Some Figures on the Reindeer Industry in Finland.

THE discovery of gold far back in the interior of
, Alaska puts an entirely new face on the introduc-
tion of domestic reindeer into that country. The
movement was undertaken almost entirely with the ob-
ject of affording an adequate food supply to the natives
of the interior, whose ranks during recent years have
been very much depleted through starvation and the
conditions which lead to it. Now, however, a new use
has been found for the reindeer in Alaska, or rather
these little animals will be made useful in a way that
was not anticipated. In Finland and Siberian Russia
they perform the si*me duties which dogs do in Alaska.
It is now proposed to supersede the dogs with reindeer.
The camps of the Klondike and its neighboring streams
are inaccessible during eight or nine months of the year
except by overland journey, and when they have been
visited during the closed season it has been by couriers
attended by a dog-train. Dogs are unreliable and treach-
erous, and, above all, require considerable food for their
352

HELP OF CONGRESS.

353

support, which latter must be carried along with them in
some shape or another. The reindeer, on the contrary,
is a gentle, tractable animal, and one requiring but little
food ; the main article of their diet consists of such
mosses and sprouts as are to be found in the Yukon dis-
trict all the year round. For this reason they will be in-
tensely valuable to a miner, and already scores of orders
for reindeer have been placed with the government by
Klondikers.

As the years pass by it becomes more and more evi-
dent that the introduction of the reindeer into Alaska
is a complete success. At the outset Dr. Sheldon Jack-
son's proposition to introduce the domestic reindeer of
Siberia as a new source of food supply for the famished
Eskimo of Arctic Alaska was received by so much doubt
and disfavor that Congress refused to furnish the neces-
sary appropriation. Private individuals advanced a sum,
however, to put the project on its feet. With this sum,
about ji2C)00, Dr. Jackson procured i6 reindeer in 1891
and 171 in 1892. Congress appropriated ji6ooo for the
fiscal year ending June, 1894, to carry on the work.
This was increased the next year to $7500, and the fol-
lowing year a like sum granted. Nearly 400 head have
been purchased in Siberia, and through the birth of
fawns the number on Alaskan soil has been increased
to over a thousand. Heretofore the purchasing of the
reindeer has been done by Russians, who received a
commission at so much per head.

The Secretary of State has recently communicated
with the Czar of Russia, requesting permission for the

■i

sga

!!■■■

354

INCREASE OF REINDEER.

Bureau of Education to station a purchasing agent with
one or two herdsmen at some suitable point on the coast
of Siberia adjacent to Alaska. It is presumed that this
request will be granted, and this year the Bureau of
Education will probably be able to send its own agents
into the field.

Herds of reindeer are now located at five places in
Arctic Alaska — Port Clarence, the main station, under
the management of a superintendent appointed by the
Bureau of Education; Cape Prince of Wales, a mission
of the Congregational Church ; Cape Nome, in charge
of three experienced native Alaskan apprentices ; the
Swedish mission, at Golovin Bay, and St. James's Epis-
copal mission, on the Yukon. The number of reindeer
at these stations is now i loo head. At the main station,
called the Teller Station, during the year 22 deer were
broken to harness, making in all 52 sled deer in the
herd, and much time was given to the training of these
deer for freighting and travelling purposes. In the gen-
eral plan of distribution it has been the purpose to
supply the mission stations in the order of their prox-
imity to the central herd. Some little difficulty was
experienced with the natives, among whom the report
was current that only the whites were to receive any
benefit from the reindeer. It was hard to disabuse their
minds of this notion, and this was finally accomplished
only by lending several of the more advanced of the
native herders about 100 head of deer. Many natives
are now coming into possession of reindeer of their own,
and they take great pride in their care. In the future it

USE OF REINDEER.

355

is proposed thai from two central herding stations, one
at Port Clarence, near Bering's Strait, and another on the
Kuskokwim River, north of Bristol Bay, herds of loo
deer, with native herders, shall be distributed to the vari-
ous mission stations. A continuous line of herds will
then be placed for the entire distance to the importa.it
stations at St. Michael's, near the mouth of the Yukon
River. A line of stations might also be established
along the Yukon to the gold stations at Forty-Mile
Creek. If two herds of 1 500 each could be established
at the two main distributing points, experience shows
that the annual increase of the herd, if well cared for,
would furnish three herds of 200 each year.

There is much that is interesting in regard to the plan
of reaching the Yukon gold district by means of reindeer.
As has been said, in the original plan for the purchase
and distribution of reindeer, reference was mainly had
to securing a new food-supply for the famishing Eskimos,
but it is now found that the reindeer are as essential to
the white man as to the Eskimos. The placer mines of
the Yukon region are from 25 to 100 miles from the
Yukon River. The provisions brought from the south
by the five steamers now in that region and landed upon
the banks of the river are transported with great diffi-
culty to the mines. So great was the extremity last
winter that mongrel Indian dogs cost from j^ioo to <p2oo
each for transportation purposes, and the freight charges
from the river to the mines, thirty miles distant, ranged
from 1 5 to 20 cents a pound. The difficulty experienced
in providing the miners with the necessaries of life has

'11

-I

.56

BETTER THAN DOGS.

demonstrated the necessity of reindeer transportation.
Back from the rivers in Alaska there are no roads, and,
to a great extent, no transportation facilities whatever.
In the limited travelling of the past dogs have been used,
but dog-teams are slow, and must be burdened with the
food for their own maintenance. This food is now put
up in cans in large quantities by several Chicago houses,
and consists of the refuse meat from the slaughter-
houses, prepared in a way which preserves it. Although
this food is not so expensive as other meats, the cost is
high when immense freighting charges must be paid by
the miners. On the other hand, trained reindeer will
make in a day two or three times the distance covered
by a dog-team, and at the end can be turned loose to
gather their support from the moss, which is always
accessible. They obtain this by digging away the over-
lying snow with their hoofs and horns. It is believed
that the snow-covered fields of Alaska will furnish sup-
port to millions of these gentle, fleet-footed little animals.
Reindeer cannot be k^pt anywhere near the Alaskan
dog, for the latter kill them with the greatest ease.

As a food-supply nothing better adapted to the coun-
try can be imagined. Reindeer meat, either fresh or
cured, is considered a great delicacy. The skin is soft
and warm, and can be used for both clothes and shoes.
Then there is the milk, which is as good as any we buy
in the city at 8 cents a quart. They are more docile than
the horse, and are better adapted than any other animal
for transportation in the climate of Alaska.

Thus we have embodied in one little animal, aver-

POSSIBILITIES.

357

aging in size from three to five feet in heisrht. meat,
drink, shoes, clothing, and the means of transportation
— not to mention his possibilities as a commercial com-
modity, for his hoofs and horns make the best glue
known, and his hair has a buoyant quality which makes
it valuable for ife-saving apparatus. In addition to all
this, he IS the only useful animal that can live upon
such frugal fare as the Alaskan climate affords. Dogs
must carry their food on their backs, but reindeer feed
from the soil which they traverse ; and it is estimated
that the territory of Alaska is capable of sustaining
9,2oo,cxx) of the latter animals, a number which will
support 287,000 people.

The only difficulty in the matter is the fact that the
reindeer have to be imported. Through Dr. Jackson's
efforts something less than a thousand have already
been brought from Siberia, and because of the prevail-
ing ignorance as to the care and heramg of the strange
little beasts six families of Laps were imported along
with them. A central station was established, and some
of the most intelligent of the natives taken as appren-
tices. These are doing well, and many are now capable
of taking charge of herds themselves.

Some of the difficulties which Dr. Jackson encountered
would be amusing if they did not cause so much trouble.
He had to contend with the superstitions and the busi-
ness interests of the natives of Siberia, and was only
able to collect small herds at different places. The
Siberians depend largely for sustenance upon bartering
the products of the reindeer. They are afraid that they

; t

I > 1

> '

358

HERDING.

will be cut off from this if the Alaskans have reindeer,
too. Beside that, the people never use money, so that
It was necessary for the agent to be provided with the
various things which the natives were glad to get in
exchange. •

The richest native of the village of Indian Point,
Siberia, does $100,000 worth of business every year
without using a single coin, or a single bank-note, nor
are any books kept. He can neither read nor write,
nor can any of those belonging to him.

The reindeer, with their feet tied together, are loaded
into small boats on the Siberian side and carried to the
schooners, which convey them across to the Teller Sta-
tion at Port Clarence. The herders drive the deer which
are already on the Alaskan shore down to the beach,
and when the men in the boats reach shallow water, the)
turn their load of reindeer out into the water and let
them swim to shore themselves — which they readily do
when they see the other reindeer there.

The herding of the reindeer imposes a nomadic life
those who attempt it, as the herds constantly change
their position in search of fresh food. During the first
year or so in the vicinity of the Teller Station the herd-
ers slept in single canvas tents during the entire winter,
and they suffered great hardships, as may well be imag-
ined. Now they build log huts v/herever it is possible.

At the landing station sledges and harness are made,
the latter being simply made, and may be put on and
secured by two motions, touching the deer as little as
possible.

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BKEAKING WILD REINDEER.

361

About a year ago 1 30 deer were driven from the cen-
tral station to Golovin Bay. Mr. N. O. Hultburg, the
missionary there, writes : "At first the herd was kept
five or six miles north of the station, where there was
moss in abundance. As we had a number of steers my
thought fell on how to get them trained. I ordered the
boys to work with the deer each day, but it proved to
be too hard work for them, as they are all very lazy. I
then ordered the herd to be moved further off. So it
was moved to about thirty miles northwest of the sta-
tion. Each of the boys then nad to go home once a
week for his own provisions, and if he came with an old
deer (one that had been trained before) he had to go
back again with an empty sled. In this way we broke
eleven new deer before spring."

Mr. G. T. Howard, of the St. James Episcopal Mis-
sion, who accompanied Mr. Hultberg and the others
when they took the herd to Golovin Bay, writes of his
experience in reindeer driving as follows :

"With many misgivings I finally perched myself on
top of the loaded sled behind the deer which I was to
drive. At first there was no trouble, but as soon as I
attempted to guide the deer my efforts were treated with
contempt. No matter how hard nor how often I pulled
on the line, or longee, as the Laps call it, he paid no
attention to it, except by occasionally coming to a full
stop and turning round to look at me in a manner that
made me feel rather uncomfortable — for the front hoofs
of the deer are formidable weapons that can be used
with remarkable rapidity — but he made no hostile

362"

QUALITIES OP REINDEER.

demonstrption, and, after trying to stare me out of
countenance for a moment would suddenly wheel around,
and with a bound that would almost land me on my head
behind the sled would be ofif."

Mr. Howard was finally reduced to the expedient of
tying his deer behind another sledge, after which matters
went very smoothly. That method is often adopted, and
enables one man to drive many sledges of deer at the
same time. When there is a steep hill to descend the
deer is taken to the back of the sledge, to which he is
tied by the longee, braces his feet, and really pulls back-
ward. The descent is very rapid, and as sled and deer
fly along they are almost obscured by the whirling
snow. '

A herd of deer can be very easily driven. They bunch
together like sheep, and one man and a dog can easily
handle a large herd.

In appearance they are almost the same as the Amer-
ican caribou. Both male and female have large branch-
ing horns. They can stand almost any degree of cold,
and have the domestic instinct to a remarkable degree.
They are not able to carry very heavy loads on their
backs, but in summer often carry women, children, or
household effects in this way. They can pull as much as
300 pounds — though a limit of 190 or 200 pounds is
generally made — at a rate of nine or ten miles an hour
for ten hours without fatigue.

M. N. Bruci, who was in charge of the Teller Station
when it was first put in operation, speaks as follows
about the hide of the reindeer ;

REINDEER SKINS.

363

"Tlie color of the fur of the reindeer Is varied. Per-
haps the most common is the seal-brown, and when free
from other shades is decidedly rich in appearance. The
fur, for such it may properly be called, after it has taken
on its summer coat, is soft and glossy, and about the
length of that of the fur-seal. When taken at this season,
if properly dressed, it sheds very little. The skin is soft
and pliable, and but little thicker than that of the fur-seal.
The reindeer skin was at one time the only one used by
the natives for their clothing, tents, and everything else,
but now the seal and ground squirrel skins play an
important part. Reindeer skins have become a matter
of luxury with the natives, and only those who deny
themselves other things that they need for their comfort
wear reindeer clothing. In the country about Kotzebue
Sound occasionally a skin is secured from a wild rein-
deer, but is so rare that it assumes somewhat the nature
of a curiosity. Thus it will be seen that, practically, all
the reindeer skins used by the Alaskan Eskimo come
from Siberia."

Lapland, with 400,000 reindeer, supplies the grocery
stores of Northern Europe with smoked reindeer hamni
at 10 cents a pound ; with smoked tongues at 10 cents
each ; with dried hides at from f 1.25 to {1.75 each ; with
tanned hides at from $2 to $2 each, and with 23,000
carcasses to the butcher-shops, in addition to what is
consumed by the Laps themselves. Fresh reindeer
meat is considered a great delicacy, and Russia exports
it frozen in carloads to Germany. The tanned skins and
hair are of great value commercially, and the best glue

364

A GREAT INDUSTRY.

made to-day comes from reindeer horns. On the same
basis, Alaska with its capacity for 9,000,000 head of
reindeer, could supply the markets of America with
500,000 carcasses annually, tons of hams and tongues,
and the finest of leather. There is on the face of it a
chance for the reindeer forming the basis of a great
industry in the not far distant future.

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ongues,
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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE GOLD FINDS OF HISTORY.

Gold in the days of Abraham — Solomon's expeditions to Ophir — Edomitet as
Ar|;onauts — Cortex in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru — Early attempts by the
English to find gold in America — North Carolina an ** Eldorado" — The
Georgian " intrusion " — ^The days of the Forty-niners — John Marshall and his
end — Australian and Klondike nuggets compared — The Frazer River craze — The
"Kaffer circus" — South African mines capitalized ai 1 1, $00,000,000— Four
hundred years of gold digging — The gold kings of the world.

CENTURIES upon centuries have come and gone
since the stories of fabulous gold finds first fired
the hearts and imaginations of men. Our records proba-
bly do not go back far enough to include the earliest of
these. ^

That there were such epochs of gold discovery in
ancient history it is impossible to doubt, though trans-
portation was so difiRcult in those days that rushes of
gold seekers to the diggings must have been limited. It
is hardly to be supposed that the vast quantities of gold
which were in existence in Judea, at Babylon, in India, in
Persia, and in Egypt were gradually accumulated by the
working of lean sands; the bulk must have been the
yield of discoveries of rich deposits. Gold figures as an
article of exchange and merchandise as far back as the
time of Abraham, and when Solomon came to the throne
he fairly plastered the temple with gold.

Nor could it have been rare in other parts of Asia.
At Babylon, where, in the time of Belshazzar, they had

(367)

I I

368

OPHIR THE FIRST EI^DORADO.

i:i|;

gods of gold, and gold vessels for every guest of the
king to drink out of; or in Persia, where the king had
beds of gold and goblets of gold ; or in Hindostan, where
the king sat on a throne of gold, and Nadir Shah took
fifty millions of treasure from the single city of Delhi.
It was safe to infer that before these great masses of gold
were gathered together there must have been startling
discoveries of gold deposits somewhere, causing rushes
of gold seekers to the new camps, just like the present
rush to Klondike ; and, considering the undeveloped con-
dition of the mining industry at that time, it may also be
inferred that the gold found was always alluvial. Where
.it was found we have no means of knowing. There are
no records of gold discoveries in the ancient books.

Ophir is the first "El Dorado" of which we have any
.J record, and this includes little but the bare fact that it
was a gold-producing country. There are no data by
which it may be even approximately located.

That Solomon received the tip about the riches of
Ophir before the diggings were worked out is well
attested by biblical records. He was in the habit of
receiving gold from other sources. The King of Tyre
sent him 120 talents, the equivalent of about $250,000;
and his friend, the Queen of Sheba, gave him about
Ji200,ooo at the time he was fixing up the temple at
Jerusalem. He was not satisfied with this, and sent
frequent expeditions to Ophir. The ships were sent out
from ports on the Red Sea, and it is easy to imagine that
desire to accompany them was fully as strong among the
Edomites in those early days as is the present-day anxiety

It i

SPANISH GOLD. 269

on the part of thousands of people to be off for the Klon-
dike and its hidden treasures. Solomon obtained about
$500,000 from the Ophir mines.

The first rush of grold seekers to a land of promise, of
which we have authentic historical record, took place
from Spain to the countries discovered, by Columbus.
On the islands he visited and those portions of the con-
tinent on which he landed there are and were then no
gold mines. But the natives he met wore ornaments of
gold obtained mostly from South America, and Cortez
found a good deal of it, though neither he nor his people
undertook to mine. When Montezuma surrendered the
treasure in gold which fell to the share of the conquerors
it amounted to 162,000 pieces of eight, equivalent, accord-
ing to Mr. Prescott, to $6,300,000, a small sum if con-
trasted with the yield of modern mining camps, but more,
perhaps, than the contents of the coffers of any European
monarch of that day, and quite enough to disturb values
throujjhout the world.

' It was less than the sum secured a few years later by
Pizarro in Peru. At Cuzco he divided among his men
580,200 pieces of eight, and the ineffectual ransom of
Adahualpa cost the unfortunate Inca a sum exceeding
$15,000,000 of our money. The Spanish army in Peru
received and sent home four times as much as the fol-
lowers of Cortez sent from Mexico. It is diverting to
observe how the ill-gotten gains operated precisely as
the discovery of a bonanza does in a mining camp. The
chronicler says: "Every article rose in value. A quire
of paper sold for ten pieces of eight, a bottle of wine

37^^

EARLY EXPECTATIONS.

for sixty, a sword for forty or fifty, a cloak for a hundred,
a pair of shoes for thirty or forty, and a horse for twenty-
five hundred." A piece of eight was equivalent to an
ounce of gold.

It will be noted that rone of the gold obtained by
Pizarro and Cortez and their followers was obtained
directly from the mines. Numerous expeditions were
undertaken Huring the first century of the New World's
history for the avowed object of finding the precious
metal, and yet remarkable as it may seem, gold was not
discovered within the boundaries of the present United
States, nor ever anywhere north of the Rio Grande, until
300 years after Columbus had finished his earthly labors.
The lust for gold drove hundreds of adventurers across
the Atlantic to brave the dangers of the unknown wilds
in their attempts to find the land of gold, the Eldorado
of which the Indians had told, and of which the most
romantic tales were being circulated in Europe. The
adventurers were of all the seafaring nations of the civil-
ized world. The Spaniards, through the massacring of
the nations and the plundering of their temples, proved
successful, while the English, on the other hand, were
unsuccessful throughout. -•» '\*k

Sir Walter Raleigh's expeditions were dismal failures.
He suffered with his life for his ill-fortune. The El-
dorado, which had been sought in South America, had
not been found. The attention of adventurers was now
turned to the opposite direction, and the imaginary land
of gold was now placed in the north of America. This
idea became so strong that, in 1376, Martin Frobisher

SMITH'S REPORTS.

371

, i»i>

set out from England for the Northwest, seeking a pa5i-
sage to India north of Hudson's Strait. He came to an
island which he named Meta Incognita, and on his return
took with him a stone which the English refiners declared
to contain gold. London was greatly excited. But when
a second expedition returned and brought with it a lot
of valueless dirt, the disappointment set the populace
wild with rage. But the public was ready to be imposed
upon again. As early as 1605 Captain John Smith heard
from the Indians reports of rich gold mines in Virginia.
The same statements were repeated by other explorers
after him, and soon adventurers flocked to the new set-
tlements on the Virginia coast. The second lot of emi-
grants to Jamestown consisted chiefly of vagabond gentle-
men and goldsmiths, who, in spite of the remonstrances
of Smith, believed they had discovered grains of gold in
the glittering earth. There was now nothing done but
digging for gold, v. ishing gold, refining gold. Newport,
the commander, believed himself immeasurably rich as
he embarked for England with a freight of worthless
earth.

- Gradually the hope of ever finding Eldorado vanished,
and for 200 years the golden phantom did not appear.
Not till this century were the gold treasures of North
America taken from the bosom of the earth. They were
found primarily, as the result of accident, not of mad,
thoughtless quest.

It was in the second year of this century, when the
report spread as rapidly as was possible in those early
days, through the Eastern States, that gold, real gold,

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372

STORY OF JOHN RE^D.

had been discovered in North Carolina. At first people
shook their heads and doubted the news. Had not the
discoverers of the country ransacked every nook and
corner for the precious metal and not found as much as
an ounce? But the report was soon verified, and before,
long, nuggets of bri^^-it gold reached the larger towns and
were seen and wondered at by the curious people. With
the gold came the story of the discovery, and the wise-
acres nodded their heads and said : " How simple."
And when it became known that the owner of the gold
mine was one of those Hessians who had fought against
the patriots the gossip-mongers remarked, with a sneer
of disgust : " The ignorant Dutchman." This is the
story which was soon told all over the land.

John Reed, one of the unfortunates whom the Elector
of Hesse had pressed into service to fight for the Eng-
lish in America, had, after the war, settled on a farm in
Cabarrus County, North Carolina, where the German
element predominated. He was said to be grossly ignor-
ant, having been but a poor peasant boy when forcibly
transported to America. One sunny summer day, in the
year 1799, Conrad Reed, John's twelve-year-old son,
accompanied by a sister and a younger brother, went
to a small stream, called Meadow Creek, for the purpose
of shooting fish with bow and arrow, as the Indians were
wont to do. While bending over the water*? brink, Con-
rad spied a yellow substance glistening in the creek. He
waded into the water, picked it up, and found it to be
some kind of metal. Though unconscious of its nature
and value, but with the curiosity of a child, the youngster.

THE JBWEI/ER'S LUCK.

373

carried his find home and showed it to his father, who
had just returned from cliurch. The parent examined
the piece of metal, but was as ignorant as to its character
as the boy. The next time he brought vegetables to
market at Concord, he took the yellow stone, which was
about the size of a small smoothing iron, with him to
town and showed it to William Atkinson, a silversmith.
This worthy, whose experience seems to have been sadly
limited, knew not what to call it. So Reed, who unknow-
ingly seems to have suspected the value of his son's
find, carried the piece of metal home again. For three
years it lay on the floor of the farmhouse, used for the
purpose of keeping the door from shutting. In the year
1802 the old farmer had occasion to go to market at
Fayetteville. He took the piece of metal with him and
showed it to a jeweler. The latter immediately recog-
nized it as gold, and asked Reed to leave it with him,
saying that he would flux it.

The old farmer did accordingly. On his next visit to
town the jeweler showed him a large bar of gold, six or
eight inches long, and asked him at what price he would
let him have it. Reed, not knowing the value of gold,
but still desirous of profiting as much as possible by his
son's find, named what he thought a " big price," namely,
$3.50. The jeweler paid him the price named and
chuckled over his bargain. After returning home, Reed
looked over the ground where the gold had been picked
up and found nuggets of the precious metal all along the
brink of the creek. He associated with himself three of
his neighbors, also Germans, Frederick Kisor (Kaiser),

(,!■

yrA NORTH CAROLINA GOLD.

James Love (Loew), and Martin Phifer (Pfeifer), and in
the year 1803 ^^^y found a piece of gold that weighed
twenty-eight pounds. Numerous large nuggets of the
metal were found thereafter, of various sizes and values.
The whole surface of the ground along the creek's bank
for nearly a mile was rich in gold. In 1831 quartz veins
were discovered which yielded large quantities of gold.
From 1803 to 1835, 115 pounds of gold were found on
one spot. In 1840 the output of the gold mines in Car-
rabus County, North Carolina, was estimated at $3,500.
Reed profited by his discoveries and died about the year
1848 a wealthy man.

As might have been expected, the discovery of gold
excited so much attention that exploration was begun
extensively. The gold was traced southward as far as
the borders of the Cherokee territory in Northern
Georgia. In Rowan County, North Carolina, mining
operations were commenced at Gold Hill in September,
1842. Some very rich veins were opened. From
January, 1843, to July, 1851, gold to the value of
$801,665 was found at this spot.

For awhile, as has always been the case during the
prevalence of gold fever, gold was discovered every-
where. Reports of rich finds came from South Carolina,
Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Lower Canada, and
other parts of the continent. In Georgia, especially,
great excitement prevailed for some time. The richest
finds were »*eported from the Cherokee Reservation.
Prospectors began to encroach on the domain of the red

?tl

THK «• INTRUSION."

377

men. Protests naturally followed, and Georgia sent a
large police force to keep back the invaders, but it was
of little avail. Reckless, dissipated men from all quarters
of the country flocked in, prowled about the woods, set
up log huts and shanty groceries on all the streams, and
even the Federal troops were powerless to keep the law-
less hordes west of the Chestatee. These days are known
as the period of the " Intrusion **— one of the two dates
from which the mountaineers reckon all events, the other
being " the late war." Finding that no projection of the
Indians by police measures was feasible, the State in
1830 adopted the Indians, reservation and all, and consti-
tuted the region a county. Then the mineral lands were
divided up into forty-acre lots, and put up at lottery by
the State. It soon came to be found here, as elsewhere,
that gold was not to be picked up in lumps every day.
The worthless, lazy and dissolute majority of the early
horde of invaders gradually drifted away, while only
the small minority of. newcomers remained. The popu-
lation, like the dirt, was slowly panned out, and the cur-
rent of events carried the dross away.

DISCOVERED IN GEORGIA.

In Habersham County, Georgia, gold was discovered
in 1 83 1 by a man named Wilpero, who, observing the
resemblance of the surface and of the foliage and the
streams of the region with the gold section of North
Carolina, dug for the precious metal and found it in con-
siderable quantities.

In Virginia gold was mined for many years. The

I )i

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i

1 1

378 CAWPORNIA.

largest masses of the metal were found in or near rivulets
or runs of water. On a brook at the Whitehall Mine
gold of the value of jj^ 10,000 was found in the course of a
few days in a space of about twenty feet square.

The gold fever in the South had almost died out, when
from the farthest quarter of the United States, the
recently acquired California, came the news of gold finds
far more remarkable and productive than those heretofore
made. Not that gold was new to California. For three
centuries there had been wild talk about fabulous mineral
wealth in the region of the Sierras. In the *2o's and '30's
of this century small nuggets of gold had been repeatedly
obtained from the Indians. One day a laborer in the em-
ploy of the Russian-American Company in California
came to the commandant with the story that he had seen
gold up the bed of a stream and advised that a party be
sent to examine it. The man was told to mind his own
business. Although such rumors of the existence of gold
in California had occasionally been heard, still they had
never been verified or traced to any reliable source, and
they were regarded as we now regard the fabulous stories
of the golden sands of Gold Lake or those of Silver
Planches, which are said to exist in the inaccessible
deserts of Arizona.

At first there was little excitement, due doubtless to a
^ack of definite news. But when the gold from the new
Eldorado began pouring into Valparaiso, Panama and
New York, in the latter part of the winter of 1848-49, an
end was put to all doubts, and in the spring there was a
rush of peaceful emigration such as the world had never

RUSH OF •'49."

37^

seen. In 1849 25,ocx) — according to one authority,
50»ooo — immigrants went by land, and 23,000 by sea from
the regions east of the Rocky Mountains, and by sea per-
haps 40,000 from other parts of the world, adding twelve-
fold to the population and fiftyfold to the productive
capacity of the Territory.

By January, 1849, ninety vessels, carrying 8,000 pas-
sengers, had sailed from various ports, bound for San
Francisco, and seventy more were advertised to sail.
Pulpits resounded with warnings against riches as the
source of all evil, but the preachers, when they could, took
ship for the land of gold like other people. Early in 1849
the population of San Francisco swelled from 2,000 to
14,000. Four hundred sailing vessels were abandoned
by their crews at their anchorage in the bay. Labor was
$10 a day. In that year (1849) 549 vessels entered the
Golden Gate. In the same year the yield of the mines
was probably not less than $18,000,000. The present
annual yield is about $72,000,000, and in the years since
the California fields were opened about a billion and a
half dollars have been taken out.

Everybody knows that gold was first discovered in
California by James W. Marshall, a native of New Jersey,
who built a mill in the Sacramento Valley on property
owned by John A. Sutter. It was entirely by accident
that he discovered the gold, and became sponsor for the
wild days of the " Forty-niners." The saw-mill at Coloma
was built and managed by this Jerseyman, and for four
months he worked with a gang of men until the race had
been dug and the dam made. On the morning of Mon-

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380 MARSHALL'S FIND.

day, January 24, 1848, Marshall was walking in the tail-
race, when the rush of water was carrying away the loose
dirt and gravel, and saw on its rotten granite bed-rock
some yellow particles, and picked up several of them.
The largest were about the size of grains of wheat.
They were smooth, bright, and in color much like brass.
He thought they were gold, and went to the mill, where
he told the men that he had found a gold mine.

At the time he was laughed at, and no importance at-
tached to his statement. But Marshall hammered his
new metal, tried it in the kitchen fire, and was the more
convinced that he had found gold. Next morning he
picked up more specimens in the tail-race, put a spoonful
in the crown of his slouch hat, and showed the find again
at the mill. Led by Marshall, the laborers all hastened
down to the mill-race, and soon were absorbed in picking
from the streams and crevices of the rock the precious
yellow metal.

On the evening of February 2, 1848, Marshall rode
into the fort, his horse foaming and spattered with mud.
Taking Sutter aside he showed him about half a thim-
bleful of yellow grains of metal. Sutter applied aqua-
fortis and established the fact that the metal was solid
gold.

The first record of the discovery, and the only one made
on the day of its occurrence, was in the diary of Henry
W. Bigler, one of the mill hands. He wrote January
24th: ''This day some kind of metal was found in the
tail-race that looks like goald."

Although Sutter tried to keep the discovery of gold

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MARSHALI^'S TROUBI.ES. ^g^

a secret until he could get in his harvest, it was impos-
sible, and, as Parton says: "Sutter's harvest was never
gathered. His oxen, hogs and sheep were stolen by
hungry men and devoured. No hands could be procured
to run the mill. His lands were squatted on and dug
over, and he wasted his remaining substance in fruitless
litigations to recover them. To carry on the legal war-
fare, he was compelled to sacrifice or mortgage the parts
of his estates not seized by the gold diggers, until, little
by little, his magnificent property melted away, leaving
him all but destitute. For crrt item he paid, in ten years,
for counsel fees and legal expenses, $125,000." The
Legislature of California granted him a pension of $250
7. month. In 1864 his homestead was burned, and in
1873 he removed to Lititz, Fa. He died in Washington,
D. C, June 17, 1880, a poor man.

Marshall, the discoverer of gold, did not fare more pros-
perously. His property and stock were seized, his land
was divided into town lots, and he became reduced to ex-
treme poverty. His discovery, which in one year alone
resulted in a product of 5(^65,000,000 and for seventeen
years brought on an average of $25,600,000, netted him
neither fame nor profit.

Marshall's troubles began with the very first stampede
of gold-seekers. He cursed Mrs. Wimmer, his cook, who
first spread the news of his find, and he declared he would
have the law protect his rights. While his employes
joined in digging and washing gold, Marshall swore and
growled. For a t w months he made every man on the
scene pay him a dollar for his discovery. But when the

Mr.

^3^ DISAPPOINTMENT.

throngs increased he seldom got a dollar, and then only
from a good-natured man. He claimed that he and
Sutter owned the land on which the miners came and got
their gold. Of course, there was justice in the assertion
that the miners had trespassed upon Sutter's and Mar-
shall's acres, but the lawless, wild gold seekers cared
precious little for legal rights in those days, and there was
neither United States nor Mexican law in California from
some time in 1847 ""^^^ ^^^ summer of 1850, when the
Territory began to get ready for admission as a State.
Marshall became disliked for his belligerency, and he was
in continual disputes and quarreling. Several times he
barely escaped serious physical punishment from a camp
of reckless, intoxicated miners whom he had threatened
with legal processes because of their encroachments on
his land. He never did any mining himself, for he claimed
he owned all the gold that had been taken out at Coloma,
and he would some day have the courts give him back
all the riches that had been stolen from him.

He was a spiritualist, and had visions and messages
from the spirit land that told him what to do. He went
often to 'Frisco and Sacramento. By 1851 he became
reconciled to his fate, and abandoned all claims to the
mining property on his lands. In 1857 he bought a plot
of land at Coloma, near the site of his saw-mill. There
he planted a vineyard. He did odd jobs about the town
and made wine. He became a hard drinker and every-
one knew him as a chronic growler. In 1869 he started
out to lecture on "How I Found Gold in California."
He was very poor, and for a few nights he did a good

DIED IN POVERTY. ^85

business. Then he went to Stockton, and there his love
for whiskey overcame him, and he fell by the way. In
1872 the Legislature of California granted him a pension
of $2cx> a month for two years. It was subsequently re-
newed for sevea years at J 100 a month. He spent
almost every dollar of it in saloons, and on a lot of
parasites. That was why the first pension was cut down
one-half. He died alone in a ramshackle, desolate cabin
in the little hamlet of Kelsey, in El Dorado County, on
August 9, 1885. He had been dead a day before his
remains were found.

These discoveries and the rush of population to Cali-
fornia gave rise to lively times. Lots in San Francisco
were said to b(^ worth gold coin enough to carpet them.
Speculation ran wild. All forms of gambling were recog-
nized as legitimate business, while adventurers and crimi-
nals flocked in. Society became chaotic, and at length
self-preservation required the organization of the cele-
brated " vigilance committees " to enforce order.

Gold mining was neither novel nor rare, but the unex-
ampled combination of wonderful richness, highly favor-
able geographical conditions, and great freedom in the
political institutions of California led to such a rush of
people and such an immense production of gold, that the
whole world was shaken, The older placers of Brazil and
Siberia, and the later ones of Australia and South Africa,
had a much smaller influence on general commerce and
manufactures. The discovery of these mines was an
American achievement. It Wc s the result of an American
conquest from Mexico and of preparation for American

1 I

^85 AUSTRAWA.

immigrants. They were Americans, as were the first
miners, who subsequently invented the sluice and the hy-
draulic process of placer washing, and who planned and
constructed the great ditches, flumes and dams that gave
a distinctive character to the placer mining of California.
Marshall's find did not limit its great influences to our
continent. It profoundly agitated all the countries of the
world, and threw a belt of steam around the globe. It
educated Hargreaves, and taught him where to find and
how to open up the gold deposits of Australia. It built
the Panama road. It opened Japan to the traffic of
Christendom. Directly and indirecdy, it added nearly
four billions of dollars to the stock of the precious metals,
and by giving the distinction of this vast scene to Eng-
lish-speaking nations added much to their great industrial
and intellectual influence.

Before three years elapsed the discoveries in California
were duplicated in Australia. Some years before Sir
Roderick Murchison had predicted that gold would be
found in the quartz, and in 185 1 Hargreaves, who had
been at the diggings in California, looked for it in the
Bathurst of New South Wales, and found what he was
looking for. His discovery was at first received with
incredulity, but when Dr. Kerr found on the Turon a
lump of gold worth $21,000, and a nugget was taken to
Sydney which sold for jJ6,2oo, there could be no question
of the facts.

It is interesting in this connection to know something
of the size of the Klondike nuggets, although large
nuggets are not necessarily the accompaniment of rich

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fields. There were four nuggets of the size of duck
eggs, and a dozen as large as walnuts, in the gold brought
down this summer from Alaska. The big ones are
worth about jj^375 each, and the small ones about $140.
There are many thousands of golden bits of the size of
watermelon seeds that are worth $1 each, and hundreds
of the size of common gravel-stones.

After the news of the Australian discoveries had been
circulated workmen of all classes deserted their callings
to hunt for gold, and they were so successful that in the
fall of 1 85 1 the average earnings of prospectors rose to
1(^5 a day. Simultaneously, all articles of commerce ad-
vanced ; wheat quadrupled in value ; potatoes rose from
7 shillings to 21 shillings a hundred weight; and freight
from Sydney to the mines from JJ12 to j( 150 a ton. When
the news reached Europe thousands of adventurers em-
barked for Australia, declaring that its treasures cast
into the shade those of California.

Melbourne was jealous of Sydney, and a generous
reward was offered for the discovery of a gold field within
the province of Victoria. The result was the discovery,
in August, 1 85 1, of the diggings of Ballarat. Ten thou-
sand adventurers flocked to the spot, which maintained its
reputation as the greatest gold camp in the world till
Mount Alexander and Bendigo Creek were discovered.
Before New Year's it was said that there were 50,000
miners at Bendigo, and Melbourne was depopulated.
Flour, which was worth $100 a ton at the seaboard, was
in demand at $1,000 a ton at the mines ; oats rose eight-
fold ; mining tools sold for anything the dealers chose to

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.ii.riVi?A.'i;.

390

BIG GOLD MINES.

ask. In that winter it was said that an average of i5,ocx>
adventurers arrived each month at Melbourne, and car-
penters and masons were getting $io a day.

The finder of one of the richest veins was a man who
had been prospecting in the bush for a long time without
success, and was returning to Perth disconsolate. One
night on his way he encamped in a wilderness, when his
horse got restless toward morning and plunged and
kicked about. The man went out to quiet the animal,
when he knocked his foot against what he took to be a
big stone, but which, on examination, he found to be ft
huge an^ almost solid mass of pure gold. To " peg "
out his claim did not take long, and in a month six men,
working with the roughest tools, took $250,000 worth
of gold.

The " Hannans Broomhill " and the " Great Boulder,"
in the Hannans field of the West Australian district, are
the two biggest gold mines the world is likely to see. It
is no question of stock exchange when it comes to digging
out day by day ore which seems to consist almost entirely
of gold. In the storehouse of the Hannans Broomhill
there has been at one time between twenty and thirty
tons of gold.

So this gold find, brought about entirely by accident,
proved to be no flash in the pan.

The yield has swelled month by month and year by
year, until, in 1856, the export from Melbourne alone,
without taking Sydney into account, was over $60,000,000.
In the same year the mint at Sydney received $7,500,000

BIG GOLD MINES.

>»

391

in gold from the mines and New Zealand produced

$IO,OCX>,OCX).

In Australia's heyday, just as the yield of the California
placers had declined to such a degree that some of the
most famous diggings were given over to Chinamen.
Rumors, which gradually gathered strength, reached San
Francisco that gold had been discovered in the bed of the
Fraser River. The first finds were made in 1856; it
was not until the spring of 1858 that Fraser River gold
began to appear at the money-changers* establishments on
Montgomery Street. An exodus set in for Victoria, just
such a one as there is now for Juneau. By June, 1858,
10,000 miners were at work between Langley and the
forks of the river, and every bar for 140 miles of the
Fraser's course, and along the Thompson, was being'
prospected. Two flourishing towns, Yale and Hope,
sprang up on the river banks, and before snow fell 20,000
adventurers are said to have left California for the new
camps. Of these, the great bulk endured untold hard-
ships, and found no gold. They returned to San Fran-
cisco discouraged and penniless, and denounced Fraser
River as a humbug, just as some of the unlucky Yukon
adventurers may possibly be denouncing the Klondike
next year.

But Fraser River was a real find, which added, in the
course of twenty-odd years, more than twice as much
gold to the world's supply as Spain had obtained from
the Americas in the same space of time. Estimates of
the yield of 1858 vary so widely that it is difficult to
ascertain the truth. Good, the Canadian Minister of

•i 4

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392

CARIBOO MOUNTAIN COUNTRY.

Mines, reckoned that the output of that year was not over
$500,000, but McDonald, figuring from the reports of
bankers and express companies, set it down at $2,1 50,000.
This was chiefly scale gold, comminuted by hammering
between boulders into fine flat scales, and mixed with
considerable flour gold. The yield increased in 1B59 and
again in i860; for the three years the total output was
probably something like $6,000,000 or $7,000,000. It did
not convulse trade or set the world crazy, as the discov-
eries in California and Australia had done, because the
discouraging reports set afloat by returning miners in
1858 cooled popular ardor, and threw a bucP of cold
water on the spirits of the adventurous.

The furore was rekindled in 1861 by fresh discoveries
in the Cariboo Mountain country, at Quesnel Forks dig-
gings, and at the head-waters of the Fraser and Thompson
rivers. Here the gold found in the streams was coarse,
and the mountains generally consisted of slates, which,
in lower latitudes, had been found to be auriferous. The
best fields for mininor were the beds of buried rivers
below the level of the modern streams, as in the Sierra
counties of California. In the deposit on the beds of
these prehistoric rivers were found richly concentrated
gold leads, which were reached by shafts and levels. It
was from these that the chief wealth of the Cariboo was
extracted. In 1861 $2,000,000 of gold was shipped; as
Hiuch more in 1862 ; an increased quantity in 1863; and
though after that year the excitement subsided, the influx
of gold seekers ceased, and many miners abandoned the
country. Mr. Bancroft estimates the total yield of the

RUSSIA GOLD FIELDS.

393

region in twenty years at somewhere between $30,000,-
000 and $40,000,000. It will average $4,000,000 a year
to-day.

But liberal as the output of Cariboo was, it created no
stir throughout the world, and from 1861 to 1881 the
mining population only averaged about 1,500. In the
beginning it witnessed the inflation usual in new mining
camps ; miners got $10 and $12 a day, and Hour was $1
a pound; but afterward, though the actual yield was
larger than it had been in the early days, and Antler and
William Creeks were pouring out the precious iretal by
the pound, things settled down to a steady, business-
like basis.

Before the boom of Fraser River another mining find

had aroused the attention of financiers, and would have
given rise to a boom if it had occurred anywhere but in
Russia. Russia has always been a gold producer. From
time immemorial the debris of the talcose schists on the
eastern slopes of the Ural, where they are intersected by
quartz veins, have been washed for gold with success.
In 1830 the gravel of the rivers in Siberia was found to
carry considerable gold in spots. The government laid
hands on the most fruitful diggings. Gold was obtained
from Meningsk, and from the borders of the Altai ; from
Nerchinsk, on the Oleqma, and from several streams
emptying into the Amoor. But the richest diggings were
on the great river of Siberia, the Yenisei, which is 2,500
miles long, and empties into the Kara Sea.

Nerchinsk has lately been yielding $2,000,000 a year
or more, and the Yenisei as much as $10,000,000. No

^ • ■

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INif!

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394

KAFFER CIRCUS.

excitement marked the discovery. In Russia popular
movements are discouraged. There has never been any
rush to the diggings. Residents on the river are allowed
to prospect for gold, but the most productive spots are
exploited for the State. There is a good deal of similarity
between the gold region of Siberia and the gold region
of Alaska. The ground is water-soaked, and has been
frozen to a depth of four or five feet from time imme-
morial. During the brief summer the fierce heat thaws
out the surface, but does not strike deep enough to affect
the substratum of frozen earth. On the Yenisei the
alluvium is washed for gold with hot water, and to heat
the water whole forests are cut down and used as fire-
wood. It often happens that fine flakes of gold in the
washer become studded with needles of ice and are car-
ried off in the stream. It is evident that with such a
process nothing but coarse gold can be saved.

The most sensational feature of the South African gold
craze was and is the delirious stock jobbing which it gave
rise to. This has been dubbed the " Kaffer Circus," and
if circus it was, Barney Barnato, the suicide, was head
ringmaster. African gold is no novelty, for the Portuguese
brought back gold dust and negro slaves from Cape
Bojador 450 years ago. But in 1867, when a band of
Australian gold diggers went out and set up a small
battery for crushing quartz on the Zambezi, the first
'serio"s attempt at gold mining was made since the days
of the lost races, the ruins of whose great cities were
discovered by Karl Mauch.

Tlie "craze," however, did not set in until 1883, when

SHBBA MINES.

395

a Natal trader had picked up pieces of quartz along the
Kaap River. The news spread, and the famous pioneer
reef was discovered on the farm of Moodie, who sold out
for a million dollars. Then the rush set in from other
gold fields which had not panned out well, and the De
Kaap "boom" set in. Some fifteen Natalians formed a
syndicate to exploit this country on their own account,
but after four months of fruitless toil the money was all
gone. They were down on their luck, when, as they re-
turned to camp on what was intended to be their last
evening there, one, Edwin Bray, savagely dug his pick
into the rock as they walked gloomily along. But with
one swing there came a turn in the fortunes of the band,
for he knocked off a bit of quartz so richly veined with
gold as to betoken the existence of a wonderful ** reef."

From this start arose the Sheba Mine, which was
capitalized within a year for a million and a half sterling
and all the stock sold. This wonderful success led to the
floating of a vast number of hopeless or bogus enter-
prises, and the British public bit eagerly at fabulous
prices. Yet, surrounded as it was, by a host of fraudu-
lent imitators, the great Sheba Mine has continued as one
of the most wonderfully productive mines in the world.
Millions have been lost in swindling and impossible
undertakings in the De Kaap fields, but the Sheba
Mountain, or "Bray's Golden Hole," has proved a
mountain of gold.

It was one Sunday night in 1886 that the great " find "
was made which laid the base of the prosperity of the
Johannesburg-to-be. A farm servant went over to visit

'■Ih

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^o5 THE ROBINSON COMPANY.

a friend at a neighboring farm, and as he walked home-
ward in the evening knocked off a bit of rock, the ap-
pearance of which led him to take it home to his em-
ployer. It corresponded with what the "boss" had
found in another part, and on following up both leads
revealed what became famous as the Main Reef.

A lot of the " conglomerate " was sent to Kimberly to
be analyzed, and a thoughtful observer of the analysis
came to the conclusion that there must be good stufT
where that came from, so he dropped quietly into the
Rand, as it is now called. Then he quietly acquired the
Langlaate farm for a few thousands, which the people on
the spot thought was sheer madness. But his name was
J. B. Robinson, and he was soon known in the Kaffir
circus and elsewhere as one of the gold kings of Africa.
In a year or two he floated a company with a capital of
450,000 pounds to acquire what had cost him about
20,000 pounds. In five years this company turned out
gold to the value of a million pounds, and paid dividends
of 330,000 pounds. The Robinson Company, another
formed a little later, in five years produced gold to the
value of one and a half million pounds and paid 570,000
pounds in dividends. With these discoveries and suc-
cessful enterprises the name and fame of the " Rand "
were established, and for years the district became the
happy hunting ground of financiers and company pro-
moters.

The Rand, or Witwatersrand, is the topmost plateau
of the High Veldt of the Transvaal, on whose summit is
the gold city of Johannesburg.

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BARNEY BARNATO. ^ ^o^

In the later eighties and early nineties the principal
feature of South African mining was in the madness of
the stock exchange ; in fact, all Europe became inocu-
lated with the disease, which at one time made Johannes-
burg a marvel and a reproach. That disease was a
craving for speculation in the shares of gold mining
companies, whose markets were called the " Kaffir
Circus." The fact that in 1895 South Africa was pro-
ducing two and a half million ounces of gold per annum,
at a gross profit of about three millions sterling, fired the
imagination and stirred the cupidity of hundreds of thou-
sands of people who had not taken the trouble to ask
what it all meant. When the British public did go in for
African ventures it went with a rush.

The climax of madness was reached two years ago. A
small handful of men, a few years ago, dropped into the
Rand and acquired properties for, in the aggregate, less
than a couple of million pounds, which in the space of
eight years reached a realizable value of two hundred
million pounds, or a billion dollars at the market quota-
tions for shares. Some of these men became worth a
hundred millions of dollars apiece, of whom Barnato was
the king of speculators. It is a very curious history,
quite without parallel in the records of human endeavor,
this concentration of the whole gold-mining industry of
South Africa, in companies of half a dozen cliques, each
of which has its " King."

It is a contrast to the experience of Australia and
California, where combined effort in the way of company
working only came into operation when individual diggers

1 s-

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400

ENORMOUS INFI^ATION.

had creamed all the nuggets and surface gold and fallen
upon evil times. In 1895, the ^op wave of the craze, the
inflation was so great that the capitalized value of all the
South African companies, was 300,000,000 pounds.

There was a great set-back shordy after, but the infla-
tion is still enormous, for most of the companies have not
yet paid any dividends at all, and it is doubtful if the
legitimate profits of all of them together this year exceed
two and a half millions sterling. The latest estimate of
the gold resources of the Witwatersrand is that if mining
can be carried on to a depth of 5000 feet something like
700,000,000 pounds of gold should be obtained within the
next fifty years at a cost of 500,000,000 pounds. This
would leave a clear profit of 200,000,000 pounds in fifty
years, on a capital of 150,000,000 pounds. This is little
more than 2 J^ per cent., even supposing all the expecta-
tions of deep-level mining are realized, although there is
no experience to guide. The South African game does
not look to be worth the candle unless you are snugly
tucked away on the inside.

All the gold mined in the world from the date of the
discovery of America to the close of the fiscal year of
1895 is placed by the statisticians of the various govern-
ments at $8,781,858,700.

It is interesting to know that nearly half of this total for
over four hundred years has been taken out of three
countries in less than fifty years. Since the days of '49
California and the contiguous gold fields have given up
$2,035,416,000. Gold was discovered in Australia in
1 85 1, in New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland,

MONEY MILLER.

401

Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, and the total
output to date is $1,655,71 3,cxx).

Gold in the South African Republic has only been of
importance since 1 890, and the total at the end of the first
six months of 1 896 was a little less than $2 1 2,000,000.

The precious metal is to-day being yielded at an annual
rate of $36,000,000 in the United States, $35,500,000 in
Australia, and $30,000,000 in South Africa. But little is
ever heard of the enormous fortunes that must have been
made in Australia. This is due to the fact that the prin-
cipal mines are operated by syndicates of English capi-
talists.

The name that is pre-eminent in the history of Aus-
tralian gold fields is that of " Money " Miller, who is said
to have retired with a fortune of $25,000,000, not large
enough to make him conspicuous should he live in
California.

The wealth of the South African Republic has been
divided among fewer men. Barney Barnato is said to
have been worth $200,000,000. Alfred Beit is the reputed
owner of $ 1 00,000,000 ; Cecil Rhodes of $50,000,000 ; and
the greatest of all is S. B. Robinson, who is supposed to
command $250,000,000.

The list of Americans who have become many times
millionaires through gold mines is a long one. Fully one-
half of the millions taken out of the mountains of
the Pacific is divided among less than twenty men. The
names of the more famous are part of the financial history
of the world, and include :

Leiand Stanford $35,000,000

■I,

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402

MONEY KINGS.

James G. Fair , 35,000,000

Charles Crocker Estate 22,000,000

Peter Donahue 20,000,000

J. B. Haggin. 20,000,000

Claus Spreckles ; 30,000,000

John W. Mackay 10,000,000

James G. Flood 10,000,000

Williams. O'Brien 10,000,000

Sharon Estate 20,000,000

Mark Hopkins «.... 21,000,000

Lick Estate 10,000,000

C. P. Huntington 35,000,000

Charles McLaughlin 5,000,000

Alex. Montgomery 5,000,000

Dave T. Murphy 5,000,000

Adolphus C. Whitcomb 5,000,000

Thomas Blythe...^ 5,000,000

J. C. Wilmerding. 5,000,000

Walter S. Hobart 5,000,000

Robert C. Johnston 5,000,000

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CHAPTER XIX. ":; V

•-■■■■
•^ : BONANZA KINGS.

Some of the famous princes of the gold-mining world — From poverty to sudden
riches — The miners' cabins changed for great palaces and luxurious liring —
Great fortunes easily acquired and rapidly thrown away — Nuggets of pure gold
picked up by chance — The best-known cases of finding lumps of the pure yel-
low treasure.

THE gold fields of Alaska are still too young in the
knowledge of man to have produced many of those
interesting types of humanity which we call " bonanza
kings," but to the name of Tread well, the owner of the
famous mine, and some others who have passed from
poverty to riches in a brief space of time, will probably
be added a long list of equally fortunate men. Some of
those who came down from the Klondike country on the
" Portland " and other vessels during the past summer,
bringing with them bags of yellow dust, have already
taken long strides toward the enviable position of min-
ing princes, and when they return again will probably be
able to spread before the world still further evidences of
their claim to the title.

One of the pioneers of th , Alaska country who is
likely to be heard of before long as the possessor of a
great fortune which came to him suddenly after years of
wandering and search is Captain John Healy, known to
northern territory as " King of the Klondike."

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CAPTAIN JOHN HEALY.

The title is given by those who have lately been in
Alaska grubbing for gold to a genial, jovial^ old hunter
and prospector who went into that frozen country before
many of those who have since grown rich there had ever
more than heard of it. Had it not been for John Healy,
indeed, it is doubtful if the world would yet know of the
riches of the Klondike. Because, after he had wandered
over the Alaskan hills and learned what the country
contained, he came back to civilization in the interest of
opening up the region to prospectors and hunters, while
others who were there were doing their best to keep it
closed.

But aside from being the so-called King of the Klon-
dike, John Healy has an interesting history. At the
start he was a boy in New York. Then he ran away
from home to join the Walker filibusters on the Pacific
Coast. Later he became a hunter, trapper, prospector,
guide, and scout on the Western plains, and a Montana
sheriff. Twelve years ago he went to Alaska, and has
been the means of organizing the largest transportation
company that now operates in the country. Dyea, which
is now one of the principal points on the mountain route
to the Klondike diggings, was once Healy's Store. The
so-called king of to-day established his trading post
there years and years ago. He is a pioneer of the
pioneers.

Incidentally, while a scout on the Western plains,
Healy did a little work for the government, and at one
time offered to bring in the ferocious old Indian warrior.

KING OF THE KLONDIKE.

407

"Sitting Bull," either dead or alive, for the sum of $50,000.
All his life Healy has been a rover, an active, ardent, and
courageous explorer of new countries. Civilization has
no charms for him. He is a lover of the wildest nature,
of the camp-fire, the mountain pass, and the trials and
joys of the hunter. For forty-five years he has lived in
the mountains and on the plains digging for gold or
trading in furs. To his love of adventure and to his
genius for exploration the men who are now growing
rich in the Alaskan gold fields may be largely thankful,
and his reward will no doubt come to him in other prac-
tical ways, even if his mines do not show the riches they
promise.

Since the Klondike excitement began a great deal of
mention has been made in the papers of Captain Healy
— he has the title captain as well as that of king.

Healy's life has been an adventure from the start. He
has always had a liking for the plains and he had a
taste of frontier life and war early in his existence. The
first was when he ran away from his home to join the
filibustering forces of the venturesome and daring
Walker. Walker, as those who are acquainted with the
history of the middle of this century will remember, had
in hand a project for the conquest of northern Mexico,
with the idea of making himself its ruler. He was born
in Nashville, Tenn., had studied medicine in Europe and
law in this country, and practiced both. In 1850 he went
to California as a lawyer and an editor, and three years
later organized his expedition to take northern Mexico,

1
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■. Ml!

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4o8

THE PACIFIC REPUBLIC.

where it was announced he intended to establish the
Pacific republic.

This daring enterprise appealed at once to young
Healy, and he cut away from home to join the expedi-
tion. The party eluded the vigilance of the United
States authorities, and sailed from San Francisco, land-
ing soon after in Lower California with one hundred and
seventy men. Walker at once proclaimed himself Presi-
dent of the new republic, but the party was soon assailed
by a large force of Mexicans, and driven across the
border to surrender to the United States troops. If he
had been successful Healy would probably have been
one of his chief lieutenants in the government.

Healy did not join Walker in his expeditions after the
failure of the Pacific republic. He was in that enter-
prise only for the daring and excitement of the thing,
and after it was over he went to the plains. It was there
that he found the surroundings that best suited him, and
the life he preferred above all others. For years he in-
habited the camps of the Indians, followed the trail of the
buffalo, and traded in skins and furs. Other years he
spent in prospecting in the rich hills of the Rockies,
making a good strike once in a while, cleaning up a
good bit of money, but always pushing on to something
new.

At the time of the Mormon war, of course, he made
for Salt Lake City, and was happy in the activity and
dangers of the times. Later he became sheriff of one of
the counties of Montana, which speaks well for his cour-

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OLD SITTING BULL.

411

age. No tenderfoot could hold his job as sheriff in Mon-
tana in these bad times. The cowboys were full of bad
medicine.

It was during his days as a scout and a guide on the
plains that he fell in with old Sitting Bull. There was a
warm liking between Healy and the Indian c'lief, if that
ferocious old red man can be said to have had any liking
for anybody.

It cannot be said that Captain Healy went to Alaska
with any idea that there would ever be any such gold
excitement there as has recently developed. Twelve
years ago no one suspected that the river beds up there
were rhining with the yellow metal. Healy went there
to engage in the fur trade. That and salmon fishing
made up the list of everything Alaska was supposed
then to be good for. Being a prospector and a miner
of experience, though, it did not take him long to learn
that there was gold in Alaska, and he located and mined
a good bit of it. In 1892 he went* to Chicago to meet
Portus B. Weare, with whom he had been engaged in
the fur tradfe in the early days of the Northwest. He
influenced Mr. Weare to start the North American
Trading Company, now one of the largest of the com-
panies doing business in the new country. Of this
company Healy is now vice-president and general
manager.

Soon after going to Alaska Captain Healy built his
fort at Dyea, near the Chilkoot Pass. He learned from
the Indians that there was gold along the Y-^kon, and

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412

HEALY'S FORT.

went there, prospecting along Forty-Mile, Sixty-Mile,
Stewart, and other rivers. His wanderings there gave
him information that resulted in his returning to the
States and subsequently to the organization of the
gigantic company.

Personally Captain Healy, the "King of the Klon-
dike," is a genial, whole-souled sort of a man, compan-
ionable and agreeable in all ways. His manners are
quiet and gentle, and, though he likens to talk of his
doings on the plains, he never does so in a boasting
way. In stature he is a little above the average. He is
about five feet nine inches tall, weighs about one hun-
dred and eighty pounds, and has a pair of broad shoul-
ders and a deep, sound chest. His face is expressive
of courage, and that and his love of adventure are his
chief characteristics.

The history of the " bonanza kings " who have become
famous in all lands furnishes one of the most romantic
and fascinating chapters in the history of the world.
The rise and fall of Barney Barnato and the final
tragedy of his life are still too fresh in the minds of the
reader to need recounting here, though he. was probably
the greatest of all the money princes of his class. His
sudden acquisition of great wealth and the way he threw
it to the winds in luxurious living and lavish hospitality
and pomp has probably never been equalled. Some
other instances of great luck in the gold fields are worth
recounting.

The most famous case of prodigal waste of a large

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LEMUEL BOWERS.

413

fortune in he Western mining region is that of Lemuel
Bowers, i^etter known as Sandy Bowers, of Gold Hill,
near Carson City, Nevada. Probably there never was
a more extravagant use of wealth than that of Sandy
Bowers — "Coal Oil Johnny" not excepted. The late
Senator James G. Fair said that he had never known of
a great fortune so easily acquired and thrown away as
that of Sandy Bowers. Bowers was a raw-boned, red-
headed, ignorant Irish lad. He could read and write a
little, and was the personification of good nature. When
the bonanza ledge of the Comstock lode was found by
Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, in 1869, Bowers was
a day laborer in Carson City. It was found that ten
feet of Bowers's place, out on the hills, covered the
silver lode, and that the little farm of a poor widow,
Mrs. Bridget McCowan, covered hundreds of square
fee*, of the silver bed beneath. Sandy and the widow
had known each other in poverty for years, and when the
dawn of prosperity came into their lives, they pooled
their issues by marriage. The mines located on their
combined farms were the famous Crown Point Ravine
and the Bowers. In the summer of 1871 the Bowers
couple had an income of $2,300 a day. For a year and
a half they got checks semi-monthly for about $18,000,
often $2 ',000. They received offers several times of
about $1,000,000 for the Crown Point Ravine and the
Bov/ers.

It is not to be wondered at that Sandy and his bride were
about wild with joy ov^r the flood of money that came in

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414

SANDY AND HIS BRIDE.

upon them. Some people say they believed they had a
veritable Aladdin's lamp, but others say they never heard
of any such lamp, and were simply crazy from their
extraordinary income. The Central and Union Pacific
Railroads had been opened two years at that time. Rail-
road fares in the West were high, and special cars cost
small fortunes. Nevertheless, Sandy and Mrs. Bowers
chartered a special train to take them and a score of
friends to Chicago and New York. The Bowerses
stocked the cars with all manner of fancy provisions. In
Chicago, and later in New York, they took their guests
to the best hotels and treated them lavishly. Then, Ip
two weeks, the party returned to Carson City and ' ;•
ginia City.

Sandy Bowers and his wife had seen the mansions of
Chicago and New York, and they determined that, to
occupy the places of millionaires, they must have a royal
home instead of the red-wood, three-roomed house they
had delighted in. An architect was summoned from
San Francisco and set to work.

** What we want is a bang-up mansion like what them
other rich *uns have, and we want it quick, too.** This
was Sandy's order.

There was no talk about the cost of the house. A
man who, two years before, occasionally earned $1.50 a
day, and was then getting over $2,000 every day in the
week from an apparently inexhaustible supply of rock
under his farm, could not bother about a few extra thou-
sand dollars in his home. The site chosen for the man-

BIMM0HH

CROWN POINT MINE.

415

ffi;

^
^

sion was in Washoe Valley, six miles from Gold Hill, in
a desolate region, which Sandy thought looked like val-
leys he had seen on the Hudson River. In speaking of
the howling wilderness where the Bowers's mansion
was erected, Mark Twain once wrote that "the first
landscape gardener sent there by Sandy Bowers was
slain by the Indians."

The Crown Point Mine continued to pour out its
riches, and in 1873 the Bowers's granite mansion was
finished. The army of builders, decorators, landscape
gardeners, and furnishers, all brought from San Fran-
cisco, Chicago, and New York by Sandy's young busi-
ness manager, had full swing, and had followed the
'miner's orders to "do the job in grand style." The
house would be stately even now on Fifth Avenue or on
Nob Hill. It was built of granite, and up to the day it
was turned over to its owners it had cost upward of
ji46o,ooo. Several men and women had traveled in
Europe purposely for decorations for the mansion in the
sage-brush, desolate valley of Washoe. There were
twenty-four rooms in the house. A cologne fountain
spouted in the marble front hall ; an immense buffet
of teak-wood, carved in India expressly for the mansion,
stooa in the big dining-room ; several thousand books,
bound in the costliest covers, and chosen by a man in
Chicago, stood on the mahogany shelves in the library,
and a marble bath-tub was one of the luxuiies of the
upper rooms. Sandy's friends said he paid bills to the
amount of $25,000 for oil paintings alone that were sent

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4i6

MILLIONAIRES BANQUET.

him from New York and abroad. An idea of the ex-
travagance of the mansion may be had from the fact
that the door-knobs were molded in solid silver from
unique designs, while the stair-rods were of solid silver,
tipped with solid gold. Such table vessels as soup-
tureens and potato-dishes were of solid gold, and there
were dinner and tea sets in solid silver throughout.

Sandy and his wife moved from their j^i.ooo house
into this mansion. Meanwhile the curse of a great many
suddenly made millionaires in the West — a taste for in-
toxicants — had I 'old on Sandy. He entertained
lavishly. A Four^. of July celebration and banquet
to the bonanza mining millionaires, in 1873, was the most
elaborate affair known even in those days of prodigality.
It is said to have cost $1 1,000 for the day's hospitality to
forty gentlemen. Sandy became more reckless as his
taste for liquor grew. When his silver ledges began to
" pinch out," disasters came upon him thick and fast. In
1875 his income had decreased to a few hundred dollars
a month. He was living at the rate of a thousand or
two a week. He mortgaged his property, sold his library
and art treasures piece by piece. Then he parted with
his costly furniture for a song. The Crown Point Ravine
petered out entirely in 1876, and Bowers and his wife
lived in a single room of their big house. Everything
that could be converted into ready cash was sold at any
price. Sandy died in 1877. ^^ "^^^ buried by contri-
butions from people who had enjoyed his bounty when
he was rich, Mrs. Bowers is still alive. She goes about

MONTANA BAR.

417

California and Nevada telling fortunes from cards, at
twenty-five and fifty cents a head. She is very poor and
feeble. She recently told a reporter in Los Angeles that
her only hope is to get enough money together to be
buried at the side of her husband in Carson City.

The Bowers mansion is in ruins now. It was proposed
that James J. Corbett might use it as a home and train-
ing place in his preparations for the recent fight with
Fitzsimmons at Carson City, but the building was found
too dilapidated even for temporary occupancy.

Accident pure and simple led to the discovery of
Montana Bar, the richest half-acre of gold ground in
the world. In the spring of 1864 four prospectors —
McGregor, Fredericks, Sullivan, and Wright — were
straggling through a gulch on the east side of the Mis-
souri River, a few miles from the site of the present city
of Helena. Pausing for rest, one of the parties scooped
up and began to wash a panful of dirt. Their pickings
up to that time had been very dry, and the miner's sur-
prise may be imagined when, from a single shovelful of
dirt he washed about forty dollars in coarse dust. Ex-
citedly announcing his discovery to his companions, they
set to work with a will, and by nightfall had a pile of dust
and nuggets worth $21,000. Early in the morning of
the second day they located all the ground the law
allowed by driving stakes, with the usual posted notices,
and then resumed digging and washing. The locality
was an isolated one, and they guarded their find with
such care that no hint of it reached the outside world.

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4i8

HIDING THEIR GOLD.

When the coming on of winter made further operations
impossible, they had taken from half an acre of ground
three and a half tons of coarse gold, worth not less than
a million dollars. The gold had been hidden as rapidly
as taken out under the log cabin they had thrown up
as a habitation. How to get safely away with their
treasure was the problem which now confronted them.
A covered freight wagon, a four-horse team, and a num-
ber of empty nail kegs were bought at the nearest set-
tlement and taken to the claim, where, at the end of a
week, the dust was packed in the kegs and the latter
securely bound with thongs of rawhide. Then the kegs
were loaded into the wagon, and by easy stages conveyed
a distance of 120 miles to Fort Benton, the head of
navigation on the Missouri. Then, after much delib-
eration, it was decided to build a flat-boat that would go
over the shallow places, and with it float down the river
to St. Joseph, which plan, after several startling expe-
riences, was successfully carried out. Following the
departure of McGregor and his comrades a stampede
to the gulch set in, and many good finds were made. In
one instance a miner who had staked off a claim and
found good prospects was bantered by a bystander who
owned a couple of pack horses for a trade. This was
quickly agreed to, and in a few weeks the new owner
took out dust to the value of $56,000. Another valu-
able claim was bought with a Colt's revolver. The to|tal
yield of the gulch exceeded three million dollars.

Chance also led to the discovery of the famous Com-

{■ ■

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jCLONpiK^ UoLD ^IiNiNG, Showing 3luice,

\ i

COMSTOCK LODE.

421

Stock lode in Nevada. The site of the lode, so the story
runs, was prospected by a miner named Comstock, who
thought so little of the claim which he had located that
he soon abandoned it. Then an eccentric character,
Finney by name, while hunting in the neighborhood, shot
a deer, which struggled off as fast as it could, with Fin-
ney in hot pursuit. The hunter, in scrambling up the
side of a hill, dislodged some loose stones, and, as he
passed, thought he perceived signs of " color.'* At the
moment, however, the wounded deer claimed his atten-
tion, and, though upon his return to camp he related the
incident, he does not seem to have attached much im-
portance to it, for he made no effort to return and locate
a claim. But Peter O'Reilly and Patrick McLaughlin,
overhearing his story, resolved to examine the locality,
and a few days later began operations on the site of the
present Comstock mines. At first their search seemed
a futile one, but they persevered, and being finally
attracted by some curious-looking black earth, they
washed a little of it in a pan. To their surprise, from
the small quantity of earth tested came ten or fifteen
dollars* worth of gold. This served to raise their drooping
hopes and they were making splendid progress when
Comstock appeared and demanded to know what they
were doing on his claim. Compelled either to kill the
claimant or to take him into partnership, O'Reilly and
McLaughlin chose the lesser of the two evils. But no
sooner was Comstock pacified than along came Finney,
or Old Virginny, as he was called, and demanded a share

: f !

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422

OLD VIRGINNY.

also for having furnished the information that led to the
discovery. He was more easily placated than Comstock,
for after some negotiation and no end of swearing, ht
was bought off with J25, an Indian pony, and a jug of
whisky, the additional compliment being paid him of
naming the new-found mine after the State from which he
came and which furnished him with a nickname. Finney
was killed not long afterward by a bucking mule, and two
of his associates met with an equally luckless fate.
O'Reilly died insane, and Comstock, after permitting in-
calculable wealth to slip through his hands, became almost
a pauper and shot himself while searching for the famous
Lost Cabin mine in the Big Horn range.

The Comstock mine has made more money for the
owners in the years which have followed than any Other
enterprise of its kind in the world. Some of the best
known of the mining kings have lived for years in lux-
urious palaces as the result of the ore taken from this
famous lode.

The name of the Nick o* Time mine in Arizona re-
calls a singular story of its discovery. A miner, named
John Quincy Adams, who was prospecting in the moun-
tains of that territory, while wearily trudging along one
hot day through a gulch where the sun beat fiercely
upon his back, suddenly smelled smoke. He glanced
quickly about him to ascertain its origin, but, seeing
nothing, resumed his journey. An instant later the
smell returned, stronger than before, and a tiny wreath
of smoke curling about his ears gave him warning that

•a .=^grfr-wrv7ftnrg fc^^iagyiii=^

BLOWING OPEN A GOLD MINE.

423

his haversack was on fire. Following the usual practice
of miners, his kit included a large lens for examining the
specimens and the sand in his pan. This, for want of
room, he had hung on the outside of his haversack,
where, concentrating the rays of the sun, it had set the
pack on fire. Stowed up in the haversack were twelve
or fifteen pounds of powder, and Adams, as soon as he
realized his peril, lost no time in dropping his burden
between two huge stones and getting as far away as
possible before it exploded. Then, from a safe distance,
he watched the faint puffs of smoke and waited until the
expected explosion was over, so that he could return
and gather up the remnants of his scanty belongings.
Suddenly there was a deafening report, and the ground
trembled beneath the feet of the miner, who dodged
behind a friendly rock to escape the fragments of flying
wreck. The danger past, he hurried to the spot to
gather up what he could find, when, to his surprise and
joy, he discovered that the quartz that had been blown
up fairly glittered with gold. His powder had done
better on its own account than it had ever done on his,
and had literally blown open a gold mine for his benefit.
For that reason Adams named his mine the Nick o*
Time. Many thousands of dollars soon passed into
Adams's pocket, and he became imv^ensely rich.

The Christmas Gift mine in California got its name in
not less curious fashion. Its discoverer was one of a
hunting party that had gone out from San Francisco
during the Christmas holidays. While following a nar-

t '

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424

CHRISTMAS GIFT MINE.

row trail that skirted the side of a steep hill, his horse
suddenly stumbled and, with its rider, slid into the gulch
below. Chancing to be the last in the line and some
distance behind his companions, the huntsman was not
missed for some moments. When his absence was
finally noticed the party turned back to look for him,
fearing some untoward accident. At first no trace of
him could be found, but the place where the horse had
slipped and fallen over the bank, together with the
traces of the fall, being plainly visible, the men slowly
picked their way down the slope and, when near the
bottom, came upon an interesting spectacle. Just behind
a clump of bushes, which rider and horse had crashed
through on their way down, stood the animal, apparently
uninjured, while on a slab of rock nearby the man is
capering like an Indian at a ghost dance. Fear s .d
the members of the rescuing party that their friend had
lost his senses, but catching sight of them he ceased his
dancing and beckoned them to come to him. When
they joined him he showed them several lumps of almost
pure gold, hastily knocked from the ledge with a stone
for a hammer, and announced his discovery of a gold
mine. The sliding horse had brought up against the
ledge and the restive animal in trying to rise had kicked
the moss from the stone and thus disclosed a gold-bear-
ing vein of exceptional richness, which its lucky finder
appropriately named the Christmas Gift.

Still, pluck is often more potent than luck, and Jim
Whitlach, of Nevada, a famous miner, lately dead, was

..JiBi iwiy * ** ^.'■'i fB

PLUCK OR LUCK.

427

wont to say that the man who followed prospecting for
a dozen years or more was sure in the course of time to
strike it rich. The history of David Swickhimer and his
wife gives striking confirmation to Whitlach's dictum. It
was in 1884 that Swickhimer appeared in Rico, Col., and
opened a small saloon, which soon numbered among its
patrons a prospector named George Barlow. The latter
was half owner of several mines near Rico, and when, in
1885, he asked Swickhimer, who by this time had found
liquor-selling a long road to wealth, to buy out his part-
ner, the saloon-keeper accepted the proposition. The
prospect looked good, but the mineral was slow in com-
ing in, and when the shaft was 250 feet deep Barlow gave
up in disgust and presented his half of the claim to his
now penniless partner, whose money had all been swept
into the hole on the side of Dolores Mountain. Swick-
himer's spirits had also sunk to a low ebb, and when a
miner with some money and more faith offered him $500
for the claim he was inclined to accept the proposition,
and would have done so had not his plucky wife entered
an emphatic protest against it. Instead, she found a
place as a servant, and in due course of time work,
single-handed, was begun in the shaft by the husband.

Then came an unlooked-for turn in the road. Un-
known to her husband, Mrs. Swickhimer had invested
in a lottery, and one day word came to her that her
ticket had drawn a prize of $^,ooQ. This money was
promptly put into this shaft, and while it lasLcd every-
thing went swimmingly, but with old debts to be paid

t I [I

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428

THE SWICKHIMERS.

and new machinery to be bought, in a short space of
time he again found himself penniless, with nothing to
show for his time, labor, and money but a hole a little
less than than 300 feet deep and — no ore. Once more
the Swickhimers proved the sturdy stuff of which they
were made. They went to work for wages, and as soon
as they had saved a few hundred dollars operations were
resumed in their mine. Their labor and weary waiting
now had their reward, for when 3(X) feet of depth had
been gained the long-sought-for vein was struck, and it
ran 500 ounces of silver and five ounces of gold to the
ton. That was eight years ago, and to-day Swickhimer
is President of the Rico National Bank and the owner
of a great many houses in Denver and several business
blocks in Pueblo. In two years and a half he took out
of his mine ji 1,000,000 worth of gold and silver, and
then sold it to an English syndicate for J 1,500, 000 cash.
His wife, the star that led him on to success, is also rich
in her own right, for his first act after selling the mine
was to make over to her two- thirds of the purchase-
money. Their days of scrimping economy, thanks to a
woman's pluck, are ended for good and all. But with
the money happiness did not come to the couple, for
thev have since been divorced.

Pluck also made a many-times millionaire of Thomas
Cruse, discoverer of the famous Drum Lunncn mine in
Montana. A dozen years ago Cruse, who had been a
miner from his teens, could be found at the bottom of
the claim he had located in the rough mountain country,

THOMAS CRUSE.

429

a few miles from Helena, working with pick and shovel
for the treasure he never lost hope of finding. His
neighbors, who called him Old Tommy, looked upon him
as a harmless crank, and when, after years of patient
delving and digging, he struck into a vein of rich ore,
few placed the value of the mine, where he lived and
worked alone, so high as did tne owner. When he re-
fused ji5oo,ooo for it the people of Helena said he was
foolish, and when he turned away from an offer of
$1,000,000 they set him down as a fool. But the miner
was wiser than those who had nothing save advice to
give him, and eventually received his price, $3,000,000
and a goodly number of shares in the new company.
Then, as so often is the case, the old familiarity was
dropped and the Tommy of other days became Mr.
Thomas Cruse, capitalist. A kindly-hearted, thoroughly
honest man, of whom all who knew him are ready to say
a good word, he is in thes'* days a familiar figure on the
streets of Helena, and the < .ident of a savini;> bank
in the city where, when a struggl'- j prospector, he often
found it difficult to get trusted for enough to keep him-
self alive — a notable example of the uns and d( vvns of a
miner's life. . .

Pluck also made a millionaire of N. C. Creede, from
whom the town of Creede, Col., takes it namr A native
of Indiana, reared in Iowa, he entered th( ogular army
when he was nineteen, and for seven years served as a
scout against the Indians. In 1869 he took up the life
of a prospector, and for upwards of two decades roamed

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430

N. C. CREEDE.

hit

the mountains of the West in search of silver-bearing
quartz. Usually a partner kept him company in his
wanderings, but now and then he could get no one, either
for love or money, to share them. Each year he stayed
in the mountains until the snow came, and many months
went by without his seeing the face or hearing the voice
of a fellow-being. Twice he was stricken with pneu-
monia in the mountains. Luckily he had a companion
each time, or death would have ended his prospecting for
good and all. However, his labor and hardships counted
for naught, and the spring of 1890 found him as poor as
he had been twenty years before.

Still hopeful and scout of heart, Creede resumed his
wanderings, and in May of the year just named struck
some float on the side of Mammoth Mountain, near
the site of the present town of Creede. Float is the
name given to stray pieces of rock broken from a min-
eral-bearing ore and washed down a mountain by water
and frost. He tied his burros and began to follow it,
climbing the mountain in the trail of the float all day.
The sun was beating down on him ; the glint of the
float under his feet was blinding; but still he pushed
forward, and just as a gorgeous sunset reddened the
western sky the tired man lifted his head, and there, pro-
jecting out in front of him, was a bowlder of silicate as
big as a house ! He had found the source of the float
which he had followed all day. "I almost screamed
with delight," said he afterward. " I knew it would
come some day, but the idea of flnding it in such shape

REININGER AND HAAS.

433

was appalling to me. I staked ofif a claim, which I
named the Mammoth, and then went back to camp and
slept as I hadn't slept for years before."

Fortune, after eluding Creede for half a lifetime, now
showered her favors upon him. The sale of the Mam-
moth and of three other claims, including^ the Holy
Moses, brought him $25,000, and the confidence and
financial backing of David H. Moffat, a wealthy banker
of Denver. Two Germans, named Reininger and Haas,
were prospecting a claim on Bachelor Mountain when
in August, 1 89 1, along came Creede, with his eyes open
as of old. What he saw about the Reininger-Haas dig-
gings made him laugh. There was a hole in the ground
where there was small prospect of striking anything
short of China, and a stake with a notice on it, which no
man could interpret. But the scene round about was
cheering to a wonderful degree. The translucent rocks
that could be found there by the ton were of amethyst
quartz. A mine worth millions was just under the roots
of the grass and the flowers, while ao end of wealth pro-
truded into the sunshine. It would have been easy for
the experienced Creede to have deprived Reininger and
Haas of all right in the vein, but he was not that kind of
a man. Instead, he helped to set their stakes properly,
and then located a claim on the vein at the end of theirs,
which he named the Amethyst. With Moffat's money
behind him he at once began digging and shipping ore
from what has proved to be one of the richest silver
mines in Colorado, and six months later he had realized

\\i

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it

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HI H

434

WINFIELD S. STRATTON.

the hope that for so many years spurred him on. He
had attained the income of a millionaire.

The plucky and long-continued battle against ill for-
tune waged by Winfield S. Stratton, now the wealthiest
resident of Cripple Creek, has had as happy an ending
as the story of which Creede is the hero. Prior to 1 89 1
Stratton was a carpenter. That was his trade, but he
felt a call to prospect. He would push the jackplane
long enough to get a grub stake, and then hasten to the
newest mining camp. Almost every camp in Colorado
claimed him as a resident at one time or another. He
prospected every gulch and hillside in the gold camps,
and made futile search for carbonates in Leadville, For
many years Stratton wandered over the face of nature
looking for float. When Cripple Creek came into notice he
was working at his trade in Pueblo. Too poor to travel
by rail, he walked into the new country and located a claim
on the slope of Battle Mountain. He entered his claim
desperately, more to have one than because he had any
faith in its future. His becoming a millionaire wa': but
the result of his customary hard luck. He had located
two claims, and set up his stakes on July 4th, 1891.
Being nothing if not patriotic, he named one claim
Washington and the other Independence. The latter
showed the best prospects, and Stratton bent his ener-
gies to its development. One day he struck a good ore
body and gladly accepted an offer of $10,000 for the
claim. The would-be purchaser gave him $1,000 to
bind the bargain, but was never able to make good the

LUCKY FAILURE.

435

balance. Suing the person who had contracted for the
mine proved a losing venture, and Stratton dejectedly
resumed work. The failure to make a sale, however,
was the luckiest thing that ever happened to him, for in '
the five years that have since elapsed he has taken out
$5,cxx),ooo worth of ore, and has {^3,000,000 worth of ore
exposed. He has declined a cash offer of Jio,cx)o,cxx)
for his property, and has to wage a hand-to-hand fight
with fate to keep his income from the Independence
below jj 1 50,000 per month. He owns other properties
also, and his present fortune is estimated at not less
than Ji20,ooo,ooo.

While Australia probably leads the gold world in the
size of nuggets, or pieces of almost pure gold, picked up
by chance or by the miner in search of ore, many more
have been found in America than in any other land.

The first big lumps of gold found in California created
a great excitement among the miners. They at once
began picturing in imagination masses of gold larger
than could be lifted by a dozen men. It was a common
camp-fire amusement. There were afloat stories of men
sitting down to starve by huge golden bowlders rather
than risk leaving their finds to go in search of trans-
portation facilities. The first nugget of sufficient size
to create more than a mere local sensation was found
by a young man named Henrickson. It is related that
he found it in the Mokelumne River while in the act of
taking a drink from that stream. The nugget weighed
nearly twenty-five pounds. The finder at once hastened

i'.

436

TWENTY-FIVE rOUND NUGGET.

■I i.i

i i''

to San Francisco with his prize, where he at once placed
it in the hands of Colonel Mason for safe-keeping. The
big lump was sent to New York and placed on exhibi-
tion. It produced great excitement, and was probably
the cause of many a man striking out for California.
The largest mass of gold ever found in California was
that dug out at Carson Hill, Calaveras County, in 1854.
It weighed 195 pounds. Oi'iher lumps weighing several
pounds were found at the same place.

August 1 8th, i860, W. A. Parish and Harry Warner
took from the Monumental quartz mine. Sierra County,
a mass of gold and quartz weighing 133 pounds. It was
sold to R. B. Woodward, of San Francisco, for $2 1 ,636.52.
It was exhibited at Woodward's Gardens for some time,
then was melted down. It yielded gold to the value of
j^i 7,654.94. August 4th, 1858, Ira A. Willard found on
the west branch of Feather River a nugget which
weighed 54 pounds avoirdupois before, and 49^^ pounds
after melting. A nugget dug at Kelsey, El Dorado
County, was sold for ^^4,700. In 1864 a nugget was found
m the Middle Fork of the American River, two miles
from Michigan Bluff, that weighed eighteen pounds ten
ounces, and was sold for $4,204 by the finder.

In 1 8 50, at Corona, Tuolumne County, was found a gold
quartz nugget which weighed 151 pounds 6 ounces.
Half a mile east of Columbia, Tuolumne County, near
the Knapp ranch, a Mr. Strain found a nugget which
weighed fifty pounds avoirdupois. It yielded $8,500
when melted. In 1849 was found in Sullivan's Creek,

SOME BIG ONES.

437

Tuolumne County, a nugget that weighed twenty-eight
pounds avoirdupois. In 1871 a nugget was found in
Kanaka Creek, Sierra County, that weighed ninety-six
pounds. At Rattlesnake Creek, the same year, a nugget
weighing 106 pounds 2 ounces was found. A quartz
bowlder found in French Gulch, Sierra County, in 1851,
yielded Ji8,ocx) in gold.

In 1867 a bowlder of gold quartz was found at Pilot
Hill, El Dorado County, that yielded $8,000 when worked
up. It was found in what is known as the " Bowlder
Gravel" claim, from which many smaller gold quartz
nuggets have been taken at various times. Some years
ago a Frenchman found a nugget of almost pure gold,
worth over $5,000, in Spring Gulch, Tuolumne County.
The next day the man became insane. He was sent to
the Stockton Asylum, and the nugget was forwarded to
the French Consul at San Francisco, who sent its value
to the family of the finder in France. In 1854 a mass
of gold was found at Columbia, Tuolumne, weighing
thirty pounds, and yielded $6,625. A Mr. Virgin found
at Gold Hill, in the same county, a bowlder that weighed
thirty-one pounds eight ounces, and when melted yielded
$6,500.

A gold quartz bowlder found at Minnesota, Sierra
County, weighed twenty-two pounds and two ounces,
and yielded $5,000. In 1850 a nugget was found at
French Gulch, in the same county, that weighed twenty-
one pounds and eleven ounces, and contained gold to
the value of $4,893. In 1876 J. D. Colgrove, of Dutch

I ■

438

RICHES IN LUMPS.

Flat, Placer County, found a white quartz bowlder in the
Polar Star hydraulic claim from which he obtained gold
to the value of $5,760.

At the Monumental quartz mine. Sierra County, in
1869, was found a mass of gold that weighed ninety-five
pounds six ounces. It was found in decomposed quartz
at a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface. This
was the only " pay " found in that particular part of the
mine. All the auriferous energy of the vein at that
point seemed to have been concentrated in the one
nugget. In 1855 ^ ""gget weighing sixty pounds was
found at Alleghany town. Sierra County. It was a mass
of gold taken from a q'lartz vein. Several other large
" chunks " were taken from the same mine — lumps of
nearly pure gold weighing from one pound to ten or
twelve pounds. These masses of gold were dug by
Frank Cook (afterward City Marshal of Marysville) and
others, his partners.

In 1 85 1 a Mr. Chapman and others flumed a set of
claims on the middle Yuba. When the water was turned
from the river into the flume, about the first thing seen
in the exposed bed of the channel was a horseshoe-
shaped mass of pure gold, which weighed twenty-eight
pounds. This was a very handsome and " showy "
nugget. It was sold to Major Jack Stratman of San
Francisco.

The Sailor Diggings, on the north fork of the Yuba,
just below the mouth of Sailor Ravine, about three miles
above Downieville, were wonderfully rich in nuggets.

astsfss^sf

PLENTY OF NUGGETS.

439

The diggings were owned and worked by a party of
English sailors in 185 1. In their claim the sailors found
a nugget of pure gold that weighed thirty-one pounds.
They also found a great number of nuggets weighing
from five to fifteen pounds. The party all left together
for England. They took with them all the nuggets they
found — both great and small. They were carried in two
canvas sacks, the weight being too great to be conve-
niently handled in a single sack. When the party reached
England, they for a considerable time made a business
of exhibiting their collection of nuggets and various fancy
specimens in all the large towns and cities, thus infecting
great numbers of people with the gold-digging fever, for
just at that time came the world-startling news of the
great gold discoveries made in April of that year in
Australia.

In French Ravine, Sierra County, in 1855, there was
found in the claim of a Missourian named Smith a
double nugget of almost pure gold. The larger of the
two nuggets weighed fifty pounds, and connected with
it by a sort of neck was a lump of gold that weighed
fifteen pounds. In taking out the large nugget the two
were broken apart. The large nugget yielded $10,000
and the small one $3,000.

In September, 1850, L. P. Wardell, now in Virginia
City, found in Mad Canon, on the middle fork of tlic
American River, a nugget of solid gold weighing six
pounds. The nugget had in it a round hole, and the
finder made use of it in his cabin as a candlestick, k

r :

440

A VALUABLE CANDLESTICK.

was doubtless the most valuable candlestick on the
Pacific Coast. After the nugget had been thus used so
long that it was covered with candle grease, the owner
sold it, grease and all.

In the early days of placer mining in California col-
ored miners were proverbially lucky. Companies of
white men were always ready to take in a colored man
as a partner, believing he would bring them good luck.
Steve Gillis, of Virginia, Nev., a veteran printer and
pioneer miner of the Pacific Coast, tells of the fol-
lowing sample of "nigger luck:" In 1868 a colored
miner who was out on a prospecting trip found on the
slope of Table Mountain, Tuolumne County, a nugget
that weighed thirty-five pounds avoirdupois and yielded
over $7,000. The nugget was found on the slope where
Table Mountain drifts down toward Shaw's Flat. The
man saw a corner of it sticking out of the ground, and,
digging it up, he planted it in a new place near by,
marking the spot, and continued on his way to his in-
tended prospecting ground.

He did not take up a claim where he found the nugget,
as he believed it to have rolled down from some point
high up on Table Mountain. He found such good pay
in the place he went to prospect that he remained there
at work for several weeks, feeling quite at ease in regard
to the big nugget he had cached.

Finally he quit work in his new diggings and set out
to look for his big nugget. On coming in sight of the
spot where he had buried it he almost dropped in his

r,
z

A CLOSE CALL.

443

tracks, for he saw a big company of men at work just
where he had made his " plant." The men proved to be.
a let of Italians and they had worked up to within about
ten feet of the spot where lay buried the big nugget.
The colored miner explained the situation to the Italians
and they permitted him to dig up and carry away his
nugget.

Near Sonora, Tuolumne County, in 1852, a nugget
weighing forty-five pounds and containing gold to the
value of about $8,000 was found. The finder had a friend
who was far gone with consumption, yet was trying to
work in the mine. The owner of the nugget saw that by
working in the water and lifting heavy bowlders this
man was fast killing himself. He told his friend to take
the big nugget and go back to the States and exhibit it,
as at that time such a mass of native gold was a curi-
r^'ity to see which many would willingly pay a reason-
able sum.

As the ailing man was well educated it was arranged
that besides the nugget he should take some fine dust,
"chispas," gold-bearing quartz, black sand, gravel, and
dirt from a placer, and the like, and with all was to fix up
a lecture on life in the mines, mining operations, and
California in general. When the owner of the nugget
wanted it or its value he was to let the other know of
his need.

The sick man took the nugget to the State*, got up
his lecture, and did well wherever he went. For a time
t!»e miner heard from his friend pretty regularly, then

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444

HIS FRIEND DIES.

for months lost track of him. He began to think his
nugget lost ; that perhaps his friend had been murdered
and robbed in some out-of-the-way place.

One day, however, a letter reached the miner from a
banker in New Orleans, telling him that his friend had
died in that city, but had left the big nugget at the bank
subject to his order. The miner wrote to have the nug-
get melted down, and in due time he received a check
for a little over ji8,ooo.

Pocket mining as practiced by the experts of California
is a branch of gold-hunting that may be said to stand by
itself as an *' art." The pocket miner follows up the
trail of gold thrown off from a quartz vein and strewn
down a mountain slope until he at last reaches the
mother deposit whence the gold scattered below pro-
ceeded. This is an operation which sometimes requires
many days to be devoted to the careful washing of sam-
ples of dirt taken from the slope of a mountain. Many
rich pockets have, however, been found by accident.
One of the richest of the pocket mines in California was
that in the Morgan mine on Carson Hill, Calaveras
County, from which $110,000 was thrown out at one
blast. The gold so held the quartz together that it had
to be cut apart with cold chisels. It is estimated that
this mine yielded J2, 800,000 in the years 1850 and 1851,
and new pockets have since been discovered almost
yearly somewhere in the peculiar formation at and about
Carson Hill.

The telluride veins of Sierra County, extending from

^.fl

RICH POCKETS.

445

Minnesota to the South Yuba, have been prolific of
pockets. A big pocket found in the Fellows' mine on
this belt yielded $250,cxx>. Many other pockets yield-
ing from $5,000 to $50,000 have been found in this region.

Many rich pockets have been found about Grass Val-
ley, Nevada County ; Auburn, Placer County, and Sonora,
Tuolumne County, The " Reece Pocket," Grass Valley,
contained ^^40,000. This sum was pounded out in a
hand-mortar in less than a month. Near Grass Valley
a pocket that yielded ji6o,ooo was found by a sick " pil-
grim," who was in search of health, and knew nothing
about mining.

The "Green Emigrant" pocket vein, near Auburn,
was found by an emigrant who had never seen a mine.
It yielded j^i 60,000. This find was made within thirty
yards of a road that had been traveled daily for twenty
years. No more " pay" was found after the first pocket
was worked. The " Devol " pocket, in Sonora, along-
side the main street of the town, owned by three men,
yielded $200,000 in 1879. It was nearly all taken out
in three weeks. The *' grit specimen," showing arbures-
cent crystallization, sent to the Paris ExpositiOii, was
found in Spanish Dry Diggings, El Dorado County,
weighed over twenty pounds and contained over $4,000
in gold. About $8,000 additional of the same kind of
gold crystals was taken from the same pocket. The
formation at this place is slate and a fine-grained sand-
stone filled with crystals of iron pyrites in cubes. At
American Camp, between the forks of the Stanislaus, in

' tj

I '\

!
I

; !

I-

446

FROM THE GRASS ROOTS.

1880, Le Roy Reid found a pocket in the ** grass roots,"
from which he teok out j^8,200. Near Magalia, Butte
County, in 1879, a pocket paid its finder {(400 per two
hours' work.

The largest liugget ever found in Nevada was one
taken out of the Osceola placer mine about twenty years
ago. It weighed twenty-four pounds, and is supposed
to have contained nearly $4,000 in gold. A hired man
found and stole it, but repenting, gave up to the owners
in a month or two over $2,000 in small bars — all he had
left of the big chunk. In the same mine, about a year
ago, a nugget worth $2,190 was found.

Montana's largest nugget was one found by Ed Ris-
ing at Snow Shoe Gulch, on the Little Blackfoot River.
It was worth $3,356. It lay twelve feet below the sur-
face and about a foot above the bed-rock.

Colorado's biggest nugget was found at Breckenridge.
It weighed thirteen pounds, but was mixed with lead
carbonate and quartz.

The pioneer nuggets in the United States were found
in the placers of the Appalachian range of mountains,
where gold was discovered as early as 1828. In Octo-
ber, 1828, a negro found grains of fine gold in Bear
Creek, Georgia, but the discovery did not attract much
attention. Presently the same negro found a nugget in
the Nacoochee River worth several thousand dollars.
This " find " started a gold-hunting furor. Several other
nuggets of considerable size have been f^und in Georgia
at various times.

^^H

\ ■ -

^^^^H

— .^m^ ■" "

■

Juneau — Nearest City to Chilkoot Pass.

NORTH CAROUNA LUMPS.

449

The largest nugget ever found in the Appalachian
mining region was that dug at the Reed mine in North
Carolina. It weighed eighty pounds.

In the same State some children playing along a creek
found a nugget that weighed twelve pounds. The quartz
veins of this region generally show a good deal of coarse
gold, good-sized lumps, but seldom weighing as much as
a pound.

; ■,

Hi]

CHAPTER XX.

Alaska's silent cmr.

Auroral Display During August— Awe-inspiring Mirages—" Dick" Willongh-
by's Negative— A Splendid Business Venture— Prince Luigi's Vision.
—The Most Famous Mirage Anywhere to be Found— L. B. French's
Story of The Silent City— How Willoughby Made His Find— A Stone
Pile for a Record Vault— President Jordan Investigates— The Scientific
Explanation df Mirages— When and Where They Occur.

BRILLIANT aui^>ral displays and mirages often ap-
pear in the glacier country of southeastern Alaska
during the month of August. 3y refraction the ice-floes
are frequently magnified into ice cliffs looo feet high,
apparendy barring a ship's retreat to the southward.
Richard C. Willoughby, familiarly known to all Alaskans
as ''Dick" Willoughby, in 1889 claimed to have taken
a photograph of a mirage which represented a birds-eye-
view of an old English city. Since then nine out of ten
tourists in the course of their travels through Alaska have
spent more or less time in trying to get a glimpse of
what is called in the guide books the "Silent City."
The discoverer has in the meantime made several thou-
sand dollars through the sale of photographs printed
from what he claims to be the original negative.

However far the " Silent City" (ails in having a scien-
4«o

PHANTOM mSTORV.

451

tific reason for its existence the fact remains that it has ex-
cited and still excites as much interest as any one feature of
scenic Alaska. Only quite recently additional import has
been added to its phantom history by the return of Prince
Luigi of Italy, who, besides having made the ascent of
Mt. St. Elias to its very summit, claims also to have had
vouchsafed him a grand view of the spectral city, a most
exquisite yet awe-inspiring picture impanelled on the
sky far above the fleeting clouds. As the story runs the
image is so perfect and so clear that the astonished be-
holder can scarcely realize that it is not indeed a real
city that lies outstretched before him. H^ sees well-de-
fined houses and great public buildings and the lofty spires
of churches, even people moving about, and trees and
well-arranged parks. But within a brief half-hour this city
grows dim and vanishes, and no wonder that the be-
holder rubs his eyes, and can scarce believe his senses.

But not often does nature record this wonderful vision.
It has flitted before the eyes of but few men. In many
years it has been seen but by a handful of travelers and
explorers.

The vision rarely lasts more than half an hour, when
it suddenly vanishes into the mists that begot it,
lieaving the astonished observer in a state of wonder and
awe, feeling that he must have been in a dream or have
been fooled by some trick of the imagination or of the
optic nerve.

Prince Luigi's party consisted of a number of scientific
men, including Lieutenant Umberto Cagni of the Italian

■'1

453

PBRPBCT IMAGES.

Army, who made all the meteorological observations;
Mr. Vittario Sella, a famous amatuer photographer;
Dr. Filippo de Fillippi, surgeon of the party ; and Cava-
lieri Francesco Gonella, president of the Alpine Club of
Truin.

It was in the early morning of July 7th last. The
Prince and his party were returning from the ocean with
supplies, when suddenly a city appeared before their
astonished eyes. They had not noted it before ; they
knew that no city existed at this spot, and yet so per-
fect was the image that it was hard to disbelieve in its
reality. ^

"It required no effort of imagination," said one of the
Prince's party, "to liken the vision to a cit). It was so
distinct that it required instead strong faith to believe
that it was not what it appeared to be. It remained a
perfect image for thirty minutes and then faded away,
while in its place appeared a rocky ridge." The Prince
and his party were singularly fortunate in having this
vision vouchsafed to them, for its appearance is like
angel's visits, few and far between. No mirage that
•appears anywhere on the face of the globe is so distinct
in its outlines, and it is perhaps well that the image did
not last long ; otherwise the weary traveler and ex-
plorer might follow in the direction of this will-o'-the-
wisp-like city for days, in the hope of securing com-
fortable accommodations within its walls.

The Prince and his party were so overcome by sur-
prise that unfortunately they did not secure a photograph
of the "Silent City."

A SPECTRB CITY.

453

Mr, L. B. French, who thinks he saw the city outlined
in the Willoughby picture, tells of his experience in the
foHowing words :

"About five o'clock in the afternoon of an early July
day we suddenly perceived, rising above the glacier,
over in the direction of Mount Fairweather, what at first
appeared to be a thin, misty cloud. It soon became
clearer, and we distinctly saw a spectre city moving to-
ward us. We could plainl) see houses, well-defined
streets and trees. Here and there rose tall spires over
huge buildings, which appeared to be ancient mosques
or cathedrals.

''It was a large city, one which would contain at least
one hundred thousand inhabitants, I have seen Mil.
waukee miraged over Lake Michigan, and this city ap-
peared considerably larger than that. It did not look
like a modern city — more like an ancient European city.
I noticed particularly the immense height of the spires.
Of course we were much excited. The Indians who
were with uis were overcome with superstitious fear and
ran away. We had cameras, and separated in order to
take it from different points of view. By the time we
reached points of vantage it had grown fainter and soon
disappeared. I should say the spectacle lasted about
twenty-five minutes."

Minor W. Bruce, in his narrative of his trip up the
Alaskan coast, says in this connection :

"Two years previous to my arrival at Juneau, Pro-
fessor Willoughby had been exhibiting a negative of a

i',

•a

454

A PICTURB OP THB CITY.

picture whic}i he said he had succeeded in taking of a
city which appeared above the face of the glacier in the
longest days of each year, and which was brought to
his attention by the natives, who called it the 'Silent City/
He procured a camera, and in three successive years
made the journey in a canoe with natives, and each time
was able to make an exposure, but the plate that had
been exposed the third year proved, upon development,
to be the only one that contained a picture of the city.
It was a weird-looking negative and, contemplating it
while the professor told the story with the utmost ear-
nestness and sincerity, one would not but be interested
and inclined to believe it to be true. He said that the
city always appearei^ as if suspended in the air, just in
front of the Fairweather range of mountains. The
atmosphere was so clear that the peaks many miles to
the north were distinctly seen, and every ridge and wal-
low and curve of the icy crust that enveloped them
could not have been more clearly defined had they been
but a stone's throw away. While asleep in his tent
one morning, a native called to hiip excitedly to get
up ; and upon looking to the north he saw a strange-
looking object hanging over the sides of the mountain,
and following the direction of a stream or glow of light
which seemed to radiate from the range squarely down
upon the glaciers at the head of the bay. Gradually it
became more distinct, and soon assumed the appearance
of a city of immense proportions, stretching out into the
distance until its furthermost limits were lost to view.

THB VISION MOVBS AWAY.

455

The style of architecture was new to him. Buildings of
massive dimensions extended in solid and unbroken
blocks as far as the eye could reach. The solemn walls
of cathedrals arose almost to the skies, and his imagina-
tion reveled in silvery music, chanted to a chorus of
tinkling bells, that was wafted out from the frescoed
aisles through the openings of gorgeously painted win-
dows. The entire limits of the city were confined within
a halo of light, dense, yet transparent, pouring its soft
glow upon roof and wall and window in glorious trans-
formation. To the right and left ranges of mountains,
covered with the garb of winter, formed the background.
The tops of buildings, and the spires ot" churches, ap-
peared to pierce its ghostly robes, yet not one breath
of their chilled presence extended within the portals of
the city. Again, he seemed to hear the bells from the
steeples of a hundred churches mingling sweet and
happy melody, yet, within the whole length and breadth
of this boundless city, not one soul could be seen. Not
even a shadow darkened the light for an instant. All
was silent as the grave when suddenly the vision began
to move away. Its glories and grandeur lured him
with a fascination which he could not resist. But as he
walked forward, it seemed to recede with even pace.
Gradually, though he quickened his step to get within
the silent portals before it was too late, it was wafted
into space and finally lost to view.

"In the summer of 1 889 I accompanied Professor Wil-
loughby to Glacier Bay and spent six weeks in exploring

'II

456

BIRCH-BARK RECORDS.

the glaciers and surrounding; country. Anxious to see
the spot where he claimed f:o have witnessed this won-
derful sight, although, I feel free to say, I did not live in
very high expectations of gazing upon the silent citj;.
One day we ascended the side of a mountain fo a level
space affording a glorious view of the whole bay. He
took me to a pile of rocks, laid carefully one upon the
other, to a height of perhaps five feet. Slowly he com-
menced to throw off the rocks until an opening was made
in the center, and inserting his arn, he drew out what
appeared to be a scroll or book made from several leaves
of birch bark. It was badly mildewed and upon unroll-
ing it a pencil fell to the ground. The half-dozen pages
looked bright, and .contained a record, stating that the
object of three trips made to this locality, in as many dif-
ferent years was to secure a photograph of the city.

"During the six weeks I spent with Professor Willough-
by, the relations between us, in camp and in our travels,
were such as to encourage an exchange of confidences
on many subjects, and although the subject of the silent
city and mirages was often referred to, he never by word
or implication gave me any reason to think that his story
was other than a true one."

Some months ago President Jordan began an investi-
gation into the merits of the "Silent City" and after
going over the ground wrote a paper for ^ne of the
scientific monthlies in which he gave it as his opinion that
the Willoughby negative was a poor impression of Bristol,
England.

ILLUSION PERFECT.

457

Mirages are caused in this way : — ^The density of the
air generally diminishes with the height; rays of light that
proceed obliquely from an object then become more and
more horizontal, but generally pass away into space.
When the density of the air diminishes with the height
with unusual rapidity, as when the air is cooler, the
nearer it is to the earth, then the ascending rays may
become quite horizontal, and then bend downward to>
ward the earth, reaching the earth at a far distant point
from the object reflec d.

The observer at that point sees distant objects at an
unusual elevation, or sees above the true horizon erect
images of objects which may or may not be beyond
the horizon. If the layer of air near the earth be uni-
formly dense, as in the cold air over a frozen sea, and a
warmer stratum lie above it in which the density rapidly
diminishes, so that the rays are brought back to the earth,
the rays cross one another in the hot stratum, and the
observer sees objects upside down.

In the desert of Sahara and other arid deserts the con-
ditions are reversed, for the air is hottest near the hot
sand. Skylight rays descending become bent upward.
The mirage is not invetted and the illusion is often per<
juect

' I

CHAPTER XXI.

THE GLACIERS.

Wonders of the northern territory — ^The great ice fields — ^The formation and action
of glaciers — What is known of the remarkable Malaspina glacier — Some freaks
of nature which msn studies with intense interest — Some mysteries in the froxen
land which he cannot soWe— The Muir, Guyot, Seward and other glaciers.

PERHAPS no single feature in Alaska, aside from its
gold treasure, has excited so much human interest
and investigation as its glaciers. The Malaspina, Muir, and
other less well-known Alaskan glaciers are regarded in
the scientific world as among the most remarkable works
of nature of this class on earth.

The name glacier is one given to a mass of ice, having
its origin in the hollows of great mountains where per-
petual snow accumulates but which makes its way down
toward the lower valleys, where it gradually melts, until
it terminates exactly where the melting, due to the con-
tact with the warm air, earth, and rain oi the valley
compensates for the bodily descent of the ice from the
snow reservoirs of the higher mountains. Of the manner
in which glaciers are formed and moved and disappear
much has been learned by the scientist in a general way,
but much of the story of their work in the ages which are
gone, of the stupendous force which they exert on the
eartli's surface, is yet to be learned.

A recent report to the government on the Mt. St.

459

460

THE MALASPINA.

Elias district gives some interesting statistics of the great
Malaspina glacier which may be regarded as the type of
these ice bodies called Piedmont glaciers. They are so
called because formed at the foot of mountains by the
union and expansion of ice streams from the valleys of
adjacent highlands. The glaciers flowing south from the
great neve fields on the mountains cf the St. Elias sys-
tem, for full one hundred miles west of Yakutat Bay,
expand on reaching the flat lands between the base of
the mountains and the sea, and unite to form a vast lake
of ice, which has been named in honor of Malaspina.

The glacier extends with unbroken continuity from
Yakutat Bay, seventy miles westward, and has an
average breadth of from twenty to twenty-five miles.
Many of the glaciers are vastly greater in dimensions,
but the formation and movements of this one, as known
to man, will serve to show the general laws. The area
is about that of the State of Delaware, or a little larger.
It is a vast, nearly horizontal plateau of ice. The general
elevation of its surface, at some distance from its outer
border, is fifteen hundred feet. The central portion is
free from moraines, or dirt of any kind, but it is rough
and broken by thousands of crevasses. Its surface is a
broad, desolate prairie, not unlike the rolling lands of the
Western plains.

The Malaspina consists of three principal lobes, each
one formed by the expansion of a large tributary ice
stream. The largest has an eastward flow toward
Yakutat Bay, and is supplied mainly by another smaller

THE TBREE LOBES.

461

ill

e great
type of

are so

by the
leys of
om the
as sys-

tBay,
ase of
St lake
la.

^ from
Eis an
miles,
isions,
:nown
2 area
irger.
Jneral
outer
ion is
ough
: is a
►fthe

glacier, known as the Seward. The next lobe to the west
is the result of the Agassiz glacier. Its current is toward
the southwest. Still a third lobe lies between the Chaix
and Robinson hills, and is supplied by the Tyndall and
Guyot glaciers. Its central current is southward.

The Seward lobe melts away before reaching Yaku-
tat Bay, but its southern margin has been eaten into by
the ocean, forming the Sitkagi bluffs. The Ag^assiz lobe
is complete, and is fringed in all its extremity by wood
moraines. The other lobe pushes boldly out into the
ocean, where it breaks suddenly, forming the well-
known Icy Cape. The waves undermine these great
ice cliffs and piece after piece is deposited in the ocean
to sail away in the form of bergs. This is the only in-
stance knov/n in Alaska where a glacier advances into
the open ccean. The ice cliff at its extremity is one of
the finest specimens of its kind to be seen in the world,
and furnishes to the tourist one of the most beautiful
sights on the Pacific coast.

On the northern border of the Malaspina glacier, but
below the line of perpetual snow, where the great
plateau has a gentle slope, the melting surface gives the
origin to hundreds of rivulets, which course along in
channels of clear ice, until they reach a crevasse, where
they plunge down to the drainage beneath. On a sum-
mer day, when the sun is well above the horizon, and
where the surface of the glacier is inclined, the rush of
the water may be heard constantly, but as soon as the
shadows of evening fall the flow ceases. These streams

462

THE STIUSAMS.

are always of clear, sparkling water, and it is seldom
their channels contain dibris. Where the surface is
level and broken frequently by crevasses, these streams
are absent though pools of water are often found.

The moulins in which the streams disappear are well-
like holes of great depth. They are seldom straight, as
the water plunging into them from one side washes away
the other. In descending the water is washed from side
to side, increasing the irregularity of the wells. A deep
roar coming from the hidden chambers to which the
moulins lead frequently tells that large bodies of water
are rushing along in ice caves underneath. The Stikines,
hearing the mysterious roars and crashes from within at
Le Conte Bay, believed it to be the home of the Thunder
Bird, or Hutli, as the native tongue has it They thought
the noises were caused by the flapping of his wings.
All Thlingits believe that in the beginning the mountains
were living creatures, grandly embodied spirits whom
they all worshiped. The glaciers are the children of the
mountains, and the parents hold them in their arms, dip
their feet in the sea, cover them with a warm snow
blanket in the winter and scatter rocks and earth over
them in summer to protect them from the hot sun.
Sitkh is the general name for ice, and its whispered sibi-
lants suggest the Indian horror of cold. They have an
idea of a hell of ice instead of fire, a place of everlasting
and intense cold, where those go who fail to do right in
life.

Sitkh too Yehk is their ice spirit, an invisible evil

li! ^ :

THB IC& SPIltlt.

463

seldom
rface is
(treams

•

•e well-
ght, as
s away
m side
\ deep
ch the
water
ikines,
thin at
^under
nought
wrings,
n tains
whom
>f the
s, dip
snow
over
sun.
! sibi'
e an
sting
htin

power, whose icy breath is death and who manifests
himself in the Arctic winds which sweep over the glaciers.
His voice is heard in the crash of falling bergs and the
crunching of the ice floes. When the ice winds are still
and the glacier is quiet the evil spirit is believed to be
sleeping or wandering in search of mischief in the laby-
rinths of ice in the interior. The natives are careful to
be quiet, fearful of waking the disagreeable one and
refrain even from striking the icebergs with their canoe
paddles for fear trouble may result. When they have
to journey across the glaciers they pray for mercy of the
ice spirit with great ceremony and many chants. The
seals are regarded as children of the glacier and proof
against all the evils arising therefrom. Under the gla-
cier it is believed that man-faced seals dwell, and much
care is taken to propitiate these.

In the lower portion of the glacier, where the ice has
been deeply melted, and especially where large crevasses
occur, the abandoned tunnels made by englacial streams
are sometimes revealed. l*hese tunnels are frequently
ten or fifteen feet high, and occasionally cne may pass
through them, from one depression in the glacier to
another. In some instances they are floored with
rounded stone and other dibris. As the melting pro-
gresses this material is concentrated at the surface as a
moraine.

The ice in various portions of the glacier is formed of
alternating blue and white bands, which is the rule in
glacial ice generally. The blue bands are of compact

464

THE BANDED STRUCTURE.

ice» while the white ones are filled with air cavities. This
banded structure has been the subject of much study,
and, as shown by Professor Tyndall, is of the nature of
the slatey cleavage in rocks, and results from the press-
ure to which the ice has been subjected in flowing through
narrow channels. The presence of this structure in a
vast ice body, like the Malaspina glacier, which is not
confined in narrow valleys, but has room to spread in
all directions, raises the question whether the cause may
not be looked for in other directions. Nearly parallel
with the blue and white layers, but crossing them at low
angles, there are frequently bands of hard blue ice, two
or three inches thick, and several hundred feet long,
which have a secondary origin, and are the result of ice
freezing in fissures. A medial line may sometimes be
traced in these veins, as in certain banded ore veins,
suggesting that the fissures have been filled by water
freezing to their sides. There are also dirt bands on
the glaciers, especially along the borders adjacent to
the marginal moraines, which are probably the out-
cropping edges of the old dust-covered surfaces. The
rapid melting of the surface produces many curious
phenomena, which are by no means peculiar to the
Malaspina, but common to ice bodies, especially those
beneath the perpetual snow line. The long belts of
stone and dirt forming the moraines protect the ice
beneath from the action of the sun and air, while
adjacent surfaces waste away. The result of this differ-
ent melting is that the moraines become elevated ridges

STEEP RIDGES.

465

s. This
1 Study,
ture of
I press-
hrough
re in a

is not
read in
se may
parallel
at low
e, two

long,
of ice
les be
veins,
water
ds on
snt to

out-

The
rious
» the
:hose
s of
( ice
(rhile
ffer-
Jges

of ice. The forms of these ridges vary according to the
amount and character of the dibris resting upon them.
In places they are steep and narrow, reaching a height
of two hundred feet. From a distance they look like
solid masses of dibris and remind one of railroad em-
bankments. The sides are extremely difficult to climb,
owing to the coating of loose stone, which rolls and
crumbles away beneath the feet.

The largest bowlders are the first to be dislodged by
the melting ice, and they roll to the foot and form a
coarse belt along the bottom. In this way a curious
assortment of dibris, according to size, is distributed
along the sides of the ridges. In time the narrow belts
of large bowlders at the foot become elevated, and again
roll down to take their natural place. Rocks rolling
down the steep banks are reduced constantly in size,
and finally the fragments are reduced to sand and clay.
When the dibris is reduced to this condition it is washed
away by the surface streams, and so the work goes on
through the ages. Not all the turbidity of the sub-gla-
cial stream can be charged to the grinding of the glacier
on the rocks on which it rests, as some of it certainly
comes from the crushing of the surface moraines, on the
outer border of the glacier, during their frequent changes
of position, but the amount of glacial silt originating in
this way must be small.

Isolated blocks of stone lying on the glacier, when of
sufficient size not to be warmed through by the sun's heat
in a single day, also protect the ice beneath, and retain

i!!

' I-

466

GLAOAL TABLES.

'■i

this position as the adjacent surface melts, so as to rest
on pedestals frequently several feet high. These ele-
vated blocks are usually flat, angular masses, sometimes
twenty feet in diameter, and have received the name of
glacial tables. Owing to the greater effect of the sun
on the southern side of the columns, they usually lean
in that direction, and eventually the bowlder slides off in
that way. No sooner has the block been deposited than
the old process begins again ; it is elevated and once
more dropped to the south. In the course of time the
bowlders are reduced to fragments.

While large objects lying on the surface of the glacier
are elevated on pedestals in this manner, small ones,
and especially those of a dark color, becoming heated
by the sun melt the ice beneath and sink. Over large
portions of the Malaspina glacier there are little wells,
filled with water and with objects at the bottom. It is
curious to note the character of some of the objects
found at the bottom of these wells. A leaf is often
found there as well as insects and fish.

Above the perpetual snow line dark objects become
heated and melt the snow about them, but do not form
wells. The water thus formed is immediately absorbed
in the surrounding porous matter. As the melting pro-
gresses, a conical depression is formed which has a
striking resemblance to the pit holes made by sand-
dragons in loose sand, but are often several feet deep.
When small stones and dirt are gathered on the surface
of a glacier, or on a larger scale when moulins become

SAND CONES.

467

filled with fine dihris and the adjacent surface Is de-
pressed by melting, the material thus acts as do concen-
trated large bowlders, protecting the underlying ice.
But as the gravel rises in reference to the adjacent sur-
face the outer portion rolls down from the pedestal on
all sides, and the result is that a sharp cone of ice is
formed, having a sheet of gravel and dirt over its sur-
face. These sand cones sometimes reach to a height of
twelve feet, and form, over large areas, a conspicuous
and characteristic feature of the glacier. They are of
the same character as the dioris pyramids, so common
on the stagnant borders of many glaciers of Alaska, ex-
cept that they are composed of finer materials, and, like
the glacial tables, are short lived. The melting of the
ice about them causes the dibris on the surface to slide
farther and farther away, so that finally it is unable to
shelter the ice beneath. The fragments then act inde-
pendently, and either protect the ice or, becoming warm,
sink into it, according to size and color. In this way the
sand cones disappear, only to form again when the dibris
gathers in other depressions.

The surface of the Malaspina glacier, over a large
area, is covered with a coral-like crust formed by the
alternate melting and freezing of the surface. The
crevasses in this portion of the great plateau are seldom
of large size, and owing to the melting of their margins
are broad at the surface and contract rapidly downward.
They are in fact mere gashes ten or twelve feet deep,
and are apparently only remnants of large crevasses

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IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

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23 WEST MAIN STRUT

WEBSTfR.N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

468

THE SURFACE

formed in the mountains. Deeper crevasses appear at
certain localities about the border of the glacier, where
the ice at the margin falls away from the main mass, but
these are seldom conspicuous, as the ice is heavily covered
with dibris and the openings fill rapidly with material
therefrom. The surface of the glacier, level or other-
wise, is generally a fair indication of the condition of the
ground on which it rests. Where the larger tributaries
of the Malaspina flow in there are great ice falls, caused
by steep descents of the earth beneath. These falls are
at the lower limit of perpetual snow, and are only fully
revealed when the melting has reached its maximum and
the winter snows have not begun to accumulate.

From a commanding point overlooking the glacier one
sees that the central expanse of clear white ice is bordered
on the south by a broad, dark band, formed by bowl-
ders and stones. Outside this, and forming a belt con-
centric with it, is a fciest-covered area, in many places
several miles wide. This forest grows on the moraine
resting on the ice of the glacier. In surveying the
glacier, by far the greatest portion is clear white ice, but
in crossing it on foot, the difficulties encountered in the
forest make one think that its area is greater than it
actually is. The moraines not only cover all the outer
portion of the glacier, but stream ofT from the mountain
spurs that project into it from the north. One of these
spurs starts from the Samovar hills, crosses the entire
breadth of the glacier, and joins the marginal moraine on
its southern border. This long train of stones and

MOR-liINES FORM.

409

bowlders is really a highly compound medial moraine,
formed at the junction of the expanded extremities of
the Seward and Agassiz glaciers.

All of the glacf ers which feed the great ice sheet below
are above the snow line, and the dih-is they carry only
appears on the surface after the ice descends to the
region where the annual waste exceeds the supply. The
stones and dirt are then concentrated at the surface,
owing to the melting of the ice that contains them.
This is the history of nearly all moraines. The Malas-
pina glacier in retreating has left irregular hillocks of
coarse dibris^ which are now forest-covered, but these
deposits have not the character of marginal moraines.
They indicate a general retreat without prolonged halts.
The heaps of debris left as the ice front retreats have a
general parallelism with the margin of the glacier, and
are pitted with lake basins, but only their higher portions
are exposed above the general sheet of assorted debris
spread out of the streams draining the glacier.

A peculiar and interesting feature of the moraine on
the stagnant border of the Malaspina glacier is fur-
nished by the lakelets that appear everywhere upon it
These are found in great numbers both in the forest-
covered portion and in the outer border of the barren
moraine. They are usually rudely circular, and have
steep walls of dirty ice which slope toward the water at
high angles, but are undercut at the bottom, so that the
basins in vertical cross section have an hour-glass form.
The walls are frequently from fifty to one hundred

470

TURBID WATERS.

feet high, 2nd not seldom are nearly perpendicular.
The lakes are usually one hundred feet in diametei;
but larger ones appear. Their waters are always
turbid, owing to the mud which is carried into them
by avalanches and streams of water that trickle from
their sides. The ratde of the stones falling into
them is a common sound when the air is warm or when
it is raining. The crater-like walls inclosing the lakes
are seldom of uniform height, but frequently rise into
pinnacles. Between the pinnacles there are occasion-
ally low saddles, through which the lake overflows. The
stones and dirt which fall into them in the end fill up
the space and force the water out. As the general sur-
face of the glacier is lowered by melting, the partially
filled lakes gradually disappear, and their floors, owing
to the accumulations of debris on them, protecting as it
does the ice beneath, become elevated above the sur-
rounding surface in the same manner that glacial tables
are formed. The dibris covering these elevations slides
down the sides, as the melting progresses, and finally a
rugged pyramid of ice, covered by a thin coating of
dibris, occupies the place of the former lake. These
pyramids sometimes are sixty or seventy feet high, and
usually are conical in shape. They resemble sand
cones, but are much greater in size and covered with
coarser dkbris.

Like the lakes, to which they owe their origin, these
pyramids are confined to the stagnant portions of the
glacier and play an important part in the breaking up

THE BROKEN STONES.

471

of marginal moraines. Owing to the sliding of the
bowlders and stones into the lakelets and their subse-
quent fall from the sides of the pyramids, they are
broken and crushed so that the outer portion of the
glacier, where the process has been going on longest,
is covered with finer dibris and contains more clay and
sand than the inner portions.

Just how the holes containing glacial lakelets originate
it is difficult to say, but their formation seems to be in-
itiated by the melting back of the sides of crevasses.
Breaks, in the general sheet of debris covering the gla-
cier, expose the ice beneath to the action of the sun and
rain which causes it to melt and the crevasses to broaden.
The openings become partially filled with water and the
lakelets are formed. The waves wash the dibris from
the ice about the margin of the lakelets, thus exposing
it to the direct attack of the water, which melts it more
rapidly than the upper portions of the slopes are melted
by the sun and rain. It Is in this manner that the charac-
teristic hour-glass shape originates. The lakelets are
confined to the outer, or stagnant portion of the glacier,
for the reason that the motion in the ice, where the pres-
sure from the highlands is greatest, would produce cre-
vasses through which the water would escape. Where
the lakelets occur in great numbers, it is evident that the
ice must be nearly or quite stationary, otherwise the
basins would not exist for years as they do. T' "^ lake-
lets and the resulting pyramids are the most charactern
istic feature of the outer border of the glacier.

■ ( 1
1;

i' l(;

472

VEGETATION.

The outer, and consequently the older portions, of the
moraines are covered with vegetation which in places
has all the characteristics of old forests. It consists
principally of spruce, cottonwood, aider, a great variety
of small shrubs, and some rank ferns. This vegetation
grows from the accumulation of dirt on the top of the
ice. The ice layer beneath this surface covering is not
infrequently one thousand feet thick. The forest-
covered portion of the Malaspina is estimated to be
from twenty to twenty-five square miles in area.

There are lakes at the extremity of the mountain
spurs extending into the glacier that furnish another
interesting subject for investigation. Where the rocks of
the spurs touch the ice they become heated, causing the
frozen mass to melt, and thus depressions are formed,
which are enlarged by a flow of water through them,
until a heavy covering of debris protects the ice from
further encroachments. The lines of drainage on each
side of the spur converge and form a lake at the ex-
tremity, from which the water usually escapes through a
tunnel. Typical lakes of this character are the ones
at Terrace Point and on the south side of the Chaix
Hills.

A glacier, in flowing past the base of a mountain, fre-
quently obstructs the drainage of lateral valleys, and
causes lakes to form. These usually find outlets, as in
case of the marginal lakes, through subterranean pas-
sages, and are filled or emptied according to the condi-
tion of the latter, obstructed or open. The conditions

TERRACE BUILDING.

473

which lead to the formation of these lakes are unstable,
and the records which they leave in the form of terraces,
deltas, and so on, are very irregular. When streams
empty into one of these lakes, deltas and horizontally
stratified lake beds are formed, as in ordinary water
bodies, but as the lakes are subject to many fluctuations,
the elevations at which the records are made are con-
tinually changing, and in instances where the retaining
ice body is constantly diminishing may Ovcupy a wide
vertical interval.

The terraces left by streams flowing between moraine-
covered glaciers and precipitous mountain slopes are
peculiar. The channels become filled with debris that slides
down the mountain slopes. This material is at first angu-
lar in form, but when brought within reach of the stream
becomes rounded. On the margin of the channel adja-
cent to the glacier there is usually a heavy deposit of
unassorted debris, which rests partly upon the ice and
forms the actual border of the stream. When the glacier
is lowered by melting the stream abandons its former
channel, and repeats the process of terrace building at a
lower level.

The material in the Malaspina forming the terraces is
largely a blue clay, filled with both angular and rounded
stones and bowlders, but its elevated border is almost
entirely of angular debris. The drainage from the
mountain slope above the terrace is obstructed by the
elevated border, and swamps and lagoons ar<e formed
back of it. In the material forming the terraces tree

47<

THE DRAINAGE.

trunks occur frequently, and growing upon its surface
there is a forest of large spruce trees.

The drainage of the Malaspina glacier is subglacial.
There is no surface drainage except in a few localities,
chiefly on its northern border, where there is a slight
surface slope, but even in such places the streams are
short, and soon plunge into a crevasse and join the
drainage beneath. On the lower portions of the Alpine
glaciers, tributary to the Malaspina, there are sometimes
small streams coursing along in ice channels, but these
are short lived. On the borders of the tributary glaciers
there are frequently important streams flowing between
the ice and the adjacent mountain slope, but where these
come down to the Malaspina they disappear in tunnels.

Along the southern margin of the glacier there are
hundreds of streams pouring out of the escarpment
formed by the border of the glacier, or rising like great
fountains from the gravel and bowlders at the base. All
of these streams are brown and heavy with sediment.
One of the largest streams draining the glacier is the
Yahste. This river rises in two principal branches at
the base of the Chaix Hills, and flows through a tunnel
eight miles long, emerging at the border of the glacier a
swift brown flood, one hundred feet wide and fifteen or
twenty feet deep. The stream, after its subglacial course,
spreads out into many branches, and is building up an
alluvial fan, which has invaded and buried several acres
of forests. On the border of the glacier facing Yakutat
Bay, the flow of the ice is eastward, but its margin is

THE MOVEMENT.

475

Stagnant, and instead of forming a bold, continuous
escarpment, it ends irregularly and with a frontal slope.

When the streams from the north reach the glacier
they invariably flow into tunnels and disappear from
view. The entrances to the tunnels are frequently high
arches, and the streams flowing into them carry great
quantities of sand and gravel. About the southern and
eastern border, where the streams emerge, the arches of
the tunnels are low, owing to the accumulation of dibris
which obstructs their discharge. In some instances the
obstruction is so great that the water rises in a vertical
shaft, in order to reach the surface, and rushes up under
heavy pressure. The sand and gravel brought out is
well-rounded and is deposited in alluvial cones. Beside
being overloaded when they emerge, the streams receive
large amounts of dibris from the moraine-covered ice
clifTi adjacent. The deposit of the debris through the
tunnels brings about an obstruction which causes the
water to run in higher levels, and finally it comes in con-
tact with the roof, slowly enlarging it upwards.

Other glaciers of Alaska do not differ materially from
the Malaspina, though each has received much investiga-
tion and thought in the scientific world, and there is an
extensive literature on the subject.

The movement of glaciers is, as subject for study, one
of great interest. The most remarkable feature is the
motion downwards from the neve to the lower valleys.
The explanation of it is by far the most important appli-
cation of mechanical physics connected with the subject.

476

GRAVITATION THEORY.

The glacier is formed in the mountains of a mass of snow
and ice, which is constantly being added to and which
makes its way down to the lower valleys, where it grad-
ually melts, until it terminates exactly where the melting,
due to contact with warmer air, earth, and rain compen-
sates for the bodily descent of the ice sheet from reser-
voirs in the highlands within the line of perpetual snow.
It usually protrudes into valleys far below the latter
limit, and terminates amidst a wilderness of bowlders
borne down upon its surface and deposited as the ice
melts. These are the moraines spoken of in connection
with the Malaspina glacier heretofore.

Prior to 1842 two theories of glacier movement had
been maintained. One of these is known as the gravi-
tation theory and the other the dilatation. Both suppose
that the motion of the ice takes place by its sliding
bodily over its rocky bed, but they differ as to the force
which urges it over obstacles opposed by friction and the
irregularities of the surface over which it moves.
Under the gravitation theory it is claimed that the frozen
masses, carried along by the slope of the bed on which
they rest, disengaged by water from the adhesion, which
they might otherwise contract, to the bottom, must grad-
ually slide and descend along the declivities of the
valleys or mountain slopes which they cover. It is this
slow but continual sliding of the icy masses on their
inclined bases which carries them down into the lower
valleys, and which replenishes continually the stock of ice
in valleys, some of which are warm enough to produce

DILATATION THEORY.

477

luxuriant vegetation. Very many objections have been
urged to this theory. It is evident that those who believe
in it regard the glacier as composed of an accumulation
of fragments instead of a great mass, throughout which
the fissures and ct ^^vasses are in slight proportion to the
whole ; also, that they attribute to the subglacial waters
a kind and amount of action in removing the friction
that they do not possess. The main objection, however,
to the gravitation theory is that a sliding motion, of the
kind supposed, when once commenced, would be con-
stantly accelerated by gravity and an avalanche would
result. The small slope of most glacier valleys and the
irregularity of the bounding wall are also objections.

The dilatation theory d^'sposes of the want of sufficient
moving power to drag along the mass by calling in the
well-known force with which water expands on its con-
version into ice. The glacier being traversed by innu-
merable capillary fissures, and being in summer satu-
rated with water in all its parts, it was natural to invoke
the freezing action of the night to convert this water
into ice, and by the amount of its expansion to urge the
glacier onward in the direction of its greatest slope. In
answer to this argument it has been claimed that, even
in the height of summer, those parts of the glacier that
move the fastest are never reduced below the freezing
point, and that even in the most favorable cases of noc-
turnal radiation, producing congelation at the surface, it
cannot penetrate above a few inches into the interior.

It was some time before observers took up the problem

47S

RESULTS OF OBSERVATION.

of discovering just how fast and in what manner glaciers
moved, but in 1842 Forbes did this. His observations
were carried on with the aid of all the scientific appa-
ratus at hand at that day, and he thoroughly satisfied
himself that the motion was continuous and tolerably
uniform — ^that it was not by jerks. He also ascertained
that the motion was greatest toward the centre of the
glacier and slowest at the sides. It was also found that
the rate of motion varied at different points of the length
of the same glacier, being greatest, on the whole, where
the inclination was most marked. As the seasons ad-
vanced he noted changes in the rate of motion of the
same part of the ice and connected it by a direct rela-
tion with the temperature of the air. Last of all, it was
discovered that the surface moved faster than the ice
nearer the bottom of the bed. The observations re-
sulted in the theory that *' a glacier is an imperfect fluid
or viscous body, which is urged down slopes of certain
inclination by the mutual pressure of its parts."

The glacier problem cannot, even to-day, be consid-
ered solved entirely, but enough is known now to make
the further investigation promising.

CHAPTER XXII.

HUNTING AND FISHING.

Wild Country for the Htmtsman — Big Game in the Chasms and on the
Mountains — Opporttmities of the Fishermen — Mallards and Canvas-
back Duck — Price of Game in the Sitka Market— Native Ailaskans not
Sportsmen — Mosquitoes an J ^ ^e Bruins — Suicide Rather than Die by
the Attacks of Insects — Nich«>i.> 3 Huley the Hero of a Fine Bear Story
— Native Huntsmen.

FOR all those who hunt and fish for pleasure, not for
pelf, for those wh) love nature in its grandest
moods, there is not a land anywhere under heaven like
unto Alaska. There are countless waterways, lined
with towering mountains, upon whose summits the snow
rests eternally, like a mantle woven from threads of
silver. Gracefully it is draped over their giant shoulders,
as if they were attired in bridal garments for a marriage
above the clouds. Sharp and distinct, and cut as straight
and clearly as a furrow in a wheat field, the dark green
of the forests meets the snowy border, marking the line
where vegetation ceases. Thence downward to the very
verge of the sea, great spruce trees a:nd hemlocks and
cedars and hanging mosses, a jungle of small growths,
with the rank luxuriance of a tropic clime. Then these
mountains of st >ne and snow and verdure are rent from

479

4So

ANIMAI^ LIPH.

base to sky-line in great canons and valleys, where the
shadows linger eternally, and out of them come tumbling
in mad haste the green waters of the melting glaciers.

Populate these shadowy densities with bear and deer
and wolf and lynx and mountain sheep. Follow a trail
from the sea margin to some inland lakes, or toward
some mountain top — the path will be as smoothly worn
by the feet of wild beasts, as a cowpath through a
meadow, and if you have a spark of the sportsman's in-
stinct alive within your breast it will burn into a flame.

The streams which reach the sea are alive with salmon
trout — ^big, gamey fish, who strike voraciously at any bait,
and fight for freedom with a vim and dash and strength
that test the skill and tire the stout arms of the most ex-
pert and stalwart fishermen.

There are many narrow defiles, precipitous on either
side, which run landward from the ocean, broadening out
into great bays, shut in by mountains so tall that their
tops are lost in cloudland. In season these are the
abiding place of mallards and canvasbacks and blue-
winged teal and thousands of strange aquatic birds.

The Sitka market is always overstocked with game.
Venison sells usually there at four cents per pound.
The deer are not large, but their flesh is of delicious
flavor. The duck are not so good because of their fish-
like taste. The fish are always fresh, of infinite variety,
and, if properly cooked and served, are fine mating.
If one is too lazy or too busy to catch them, they may
be had at the wharf for the asking. These are oc-

IMPROVIDENT HUNTERS.

481

casionally varied by bear meat, which many do not
like.

The native hunters are improvident. They persist in
killing deer in and out of season, solely for their skins,
which they dispose of at the trading stores. A great
number are slaughtered annually in the vicinity of Sitka,
whose carcasses are left where they fall — feasts for the
eagles and ravens. This is true of other parts of the
territory.

An official utterance on this wanton destruction of the
game of the country is found in William Ogelvie's report
to the Canadian Government in regard to the animal and
fish found in the Yukon District : —

" Game is not now so abundant as before mining be-
gan, and it is difficult, in fact impossible, to get any close
to the river. The Indians have to ascend the tributary
streams ten to twenty miles to get anything worth going
after. Here on the uplands vast herds of caribou still
wander, and when the Indians encounter a herd they al-
low very few to escape, even though they do not require
the meat. When they have plenty they are not at all
provident, and consequently are often in want when game
IS scarCe. They often kill animals, which they know are
so poor as to be useless for food, just for the love of
slaughter.

"An Indian who was with me one day saw two caribou
passing and wanted me to shoot them. I explained to
him that we had plenty, and that 1 would not destroy them
uselessly, but this did not iccord with his ideas. He felt

482

FOND OP KILUNG.

displeased because I did not kill them myself or lend him
my rifle for the purpose, and remarked in as good Eng-
lish as he could command: 'I like to kill whenever I
see it.'"

Baranof Island is noted for its enormous black bears.
"For a long time after my arrival in the country" says
one who hunted in these parts ** there was rarely a week
passed that one or more natives were not brought in
frightfully mangled from fighting these monsters. Many
of them died, and others were slain outright. They are
lordly, rollicking rascals, these colossals of the coast
islands ; counterparts of their Polar brothers, except in
color, the one a moving midnight, the other an animated
snowdrift. The sale of breech-ioading firearms to the
natives is prohibited by law.

"An ancient muzzle-loader and a knife are inefficient
weapons for attack or defense against these ferocious
brutes, yet I know several native hunters who have sur-
vived such contests. They are disfigured of course,
rarely coming out of the fight scathless, but they carry
their scars with pride, for in Alaskan heraldry a bear
token is an honorable distinction."

In their sequestered haunts the bear roams unmolested
except by mosquitoes and gnats, those diminutive scourges
of the highlands and of the lowlands. These setde in
swamps upon their eyelids, and sting them until they are
blind and helpless. Then the bear gropes about for
food and water, and getting mired in some swampy
place, dies there, while its diminutive and fiend4ike
enemies sing jubilation songs and are happy.

PESTS ARE PLENTIFUL.

483

Anyone going to the Klondike must protect them-
selves against the tortures inflicted by a number of pests.
The louse, known by the name of "greyback," thrives
there, as it does in all mining camps in fact. Lice last
the year round. But the most dangerous pest in summer
is the enormous mosquito. The Alaskan mosquitoes
come by the millions, and they are larger in size than
any known to exist in any other spot on the globe.
Hundreds upon hundreds of these big mosquitoes will
light on a man on a summer day when che mercury is 100
in the shade, and if his face and hands are not protected
his life is really in danger. The usual protection is a
wire frame, hood-shaped, and covered with mosquito
netting, that is placed over the head and strapped to the
shoulders. The hands are protecte 1 with cotton gloves.
When this mosquito story was told in Denver, an old
Irishman, standing by, with a querulous look in his eye,
remarked: "Begob! if the dom m'skeeters a-are ez
thick ez that, w'y don't they ate the m'skeeter nittin ? "
After this humorous turn, an old prospector, who had
been in Alaska, pulled a cob pipe from his mouth, and
solemnly said : "Well, as sure as I'm sitting here I've
seen polar bears commit suicide to escape the mosquitoes.
They simply used their forepaws in see-saw fashion and
cut their throats."

John Cudahy's gold mine near Sitka is connected with
a bear story which is worth telling. It is a true story,
and does not need embellishment.

Nicholas Huley^ from whom Mr. Cudahy purchased

484

HULEY'S EXPERIBNCE.

the claim, was a private in the regular army, and came
to Sitka with the detachment sent up there to take pos-
session at the time of the transfer of the territory from
Russia. With him came his wife and two sons. His
term of enlistment terminated while in Alaska, and being
satisfied with his surroundings he decided to remain. He
was a fine-looking, stalwart Irishman, standing six feet
two inches in his stockings. His sons grew to be as
stalwart as himself. Nicholas had prospected in many
places, and among other locations had made one at the
head of Silver Bay, about fourteen miles from Sitka.

This location was always a prime favorite with him,
and he and the boys had done a good deal of work there.
The property is situated about two miles from the bay
shore, at an altitude of about 3,000 feet. From the beach
to the ledge they had constructed a fme trail, and the
many excursions thither had made of it an easy way.
Not long before the Cudahy purchase, Nicholas and the
boys pulled away from the Sitka wharf on one of their
periodical excursions to the ledge. Besides the ordinary
camp supplies they carried an old army rifle, a relic of
Huley's soldiering. In due time they reached the land-
ing place where the trail began. Here it was discovered
that they had 'eft their axe behind, and Mr. Huley told

the boys to pull over to Salmon Creek, two miles away,
and borrow one of Steve Gee, who was cutting wood
there.

•* I'll go up the trail. Don't be long, for I'm hungry
as a bear," said he.

SURPRISED BY BRUIN.

Then he shouldered the old rifle and disappeared.
The path wound in and out, a sinuous way, over declivi-
ties, across rocky shoulders, through heavy timber and
dense thickets, which were like tunnels of verdure, fol-
lowing as near as possible an easy grade, but trending
skyward ultimately. He had no thought of danger, car-
rying the firearm merely from force of habit, and because,
on several occasions, he had shot deer by the way.

In one of the densest thickets, close set with under-
brush and small young trees, a bear suddenly charged
on him like a black thunderbolt.

He had no time to shoot. The beast had closed upon
him suddenly. It wrenched the gun away, and seized
him with its great paws, flung him to the ground so
violently that for a little time he was dazed and uncon-
scious. When he rallied the huge animal had straddled
him lengthwise, and was poking his cheeks with its nose,
as a pig roots in the soil.

Huley had been told by native hunters that if one could
be perfectly still and counterfeit death a bear would go
away. His nerve did not desert him in this awful emer-
gency. He lay still while the animal continued its
investigations. Finally the hot, fetid breath exhaled from
the cruel mouth so close to his became unbearable. He
kicked him with one foot, being careful to keep the other
portions of his body immovable. The bear jumped away,
and looked and listened intently for a time ; then it re-
turned, and began the same rooting process about Huley's
jowls with its nose.

486

HE KICKED AGAIN.

Again Huley kicked him. This time the bear snuffed
suspiciously, then went a little distance up and down the
trail, and finally disappeared. Huley lay motionless for
what to him seemed an eternity, then he arose to his feet
thankful for the wonderful deliverance, when instantly the
copse near him was swept asunder, and the ebony demon
seized him again. Only for an instant was he conscious,
and during that interval he says that he experienced
a sensation of being twirled round and round. The boys
came up the path, and almost stumbled over the battered
and bloody body of their father. The bear had torn and
mangled him fearfully, stripped him of every rag of cloth-
ing and fled. They carried the inanimate form to the
boat, and as speedily as possible reached the revenue
cutter Adams, then moored in the bay. The ship's sur-
geon found that besides numerous flesh wounds Huley's
skull was fractured, and one leg was broken. With com-
petent treatment and careful nursing he eventually re-
covered.

When you go to Sitka you will doubtless see a stal-
wart man, with a decided limp, a badly scarred head and
face, and an impediment in his speech. You may know
that is Nicholas Huley, a pioneer, a capitalist, a good
fellow — and over and above all, a bear-hater.

The native men of Southeastern Alaska, are of a
taciturn disposition, but they are indefatigable hunters,
making long journeys into the interior on foot, through
the mountain defiles and over passes, using their light
canoes chiefly for crossing rivers and lakes. They build

THE NATIVE HUNTED

487

along their routes of travel, here and there, temporary
shelters or sheds, open in front, with sloping roof
thatched with grass. Each traveling individual or party,
on leaving such a place, deposits in a certain nook a
small bundle of dry moss, birch bark, resin or twigs, to
enable the next comer to kindle his fire without difficulty.
This hospitable and thoughtful custom is never omitted.
This is one of the many pleasant ways which the weird
Alaskan savages have that their white civilized brothers
would do well to imitate.

These wild nimrods of the North have had their day.
Already the axe strokes of the pioneers are ringing in
their forests, and camp fires blaze along the mountain
trails; steam whistles wake the echoes far up their
mighty streams, and the smoke from many a white man's
habitat rises and vanishes in the mists, as they, too, will
vanish in that future time, when the Argonauts of 1897
live in history as the creators of an empire by the North-
ern Sea.