■^'k. ^, - ^ ^fLS^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) k /. /./ **'^.^ 4' 1.0 I.I Ik 150 121 ■2.5 140 mil 2.0 IL25 i 1.4 I 1.6 ^ w (iDgrapnic Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STRICT WIBSTIR.N.Y. MSM (7I6)«72-4S03 % \ iV L17 \\ i\ A CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The toti The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographicaily unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagie Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur6e et/ou pelliculie Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Coloured maps/ Cartes g6ographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ D D □ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relid avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La re liure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certainos pages blanches ajouties lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais. lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 filmies. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6ti possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la methods normale de fiimage sont indiqute ci-dessous. D D D n D D D D Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommag^es Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es. tachetdes ou piqudes Pages detached/ Pages ditachdes Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of print varies/ Quality in^gale de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel supplimentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film^es A nouveau de fapon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. The post ofti film Oris begi the sion othi first sion orii The shal TINI whi( Mar dlff< entii begl righ reqi met □ Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl^mentaires; Irregular paginavion: [i] • [xvil 15 - 358. 361 - 430, 433 - 440, 443 - 487 p. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 2SX 30X n/ 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy film«d h«r« hat b««n r«produc«cl thank* to tha ganarosity of: Univeriity of British Columbia Library L'axamplaira film* f ut raproduit grica k la giniroaM da: University of British Columbia Library Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha bast quality poaalbia conaidaring tha condition and lagibillty of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha filming contract apacification*. La* imaga* suivanta* ont M raproduitas avac la plus grand *oin, compta tanu da la condition at da la nattat* da raxamplaira filmi, at an conformity avac las conditions du contrat da filmaga. Original copias in printad papar covar* ara filmad baginning with tha front covar and anding on tha iaat paga with a printad or illustratad impras- sion, or tha back covar whan appropriata. All othar original copias ara filmad baginning on tha first paga with a printad or illustratad impras- sion, and anding on tha last paga with a printad or illustratad impraasion. Tha last racordad frama on aach microficha shall contain tha symbol ^^ (maaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol V (maaning "END"), whichavar applias. Las axamplairas originaux dont la couvartura an papiar ast imprimAa sont filmte an comman9ant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'imprassion ou d'illustration, soit par la sacond plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras axamplairas originaux sont filmte an comman9ant par la pramlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'imprassion ou d'illustration at an tarminant par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una talla amprainta. Un das symbolas suivants apparaitra sur la darniAra imaga da chaqua microficha. salon la cas: la symbols — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE". la symbols V signifie "FIN". Maps, platas, charts, ate, may ba filmad at diffarant reduction ratios. Thosa too larga to ba antiraly included in one exposure ara filmad baginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmto A des taux da reduction diffArants. Lorsqua la document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est f ilmA A partir da I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche h droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant la nombre d'images ntcessaira. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 8 6 i I » u o ?s D O s 0) i n U I Gold Fields OF THE KLONDIKE AND THE Wonders of Alaska A masterly and fascinating description of tiie newly-discovered Gold Mines. 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. The natives. Other vast riches of Alaska. Other great Gold Mines of the world. The great Seal Fisheries, etc., etc., etc. CAREFULLY PREPARED BY Ernest Ingersoll, Well known .is a traveler throughout the Rocky Mountain Ranges, and author of " Knocking Round the Rockies," " Crest of the Continent," " The Ice Queen," " The Silver Caves," etc., etc. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Hon. henry W. ELLIOTT, Agent of the United States Government for many years in Alaska. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRA.^D Edgewood Publishing Company / S?7 Copyright, M. j. Coghi.an, 1897. m INTRODUCTION. When one of Baronov's Slavonian hunters stood before him in the privacy of a special meeting at Si*Va, in 1804, and took )ut from his pocket a handful of golden nuggets and scales, say- \ng as he did so that he knew where there was "plenty more," the )ld Russian Governor chilled him with a fierce gesture of disgust, then said to him: "Ivan, I forbid you to go farther in this under- taking; not a word about this, or we are all undone; let the Ameri- Icans and the Englishmen know that we have gold in these moun- Itains, then we are ruined; they will rush in on us by thousands, land crowd us to the wall — to the death." Baronov was right as a Russian fur-trader; he knew that Iword of Ivan's discovery, if given voice, would bring that scourge [of fur-bearing districts, the miner, into the very depths of Rus- isian America instantly, and so he suppressed the news; he and his Jsuccessor also, suppressed it well. But the successors of Baronov were not his equal in money- laking as fur-traders and managers; they ran into debt, and these lebts of the Russian American Company induced the Imperial Jovemment to part with Alaska to the United States of America fn 1867. The Russian authorities turned Alaska over to us with good word for its furs and fisheries, and nothing else. lit IV 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 !n 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 .hree distinct zones, the Sitkan and Cook's Inlet district, the Aleutian Island and Peninsular district, and. the Great Interior or Y .on region. Gold has been found in all of them, but chiefly iu 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 great 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 vi 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 INTRODUCnON- VU 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 considerable, and eflforts 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 the 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 mineral-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 of Alaska^ bj Henry W. Elliott, Washington, 1875 ; pages x8 and 19. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THB DISCOVERY OF THE KLONDIKI! DIGGINGS. The first news from *>. . Klondike — Excitement in San Francisco on the arrival of the " Excelsior "--The glad news carried around the world — "On to the Klondike !" — Scenes along the wharves of Seattle — The golden treas- ures of the r .turned. Argonauts — Some of the first citizens of Dawson City — The women AGK X CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE OUTFIT OF AN ARGONAUT. The qualifications of a successful miner — One temptation of the gold-digger — Provisions for the journey to Dawson City — Camping outfit and cooking utensils — The 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- pective 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 — ^F