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 LOST OS TIIK SUMMIT OK WHITE i ASS. 
 
 Itv Clarence Pt'llen 
 
 '"T^ HKFtE is no theme of drama or ro- 
 A miince that appeals more fascinatingly 
 to the average himian mind than that of 
 the adventurous search for gold. What 
 other story of mythology can compare 
 in interest with that of the Argonauts in 
 their search for the golden fleece? Jason 
 and his compwnions setting forth, brave 
 and conlident. are types in their purpose 
 and feelings of the gold-seekers in all 
 history, and their experiences symitolize 
 the haul realities that all adventurers 
 have found in tlieir search for golden 
 treasure. Following tiic shining lure the 
 Argonauts travel from their homes into un- 
 known regions, slca<lfastiy pursuing their 
 course though storm-clouds tiireaten and 
 waves roll mountain-high. Kvery anchorage 
 that they tind is hcset with perils. Fierce 
 wild hidls with tira/.en hoofs and horns, 
 whose nostrils emit flame and smoke, con- 
 front them, and from the dragons' teeth 
 which the voyagers are commanded to sow 
 there suiltlenly springs up an armored host 
 whicii ,Iasou must meet and slav. A 
 
 dragon guards the tree upon which hangs 
 the golden fleece. 
 
 Such is the allegory of the experiences 
 of gold-seekers in all ))eriods and in all 
 lands. In the more lately discovered gold 
 fields in Australia, in California, in South 
 Africa, dangers and diflicidties have barred 
 the way to the golden treasure, and like 
 dragons have guarded the hoard when its 
 hiding-place has been found. Land and 
 ocean, mountain stecjis and burning sands, 
 are traversed ; dangers fiom miasma, ven- 
 omous reptiles, wild beasts and hostile 
 savages are risked; hunger, thirst, fatiirue. 
 are willinu:ly eiiduri'd, in the cjuest of the 
 modern Argonauts. Now in thy recent 
 discovery of a vast gold field, the latest, 
 perhajjs the richest, that the world has 
 known, a dragon in new and deadly form 
 c(uifronts the treasure -seekers — a specter 
 white and chilling — the Arctic cold, the 
 frozen land of tlu' Klondike. 
 
 Alaska, through which lie the paths to 
 the Klondike, is a region in which the last 
 third of the centurv has seen stramre ami 
 
 " ' cif i.i N. W. History Dopt. 
 
 Pr^OVlNCIAL. LIBRARY 
 VICTCmiA, ■. 0. 
 
4i8 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 strikiiifj developments. At the time that 
 the United States bo'iffht it of liussia, in 
 1867, it was itnown to the world in <renerul 
 only as a trreen-tinted space on the atlas, 
 marked Russian Anierita, with Sitka, at its 
 northern e\tremity. desifjnated as the 
 "capital. " The characteristics of its native 
 inhabitants, as reported by explorers and 
 whalemen, were rather Asiatic than American 
 and the impression of the Orient was not 
 lessened by Baranoll's castle of cop])er- 
 riveted lo<js, and the quaint Greek church, 
 with its glitterinj; altar and shrines anil 
 mafrniHceut copy of the JIoscow madonna 
 and child in gold and silver settinir, at 
 
 sifted the pravel beds of streams and sank 
 test pits, venturinj^ as far inland as white 
 men at the time could go. 
 
 The fortunes of these men varied. Some 
 disappeared in the forest wilds never to be 
 heard of again — killed by wild beasts or 
 Indians, ])erishing through a -cident or cold 
 or hunger. None knew the story of their 
 ending — only that they went into the 
 wilderness and did not return. Others 
 came back, hungry, footsore and ragged — 
 some with stories of fair ])ros))ects and a 
 buckskin bag or two of gold dust or nug- 
 gets to prove their tale; more with nothing 
 else than stray specimens and a hard-i\u'k 
 
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 CAMP AT THK MOI TH l)h 1)V1:A CANO.N. 
 
 Sitka. Slowly the importance of Alaska 
 as an American possession has becom<' 
 eviileiit. The great value of the fur seal 
 fisheries was recognized at an early period 
 after the purchase; then the co<l and salmon 
 fisheries, and tin; limitless supi)ly of build- 
 ing timber on the mainland, were utilized; 
 and accompanying, often ])receding, theex- 
 ))loration of our great iniknown territory 
 came the prospectors for valuable minerals. 
 Gold and silver are the minerals that the 
 prospector first seeks, and reports that 
 "colors" of gold had been found in Alaska 
 drew men there from the first, who. e(|uipped 
 with picks, shovels and wasliing pans. 
 
 story. IJut with the inherent hopefulness 
 of their craft. ])rospectors ciuitin\ied to come, 
 and in the "eighties," after the f(niii(iing 
 of Juneau, using that place as their out- 
 fitting point tlu'v made their way to Oyea. 
 thence across ("liilkoot Pass and down the 
 chain of tributary lakes and streams to the 
 upper waters of the Yukon. They got 
 more experience than gold, but they were 
 gaining lessons from disaster, and learning 
 the topography of the country and the 
 nu'thods by which golil-seeking there nuist 
 be conducted. One essential piece of 
 knowlet'tre they ac(|uired through bitter 
 hardship and hunger, the necessity of travel- 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 419 
 
 in<j and working in parties of considerable 
 nunil)i'rs, and of taking with tlicni at least 
 a year's siii)i)iy of clothes antl provisions. 
 This obligation of forethought and of 
 working with others to a common end, and 
 the siir(( weeding out of the weak and 
 thriftless, resulted, thro\igh a ])roces8 of 
 natural selection, in the survival of a class 
 of miners, working about the up])er Yukon, 
 who in stalwart ])h\si(iue and honesty of 
 character have not been excelled in the 
 annals of gold-seeking. Over the Dalton 
 and Dyea trails, through the ("hilkat and 
 Chilkoot Passes and \ip the Yukon River, 
 prospectors continued to come until in lHi)3 
 
 twenty -five po\inds, potatoes sixty-five 
 dollars a hundred pounds and a villain- 
 ously concocted whisky fifty cents a drink, 
 (he cost of living was higli. For the 
 cheapest kind of fiannel shirt the miner 
 had to |)ay sixteen dollars, and for a |)air 
 of rubber boots, indispensable to his 
 business, forty dollars. Men owning rich 
 claims went huiigry, and scurvy often ap- 
 peared in the camps toward s])riiig. but the 
 communities on both sides of the boundary 
 were orderly, with few of the personal 
 affrays so common in most mining camps 
 and a complete absenceof robbery and theft. 
 Through the cold and snows of the long 
 
 TIIK Ari'ROACU TO CHILKOOT TASS 
 
 it was estimated that they numbered one 
 thousand, and Circle ("ity on the American, 
 antl Dawson on the British Columbian side 
 of the Canadian boundary had assumed the 
 ini])ortance of organized mine camps. 
 Yearly the Alaska Commercial Company's 
 steanuM" came up the Yukon bringing the 
 mail. an<l miners' sui)plies, and an accession 
 of fresh members to the camps. Hy this 
 time there was a regular and considerable 
 output (>f gold, which the steamer took 
 back mainly in the form of the price paid 
 for su|>plies. With Hour at from sixty to 
 one hundred dollars a sack, driid fruits a 
 dollar a pound, jar eighteen dollars for 
 
 Arctic winter, and the heat whicli generated 
 the plagues of gnats and flies throughout 
 the short summer, the miners toiled and 
 prospected and hoped. Their hope and 
 constancy at last were justified. The good 
 genius who turned everything to gold was 
 the old man McCormick, who hunted and 
 fished along the upper Yid<on. the joys of 
 liis h_\ jierborcan Arcadia enhanced by the 
 conipanionshij) of an Indian wife. When 
 in the early summer of ISOO tlie Yukon 
 miners were toiling through the long hours 
 of daylight to wash out the iiuriferous earth 
 dug from their claims during the winter, 
 McCormick was not toiling tb any great 
 
 163441 
 
420 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 AT Till-; KNTRANCK 
 
 extent, or botlierinsif himself iiooiit jfold in 
 the earth. With sonu- Indians alonj? to 
 pnll his boat and liaul his nets, he had 
 gone a-fishintr up the river. At the mouth 
 of the Klondiite River lie spread his nets 
 and then, as the salmon had not hcs^un to 
 run, he took u trip up the stream by way 
 of killinj^ time until the tish should ffet 
 along. Twenty-five miles from the stream's 
 mouth McCormick, thinking of salmon, 
 came plump upon a gravel plaeer stuffed 
 w^ith gold, the gold of the Klondike. 
 McCormick did not mind his fishing after 
 this discovery. He slaked out a couple of 
 claims, tilled his pockets with s])('cimen 
 dust and nuggets and came back, with the 
 news of what he had found, to Circle City. 
 Then the stam])e<le to the new diggings 
 l)cgan. Everybody was ready and waiting 
 for just such an announcement and in thiee 
 d.iys Circle City was a deserted camji. 
 The treasure-seekers were not rushing to 
 disappointment; for once diggings had 
 been discovered that bettered the first 
 accounts received, and of a richness that 
 could not be overrated. The gold was 
 not to be obtained without toil and trouble. 
 
 OF SKAdUAV CANON. 
 
 A layer of frozen earth that never thawed 
 extended from tlie surface of the ground 
 fifteen to twenty-five feet downward, almost 
 or (piite to betl-rock, where the richest 
 gol<l deposits were. Hut the miners wanted 
 only to know that the gold was there. Of 
 all difticidties that interposed at that stage 
 they made light. Working through the 
 heats of summer days twenty liours in length 
 but all too short for their wishes; i)lasting 
 the fro/en earth with dynamite and gun- 
 ])owder, or thawing it downward by surface 
 tires; washing out the precious earth in 
 pans and rockers; taking scarcely time to 
 cook and eat tlieir scanly nu'als, these men 
 lived in a sustained happiness that it is 
 given to few mortals to know — the joy of 
 triunipli. the grasping of the golden reward 
 of success in the discovery of a long-sought - 
 for Kl Dorado. 
 
 For the first year the rush to tlie Klondike 
 comprised only the miners already in the 
 country, and iheeompurativelyfewarrivalsof 
 men who had started for the upper Y(d<on in 
 the spring, when, of course, the "find" had 
 not as yet been macw-. There were claims 
 enough for all. t'nknown to the outer 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE K'LOND/h'E. 
 
 4ax 
 
 ■^V' 
 
 world, the Kloi^likc iniiicrs were washing; 
 out ciirtli tliiit yii'ldt'il Homi'tinics five 
 liundrcd dolliii's to tlie pun, and twenty 
 rlioustind dollars to the ton, storinj^ the 
 |ir('t'ioiis dnst and nii<;<i('ts in hajj^s and 
 lioxcH, in fruit cans, oil cans, tcakfttlcs — 
 anyfliin;^ that would scrvts as a rcccpt.iclc 
 safe from Icakajfr. Loss by theft was not 
 taken into aeeount in this ( !im|) of Midas 
 where yold was less teniptin<^ to men's 
 present needs tliun flour and baeon and 
 |>otat()es. With tlu' shutting down upon 
 them of the Arctic winter the work of 
 minin<i did not cease althoujfh the miners, 
 with the streams looked in ice, no lonfjer 
 could wash out the fjold. They kept on 
 sinkinjf their shafts to bed-rock, layinjif the 
 valuable earth aside to be washed out in 
 the sprintr. 
 
 It was early in the next July, in 1897, 
 that the riches of the Klondike became 
 known to the world, and the announcement 
 was as dramatically unexpected as the 
 lindinji of the treasure fields had been. A 
 steamer from tlie Yukon warped in and 
 was moored at a wharf in San Francisco 
 and it brought as passengers forty unkempt 
 nvn in tattered clothes, fresh from the 
 
 Klondike. They had a story to tell like 
 that of Aladdin and they had brought gold 
 to the value of a half-million dollars in 
 earnest of its truth; and they liad taken 
 only a little from the richness of the claims 
 they had left behind. Besides the treasure 
 that they had brought, there was on the 
 steamer a <|uarter million dollars in Klondiki; 
 gold belonging to the Alaska Commercial 
 Company. 
 
 There was no lack of information and of 
 warning as to what lay before the ailvent- 
 urers who wouhl follow the paths of these 
 successful miners from the Yukon head- 
 waters. Only a limited number could take 
 the h)ng. but safe and easy route, by boat, 
 by way of St. Michaels and the Yukon. 
 The great majority must risk the mount- 
 ain passage from Dyea and Skaguay, 
 through one of the five passes that, once 
 traversed, led to a comparatively open route 
 by land an<l water over the five hundred 
 miles of wilderness that intervened between 
 them and the Klondike. Few were rash 
 enough to think of a winter journey there, 
 but many hastene<l their start so as to get 
 to the Klondike before cold weather set in, 
 and others made all preparations to be at 
 
 
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 A I'KRMANKNr WINTKR CAMl' ON SKAdlAY TRAIL. 
 
432 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 the nearest point for depart tire to the \i,n\({ 
 flt'Uls as soon as s|)rin;i sliouUl open. Tlie 
 stories of the C'liiikat and Ciiiikoot Passes 
 have ])een told an<l retold, with many 11- 
 Instrations. in the last twelve months. The 
 bowlder-strewn eleft of the ("hilkool. risinii 
 twenty-live hundred feel in two miles, a 
 terrible pathway over which unloaded ani- 
 mals can be driven only witli the f>:realest 
 dilticulty and men must bear all burdens 
 \ipon their shoulders, is. as a choice of 
 «vils, the preferred route of the cmiiirants. 
 Some typical scenes — the steep, narrow 
 defile filled with toilinfj men, and slippinj,'. 
 fri;jhtened horses urifed on toward the sum- 
 mit ; the abandoned outfits ami the men 
 and animals fallen out by the way — are 
 familiar to all readers of the current illus- 
 trated i)eriodicals. Of the disappointments, 
 liomesickness. <lespair. the weariness and 
 smarting under unramiliar toils, that the 
 walls of this mountain jtass liave seen, but 
 little lias been told to conii)aie with the 
 reality. With the worst ditliculties encoun- 
 tered at the very outset of the journey, and 
 the |)romise of five hundre(l inili's of 
 wilderness to be traveled beyond, it is 
 little wonder that many of the jfold-seekers 
 (piit at this point, and that the traders of 
 
 Dyea and Skatr'iay should be be9ou<,'ht by 
 hosts of discoura>.'cd prospectors to buy 
 their outfits at half the cost to provide tlie 
 means of return. 
 
 Tlie written history uf this pass, so re- 
 cently exploited to llie world, opens with 
 a traireily. It was here, in 1MS7, that the 
 miner Williams, who had traveleil si.v hun- 
 dred miles, from Forty .Mile Creek on the 
 Yukon, bearini"- letters and a ba^ of ffold 
 specimens, perished of liunj,' /r and expos- 
 ure. His truide, a younir Iiuliaii, succeed- 
 eii ill ffcttii.^ to a t.radinir station, briiif^inj^ 
 the h.'lters and pild with his story of dis- 
 aster. In the last year the route throuirh 
 Ciiiikoot to the Klcuidike has been marked 
 by similar happeninp(s. some of which have 
 been trauedies on a far ureater scale. Of 
 these may be mentioned parlicularly the 
 disaster that occurred last spriiif^ near Cra- 
 ter Lake. Twenvy-two men. hauliiifj sleds 
 in sinyie tile over the fro/en surface of a 
 stream, were inu'ull'eil by the breakiiifx of 
 the ice and sunk from siirht before the eyes 
 of their comrades, who were powerless to 
 s:ive them. A recent tratfcily was that of 
 .luiie last, when sixteen men and women 
 bound lor the Klondike were diuwned in 
 Lake Tiindeniaiin. Tlicv had constructed 
 
 I 
 
 ON THK SUM.MIT OK WHITE PASS, 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 4*3 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 l.KitS'^IN*'. 
 
 -KACIAV KIV 
 
 a sfow ill wliicli to iiavijriUc flic lake 
 and had ciiiliarkcd uj)!)!! it with sixteen 
 liorses and the entire outfit of the comiiany. 
 At a point in the lake known as Windy 
 Arm tile waves deniolislieil the scow, and 
 all on board were lost In such events as 
 these on the Klondike route there is no 
 time for niourniiiif, or for ellort to recover 
 the bodies. If the waves cast them u|) 
 they are decently hut hurriedly buried by 
 the first party that finds them; the names, 
 if known, are scrawled upon a headboard 
 or on a bla/ed spot on some near-by tree. 
 Survivors hasten on lest disaster overtake 
 them lingerinff. 
 
 Once at the Klondike, they find that 
 there comes with the winter a time that 
 tries men's souls. The twilijiht ji'l"""' 
 of the short day when the sun at 
 noon haiiits low above the liorizon ; 
 the still, <leadly. unrelentinir cold which, 
 nijiht and day. waits for him who vent- 
 ures outside the circle of his fireliiiht, 
 rea<ly to bite limb and feature that may 
 chance to l)e exposed, and to numb to 
 •dcauness the center of life if the wanderer 
 strav too far bevond the hearth: vairue 
 
 IK ciN AN UI-; iiHini.i;. 
 
 fears of want and famin(? arisinj; from the 
 sense of remoteness from civili/ed commu- 
 nities — all these weijjh on the soul of the 
 new-comer, and briny weariness and lon-j- 
 in<js even to the old-timer. To make the 
 interior of his house of Iolts. chinked with 
 arctic moss, more cheerful, he pastes jiictures 
 cut from newspapers, and lithojiiaphs from 
 calendars and soap-boxes, apiinst the walls, 
 an<l he reailsand rereads the much-thumbed 
 books and maiia/.ines that drift from man to 
 man about the camp. To some in silent 
 moments come memories of wife and 
 cliild. and to others the thoiijjhts of sweet- 
 hearts far away. It was an Argonaut of 
 the Klondike that told me the story of 
 Happy Tom's love romance. 
 
 "You may call him Tom ^lurfree if yon 
 te'l the story after me." he said. "It 
 sounds near enoujjh like and he mijfht not 
 care to be talked about under his resd name. 
 He was one of an outfit of a dozen of us who 
 drifted tofiethcr and stayed toircther for 
 three years in the up])er Yukon — two years 
 at Circle City and a year at Klondike. 
 We all knew that Tom had a sweetheart 
 named Kittv; that she lived itr San Fran- 
 
424 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF IIIE KLONDIKE. 
 
 cisco iiiid I lull it lm<l liccii iiLficcd ltd wren 
 tlicni when lie stiirtcd away for Alaska, lliat 
 as Kiidii an lie made his pile In- was to coiiir 
 Imck and marry lici'. One day he jfot a 
 letter frdiii Kitty and wlieii lie liad read it 
 he sat. hiildiii^ it Ix-fore him in his haiui. 
 with tlic look on his face of a man who has 
 just heard his deatli sentence ])rnn()un<'ed. 
 Kitty liad tliiown him over. Sin told him 
 that she wiiH tired of waitiiiir. and wasjioin;; 
 to marry a man whom she could sec once 
 in a while, and who could support iier. 
 It was a cruel thini;. and 'I'oin was so cut 
 up over it that we were all afraid for him 
 for a time. As luck would have it Old 
 
 ■■ "."^lie's a pretty Lfirl and a ;;oo(| jrirl if 
 she tlocsn't liclie her picture.' I said. 
 'You're jfoinj,' with the rest of us to Frisci 
 next Mununer. with more j^old tiian you can 
 carry in a liainhiu't. and leavinir a million 
 dollars more in yourclaim hehind you. Why 
 (h)n'l you marry the sister wlule you'ii- 
 there;' 
 
 '■\Vi' said notliiii;,' further then. l»ut I 
 could see that he was thinking'. We all 
 otiservc<l in the course of a day or two 
 after, that his old lau^di had come hack, 
 and it slayeii to the spring,'. We cleaned 
 up tlie (lilt tliat we had diiir throii^jh the 
 winter, and then we took passa^'c on tlie 
 
 SSlN<i THi: SCMMIT OK WII.TK I'ASS. 
 
 McCormiek came to the camp next day 
 with his story of new disflinjrs and all Cir- 
 cle City fifot up and moved to th<' Klondike. 
 We took Tom aloiiji' with us. ami when lie 
 saw the ifold that was to be had for the 
 di<jffin<; he brightened up and set to work 
 at his old stroke. 
 
 "One day. when Tom and I ha])pened to 
 l)e alone toLCether in the .shack, in over- 
 haulinir his kit he by accident dropped a 
 photograph to the floor and I picked it up. 
 " 'You still keep her picture, I see.' 
 "He looked at the ])hotoirraph. 'That's 
 not she.' he said. 'It's her — Kilty's — I 
 mean Mrs. Browulow'.s — sister.' 
 
 lirst steamer for Frisco. We were a ragged 
 regiment when we landed, but we Inul the 
 stuir to buy goofl eiotlies and we lost no 
 time in getting oullitted fo'- the city. I saw- 
 that Tom liad put on a frill or two ..lore than 
 the rest of us, and then I lost sight tif him 
 for a week. When I saw him again he told 
 me that he had been to see Kitty. 
 
 " 'She married a clerk in a retail cloth- 
 ing store,' he said. 'They are keeping 
 house in three rooms. I've seen her sister, 
 and — do you remember the adv'i< ; ,iii 
 gave me about her? — \>c are to be .'..nrried 
 next Tiiursday morning. I w;uir yo.. lo 
 come to the wedding.' " 
 
 aaHBi