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 '«.T 
 
 THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 ALASKA'S NEW GOLD-FIELDS— TIIEIK PRESENT OUTPUT AND 
 
 FUTURE PROMISE. 
 
 BY SAM STONE BUSH. 
 
 
 
 
 number going through the Chilkoot ; the rest 
 — :;anibl(,'rs, tradesmen, an(i those wlio failed to 
 get through — ai'e living this winter at the pass 
 towns. These figures were nearly doubled 
 before January 1, but all the late departures 
 went to Dyea and Bkaguay, and on account of 
 
 I.— THE EXODUS. 
 
 IT took two and a half years from the first dis- 
 covery of gold in California for the popula- 
 tion of that territory to increase from 1.5,000 to 
 92,000. At least 100, 000 prospectors will advance 
 upon Dawson City and its viciiuty in tlie first six 
 or seven months of I8!i8 — less than a year from 
 the time when the world first heard of the new 
 gold sensation. The days of '4'J and the great 
 Jlallarat rush two years later were peaceful com- 
 pared to this. Another dramatic fact — this army 
 of gold -hunters will expend for transportation 
 and supplies before the end of the year fully 
 $00,000,000 — four tim^s as much as th.- proba- 
 ble total output of Klondike gold ! 
 
 In 1897, between July 17 and September 1, 
 8,88G passengers and 30,000 tons of freight 
 were carried north from I'uget .Sound and British 
 ( 'olumbia ports. ( )f this traffic the steanun-s bound 
 for St. Michael took 1,248 persons and 12,000 
 tons of freight, while nearly all the balance went 
 
 THE EMIIAIIKATION OP THE ARGONAUTS. AUOU8T 17, 1897. 
 
 (ShowinK the type of stettmship used in transporting pros- 
 pectors to Alaska.) 
 
 the late season halted for the winter at these 
 places, both of which are growing with wonder- 
 ful rapidity and fast becominc "mportant towns. 
 Dyea has passed Skaguay in inhabitants and 
 promises to be the metropolis of A laska. The 
 travel since January 1 has been the capacity 
 of tin; shij)s, rates on thein have advanced, and a 
 further advance will likely be made as the crowds 
 become! greater on the approacli of the "open 
 season." Trade and trans{)oi'tation on tlie Pacific 
 coast are convulsed ; excepting in time of war, the 
 century luis seen no other such physical happening. 
 
 WHAT THE YKAK I'KOMIHES IN DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 No statistics can be made of the 1898 exodus'. 
 to Dyea and Skaguay, a part branching off to with any degree of accuracy, but from estimating- 
 Juneau and Wrangell. About .1,000 got over th(> movement already we'll in motion, lu^arly, if 
 the passes in this time, at least 3,000 of the not ([uite, 100,000 will try to get to the gold- 
 
 A tmijorltii iif flif vfio'iHtroiifi" *ii^<l '" illuxlmtlug IhlKaiilcle—fouHeen Uy the auDmrand sit hu Mr. J. F. Pralt—hnve twt 
 l)Cfn fmhlMied lir.fitrt. 
 
290 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF RE^IEIVS. 
 
 BKAOUAY TOWN, FIVE WEEKS OLD. 
 
 fields. It is doubtful — if my computations on 
 the capacities of the vessels in the Alaskan trade 
 are correct, and they are made from close inquiry 
 — whether the transportation companies can carry 
 so many and their supplies. This capacity shows 
 7.T,000 passengers from January to .luly, with 
 two tons of freight to the passenger, when he will 
 probably require only about one-half ton; and 
 assunung that one-half of the freight will not go 
 inland, but be used at Dyea and other coast 
 points for building operations and transient con- 
 sumption, would leave a supply tonnage suf- 
 ficient for an additional 75,000 prospectors. A 
 reduction of rates on the transcontinental roads, 
 such as is threatened, will increase the number 
 wanting to go, 
 in which case 
 the steamship 
 people will 
 manage it 
 somehow, if 
 tardily, even if 
 it is necessary 
 to continue 
 sending steam- 
 ers from the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 This contem- 
 plates the situ- 
 ation to J uly. After that it is believed by those 
 who have looked ahead that a second and greater 
 exodus will begin, for it is pretty certain that the 
 first ships returning from the Yukon in July, and 
 weekly thereafter for a time, will bring such stores 
 of gold, bucli tales of individual fortunes, and 
 such picturesque details that the larger army, wait- 
 ing, will break their bonds of indecision. By that 
 time there will be more ships and also better 
 facilities for crossing the passes, and it is prob- 
 able that these swarming emigrants (of whom 
 three-fourths will go from the United States, 
 about an eighth from Canada, and the rest from 
 the British Isles) will be able to get through to 
 the gold bottom creeks without serious delay, 
 although they will, of course, be too late to do 
 any prospecting till next year. 
 
 More ships are needed in the Alaskan trade; 
 more boats on the Yukon and Stickeen 
 rivers, overhead and surface roads on the short 
 pusses — these are the things needed now, the 
 things to be done at any cost, so they are done 
 (jiiickly, and the future will take care of thr; con- 
 struction of more permanent lines and better 
 facilities. 
 
 WHAT THIS STAMPEDE MEANS TO TRADE. 
 
 What does an exodus of 100,000 to the Klon- 
 dike mean to the business of the country? 1 
 
 liavo figured it out on the basis of cost and pro- 
 portion as ascertained, and it is this : That each 
 man of them would average first and last an ex- 
 penditure of $600, making a grand total of ijsGO,- 
 
 000,000. The 
 United States 
 railroads would 
 get 1(5,000,000 
 of this; Seattle 
 merchants and 
 hotel keepers, 
 for outfits and 
 transient 
 guests, |i25,- 
 000,000 ; the 
 prospector's 
 home town and 
 towns fl« rnufr 
 to Seattle and 
 other Pacific 
 coast points, 15,000,000 ; ship companies, for 
 transportation to Alaska, 1(10,000,000; ancl for 
 the transportation of freight over passes and in 
 Alaska, |I15,000,000. This would represent only 
 the actual needs of this many prospectors, and 
 would cause a large increase in other business 
 directly connected with it*. 
 
 THE PROBABLE OUTPUT OF 1898. 
 
 Up to the time of the Klondike discovery the 
 Yukon placer output as tabulated by the national 
 authorities was, in grand total, $3,;{10,500. Al- 
 most the whole of this amount resulted from, the 
 work of the years 1 886 and 1896. The output from 
 1880 to 1886 was comparatively insignificant. 
 
 The predictions for the receipts from the Upper 
 Yukon in 189'* are guesswork, although the latest 
 returned miners make it appear that it will be over 
 
 THE OLD PRESBYTEKIAN CUURCH AT 
 JUNEAU. 
 
 IT 
 
 <» 
 
 DYEA IN BEPTBMBEK, 1897— NOW A TOWN OF ABOUT 5,U1(>. 
 
 PKOSPlj 
 
 up clJ 
 prosp(| 
 doubt f 
 
 
 
 ' i' V-ll'/.l^'-* 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 291 
 
 t and pro- 
 That each 
 ast an ex- 
 al of *00,- 
 000. The 
 ;ed States 
 oads would 
 i!5, 000,000 
 lis; Seattle 
 chants and 
 ■1 keepers, 
 outfits and 
 1 n s i e n t 
 ests, 12.'),- 
 ,000 ; the 
 3 spec, tor's 
 lie town and 
 ms en route 
 Seattle and 
 li e r Tacific 
 mpanies, for 
 30; and for 
 passes and in 
 .^present only 
 specters, and 
 her business 
 
 1898. 
 
 discovery the 
 y the national 
 110,500. Al- 
 lied from, the 
 le output from 
 
 insignificant, 
 ■om the Upper 
 )ugh the latest 
 
 it will be over 
 
 $20,000,000. But if it is $12,000,000, the most 
 
 conservative estimate now offered, it will be 
 
 ■wonderful, ami will mean that witli all the willing 
 
 liands now there and the hundred thousand or more 
 
 who get through in 1898 the yield for 1899 will 
 
 approximate $50,000,000. 
 
 After that it depends on 
 
 transportation facilities to 
 
 get people and machinery 
 
 into the country to multiply 
 
 the placer yields, and a few 
 
 years more will probably 
 
 see on the Yukon ranges 
 
 the steady crunching of ore 
 
 by stamp mills to add to the 
 
 world's gold supply. 
 
 IS THKIIE 8T1M, UOOM FOB 
 I'KOSPECTOKS ? 
 
 The report from C'aptain 
 Ray, United States army, 
 from the interior, stating 
 that no new placers have 
 been discovered for eight 
 months, is doubtless true, 
 but it is misleading. An 
 explanation .shoidd go with 
 it, and if entirely fair it would say that all those 
 on the Yukon last summer were occupied, not 
 with prospecting for new discoveries, but to take 
 
 Those who got to the Uiiper Yukon in the fall 
 did so too late for prospecting, as elsewhere ex- 
 plained. If Captain Ray felt that the food situ- 
 ation demanded a warning to (-heck the senseless 
 onesgoingin imprepared, he \yasprobably justified. 
 
 or ABOUT 5,(«io. 
 
 PKOHPBOTOItS MOVINQ BOAT TIMBUK8 OVEK CHII.KOOT THAIL. 
 
 up claims on the creeks known to be rich or 
 prospecting creeks in tlie same localit ', which no 
 doubt Captain Hay classes as the old discovery. 
 
 HKAOUAY TOWN, FROM THE HEAD OP THE LYNN CANAL, BHOWINQ THK WHITE PASS 
 
 IN OCTOBEB, 1887. 
 
 The impatient intending prospector, liowever, 
 who fears that the lands of gold will all be oc- 
 cupied unless he hastens, at the sacrifice of rea- 
 son, to the gold creeks, should take a glance at 
 a map of Nortli America. Alaska embraces more 
 square miles than twenty-one States of the Union, 
 including the area from North Carolina north- 
 west, taking in Illinois, and thence with the lakes 
 to the North Atlantic coast of Maine. Think of 
 all the rivers in these twenty-one States and of 
 all the creeks that flow into all these rivers, of 
 the branches that teed tlie creeks, and you have 
 a placer area for prospecting to hide a half mil- 
 lion men from one another by a distance to make 
 each feel lonesome. And in tlie Klondike district 
 there is the land, mainly mountains, feeding the 
 streams, where years hence will be found rich 
 quartz ledges that will again awaken the world 
 to the sight of a new Ilavilah. 
 
 To digress here in order to make this point 
 clear. I met a miner last summer on a steamer who 
 was r. urning from the Klondike, and studying 
 the map we had laid Iiefore us, I asked what tlu-ro 
 was of water in that half inch of space between 
 the nioutli of the Klondike and Stewart rivers, 
 as gold was plenty on both. He said: "Oh, 
 ciglit or ten pretty big streams ; you might call 
 'em rivers." Now, here was prospecting ground 
 to employ and lose all the people who got through 
 in 1897. They will not crowd, and the exodus 
 
 41944 
 
 PtaHc N. W. Ristopy Drt^t 
 
 ipWOVfNCIAU L.mRARY 
 
292 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF RE^^IEH^S. 
 
 gold is so tliick that you have to mix sand in 
 
 to sluice it, 
 
 THB KLONDIKE HEQION AM) THE HOUTBa 
 TO DAWSON CITY. 
 
 of 1898 will only go before to point the way to 
 creeks that are liable to pay, even if they do not 
 call for that joke of the miner's — "where the 
 
 A COAST-LINE GKEATEK THAN THE CIRCUMFERENCE 
 OF THE EARTH. 
 
 There are 11,000 islands along tlie coast in- 
 cluded in this Alaskan area, and with the nu- 
 merous inlets they give a coast-line 11,000 miles 
 longer than the ooast-line — Atlantic, Pacific, and 
 Gulf — of tlu) United States, or greater than the 
 circum ference of the earth. A nd consider the west- 
 ern limit of these possessions — there is the island 
 of Attou, the farthest of the Aleutian group ; its 
 longitude is as far west of Seattle as Portland, 
 Maine, is east of Seattle. No matter what re- 
 ports may be spread on this subject, those who 
 are (contemplating a hazard of new fortunes along- 
 the mighty Yukon need not be deterred by a fear 
 of crowtling or richness of prospecting ground, as 
 those wlio have a right to know express unbounded 
 confidence in the richness of the placers, and with 
 the exodus of 1897 lending \.'illing hands with the 
 pick, it may be that the results of 1898 will turn 
 the world Klondike-mad and pale the memory of 
 " Kaffirs" in Europe. Indeed, just as this is 
 going to press there are reports from experts 
 who have been over the ground thoroughly 
 wliich make it quite within the things to be 
 expected that there will soon be even richer . 
 " finds" than those already made — and it is 
 not unlikely tliat these 'nay be in Alaska proper. 
 There can be no douVt that this northwestern 
 portion of our continent is destined to underga 
 a remarkable developmmt in the next few 
 years. 
 
 There is serious work to be done in Alaska and 
 the Northwest Territory — the making of a new 
 world. There are many dissenters from this 
 opinion, but their dissent will only serve the 
 purpose of making all effort moi-e effective, with 
 more forethought and more care. It was much 
 the same when tlie East first heard of the finding 
 of gold on Captain Sutter's farm in California in 
 1849. Evidence was produced of the "finds," 
 and the plains and Rockies were cut into wagon 
 roads, wlule the Indian lurked along the way and 
 took a scalp now and then. This color of danger 
 gave the Eastern press a chance to write lurid 
 pictures of massacres and bloodshed and to place 
 the price of a placer at death, but the " movers' " 
 wagons continued to turn their wheels toward the 
 setting sun, and to-day the fruit of that move- 
 ment makes the writer of a recent article point 
 with nmch reason to our Pacific coast as the 
 changing front of the world. In point of fact, 
 many of the men wlio have made the longest 
 stays in that region are the hardiest-looking and 
 finest physical specimens one could well find. 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 293 
 
 mix sand in 
 
 crMFEBENOE 
 
 the coast in- 
 ith the nn- ■ 
 11,000 miles 
 racific, and 
 ter than the 
 ider tlie west- 
 is the island 
 n group ; its 
 as Portland, 
 ter what re- 
 ct, those who 
 ortunes along 
 rred by a fear 
 ng ground, as 
 ■ss unbounded 
 cers, and with 
 lands with the 
 1898 will turn 
 lie memory of 
 ust as this is 
 from experts 
 id thoroughly 
 things to be 
 3 even richer 
 de — and it is 
 \laska proper. 
 1 northwestern 
 led to undergo 
 the next few 
 
 3 in Alaska and 
 iking of a new 
 ters from this 
 only serve the 
 . effective, with 
 Tt was much 
 d of the finding 
 in California in 
 Df the "finds," 
 cut into wagon 
 ong the way and 
 i color of danger 
 ;e to write lurid 
 led and to plae(< 
 t the" movers' " 
 •heels toward the 
 It of that move- 
 ;ent article point 
 ;ific coast as the 
 In point of fact, 
 lade the longest 
 iiest-looking and 
 could well find. 
 
 A PICITURBSQUB HABITATION ON CHILr 
 KOOT TRAIlf— WAITING FOB SPRINO 
 TO PROCEED NORTH. 
 
 One argonaut after anotlier lias testified to the 
 tremcM'.dous muscular exhilaration exfierienced in 
 crossing the (hilkoot even with the thermometer 
 at all sorts of numbers below zero. And this is 
 simply natural. The freezing purifies the air 
 they breathe, 
 the cold stirs 
 the blood and 
 mu8«jles to ac- 
 tion, the fare 
 i s p 1 a i n but 
 wholesome, and 
 there is that 
 great solitude 
 to feed the soul 
 and that feeling 
 of comradeship 
 — truth to your 
 fellow- man — 
 all of which 
 give health to 
 the body and 
 mind. There 
 
 lias been an honesty remarked in these first 
 dwellers in the Yukon basin and in the travelers 
 over the p; ses, and it is due to the absolute 
 dependence of every man on the other for pro- 
 tection. It was the same in the early days of 
 California, and changed and was lawless in the 
 extreme while tl.e Government was learning how 
 to make the law effective, and it will be the 
 same way on the Yukon, no doubt. 
 
 HAKDSHIPS AWAITING THE OOLD-SEEKER. 
 
 Let no one start out, though, without clearly 
 realizing that the Yukon country is still far from 
 a pleasure resort. Tlie camp life and work of 
 tlie miner on the Klondike is one of great hard- 
 ships, the climate and the long winter nights 
 hedging it in with ever-present and harsh limita- 
 tions. It is a routine of sleep until you wake and 
 work, build fires and cook the brief fare until 
 you sleep. The thermometer goes down to foi-ty 
 or fifty degrees below in January, and sometimes 
 lower, while in the summer-time it will go to 
 one hundred degrees above, and when the mer- 
 cury is highest tiie mosquitoes will })e the dens- 
 est. The latter are one of the greatest trials 
 that the pioneer has to encounter, and the most 
 liardened emigrant from the Jersey Hats will be 
 surpriseil at the vicious onslaughts of these little 
 plagues, who have actually been known to drive 
 the deer and bear into the water for shelter. 
 
 Tlio wise prospector will pay especial attention 
 to the ma. ter of reaching his destination in time 
 to get comfortably settled and build his house 
 before the long winter sets in. Tents are used 
 for camping until a permanent location is made, 
 
 and then a " shack," or log hut, generally of one 
 room, is erecttid. A dirt floor usually answers, 
 and the roof is thatdu^d with boughs, on whicih 
 is piU.'d mud a foot or two thic-k; this soon freezes, 
 making a very warm house if the sides are also 
 banked witli mud and the logs chinked in the 
 same way. 
 
 HOW THE MINEKS LIVE. 
 
 The best fire is one built on a square piece of 
 masonry two feet high, mucli like a blacksmith's 
 forge, and the smoke from this feeds through a 
 pipe, like an inverted funnel, which hangs from 
 the center of the roof, and is fixed to be raised 
 or lowered. About this fire the miners sit in 
 their idle hours, often the meals are eaten off its 
 edge, and many a game of " California Jack " is 
 played across its corners. This open fire in the 
 center of the room is an idea probably copied 
 from the natives. The latter not being so sensi- 
 tive to smoke let it escape through an opening left 
 in the roof, like their tepee, or cone-shaped tent of 
 poles and mud, being constructed with the apex 
 of the cone left open for the smoke. The sup. 
 plies, or sacks of flour, meal, bacon, beans, 
 coffee, salt, and the few lu.xuries, are stored in 
 the same room and jealously guarded. Their 
 shrinking bulk is watched with fear, while the 
 ininei's declare that the gold is most carelessly 
 
 
 
 vA*. 
 
 THE CHILKOOT SUMMIT IN WINTER. 
 
294 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 
 
 TMK IMUIAM PACKEK AND UI8 PUNY. 
 
 hung in bags on pegs bchiml the door, tied up 
 in the arm of a worn-out shirt, or perliaps filled 
 in the foot of a rubber boot. 
 
 Few books 
 reach these 
 camps, and 
 few(ir newspa- 
 p(!rs, as neither 
 government 
 carries any- 
 thing but 
 "first-class 
 mail matter." 
 IJut I noticed 
 on the passes 
 la.st summer 
 that nearly ev- 
 ery man liad a 
 Bible with him, and I saw a number of copies 
 of Sha].(;speare. And to the man of thoughtful 
 mind I should think that a few good books, hard 
 to exhaust, would be a food needed as much as 
 bacon and beans. Nansen while on the Fram 
 got better work from his men because he gave 
 them tlie diversion of books and music. 
 
 Some of tliesci miners build their cabins with a 
 "lean-to" which covers the shaft and protects 
 the partner at the windlass as In; draws up the 
 buckets of frozen dirt. The i)lan of working 
 these placers is for two men to work togetlier, one 
 down in the drift, who, by keeping a Hi'e going 
 wnile he sleeps, thaws enough ground to pick it 
 out and load it in the bucket when awake, while 
 his partner draws the bucket up the shaft with a 
 windlass, made like the old-fashioned well. This 
 dirt he piles out- 
 side, and there 
 it stays until 
 spring, except 
 for an occasion- 
 al "panning "to 
 see how ricli the 
 dirt is running. 
 
 When the 
 springs thaw 
 and begin to 
 trickle down the 
 mountain the 
 miner builds his 
 si nice -box, and 
 turning the wa- 
 ter into its head, inclines it for just the necessary 
 current, and then feeds the box at its upper end 
 with this dump pile. The water continues what 
 nature begar, and the gold in the sand sinks 
 against cleats on the bottom, while the dirt 
 passes away. The "rocker" is also used, and 
 every miner has his little prefercnc(;s as to details 
 
 DIVERSION OF CAMP LIFB. 
 
 of method, but as yet on the Yukon they are 
 primitive indeed. 
 
 In the towns, particularly at Dawson, Dyea, 
 and iSkaguay, everything is " wide open " — drink- 
 ing, gambling, and the mad dance of the miners 
 ami their women are almost a "continuous per- 
 formance " through the winter. Of course tlie 
 crowd of miners change, but the women don't. 
 The men come into town from the mines at in- 
 tervals for a diversion from their monotonous 
 life. This monotony is liable to make the settle- 
 ments of tlie Yukon the most v/icked in the 
 history of camp towns, for human nature will 
 "even up" things. 
 
 It was never my belief that there would be 
 a serious famine at Dawson or on the Klondike 
 this winter. Food miglit go to very high prices 
 and men might have to economize in its use, but 
 
 with the personal knowledge I 
 
 TUB AIU30NAUT'8 CAMP UN CBILKOOT 
 TRAIL. 
 
 had that three- 
 fourths of thoso 
 who got through 
 the passes last, 
 year went with 
 a year's supply, 
 made me feel 
 sure that this, 
 with the ton- 
 nage that got 
 up the Yukon, 
 made a gross 
 supply which 
 would keep the 
 wolf away from 
 the "shack" if 
 men remained 
 together. A 
 miner in that country will charge you the 
 highest market prices for food if you have the 
 money to pay or the strength to work, but bo 
 you penniless and with no work to do, it is his 
 spirit to divide his last crust with you, and with 
 good grace. 
 
 The very best advice that can be given on 
 "outfitting " ii>Y a year or two in that laml of the 
 long nights, witliout particularizing, is to take 
 only what is absolutely needed, and be sure that 
 it is of the very highest quality. A good sleep- 
 ing-bag is worth a dozen a little cheaper; one 
 well-made coat is worth many inferior ones ; and 
 so on through the lisi of clothing, tools, and 
 food. If you do decide to cut on quantity, let it 
 be on the clothes. 
 
 II.— HOW TO GET TO DAWSON CITY. 
 
 The most vital question that these gold-seekers 
 are asking is. What is the best route ? Having 
 kept in close touch with the man who is going to 
 the Yukon, I have concluded that he will have 
 
 agr| 
 
 the 
 
 grea 
 
 free: 
 
 manl 
 
 chaij 
 
 are 
 
 the 
 
 T| 
 the 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 •21»5 
 
 >n thoy are 
 
 ^rson, Dyea, 
 n " — (Irink- 
 f tlio iniiu'ra 
 tinuous per- 
 [ course the 
 omen don't, 
 mines at in- 
 monotonous 
 ce the settle- 
 icked in the 
 nature will 
 
 ere wouUl be 
 tlie Klon(lii<e 
 y high prices 
 n its use, but 
 4 that tliree- 
 urths of those 
 lo got through 
 e passes last 
 !ar went with 
 year's supply, 
 ade me feel 
 ire that this, 
 ith the ton- 
 age that got 
 p the Yukon, 
 lade a gross 
 upply which 
 irould keep the 
 volf away from 
 he "shack" if 
 n e n remained 
 ogether. A 
 large you the 
 [ you have the 
 ) work, but bo 
 to do, it is his 
 1 you, and with 
 
 m bo given on 
 that land of the 
 sing, is to take 
 md be sure that 
 A good sleep - 
 ,le cheaper; one 
 'erior ones ; and 
 liing, tools, and 
 n quantity, let it 
 
 WSON CITY. 
 hese gold -seekers 
 route ? Having 
 n who is going to 
 that he will have 
 
 as liis destination the trilmtarics of that river 
 between the uiouth of tiio Ilootalin(iua and 
 Dawson City, possibly going further down to Cir- 
 cle City or Forty Mile, ami I will give my con- 
 clusions as answering to this destination. 
 
 THE ALLWATEH UOL'TE. 
 
 There is one all- water route, by steamship to 
 St. Michael, 3,000 miles from Puget Sound and 
 4, 000 from San 
 Francisco, 
 thence up the 
 Yukon River 
 1,880 miles to 
 Dawson City. 
 This route is 
 the easiest and 
 at the same 
 time the one 
 entailing more 
 u n c e rtainties, 
 more loss of 
 time, money, 
 and opportuni- 
 ty than any 
 heretofore tak- 
 en ; but on ac- 
 count of its be- 
 ing possible 
 during a very 
 Sound and be 
 
 AN BMUINEISUSlOUTINa THB SUMMIT. 
 
 (This was the last photograph taken 
 on the ChilkoQt in the winter of 
 1897-98, by Arthur Cobb, C.E.) 
 
 brief season to ship from Puget 
 unloaded with your belongings 
 at Dawson City, right in the lieart of the first 
 great discoveries appeals strongly to the average 
 man. It would take all the ships on the Pacific 
 coast, however, to move the gold seekers over this 
 route during the short season it is open. The first 
 ships going via St. Michael in 1898 are scheduled 
 to leave Puget Sound about June 10, but it is not 
 likely that the complementary boats to take the 
 cargoes will be able to start up the Yukon until 
 nearly a month later, because the mouth of the 
 Yukon is not fr(;e of ice for four or five weeks 
 after it breaks up at its sources at Lake Linde- 
 niann or Lake Teslin — about the last of May. 
 This upper ice flows nortli, cuts under the ice 
 where it has not yet thawed, or piles on it, and 
 freezing again forms a grctat icy mass ; this again 
 breaks and flows farther down stream, ending in 
 a grand gorge about the mouth. At the mouth 
 the volume of water flowing into Bering Sea is so 
 great that it is fresh ten miles out, which also 
 freezes and aids in locking this entrance. At 
 many points on the trip up to Dawson the river 
 changes its channel each season, and new bars 
 are formed, often necessitating dredging to enable 
 the boats to find a channel. 
 
 The traveler should reach Dawson City by 
 the first of August, provided he got started up 
 
 the river on one of tlie first boats, and if he 
 expects to labor for others at a per-dieni wage 
 this ti'ij) is the easiest ; l)ut it will cost as much 
 in ready money as going by either tlie Whiter or 
 Chilk(jot passes (leaving I'uget S(juntl May 20), 
 and it will cost in food as nun^h more and in 
 time one year more if the gold-seeker e.xpects to 
 make and work his own location. 
 
 THE BUIEF PR08PECTINO SEASON. 
 
 This is predicated on the shortness of the pros- 
 pecting season, which in many creeks is confined 
 to June and July, because from October to June 
 the weather is too severe. Men say they will 
 prospect in the winter-time, but the Yukon miner 
 tc^lls me that they don't ; that they must get 
 their shaft down in the opcm season, so their 
 work will be underground when winter closes in. 
 Tlie months of August and September, too, are 
 not profitable for prospecting, since the melting 
 of the snow and glaciers on the mountains fills 
 and overflows the creek bottoms. Should the 
 gold-seeker have as his destination some of the 
 streams farther up than Dawson, it will require 
 additional time for the much slower progress, for 
 it is up a swift current in an open boat instead 
 of down stream, as from the overland passes. If 
 one's destination is Stewart River, it is better to be 
 at Lake Lindemann or Lake Teslin at a given time 
 than at Dawson City. One can't be at Dawson 
 City by the all-water route until at least two 
 months later than he can reach these head- 
 
 MiiAK THE HUMMIT OV OHILKOOT, rUUUTEKN DAYH' WUKK 
 FROM DYEA, EIOHTEEN MILES BEHTND. 
 
 waters. So the water route loses practically 
 all the prospecting seaison, while the short passes 
 save six or seven weeks of it. 
 
 I know the actual hardships on the easier 
 trails from "packing" across the White and 
 Chilkoot passes, and have intimate knowledge 
 
296 
 
 I 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF REl^IEWS. 
 
 AN INDIAN PACKER IN HIS PICTDB- 
 E8QUB OARB AT CRATER LAKE. 
 
 from pooplo on whom one should rely as to the 
 otlier routes. However, aside from all this the 
 question of climate fixes the question of date 
 when you can get into the country, and the 
 question of date 
 fixes the value 
 of the first 
 year's results. 
 
 THE OVERLAND 
 
 TKAIL TO LAKE 
 
 TESLIN. 
 
 What is 
 known as the 
 Teslin route via 
 Wrangell and 
 the Stickeen 
 River to Tele- 
 graph Creek, 
 thence by over- 
 land trail 1.j4 
 miles to Lake Teslin, also has its advocates. They 
 point to the fact that after getting to Lake Teslin 
 all the rest of the trip is down stream, avoidi? 5 
 dangerous rapids and troublesome portages. T> i 
 is undoubtedly true; but what of that l.')4 miles 
 of land ? It would be nothing to balk an earnest 
 man if lie was going to trudge it with his lunch- 
 basket and a good stout staff; but where is the 
 3'ear'8 supply of outfit — tlie thousand pounds ? 
 How long will it take him to lug that over on his 
 back, making at the most ten miles a day for 
 «ach hundred pounds ? Or, if he has money to 
 buy two horses and feed and shoe them, and each 
 carries 'I'tQ pounds and makes 20 miles a day, 
 what will it cost ? 
 
 Suppose there is money to buy and ship these 
 horses to Telegraph Creek and to buy their feed : 
 allowing a reasonable time for accidents and for 
 moving the feed for the horses, it is plain that it 
 will take at least a month for this land trip, and 
 the cost will be double that of the White, Chil- 
 koot, or St. Michael trips. However, if cost or 
 liardship cuts no figure and the traveler starts 
 early over the frozen snow so as to be at Lake 
 Teslin by the latter part of May, he will be in an 
 excellent position to reach the gold district early 
 in the prospecting season. 
 
 THE DALTON ROUTE. . 
 
 The Dalton trail, from near the mouth of the 
 Chilkat Itiver overland to Fort Selkirk, 2G0 miles, 
 is purely a cattle trail. It is good for pack animals 
 and particularly suited to them in the ' ' open 
 season," because along its way are meadows to 
 feed them; but it is only profitable to pack over 
 this route where the animals are to be sold down 
 below, and it will not be used much by the pros- 
 
 pectors until a surface railroad is built over it — 
 an improvement likely to come witliin the next 
 few year'. 
 
 The Canadian routes are out of the question 
 for i)res(!nt needs, on account of the distance of 
 overland journeys. 
 
 The Taku route, leading out from Juneau, is 
 quite similar to the Teslin route from Wrangell, 
 only not so good for pedestrians, but better for 
 railroad-building. 
 
 THE MOST FEASIBLE ROUTE VIA CHILKOOT PASS. 
 
 This narrows down the route question to the 
 Chilkoot and White passes. Going by the White 
 there is forty-five miles of land from s-hip navi- 
 gation to canoe navigation. The Chilkoot trail 
 is one- half this distance. The gradients on the 
 White are less as an average profile, the summit 
 of the White being 2,500 feet above sea-level 
 and the Chilkoot .3,600 feet ; but there are more 
 ups and downs and more bogs on the White, and 
 altogether, mile for mile, the Chilkoot is very 
 much the easier proposition. 
 
 It starts out from the town of Dyea, up a sandy 
 and bowlder-strewn valley for eight miles to the 
 mouth of the canyon — a point where the valley 
 narrows in an easterly deflection — and from here 
 it is four miles of very hard travel to Sheep 
 Camp. It leads out up the mountain side and is 
 ever up and down, over the spurs and across the 
 bogs and streams ; one minute you are exerting 
 yourself to the utmost to pull your boot out 
 
 of the mucky 
 black stuff, and 
 the next are 
 pulling yourself 
 up a rise by 
 holding to the 
 roots of a tree ; 
 then comes a 
 slide down a 
 grimy stone, 
 and if you 
 light squarely 
 must balance 
 yourself well 
 over the log 
 across the 
 stream ; and 
 again up and 
 down, until you 
 wonder .'f the 
 pack on your back is petrified into a lead-bearing 
 stone. From Sheep Camp the ascent becomes 
 greater as you go up the canyon, and two hours 
 will put you in sight of the famous pass, that for- 
 bidding door to Eldorado. From this point it 
 does iK)t look far to the sheer granite wall with 
 
 HOW HTREAMH ARE CRUSHED— THE 
 AUTHOR WADINO TAIYA RIVER. 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 297 
 
 It over it — 
 in the next 
 
 ;he question 
 distance of 
 
 ru Jnneau, la 
 11 Wrangell, 
 it better for 
 
 ;,KOOT PASS. 
 
 Bstion to the 
 )y tlie White 
 ni ship navi- 
 'liilkoot trail 
 lieiits on the 
 , the summit 
 3ve sea- level 
 lere are more 
 le White, and 
 Ikoot is very 
 
 ea, up a sandy 
 t miles to the 
 ire tlie valley 
 md from here 
 vel to Sheep 
 lin side and is 
 md across the 
 u are exerting 
 \fo\iX boot out 
 f the mucky 
 lack stuff, and 
 he next are 
 lulling yourself 
 ip a rise by 
 lolding to the 
 oots of a tree ; 
 lien comes a 
 ilide down a 
 rrimy stone, 
 1 n d if you 
 light squarely 
 must balance 
 yourself well 
 over the log 
 across the 
 stream ; and 
 again up and 
 down, until you 
 wonder ^f the 
 o a lead -bearing 
 ascent becomes 
 , and two hours 
 us pass, that for- 
 om this point it 
 ranite wall with 
 
 the two little depressions in the top. Tlio one to 
 the left, an<l the liigliur oik^, is the trail, and from 
 tliis first view, three mikis away, you can see a 
 tlircad-like path wind up to it. ' Moreover, l)y 
 careful scrutiny, if your eyes are good, you can 
 perceive little specks moving over and up tlio 
 '• granite clcjuds " — they seem the atoms of liope. 
 
 THE FAMOUS SUMMIT. 
 
 A little farther, at Last Camp, horses are usu- 
 ally unpacked. The climb from hero to the top 
 is like a groat pair of steps, uneven and each step 
 growing larger as you got nearer to it, but pa- 
 tience and frequent rests will get you finally . ■ 
 the summit. The scene about you becomes i!i- 
 desciriably grand as you toil up this ascent, the 
 vaiit;_>s lying below like strips of green, with a 
 stripe of silver wliero the little Taiya River siiows, 
 above, all space seems to be frozen ai J locked with 
 glaciers ; the birds are singing down there where 
 you were an hour ago, and the poppy is gorgeous 
 and indolently sways in the summer air ; but up 
 here it is perpetual winter, and when you gain 
 the top of the summit the winds give you an icy 
 kiss like death. 
 
 LAKE LINDEMANN AND THE BOATS. 
 
 » A quarter of a mile beyond and five hundred 
 feet below is Crater Lake, and the trail twists to 
 the right of it, on past Long Lake to Deep Lake, 
 and at last to the head of navigation. Lake 
 Lindemann. From the summit to Lindemann it 
 is rocks and bogs and some easy going, the dis- 
 tance being less than eight miles. Here is where 
 boats are built for the river journey, and it is 
 necessary to get timber from the forests two 
 
 miles away — perliaps miich further by this sum- 
 mer, as suitable timlter is scarce and fast being 
 cut. Tliere is a small sawmill at this place and 
 
 LOUKIMO NOUTH FROM SUMMIT OF OBILKOOT PASS, 
 8II0WINO CRATER I^KE. . 
 
 some Ijoats are being built this winter, but they 
 will be exhausted with the first movement north, 
 and again plain batteaus will go to prohibitive 
 prices, just as during the past season, when they 
 actually sold a boat to hold two men and a ton of 
 supplies for $575. It takes two men ten days 
 of liard work to construct one of these boats out 
 of the forest wood. Tlie tree is found, felled, 
 and tlie whipsaw makes the boards ; then it is a 
 question of shaping and putting together, calk- 
 ing and launching. 
 
 B\i courtrai/ «/ McClure'a Magazine. 
 
 CAKRV1NG-BOAT8 ON THE YUKON. 
 
S98 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF RE^IEIVS. 
 
 DOWN THE RIVEK. 
 
 From this point to Dawson is plain sailing 
 down stream, except a few short portages, one a 
 quarter of a mile, another below Lindemann a 
 mile and a quarter, and not forgetting to except 
 several rapids, the most dangerous of which is 
 the White Horse. The channel through these 
 rough waters is better known now than when 
 they caused serious consequences to men and 
 supplies early last summer, and it is understood 
 that there are men making a regular business of 
 
 SLUICIMQ ON BONANZA CREEK. 
 
 Redrawn /rom photograph, 
 
 taking boats through for a few dollars — a very 
 trifle compared with the former dangers. One po(jr 
 fellow was in the van of the rush early last sea- 
 son, and after many hardships reached this place, 
 shot at the rapids, struck the rocks, and lost boat 
 and supplies. It is related that being washed 
 against the lower shore and realizing his helpless 
 condition (his entire pos:-essions being reduced 
 to a single can of a famous baking powder), he 
 shot himself, and a board now mark.: the place 
 where he was buried by those who came after. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF TEMI'EUAMENT. 
 
 I have given a der,cription of the Chilkoot Pass 
 as I know it, to show the clmi-acter of this sort of 
 travel and to say tliis is tho very best route to 
 the gold district. It is not an engaging picture, 
 but it is true that what a man nviUy thinks of 
 such a rough adventure depends largely on his 
 nature. Two men go in and live thrf)Ugli all the 
 sensations and return to tell their story ; one is a 
 harrowing, tearful tale, the other rough and 
 hard, but with lots of fun for all that; and there 
 you are. Jt is often the case that one man will 
 weight down a whole party, lie may be a good 
 fellow, too, in a way, but his disposition hangs 
 
 heavy, while another will lift a crowd through 
 all manner of hardships by his elasticity of spirits 
 and courage to do, like Kipling's " 'Eathen : " 
 
 nd he lifts 'em, lifts 
 charge that wms the day. 
 
 " And he lifts 'em, lifts 'em, lifts 'em thro' the 
 
 AN INCIDENT OF THE TRAfL. 
 
 I saw this effect of man on man strangely 
 exemplified on the Chilkoot trail at a place they 
 call Pleasant Valley. A big fellow whose clothes 
 and white collar seemed strangely out of place in 
 tlie pushing horde was under a tree, reclining 
 and at ease, absorbed in a big book that lay open 
 on the ground before him. My curiosity was 
 aroused, and approaching nearer I made out the 
 title of the volume which held him enthralled; it 
 was Nansen's "Farthest North." Now, there 
 was no doubt but that superb story of ad- 
 venture carried many a pound for the big man, 
 and compensated for so strange a thing as ' ' tot- 
 ing" two such heavy volumes on so arduous a 
 trip, where all is considered worthless that you 
 cannot eat or wear. 
 
 COMING TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 
 
 The advice given as to route is from the 
 standpoint of existing conditions, or rather the 
 conditions as they existed last year, and does not 
 take into account the aids to transportation over 
 tlie land I'outes now under construction or pro- 
 posed. The physical conditions of the routes 
 other than by way of the Chilkoot or Wliite 
 passes forbid the possibility of any transportation 
 means to handle supplies or passengers this year, 
 except by slow and primitive methods, such as 
 ox or horse pack trains ; and no matter how well 
 the promoters of any surface roads on such 
 routes may use the brush of the imagination, 
 their schemes cannot bo carried through in 1898. 
 It is doubtful, indeed, even assuming tliat money 
 in abundance is available for such construction, 
 whether even next year will see any such lino in 
 operation over the Stickeen, Taku, Edmonton, or 
 Dalton routes. There will undoubtedly be a 
 narrow-gauge or other surface railroad built over 
 one of tliese routes, but it is a fair conclusion to 
 say that it will take millions cf money and \\\vi\' 
 more years to accomplish it, althougli within that 
 tune part of this distance nuiy be operated to 
 luilp out on a portion of the trip. J nuikc these 
 broad assertions from my knowledge of the diilj- 
 culties to bo met. 
 
 OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OP ROAD BUILDERS. 
 
 Oil account of tlio great rainfall near the coast, 
 wluM-ii such routes begin, it will be necessary to 
 build well up on the spurs or foothills, requiring 
 almost a continuous construction of trestles, fills, 
 
 W 
 
 b<).> 
 Rtn 
 
 (TO 
 
 sill 
 dill 
 clui 
 
 tW( 
 
 net 
 
 pOL 
 
wd through 
 ity of spirits 
 ' 'Eatlien : " 
 bra. tliro' the 
 
 in strangely 
 a place tliey 
 (Those clothes 
 it of place in 
 ec, reclining 
 that lay ot'cn 
 uriosity was 
 oade out the 
 nthralled; it 
 Now, there 
 story of ad- 
 ,he big man, 
 ling as ' ' tot- 
 so arduous & 
 iless that you 
 
 lUTIES. 
 
 is from the 
 or rather the 
 , and does not 
 iportation over 
 uction or pro- 
 of tlio routes 
 koot or White 
 ti-ansportation 
 igers this year, 
 thods, such as 
 atter how well 
 oads on such 
 e imagination, 
 rough in 1898. 
 ing that money 
 h construction, 
 ly such lino in 
 , Edmonton, or 
 oubtcdly Ih! a 
 Iroad built over 
 ,ir conclusion to 
 loney and threi' 
 iUgli witliin that 
 be o[)erated to 
 ] make these 
 dge of the diili- 
 
 VD nUILDKUS. 
 
 1 near the coast, 
 be necessary to 
 ithills, requiring 
 of trestles, fills, 
 
 THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 299 
 
 or cuts — the cuts. too, through granite formations. 
 When once across the mountain range, parallel- 
 ing the coast, the rains or fresliets are not so 
 great, but the snows fall steadily and do not melt 
 until June, the winds blow, and snow-di'ifts of 
 great depth accumulate at all low grades, neces- 
 sitating the same construction as on the coast 
 side, but with the addition of ahnost continuous 
 snow-sheds. It is easy to calculate such con- 
 struction at the cost of |; 15, 000 or $20,000 a 
 mile, but it is another matter actually to do it at 
 twice these figures. 
 
 THE 8KAOUAY WAGON ROAD. 
 
 Over the Skaguay trail or White Pass route 
 there is going on a sensible construction for tem- 
 porary assistance in the sliape of a wagon road, 
 over wliicli, if it is ever completed in a satisfac- 
 tory condition, much freiglit can be handled by 
 teams. At this writing some seven or eight miles 
 of tliis road liave been built out from Skaguay. 
 It is still in very rough condition, but perhaps 
 with a little more work wlion the season moder- 
 ates it will answer the purpose very well. The 
 company proposes to continue this to a point be- 
 yond the summit by May or June, but it is known 
 now that operations have been temporarily sus- 
 pended. This route does not follow the old trail, 
 but keeps up the Skaguay River to the real 
 
 Tilt. UWKL .i.NU or THl. CIIIKf CF TUB C'UILKOOTS, AT 
 
 CniLKOOT Vl'^LAOE. 
 Photo b\) J. i: Pratt. 
 
 White Pass, a route encountering two or three 
 liox canyons closing it in to the width of the 
 stream with sheer cliffs. These ])laces are to be 
 crossed on steel bridges, one of which has been 
 shipped to Alaska. Granting, however, that this 
 iliflicult enteri>rise is cin'ried to a successful con- 
 clusion, it leaves the traveler at the summit, or 
 twenty miles from ciiiioe navigation at Lake Ben- 
 nett ; and as a lnn<l trip, no matter what the to- 
 pography, is still a land trip, recpiiring packing, 
 
 and the question of transportation of supplies is 
 only sliglitly assisted. To be sure, the argonaut 
 will give thanks for any relief from the present 
 difficulties, but no real solution of the problem 
 can be expected this year from Skaguay. 
 
 THE CHILKOOT TKAMWAY. 
 
 On the Chilkoot route transportation enterprises 
 appear to have taken a more definite shape, and 
 
 A CHUiKOOT OHAVB. 
 Photo by J. F. Pralt. 
 
 from the means employed it is reasonable to ex- 
 pect quicker and more certain results. This 
 means is the overhead cable construction, known 
 as the aerial tramway, which from its airy name 
 does not appeal very strongly to the practical 
 mind not acquainted with the system, but which 
 is known to mining engineers as a simple and 
 comparatively inexpensive method of handling 
 supplies destined to go over such a short land 
 trip as offered by the Chilkoot. It is extensively 
 used in very many mining sections to carry ore 
 from quarry to smelter, and one is already in op- 
 eration at the qtiartz mines near Juneau, Alaska. 
 It claims as a basis for jierfection in this case that 
 it is not dependent on surface conditions ; that it 
 is not subject to disturbance from glaciers, land- 
 slides, or snow-drifts ; that the gratles are no 
 barrier to successful operation (as the supports for 
 the cable track and traction cable are built on the 
 points of the profile of the route) ; and that tho 
 tonnage ca])acity is very elastic. 
 
 The stations, or supports, are built on the 
 high points of the route. Thesi; consist of large 
 pol(>s, \'2 or 14 inches in diameter at the lai'ge 
 end and varying from 18 to .'JO feet in length ; 
 they average about 400 feet apart, but this space 
 can be increased to l,r>()0 feet without in anyway 
 alTecting successful operation. These poles liave 
 a two-inch iron pin in their bottom whicii is fitteil 
 into a hole drilled in the granite ; for further 
 support the base of the pole is held in place by a 
 
300 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF REI^IEIVS. 
 
 cast-iron slioe also fitted to the rock, and it is 
 then hekl rigidly in place by small cable guys 
 running from its top to the four corners of a 
 square, the guys being kept taut by a simple de- 
 vice of turnbucklcs. (Crossing the pole at the 
 top are arms, much like those on a telegi-aph 
 , pole, only stronger, and at the extreme of the top 
 
 A CUILKOOT INDIAN CANOE ON THE CHILKOOT HIVEH-THB CANOE DUO OUT OF 
 
 A SINGLE LOG or COTTONWOOD. 
 Photo by J. F. Pratt. 
 
 arms is the stationary or track cable, made of 
 plow steel one inch in diameter and of great ten- 
 sile strength. Two feet below the top arm is a 
 second one, carrying on sheaves at its extremities 
 the traction cable of five-eighths inch diameter. 
 This cable is endless and is driven by steam power 
 from a plant located conveniently on the line. The 
 car. or carrier, is suspended on a hanger which 
 rests with two small wheels on tlie upper cable, and 
 as the hook grips the lower moving caHo, the car 
 is propelled forward at the i-ate of 'i')!) feet per 
 minute, making the through trip from Dyea to 
 Lindemann in eight hours. An ingeiii(jus con- 
 8tru(!tioii of tiie hanger enables the cars to jia-ss 
 the supports. 
 
 It is feasible to handle with perfcjct success this 
 endless calilo system for a distance of no more 
 than fiv(i miles ; consequently the Cliilkoot route, 
 which is about twenty-five miles, will require six 
 sections with three power jjlants, each driving a 
 section in either direction. At the (MkIs of the.sc! 
 sections thcM'o is an automatic release of tlie 
 hanger from the culjles ; it is curried by gravity 
 on u switch of similar construction to the next 
 station, I'ehooks itself, and the cars continue to 
 destination without reliantlling. .\tthe starting- 
 point tlie loaded waterpi'oof carriers are taken 
 
 up Vjy the cables passing through the freight 
 house, hooking themselves on automatically at 
 such distances as the operator prefers, and taken off 
 the cables by a similar device at destination, 
 where the emptied carriers are again hooked on 
 the return cable and sent to the starting-point. 
 One company already reports four or five miles of 
 this construction in opera- 
 tion over the steepest grades 
 on the Chilkoot route, and 
 promises to shortly have 
 another four miles in oper- 
 ation, which may reason- 
 ably be expected by the 
 middle of May. Another 
 company, with much more 
 extensive plans, has just 
 gotten started on the con- 
 struction of one of these 
 lines to run from its own 
 dock, built two mihis out 
 from Dyea, thi-oughto Lake 
 Lindemann, thus covering 
 the whole of the land trip. 
 They propose to carry ar- 
 ticles up to .500 pounds in 
 weight as well as " knock- 
 down " boats. 
 
 It is believed that the 
 completion of these plans to 
 convey supplies over the 
 Chilkoot and White Passes in eight hours, 
 instead of five or six weeks, will bring the rate 
 down from forty cents a pound to about ten 
 cents. .411 the real efforts to handle freight 
 overland am going on ^t Dyea and Skaguay, 
 and these places are only separated by a neck of 
 land at the head of the arm of the sea known as 
 the Lynn Canal. 
 
 LOCATING A CLAIM. 
 
 The laws governing the location of claims vary 
 on either side of the boundary line, the limit on 
 the Klondike or British side having been re- 
 duced since last .August from oOO feet in length, 
 running with the stream, and extending from 
 bench to bench to 100 feet in lci;gth running 
 with the stream measured from high-water nuirk 
 outward, or to the Ix'iich if it be furtlicr. Tliis 
 is tlie creek or riv<'r claim. " Bar diggings" are 
 a strip of land 100 feet wide at high-water mark 
 and extending into tlui stream to its lowest water- 
 level. "Dry diggings" are sinij)ly 100 fetit 
 siiuare. 
 
 The Klondike and its afiluents werestakcid and 
 are lu'ld liy the miners under the old law, and 
 any iqiplication attempted by Canaila of the new 
 law, affecting these miners, is liable to meet with 
 
 of 
 
 "ill 
 
 noi 
 
 of 
 
 pre 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 801 
 
 the freight 
 
 omatically at 
 
 and taken ofE 
 
 destination, 
 
 in hooked on 
 
 tarting-point. 
 
 five miles of 
 
 ion in opera - 
 
 ;eepest grades 
 
 ot route, and 
 
 shortly have 
 
 niles in oper- 
 
 niay i-eason- 
 
 ected by the 
 
 ay. Another 
 
 ,li much more 
 
 6,ns, has just 
 
 I on the con- 
 
 one of these 
 
 from its own 
 
 ;wo miles out 
 
 iroughtoLake 
 
 thus covering 
 
 the land trip. 
 
 e to carry ar- 
 
 500 pounds in 
 
 3II as " knock- 
 
 i. 
 
 eved that the 
 
 f these plans to 
 
 plies over the 
 
 eight hours, 
 
 bring the rate 
 
 I to about ten 
 
 handle freight 
 
 and Bkaguay, 
 
 3d by a neck of 
 
 e sea known as 
 
 [1 of claims vary 
 lie, th(! limit on 
 aving been ro- 
 ) feet in length, 
 extending from 
 ler.gth running 
 ligh-watcr nnirk 
 ! further. 'I'liis 
 ir diggings" are 
 igh-water mark 
 its lowest water- 
 imply 100 feet 
 
 were staked and 
 h(! old law, and 
 lada of the new 
 ,blo to meet with 
 
 a stubborn resistance from them, as is also tiie 10 
 per cent, proposed as royalty to be put on the 
 output of these older locations. But the Domin- 
 ion of Canada will probably deal with the prob- 
 lem in a broad and liberal way, as the case would 
 seem to demand. The prospectors were induced 
 under different laws to hunt for gold in its 
 frozen domains, and a law that would be retro- 
 active would simply be bad faith. The new 
 Canadian law also reserves every alternate ten 
 claims for the crown. This reduced -claim area 
 is calculated to dampen the ardor of the argonaut, 
 for at best it reduces his prospects to one- fifth 
 of what was allowed the pioneers. While the 
 American side has not been proven nearly so rich, 
 yet our Government permits the taking up of an 
 equivalent to about twenty acres, or fifteen times 
 as much as on the British side. 
 
 Canada's equivalent for her exactions. 
 
 Canada also proposes to levy a duty on miners' 
 supplies brought into the Northwest Territory, 
 but the exact amount has not yet been determined 
 from knowledge of the application. For tlie greater 
 tribute it is true that Canada gives the better serv- 
 ice. A claim on that side the boundary can 
 be perfected with more dispatch than on the 
 American side, and she lends assistance readily 
 to open trails to new camps of any considerable 
 size, connecting them with supply points ; she 
 has, moreover, a pol'ce system and mail service 
 superior to that of Alaska proper. 
 
 The miners' meeting is the only government 
 in the interior of Alaska, but it appears ni^ai'ly to 
 have outlived its usefulness, and witii the growth 
 of the cQuntrv and the introduction of a class of 
 
 fold — legislative, judicial, and execiitive. No 
 provision is made for a governing officer, the 
 whole fabric resting on the great American prin- 
 ciple, "majority rules." Universal suffrage is 
 given and all have an equal vote. The method 
 of proceedings is as follows : If a man has a 
 grievance he posts a notice to that effect and 
 calls a meeting for a certain date. At the ap- 
 pointed time the miners of that locality assemble, 
 generally in tlie open air, and a moderator from 
 their number is appointed. Then the prosecutor 
 presents his case ; the defendant answers. Cross- 
 questioning speeches pro and con are made, and 
 
 
 OAOHBB TO PHKHKHVB WINTUU I'llUVlSIUNB. 
 
 lir'-awn from phofogrraph. 
 
 non-producing adventurers, attracted by the hopes 
 of making theiv fortunes at the exjjense of the 
 producers, it is fast becoming a mockery, 
 
 The powers of the miners' meeting are tlireo- 
 
 NATIVK-BUILT FISH-THAP8 IN THK CHII.KOOT UlVEIt. 
 Phutn by J. F. Pratt. 
 
 in the end some one puts a motion, which is either 
 carried or defeated. If carried, the penalty is 
 imposed without delay. 
 
 III.— HOW AND WHERE THE GOLD 
 WAS FOUND. 
 
 For half a century tlie existence of gold in 
 Alaska has been known. It was reported by 
 Tebenkof in 1848 and again by the engineer 
 Deroschin in IHT)!, and from 1848 to 18.")") the 
 Russian- American Company spent a large amount 
 of money in active mining ()i)erations. A force 
 of forty miners under Lieutenant Deroschin was 
 kept continually at work at the head of tim inlet 
 on Kaknoo {{iver and in the Kenai and i^rinco 
 William mountains. They found gold, but in 
 sucli snuiU quantities that their entlmsiasm gradu- 
 ally wttiu^d, and the diggings had been deserted 
 for fift(ien or twenty years wiion the country 
 passed into the liands of the LTnited States. Ten 
 yimrs later Chixiuctte aiul Carpenter found traces 
 of the precious metal on the Stickeen River, and 
 I'rof. W. 1'. Blake verified this discovery in 18(13. 
 In 187.'{ there was some excitement over a dis- 
 covery in .Southeastern Alaska, but the real 
 
302 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF REI/IEIVS. 
 
 
 history of mining does not begin nntil 1880, 
 when Joseph Juneau achieved fame in the annals 
 of th(i country by the first important "find " near 
 tlie town which now bears his name — as late as 
 188G still "a little village of rough cabins." 
 
 THE QBEAT TKEADWELL STAMP MILL. 
 
 When tiie excitement over this discovery was 
 at its height, a miner who went by the name of 
 ' ' French Pete " staked a claim on the top of a 
 mountain on Douglas Island. John Treadwell 
 bought the claim for ^400 and built a five-stamp 
 mill, which he later increased to 120 stamps and 
 seven years after the discovery enlarged it to 240 
 stamps, making ihe Treadwell the largest mill in 
 the world. The ore is low grade, running about 
 $3 to the ton and costing about $1.08 per ton 
 
 A CHILKOOT VILLAOE. 
 
 Photo b|/ J. F. Pratt. 
 
 to extract the bullion, which to-day makes an 
 output of ;js 1,000, 000 a year. 
 
 At Sum Dum a ten-stamp mill is at work, and 
 the ore is rated at something like $100 to the ton. 
 
 Just below Juneau, at Sheep Creek, is the 
 Silver Queen Mine, running a ten-stamp mill, 
 and altogether witliin four miles of Juneau, in- 
 cluding the Treadwell, there are nine mills in 
 operation. 
 
 Sixty miles above Juneau, toward Lynn 
 CaUiil, is the Bt^-ner's Bay Mine, and there are 
 ri(^li ledges rejiortc-d on Adnuralty Island. These 
 deposits require expensive machinery to even 
 test them properly, and when it exteiuls beyond 
 tiu! i)ri)spectiMg stage is work for large capital 
 only. 
 
 K. E. Preston, the Director of the United 
 States Mint, says of the output of gold frojn 
 Alaska befon; tbe Klondike discovery: "The 
 gold product of Alaskathus far has been I'emark- 
 ahle rather for its n^gularity than its amount, and 
 is therefore more favorable to the permanency of 
 
 development of the mineral resources than if it 
 were subject to violent fluctuations." 
 
 ALONG THE YUKON. 
 
 For sixty-four years the great Yukon River, 
 "the Mississippi of the North" (which is de- 
 clared by both Professor EUiott and Mr. Ivan 
 Petroff to discharge ' ' as much if not a third more " 
 water into Bering Sea than the Father of Waters 
 does into the Gulf of Mexico), has been explored 
 by one traveler after another, yet the first signs 
 of gold in the Yukon basin were not brought to 
 light until 1881. These indicati(ms on the bars 
 of the Big Salmon River were followed by similar 
 manifestations on the Pelly, Hootalinqua, and 
 Stewart rivers, and gradually i)lacer mines were 
 developed on Forty Mile, Sixty Mile, and Birch 
 creeks, and on Koyukuk River. In 1883, how- 
 ever, the total white population amounted to only 
 fourteen persons, and there is still extant a pho- 
 tograph of thirteen of these forerunners of the 
 present horde. In 1886 Forty Mile Creek was 
 the storm center, an honor wrested from it in 1893 
 by Birch Creek and the neighboring streams. 
 The following year Circle (-'ity, the pioneer of 
 the Yukon mining towns, was founded and became 
 the headquarters for all the miners of the region. 
 
 KLONDIKE AND BONANZA CREEK. 
 
 Early in August, 1896, a California miner 
 named J. F. Butler drifted into the little trailing 
 post of Dawson, where some rich strikes had 
 been made on the east bank of the river. He 
 tried tlu^ western bank without success, and hear- 
 ing rumors of great luck on his neighbors' part 
 (they had, in fact, taken out $40,000 in coarse 
 gold), he ci'ossed the river and began to work uj' 
 the Klondike, a snuiU tributary stream which tlie 
 knowing ones had passed by as olfering no 
 chances whatever. The latter afterward declared, 
 with all the scorn of the initiated, that it was chec 
 chacoe (tenderfoot) luck ; but however that may 
 l)e, Butler took out $10,000 in ten days from 
 his first prospect hole four miles above Dawson. 
 Almost sinmltaneously came the Bonanza (,'reek 
 "strike" by George W. ("orniack on August 12. 
 (Virmack had an Indian wife, and it is said that 
 his attention was called to this locality by his 
 luvlian friends. His first work on the Klondike — 
 a corruption of the Indian word Thri»}-illuck, 
 nu'aniug "fishing grounds" — was ju-imitive, he 
 having to carry tlu! gravel for some distaiuie to 
 water to pan it ; l)ut as he, with two otiier nuni, 
 waslipd out $1,200 in eight days in this fashion, 
 he saw the value of the "find," and returning to 
 Circle City for food, spread the report which left 
 the other Yukon towns (ies(>rte<l. This was in 
 August, 189(), but it was nearly a year before 
 
 r 
 
 fn 
 foi) 
 
 UIK 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 803 
 
 es than if it 
 
 ''vikon River, 
 which is de- 
 rid Mr. Ivan 
 1 third more" 
 ler of Waters 
 teen explored 
 lie first signs 
 )t brought to 
 s on the bars 
 ved by similar 
 talinqua, and 
 r mines were 
 le, and Birch 
 n 1883, how- 
 ninted to only 
 extant a pho- 
 nnners of the 
 ile Creek was 
 Eromitin 1893 
 •ring streams, 
 he pioneer of 
 led and became 
 1 of the region. 
 
 :;keek, 
 
 .lifornia miner 
 le little trading 
 ch strikes had 
 the river. He 
 x'ess, and hear- 
 neighbors' part 
 1,000 in coarse 
 Kan to work up 
 ream wliich tiie 
 as oiTering no 
 rward declared, 
 that it was chcc 
 tevcn* that may 
 
 ten days from 
 above Dawson. 
 Bonanza Creek 
 : on August 12. 
 I it is said that 
 
 locality by his 
 the Klondike — 
 rd Tlnnn-diurk, 
 iH primitive, he 
 ome distance to 
 two other men, 
 in this fasluon, 
 iiul returning to 
 ■(•port which left 
 I. Tliis was in 
 y a year before 
 
 the world heard of the discovery and had the 
 proof brought to it on the Excelsior &nd Portland, 
 although William Ogilvie, government surveyor, 
 had made reports to Canada, and rumors were 
 broadcast. The Excelsior brought down from St. 
 Michael J(500,000 worth of gold, most of it 
 from Forty Mile Creek. A little later the Port- 
 land sailed into Seattle with $700,000 of Klon- 
 dike gold and six of the lucky pioneers on board. 
 Seattle was stirred to its very depths. Five 
 thousand people crowded around the dock, and 
 as the gold came down the gang-plank packed in 
 "blankets, tin cans, canvas sacks, even in the 
 legs of old trousers," the onlookers went wild 
 with enthusiastic excitement. An eye-witness 
 reported that one weather-beaten old fellow was 
 so overcome by this ovation and by the actuality 
 of his good fortune which it impressed upon him 
 that he pi'oceeded to shower among the crowd a 
 handful of nuggets worth some $300. 
 
 The news ran along the western coast like 
 wild -fire. The north pole changed its location to 
 tho, s[)ot where the one hundred and forty-first 
 meridian crosses the arctic circle for all adven- 
 turous spirits — a golden pole toward which every 
 compass pointed. From that day to this the 
 oxcitement has been increasing, despite the 
 swarm of daunt- 
 ing and contra- 
 dictory reports 
 wliich have been 
 floated to meet 
 the public de- 
 mand for news. 
 .Since this time 
 the gold that 
 has reached the 
 United States 
 from the Yukon 
 foots up about 
 $6,000,000. 
 The gold 
 brought out of 
 tiie Yukon be- 
 fore the arrival of tho Excelsior was not consid- 
 erable, authority giving the output of the Yukon 
 liasiii for the ten years preceding the Klondike 
 dL-icovery at about $3,000,000. while within two 
 months iil'ter the discovery $."),000.000 were taken 
 out. It nuist be said, though, that this "two 
 iiiontiis" is hardly a fair statement. True, it was 
 washed out in thiittime, but the result also repre- 
 sented much time and labor during the previous 
 eight or ten months in a(;cumulating part of the 
 sands sluiced in that two months. It is int(>rest- 
 ing to know that it took tlie first eight months 
 of milling in (California to get out that amount, 
 under infinitely more favorable climatic conditions. 
 
 THB OIIACEFUL CHII.KAT DUOOCT IN 
 TAIYA BAT. 
 
 THE GREAT GOLD BELT. 
 
 The highest authority on Ala-ska, Dr. W. H. 
 Dall, of the Smithsonia.n Institution at Washing- 
 ton, a geologist of note, says : "The gold- 
 bearing belt of Northwestern vVmerica contains 
 all the gold-fields extending into British Colum- 
 bia and what is known as the Northwestern Ter- 
 ritory of Alaska. The Yukon really runs along 
 in that belt for five or six hundred miles. The 
 
 LOOKING UP THB ILEHINI VALLEY. 
 
 Photo by J. F. Pratt. 
 
 bed of the main river is in the valley. The 
 yellow metal is not found in paying quantities in 
 the main river, but in the small streams which cut 
 through the mountains on either side. Mud and 
 mineral matter are carried into tho main river, 
 while the gold is left on the rough bottom of 
 these side streams. In most cases the gold lies 
 at the bottom of thick gravel deposits. The gold 
 is covered with frozen gravel in the winter. 
 During the summer, until the snow is all melted, 
 the surface is covered with muddy torrents. 
 When the summer is over and the springs begin 
 to freeze the streams dry up. At the approach 
 of winter, in order to get at the gold tho miners 
 find it necessary to dig into the gravel forma- 
 tion." This is definite and authentic testimony, 
 but tho Klondike miners have given me this 
 more intimate explanation of how the gold placers 
 are found and worked. 
 
 LOCATION OF THE PHKCIOUS METAL. 
 
 Tlieir experience has taught them this simple 
 rule of nature, that the disintegrations of golil- 
 bearing quartz veins are washed down tho steeper 
 de(!livities, and wliere tlie streams assume a more 
 horizontal current form abed of the small particles 
 of stone and mud and gold (flour, sand, and nug- 
 gets). The constant action of the water moves the 
 lighter of these substanctjs first, with the heavier — 
 the gold — always tending, on account of its weight, 
 to settle deeper and doojior. With this con- 
 
804 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REI^IEW OF REl^lFWS. 
 
 THE "EAULB'8 NK8T" ON THB LEWIS KlVilll BEI^UW THE LITTI-E SALMON. 
 (Photo by W. Of/llvU.) By courtety nf the Canadttin Slagazine. 
 
 f5tant action for ages, it sinks to " bed rock " and 
 lies there in the hollows and against the rough 
 edges, and with its own weight collects and 
 forms tlio "pay streak." Time lias lodged this 
 streak thickest in the concavities of the ' ' bed 
 rock," and the value of a placer is largely de- 
 pendent on these concavities in tlie area of 
 a claim ; and as this condition is lial)l(' to vary 
 with each square yard, it lends tlie element of 
 chance. 
 
 This is what makes it possible — and it is alhir- 
 ing to the gold-liunters — to find a "bed-rock" 
 formation where fissures or a cross-ribbed fault 
 may have served nature as bars, acting just as 
 cleats in a sliiic<!-box. Here the thickness of the 
 "pay streak" may bo unusual, anil when this 
 condition exists at a point in the stream wliere the 
 swift current is above and a stagnant cnrnmt be- 
 low, it adds to the settlement of gold in these 
 concavities. The reason that the ,''>ld seeks tlie 
 lowest level makes the center of the " bed rock," 
 or tlio lowest part of the cnsscent, the recej)taclo 
 for the most valuable deposits. 
 
 TUE BLIND CIIANX'ES OF PROSPECTING. 
 
 But then! is another element of cliaiice where 
 the stream may generally ))e known as rich: The 
 most valuable of tliese "pay-streak" deposits is 
 on tlie "bed rock" of the older or more per- 
 manent course of the stream, which has in many 
 cases been changed by a landslid** or a depres- 
 sion; and it is the ' ' bed rock " of the old<!r course 
 
 which holds the cups of gold. For this reason 
 two miners of adjoining claims will often find 
 their fortunes vary, and as there are no sure 
 surface indications " bed rock " must be reached, 
 the "pay streak" disclosed, and its course and 
 limits drifted out. And it is for this reason 
 that often the bench claims, away off to the 
 side of the valley, will show upon digging 
 the shaft that the bed of the older stream lay 
 there. 
 
 The general rule is that a locality rich in 
 placer gold is rich in quartz veins, and this will 
 probably be found true in the mountain ranges 
 that feed the Klondike, Indian, and Stewart 
 rivers ; but there have been frequent instances 
 where such was not the case, due to a greater 
 erosion, or a dt^tritus formation feeding the 
 streams, or a more constant milling or sluicing by 
 that greatest of all miners, nature. Professor 
 Wriglit, of Oberlin College, says on this point: 
 " 'I'lie amount of gold found in the placcu* mines 
 is evidence not so much perhaps of a very ri<;li 
 vein as of the disintegration of a very large; 
 vein." 
 
 IV.— ALASKA'S HISTORY AND RE- 
 SOURCES. 
 
 The Khmdike River is in the Northwest Ter- 
 ritory of Uritisli Columbia of the Dominion of 
 (Canada, tint this Northwest Territory got its 
 birth from Alaska and its history grows out of 
 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 305 
 
 For this reason 
 will often find 
 e arc* no sure 
 lUSt be reached, 
 
 its course and 
 [or this reason 
 rt-ay off to the 
 
 upon digginjr 
 der stream lay 
 
 ocality rich in 
 IS, and this will 
 nountain ranges 
 n, and Stewart 
 quent instances 
 ue to a greater 
 on feeding the 
 iig or sluicing by 
 ture. Professor 
 s on this point : 
 ho placer mines 
 H of a very ricli 
 jf a very larger 
 
 Y AND RE- 
 
 3 Northwest Ter- 
 the Dominion of 
 Territory got its 
 ory grows out of 
 
 Alaska. This name, suggested by Charles Sum- 
 ner, is from tlie aboriginal word Al-ak-shak, and 
 means "a great country." There are clouded 
 records of the discovery of this land by navi- 
 gators before the time of Vitus Bering, but to 
 him is accorded the 
 first actual explo 
 ration and ofcupa- 
 tion in 1741 when 
 at the head of an 
 expedition sent out 
 by Queen Catherine 
 of Russia, which the 
 ambitious Peter the 
 Great had forwarded 
 with tlie prinu! mo- 
 tives of aggrandi/.o- 
 ment and extend- 
 ing tlie limits of 
 trade. The country 
 was explored after 
 that along its coast 
 by numerous navi- 
 gators, but general- 
 ly with the trading 
 intent, until in 1799 
 Emperor Paul VIII. 
 of Russia granted a 
 charter to the Rus- 
 so-American Fur 
 Company to trade 
 with the natives and 
 
 drive bargains to suit themselves — a privilege re- 
 newed in 1839. The trade ^'as in furs and ivory 
 and speec^ ily assumed important proportions. New 
 Archangel, now known as Sitka, was the prin- 
 cipal settlement of this company, altliough they 
 established forty stations at other points on the 
 coast and inland during the sixty-four years of 
 ■' their occupation. 
 
 It is said that in 1867 some men wlio thought 
 they saw profit to themselves in the purchase of 
 these frozen la«ds approached Secretary Wil 
 liarn H. Seward with a view to securing his co 
 operation in making the purchase from Russia 
 but on investigation Mr. Seward became con 
 Ivinccd of the value of the lands to his Govern 
 pnent, and pened negotiations with Russia which 
 juickly resulted in the fixing of a price of $7,- 
 iO(),000 and in the signing of a treaty on March 
 50, 1807. This treaty was proclaimed June 20, 
 ind actual possession taken by the United States, 
 hrough Gen.'Lovell 11. Rousseau, United States 
 rmy, on October 18, 1867. 
 
 THE RESOURCES OP THE GREAT NORTHWEST. 
 
 Aside from the mineral possibilities in gold, 
 opper, and coal, there arc doubtless many other 
 
 uses to which much of this vast area may be 
 put. A. P. Swineford, who was Governor of 
 Alaska in 1886, gives evidence in regard to this 
 as ft)llows : '• Nowhere in my home travels, from 
 Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, from 
 
 TAOIBH liAKB AT 4:15 A.M. IN SCMMER. 
 (Photo by W. OgiliHe.) By courtesy of th« Canadian Magazine. 
 
 Washington to Sitka, have I seen more luxuriant 
 vegetation than in Southeastern Alaska. I find 
 the hardier vegetables all growing to maturity 
 and enormous size." The miners from about 
 Dawson City will tell you (the miners who know 
 more things tlxan gold) that gardens will be 
 raised on the arctic circle which, if limited in 
 variety, will yet produce the vegetable needs of 
 the mining population when once intelligent 
 effort is directed to them. 
 
 William H. Seward while on his travels 
 around tlie world wrote from Berlin as follows : 
 " Wo have seen of Germany enough to show 
 that its climate is neiter so genial, nor its soil so 
 fertile, nor its resources of forests and miiu« so 
 rich as those of Southern Alaska." Miner W. 
 Bruce, long a resident of these coast lands, says : 
 "The great precipitation and humidity of the 
 atmosphere in Southern Alaska cause the entire 
 coast region to be clothed in a mantle of pe- 
 rennial green. Vegetation is dense and 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 Kadic.k 
 root crops are easily grown. Radishes, lettuce, 
 carrots, onions, cauliflower, peas, turnips, cabbage, 
 
306 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REI^IEIV OF RE^IEIVS. 
 
 beets, celery, and potatoes yield prolifically. On 
 one -sixth of an acre at Sitka eighty bushels of 
 potatoes have been raised. It was, however, a 
 plot of ground that had been formerly used by 
 the Ilussians as a garden and was carefully pre- 
 pared. Strawberries grow with the greatest 
 spontaneity, and have a flavor equal to those of 
 
 liOOKINO DOWN TATYA INLBT (LYNN CANAL.) 
 {Photo bvW.OgUvit.) By courtesy of the Canadian Uatyitint. 
 
 southern latitudes. Some extensive fields of 
 strawberries are found under the very shadow of 
 the glaciers, both at Glacier Bay and atYakutat." 
 
 The prevailing varieties of timber in South- 
 eastern Alaska are spruce, hemlock, red and 
 yellow cedar. The spruce and hemlock grow to 
 
 very large size, frequently being found 100 
 feet high and 6 to 8 feet in diameter. The yel- 
 low cedar is a beautiful wood, takes a high pol- 
 ish, and makes an admirable substitute for ma- 
 hogany. 
 
 There are between thirty and forty salmon 
 canneries in Alaska, representing an investment 
 of more than |4, 000,000. They employ 5,000 
 or 6,000 people and pack from 600,000 to 800,- 
 000 cases a year. This is the greatest industry 
 of the country (excepting the sealing) and is rap- 
 idly increasing. The Chinese furnish the best 
 la])or in the canneries, for the Tlingit Indian, 
 while industrious to a degree, cannot be depended 
 upon ; he is too apt to start off without notice on 
 a prolonged "potlatch" or go berrying or fish- 
 ing in the height of the salmon run. The whal- 
 
 ing business, while prosecuted north of Bering 
 Strait, is extensive, there being 75 vessels en 
 gaged in the capture and traffic. 
 
 THE SUPPLY OF GAME. 
 
 The game of the country is limited, and 
 will rapidly disappear with the army of Win- 
 chesters being tak- 
 en there. Moun- 
 tain sheep can be 
 killed occasionally 
 after hard hunt- 
 ing, and less often 
 a moose or a bear; 
 on the southern 
 coast there are 
 some deer and elk. 
 The white rabbits 
 are scarce and hard 
 to find. There is 
 also a small gray 
 squirrel found in 
 great numbers. I 
 have seen them 
 crossing a wooded 
 valley in such num- 
 bers that I have 
 amused myself by 
 hitting at them with 
 sticks as they 
 scampered about 
 the underbrush, 
 apparently amused 
 at seeing so strange 
 a creature as man, 
 of whom, as they didn't know him, they were not 
 afraid. The Izaak Walton who is enthusiastic 
 enough to travel so far will find a recompense of 
 speckled trout in the coast streams to make him 
 declare that heaven must be somewhere near sixty 
 degrees north latitude. The trout and salmon of 
 the interior streams feed the natives, the pioneers, 
 and the dogs. In the fall every Chilkat Indian's 
 camp presents tho appearance of wash-day in the 
 back yard of a city home, with the fish split 
 open, boned, and hung up to dry for the winter 
 food. Does it not seem a waste to dry and salt a 
 six -pound speckled trout to be fed to dogs ? But 
 this is what the Indian does. 
 
 INDIAN FI8HEKMEN. 
 
 He is a rare fisherman, though, one of the 
 most adroit I have ever seen. His method is 
 this : He cuts a stick two inches in diameter and 
 about twelve feet long, to an end of which he 
 attaches, with sinews, a double-pronged hook 
 about three inches across the bend ; and for hit' 
 sport he selects a place in the creek between the 
 
 diar 
 
 espe 
 
 havJ 
 
 tact I 
 
 mat 
 
 gellJ 
 
THE RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 307 
 
 th of Bering 
 ffi vessels en 
 
 limited, and 
 rmy of Win- 
 ers being tak- 
 ,here. Moun- 
 sheep can be 
 i occasionally 
 ' hard hunt- 
 and less often 
 oose or a bear; 
 the southern 
 t there are 
 e deer and elk. 
 white rabbits 
 scarce and hard 
 5nd. There is 
 , a small gray 
 irrel found in 
 at numbers. I 
 e seen them 
 ssing a wooded 
 ley in such num- 
 •s that I have 
 used myself by 
 ting at them with 
 icks as they 
 impered about 
 e underbrush, 
 parently amused 
 seeing so strange 
 creature as man, 
 ira, they were not 
 
 is enthusiastic 
 [ a recompense of 
 ims to make him 
 ewhere near sixty 
 )ut and salmon of 
 Lves, the pioneers, 
 jT Chilkat Indian's 
 f wash-day in the 
 ■ith the fish split 
 iry for the winter 
 3 to dry and salt a 
 fed to dogs? But 
 
 EN. 
 
 lOUgh, one of the 
 1. His method is 
 les in diameter and 
 
 1 end of which he 
 ible -pronged hook 
 bend ; and for hif' 
 
 creek between the 
 
 pool and the riffles. "Wading in nearly to his hips, 
 he will reach the pole to the bottom just below 
 the riffles and feel about. Presently you will see him 
 give a deft jerk, with a twist to it, and he lifts 
 out of the water one of those red speckled beau- 
 ties weighing five or six pounds. 
 
 I stood one day on the Taiya River and saw a 
 young buck catch over twenty trout in tliis 
 fashion in less than an hour, and while I heard 
 anglers say it was an unsportsmanhke proceed- 
 ing, it impressed me, and I am sure it was the 
 perfection of sportsmanship, for it required a 
 sense of feeling and deft movement of the wrist 
 that comes only from an innate love of capture 
 and long practice. 1 tried it for an hour and I 
 bruised but one trout and killed him with gashes ; 
 the Indian smiled at the pale-face, while looking 
 at his own pile, each one liooked squarely through 
 the center of the body, sideways, with but a little 
 red spot, looking much like its specks, to show 
 where the sharp point had entered and passed 
 through. 
 
 THE ALASKA INDIANS. 
 
 The Indian from the Pacific coast of Lower 
 California to north of St. Michael gradually 
 changes from a lithe, copper- colored warrior 
 to the stockier and lighter-colored man of 
 the Puget Sound coast. He becomes a little 
 shorter and stouter of stature and more placid 
 of temper as you go up the Lynn Canal, while 
 on the Bering Sea coast he is more nearly 
 an Esquimo; on the 
 north coast he is a 
 real Esquimo. Be- 
 tween the two there 
 is still a distinct line, 
 but each has lent his 
 blood to tlie other as 
 well as his thought 
 and mode of life. 
 These southeast coast 
 people are puzzles to 
 the ethnologists, so 
 many curious dis- 
 tinctions occur be- 
 tween different 
 tribes. The Indians 
 along the southern 
 coast — the Tlingits 
 — are an intelligent, 
 peaceful, and for In- 
 dians a thrifty race, 
 especially those who 
 have come in con- 
 tact with the white 
 man. Prom Wran- 
 gell, Juneau, and 
 
 Sitka some of the boys have been sent to the In- 
 dian schools in the United States, but they in- 
 variably return to their tribes and take up the old 
 life of hunting the moose and bear and fishing 
 and paddling those gondola-like canoes that so 
 gracefully stretch their necks to show their beau- 
 tiful swaying reflection in the still waters. 
 
 I was at Crater Lake last summer — that desert 
 spot across the famous Chilkoot summit — and 
 was discussing with several young men football as 
 played in the Eastern colleges; t.vo in the party 
 had been well-known college players. I noticed 
 that a young Indian "packer" who sat by was 
 listening intently to the talk. At last Voorhees, 
 
 a half-back from H , began to tell of a game 
 
 with the Carlisle Indians, when this young Chil- 
 kat said m.odestly that he had played in that game 
 and had given Voorliees an injury that he had 
 just described. "What a small world! There up 
 under the arctic circle these two men of different 
 races met again, but under such different con- 
 ditions. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TLINGITS. 
 
 These Tlingits are a picturesque people, but 
 it is a wild beauty they put into their dress 
 and into their blankets and boats and baskets. 
 Tlie colors are very rich, the reds and blacks 
 predominating — evidently a tribute from Japan 
 — and the designs are mostly bold stripes. Tlie 
 totem -poles are their chief accomplishments in art, 
 and suggest another borrowing from the Mon- 
 
 LAKB I.INOKMAMN. 
 
 {PymU) by W. Ogltvie.) By c<mrte»u of th< CanadUm Matazine. 
 
308 
 
 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY RE^^/EIV OF REI^IEIVS. 
 
 golian in their grotesque hideousness of expres- 
 Bion; but it all takes bold of you as the orgio 
 of a confined but luxurious embodiment of a 
 real art instinct — a desire to express a religious 
 idea, be it ever so fraught with devils. The 
 totem is the " family tree " or genealogy, bo- 
 
 THE CAUIUUU HOAI), NEAIt CHAPMAN'S BAlt, t'l'I'EU 
 FRA8ER KIVER. 
 
 ing a combination of the different tribal insig- 
 nias. This picturing with the brush or the knife 
 lends itself to every article of use ; the horn spoons 
 have a symbol carved on their handles, the pipes 
 take crude shapes of animals and birds that have 
 a religious significance, while conventional forms 
 of horned monsters are woven into their blankets 
 and cut into the medicine man's charms, which 
 are made of Imman bones, and serpents are 
 painted on the faces of the Indian girls. 
 
 The most beautiful creature of a native race 
 I have ever seen was one of these Tlingit girls. 
 She was not more than seventeen, tall enough and 
 lithe enough, with a complexion that was like 
 one of those brown and transparent shadows in a 
 Joiiett portrait ; wound about her shoulders was 
 a blanket of colors thatfobbed the deepest tones 
 from the grass and the sunset and it fell grace- 
 fully in tassels about her limbs ; a skirt of royal 
 red hung above bead-wrought moccasins that 
 
 seemed to touch the ground only for grace- 
 ful poise ; in her ears dangled half moons of 
 brass ; her eyes were as black as her hair, 
 which copied the Madonnas in its parting. It 
 was Sunday afternoon ; chun h bells were ring- 
 ing and under her arm was a Hible. She was 
 moving along the path that skirts the coast at 
 "Wrangell, and rows ot tall totem-poles were 
 grinning down at her ; her destination was the 
 quiet of that house of God, and its quiet was in 
 her eyes. When I noticed her weighted lids and 
 detected a devout dutcliiiig of the little Hible, I 
 thought of the traditions of her race and won- 
 dered how she reconciled the two, for her very 
 garb carried designs of the inherited religion. 
 
 THK NOBLE 8CKXKKY. 
 
 There has long been a tourist trip to Alaska 
 from San Francisco or Seattle, to Victoria, Wran- 
 gell, Juneau, Glacier Bay — where is seen the 
 wonderful Muir Glacier — and returning by Sitka. 
 It has been pronounced one of the most interest- 
 ing summer voyages that can be made in any 
 seas, but the accommodations have been poor, 
 and there has never been enough l)usiness to 
 stimulate the ship companies to make this trip 
 better known to the world. 
 
 It is all in quiet waters, except two or three 
 bays which are quickly crossed ; thousands of 
 islands lock the coast and much of the trip is 
 in narrow straits glassy with calm. Many places 
 on the route are so narrow that it is like a jour- 
 ney by river, only the current is lacking. One 
 descri{)tion covers the whole picture, but it is like 
 a great canvas on which one never tires looking, 
 finding always a new beauty in the detail. A 
 vertical sweep of the eye shows below the waters 
 are at the mercy of gentle airs ; their robin's- 
 egg blue blends into shadows of green where the 
 rank undergrowth of vine and wild flowers grows 
 to its edge ; above is a forest of firs, up, up un- 
 til a clean line of bare granite begins. This is 
 like a velvet haze and on it hang glaciers, feed- 
 ing rivulets that dance down from ledge to ledge, 
 making white spots where they show through 
 the green, and all the while singing a joyous 
 song to drown the full-throated l)irds. And away 
 above and back beyond, until they are lost in the 
 clouds, are mountains and peaks of snow, illimit- 
 able and inspiring. 
 
 But just now, of all times, the human inter- 
 est is in the remarkable exodus of the gold-seek- 
 ers. It has many points of view, and for those 
 to whom the luxuries of a Cunarder are not a 
 necessity, a journey hence during the coming 
 summer will lodge a memory in the mind that 
 will remain forever from its pure novelty. 
 
 '&■'■ 
 
 0& 
 
y for grace- 
 alf moons of 
 as lior liair, 
 
 parting. It 
 s wcro ring- 
 
 lo. Slio was 
 tlio coast at 
 ni- poles wero 
 lation was the 
 
 quiot was in 
 glited lids and 
 
 ittle Bible, I 
 race and won- 
 
 for her very 
 ed religion. 
 
 trip to Alaska 
 'ictoria, Wran- 
 ro is seen the 
 riling by Sitka. 
 
 most interest- 
 made in any 
 ive been poor, 
 :h Imsiness to 
 make this trip 
 
 pt two or three 
 thousands of 
 of the trip is 
 I. Many places 
 it is like a jour- 
 lacking. (Jne 
 ire, but it is like 
 ?r tires looking, 
 the detail. A 
 elow the waters 
 ; their robin's- 
 Ecreen where the 
 d flowers grows 
 Irs, up, up un- 
 x'gins. This is 
 5 glaciers, feed- 
 1 ledge to ledge, 
 r show through 
 nging a joyous 
 irds. And away 
 ly are lost in the 
 of snow, illimit- 
 
 le human inter- 
 if the gold-seek- 
 V, and for those 
 larder are not a 
 'ing the coming 
 1 the mind that 
 novelty.