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 2 
 
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 1 
 
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\y 
 
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 A Guide 
 
 YUKON 
 
 COLD Fields 
 
 • WITH- 
 MAP A/ID ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 LeWMAN & HAMFORD 3 & P. CO PUBUSHEBS 
 
 • SEATTLE 
 
 1? 
 
PACIFIC COAST STEAMSHIP CO. 
 
 THE PIONEER AND REGULAR LINE 
 
 CARRYING UNITED STATES MAILS 
 
 Opefatiog Six Large Steamers on the Alaska Routei among them 
 
 the Elegant Excursion Steamer 
 
 • • 
 
 QUEEN" 
 
 %mtk 
 
 Steamers Sail every two or three days with oldest and most care- 
 ful Commanders on the Pacific Coast* 
 
 DISPATCH LINE FOR THE YUKON MINES 
 
 via all iirincipal points* to Skaguay Bay and Dyea Trails 
 
 For further informatioa see P. C. S. S. Go's printed Folders, also Pamphlets, 
 "HOW TO REACH THE GOLD HELDS OF ALASKA." 
 
 Connections made with all transcontinental rail lines, also with Steamers of this 
 
 company plying on other routes. 
 
 ROUTES OPERATED FROM SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 Mexican RoutCi Southern California Coast Route. Northern California^ 
 
 Humboldt Bay Route* Portland and Astoria Route* British 
 
 Columbia* Puget Sound and Alaska Route* 
 
 City Ticket Office: 606 FIRST AVE, SEATTIaE 
 
 GOODALL, PERKINS & CO. 
 
 OINERAL AOKNTS 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. CAL. 
 
 J. F. TROWBRIDGE 
 
 PUatT SOUND SUPT. 
 
 OeCAN DoeR. ■lATTLI 
 
(DEQinE 
 
 O 
 
 Our many years of experience in outfitting Alaska prospectors, 
 as well as wholesaling extensively to the Alaska merchants, has 
 taught us exactly what the climate demands. In many instances 
 our clothing and underwear are specially designed and made for 
 our trade. You cannot be too careful regarding the quality of the 
 clothing you select when starting to the Yukon gold fields, as it 
 will be impossible to uprchase clothing while in the interior, so the 
 clothing you start with must last you until your return. We do 
 not carry inferior or trashy goods. NOT HOW CHEAP, BUT 
 HOW GOOD, is what we strive for in our Alaska clothing. 
 
 MackinawSf 
 
 Sweaters^ 
 
 BlanketSf 
 
 Corduroy Clothings 
 
 Artie Underwear^ 
 
 Flannel Shirts^ 
 
 German Socksi Scarfs, 
 
 Artie Soeksi MittSi 
 
 Blanket Lined Duek Clothing, 
 
 Whatever you find in our stock is of guaranteed quality. If 
 there was better quality you'd find it here. 
 
 The MacDougall 
 
 L Southwick Co, 
 
 Nos. 717, 719, 721, 723 First Avenue 
 Seattle, W^ashington. 
 
.^^d^ 
 
 COPYRIGHTED 
 
 1897. 
 
 '^^^sr 
 
GUIDE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 KLONDIKE 
 
 —AND THE— 
 
 YUKON GOLD FIELDS 
 
 •IN- 
 
 ALASKA AND NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. 
 
 CONTAINING — HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY — ROUTES OF 
 
 TRAVEL — NECES.SARY OUTFIT — GENERAL AND 
 
 USEFUL INFORMATION — LARGE MAP 
 
 CORRECTED UP TO DATE FROM 
 
 LATEST OFFICIAL 
 
 SURVEYS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 LOWMAN & HANFORU STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. 
 
 Seattle, Washington. 
 
 1897. 
 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory 3 
 
 Chapter I. History of the Yukon Gold Fields 7 
 
 Chapter II. History of the Klondike 16 
 
 Chapter III. "What the Klondike has Produced 25 
 
 Chapter IV. The Routes of Travel 32 
 
 The Chilkoot Pass Route 34 
 
 The White Pass Route 52 
 
 The Chilkat Pass Route 55 
 
 The Taku Route 56 
 
 The Stickeen Route 56 
 
 Chapter V. The all Water Route 61 
 
 Chapter VI. The Necessary Outfits and Where to get Them . 67 
 
 Chapter VII. Climate and Agricultural Possibilities 76 
 
 Chapter VIII. Game and Fish So 
 
 Chapter IX. Coal and Quartz 82 
 
 Chapter X. Canadian Government's Oppressive Policy 85 
 
 Chapter XI. The American Mines 89 
 
 Chapter XII. The Diseases to be Guarded Against 94 
 
 Conclusion 96 
 
 APPENOIX. 
 
 Table of Distances 97 
 
 Useful Notes for Miners 98 
 
 Seattle Price List 99 
 
 Placer Mining logulations of the Northwest Territories 100 
 
 Alaska Mining Laws 107 
 
 Finis 114 
 
 Amendments to the Mining Regulations of the Northwest 
 
 Territories 115 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Since the news of the wonderful discoveries upon the 
 Klondike River in Northwest Territory has gone forth 
 there has been an overwhelming demand, coming from all 
 parts of the world, for authentic information, not only as to 
 the extent and character of this particular mining district, 
 but as to the whole Yukon mineral region in Alaska. More 
 especially is there a general request for information as to 
 the routes of travel; the means of access to the country; 
 the cost of reaching it by the various routes; the necessary 
 outfits, their cost and constituents; and, in jreneral, all of 
 those particular points about which the intending immi- 
 grant to the new gold fields desires to inform himself before 
 entering upon the long and hazardous journey to the 
 Yukon Country. 
 
 This pamphlet attempts to furnish in a concise form 
 and at a small price all such information. The compiler of 
 it has made use of all sources of original information upon 
 the subject which are obtainable. Every existing work 
 upon Alaska and the Yukon Country has been consulted; 
 every newspaper article upon the Klondike has been exam- 
 ined; letters by the score from those now in that country 
 to relatives and friends have been read; nearly every person 
 now resident in this state, who has made the voyage down 
 the Yukon, or who has a personal knowledge of the new 
 
 Pacific N. W. History D-r5t. 
 
 . PROVINCIAL LIBRARY 
 
 41546 VICTORIA, B.O. 
 
C.UIDK TO THK KI.ONDIKK. 
 
 gold fields, has been interviewed. A careful examination 
 and comparison of the data tluis obtained has been at- 
 tempted, and from the vast mass thus collated it is proposed 
 to reproduce in this pamphlet a concise, accurate and ex- 
 hanstive report, coverin<; every point of imjuiry which 
 would naturally sui^gest itself to the seeeker after informa- 
 tion upon the subject. 
 
 It is not pretended that this is a work of original re- 
 search, or a record of personal experiences. The task set 
 to the compiler has Veen more editorial than literary in its 
 character. All statements made have been carefully exam- 
 ined, compared and tested. The experience of one person 
 has been verified by that of others. The principal aim has 
 been to secure perfect accuracy of statement, and to make 
 this pamphlet of practical value; in short, to furnish in a 
 convenient form and as concisely as possible all existing 
 information upon the subject. 
 
 The scope of the work includes a brief history of all the 
 gold discoveries made upon the Yukon and its tributaries, 
 a particular history of the discoveries upon the Klondike 
 and tributaries; the best obtainable information as to the 
 actual amount so far mined and brought out of the counti'y; 
 and the prospective output of Klondike Mining District; 
 the various routes of travel, with their advantages and dis- 
 advantages; the necessary outfits, their constituents and 
 their cost; and the best places for purchasing the same. 
 On the general subject of the history of gold discoveries 
 upon the Yukon the editor owes a special obligation to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 iMincr W. Hnicc, whose woik upon Ahi^kji has been i.:^c\y 
 drawn upon for inroniintion upon tliis subject. 
 
 The information as to the I'oute of travel down the 
 Yukon from Dyea via the ChiLkoot and White Passes is 
 largely from personal information obtained from men who 
 liave traveled over this i-outc dozens of times in the last 
 twelve years. I'se is also made ol' the exhaustive report 
 made by George M. Dawson, I). S., F. G. S., to the Domin- 
 ion Government, on his surveys and explorations of this 
 I'oute from the mouth oC Pelly Hiver to the Chilkoot and 
 White Passes, and from later rei)orts by William Ogilvie, 
 Dominion Land Surveyor, who lias been in ebarsje of the 
 International JUmndary Survey for many j'oars past. In 
 many eases where the estimates of distances l^ -twecn points 
 on the river h.ive varied. Dawson's estimates have been ac- 
 cepted as the final authority. 
 

 ^^' 
 
 *"■«« \'> lis.: /^ 
 
 L 
 
 1 " •'■ ^-I'^^^tff^'' 
 
 
 
 

 HISTORY OF THE YUKON GOI,D FIKI,DS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE YUKON GOLD FIELDS. 
 
 
 O 
 
 < 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 The information contained in the following pages as to 
 the earlier gold discoveries on the Yukon is largely com- 
 piled from the Report of an Exploration in the Yukon Dis- 
 trict of N. W. T. and the Adjacent Northern Portion of 
 British Columbia, made to the Director of the Geological 
 and Natural History Survey of Canada, by George M. Daw- 
 son, D. S., F. G. S. 
 
 No refer'^nce is made to the discovery of gold in any por- 
 tion of the Yukon waters earlier than that given by Mr. F. 
 Whymper, who in his ''Travels in Alaska and on the Yu- 
 kon," published in London in 1869, says: "It is worthy of 
 mention that minute specks of gold have been found by 
 some of the Hudson Bay Company's men in the Yukon, but 
 not in quantities to warrant a rush to the locality." 
 
 The first white man who crossed from the coast to 
 the headwaters of the Lewes (the Upper Yukon, which 
 heads in Lake Lindeman), according to the best obtainable 
 information was one George Holt, aftenvards murdered by 
 the Indians at Cook's Inlet in 1885. The date of Holt's 
 journey was in 1878. He was acompanied by one or more 
 Indians and crossed by the Chilkoot or the White Pass to 
 the head of the Lewes. He followed the river down to the 
 head of Lake Marsh and walked over the Indian trail thence 
 
HM 
 
 8 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 to the Tcs-liii-to or Ilootalinqiia River. On his return he 
 reported tlie discovery of "coarse gold," but none of the 
 miners who afterwards prospected the region mentioned 
 have been able to confirm his report in this particular. The 
 date and route above given are the result of inquiry among 
 miners who knew him, followed his route through the coun- 
 try named, and came in contact with tlie Indians whom he 
 had met. Jn some publications he has been credited with 
 having made the journey as early as 18T2. 
 
 8f)me years later, in 1880, a prospecting party of nine- 
 tee]! men was organized at Sitka, under the leadership of 
 one Kdward Bean. It afterwards received accessions, bring- 
 ing the number up to twenty-five. xVmicable relations were 
 established with the Chilkat and Chilkoot Indians, through 
 the kind offices of Captain (now Admiral) Beardsley, U. S. 
 N., and the Chilkoot Pass was crossed to Lake Lindeman. 
 Boats were built on Lake Lindeman, and on the 4th of July 
 the prospectors set out down the stream. The Tes-lin-too 
 was reached; was ascended sonfe distance and prospected. 
 Xo encouraging jirospects were met with at this time, 
 thougli 11. Steel, who was one of the party, states that he 
 found bars yielding at the rate of $2.50 a day in a small 
 stream M'hich joins the Lewes fifteen miles above the can- 
 yon. This large party was closely followed by two miners 
 known as Johnny MacKenzie and "Slim Jim," who reached 
 Lake Lindeman on July 3d. It is believed that other par- 
 ties entered the country the same year. 
 
 In 1881 a party of four miners, including George Lang- 
 try, who was one of the original party of twenty-five, again 
 crossed the Chilkoot Pass. Tliese men got as far as Big 
 Salmon lliver, which they called the Tyon. They ac- 
 cended the J:lig Salmon, according to their estimate, some 
 two hundred miles, finding a little gold all along its course- 
 and meeting with some remunerative river bars. This was 
 
HISTORY OF THE YUKON GOI.D FIELDS. 9 
 
 the first discovery of paying placer properties on any por- 
 tion of the Yukon or its tributaries. 
 
 In 1882 a number of miners entered the Yukon Country 
 by the Chilkoot Pass, and probably during the same season, 
 but certainly not before, two prospecting parties ascended 
 the Pelly to Hoole Canyon, and some of the men appear to 
 have gone even further up. 
 
 Details of tlie mining operations of 188;3 are not obtain- 
 
 
 ^■^::iS^>ii^-:ii^i 
 
 wm^ 
 
 
 
 FORTY-MILE CRKEK. 
 
 able, although several small parties were in the country and 
 some mining was done. It was this year that Lieutenant 
 Schwatka crossed the Chilkoot Pass and descended the 
 Yukon to the sea. In 1884 a little mining was done on the 
 Pelly and on the Hootalinqua, and possibly also on the 
 Lewes, In 1 885 mining was done along the Stewart Kiver, 
 and in the following year the greater portion of the mining 
 population was engaged on that river. Cassiar Bar, on the 
 Lewes, twenty -seven miles below the Hootalinqua, was dis- 
 covered in the s))ring of 1880. and actively worked during 
 the same summer. 
 
10 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 ill 
 
 I i I 
 
 i! 
 
 ! i 
 
 i r 
 
 A 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1886 "coarse gold" was found on 
 Forty-Mile Creek, still further down the main river than the 
 Stewart, and the announcement of the fact drew off nearly 
 the entire mining population to this place in 1887. 
 
 The first news of the discoveries on Forty-Mile was 
 brought to the coast by a man named Tom Williams. 
 Williams made the trip out in the dead of winter with a 
 dog-team and sled, and was accompanied by an Indian boy. 
 His trip was one of the hardest which has ever been recorded 
 in the history of the Yukon. The weather was intensely 
 cold and stormv. Before reaching Lake Bennett all of his 
 dogs had died from cold and exhaustion. While attempting 
 to cross the Chilkoot Pass a storm came up, and Williams 
 and his companion were compelled to hastily build a snow- 
 hut on the summit, and stop there ten days, with no pro- 
 visions except a little flour. When the storm passed Will- 
 iams was so badly used up that he was unable to proceed, 
 but his Indian comyianion carried him out on his back 
 through the snowdrifts and down the mountain gorges to 
 Dyea, a distance of sixteen miles. Williams died within a 
 few days after reaching Dyea, from the effects of his fearful 
 trip. This was but one of many like tragedies with which 
 the early history of ])rospecting upon the Yukon was filled. 
 
 The object of Williams' journey at this season of the 
 year was to communicate the news of the discoveries to Jack 
 McQuestion, the agent and storekeeper of the Alaska Com- 
 mercial Company at the trading post of that company at the 
 mouth of Forty-Mile. McQuestion was in San Francisco, 
 from which place he was to return in a few weeks l)y the 
 way of St. Michael's and up the river. It was known that 
 when the news of the discoveries reached the coast there 
 would be a rush to the mines, and unless the trading com- 
 panies learned of the fact in time to supply the stores 
 heavily, there was a prospect of great suffering and possibly 
 
HISTORY OF THE YUKON GOtD KIEI^DS. 
 
 II 
 
 starvation before those who ventured into the country with- 
 out a full supply of provisions. 
 
 Several hundred men did go into the Yukon on the 
 strength of the word brought out by Williams, and in the 
 spring active mining operations commenced, and have ever 
 since been conducted on Forty-Mile. Upwards of two 
 million dollars in gold has been taken out of that stream 
 and its small tributaries. The influx to the Yukon caused 
 
 JOK LA due's house, SIXTY-MILE CREEK. 
 
 by the news of the strikes on Forty-Mile led to the prospect- 
 ing _, other creeks, on many of which good results have 
 been found. Miller Creek, which up to the time of the 
 discoveries on the Klondike was the banner district on the 
 Yukon, is a tributary of Sixty-Mile Creek, entering it about 
 seventy miles from its mouth. The mouth of Sixty-Mile, 
 with some fifty miles of the str^-^m and its tributaries, is in 
 
12 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 I? 
 
 
 Northwest Territory, but Miller Creek lies wholly in Alaska. 
 In 1892 prospecting began on Miller Creek, and many rich 
 claims were located. One claim alone yielded thirty-seven 
 thousand dollars of the yellow metal, and one clean-up of 
 eleven hundred ounces was reported. Until the strikes on 
 the Klondike were reported there were about two hundred 
 men located on Miller Creek, but the number is consider- 
 ably less at the present time, the later and richer discovery 
 having called away all except the owners of the richer 
 claims. 
 
 Glacier Creek, another tributary of Sixty-Mile, running 
 nearly parallel to Miller Creek, has also developed some 
 promising claims, although the first prospecting on it was 
 not done until the summer of 181)4. Another creek on 
 which claims have been located and profitably worked for 
 many years past is Birch Creek, Avhicli runs parallel with the 
 Yukon for nearly three hundred miles before finally empty- 
 ing into it. A portage of six miles across from Circle City 
 on the Yukon strikes Birch Creek four hundred miles above 
 its junction with the Yukon. In 1894 and 1895 Birch 
 Creek and its famous tributaries attracted more attention 
 than any other i)ortion of the Alaska gold fields. Three 
 hundred miners wintered in there in 1895-9G, and last year 
 the number largely increased. As high as thirteen dollars 
 to the pan was found, and forty to fifty dollars a day to the 
 man was made on some of the claims when they were fciiriy 
 opened. Crooked Creek, Indey)endence, Mastodon, Nooly- 
 mute and Preacher Creek, all tributaries of Birch Creek, 
 have been prospected since 1893, and on each of them fairly 
 profitable claims have been worked. 
 
 On Koyukuk River and its tributaries some good dis- 
 coveries were made as far back as 1892, and a few claims 
 have been worked on this stream and its tributaries since 
 
HISTORY OF THE YUKON GOI.D FIELDS. 
 
 13 
 
 
 that date. This is as far down the Yukon as placer mining 
 lias been done up to the present time. 
 
 All the streams mentioned above, with the exception of 
 a few miles of Forty-Mile and Sixty-Mile Creeks, lie wholly 
 within the limits of Alaska. It was not until the year 1896 
 that any discoveries of importance were made on the streams 
 in the Northwest Territory. Of the streams lying wholly 
 in the Northwest Territory which had been prospected up 
 until tlio summer of 1896 but Indian Creek and Stewart 
 Kiver have come into any prominence, and these latter have 
 been so dwarfed by the greater fame which has attached to 
 the Klondike that but little is heard of them at present, 
 Indian Creek, wliich euipties iuto the Yukon a few miles 
 above the Klondike, has beeen prospected with indifferent 
 success for the past three years. Colors are found on every 
 bar, and a large number of claims have been located on it 
 and its tributaries. Some of these tributaries head on the 
 opposite side of the divide from Eldorado and Bonanza 
 Creeks on the Klondike, and within a very few miles of 
 them. The very latest reports from the Yukon indicate 
 that on Indian Creek some good discoveries have been made 
 the present summer, and some very profitable mines Avill be 
 opened within another season. 
 
 Stewart River, the largest of all the streams in Xoi-tli- 
 west Territory trilmtary to the Yukon, with the exception 
 of Pelly Kiver, is now occupying a fair share of attention. 
 Xo definite and reliable reports have yet come from tlie 
 Stewart River, although there are many old-time Yukoners 
 who look to it as the future great rival of the Klondike 
 i-egion. A very large numl)er of those who are now going 
 into the Yukon have for their objective point the Stcnvart 
 and its tributaries. 
 
 The latest discoveries reported are on Henderson Creek, 
 which empties into the Yukon a short distance below the 
 
14 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 Stewart. On this creek two hundred claims have been 
 located the present summer. Prospects are as good as were 
 shown on the Klondike at the time of its discovery last 
 summer, and well-informed Yukon miners look upon Hen- 
 derson Creek as a place from which a large amount of wealth 
 will l)c extracted next season. 
 
 Year by year, since 1883, the mining population of the 
 Yukon has slowly augmented, without at any time there 
 having been any such frenzied rush as marks the first stages 
 of development of most new mining regions. Trading posts 
 have gradually been established, sufficiently equipped to 
 supply the needs of those on the ground, and in- 
 creased transportation. During the spring and sum- 
 mer of 1896, and during the early spring of the pres- 
 ent year, has occurred the first movement which ap- 
 proached in its dimensions the nature of a rush. The busi- 
 ness depression which has long prevailed left hundreds of 
 men out of employment, and as the news of the discoveries 
 on the Yukon gradually came to light there was a general 
 feeling among those who had failed to procure profitable 
 employment in the State of Washington that possibly the 
 Yukon might afford them a livelihood, which they were 
 having difficulty in procuring at home. A rivalry which 
 broke out among the transportation companies accelerated 
 this movement. In the spring of 1896 fares from Seattle to 
 Dyea were reduced at one time to a point as low as five 
 dollars for second-class passage. Thousands took advan- 
 tage of the offer, and during the spring and summer of that 
 year the Chilkoot Pass was thronged with gold-seekers on 
 their way to the Y'ukon. No news of important discoveries 
 came out that year, and in the spring of the present year, 
 while the immigration was relatively large, it did not wit- 
 ness the proportions seen in 1896. During the past two 
 years and up to the time that word of the wonderful riches 
 
 ■I 
 
HISTORY OF THE KI.ONDIKR 
 
 15 
 
 of the Klondike came out, the mining population of the 
 Yukon was augmented by about four thousand people, of 
 whom probably one-half at least were residents of the State 
 of Washington prior to their going into the gold fields. 
 
 This chapter is but a faintly-outlined sketcli of the 
 mining history of the Yukon. The various rivers and 
 creeks named cover a territory twenty-eight degrees of 
 longitude by eight of latitude in extent. Scattered over 
 this vast territory there are a few thousand miners. Com- 
 munication between them has been scanty, and often abso- 
 lutely cut off for half a year at a time. Practically no mail 
 facilities have existed. Often a discovery has been made by 
 a prospector, who has settled down to work his claim, and 
 nothing is heard of the matter until he comes down to some 
 trading post a year later, to exchange his dust for another 
 year's supply of provisions. From the points on the Pelly 
 where prospecting has been carried on, to like points on the 
 Koyukuk, the actual distance is greater than from Seattle 
 to Chicago, and the Journey means thousands of miles travel 
 down one swift and turbulent stream, and hundreds of miles 
 of like travel up such another stream. 
 
 More than ten thousand miles of water-wavs are tribu- 
 tary to the Yukon, in the region where gold is known to 
 exist, and on all streams prospected gold has been found in 
 greater or less quantities. 
 
 Under such circumstances, all the information which 
 can be obtained is necessarily vague, general and somewhat 
 indefinite in character, save as to the better-known and 
 longest-worked districts. 
 
 There is, however, one mining district in the Yukon, 
 and that the one to which public attention is being now 
 directed, about which the amplest, fullest, and most accur- 
 ate information is at hand. That region is the Klondike. 
 
■■> 
 
 i6 
 
 GUIDE TO THK KI.ONDIKK. 
 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1" 
 
 HISTORY OF THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 The original discoverer of the great placers in the min- 
 ing district known generally as the Klondike was G. W. 
 Carmach, a native of Illinois. Mr. Carmach was not a ten- 
 derfoot, neither were his discoveries made by accident, nor 
 in a place which had heretofore been unknown. The Klon- 
 dike and its tributaries had been visited by prospectors 
 dozens of times before ]\[r. Carmach finally commenced his 
 systematic work, which resulted in the uncovering of the 
 greatest placer deposits which have ever been found on the 
 American Continent. Carmach has been in the Yukon for 
 more than ten years. He made that country his home, and 
 had it not been for his sudden accession to wealth he might 
 have remained there until the day of his death. He is mar- 
 ried to an Indian woman of the Stick tribe, and has two 
 children born to him. He has worked at all kinds of labor 
 such as could be found in a country like the Yukon. He 
 has been a hunter, an employe of the trading companies, a 
 prospector, miner, fisherman, and was employed for a time 
 on the International Boundary Survey. His home for 
 many years past has been with the Sticks at Takish House, 
 on the chain of lakes that form the source of the coastward 
 arm of the Yukon. The Klondike has the name of being 
 the greatest salmon stream of any of the affluents of the 
 Yukon. Last summer Carmach camped near the mouth 
 of the Klondike, and with a number of Indians to assist 
 him caught and cured a very large number of salmon. 
 
 After the salmon run was over, in accordance with his 
 previously declared intention, he started out to make a sys- 
 
HISTORY OF THE KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 17 
 
 tematic prospecting trip up the Klondike, from which pre- 
 vious prospectors had returned discouraged. In the latter 
 part of July he took two Indians and a small stock of pro- 
 visions and started up the Klondike. He took the first 
 considerable tributary which appeared, to the right, and 
 went up it a few miles to where conditions were favorable 
 for prospecting. Gold was found in encouraging quantities 
 on every bar. For twenty miles or more he followed the 
 windings of the stream, panning on every bar, until he 
 finally decided upon the spot to locate his claim. He went 
 out and returned with provisions enough to set to work, and 
 with his wife and two brothers-in-law (Indians) started in 
 at systematic mining on August 15. The gravel was carried 
 by the three men in a box from the claim to the creek, a 
 distance of from thirty to one hundred feet. In eight days 
 the three men, in this crude manner, washed out fourteen 
 hundred dollars, and the fame of Bonanza Creek was estab- 
 lished. 
 
 Before the men got fairly to work the news had leaked 
 out. In fact, Carmach made no secret of it, and endeavored 
 to inform his friends as speedily as possible. By August 
 19 seven claims were filed. The news of the wonderful 
 discoveries passed down the river, but was at first dis- 
 credited. Nevertheless, by the 1st of October, some two 
 hundred men were on the ground, and Eldorado Creek, a 
 branch of Bonanza, was prospected and demonstrated to be 
 as rich or richer than the first discovery. Then commenced 
 that wonderful rivalry as to amount of gold to be found in 
 a single miner's pan of dirt, which reads, even to this day, 
 when the facts have been fully authenticated, more like a 
 page out of a romance than a sober recital of actual experi- 
 ence. The winter had set in, the creeks were sealed, and 
 the only way of getting any portion of the wealth out of the 
 ground was by the primitive prospector's plan of panning. 
 
1 
 
 I! 
 
 18 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 I': 
 I 111 ■' 
 
 Through a hole in tlic ice water could be obtained in tjiian- 
 tities sutTicicnt for this method of working. 
 
 On November 23 L. 11 IJhoads, who had located claim 
 No. 21, on Bonanza Creek, took out $65.30 to a single pan 
 of dirt. Word of this went down to Circle City, where 
 four or five hundred miners were wintering, and then 
 commenced the most remarkable exodus which the Yukon 
 had yet witnessed. In the depth of winter, with the ther- 
 mometer hovering around in the neighborhood of GO de- 
 grees below zero, nearly the entire population of Circle City 
 at once started for the scene of the rich discoveries. Every 
 dog team and every pack animal in the camp were pressed 
 into service, and those who had neither, packed their stock 
 of provisions on hand sleds and started. Tlie distance was 
 300 miles up stream, but every man who started made the 
 trip without any other casualty than a few frost bites for 
 the especially unlucky or ill-provided individuals- 
 Clarence Berry, who was one of the lucky ones to get 
 early on the ground in Eldorado Creek, took out one $100 
 pan and later a pan w-hich went $280. On March 5, a pan 
 taken from the bottom of the shaft on Thorp & Stewart's 
 claim showed $282.50, and from fourteen pans $1,565 was 
 obtained. On March 20, Clarence Berry took out a $300 
 pan, and on Ai)ril 13, one which went $495. Erom that 
 time on panning gave way to sluicing, as the thaws had set 
 in and water became plentiful. 
 
 In the meantime other tril)utaries of the Klondike had 
 been prospected and showed nearly as well as Bonanza and 
 Eldorado Creeks. On Tilly Creek 175 claims were staked; 
 Bear Creek was pxeity well located, as well as Gold Bottom 
 and Hunker Creeks. There is a creek still higher up, 
 called by the Indians Too Much Gold Creek, of the richness 
 of which the most fabulous stories are told, but about which 
 
HISTORY OF THK KI.ONDIKE. 
 
 19 
 
 nothino: authentic was really known at the time the last 
 news came out of the Klondike country. 
 
 The extraordinary and unprecedented richness of tho 
 claims, as demonstrated hy the prospecting and panning, 
 was such that the fortunate locators of claims could not 
 wait for the sj)ring thaws to commence oj)eratioi s. The 
 ground was covered by a coating of moss a foot in thickness 
 and under this gravel was frozen solid to bed rock. Bed 
 rock was from nine to twenty-four feet down, and the rich 
 pay streak was from one to three feet thick just above the 
 bed rock. The moss was stripi)ed off the surface and fires 
 built to thaw the ground. As fast as thawed, it was shov- 
 eled out on the dump and in this manner a shaft was sunk 
 to bed rock. From the foot of the shaft, by the same use 
 of fires to thaw the frozen gravel, drifts were driven along 
 tho bed rock, and the gravel in the pay streak taken to tho 
 surface and placed on the dump. Every energy was bent 
 to have as much gravel in sight as possible, so that when 
 tho water came in the spring, sluicing could commonco 
 at once, J'ld the entire force could commence shoveling 
 the gravel into the sluice boxes. 
 
 The demand for labor ran high. Every claim owner 
 wished to employ as many men as possible, in order to clean 
 up as large a portion of his claim as could be done the first 
 season. Wages soon reached the figure of fifteen dollars 
 per day, and remained at that, at last accounts. At 
 these figures some three hundred or four hundred men 
 were employed besides the mine owners. In addition 
 to mining, sluice boxes were being built, dams put 
 in the creek, and ditches dug to carry the water into 
 the sluice boxes. Many claims were w<trked on shares, by 
 those who did not have the means to employ and pay 
 miners at the ruling rate of wages. In most instances, 
 however, where men were employed; a few pans taken from 
 
20 
 
 O.UIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 ' H 
 
 M 
 
 the dump and panned out at the end of the week, produced 
 sufficient to pay the labor bills, and buy the claim owner 
 the necessary provisions, as well as to allow him a little 
 over with which to take in the attractions of metropolitan 
 life, for a city had sprung into being. 
 
 Joseph La Due, one of the pioneer traders of the 
 Yukon, who had been in that country since 1882, 
 was one of those early on the ground. He had been 
 engaged in mining, in trading, in operating a saw- 
 
 
 
 STEAMER LANDING FIRST SUPPLIKS AT DAWSON CITY, JUNK. 1897. 
 
 mill, and for a time even had engaged in the appar- 
 ently hopeless pursuit of farming. He had attempted to 
 raise vegetables in the neighborhood of Fort Selkirk, but 
 early frosts blighted his crop and his farming aspirations 
 at one and the same time. When the news of the rich 
 discoveries broke out he was engaged in running a sawmill 
 at Sixty-Mile, a trading post some fifty miles up the river 
 from the mouth of the Klondike. Mr. La Due promptly 
 moved the sawmill down to the mouth of the Klondike. 
 Here he selected a level piece of ground, with a good land- 
 
HISTORY OK THlv KUONDIKI-:. 
 
 21 
 
 reduced 
 
 1 owner 
 
 a little 
 
 Dpolitan 
 
 of the 
 ; 1882, 
 id been 
 a saw- 
 
 897. 
 
 appar- 
 pted to 
 rk, but 
 irations 
 lie rich 
 sawmill 
 le river 
 'omptly 
 ondike. 
 d land- 
 
 
 ing on the river and established a town, whicli hv named 
 Dawsoii City, after the gentleman who had charge of the 
 first suiTeying party for the Canadian Government, wliich 
 went in to establish th-e international boundary in 1887. 
 From tlie time the sawmill was established it had all it 
 r-"uld do to supply the demand for Inmber for sluice boxes 
 and houses at one liundred dollars ])er thousand feet and 
 upwards. Men stood in line to file their orders, and waited 
 for days to have them tilled. While the nearest mines are 
 three miles away and the richest claims fully twelve miles 
 off, Dawson City has been the mining cam]) of tlie counti-y 
 ever since it started. Before spring opened it had a popu- 
 lation of })robably twelve hundred, housed in tents, in log 
 cabins, in rough board houses and in shacks compounded 
 in part of all of these. 
 
 Five saloons were running in full blast before the 
 spring opened, and each one was taking in from three hun- 
 dred to two thousand dolhirs a day, with whisky at fifty 
 cents a drink and beer the same. Every conceiv- 
 able kind of gambling game was in operation; and dance 
 houses wore in full blast, for daring and hardv women of 
 the most dissolute character had made their way into the 
 camp as early as any one except the original prospectors. 
 The town was rogularlv staked off into blocks and lots, on 
 the American ]ilan, avenues running one way and streets 
 intersecting them at right angles. Town lots were sold at 
 city prices. 
 
 While the enormous wealth of the camp was known in 
 part from the result of the panning, it was not until the 
 spring opened and the sluice boxes commenced to separate 
 the gold from the sand and earth with which it was mixed 
 on the dump piles, that it became clearly recognizable. 
 When earth was handled through the sluice boxes by the 
 ton, instead of by the dozen pounds in the pan, then the 
 
fmm 
 
 e 
 
 22 
 
 GUIDE xO THE KI,ONDIKE 
 
 i^iH 
 
 gold commenced to appear in quantities which fairly daz- 
 zled those who thought they had realized the richness of 
 the claims. Where it had been seen in omces, it came to 
 sight in pounds, even in hundredweights. Where small 
 buckskin sacks had sufficed to carry the wealth of the 
 ordinary claim owner, coal oil cans came in use. Around 
 the cabins of the lucky owners of claims, gold stacked up in 
 quantities of which they had never dreamed of poscossing. 
 Three or four weeks of sluicing gave from single claims as 
 high as ten thousand ounces of gold, while few claims ran 
 lower than twenty thousand dollars; the smallness of the 
 amount not being due to any inferior richness in the claims 
 themselves, but to the smaller size of the dump, represent- 
 ing the gravel which had been taken out during the winter. 
 W^ith this first clean up, the first epoch in the history of the 
 Klondike closed. 
 
 From the report of William Ogilvie, who has been in 
 on the Yukon, in charge of the boundary surveys, made to 
 the Dominion Government, the following extracts are given 
 as being official in character, and, moreover, as giving the 
 best idea obtainable as to the extent and character of the 
 placer discoveries in the Klondike districts and the dis- 
 tricts immediately adjacent thereto: 
 
 The extent of the gold-bearing section here is such as to 
 warrant the assertion *hat we have here a district which will 
 give one thousand claims of five hundred feet in length each. 
 New, one thousand such claims will require at least three thou- 
 sand men to work them properly, and as wages for working 
 in the mines are from eight to ten dollars per day, without 
 board, we have every reason to assume that this part of our 
 territory will within a year or two contain ten thousand souls 
 at least, for the news has gone out to the coast and an unprece- 
 dcntr" influx is expected next spring. 
 
 And this is not all, for a large creek called Indian Creek 
 joins the Yukon about midway between Klondike and Stewart 
 River, and all along this creek good pay has been found. All 
 that has stood in the way of working it heretofore has been 
 the scarcity of provisions and the difficulty of getting them up 
 
 :| 
 
HISTORY OF THE KI,ONDIKE. 
 
 23 
 
 tliere even when here. Indian Creek is quite a large stream, 
 and it probably will yield five or six hundred claims. Further 
 south yet lies the head of the several branches of Stewart River, 
 on which some prospecting has been done this summer and 
 good indications found, but the want of provisions prevented 
 development. 
 
 Since my last the prospects on Bonanza Creek and tribu- 
 taries are increasing in richness and extent, until now it is 
 certain that millions will be taken out of the district in the 
 next few years. On some of the claims prospected the pay dirt 
 is of great extent and very rich. One man told me yesterday 
 that he washed out a single pan of dirt on one of the claims on 
 Bonanza Creek and found fourteen dollars and twenty-five cents 
 in it. Of course, that may be an exceptionally rich pan, but 
 five to seven dollars per pan is the average on that claim, it is 
 reported — with five feet pay dirt and the width yet undeter- 
 mined, but it is known to be thirty feet. Even at that figure 
 the result, at nine to ten pans to the cubic foot and five hundred 
 feet long, is four million dollars at five dollars per pan. A 
 fourth of this would be enormous. Enough prospecting has 
 been done to show that there are at least fifteen miles of this 
 extraordinary richness, and the indications are that it will have 
 three or four times that extent; if not all equal to the above, 
 at least very rich. 
 
 There are several cases of hardship now for the want of a 
 proper court. Miners' meetings have lost their power, though 
 one was held in Forty-Mile a day ago to settle the disputed 
 ownership of a placer claim, a thing perfectly within the power 
 of the agent here, and why it was held I cannot yet say. If 
 some sort of court to satisfy the necessities of the people in 
 business here is not at once established serious inconvenience 
 will result. The officer appointed will require to be a hale, 
 vigorous person, for it is probable that he will have to make 
 journeys of considerable length across unoccupied country in 
 the discharge of his duty. I have in previous reports intimated 
 that some sort of legal machinery is absolutely necessary for 
 the trial of cases of contract, collection of debts and generally 
 the judicial interests of the country. 
 
 A quartz lode showing free gold in paying quantities has 
 been located on one of the creeks, but I cannot yet send par- 
 ticulars. I am confident from the nature of the gold found in 
 the creeks that many more of them, and rich, too, will be found. 
 I have just heard from a reliable source that the quartz men- 
 tioned is rich, as it tested over one hundred dollars to the ton. 
 The lode appears to run from three to eight feet in thickness 
 and is about nineteen miles from the Yukon River. I will 
 likely be called on *o survey it and will be able to report fully. 
 
 John Dalton informed me he has found good prospects on 
 a small creek nearly midway between the Coast Range and 
 Selkirk on his route. His man showed me some coarse gold. 
 
It 
 
 24 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KL,ONDIKH. 
 
 about a dollar's worth, he found on the head of a branch of the 
 Alsek River, near the head of Chllkat Inlet, which is, of course, 
 Inside the summit of the Coast Range and, of course, in our 
 territory. From this you will gather that we have a very large 
 area, all more or less gold-bearing, and will all yet be worked. 
 
 Good quartz has been found in places just across the line 
 on Davis Creek (see my map of the one hundred and forty-first 
 sent you), but of what extent is unknown, as it is in the bed of 
 the creek and covered with gravel. Good quartz is also reported 
 on the hills around Bonanza Creek, but of this I will be able to 
 speak more fully after my proposed survey. It is pretty certain 
 from information I have got from prospectors that all or nearly 
 all of the northerly branch of White River is on our side of the 
 line, and copper is found on it, but more abundantly on the 
 southerly branch, of v/hich a great deal of it is in our territory 
 also, so it is probable we have that metal also. 
 
 I have seen here several lumps of native copper brought by 
 the natives from White River, but just from what part is uncer- 
 tain. I have also seen a specimen of silver ore said to have 
 been picked up in a creek flowing into Bennett Lake, about 
 fourteen miles down it on the east side. 
 
 Placer prospects continue more and more encouraging and 
 extraordinary; it is beyond doubt that three pans of different 
 claims on El Dorado turned out two hundred and four dollars, 
 two hundred and twelve dollars and two hundred and sixteen 
 dollars, but it must be borne in mind that there were only three 
 such pans, though there are many running from ten to fifty 
 dollars. I think this is enough to show that we may look 
 forward with confidence to a fairly bright future for this part 
 of our territory. 
 
WHAT THE KI^ONDIKE HAS PRODUCKD, 
 
 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WHAT THE KLONDIKE HAS PRODUCED. 
 
 While all this excitement was prevailing on the Yukon, 
 it took a long time for the news to reach the outside world. 
 The rivers were closed by ice, and the dreary semi-Arctic 
 winter, with its extreme low temperature, had set in. Prac- 
 tically the country was sealed in from the outside world. 
 But there are men in on the Yukon whom no hardships, 
 no severity of weather can deter. In the middle of the 
 winter, a party of five left Dawson City with dog sleds, 
 bound for Dyea. During their whole trip the thermom- 
 eter ranged in the neighborhood of fifty degrees below 
 zero, but they made the trip from Dawson to Juneau in 
 forty days. The object of their trip was to arrange for 
 heavier shipments of provisions into the country, in antici- 
 pation of the rush which would come when the news went 
 out to the world; and particularly to get in such provisions 
 for themselves and their partners before the snow went 
 out of Chilcoot Pass and while sledding was practicable. 
 They were followed by other small parties at intervals from 
 that time on until spring. Each one of these parties 
 brought out glowing accounts of the richness of these great 
 strikes. From Juneau the news reached Seattle by 
 steamer, and was sent out over the coimtry by wire. The 
 story of the rich pans of dirt washed out by Clarence Berry 
 was published as early as April 5, and like stories fol- 
 lowed it. 
 
 For some peculiar reason, these stories seemed to excite 
 but a passing interest, except among those who took an 
 active interest in mining. The spring movement to the 
 
26 
 
 GUIDB TO THE KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 Yukon was not quite as large as it was the previous year, 
 and before any such glowing accounts of the richness of 
 the country had been received. It was not until the arrival 
 of the steamer Excelsior in San Francisco, on Wednesday, 
 July 14, that a true realizing sense o^ what the discoveries 
 really amounted to was experienced. That steamer 
 brought down with her more than a ton of gold, the prop- 
 erty of a dozen or more men, and the result of a few weeks' 
 sluicing in the spring. Each of these men had behind 
 him a claim of which the amount with him represented a 
 
 ^\$S>,.~j 
 
 sr^.-= 
 
 ■%:. •■""■•■•I ■ '■ - v' ^^^^^^•^:X^X • m '^, ^•'' '''J'''- ^Xf' li 
 
 '^**'^\\*-^fc 
 
 ^^^^^.v:,^;^;^--^^<-^~- 
 
 ^:V^^i^(Uvi|h^' 
 
 CROSSING THE LAKES ON THE ICE. 
 
 very small fraction of the wealth. The arrival of the 
 steamer Portland at Seattle on the morning of July 17 
 fanned the excitement into a flame. On the Portland 
 there were sixty-eight passengers who had with them con- 
 siderably more than a million dollars' worth of gold, their 
 share of the few weeks' clean-up. Much of the money 
 which had been taken out by them had been reinvested in 
 other claims, and with the exception of a few who had sold 
 their claims^ the amount in the possession of each miner 
 
iS^SI 
 
 lous year, 
 chness of 
 he arrival 
 ednesday, 
 iscoveries 
 steamer 
 the prop- 
 ew weeks' 
 d behind 
 esented a 
 
 I of the 
 July 17 
 Portland 
 em con- 
 Id, their 
 ! money 
 ested in 
 bad sold 
 li miner 
 
 WHAT THE KI^ONDIKE HAS PRODUCED. 37 
 
 Avas a relatively small portion of the wealth which he 
 actually had. The amount brought out on these two 
 steamers was distributed among the passengers as follows: 
 
 Thomas Cook 3 io,ooo 
 
 M. S. Norcross 10 000 
 
 J. Ernmerger lo'ooo 
 
 Con Stamatin g 250 
 
 Albert Fox 5^100 
 
 Greg Stewart 5 OOO 
 
 Thomas Flack 5 Ooo 
 
 Louis B. Rhoads 5 yoo 
 
 T. S. Llppy 65000 
 
 Henry Dore , 50,000 
 
 Victor Lord 15 Oqo 
 
 William Stanley 112 000 
 
 Clarence Berry ISsiooO 
 
 Albert Galbraith 15,000 
 
 James McMahon 15 000 
 
 J. O. Hestwood 5 000 
 
 F. G. H. Bowker 9o|ooo 
 
 Joe Ladue 10 qoo 
 
 J. B. Hollingshead 25 000 
 
 Jack Home g 000 
 
 Douglas McArthur 15,000 
 
 Bernard Anderson 14 000 
 
 Robert Krook 14 000 
 
 Fred Lendesser 13 oqo 
 
 J- J- Kelly ■ ' '_■ lo'ooo 
 
 Others who came down scattered to various parts of the 
 country before any figures could be obtained from them. 
 Every man who came off the Portland had with him gold. 
 Some carried it in grip sacks, under the weight of which 
 they staggered, some had it rolled in tbcir blankets. Hardly 
 one had less than a full load, while in five or six instances it 
 required the assistance of two or three men to take the gold 
 ashore over the gang plank. In two rough sacks Clarence 
 
2S 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 Borry carried $85,000 in gold, this being the amount for 
 which the nuggets and dust were actually sold. 
 
 The sight of the gold itself and the stories told by the 
 returning miners were sufficient in themselves to create a 
 mining furore in Seattle; but in addition to this the Port- 
 land brought down hundreds of letters. Many of these 
 were from well known and thoroughly reliable citizens of 
 Seattle, men whose acquaintanceship extended over the 
 whole town. These letters to wives, to mothers and fathers, 
 and to intimate friends, all without exception told the same 
 story, of the finding of gold in almost incredible quantities, 
 of thousands of dollars being washed out in one day. A 
 few of the more significant letters are given herewith. 
 
 Captain Francis Tuttle, commander of the revenue cut- 
 ter Bear, under date of July 1, wrote io a friend in Seattle 
 a letter of which the following are extracts: 
 
 The days of '49 in California are mere sideshows in com- 
 parison with the excitement in the Yulcon country. As I write 
 St. Michaels is full of miners waiting the first opportunity to 
 get down to Puget Sound and to California. Nearly every man 
 of them has fifty thousand dollars worth of dust, and there is 
 not a man here with less than fifteen thousand dollars. The 
 latter are referred to as "poor fellows." 
 
 Captain Tuttle says he cannot alford to lay long in St. 
 Michaels or his whole crew will become daft, and he con- 
 tinues: 
 
 I feel almost as if I would like to go up the river myself, 
 and I would certainly do so were I twenty years younger. 
 
 B. R. Shaw, a young man well known in Seattle, in a 
 letter to 0. A. Schade, also of Seattle, from Dawson City, 
 under date June 15, gives some particulars as follows: 
 
 There is no night here now. It is light as midday for the 
 twenty-four hours, and neither too warm nor too cold; not too 
 many flies to bother as yet. This is a great mining strike, 
 probably the greatest on the American Continent, or in the 
 
 
WHAT THE KLONDIKE HAS PRODUCED. 
 
 29 
 
 lount for 
 
 Id by the 
 I create a 
 the Port- 
 of these 
 itizens of 
 over the 
 i fathers, 
 the same 
 uantities, 
 day. A 
 ith. 
 
 eniie cut- 
 n Seattle 
 
 3 in com- 
 L^ I write 
 [•tunity to 
 very man 
 i there is 
 irs. The 
 
 Qg in St. 
 i he con- 
 
 ir myself, 
 ger. 
 
 fctle, in a 
 5on City, 
 3ws: 
 
 ly for the 
 ; not too 
 ig strike, 
 )r in the 
 
 i 
 
 world. I know you will not believe me if I tell you all about it. 
 It is not so extensive as I wish it was, or at least gold has not 
 been found in great paying quantities except on two creeks, 
 about two hundred claims, but some of them are very rich; 
 in fact, some of the pay streaks are nearly all gold. One thou- 
 sand dollars to the pan is not an uncommon thing, and as high 
 as one hundred ounces have been taken out at a single pan. 
 It is no uncommon thing to see men coming in with all the 
 gold dust they can carry. 
 
 You would not believe me when I tell you that I went into 
 one cabin and counted five flve-gallon oil cans full of gold 
 dust, but it is a fact. It is the result of the work of two men 
 during the winter, and the dump is not much more than half 
 worked out. 
 
 There has been about two million dollars in dust taken out 
 so far in the district. At a low estimate there will be fifty 
 million dollars taken out during the next year. 
 
 Of course I am in too late to get in on any of the rich 
 ground, but hope to get hold of some that I can make wages at, 
 or better. 1 am working for the Alaska Commertial Company, 
 helping to put up a big store building. Went to work as soon 
 as 1 got settled at ten dollars a day for ten hours. Carpenters 
 get fifteen dollars a day, and so do all of the men who work in 
 the mines. I think I sliall work for a wliile. 
 
 John F. Miller, formerly prosocuting attorney of King 
 Coiuity, in which Seattle is situated, and a nepliew of the 
 late Senator John F. Miller, of California, in a letter to 
 his wife, dated Dawson City, June 14, says: 
 
 I have now written quite at length regarding the trip and 
 its features, and, by the way, I may say that no one has any 
 right or ought to undertake it unless he is ready and willing 
 to put up with anything or everything, at all times, and undergo 
 any and all kinds of hardship, privation and exposure. Now, 
 as to the country. Well, as far as the wealth is concerned, the 
 half has not been told. But, like everything else, the few have 
 it and the many are looking, looking and hunting — the same old 
 story. Many claims have yielded sixty thousand, eighty thou- 
 sand and one hundred thousand dollars from last winter's work. 
 One man has three flve-gallon oil cans filled, and is not fully 
 washed out yet. But, remember, he is one out of perhaps five 
 thousand. The many have nothing, though great wealth doubt- 
 less exists. A town has sprung up here at the mouth of the 
 Klondike that has killed Circle City, Forty-Mile, Fort Cudahy 
 and all of the other towns dead. 
 
 Captain Higgins, of the Excelsior, tells of some of the 
 
30 
 
 GUIDB TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 stories he hoard from tlie returning miners, during the 
 
 fifteen days of ])assage down, as follows: 
 
 On the 29th came our steamer, the Alice, with thirty minera 
 and more gold, and we discharged freight immediately and got 
 away on the morning of July 1st. The weather had been very 
 warm. Think of seventy-five and eighty degrees in the shade, 
 close under the Arctic Circle. The first installment of return 
 we received was fifteen strong boxes of gold— over a ton in 
 weight. This was the company's share. Every miner brought 
 his own. 
 
 After the company's lot had been stowed away the passen- 
 gers came, and they staggered up the gangplank loaded down. 
 Some had their whack rolled up in a blanket and carried it in 
 front, bent nearly double with their load. Some had it in a 
 strong valise. Several had two valises suspended one on each 
 side with a strap over their shoulders. Some had to make two 
 trips and two of the party made three trips between the steamer 
 to transfer their treasure. 
 
 A few of these men had been in Alaska five years and more, 
 some three years. Several, and among these the most fortunate, 
 crossed the range last winter into the Klondike mines, which is 
 undoubtedly the richest placer ever known. The word Klon- 
 dike means Deer River, and is called Reindeer River on the 
 charts. It empties into the Yukon fifty miles above the Big 
 River. The geographical position of the junction is seventy-six 
 degrees ten minutes north latitude, one hundred and thirty- 
 eight degrees fifty minutes west longitude. Bonanza Creek 
 dumps into Klondike two miles above the Yukon. El Dorado 
 is a tributary of the Bonanza. There are numerous other creeka 
 and tributaries, the main river being three hundred miles long. 
 The gold so far has been taken from Bonanza and El Dorado, 
 both well named, for the richness of these placers is truly 
 marvelous. El Dorado, thirty miles long, is staked the whole 
 length, and as far as worked has paid. 
 
 As each claim is live hundred feet along the creek bed there 
 is half a million to the claim. So uniform has the output been 
 that one miner who has an interest in three claims told me that 
 if offered his choice he would toss up to decide. One of our 
 passengers who is taking out one hundred thousand dol- 
 lars with him has worked one hundred feet of his ground 
 and refused two hundred thousand for the remainder, 
 and confidently expects to clean up four hundred thou- 
 sand dollars and more. He has in a bottle two hun- 
 dred and twelve dollars from one pan of dirt. His pay 
 dirt while being washed averaged two hundred and fifty dollars 
 an hour to each man shoveling in. Two others of our miners 
 who worked their own claims cleaned up six thousand dollars 
 from one day's washing. There is about fifteen feet of dirt 
 above bedrock, the pay streak averaging from four to six feet. 
 
WHAT THK KU)M)IKK HAS I'RODUCKD. 
 
 31 
 
 ing the 
 
 r miners 
 and got 
 aen very 
 e shade, 
 i£ return 
 \ ton in 
 brought 
 
 ! passen- 
 3d down, 
 •led it in 
 i it in a 
 on each 
 lake two 
 ! steamer 
 
 ,nd more, 
 ortunate, 
 which is 
 rd Klon- 
 jr on the 
 ) the Big 
 venty-six 
 d thirty- 
 ;a Creek 
 1 Dorado 
 ler creeka 
 liles long. 
 Dorado, 
 is truly 
 le whole 
 
 )ed there 
 [put been 
 me that 
 ie of our 
 ind dol- 
 ground 
 lainder. 
 Id thou- 
 ro hun- 
 [is pay 
 dollars 
 miners 
 dollars 
 of dirt 
 Isix feet. 
 
 which is tunneled out while the ground is frozen. Of course 
 the ground taken out is thawed by building fires, and when the 
 thaw comes and water runs they set their sluices and wash the 
 dirt. Two of our fellows thought a small bird in the hand 
 worth a large one in the bush and sold their claims for forty- 
 five thousand dollars, getting forty-five hundred dollars down, 
 the remainder to be paid in monthly installments of ten thou- 
 sand dollars each. The purchasers had no more than five 
 thousand dollars paid. They were twenty days thawing and 
 getting out dirt. Then there was no water to sluice with, but 
 one fellow made a rocker and in ten days took out ten thousand 
 dollars for the first installm* nt. So, tunneling and rocking, 
 they took out forty thousand dollars before there was water 
 to sluice with. 
 
 Of course these things read like the story of Aladdin, but 
 fiction is not in it at all with facts at Klondike. 
 
 Tlioso nre l)ut snrnples out of tliousaiid*, couched pre- 
 cisely in the same vein, and repeating over and over again 
 the same story. 
 
 AVhat the district has produced this season cannot be 
 iicciuatcly known until the linal shipments are made. Ac- 
 cording to the estimates of the best informed men, fully 
 live million dollars has been taken out since April 20. 
 AVitliout exception, all the returning miners agree that 
 there will be fidly ten times as much taken out during the 
 
 coming season. The ground in the pay streak has proven 
 of uniform richness all along the creeks. One claim is 
 substantially as good as another. On the claims which 
 have })een opened about live hundred men were employed 
 during the last season, or during some part of it. It is 
 agreed that on these claims alone five thousand men can 
 be profitably worked, if they can be obtained. In the 
 whole district, including all the tributaries of the Klon- 
 dike, there is prospective work for ten thousand. It will 
 be seen that our estimated product for next season of the 
 Klondike mines of fifty million dollars is within the bounds 
 of reasonable expectations, and it is not at all improbable 
 that the amount may reach double these figures. The 
 estimate of work for ten thousand men in the district is 
 made by William Ogilvie, chief of the Intemiitional Bound- 
 ary Survev, whose experience on the Yukon dates back to 
 1887. 
 
 3-S 
 
3« 
 
 CUIDR TO TIIK KI,ONniKR. 
 
 ? 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 THE ROUTES OF TRAVEL. 
 
 Speaking in general terms, there are two routes of travel 
 to the mines. One is by steamship to the Island of St. 
 Michael's, situated near the mouth of the Yukon, in Bering 
 Sea; thence by river steamer up to the various mining 
 camps. The other is by steamer to some point on the coast 
 of Southeastern Alaska; thence across the naiTOw dividing 
 mountain range to the headwaters of rivers which flow into 
 the Yukon, and thence on down the rivers in small boats. 
 This latter is called the overland route, but the overland 
 portion of the trip is only from twenty-four to sixty miles, 
 according to the route taken. As the great body of the 
 travel into the Yukon has been by way of these so-called 
 overland routes, they will be the first ones taken up and 
 discussed. With existing routes of travel, the starting 
 point for the Yukon is the city of Seattle. By steamer to 
 Dyea or Skaguay, the distance from Seattle is eight hundred 
 and eighty-four miles. It is an inland passage all the way, 
 and, except across the mouths of a few wide bays, the ordin- 
 ary steamship route of travel is as well sheltered as any 
 portion of Puget Sound. With the exception of these few 
 places, no more rough water can be seen tluiii on any ordin- 
 ary land-locked bay on tide water. No more picturesque 
 voyage is possible to be selected on any waters in the 
 world. The fame of the inside passage to Alaska has 
 spread until during the summer season large excursion 
 boats have to be put on to accommodate the heavy tourist 
 travel from Seattle north by this route. Until the com- 
 
THK ROUTKS Oi TRAVEI^. 
 
 33 
 
 of travel 
 
 d of St. 
 
 a Bering 
 
 mining 
 
 the coast 
 
 dividing 
 
 flow into 
 
 ill boats. 
 
 overland 
 
 ty miles, 
 
 y of the 
 
 so-called 
 
 np and 
 
 starting 
 
 amer to 
 
 iimdred 
 
 the way, 
 
 le ordin- 
 
 as any 
 
 lese few 
 
 y ordin- 
 
 uresque 
 
 in the 
 
 ska has 
 
 tcursion 
 
 r tourist 
 
 he com- 
 
 mencement of the ])roscnt rush there was but one steamer a 
 week to Alaska. The number has now increased until it 
 can be safely asserted that from this time forward, so long 
 as the demands of travel require it, thoi'e will be one large 
 steamer leave Seattle for Dyea and Skaguay every day in 
 the week, and more will be put on if necessary. The steam- 
 
 '""It-JlMt^ 
 
 FIRST CAMP ON CHII.KOOT TRAII-. 
 
 ers at present on the route are those of the Pacific Coast 
 Steamship Compaii}', the Queen, a palatial excursion boat 
 of sixteen hundred and ninety-seven tons register; t!ie 
 Willamette, of upwards of three thousand tons burthen; the 
 Mexico, a large ocean-going steamship; the City of Topeka, 
 of the same class, and the Alki, a smaller ocean steamship. 
 
34 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KI.ONDIKE. 
 
 The company has a large llect of other vessels to draw upon 
 in case of an enieraencv. In addition to this, a large 
 numher of smaller steamers, admirably fitted for the work, 
 are on the route, such as the Rosalie, with accommodations 
 for one hundred and fifty passengers; the Geo. E. Starr, 
 with substantially tlie same accommodations. Two freight 
 boats, tlie Edith and the Rapid Transit, are also on the 
 route. Other vessels are fitting up to meet the demand, if 
 it increases. The passenger accommodations of these 
 various boats ranges from twelve hundred down to one 
 hundred and fifty. The voyage only lasts four days, and 
 would be a mere pleasure excursion were it not for the fact 
 that there v^-ill some slight discomfort follow from the 
 crowded conditions of the ^leame'S. The travel will never 
 congest at Seattle. So long as it is possible to cross the 
 mountains and reach the headwaters of the Yukon, the 
 enterprise of Seattle can be lelied upon to furnish transpor- 
 tation to the points wliere the land journey commences. 
 
 THE CHILKOOT PASS ROUTE. 
 
 This is the one through whieli nearly all the miners 
 who have yet reached the various placers on tlie Yukon, 
 including the Klondike, made their original trip into the 
 country. Jt is the shortest pass from tide water to fresh 
 water on the lakes which are the sources of the Yukon. 
 The actual distance from the beach at Dyea Inlet to Lake 
 Lindeman, as instrumentally measured by Mr. Ogilvie, the 
 Dominion surveyor, who has been in charge of the inter- 
 national boundary work on the Yukon for some years past, 
 is twentv-threc miles and a half. It is generally called 
 twenty-four miles, the distance being divided as follows: 
 Dyea to foot of canyon, seven miles; canyon to Sheep 
 
mm 
 
 THE ROUTES OF TRAVEI.. 
 
 35 
 
 nv upon 
 
 a large 
 
 le work, 
 
 xlations 
 
 I. Starr, 
 
 freight 
 
 on the 
 
 nand, if 
 
 f tliese 
 
 to one 
 
 lys, and 
 
 the fact 
 
 om the 
 
 11 never 
 
 'OSS the 
 
 on, the 
 
 anspor- 
 
 inces. 
 
 miners 
 Yukon, 
 nto the 
 o fresli 
 Yukon. 
 ;o Lake 
 vie, the 
 3 inter- 
 rs past, 
 
 called 
 'ollows: 
 
 Sheep 
 
 Camp, five miles; Sheep Camp to summit, five miles; sum- 
 mit to Lake Lindeman, nine miles. From Dyea, the first 
 seven miles of the distance is up a M'ide, fiat-bottom valley, 
 floored with gravel flats. It runs north and south between 
 high mountain walls. The travel up this valL-v is as easy 
 as over any ordinary country road, the only trouble being 
 that the trail crosses the creek several times before the 
 head of the canyon is reached. This valley is V-shaped, 
 the point of the V being the entrance to the canyon. Six 
 miles up from the head of the inlet, the stream is joined 
 by another, which has been dignified by the name of the 
 Nou]-se lliver. From that point on the valley closes in 
 abruptly, until at the distance of seven miles from Dyea 
 the canyon is reached. Here the ascent commences to be- 
 come more abrupt. The trail goes througii the woods 
 along a steep, rocky and in summer time boggy hillside, 
 leading up and down the sides of several deep, narrow 
 gullies. Two small detached glaciers occupy hollows in 
 the slope of the mountains on the west side of this valley 
 and from these a considerable portion of the water of the 
 stream is derived. Five miles of travel througii this can- 
 yon trail leads to Sheep Camp, the last point where tliere 
 is any timber on the trail until the lake on the opposite 
 side. From Sheep Camp to the summit is a distance of 
 three miles, and this is the hardest part of the whole trail. 
 It leads through a narrow rocky gap, and the whole scene 
 is one of the most complete desolation, the granite rocks 
 rising steeply to partly snowclad mountains on either side. 
 The trail leads over huge masses of fallen rock, which alter- 
 nate here and there with steep, slippery surfaces of rock in 
 jilacc. In one portion of the trail, near the summit, for a 
 distance of nearly nine hundred feet, the angle is nearly 
 forty-five degrees. Then follows a short l)ench, and a 
 further slope of seven hundred feet at an angle of approxi- 
 
36 
 
 GUIDE To THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 mately thirty degrees. At this a windlass or winze hus 
 been established, which is used in hoisting the loaded sleds 
 up the slope when there is snow on the ground. A number 
 of miners at this point frequently join forces and by splic- 
 ing together the rope carried by each party and leading it 
 through a block made fast at the summit, haul their loads 
 up the slope. Wlien packing is resorted to, this portion of 
 the trail usually has to be "doubled," that is, but half the 
 usual load is carried up it, and a return is made for the 
 other portion. Seven to eight miles of the highest part of 
 the pass is entirely destitute of timber, even of a stunted 
 growth, such as might be used for firewood. The "stone 
 house" often referred to in letters and by newspaper corre- 
 spondents consists of several natural, though inconvenient 
 shelters, beneath great masses of rock which have rolled 
 down from the mountain. The actual elevation of the 
 pass at the summit, taking the mean of a large number of 
 barometrical observations, is three thousand five hundred 
 and two feet. After the summit is passed, the slope of the 
 pass is rather gradual, and the total descent to the lake 
 not very great, being but thirteen hundred and thirty-four 
 feet in a distance of nine miles. The trail is rough and 
 crooked, crosses wide areas of shattered rock, making the 
 travel, especially with a pack, extremely hard. Some of 
 the valleys to the north of the summit and near it are 
 deenlv filled with perennial snow, over which the trail runs 
 Iv r» •' 'erence, to avoid the rocky slopes. Continuing 
 li'-yw''-' the trail follows a little glacial stream through a 
 narrow rocky defile. 
 
 It can be seen from this description that the Chilkoot 
 Pass, at least so far as the last few miles toward the summit 
 are concerned, is impracticable as a pack trail for animals. 
 The manner in which supplies have been carried over this 
 pass, during the summer season, has been entirely by men 
 
THE ROUTEvS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 37 
 
 inze bus 
 led sleds 
 
 number 
 by splic- 
 iading it 
 eir loads 
 Drtion of 
 half the 
 I for the 
 t part of 
 
 stunted 
 e "stone 
 er corre- 
 iivenient 
 re rolled 
 1 of the 
 imber of 
 hundred 
 DC of the 
 the lake 
 irty-four 
 ugh and 
 king the 
 Some of 
 ir it are 
 rail runs 
 ntinuing 
 rough a 
 
 Dhilkoot 
 summit 
 
 animals. 
 
 )ver this 
 bv men 
 
 1 
 
 packers. The Chilkat Indians have been acting as packers 
 ever since the first gold-seekers went in on the Yukon. 
 They have charged for this work from ten to twenty cents a 
 pound, the average price for several years having been 
 fifteen cents per pound. A strong man can carry a pack of 
 one hundred pounds over this trail, and this is about what 
 the average Indian packer takes. It takes threr, days for 
 the round trip to be made from Dyea to Lake Lindeman, 
 two days going over with the pack and one returning, and 
 
 
 ''"wsw^:^^,'^. 
 
 
 V.:;. I'; ■( 
 
 :r'-^j\, 
 
 
 m ,. 
 
 %,■'■ . 
 
 nKVIL'S BLT'Kr PORTAl.r., CIIII.KOOT TRAIL. 
 
 it >^ ■ •.: .tfully liard work. With an estimated outfit of 
 fifteen n^""lred pounds, it would take one man, working 
 alone, fa ty-five days to get his outfit over the pass, if he 
 coulr! indeed stand up under such work for that length of 
 i ime. Owing to the riisli now going on it will be difficult 
 to get Indian packers suflicient to care for more than part 
 ()f the freight offering. 
 
 In the spring the conditions arc (lifTerml, and it is at 
 
m 
 
 38 
 
 GUIDE To thp: klondikk. 
 
 r. 
 
 that season that the experienced Yukon miner endeavors 
 to get in his supplies. With the lieavy fall of snow usually 
 on the Avestern slope, all the boulders, broken rock and 
 rough places in the trail arc covered up. On the crusted 
 snow five to eight hundred pounds can be moved more 
 readily than one hundred pounds can be packed. At the 
 very steej) places, ropes are used to haul the loaded sleds 
 up the icy slopes, and ropes are again used to lower them 
 down the steep slopes on the other side of the pass. Storms 
 in the pass are frequent and severe and occasionally inter- 
 rupt this work for weeks. The experienced Yukoner, by 
 taking advantage of the intervals of good weather, gener- 
 ally succeeds in getting bis sup]ilies over the pass and down 
 part of the upper chain Ox" s before the ice commences 
 to go out of the river. lie i: is his boat built in readiness 
 to embark, and as soon as the ice commences to move out, 
 follows it down the river, arriving at the mines about the 
 first of June. This is the practice recommended to 
 all who intend to go into the Klondike or other min- 
 ing regions in the Yukon via the overland route. It 
 necessitates exposure to storms and to severe winter 
 weather, but these experiences will have to be met with in 
 any event, and might as well be encountered at the start 
 as at any other ]»ortion of the route. If they pi'ove too 
 severe, it is not too late to withdraw from the adventure, as 
 it would be, if fairly started down the Yukon in a boat. 
 
 A description of the method of getting supplies oyer 
 the trail in the early spring, while the road is in a condition 
 to travel, is given by a writer in the Alaska Searchlight. 
 According to returned Yukoners, this description is the 
 most complete, exhaustive and gra])hie of any which has 
 been attempted, so it is reproduced here: 
 
 "Going up the Dyea river five miles on the ice, will 
 bring one to the mouth of the canyon. Here in the woods 
 
THK ROUTEvS OF TRAVEL 
 
 39 
 
 mdeavors 
 V usually 
 t'ock and 
 3 crusted 
 ed more 
 
 At the 
 led sleds 
 i'er them 
 
 Storms 
 ]y inter- 
 oner, bv 
 V, geiier- 
 nd down 
 iimences 
 •eadiness 
 love out, 
 bout the 
 nded to 
 ler min- 
 ite. It 
 3 winter 
 with in 
 :he start 
 I'ove too 
 iiture, as 
 boat. 
 lies over 
 ondition 
 •chlio-ht. 
 1 is the 
 lieli has 
 
 ice, will 
 e woods 
 
 a comfortable camp can be easily arranged. The tent is 
 pitched on top of the snow, the poles and pins being pushed 
 down into it. While some are busily engaged in building 
 a fire and making n bed, the best cook of the party prepares 
 tlie supper. If you have no stove a camp fire must be built, 
 either on an exposed point of rock or in a hole dug down in 
 tlie snow; if you have a stove it can be quickly arranged 
 on a "gridiron" inside the tent, the gridiron consisting of 
 three poles some six or eight feet long, and laid in the snow 
 on M'hich the stove is placed. The heat from the stove will 
 soon melt a liole underneath, but there will be enough firm 
 snow under the ends of the poles to hold it up. For the 
 bed hemlock brush is cut an 1 laid on the snow to a depth 
 of a foot or more, and this is covered with a large square 
 of canvas on which the blankets and robes are put; when 
 finished it forms a natural spring bed, which will oft'er 
 grateful rest after hauling a sled all day. 
 
 "Dyea C.'anyon is about two miles long and perhaps fifty 
 feet wide. A boat cannot go through it, but in the early 
 spring miners go through on the ice, bridgincj with poles 
 the dangerous places or openings. x\fter the ice breaks 
 up it is necessary to go over the trail on the east side of the 
 canyon. This trail was built by Captain Ilealy at his own 
 expense, but is little used, as most miners go through the 
 canyon before the ice breaks up. The camping place be- 
 yond the cauyon is a strip of woods some three miles long, 
 known as Pleasant Camp. Its name is something of a 
 misnomer, for there is not even a log shanty there; some 
 woods to give a kind of shelter, and as everywhere else 
 along the route, plenty of snow. 
 
 "From here the ascent is gradual, and the next and last 
 cam]) in timber before crossing the summit is known as 
 Sheep Camp. This is at the edge of timber, and no wood 
 for fire can be gotten any higher up. This camp is not 
 

 40 
 
 ouir;/: To thk Klondike. 
 
 usually broken until all of the outfit has been placed on the 
 summit. When the weather is favorable, everything except 
 what is necessary for camp is pushed a mile and a half to 
 Stone House, a clump of big rocks, and then to what is 
 called the second bench. Care must be exercised in case of 
 soft weather, or everything is liable to be swept from the 
 bench by a snowslide or avalanche, and should this happen 
 the Indians Mill prove of groat assistance in recovering part 
 of the things. AVith long, slender rods tipped with steel 
 they feol down in the snow and locate most of the larger 
 packages, which, without theui and their feel rods, one 
 would never find. At Sheep Camp the summit towers 
 above you thirty-five hundred feet, but the pass is some 
 five hundred feet lower. Xo further progress can be made 
 until a clear day, and sometimes the weather continues bad 
 for two or three weeks, the mountain top hidden in thick 
 clouds, and icy winds hurling the new fallen snow in every 
 direction, or driving the sleet in the face of any one bold 
 enough to stir out of camp, and peep up at the precipitous 
 wall of snow and ice. But sunshine comes at last, and the 
 winds grow still. Xow comes the tug of war — to get the 
 outfit to the summit; for six hundred feet every step must 
 be cut in the ice, and so steep is it that a person with a 
 pack on his back must constantly bend forward to maintain 
 his equilibrium. The first load landed on the summit of 
 the pass, a shovel is stuck in the snow to mark the spot, 
 then back for another pack, and fortunate is he who gets 
 his whole outfit up in a single day- Indians may be hired 
 to do the packing, and their rates vary slightly, but the 
 regular price has been five dollars a hundred-weight from 
 the second bench to the summit, or fifteen cents a pound 
 from Healy & "Wilson's to the lakes. These prices have 
 been shaded a little the past season, and some outfits were 
 packed over to the lakes at thirteen cents a pound. The 
 
THE ROUTES OE TRAVEL. 
 
 41 
 
 3d on the 
 ig except 
 a half to 
 
 what is 
 n case of 
 from the 
 3 happen 
 ring part 
 ith steel 
 le larger 
 ods, one 
 t towers 
 
 is some 
 be made 
 nues bad 
 in thick 
 in every 
 one bold 
 Bcipitous 
 and the 
 I get the 
 ;ep must 
 1 with a 
 naintain 
 mmit of 
 he spot, 
 vho gets 
 be hired 
 but the 
 ht from 
 1 pound 
 ;es have 
 its were 
 I. The 
 
 reasons for this cut in prices are that many miners insist on 
 doing their own packing, and that their work lias been 
 seriously affected by a tramway device which was operated 
 last season with more or less success by one Peterson, whose 
 inventive genius led him to believe that a simple arrange- 
 ment of ropes and pulle3'^s would greatly help in getting 
 outfits up the steeper places. A small log is buried in the 
 snow, and to this "dead man" a pulley is attached, through 
 which a long rope is passed to the lower end of which a 
 
 tir,^< t- 
 
 £~^^. 
 
 ..- ^. .„■%.. 
 
 tT' 'r,^ ' 
 
 ])00 TKAM PASSING STONK HOUSF, CHII.KOOT TKAII.. 
 
 Yukon sleigh is attached, and the empty box on the sled 
 fastened to the upper end of the rope is then filled with 
 snow until its weight becomes sufficient to take it down the 
 incline, thus dragging the other one up. The snow was 
 found too light, but with three or four men as ballast in 
 place of snow it worked well, and saved a good deal of hard 
 packing. When the last load has reached the summit and 
 the minor stands beside his outfit looking down toward the 
 ocean, only twenty miles away, he can feel that his Journey 
 
42 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 has fairly Ix'giin, and as lie turns lie sees the descending 
 slope melting away into the great valley of the Yukon. 
 
 "The descent for the lirst half mile is steep, then a 
 gradual slope to Lake I.indeman, some ten miles away. 
 But there is little time for resting and none for dreaming, 
 as the edge of the timber, where the camp must be made, 
 is seven miles from the summit. Taking the camping outfit 
 and sullieient provisions for four or five days, the sleigh is 
 loaded, the rest of the outiit is packed up, or buried in the 
 snow, sliovels being stuck up to mark the spot. This pre- 
 caution is necessary, for storms come suddenly and rage 
 with fury along these mountain crests. The first half mile 
 or more is made in quick time, then over six or seven feet 
 of snow the prospector drags his sleigh to where there is 
 wood for his camp lire. At times this is no easy task, 
 especially if the weather be stormy, for the winds blow the 
 new faiicii snow about so as to com})ietely cover the track 
 made by the man but little ahead: at other times during 
 fine weather and with a hard crust on the snow, it is only a 
 pleasant run from the pass down to the first camp in the 
 Yukon luisin,. In all except the most sheltered situations 
 the tent is necessary for comfort, and the stove gives better 
 satisfaction than the camp fire, as it burns but little wood, 
 is easier to cook over, and does not ])oison the eyes with 
 smoke. It is a noticeable fact that there are fewer cases 
 of snow blindness among those who use stoves than among 
 those who crowd around a smoking camp fire for cooking 
 or for warmth. Comfort in making a trip of this kind will 
 depend, in a great measure, upon the conveniences for 
 camping, suitable clothing, and light, warm bedding."' 
 
 At Lake IJndenian it is usual .o embark in boats. The 
 earlier miners at this point, or at Lake Bennett, where the 
 timber is much better, whipsawed the lumber for making 
 their boats. At present tbere is a small sawmill estab- 
 
TlIK ROUTES or TRAVKL. 
 
 ceiiding 
 on. 
 
 then a 
 ; away, 
 earning, 
 le made, 
 ig outfit 
 sleigh is 
 d in the 
 'his pre- 
 nd rage 
 lalf mile 
 \ en feet 
 there is 
 isv task, 
 blow the 
 he track 
 s during 
 is only a 
 p in the 
 ituations 
 es better 
 le wood, 
 yes with 
 rer cases 
 [1 among 
 cooking 
 :ind will 
 iiecs for 
 
 s! The 
 
 here the 
 
 making 
 
 1 estab- 
 
 lished, which, however, had dilliciilty in su]tplying the de- 
 mand for lumber last season. (Jtlicr mills are, however, to 
 be put in at once. 
 
 The present practice, and one which is growing in 
 favor, is to have boats built at Seattle, of the best selected 
 cedar, "knocked down," shipped north by tlie steamer and 
 taken over the pass, to be put together at Lake Lindeman, 
 This not only elfects a great saving in time, but the boats 
 so built are far superior to anything which even a good 
 mechanic could construct out of the snuiU spruce timber 
 found on the lakes. Any man familiar with the use of 
 carpenter's tools can put such a boat together, while he 
 might, unless familiar with boat-building, have some con- 
 siderable difliculty in constructing a craft suitable to run in 
 swift and rough water, capable of carrying a full outfit of 
 supplies for three or four men, and yet light enough to be 
 carried around a portage. The style of boats generally 
 used are on the Canadian bateau order, iwrrow, flat bottom, 
 double-endors, heavy sheer at each end, and a wide Hare 
 from the bottom to the top. But everything from a raft 
 or a scow, up to a highly finished Rob Hoy canoe, has been 
 used on the river. 
 
 A large number of the miners have preferred, however, 
 to continue packing until Lake Bennett is reached, and at 
 this point to build boats, or, as in many instances, rafts, 
 in wliich to continue their journey. The total length of 
 the route from Lake Lindeman to the site of old Fort Sel- 
 kirk, at the mouth of the Pelly, is three hundred and fifty- 
 seven miles. It is in this portion of the route that all the 
 difficulties in navigation occur. From the Pelly down the 
 Yukon is a broad stream, unvexed by rapids, although flow- 
 ing with a swift current. The scenery around Lake Ijinde- 
 man is wild and fine, although solitary and alpine in the 
 extreme. 
 
 Lake Bennett occupies a continuation of the same valley 
 
44 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KI,ONDIKE. 
 
 in which Lake Lindeman lies, but is separated from that 
 lake by a small, rapid stream, three-quarters of a mile in 
 length. This stream falls about twenty feet between the 
 two lakes and is rough and rocky. The portage is on the 
 east side. Over this the greater portion of the goods are 
 carried, while, after the boat has been considerably light- 
 ened, it is let down through the rapids, with lines attached 
 to it. 
 
 Lake Bennett is twenty-five and eight-tenth miles in 
 length, and from here to the lower end of Marsh Lake there 
 is still-water navigation, the rivers connecting the chain 
 of lakes being slack, with practically no current. These 
 lakes constitute a singularly picturesque region, abounding 
 in striking points of view and landscapes pleasing in their 
 variety, or grand and impressive in their combination of 
 iiigged mountain forms. Connecting Lake Bennett with 
 Tagish Lake is a narrow arm called by the miners Cariboo 
 Crossing, but on tlije Canadian maps it is set down as Lake 
 Wares. This is two and seven-tenth miles in length. 
 Lake Tagish is sixteen and six-tenth miles in length. Here 
 the voyagers are often detained by high winds and rough 
 water caused thereby. "Windy Arm" of the Tagish is 
 well named, for it is through this arm that the high winds 
 come, particularly in the spring of the year. Another por- 
 tion of Lake Tagish is the Tako Arm, to which further 
 reference will be made when the White's Pass route is being 
 described. 
 
 From Tagish Lake a wide, tranquil reach of river con- 
 nects it with Lake Marsh. The current is very t-lack and 
 the depth is from six to twelve feet at mean water. The 
 river is bordered by low terraces, which are particularly 
 wide on the west side and are covered with open woods, 
 chiefly consisting of white spruce and cottonwood. A mile 
 above Lake Marsh, on the east bank of the river, is a small 
 
45 
 
 THIi ROl'THS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 from that 
 a mile in 
 itween the 
 ! is on the 
 goods are 
 ibly light- 
 s attached 
 
 I miles in 
 jake there 
 the chain 
 t. These 
 ibounding 
 g in their 
 nation of 
 nett with 
 s Cariboo 
 1 as Lake 
 1 length, 
 th. Here 
 tid rough 
 ragish is 
 gh winds 
 ther por- 
 further 
 is being 
 
 Lver con- 
 lack and 
 r. The 
 ticularly 
 woods, 
 A mile 
 a small 
 
 village Oi the Tagish Indians, consisting in the main of two 
 roughly-built houses, in which the Indians reside during 
 the winter. 
 
 Lake Marsh (so named by Schwatka) called !Mud Lake 
 by the miners, is twenty miles in length, with an average 
 width of two miles. The valley is quite wide, and the 
 country surrounding the lake quite low, consisting of ter- 
 race flats or low rounded or wooded hills and ridges. The 
 diversified forms of mountains in view from this lake ren- 
 der it particularly picturesque. The shores of the lake are 
 generally rather shoal. There is no warrant in any pe- 
 culiarities of the lake itself, for the name Mud Lake, applied 
 to it by the miners. 
 
 Between Marsh Lake and Lake Lebarge lies the most 
 dangerous portion of the whole trip. The first portion of 
 the river l)etween these points is, however, perfectly safe 
 and easy. For the first six miles the current is quite slack, 
 but from that time on a considerable current sets in. The 
 immediate river-trough narrows in, being closely bordered 
 in by terraces a hundred or more feet in height. At a 
 distance of twenty-three miles from Lake Marsh, Miles 
 Canyon and "White Horse Kapids are encountered. 
 
 Miles Canyon and White Horse Eapids form together 
 the most formidable obstacle which will be met with on 
 the whole voyage down the river. The interruption to 
 navigation here is two and three-quarter miles in total 
 length. At Miles Canyon the river flows with great veloc- 
 ity, but is unimpeded in its course, and is not risky to run 
 with a good boat. A portage of five-eights of a mile is 
 sometimes made, however, and as a usual thing the boat is 
 lightened at this point and some portions of the oiu'il 
 carried around. The canyon is cut through a horizontal, 
 or nearly horizontal flow of basalt, and is not more than 
 one hundred feet in widtli. To make the portage, a very 
 
M 
 
THK ROUTKS OK TRAVKI.. 
 
 47 
 
 
 . -5? 
 
 
 2=1 :^ 
 
 v.v 
 
 stoGf^ Hsci'iil lias to be overcoiiR'. Warning notices in tho 
 8lia[)o of ilags tied to sticks on the bank have been placed 
 by the miners to warn strangers as to the difTiculties ahead 
 of them. This, in fact, has been done at every dangerous 
 place on the river. When such a warning is noticed, it is 
 advisa])le to land and reconnoiter the route ahead for some 
 distance. Three-quarters of a mile below tho canyon the 
 river is very swift and the set of the stream is strong around 
 a rocky point. There is no diiTiculty here, however, to any 
 person accustomed to tlie use of a boat. A mile and three- 
 quarters from the foot of Miles Canyon comes the dreaded 
 White Horse Rapids. This rapid is three-eighths of a mile 
 long. The worst rapid is at the lower end of the White 
 Horse, where the river scarcely exceeds a hundred feet in 
 width, with low basaltic banks, and the force of the water 
 is very great. In the upper part of White Horse, the water 
 flows between low basalt clilfs, about twenty feet in height, 
 and the mid channel is well strewn with rocks. The White 
 Horse Kapid has been run by miners and with safety. On 
 the other hand, it has been the scene of more mishaps than 
 any portion of the river. Several prospectors and miners 
 have lost their entire outfits in attempting this run and 
 there have been a few lives also lost at this point. It should 
 not be attempted, at least save by those who have had long 
 experience in handling boats in swift water. The portage 
 is on the west bank, and caution would prompt that both 
 the boat and the cargo be carried around it. The practice 
 is, however, to portage the cargo and lower the boat 
 through by lines, managed from the top of the low cliffs. 
 
 Thirteen miles below the foot of White Horse Rapid 
 the mouth of the Takena is reached. This is a consider- 
 able stream, which is wide and slack at its confluence with 
 the Yukon. From here on down to Lake Lebarge, a dis- 
 tance of eleven miles, the current of the river is quite slack. 
 
 4-S 
 
48 
 
 GUIDE TO THK KIvONDIKlt. 
 
 ;$v 
 
 Lake Lebarge is a little over thirty-one miles in length. 
 It lies nearly north and south, but is somewhat irregular in 
 outline. It is about two and one-half miles in width at 
 the lower end, narrows in somewhat in the middle, and 
 finally increases to a width of five miles near Richtofen 
 Island. Its elevation above sea level is approximately 
 twenty-one hundred feet. From the outlet of Lake Le- 
 barge to Fort Selkirk, at the mouth of the Pelly, is a dis- 
 tance of two hundred miles, in which the total descent is 
 five hundred and ninety-five feet, or at the rate of two and 
 ninety-seven one-hundredths feet to the mile. 
 
 Twentv-seven and one-half miles down from Lake Le- 
 barge, the mouth of the Tes-lin-too, called by the miners 
 the Hootalinqua, is encountered. The river down to this 
 point is very crooked. The current for the first three or 
 four miles after leaving the lake is slack, but gradually be- 
 comes stronger, i.ntil at the Hootalinqua it is very rapid, 
 averaging six or seven miles an hour. Large boulders occur 
 in the bed in some places. The Hootalinqua will probably 
 be on the route of travel on tlie new Canadian route to the 
 Yukon, being laid out via tlie Stickeen and the Cassiar 
 mining region. Between the Hootalinqua and the moutli 
 of the Big Salmon, a distance of thirty-one miles, the river 
 continues narrow and deep, with a swift current. At a 
 point nine miles below the mouth of the Hootalinqua, tlie 
 width of the river by actual measurement, was four hun- 
 dred and eighty-three feet, and the current (in August) 
 was at the rate of four and eighty-four one-hundredths 
 miles per hour. A number of auriferous gravel bars have 
 been worked along this part of the river, including the Cas- 
 siar, one of the richest bars struck during the earlier period 
 of mining. There has lieen some considerable Ijar mining 
 done on the Big Salmon. 
 
 From the mouth of the Big Salmon River to the moutli 
 
THE ROUTKS OK TRAVEI*. 
 
 49 
 
 in length, 
 irregular in 
 n width at 
 aiddle, and 
 • Richtofen 
 proximately 
 f Lake Le- 
 ly, is a dis- 
 1 descent is 
 
 of two and 
 
 n Lake Le- 
 the miners 
 own to this 
 rst three or 
 radually be- 
 very rapid, 
 Lilders occur 
 ill probably 
 oute to the 
 the Cassiar 
 the moutli 
 ?, the river 
 nt. At a 
 linqua, tlio 
 four hun- 
 n August) 
 lundredths 
 1 bars have 
 g the Cas- 
 lier period 
 |)ar mining 
 
 the mouth 
 
 of Little Salmon the distance is thirty-four miles. The 
 course of the river is far straighter than for any stretch 
 above or below this point. The current is not quite so 
 swift at this portion of the river, although at a point about 
 midway between Big and Little Salmon both river and its 
 valley are more than usually narrowed. 
 
 For a few miles below the mouth of the Little Salmon, 
 the valley widens out for a few miles, but from that point 
 on until the Eink Eapid is reached, the valley becomes 
 irregular and somewhat narrow. About forty miles below 
 the mouth of the Little Salmon, the Nordenskiold enters 
 the Lewes on the west side. Fifty-three miles below the 
 mouth of the Little Salmon the rapids called by Dawson, 
 Eink Eapids, but known to the miners as Five Fingers, 
 are encountered. On the bluff, about five and a half miles 
 above Eink Eapids, there is an outcropping of coal visible 
 on the bluff, about sixty feet above the base. Four rocky 
 islets divide the stream into live channels, the water in each 
 of which is swift and turbulent. The channel to the ex- 
 treme right is the one to take. It is well, however, before 
 running this, to make a landing and thoroughly recon- 
 noiter. While the water is swift, the rapid presents no 
 serious difficulty. The usual danger signals will be found 
 posted on the bank of the river above this point. The 
 channel is deep and unobstructed. 
 
 Below the main rapid there is a second riffle, or minor 
 rapid, wliieh appears to be somewhat strong. The river 
 along from here to the moutli of the Polly is pleasing in 
 appearance. It is usually wooded, but the southern ex- 
 ])osures of some of the hills are partly open niid dry, grass- 
 covered terrace Hats are frec^uent. liircli i?; moderately 
 al)undant. Tatshun Eiver, a mile and a half below Five 
 Fingers is the first stream passed. The other tributaries 
 down to the mouth of the Pelly are but small brooks. At 
 
Wf^ 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 < 
 u 
 
 tr 
 
 
 I 
 
THE ROUTES OF TRAVEL. 
 
 51 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 u 
 
 Ed 
 
 iJ 
 
 i 
 
 a point six miles below Five Fingers, where the course of 
 the river is uninterrupted by islands and its velocity and 
 width about normal, the rate of flow was found to be four 
 and eight-tenth miles per hour, the width seven hundred 
 and thirty-two feet. It is fifty-five miles from Five Fin- 
 gers to Fort Selkirk. There are numerous islands in the 
 last portion of this stre^ ''h of the river and about ten miles 
 above Fort Selkirk these islands are particularly numerous 
 for a distance of five miles, and the distance of the river, 
 from bank to bank is increased to nearly a mile. This 
 group was named by Schwatka the Ingersoll Islands. 
 
 From the mouth of the Pelly down, the river is placid 
 and there is no rough water, although the current is uni- 
 formly swift. It is a quarter of a mile wide just below the 
 mouth of the Pelly, but gradually increases in width. 
 The ruins of Fort Selkirk, formerly a post of the Hudson 
 Bay Company, stand in a partly open Hat, on the south 
 side, at a short distance back from the river and about a 
 mile and a half below the mouth of the Pellv. 
 
 From Fort Selkirk to the mouth of White River, the 
 distance is ninety-nine miles. This portion of the trip is 
 simply drifting down stream, through a picturesque coun- 
 try', with a swift current, smooth water, a' \ no dangers to 
 be feared. Owino; to the swiftness of the -tream, it is a 
 matter of some small difficulty occasionally to elTect a land- 
 ing at precisely the point aimed for, but this is about all the 
 difficulty to be encountered. 
 
 Three miles below the mouth of ^Vliite River, the Stew- 
 art River empties into the Yukon, twenty-one miles below 
 that comes Sixty-Mile, and forty-nine miles below Sixty- 
 Mile is Dawson City, near the mouth of tlie Klondike, 
 probably the objective point for most of those who are 
 entering the Yukon country at present. 
 
 From Dawson City to Fort Cudahy the distance down 
 
52 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 stream is fifty two and three-fourths miles and Circle City 
 is two hundred and forty miles still further down the 
 stream. 
 
 THE WHITE PASS ROUTE. 
 
 The descriptioii already given of the Chilkoot Pass 
 route answers fully for that via White Pass, with the excep- 
 tion of the crossing over from tide water to the lakes. The 
 Wliite Pass route commences at Skaguay, five miles distant 
 from Dyea, the terminus of the Chilkoot route, and up an- 
 other arm of the same inlet on which Dyea is situated. 
 Steamers which land passengers at Dyea take them also for 
 Skaguay, and at precisely the same rate of fare. White 
 Pass, though used heretofore less than the Chilkoot, offers 
 many points of advantage over the latter. Within the past 
 year a large amount of work has been done upon it by par- 
 ties interested in establishing a packing trail; and it is now 
 readily passable for pack animals, with fair mountain trail 
 loads. It is estimated that an expenditure of fifty thousand 
 dollars would suffice to construct via this pass a wagon road 
 over which freight wagons could replace pack ponies, and 
 bring the freight rates down to some reasonable figures. 
 It is also asserted that the terrible storms which prevail in 
 the Chilkoot Pass during the spring and winter are not 
 felt in the White Pass, or at least, are nothing like as 
 serious. 
 
 This pass leaves the coast at the mouth of the Skaguay 
 River, five miles south of the head of Dyea Inlet, and runs 
 parallel to Chilkoot Pass at no great distance from it. The 
 distance from the coast to the summit is seventeen miles, of 
 which the "^Tst five miles h level bottom land thickly tim- 
 bered. The next nine miles in in a canyon-like valley, 
 where considerable work has been necessary to make a 
 
THE ROUTKvS OK TRAVF.L. 
 
 53 
 
 passable trail. The remaining three miles to the summit 
 is comparatively easy. The altitude of the summit is esti- 
 mated at twenty-six himdred feet or nine hundred feet 
 lower than the summit of Chilkoot. Beyond the summit 
 a wide valley is entered and the descent to the first little 
 lake is not more than one hundred feet. The mountains 
 rapidly decrease in height and abruptness after the summit 
 is passed and the valley bifurcates, one branch leading to 
 the head of "Windy Arm of Tagish Lake, the other (down 
 which the water drains) going to Tako Arm of the same 
 lake. It is to the Tako Arm that the trail is constructed. 
 The total descent from the summit to Tako Arm is rather 
 less than five hundred feet. Xo engineering difliculties are 
 presented to making a first class wagon road by this route, 
 or even if occasion arises, a railroad. The distance to Tako 
 Arm from Skaguay by the White Pass trail is (estimated) 
 thii'ty-five miles, somewhat longer than by Chilkoot, but a 
 much easier route. The Tako Arm is, from where the trail 
 reaches it, to Lake Tagish proper, about twenty miles in 
 length (estimated). From Lake Tagish, tlie remainder of 
 the voyage down the Yukon is precisely the same as here- 
 to fore described. 
 
 The White Pass route apparently would be an admira- 
 ble one to adopt for sledding supplies over on the snow in 
 the winter or early spring, as is done over the Chilkoot 
 route. 
 
 This route has never been used to any extent until this 
 year. While the grades are very much lighter, and the 
 altitudes very much lower, than by the Chilkoot Pass, a 
 considerable amount of work was necessary to make a trail. 
 No government assistance eoukl bo had; there is no organ- 
 ized government of any description in Alaska authorized to 
 expend a cent in building roads, and these is no machinery 
 for the collection of taxes for such a purpose. It requires 
 
tft 
 
 ? t^ 
 
 as 
 
THK ROUTES OF TRAVKI,. 
 
 55 
 
 private enterprise to make all such roads or trails as are 
 projected in Alaska. This year some enterprising in- 
 dividual, who desiied to put on a pack team of ponies and 
 transport supplies for miners, at their own expense have 
 opened the White Pass trail. Recent reports from those 
 who have gone over this trail are to the etl'ect that it is in 
 every way preferable to the Chilkoot Pass route, and offers 
 no more difficulties than are presented in every ordinary 
 mountain pack trail. In view of these facts, it is recom- 
 mended that White Pass be selected by all who intend to 
 go in by the overland route. Work in improving the trail 
 will be carried on from this time forward, in such a manner 
 as not to interfere with the present use of the trail for pack- 
 ing purposes. 
 
 f! 
 
 THE CHILKAT PASS ROUTE. 
 
 But little is really known about this pass, othei- than it 
 is claimed by the Indians to be much lower and more open 
 than that by the Chilkoot. It starts from an inlet north 
 of that on which Dyea is situated. By this route the chain 
 of lakes referred to is altogether avoided, and the rivtr 
 is reached about the mouth of the Takena. At least 
 this is the supposition, as the Indians say tliat it 
 takes twelve days to carry packs by this route, as 
 against two days via Chilkoot Pass. The Indians 
 themselves have used this route but very little on account 
 of the long carry passage. It is in the neighborhood of the 
 Cliilkat Pass th^t the Jack Dalton trail, by which cattle 
 can be driven into the Yukon country, starts. This trail 
 reach 'o the river in the neighborhood of Fort Selkirk, and 
 passes for its entire distance, according to accounts, 
 through a good grass country. 
 
56 
 
 (.I'lDE TO THK KI.ONDIKK 
 
 THE TAKU ROUTE. 
 
 A proposed new route, which, according to the best in- 
 formation at hand, promises well for the fntiire, although 
 it is not yet in use, is one by Takii Inlet, np the Taku River, 
 thence by portage to Lake Altin, thence by connecting 
 river to the Tako Arm of Lake Tagish, the remainder of 
 the route being tlie same as by Cliilkoot and Wiiile Pass. 
 The length of }»ortage from the licad of this lake to the 
 Indian houses on tlie Taku River is variously stated by the 
 Indians as from t\\ o to four days. There is an Indian trail 
 over this route, said to be good, and with no heavy grades 
 to cross, the only ascent being simply to reacli the elevation 
 of the lakes. 
 
 THE STICKEEN ROUTE. 
 
 Tliis is tlie one which the Dominion Government is aid- 
 ing by appropriations to have established. It is yet under 
 construction, and no one except the builders and explorers 
 have as yet passed over it. By the late spring of 1898, it 
 will be in use. By this route steamers from Seattle are 
 taken to Fort Wrangel, Alaska, at the mouth of the Stickeen 
 River. There one of the stern -wheel river boats takes the 
 passenger up the river some three hundred and fifty miles 
 to Telegraph Creek. From there a trail of one hundred 
 and fifty miles readies Teslin Lake, in which the river 
 called by the miners the Hootalinqua heads. Boating 
 down the Hootalinqua is the same as described in other 
 rivers. It is believed that stern-wheel steamers can oper- 
 ate up the Hootalinqua clear to Lake Teslin. Undoubt- 
 edly a good deal of travel will in time go in by this route. 
 
 The Stickeen is one of the swiftest and most turbulent 
 streams which empty into the Pacific. It abounds in bars^ 
 rapids and rifllos. The steamers which ply up it have a 
 
THE ROUTES OK TRAVIU,. 
 
 3/ 
 
 slow and dangerous trip. At many places on the river 
 cables are made fast to shore "anchors," and carried to 
 a steam capstan aboard to enable the steamers to get over 
 the rapids. The "White Horse" Rapids of the Yukon has 
 dozens of counterparts in the Stickeen. The trip up the 
 river by boat is exciting, picturesque, but dangerous. It 
 requires about two weeks' time to ascend the river in a good 
 season, and about two days to come down, the steamers 
 backing water all the wav. After arrivirii? at the head of 
 navigation a land journey of one hundred and fifty miles 
 brings the passengers by this route just n])out as far on 
 their journey to the gold fields as they are when they have 
 crossed the White Pass on the route by Skaguay Inlet. As 
 this route lies almost entirely within Canadian territory, 
 and as the steamers on the Stickeen river are owned by 
 Canadian capitalists, every effort is being made by the Ca- 
 nadian authorities to divert trade to this route. To this 
 end they are imposing many petty restrictions upon the 
 passengers by way of Dyea and Skaguay; are levying cus- 
 toms dues upon their personal outfits, and, in fact, have in 
 general adopted a policy of petty persecution toward those 
 who are attempting to reach the country by the established 
 rentes of travel. They also refuse to permit persons to 
 enter their territory by this route who have less than 
 one year's provisions. So far, liowever, not a single 
 party outfitting for the Yukon has attempted to reach 
 that country by the long, dangerous and expensive 
 route via the Stickeen river. The ice goes out of 
 the Stickeen about the same time as it does out of 
 the Yukon, so it will be at least two weeks later in the spring 
 before passengers can reach the mines by the Stickeen 
 route t])an by eitlier the White Pass or the Chilkoot routes. 
 The foreiroinfT covers all of the land routes to the Yukon 
 from ports on the Pacific Coast, which are a? yet known 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 C.UIDR TO THK KLONDIKE. 
 
 Of these, liowever, none save those by the Chilkoot and the 
 "Wliite Pass have ever ])een used I'or actual purposes of 
 travel; and they are the ones recommended to be taken. 
 The land journey is the shortest by them by a very large 
 distance, and the river trip presents no obstacles which are 
 not likely to be encountered on each of the other routes. 
 
 It should be kept in mind that all the foregoing in- 
 formation as to the various routes of travel by the so-called 
 inland route applies to conditions as they exist at present, 
 in the early part of August, 1897. Before the end of the 
 summer 1898 a decidedly different condition of affairs will 
 exist, and the trip will be a very much easier one to make. 
 There are already quite a number of transportation com- 
 panies organized for the purpose of building stern- wheel 
 steamers to ply on the waters of the Upper Yukon; and 
 there are also many schemes on foot for increasing the 
 number of steamers on the lower river. The probabilities 
 are strong that before next summer is over a prospector or 
 miner can take a steamer at Lake Bennett, or more proba- 
 bly at the Taku Arm of Lake Tagish and proceed to Daw- 
 son with only one short portage, that around Miles Canyon 
 and White Horse liapids, already described. The trail 
 across White Pass by the same time will probably be broad- 
 ened out into a practicable wagon road. As compared 
 with roads into the mountain regions of Colorado or Cali- 
 fornia, the grades are lighter and conditions much more 
 favorable across White Pass than in many places in those 
 states, where all the freighting is done by wagons. It is 
 estimated that fifty thousand dollars would convert the 
 White Pass trail into a good road, across which "trailer** 
 waffon trains could be driven; thus not onlv reducins]r the 
 cost of freighting very materially, but enabling the traffic 
 for the mines to be handled over this route, in competition 
 with the all water route via St. Michaels and the mouth 
 
THE ROUTES OF TRAVEL. 
 
 59 
 
 of the Yukon. When a practicable road is thus opened, 
 and when steamers are put on the upper river, as will in- 
 evitably be done, and that during the next twelve months, 
 it will be possible for a passenger to reach Dawson City 
 from Seattle within a week, if close connections are made. 
 
 On this overland rouic, the question as to cost depends 
 very largely on the manner in which the trip is made and 
 somewhat also depends upon the season of the year. The 
 fare from Seattle to Dyea and Skaguay will amount 
 to from twenty-five to forty-five dollars." If the party 
 going in is unprovided with horses, and the trip is 
 in summer, the cost of packing the outfit over the 
 summit will vary from ten to twenty cents per pound. 
 On an outfit weighing twelve hundred pounds it would 
 be safe to estimate an outlay of one hundred and 
 eighty dollars for this. Then at prices which have 
 heretofore prevailed, a boat at Lake Bennett, suitable for 
 carrying four men and their outfits down the river would 
 cost sixty dollars. On the other hand, if horses are taken, 
 the fare for each horse to Skaguay would be twenty-two 
 dollars and fifty cents, the price of the horse in Seattle 
 being from twenty to thirty dollars. A "knock-down" 
 boat, ready to put together, would cost about twenty dollars 
 in Seattle. A party doing their own packing, with horses, 
 would thus save the item of packing at fifteen cents a 
 pound, and could probably sell their horses to other parties 
 for all they cost, or even more. 
 
 In the spring, before the thaws come, provisions are 
 taken across the divide on hand sleds, work which the trav- 
 elers themselves are usually compelled to do, in the absence 
 of any regular supply of labor. This is laborious work, 
 but it has the advantage of being inexpensive. By getting 
 on the ground early, and taking advantage of the pleasant 
 weather, all the necessary supplies can be safely taken over 
 
6o 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 the pass and landed at the lake at no actual outlay in 
 money. This latter is the plan pursued by all of the expe- 
 rienced Yukon miners, who have been going into the coun- 
 try for years. 
 
 , '*^..., 
 
THK AIJ. WATKR ROHTK. 
 
 6l 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ALL WATER ROUTE. 
 
 Until such time, however, as good roads are built across 
 the passes to the lakes at the headwaters of the Yukon, or, 
 indeed, until a railroad is built into the country, by long 
 odds the most comfortable, and probably in the long run 
 the cheapest route into the gold fields of the Klondike and 
 those on the various other tributaries of the Yukon, is by 
 the way of the mouth of the Yukon, and by river steamers 
 up from ihat point- Even at the present time this trip 
 can be made cheaply and at a minimum of discomfort. It 
 is .neither longer, more arduous nor more expensive than 
 was the voyage from New York to San Francisco by the 
 way of the isthmus, after the completion of the railroad 
 across the isthmus, and before the railroad era. The hard- 
 ships, diiTioultles and dangers of the trip into the new gold 
 fields, so ofron described, apply solely to the overland route. 
 The all-water route is by ocean steamships from Seattle to 
 St. Michael's; thence by river boat up to Dawson City, 
 Circle City, or, in fact, to any river point. Tlie North 
 American Transportation & Trading Company, which has 
 its head offices in Seattle, has developed this route, and has 
 now improved its transportation facilities to the point, that 
 even delicate women who desire to take a brief glimpse at 
 the wonderful life of a new and uncommonly rich mining 
 camp, can make a summer excursion to the Klondike and 
 return, all the time enjoying all the comforts which can be 
 had on any steamer. 
 
 The North American Transportation & Trading Com- 
 pany has at present two ocean steamers plying between Se- 
 
 
63 
 
 GUIDE TO THK KI.ONDIKE. 
 
 attle and St. Michael's— the Portland, uitli a passenger 
 capacity of 125, and the Cleveland, M'liich can accommo- 
 date 350. At St. Michael's these steamship connect with 
 the river boats of the company, a fleet of three large stem- 
 wheel steamers, the P. B. Wearc, the J. J. Healy and the 
 Charles H. Hamilton. The latter of these is 195 feet 
 long, 20 feet beam and has a registered tonnage of 1,000. 
 She is equipped with powerful machinery and can make 
 the trip to Dawson City against the strong Yukon current 
 in about twelve day*-. The other river boats are but slightly 
 inferior. These river boats were built at Seattle ship- 
 yards, were sent north in sections and put together at St. 
 Michael's, the Hamilton having been launched in July, 
 1897. Xor is this all. Foreseeing the rush, the same 
 company has let the contract in Seattle for six more boats, 
 four the same size of the Hamilton, one somewhat smaller, 
 and the sixth a powerful river tugboat to tow barges laden 
 with freight up the river. 
 
 The company has also announced that it will imme- 
 diately build on the Atlantic coast three large, commodious 
 and swift ocean steamers, which will be brought around by 
 the Straits of Magellan, t<^ be put on the route between 
 Seattle and St. Michael's, these steamers to airive before the 
 river reopens to navigation in the spring. This will insure 
 the sailing on this route of one steamer every week, car- 
 rying 1,200 passengers and upwards. 
 
 The Alaska Commercial Company has also a route to 
 the moutli of the Yukon, with San Francisco as the point 
 of departure. The Excelsior, a powerful but somewhat 
 slow freight boat, has been chartered by the company, and 
 makes summer trips to San Frauciscc. The Excelsior, 
 with her heavy planking and timbering, was enabled the 
 present year to break through the ice and bring out the 
 first of the returning Klondike miners with their golden 
 
THE ALI^ WATER ROUTK 
 
 63 
 
 frci<;lit. The Alaska Couniiercial Company has also tliree 
 of four small stcrn-whecl steamers on the river, designed 
 primarily to carry goods for the company's various trading 
 posts, hut which can he used as passenger hoats. 
 
 These two companies have heen engaged in the trans- 
 portation and trading husiness in the Yukon for years. 
 They will now, however, have to meet with active competi- 
 tion, all of which will redound to the advaiitago of the 
 traveling puhlic. From jiresent indications, hy next spring 
 there will he half a tlozeii additional ocean steamers on the 
 route from Seattle to St. Michael's, and there will certainly 
 be an addition of fifteen or twenty to the fleet of river 
 steamers. 
 
 'i'he Yukon Transjiortation Company, organized in 
 Seattle and with a sufhcient capital, luis purchased 
 the steamer Eliza Anderson and put her on the route 
 between Seattle and St. Michaels; the stern-wheel steamer 
 AV. K. Merwin has also been sent north, in tow of 
 a tug boat, to run on the river in connection with the Eliza 
 Andersdn. The lyierwin was built expressly for river work 
 and will be able to make better time on the up river rim 
 than any vessel now on the river unless it be the new large 
 steamers of the North American Transportation & Trading 
 Company. 
 
 The Seattle & Yukon Commercial Company is the lat- 
 est to enter the field. This corporation has but just been 
 organized, but it will have one steamer to St. ^lichaels, and 
 one up the river this season. Next season it will increase 
 its transportation facilities largely. This company has 
 recently chartered in San Francisco the nund)()l(lt, a new 
 steamship of about 1,000 tons burden, just completed, and 
 which, it is claimed, is one of the fastest vess(»ls in Pacific 
 waters. A ])owerful steam barge belonging to the com- 
 pany will carry passengers from St. ^Michael's to Dawson 
 
 ,s-s 
 
64 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 City. Other boats will be put on by this company in 
 in the spring- It is impossible to furnish informa- 
 tion which will be fully up to date as to the trans- 
 portation facilities which will be offered by the out- 
 side route, the coming season. In the very brief interval 
 between the writing of the manuscript and the time when 
 this pamplilet appears, half a dozen different transporta- 
 tion schemes, now inchoate, may and quite likely will ma- 
 terialize. This much is certain, however, that the various 
 transportation companies now organized or being organ- 
 ized, will be able to handle next season all the travel which 
 may offer for the Yukon by the outside or all-water route, 
 and that there will be not less than one steamer each week 
 leave Seattle for St. Michaels, makinir close connection 
 with the river boats. 
 
 The time during wliich the Yukon River is navigable 
 varies with the season. As a general rule it may be stated 
 that the river is open from about the middle of April until 
 the latter half of September. In 1896 the river did not 
 close until about September 25, at wliich time & heavy 
 snow storm set in, wliich chilled the river so it closed in 
 a few days. Between these dates the all-river route fur- 
 nishes, under existing conditions, the most comfortable 
 route to the mines by all odds. 
 
 The objections whicli have heretofore existed to tliis 
 route are that the two companies, the Nortli American 
 Transportation & Trading Company, and the Alaska Com- 
 mercial Company, which controlled both the transportation 
 lines, also owned all the trading posts which have yet been 
 established on the Yukon. The freight capacity of botli 
 their ocean and river l)oats, as well as of the barges whicli 
 the river boats take in tow, was all needed for their own sup- 
 plies. They have heretofore been compelled, in conse- 
 quence, to refuse to tak'3 freight, even the outfits of intend- 
 
 L'*//* 
 
THE At,!-. WATER ROUTE. 
 
 65 
 
 ing miners and prospectors, and have limited the amount 
 of personal baggage for each passenger to one hundred and 
 fifty pounds. On the other hand, however, and to obviate 
 any inconvenience which might be occasioned by the failure 
 of the passengers to get their own supplies into the country, 
 the North American Transportation & Trading Company 
 has obligated itself to each passenger to supply him from 
 the company's trading posts with all supplies which he may 
 require for his own personal use at Seattle prices, with 
 freight added at the rate wliich the company would have 
 charged had it carried freight for individupls. 
 
 The new transportation companies which have entered 
 the field, however, are willing to carry a full year's outfit of 
 clothing, provisions and tools for each passenger. This is 
 what the Eliza Anderson does this season, and what all the 
 newer transportation companies will probably do next 
 season. 
 
 As against the greater ease, convenience and comfort 
 of the all-river route there is to be offset the fact that the 
 route by Dyea or Skaguay and the upper river permits ac- 
 cess to the country earlier in the spring. Those coming 
 down the river from its headwaters, follow the ice down, 
 while the steamers which have to come up the river have 
 to wait until the ice is pretty well out before starting. 
 
 As to time, it takes from ten to fifteen days for a steam- 
 ship to make the run to St. Michael's, dependent, of course, 
 upon the speed of the vessel and the character of weather 
 which she encounter?. The distance is ron^jhly estimated 
 at three thousand miles. The distance up the Yukon from 
 St. Michaels to Dawson City is estimated at seventeen hun- 
 dred and twenty-two miles. As there is a heavy current to 
 contend with, the usual estimate of the time which it takes 
 to make this trip is fifteen days. 
 
 At the commencement of the summer season of 1897, 
 
66 
 
 GUIDK TO THK KLONDIKE. 
 
 the fare from Seattle to Dawson Citv bv the steamers of 
 the North American Transportation & Trading Company 
 was one hnndred and twenty-five dollars second class, one 
 hundred and forty dollars first class. On the Cleveland, 
 chartered by the same com]iany, sailinji; August 5, the fare 
 was raised to two hundred dollars for all classes. The latest 
 quotations for the season Mere three hundred dollars for 
 each ])assenger and his outfit, on steamers of the Seattle & 
 Yukon Trading Company, just organized. What the price 
 will be in the coming s])ring, when tliis route is again 
 opened for use, cannot be predicted. With the number of 
 coni]ianies which are projected, and which will be in the 
 field at that time, it is safe to say that the fare will not ex- 
 ceed one hundred and fifty dollars and may fall below that 
 figure. 
 
 Seattle will be the point of de])arture for nearly all of 
 these transportation lines. The shortness of the season 
 makes it necessary to reacli railroad terminals in the short- 
 est space of time, so that as many trins as possible may be 
 made before ice closes the river. It is about two days 
 shorter trip from Seattle to St. Michael's by the steamship 
 routes, and thus the majority of tlie steamship lines to the 
 Yukon will terminate here. 
 
NKCKSSARY OUTFITS AND WHERK TO GET THKM. 
 
 67 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE NECESSARY OUTFITS AND WHRRE 
 TO GET THEM. 
 
 The most serious and iinportaiu (question which cou- 
 fronts the iiitouding iininigraiit to the Yukon jrold fields 
 is as to what amount and eharacter of an outiit sliould be 
 taken with liim on his journey into that country. It should 
 be remembered that there lias been a slow and gradual de- 
 velo})ment of the mineral resources of the Yukon, during 
 which the mining population has increased year by year by 
 a few lnindred-3 at a time. Xearly every one of those who 
 went in carried with him on the start sup})lies to last hiin 
 for from six months to a year. With this gradual increase 
 in po])ulation, the trading posts and transportation com- 
 panies have kept ])ace, and have had no difficulty in supply- 
 ing the wants of the newcomers, after their first stock of 
 provisions has been exhausted. Xow, however, the move- 
 ment toward the Yukon is in the nature of a "rush," tlie 
 dimensions of which no one can accuratelv forecast. The 
 enterprise of merchants and transportation companies can 
 be relied on to ])rovide ultimately for the wants of all the 
 mining population which may pour into the Yukon, no 
 matter how extensive tliat population may be. Tliis takes 
 time, and in tlie rush for the new country it is safe to sav 
 tluit the would-be miners and ]>rospectors M'ill bo on the 
 ground ahead of the traders and merchants. There will 
 be a period of pro1)al)ly nine months, possibly a year, dur- 
 ing which tliose who go to the Clondyke or any other of 
 the mining regions on tlie Yukon will be compelled to rely 
 
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 P 
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 H 
 
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 M 
 
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-.«? 
 
 NECESSARY OUTFITS AND WHERE TO GET THEM. 
 
 69 
 
 h 
 g 
 
 O 
 S5 
 
 w 
 
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 PS 
 
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 for their subsistence entirely upon such supplies as they 
 may take into the country. Good sound judgment would 
 dictate that every man who intends to go into the Yukon 
 now, or any time within the next year, should take with 
 him at least one full year's supply of food and clothing. 
 This is the advice given by every single man who is mining 
 upon the Yukon, without any exception. It is the one 
 point on which they all dwell the longest, Tliey feel a 
 personal interest in pressing this home on the new immi- 
 grants, for the reason that there is practically six months 
 in the year during which no provisions can be got into the 
 country. If there is a rush of new men in there, unpro- 
 vided with food, and the inevitable shortage of provisions 
 follows during the Arctic winter, those who have provisions 
 will be forced to the alternative of sharing them with the 
 unprovided, at the cost of considerable suffering to them- 
 selves, or of seeing men starve before their eyes. They 
 realize this better than any one else, and hence the earnest- 
 ness with which they impress this home on all who consult 
 them in regard to the matter of outfitting. 
 
 There is still another point which must be taken into 
 consideration. The amount of provisions which it is esti- 
 mated will be necessary to last a man for a year looks at 
 first sight to be exhorbitant, especially to men who have 
 been in the habit of purchasing their own family supplies, 
 and who have kept a close watch on their family expen.ses. 
 It is, however, the uniform experience of the men who have 
 wintered in the Arctic or in regions like the Yukon, where 
 there is, for months on a stretch, an extremely low range 
 of temperature, that during the winter there is a demand 
 for and a consumption of food, which would bo considered 
 as abnormal, measured by the standard of more temperate' 
 climates. This excessive amount of footls, particularly of 
 llio animal fats, seems to be necessarv to ]u'rniit the body 
 
70 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 to endure the extremely low temperature. Every work 
 on Arctie explorations makes note of this faet, which is 
 borne out l>y the experiences of the Yukon miners. Esti- 
 mates by the dozen have been made and published by ex- 
 perienced men. They vary little in aggregate amount, the 
 dilVerence being mainly in the smaller items. Among the 
 men who have had the largest experiences upon the Yukon 
 is A. 0. Carr, who carried the mail into that country on 
 several dilu'rent occasions, lie has had occasion to outfit 
 several dill'crent times, and has spent many winters on the 
 Yukon. The following is Can's estimate of the outfit of 
 one ninn for a year. As far as the ])rovisi()ns are 
 concerned, it is precisely the outfit whicli Carr himself 
 purchased here in Seattle for his own use befort^ proceeding 
 north. The tools and hardware are those whicli he already 
 has on hand in the Yukon country: 
 
 Flour, pounds 400 
 
 Cornmeal, pounds 50 
 
 Rolled oats, pounds 50 
 
 Rice, pounds 35 
 
 Beans, pounds 100 
 
 Candles, pounds 40 
 
 Sugar, granulated, pounds '. 100 
 
 Baking powder, pounds 8 
 
 Bacon, pounds ^00 
 
 Soda, pounds 2 
 
 Yeast cakes (6 in package) , packages 6 
 
 Salt, pounds 15 
 
 Pepper, pounds 1 
 
 Mustard, pounds Vz 
 
 Ginger, pounds V* 
 
 Apples, evaporated, pounds 25 
 
 Peaches, evaporated, pounds 25 
 
 • Apricots, evaporated, pounds 25 
 
 Fish, pounds 25 
 
 Pitted plums, pounds 1<> 
 
 Raisins, pounds 10 
 
NECESSARY OUTFITS AND WHERE TO GET THEM. 
 
 71 
 
 ^ 
 
 y* 
 
 Onions, evaporated, pounds 50 
 
 Potatoes, evaporated, pounds 50 
 
 €offee, pounds 24 
 
 Tea, pounds 5 
 
 Milk, condensed, dozen 4 
 
 Soap, laundry, bars 5 
 
 Matches, packages 60 
 
 Soup vegetables, pounds 15 
 
 Butter, sealed, cans 25 
 
 Tobacco, at discretion 
 
 Stove, steel 1 
 
 Gold pan 1 
 
 Granite buckets, 1 nest of 3 
 
 Cups 1 
 
 Plates (tin) 1 
 
 Knives and forks, eacli 1 
 
 Spoons — Tea, 1 ; table 2 
 
 Whetstone 1 
 
 Coffee pot 1 
 
 Frying pans 2 
 
 Saw, hand 1 
 
 Saw, whip 1 
 
 Hatchet 1 
 
 Shovel, y^ spring 2 
 
 Nails, pounds 20 
 
 Files 3 
 
 Drawknit'e 1 
 
 Ax and handle 1 
 
 Chisel, i/^-inch 3 
 
 Butcher knife 1 
 
 Hammer 1 
 
 Jack plane 1 
 
 Square 1 
 
 Yukon sleigh 1 
 
 Lash rope, l^-inch, feet 60 
 
 Rope, Va-inch, feet 150 
 
 Pitch, pounds ^^ 
 
 Pick and handle ^ 
 
 Oakum, pound^ ^^ 
 
 If one is not going to build a boat, tiio oakum, pitch 
 
 1 
 
12 
 
 CUIDK TO THK KLONDIKE. 
 
 and tools can be dispensed with. In summer a sled is not 
 necessary. Those going on a steamer by way of St. Mi- 
 chaels are recommended to take plenty of delicacies, costing 
 little but greatly appreciated. Above all, the caution is 
 given, "take plenty." 
 
 Very rarely is sui!icient importance attached to the 
 medical chest, which should have a place in every pros- 
 pectors pack. In case of emergency, drugs and appliances 
 for the relief of ])ain are invaluable. A supply of citric 
 acid should be carried for the relief of scurvy. The a-strinj:- 
 ent property of tlio lime or lemon is due to this acid. A 
 few drops mixed with water and sugar makes excellent lem- 
 onade. The drug store can furnish saccharin tablets in 
 place of sugar; three-quarters of an ounce of this concen- 
 trated sweet is equal to twenty-five pounds of sugar. It 
 will be easily seen what a saving this would effect. One 
 hundred pounds of sugar at five and one-half cents per 
 pound would be five dollars and fifty cents. Add to this 
 twenty-two cents per pound for packing over the summit at 
 the pass, and the total cost is twenty-seven dollars and fifty 
 cents, besides the room it would take. Saccharin costs but 
 one dollar and fifty cents an ounce, and three ounces, equal 
 to one hundred pounds of sugar, would cost but four dol- 
 lars and fifty cents, the cost of packing being nominal for 
 such small bulk. 
 
 The following articles would each be found of use, to 
 be purchased in quantities according to the judgment of 
 the individual: Liniment for sprains and cold on the 
 lungs, tincture of iron to enrich the blood, extract of Ja- 
 maica ginger, laudanum, vaseline, carbolic ointment, salts, 
 cough tablets, mustard and adhesive plasters, surgeon's lint, 
 bandages, liver pills, powder for bleeding, absorbent cotton,, 
 surgeon's sponge, needles and silk, quinine capsules and 
 toothache drops. 
 
 The estimate as to amount of clothing, etc., requii\'d 
 
NECKSSARY OUTFITS AND WHERE TO GET THEM. 
 
 73 
 
 varies considerably with different men and is largely a 
 matter of individual opinion. The following will give a 
 fairly accurate idea of the necessities in this direction: 
 
 Woolen clothes — 1 suit. 
 
 Boots and shoes — 1 pair gum boots, 1 pair heavy leather 
 shoes. 
 
 Snow-glasses. 
 
 Tent, 10x12 feet. 
 
 1 tarpaulin, 7x14 feet 
 
 5 yards mosquito netting for each man. 
 
 3 suits heavy underwear. 
 
 1 heavy mackinaw coat. 
 
 2 pairs heavy mackinaw pants. 
 Vz dozen heavy wool socks. 
 
 Vz dozen heavy wool mitts. 
 
 2 heavy overshirts. 
 
 3 pairs of blankets. 
 
 4 towels. 
 
 4 pairs of overalls. 
 Oilskin No. 3. 
 
 In purchasing an outfit, especially the clothing, care 
 should be taken to purchase the very best. The difference 
 in price between good and poor articles is a small matter, 
 when the cost and labor of getting an outfit into the Yukon 
 country is considered. The best is necessary, and it is econ- 
 omy to purchase it. At a rough estimate such an outfit of 
 provisions and clothing as is enumerated above, would cost 
 in Seattle about one hundred and twenty-five to one hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars, according to quality of goods. 
 
 There is one final word, and this an important word, 
 about outfitting. The peculiar needs of the miners on the 
 Yukon, both as to supplies and clothing and also as to the 
 manner of packing outfits so as to have them in shape to 
 stand tlio rough usage which they will encounter on the 
 pack trails and in boats was not learned by even the miners 
 themsolvos until after they had long experience. Seattle 
 
wm 
 
 74 
 
 GUIDE TO THK KLONniKE. 
 
 iiu'ivhants liavo luul loni;- ('.\i)L'rit'iu'o in eatoring to thia 
 li-ado. Of the iiicn wlio wore in the Yukon Country at the 
 linio tlu' I'londyko strike was made, by far the greater niim- 
 IxT jxircJiased tlieir ^ll|)|»lies in this city. Tliose who came 
 out to get new outlits for another year also traded exclu- 
 sively in Seattle. JJefore the strike on the Clondyke was 
 made the Yukon trade with Seattle had grown to such 
 projjortions thai {\w recjuirenients of the Yukon miners 
 and ])rosi)eetors were thoroughly uiuleistood. Special arti- 
 cles of I'iothmg, man u fact u red e.xnii'ssly for this trade, 
 were kept in stock here in all the clothing stores; and the 
 l)Utting up (>[' an outlit for the Y'ukon was a mat- 
 ter of daily, and an occasion of hourly, occurrence, in all of 
 the leading groc«'ry stores. So thoroughly e(piipped were 
 Seattle nu-rcliants in this respect that when the Clondyke 
 rush cauM' they were enabled, without replenishing their 
 stocks, and simply by adding a few extra men to their forces 
 for a few days, lo thoroughly ecpiip twelve hundred men 
 with a year's supply of provisions and clothing, thoroughly 
 ada])ted to tiie climate into wjiich these men were going, 
 within the lii'st two weeks. After the Clondvke excite- 
 ment broke out, ami at the eml of that tinu\ as their tele- 
 gra])hif oi'ders for further goods commenced to be filled, 
 the stocks carried were heavier than when the first rush 
 commenced. 
 
 Seattle merchants have handled this trade for years, and 
 expect to retain the bulk of it for years to come. No busi- 
 ness man in Seattle could alford to ]mt up a bad outfit. A 
 man's life might depend upcm the duiracter of the pro- 
 visions with which he is su])plied. The news of spoiled 
 goods among any outfit sent out would pass from mouth 
 to nu)nth among the miners of the Y'ukon, and their 
 indignation would take the prompt form of a boycott upon 
 the offending tradesman. Xeither is this Yukon trade a 
 
NECKSSARY OITFITS AND WHERR TO C.V.t THEM. 
 
 75 
 
 matter siini)ly of todny. It is looked ii|»(»ii to incroiiso and 
 develop yenr by year; and to he a iierniaiient souico of trade 
 to be carefully luinsed and cultivated. The man who de- 
 sires to i}({\u\) himself with an outfit for the Yukon can put 
 himself with ])erfect confidence in the hands of the leading; 
 finus, or, indeetl, in any one of a dozen or more houses in 
 Seattle, and leave it entirelv to their discretion as to the 
 amount and character of the outfit. On the average, prices 
 in Seattle will be found as cheap as those in anv city. 
 
 For })ackin^^ across the pa.«<s, and for the boat voyage 
 down th(! river, it is nece.<sary for outfits to be })Ut up, in 
 the iirst i)lace, in convenient form for i)ackin<i:, either by 
 man or bv horse; and, in the second place, that thev mav 
 be thoroughly ])rotected against water or snow, to which 
 they most certainly will be e.\|)osed. Tctrtions of an outfit 
 may lay for days in a snow drift, as, indeed, is the common 
 and almost universal occurrence in crossing Chiikoot or 
 White Pass in the early spring. Flour, sugar and the like 
 arc conseipiently jnit up by Seattle outfitters in oiled bags, 
 carefully ])rotected, however, from giving off any unpleas- 
 ant taste to the enclosed goods. All of these matters as to 
 the pro})er handling of outfits reouire a certain amount of 
 experience which is only to be acquired in handling this 
 particular trade. As a iirst and last word of advice, every 
 man going to the Yukon by the way of Seattle should await 
 until his arrival here before buying his outlit. lie will have 
 no occasion to regret his action if he does so. 
 
 It is reasonably certain that, as far as going to estab- 
 lished mining centers is concerned, the year 1S*>8 will be 
 the last in Mhich it will be necessary for a visitor to the 
 Yukon or an immigrant to that country to carry in his own 
 supplies. Lines will be established in numbers on the 
 strength of the heavy increase in the mining population, 
 and, with the improved transportation facilities now as- 
 sured, living on the Yukcm will, after next year, be little 
 more expensive, if any, than in any mining camp uncon- 
 nected by rail with the centers of trade and ])opulation. 
 
76 
 
 GUIDE TO THB Ki:,ONDIKE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CLIMATE AND AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 The term "Arctic" has been applied to the climate of 
 the Yukon rather inappropriately. It is true some por- 
 tions of tlie Yukon basin lie within the Arctic circle, and 
 that the best kncAvn gold fields whic)i nave as yet been un- 
 covered are not at any groat distance south of the circle. 
 It should be, however, remembered tiiat the entire gold dis- 
 trict of ii\& Yukon lies in the latitude of Noi-thf^rn Central 
 Russia. A glance at a map of the world o/ glo)).> I'scloses 
 this. It should further be remembrn'd, as )^. poiuted out by 
 Dr. Dawson in his report, to which re ference i.as ]\eretofore 
 been made, that the climatic conditions on wo.'.tem and 
 eastern sides of the continent aie by no means, comparable, 
 and that the isothermal lines representing the n;6cn annual 
 temperature trend northwestward from the Manitoba 
 region. According to the same authority, the climatic con- 
 ditions of the basin of the Yukon are substantially identical 
 with the inland provinces of Russian, to which allusion has 
 already been made. The province of Vologda, in European 
 Russia, appears to offer the mean parallel. It i.s circum- 
 stanced relatively to the western shores of Europe, as is the 
 Yukon country to the western shores of the North Ameri- 
 can continent. Its area is 155,498 square miles, situated 
 between the 58th and G5th parallel of latitude. The cli- 
 mate in both cases is a continental one, in which severe 
 winters alternate with warm summers, and the actual de- 
 grees of boat and cold are not dissimilar. There is no heavy 
 rainfall in eitiier region, such as is found near the western 
 
CI^IMATE AND AGRICUIvTURAL POSSIBILTIKS. 
 
 77 
 
 coasts bordering on the Atlantic and on the Pacific respec- 
 tively. The agricultural products from the province of 
 Vologda are oats, rye, barley, hemp, flax and pulse. The 
 population of that province is 1,161,000. 
 
 The winter season on the Yukon is beyond all question 
 long and severe. As early as August severe frosts occur, 
 and the actual winter usually sets in the latter part of 
 September. During the dead of winter, along in Janu- 
 ary, the sun is above the horizon for only two hours a day. 
 The nights, while excessively long, are not dark. The dawn 
 and twilight hours are long, and even durinjj the middle of 
 the night in clear weather the stars and moon, reflecting 
 from the snow-covered ground, give sufficient light to en- 
 able ordinary outdoor avocations to be pursued, when the 
 weather otherwise permits. The display of the Aurora 
 liorealis is frequent, the whole heavens being lit up. While 
 the cold is, as stated above, excessive, so far as the readings 
 of the thermometer are concerned, it is not felt severely. 
 The entire absence of humidity in the air renders the in- 
 tense cold easily supportable to persons warmly clad. The 
 .ureatest danger incurred is that of having ears and nose 
 frost-bitten, a matter of common occurrence, as, indeed, it is 
 in Kussia. 
 
 The summers, while short, are hot. As higli as 100° 
 Fahrenheit lias been recorded in the valley of the Upper 
 Yukon in the neighboriiood of Forty-^Iile. For a few weeks 
 during the summer tliis excessively hot weather lasts, and 
 as there is pretty nearly twenty-four hours of sunsliine in 
 each day, vegetation makes wonderful growth during iliat 
 ])eriod. 
 
 It will not be ])retended tliat the Yukon will ever l)e a 
 farming country, but it has possibilities considerably in ad- 
 vance of wliat it has been credited as possessing. There is 
 an abundance of grass during the summer months, which 
 
;i a 
 
CLIMATK AND ACRICULTURAl, I'OSSmil.ITl KS. 
 
 79 
 
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 can be and is cut and used for liay. ^Ir. Ogilvie, Dominion 
 land surveyor, in a report dated June 25, 189(5, sav^. 
 Horses tliat liave been in use here, packing to tlie mines in 
 summer and hauling wood in the winter, for several years, 
 are still serviceable, notwithstanding they live only on the 
 coarse grasses of the country. They pack 200 pounds 
 apiece from Forty-:Mile River, at the mouth of Moose Creek, 
 to tiic mines on Miller Creek (alumt Yi\ or 18 miles), and 
 climb some very steep, long hills on the way, taking two 
 days with loads and one day without; all they g^X to eat is 
 what they find. In other ro])orts Mr. Ogilvie says: *'I made 
 a survey of another island for a man named Gibson. This 
 is in tlie delta of Forty-]Mile Creek, and he intends to make 
 a ijiaiket garden for the growtii of such vegetables as the 
 country will ;.ro(iiice. In my final re})ort I will deal as fully 
 as my exjiericnce hero will permit on (hat ])hase of the coun- 
 try's character. Many here have small gardens and are fair- 
 ly succ: V ''m1 with ordinary vegetables." 'J'his was under 
 date of J'!! e ">, LS'.H). hater in the same month he records 
 that the gardens were do'ug well, and that scnne persons 
 were experimenting with fodder ])lants. From all this it 
 would a|)|)('ar that where suitable soil can be found it is 
 quite possible, on tlu^ N'ukon, to raise the ordinary garden 
 vegetables which are of (piick growth and not particularly 
 susce|)tible to frost. This may ultimattly be a matter of 
 considerable ini|)()rtance, as it will be somi) years, and trans- 
 portation facililies will luive to be vastly improved, bi'fore 
 fresh vegetables can be taken into tlic country in the quan- 
 tity needed. 
 
 All persons going in to the mineral district of the Yu- 
 kon w(uild do well to ])rovide themselves with a few garden 
 ^k'<''(\^ of (he hardy and (|ui<'k-growing varieties of vcgc- 
 tabl(>s, such as lettuce, radishes, ln-als. turnips, green peas 
 and the like. The ))roduce woidd be worth, literally, their 
 weight in gold, if not for sale, to the grower liims<'lf. The 
 ])robabilities are strong that such seeds would grow and 
 produce eatable vegetables where the poli is good. 
 
 6-S 
 
So 
 
 GUIDK TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GAME AND FISH. 
 
 Game is far less abundant than it was before mining be- 
 gan; and it is diflieult, in fact impossible, to get any, except 
 ducks and geese, close to the river. On the uplands, fifteen 
 or twenty miles up the small streams, vast herds of caribou 
 used to wander, but they are becoming scarcer year by year. 
 Moose, which were very numerous along the river a few 
 years since, are now seldom seen there. According to Mr. 
 Ogilvie, there are two species of caribou in the country, one 
 the ordinary kind, found in most parts of the Northwest 
 and said to much resemble the reindeer; the other called the 
 "wood caribou," a much larger and more beautiful animal. 
 Excepting that its antlers are smaller, it closely resembles 
 the elk. The ordinary caribou runs in herds, often 
 numbering hundreds. It is easily approached, and 
 when fired at jumps around awhile as though unde- 
 cided what to do; it then runs a short distance, but 
 as likely toward the hunter as from him, stops again, 
 and so on for a number of times. At last, after 
 many of them have been killed, the remainder start 
 on a continuous run, and probably do not stop until they 
 have covered twenty or thirty miles. When the Indians 
 find a herd they surround it, gradually contracting the 
 circle thus formed, when the animals, being too timid to 
 escape by a sudden rush, are slaughtered wholesale. 
 
 There are four species of bear found in the district — the 
 grizzly, brown, black and a small kind, called by the miners 
 the "silver-tip," the latter being gray in color, with a white 
 throat and beard, hence its name. It is said to be very fierce, 
 
game; and fish. 
 
 Si 
 
 and Indians and white men both give them a wide berth, 
 unless specially well armed. Wolves are scarce; a few only 
 of the common gray ones being seen in the country. 
 
 The common rabbit or hare is in some seasons quite 
 plentiful; at other seasons they are rare. The Arctic hare 
 is occasionally seen. 
 
 Mountain sheep and mountain goats exist through- 
 out the entire section of the country, but, as they 
 frequent the mountains, they are seldom seen from the bank 
 of the river. Wild geese and ducks are extremely plentiful 
 during the season. A shotgun is an indispensible article of 
 equipment for this reason. More gane will be secured by 
 it than by the rifle. 
 
 Accounts as to the fishing in Alaska differ greatly. Men 
 who have passed many years in the country report fish as 
 abundant and the fishing excellent. Mr. Ogilvie, however, 
 in his report to the Dominion government, says that with 
 the exception of a small species, locally called the Arctic 
 trout, fish are not numerous. This so-called trout seldom 
 exceeds ten inches in length, and has fins very large for its 
 size, which give it, when in motion, the appearance of hav- 
 ing wings. Its dorsal fin is very large, being fully half the 
 length of the body and very high. It is of a brownish gray 
 color on the back and sides and lighter on the belly. It is 
 found in large quantities in the upper part of the river, espe- 
 cially where the current is swift, and takes any kind of bait 
 greedily. The llesh is somewhat soft and not very palatable. 
 Lake trout are caught in the lakes. They take a troll bait 
 readily. The largest will weigh six or seven pounds. Sal- 
 mon ascend the river as high as Lake Labarge, but arc gen- 
 erally in poor condition when they reach that point. Dur- 
 ing the season of 1895 the salmon run all along the river 
 was light. Indirectly the light run of salmon was responsi- 
 ble for the discovery of the Klondike, for Cormack, the 
 first discoverer of the rich deposits, went pros])ecting up 
 the river because the salmon fishery, in which he was en- 
 gaged, proved to be unprofitable. 
 
8a 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COAL AND QUARTZ. 
 
 Both coal ami quartz ledges have been discovered on the 
 Upper Yukon, in Northwest Territory, within the past year, 
 the former of which will go far toward settling the fuel 
 problem in that section, while the latter insures a perma- 
 nent mining population, even after the placers are ex- 
 hausted, if ev(?r. In regard to the coal discoveries, Mr. 
 Ogilvie's report reads as follows: "A couple of coal claims 
 have been staked and applied for, which I will survey in the 
 spring, and at the same time make an examination of the 
 coal area where they are. I may anticipate this to a certain 
 extent by saying that a few days after I reported to you last 
 fall I went up Coal Creek to search for this coal, to which 
 I referred in my report of 1887 and 1888. I found it about 
 seven miles up the creek, overlaying a coarse sandstone and 
 under drift clay and gravel. The seam is 12 feet 6 inches 
 thick. It seems to me to be of a good quality of lignite. I 
 have packed out thirty or forty pounds of the best specimens 
 I found a few feet in and will send them to you in the spring 
 that a test may be made. That exposure has now been 
 staked and ap])lied for to the agent here. Both exposures 
 furnisli, so far as external features show, the same chai - 
 acter of coal and are about the same level, so that it is fair 
 to assume that they are the same seam. I will make a search 
 in the intervening distance to determine this when I make 
 a survey of the claims. Coal is reported in the drift on 
 Chandinn, about thirty miles up the river from here, which, 
 would go to show that there is another area or continuation 
 
COM, AND QUARTZ. 
 
 83 
 
 of this one there." This report was under date of January 
 8,1896. 
 
 In a later report, under date of June 6, Mr. Ogilvio re- 
 cords other discoveries made. An expert in the employ of 
 N. A. T. & T. Co. discovered extensive deposits of coal on 
 Twelve-Mile Creek, about twenty miles above its mouth. 
 
 Prospecting for quartz has never been carried on to any 
 extent, or in fact at all, until within the last two years. The 
 recent rich discoveries in the Klondike will serve to give 
 an impetus to prospecting in this direction, especially since 
 it is known that some discoveries of good gold-bearing 
 quartz have been made. The theory still finds plenty of 
 adherents among mining men that all gold found in river 
 benches and bars comes from quartz ledges, disintegrated 
 by weather and water, and the gold deposited, nature acting 
 in this matt(!r precisely as art does in the extraction of gold 
 from free-milling ore. I^* this theory be correct, the original 
 ledge from which the gold in the Klondike came would be 
 the wonder of the world when found. So far, however, the 
 quartz ledges which have been found are of low grade, and 
 require capital on a large scale to be enlisted before they 
 can be profitably worked. The mountains which hem in 
 the valley of Sixty-Mile Creek are composed principally of 
 quartz and schists, which no doubt originally held the gold 
 found in the valleys. If thoroughly prospected, as undoubt- 
 edly they will be within the next few years, some wonderful 
 discoveries may be made. 
 
 In the early part of 1896 the most important quartz 
 discovery so far made on the Yukon was struck in Cone 
 hill, which stands midway in the valley of Forty-^nie river, 
 two miles above its junction with the Yukon. The quantity 
 in sight rivals the Treadwell, and the quality is better, so 
 much so that it is thought it will paj to work, even at the 
 present high rate of wages. The whole hill is of metallifer- 
 
84 GUIDE TO THE Kl,ONDlKB. 
 
 ous rock. Assays of the Cone hill quartz are reported to be 
 good, but their values have not been published. Five tone 
 of the rock have been shipped out for a mill test. 
 
 An expert in the employ of the N. A. T. & T. Co. found 
 a ledge of gold-bearing quartz in the spring of 1895 on 
 Twelve-Mile Creek, about two miles up, and located two full 
 claims on it. He reported to Mr. Ogilvie that the assay he 
 had made of the specimens of it was much more satisfactory 
 than that of Cone Hill, and that on this ledge was where 
 quartz mining should commence in the Yukon country with 
 no fears of the result. 
 
 Copper has been found near Fort Eeliance, and some 
 specimens of native copper have been brought in from the 
 head of White River, near the international boundary line, 
 but on which side is not yet known. Some poor specimens 
 of asbestos has been found in the vicinity of Fort Cudahy, 
 but none as yet of commercial value. Sufficient from this, 
 however, appears to warrant much further prospecting for 
 ledges of quartz. 
 
CANADIAN GOVERNMENT'S OPl'REvSSIVE I'OMCY. 
 
 85 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CANADIAN GOVERNMENT'5 OPPRESSIVE 
 
 POLICY. 
 
 rv^ 
 
 The Klondike, Stewart and Indian Rivers and their 
 tributaries, to which attention is now being so largely at- 
 tracted, and from the former of which such enormous 
 amounts of gold have already been extracted by a relatively 
 small number of men, lie wholly within British territory, 
 being part of the Northwest Territory. These districts, 
 as, indeed, all of the other mineral districts upon the Yu- 
 kon, were discovered and opened to the world almost ex- 
 clusively by American prospectore. They opened the passes, 
 which had always before been jealously guarded by a power- 
 ful and warlike band of coast Indians; they whipsawcd lum- 
 ber out of tlie trees and built boats, or lashed logs together 
 in rafts, and, launching themselves upon the waters of a 
 practically unknown stream, descended it for hundreds of 
 miles, and ascended hundreds of its trilnitaries for a dis- 
 tance aggregating thousands of miles. Along the rapids 
 and canyons of the Upper Yukon are the graves of dozens 
 of such prospectors, who lost their lives in braving the un- 
 known torrents. Up to the present time none of this work 
 of exploration has been aided l)y a dollar of government 
 money from any source. Nearly a decade passed in this 
 work before really profitable mines were discovered. As 
 soon as it developed that in this unknown wilderness a 
 handful of American pioneers liad o|<ened a new gold region, 
 the Canadian government sent in surveyors to locate the 
 international boundary line. It proved lliat >ome of the 
 
86 
 
 GUIDK TO THE KtOXDIKK. 
 
 claims were in Canadian territory. Forthwith a detachment 
 of mounted police and a gold conimisaioner appeared upon 
 the ground, accompanied hy customs oilieers. Each miner 
 was i)roini)tly taxed the sum of lil'teen dollars as a fee for 
 his license, and one hundred dollars anmially thereafter; 
 while the customs oilieers proceeded to collect duties from 
 the goods im|)orted into the country to feed the mining 
 ])opulatiou. This was naturally to be expected, and no com- 
 l>laint was heard from the miners. 
 
 When the news of the wonderfully rich discoveries on 
 the Klondike went forth, the Dominion govern nient at 
 once proceeded to consider measures hy which some con- 
 siderable jiortion of the wealth which the miners Wti'e pro- 
 ducing might be turiunl into the Dominion coll'ei's. Vari- 
 ous schemes havt> been jjrojiosed. The one which has 
 received the most favorable considci-ation, and which, in- 
 deed, it has lu'cn announced the honiinion cabinet has de- 
 cided upon, is to is>ue orders in council imposing a royalty 
 of ten ])er cent. u|>on the gross product of all mining claims 
 which i)roduce live hundred dollars ])er montii or upwards, 
 and twenty ])er cent, on mines whose ])roduct is in excess 
 of that amount. ^i'his is in addition to the $100 a year 
 license fee. It is also ))ro])osed to reserve eacli alternate 
 claim to the government. The only o))jections which the 
 Canadian government are considering to this pro])osed pol- 
 icy is the extreme diliiculty to b<' found in collecting the 
 revenue, and in learning what the amount of product of 
 each claim might be without a resort to inquisitorial meas- 
 ures which would create intense friction. The question at 
 present turns whether this roy^ilty shall be imposed or 
 whether the same result may be arrivt^d at by the imposition 
 of an export duty on gold. 
 
 They have also stationed customs officers at the in- 
 ternational boundary line to collect duty from all Ameri- 
 
CANADIAN C.OVKRNMKNT'S OPI'RILSSIVK POI.KY. 
 
 «7 
 
 can miners npon their personal outfits of food and clothing, 
 wliich they are compelled to take with tliem into the coun- 
 try. As long as the American exploration of the country 
 in search of gold brought nothing to the exi)lorers except 
 hardsiiip, suH'ering and often death, the country was freely 
 o[)ened to them, and they were encouraged to do a work of 
 exploration and prosi)ccting, which will directly and in- 
 directly result in adding countless millions of dolhirs in 
 value to Canadian territory, and which will result in the 
 building up in a region which had heretofore ranked as a 
 desolate waste, of settled communities, witii thousands of 
 inhabitants. They have created in Canadian territory, or 
 at least they have opened to the world, an industry which 
 will result in a golden stream being poured out to the world 
 for generations to come. 
 
 This work of exploration and exploitation having been 
 successfully accom])lishod; the eyes of the world having 
 been opened to the riches of the Yukon ])ortion of the 
 Xorthwest Territory, and the stream of immigration having 
 been turned that way in such a resistless volume that noth- 
 ing can arrest its onward flow, the Canadian government 
 now proceeds to ''cinch" the American miners and pros- 
 pectors in a manner which has never been witnessed in a 
 civilized country. The Boers of South Africa did not en- 
 courage English miners to exploit the mineral wealth of the 
 Transvaal; they protested against it; they did not invite, but 
 endeavored to repel the immigration which resulted in un- 
 veiling the riches of South Africa. Yet their treatment of 
 the British miners in South Africa was liberality itself as 
 compared to the manner in which the Canadian govern- 
 ment has elected to treat the explorers, prospectors and 
 miners of the Xorthwest Territory. In literal sober fact, 
 without the faintest exaggeration, their conduct in this re- 
 spect is precisely what might have been exi)ected from the 
 
^. 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-S) 
 
 /. 
 
 .% 
 
 .V 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 l^|2.8 12.5 
 
 ■50 ■• 
 
 mr 
 
 1^' 1^ 
 
 ^ us, 
 
 2.2 
 2.0 
 
 llil IIIIIM. 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, MY. 145*0 
 
 K15^;. a 72-4303 
 

 6^ 
 
88 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 wild chief of a South African negro tribe, who had force 
 sufficient to carrj^ out his plans. The Canadians plead re- 
 taliation as a possible excuse for this action. They claim 
 that the laws of the United States which forbid an alien 
 from acquiring title to mining property are justification for 
 the imposition of this enormous income tax upon American 
 miners in Canada. If retaliation is the plea, why not retali- 
 ate in kind, by excluding American miners who refuse to 
 take the oath of allegiance to the British crown? The 
 answer to this is simple. They did not exclude American 
 miners from the country, for the good and sufficient reason 
 that, had this been done, their mineral country would Jiever 
 have been explored and opened for generations to come. 
 They preferred to encourage the Americans to invest their 
 brains, their capital and their energies in opening to 
 the world the Canadian mines, and then to relieve 
 them of a heavy percentage of their hard-earned wealth 
 on the plea of retaliation against a law, which in prac- 
 tical effect never excluded a British-born subject from 
 the ownership of a foot of American mineral land; 
 for the courts were always opened, and the naturalization 
 oath is a meaningless form to many who have sought our 
 shores, and to none more than those who claim England and 
 Canada as their native homes. 
 
the; AMERICAN MINES. 
 
 89 
 
 CHAPTEK XI. 
 
 11- 
 
 THE AMERICAN MINE5. 
 
 Whilp Klondike is now engaging the attention of the 
 majority of those who are seeking the Yukon, it should not 
 be forgotten that up to the time of the accidental discovery 
 of the Klondike by an American miner, it was the mines 
 on the American side of the boundary line which were pro- 
 ducing the greatest wealth. On the upper creeks of Sixty- 
 Mile and Forty-Mile, within the boundaries of Alaska, are 
 placer mines by the hundred, which in any other country 
 in the world would be considered as fortunes to the lucky 
 owners. Down the river from Dawson City 240 miles, ia 
 Circle City. A short porage from the Yukon at this point 
 will bring one into the headwaters of Birch Creek. There 
 are dozens of tributary streams in this creek from which 
 gold has been extracted in large quantities. Hundreds of 
 claims have paid as high as $40 a day to every man em- 
 ployed; and claims which ran as low as an ounce or $16 a 
 day were not looked at. Far down the Yukon, the Koya- 
 kuk, one of the most important tributaries of the lower 
 river, has its mouth. On this stream, for some years past, 
 the Indians, working with crude rockers, made in imitation 
 of those used by the white men, have been taking out ten 
 to fifteen dollars a day to the man. Last summer a small 
 party of miners from Circle City went down to prospect 
 this river. When returning miners from the Klondike were 
 passing down this river on the steamer tliey were hailed 
 from the bank by one of this party, who wished to send out 
 mail. lie was told of the rich strikes on the Klondike, and 
 
90 
 
 GUIDE TO THP: KI.ONDIKE. 
 
 in turn told of equally rich strikes made by his party. 
 There is no improbability about this story, and a few weeks' 
 time will probably prove or disprove it. Whether this par- 
 ticular story be true or not, it is absolutely unquestioned 
 that there are on the American side of the international 
 boundary thousands of claims on which good wages can be 
 made, and hundreds are known which in a very few years' 
 working would yield fortunes to their owners. 
 
 The writer stated in a preceding paragraph that the 
 upper creeks of Forty-Mile were in American territory. As 
 a matter of fact, there is a strong probability that the entire 
 creek, from its mouth up, is American. Only a short dis- 
 tance from the mouth up is claimed by the Canadian au- 
 thorities to be within their borders. 
 
 A recent report of the United States surveyors as to the 
 boundary line in this connection said: "In substance these 
 determinations throw the diggings at the mouth of Forty- 
 Mile Creek within the territory of the United States. The 
 whole valley of tliis rich creek is also in the United States. 
 Most of the gold is to the west of the crossing of the one 
 hundred and forty-first meridian at Forty-Mile Creek. If 
 M'e produce the one hundred and forty-first meridian on a 
 chart, the mouth of Miller's Creek, a tributary of Sixty-Mile 
 Creek, and a valuable gold region, is five miles in a direct 
 line, or seven miles according to the winding of the stream, 
 all within the territory of the United States. In substance, 
 the only places in the Yukon region where gold in quantity 
 has been found are all to the west of the boundary line be- 
 tween Canada and the United States." 
 
 "The gold," said General Duflfield, Superintendent of 
 the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, in discussing 
 the question, "has been ground out of the quartz by the 
 pressure of the glaciers which lie and move along the 
 courses of the streams, exerting a tremendous pressure. 
 
THE AMERICAN MINKS. 
 
 91 
 
 The force is present to a more appreciable extent in Alaska 
 than elsewhere, and I believe that, as a consequence, more 
 placer gold will be found in that region than in any other 
 part of the world.'' 
 
 General Duffield thinks the hunters on the American 
 side have made the mistake of prospecting the large streams 
 instead of the small ones. "When gold is precipitated," 
 he said, "it sinks. It does not float fax- down stream. It is 
 therefore to be looked for along the small creeks and about 
 the headwaters of the larger tributaries of the Yukon. 
 There is no reason why as rich finds may not be made on the 
 American side of the line as in the Klondike region." 
 
 Again, it must be remembered that the value of a placer 
 claim depends to a great extent upon the number of men 
 who can profitably be put to work upon it. The gross tax 
 levied by the Canadian government upon the products of 
 Canadian placers will render it unprofitable to employ men 
 upon any except the richest of the mines. For example, a 
 claim which paid twenty dollars a day to the man would 
 produce, worked by one man, enough to render its owner 
 liable to the twenty per cent penalty. For every man he 
 employed he would be compelled to pay to the government 
 a monthly tax of one hundred and four dollars, in addition 
 to wages. With wages at fifteen dollars a day, the net result 
 to the owner of a Canadian claim paying twenty dollare a 
 day to the man would be just ten dollars; in other words, 
 the claim would be unprofitable to work except alone and 
 single-handed, until at least wages reach a very much lower 
 level. On the American side of the line claims of the same 
 class, at the same rate of wages, would net to the owner $130 
 a month for every man employed. Claims producing less 
 than $20 a day on the Canadian side of tlie lino will be 
 practically valueless for many years to come. Xot only 
 this, but in other respects the American mining laws are 
 
92 
 
 GUIDB TO THE KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 more liberal. In Northwest Territory claims are limited to 
 five hundred feet in length. A license fee of fifteen dollars 
 a year is imposed for the first year and after that a fee of 
 one hundred dollars a year. Neither has a miner any vested 
 interest in the mine. He simply has a license from the 
 government which is good for but one year. After the year 
 runs on it will have to be renewed. In the meantime addi- 
 tional restrictions such as those recently imposed, may be 
 put on at any time. The royalty may be doubled, or the 
 license fee raised to five hundred dollars a month, in par- 
 ticularly rich districts. There is absolutely no security for 
 capital or labor invested in any placer mining proposition 
 in the Northwest Territory for any longer period of time 
 than one year from the date of the original location. 
 
 On the American side of the line the general mining 
 laws of the United States are in force. These permit the 
 entry of twenty acres of land except in cases where the 
 miners of a district, by adoption of local regulations of their 
 own, limit the amount of the claim. The only expense or 
 tax connected with it is the payment of a recording fee, the 
 amount fixed by the miners themselves, to the recorder of 
 the district elected by themselves. Subject to further local 
 regulations prescribed by the miners of a district, a man's 
 right to a claim attaches the instant he files, and no law of 
 the United States could ever be passed to divest him of that 
 right, or to impose further restrictions upon him than were 
 contained in the law at the time he filed. Should he desire 
 to do so, he can, after expending five hundred dollars' worth 
 of work on a claim, have it surveyed and can receive a patent 
 from the United States to it. No license fees are extorted 
 from him; the claim is his, and no royalty is or ever can be 
 imposed upon the gold which he takes out. 
 
 It would seem clear that in the present rush to the 
 Yukon gold fields, men who really desire to acquire placer 
 
THE AMERICAN MINEvS. 
 
 93 
 
 mining property for their own use and benefit, and not for 
 the benefit of the Canadian Government, will exercise a wise 
 discretion if they confine their prospecting and locating to 
 the American side of the international boundary, where 
 there are placers rich enough to satisfy any moderate ambi- 
 tion, and where there may be new Klondikes discovered any 
 day which will rival or surpass the discoveries made in 
 Northwest Territory last year. 
 
 
 
94 
 
 r.UIDE To THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THE DISEASES TO BE GUARDED AGAINST. 
 
 As a final word to those who have made up their minds 
 to sojourn for a few years on the Yukon, in the hope of 
 acquiring wealth, some information about the diseases 
 which are prevalent in the country and against which pre- 
 cautions will have to be taken may not be amiss. This 
 information is contained in the report of Assistant Surgeon 
 A. E. Wills, who was stationed at Fort Cudahy, with the 
 detachment of Canadian mounted police. The climate in 
 summer is wet. The rainfall last summer (1895) was heavy. 
 Although there is almost continuous sunlight during the 
 summer, evaporation is very slow, owing to the thick moss, 
 which will not conduct heat, in consequence of which the 
 ground is always swampy. It is only after several years of 
 draining that the ground will become sufficiently dry to 
 allow the frost to go out, and then only for a few feet. Dur- 
 ing the winter months the cold is intense, with usually con- 
 siderable wind. A heavy mist rising from open places in 
 the river settles down in some of the valleys in calm, ex- 
 tremely cold weather. This dampness makes the cold felt 
 much more and is conducive to rheumatic pains, colds, etc. 
 
 Miners are a very mixed class of people. They represent 
 many nationalities and come from all climates. Their lives 
 are certainly not enviable. The regulation "miner's cabin" 
 is twelve by fourteen feet, with walls six feet and gables 
 eight feet in height. The roof is heavily earthed and the 
 cabin is generally very warm. Two and sometimes three 
 or four men will occupy a house of this size. The ventila- 
 
THE DISKASKS TO UK OlARDKn AGAINST. 
 
 95 
 
 tion is usually bad. The minors who do not work their 
 claims during the winter confine tliemselvcs in these small 
 huts most of the time. 
 
 Very often they become indolent and careless, only eat- 
 ing those things which are most easily cooked or prei)ar{Hl. 
 During the busy time in summer when they are ''shoveling 
 in," they work hard and for long hours, sparing littk? time 
 for eating and still less for cooking. This manner of living 
 is quite common among beginners, and soon leads to debility 
 and sometimes to scurvy. Old miners have learned from 
 experience to value health more than gold and they there- 
 fore spare no expense in procuring the best and most varied 
 outfit of food that can be obtained. In a cold climate such 
 as this, where it is impossible to get fresh vegetables and 
 fruits, it is most important that the best substitutes for these 
 should be provided. Nature helps to supply these wants by 
 growing cranberries and other wild fruits in abundance, 
 but men in summer are too busy to avail themselves of these. 
 
 The diseases met with in the country are dyspepsia, 
 anaemia, scurvy, caused by improperly cooked food, same- 
 ness of diet, overwork, want of fresh vegetables, overheated 
 and badly ventilated houses; rheumatsm, pneumonia, bron- 
 chitis, enteritis, cystitis and other acute diseases from ex- 
 posure and wet; debility and chronic diseases, due to ex- 
 cesses. Venereal diseases are not uncommon. One case of 
 typhoid fever occurred at Forty-Mile last fall, probably due 
 to drinking water polluted with decayed vegetable matter. 
 
 Men who intend to go to the Yukon gold country should 
 be sober, strong and healthy. They should be practical 
 men, able to adapt themselves to their surroundings. Spe- 
 cial care should be taken to see that their lungs are sound, 
 that they are free from rheumatism and rheumatic tenden- 
 cies, and that their joints, especially their knee joints, are 
 sound and have never been weakened by injury or disease. 
 
 7-S 
 
95 
 
 GUIDK TO THK KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 It is also important to consider the temper. Men should 
 be of cheerful, hopeful dispositions and willing to work. 
 Those of sullen, morose natures, although they may be good 
 miners, arc very apt, as soon as the novelty of the country 
 wears off, to become dissatisfied, pessimistic and melancholy. 
 
 COIS^CLUSION. 
 
 Seattle bankers and merchants are prepared to buy all 
 the gold which comes down from the mines at its actual 
 mint value. Some of the banks have already procured 
 the services of expert assay ers, so that this value may be 
 determined. A strong effort is on foot to have a govern- 
 ment assay office established in this city. If this is done, 
 as there seems every reason to believe will be done at the 
 next session of congress, every dollar of the gold which 
 comes out from the Klondike next season, and which 
 reaches Seattle by the transportation lines, will be pur- 
 chased in this city. All of this gold, with the exception of 
 unimportant amounts, will come down the Yukon, and out 
 by the way of St. Michael's. Whatever the route for going 
 into the mining country may be, the "all-watei-" route is 
 the one wixich miners with gold will adopt in leaving the 
 country. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 97 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE OF DISTANCES. 
 
 VIA CHILKOOT PASS. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Seattle to Dyea 884 
 
 Dyea to Foot of Canyon 7 
 
 Canyon to Sheep Camp 5 
 
 Sheep Camp to Summit 3 
 
 Summit to Lake Lindeman 9 
 
 Lake Lindeman (length) 6 
 
 Portage to Lake Bennett 1 
 
 Lake Bennett (length) 25.8 
 
 Cariboo Crossing to Lake Tagish 2.7 
 
 VIA WHITE'S PASS. 
 
 Seattle to Skaguay 884 
 
 Dyea to Tako Arm 35 
 
 Tako Arm to Lake Tagish 20 
 
 Tagish Lake (length) 16.6 
 
 River to Lake Marsh 5 
 
 Lake Marsh (length) 20 
 
 Head of Lake Marsh to Miles Canyon 23 
 
 Miles Canyon to White Horse Rapids ^V* 
 
 White Horse Rapids % 
 
 Foot of White Horse Rapids to Tahkeena River 13 
 
 Tahkeena River to Lake Le Barge HV^ 
 
 Lake Le Barge (length) 31 
 
 Lake Le Barge to Hootalinqua River 27i^ 
 
 Hootalinqua River to Big Salmon River 
 
 Big Salmon River to Little Salmon River 
 
 Little Salmon River to Five Fingers 
 
 Five Fingers to Pelly River 
 
 Pelly River to White River 
 
 White River to Stewart River 
 
 31 
 34 
 53 
 55 
 9 
 9 
 
98 
 
 OUIDK To THE KI.ONDIKK. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Stewart River to Sixty-Mile River 21 
 
 Sixty-Mile River to Dawson City 49 
 
 Dawson City to Forty-Mile 52 
 
 Forty-Mile to Fort Cudahy % 
 
 Fort Cudahy to Circle City 240 
 
 Total Dyea to Circle City via Chilkoot Pass 762.6 
 
 Total Skaguay to Circle City via White's Pass 759.1 
 
 VIA ST. MICHAEL'S AND YUKON RIVER. 
 
 Seattle to St. Michael's 3000 
 
 St. Michael's to Kutlik 100 
 
 Kutlik to Andreafski 125 
 
 Andreasfki to Holy Cross 145 
 
 Holy Cross to Koserefsky 5 
 
 Koserefsky to Anvik 75 
 
 Anvik to Nulato 225 
 
 Nulato to Narikatat 145 
 
 Narikatat to Janana 80 
 
 Janana to Fort Yukon , 450 
 
 Fort Yukon to Circle City 80 
 
 Circle City to Forty-Mile 240 
 
 Forty-Mile to Dawson City 52 
 
 USEFUL NOTES FOR MINERS. 
 
 Gold and silver are bought and sold by Troy weight: 24 
 grains 1 pennyweight, 20 pennyweights 1 ounce, 12 ounces 1 
 pound. 
 
 The price established by the United States government for 
 pure gold is $20.67 per ounce. That is for gold 1,000 fine or 24 
 karats. 
 
 The term karat is used by jewelers to express the degrees 
 of fineness of gold, dividing it into 24 degrees or karats. 
 
 Pure gold is 24 karats fine and worth $20.67 per ounce. 
 22 karat gold..$18.94 16 karat gold..$13.78 10 karat gold..$8.61 
 20 " " .. 17.22 14 '• " .. 12.05 8 " " .. 6.89 
 
 18 " " .. 15.50 12 " " .. 10.33% 6 " " .. 6.16 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 99 
 
 Gold in jewelry is seldom less than 6 karats fine 
 
 Per oz. 
 Gold 1000 fine is worth ?20.67. 
 
 Gold 900 18.60 
 
 Gold 800 16.53 
 
 Gold 700 14.47 
 
 Gold 600 " " " 12.40 
 
 Per oz. 
 Gold 500 fine is worth $10.33 
 
 Gold 400 8.26 
 
 Gold 300 " •* " 6.20 
 
 Gold 200 4.13 
 
 Gold 100 " " " 2.06 
 
 Many persons are mistaken in thinking all ounces to be 
 alike. An ounce Troy or Apothecaries' weight contains 480 Troy 
 grains. An ounce Avoirdupois weight contains 437i/^ Troy 
 grains. 
 
 The grain is the unit of Troy and Apothecaries' weight, 
 and the ounce is the unit of the Avoirdupois weight. 
 
 One pound Troy or Apothecaries' weight contains 5,760 
 Troy grains. One pound Avoirdupois weight cuxilains 7,000 
 Troy Grains. 
 
 All natural gold— that is, gold extracted fron rocks or 
 washed from the beds of streams— contains sor* ' alloy , gener- 
 ally silver, but sometimes platinum, copper and telluriam, and 
 it varies in amount in different localities. This if tht. reason 
 some liuaers are disappointed when they sell their gold, as they 
 imagine all gold to be pure. 
 
 SEATTLE PRICE LIST. 
 
 Following are the retail market prices in Seattle on August, 
 5, 1897, for the provisions and hardware which go to make up 
 a Yukon miner's outfit: 
 
 Flour, per sack of 50 pounds, ?1.10. 
 
 Bacon, S^^c to ll%c per pound. 
 
 Beans, 2c per pound. 
 
 Rolled oats, 3c to 3i^c per pound. 
 
 Tea, 25e to $1.00 per pound (sealed in cans). 
 
 Coffee, 15c to 35c per pound (sealed in cans). 
 
 Sugar, 5^^c per pound. 
 
 Evaporated potatoes, 20c per pound. 
 
 Evaporated onions, 50c per pound. 
 
 Salt, Ic. 
 
 Pepper, 25c. 
 
 Evaporated fruits, 8c to 10c. 
 
 Rice, 5c, best quality. 
 
 ^lia-:^^J:.£^feaMgKBir, . 
 
lOO 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 HARDWARE. 
 
 Yukon stove, $6.50. 
 
 Gold pan, 35c to 50c. 
 
 Axes, handled, lpl.25. 
 
 6-inch files, 10c. 
 
 Picks with handle, ?1.25 to $2.25. 
 
 Shovel, $1.00. 
 
 Drawing knife, 60c to $1.00. 
 
 Jackpiane, 75c. 
 
 Hammer, 50c. 
 
 Whipsaw, $4.50 to $6.00. 
 
 Nails, 4c per pound. 
 
 Yukon sleds, $6.00. 
 
 PLACER MINING REGULATIONS IN FORCE ON THE YU- 
 KON RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES IN 
 NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. 
 
 The following are the placer mining regulations which ap- 
 ply to the Clondyke and other mining districts on the Canadian 
 side of the line: 
 
 NATURE AND SIZE OF CLAIMS. 
 
 1. Bar diggings, a strip of land 100 feet wide at higii- 
 water mark and thence extending into the river to its lowest 
 water level. 
 
 2. The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall be two 
 parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to the 
 stream anu shall be marked by four legal posts, one at each 
 end of the claim, at or about high- water mark; also one at 
 tj&ch. end of the claim at or about the edge of the water. One 
 of the posts at high-water mark shall be legibly marked witli 
 the name of the miner and the date upon which the clafm waa 
 staked. 
 
 3. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square, and shall have 
 placed at each of its four corners a legal post, upon one of 
 which shall be legibly marked the name of the miner and the 
 date upon which the claim was staged. 
 
 4. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long measured 
 in the direction of the general course of the stream, and shall 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 lOI 
 
 extend in width from base to base of the hill or bench on each 
 side, but when the hills or benches are less than 100 feet apart 
 the claim may be 100 feet in depth. The sides of a claim shall 
 be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles 
 to the stream. The sides shall be marked with legal posts 
 at or about the edge of the water and at the rear boundaries of 
 the claim. One of the legal posts at the stream shall be legibly 
 marked with the name of the miner and the date upon which 
 the claim was staked. 
 
 5. Bench claims shall be 100 feet square. 
 
 6. In defining the size of claims they shall be measured 
 
 horizontally, irrespective of inequalities on the surface of the 
 ground. 
 
 7. If any person or persons shall discover a new mine, and 
 such discovery shall be established to the satisfaction of the 
 gold commissioner, a claim for bar diggings 750 feet in length 
 may be granted. A new stratum or auriferous earth or gravel 
 situated in a locality where the claims are abandoned shall for 
 this purpose be deemed a new mine, although the same locality 
 shall have been previously worked at a different level. 
 
 8. The forms of application for a grant for placer mining 
 and the grant of the same shall be those contained in forms 
 "H" and "I" in the schedule hereto. 
 
 9. A claim shall be recorded with the gold commissioner 
 in whose district it is situated within three days after the loca- 
 tion thereof, if it is located within ten miles of the commission- 
 er's office. One extra day shall be allowed for making such 
 record for every additional ten miles or fraction thereof. 
 
 10. In the event of the absence of the gold commissioner 
 from his office, entry for a claim may be granted by any person 
 whom he may appoint to perform his duties in his absence. 
 
 11. Entry shallnot be granted for a claim which has not 
 been staked by the applicant in person in the manner specified 
 in these regu^.^'ons. An affidavit that the claim was staked 
 out by the applicant shall be embodied in form "H" of the 
 schedule hereto. 
 
 12. An entry fee of $15.00 shall be charged for the first year 
 and an annual fee of $100.00 for each of the following years. 
 This provision shall apply to locations for which entries have 
 already been granted. 
 
 13. After the recording of a claim the removal of any post 
 
I02 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 by the holder thereof or by any person acting in his behalf 
 for the purpose of changing the boundaries of his claim shall 
 act as a forfeiture of the claim. 
 
 14. The entry of every holder for a grant for placer mining 
 must be renewed and his receipt relinquished and replaced 
 every year. The entry fee being paid each year. 
 
 15. No miner shall receive a grant for more than one min- 
 ing claim in the same locality, but the same miner may hold 
 any number of claims by purchase, and any number of miners 
 may unite to work their claims in common upon such terms as 
 they may arrange, provided such agreement be registered with 
 the gold commissioner and a fee of $5.00 paid for each regis- 
 tration. 
 
 16. Any miner or miners may sell, mortgage or dispose 
 of his or their claims, provided such disposal be registered with 
 a fee of $2.00 paid to the gold commissioner, who shall there- 
 upon give the assignee a certificate in form "J" in the schedule 
 hereto. 
 
 17. Every miner shall during the continuance of his grant 
 have the exclusive right of entry upon his own claim, for the 
 miner-like working thereof, and the construction of a residence 
 thereon, and shall be entitled exclusively to all the proceeds 
 realized therefrom; but he shall have no surface rights therein; 
 and the gold commissioner may grant to the holders of adjacent 
 claims such right of entry thereon as may be absolutely necesr 
 sary for the working of their claims, upon such terms as may 
 to him seem reasonable. He may also grant permits to miners 
 to cut timber thereon for their own use, upon payment of the 
 dues prescribed by the regulations in that behalf. 
 
 18. Every miner shall be entitled to the use of so much 
 of the water naturally flowing through or pae*^. his claim, and 
 not already lawfully appropriated, as shall, in the opinion of 
 the gold commissioner be necessary for the due working there- 
 of; and shall be entitled to drain his own claim free of charge. 
 
 19. A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned and open 
 to occupa^^'on and entry by any person when the same shall 
 have remained unworked on working days by the grantee there- 
 of or by some person on his behalf for the space of seventy-two 
 hours, unless sickness or other reasonable cause be shown to 
 the satisfaction of the gold commissioner, or unless the grantee 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 103 
 
 is absent on leave given by the commissioner, and the gold 
 commissioner, upon obtaining evidence satisfactory to himself 
 that this provision i° not being complied with, may cancel the 
 entry given for claim. 
 
 20. If the land upon which a claim has been located is 
 not the property of the crown, it will be necessary for the 
 person who applied for entry to furnish proof that he has ac- 
 quired from the owner of the land the surface rights before 
 entry can be granted. 
 
 21. If the occupier of the lands has not received a patent 
 therefor, the purchase money of the surface rights must be paid 
 to the crown, and a patent of the surface rights will issue to 
 the party who acquired the mining rights. The money so col- 
 lected will either be refunded to the occupier of the land, when 
 he is entitled to a patent therefor, or will be credited to him on 
 account of payment for land. 
 
 22. When the party obtaining the mining rights to lands 
 cannot make an arrangement with the owner thereof for the 
 acquisition of the surface rights, it shall be lawful for him to 
 give notice to the owner or his agent or the occupier to appoint 
 an arbitrator to act with another arbitrator named by him, in 
 order to award the amount of compensation to which the owner 
 or occupant shall be entitled. The notice mentioned in this 
 section shall be according to form to be obtained upon applica- 
 tion from the gold commissioner for the district in which the 
 lands in question lie, and shall, when practicable, be personally 
 served on such owner, or his agent, if known, or occupant; 
 and after reasonable efforts have been made to effect personal 
 service without success, then such notice shall be served by 
 leaving it at, or sending by registered letter to, the last place 
 of abode of the owner, agent or occupant. Such notice shall 
 be served upon the owner, or agent, within a period to be fixed 
 by the gold commissioner before the expiration of the time 
 limited in such notice. If the proprietor refuses or declines 
 to appoint an arbitrator, or when, for any other reason, no 
 Arbitrator is appointed by the proprietor in the time limited 
 therefor in the notice provided for by this section, the gold 
 commissioner for the district in which the lands in question 
 lie shall, on being satisfied by affidavit that such notice has 
 come to the knowledge of such owner, agent or occupant, or 
 
104 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KI,ONDIKE. 
 
 that such owner, agent or occupant wilfully evades the service 
 of such notice, or cannot be found, and that reasonable efforts 
 have been made to effect such service, and that the notice was 
 left at the last place of abode of such owner, agent or occupant, 
 appoint an arbitrator on his behalf. 
 
 23. (a) All arbitrators appointed under the authority of 
 these regulations shall be sworn before a Justice of the Peace 
 to the impartial discharge of the duties assigned to them, and 
 they shall forthwith proceed to estimate the reasonable dam- 
 ages which the owner or ooupants of such lands, according to 
 their several interests therein, shall sustain by reason of such 
 prospecting and mining operations. 
 
 (b) In estimating such damages, the arbitrators shall de- 
 termine the value of the land irrespectively of any enhance- 
 ment thereof from the existence of minerals therein. 
 
 (c) In case such arbitrators cannot agree ,they may select 
 a third arbitrator, and when the two arbitrators cannot agree 
 upon a third arbitrator the Gold Commissioner for the district 
 in which the lands in question lie shall select such third arbi- 
 trator, 
 
 (d) The award of any two such arbitrators made in writ- 
 ing shall be final, and shall be filed with the Gold Commis- 
 sioner for the district in which the lands lie. 
 
 If any case arise for which no provision is made in these 
 regulations, the provisions of the regulations governing the dis- 
 posal of mineral lands other than coal lands approved by His 
 Excellency the Governor in Council on the 9th of November, 
 1889, shall apply. 
 
 FORM "J" 
 
 CERTIFICATE OF THE ASSIGNMENT OF A 
 
 PLACER MINING CLAIM. 
 
 No 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 
 
 Agency 189. . 
 
 This is to certify that (B. C.) has (or have) filed 
 
 an assignment in due form dated 189 . . , and accom- 
 panied by a registration fee of two dollars, of the grant to 
 (A. B.) of of the right (insert de- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 105 
 
 189. . , the said (B. C.) shall be enti- 
 
 use of so much of the water naturally flowing 
 
 scription of claim) to mine in 
 
 for one year from 189 . . 
 
 This certificate entitled the said (B. C.) to 
 
 all the rights and privileges of the said (A. B.) in 
 
 respect of the claim assigned, that is to say, to the exclusive 
 right of entry upon the said claim for miner-like working 
 thereof and the construction of a residence thereon, and the 
 exclusive right to all the proceeds therefrom, for the remaining 
 portion of the year for which the said claim was granted to the 
 
 said (A. B.) that is to say. until the day 
 
 of 
 
 tied to the — — — , , . ,. , 
 
 through or past his (or their) claim and not already lawfully 
 apropriated as shall be necessary for the due working thereof, 
 and to drain the claim free of charge. 
 
 This grant does not convey to the said (B. C.) any 
 
 surface rights in said claim, or any rights of ownership in the 
 soil covered by said claim, and the said grant shall lapse and 
 be forfeited unless the claim is continually, and in good faith, 
 worked by the said (B. C.) or his (or their) 
 
 asociates. , tu t\ 
 
 The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the Do- 
 minion Mining Regulations, and no more, and are subject to 
 all the provisions of the said regulations, whether the same 
 are expressed herein or not. 
 
 Gold Commissioner. 
 
 FORM "H." 
 
 APPLIICATION FOR GRANT FOR PLACER MINING 
 CLAIM AND AFFIDAVIT OF APPLICANT. 
 
 I (or we) of hereby apply under the 
 
 Dominion Mining Regulations, for a grant of a claim for placer 
 mining as defined in the said regulations, in (here describe 
 
 ... -, and I 
 
 locality) 
 
 (or we) solemnly swear: 
 
 1. That I (or we) have discovered therein a deposit of (here 
 
 name the metal or mineral.) 
 
 2. That I (or we) aiu (or are) to the best of my (or our) 
 
 if. ; 
 
 liH 
 
io6 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KI^ONDIKE. 
 
 knowledge and belief, the first discoverer (or discoverers) of 
 the said deposit; or, 
 
 3. That the said claim was previously granted to (here 
 name the last grantee), but has remained unworked by the 
 said grantee for not less than 
 
 4. That I (or we) am (or are) unaware that the land is 
 other than vacant Dominion Land. 
 
 5. That I (or we) did, on the day of mark 
 
 out on the ground, in accordance in every particular with the 
 provisions of the Mining Regulations for the Yukon River and 
 its tributaries, the claim for which I (or we) make this appli- 
 cation, and that in so doing I (or we) did not encroach on any 
 other claim or mining location previously laid out by any other 
 person. 
 
 6. That the said mining claim contained, as nearly as I 
 
 (or we) could measure or estimate, an area of square 
 
 feet, and that the description (and sketch, if any) of this date 
 hereto attached, signed by me (or us) sets (or set) forth in 
 detail, to the best of my (or our) knowledge and ability, its 
 position, form and dimensions. 
 
 7. That I( or we) make this application in good faith, to 
 acquire the claim for the sole purpose of mining, prosecuted 
 by myself (or us) or by myself and associates, or by my (or 
 our) asigns. 
 
 Sworn before me at this day of 
 
 , 189.. 
 
 (Signature) . » 
 
 P^ORM "I." ~" 
 
 GRANT FOR PLACER CLAIM. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 
 
 No Agency 189. . 
 
 In consideration of the payment of the fee prescribed by 
 Clause 12 of the mining regulations for the Yukon River and 
 
 its Tributaries by (A. B.) of accompanying his 
 
 (r their) application No dated 189. . 
 
 for a mining claim in (here insert description of locality), 
 
 the Minister of the Interior hereby grants to ihe said 
 
 (A. B.) for the term of one year from the date 
 
 hereof the exclusive right of entry upon the claim (here 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 107 
 
 describe in detail the claim granted) for the miner-like work- 
 ing thereof and the construction of a residence thereon, and 
 the exclusive right to all the proceeds realized therefrom. 
 
 The said (A. B.) shall be entitled to the use 
 
 of so much water naturally flowing through or past his (or 
 their) claim, and not already lawfully appropriated, as shall 
 be necessary for the due working thereof, and to drain his 
 (or their) claim, free of charge. 
 
 This grant does not convey to the said (A. B.) 
 
 any surface rights in the said claim, or any right of owner- 
 ship in the soil covered by the said claim; and the said grant 
 shall lapse and be forfeited unless the claim is continuously 
 
 and in good faith worked by the said (A. B.) or his 
 
 (or their) associates. 
 
 The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the 
 aforesaid mining regulations, and no more, and are subject 
 to all the provisions of the said regulations, whether the same 
 are expressed herein or not. 
 
 Gold Commisioner. 
 
 ALASKA MINING LAWS. 
 
 The Act of Congress of May 17, 1884, providing a civil 
 government for Alaska, provides that: "The laws of the 
 United States relating to mining claims and the rights in- 
 cident thereto, shall, from and after the passage of tliis act, 
 be in full force and effect in said district." The further 
 
 mining laws applicable are as follows: 
 
 United States Revised Statutes. — Sec. 2318. In all cases 
 lands valuable for minerals shall be reserved from sale, except 
 as otherwise expressly directed by law. 
 
 Sec. 2319. All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging 
 to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are 
 hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and pur- 
 chase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation 
 and purchase, by citizens of the United States and those who 
 have declared their intention to become such, under regula- 
 tions prescribed by law, and according to the local customs or 
 rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the 
 
xo8 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the 
 United States. 
 
 Sec. 2320. Mining claims upon veins or lodes or quartz 
 or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, 
 tin, copper, or other valuable deposits heretofore located, shall 
 be governed as- to length along the vein or lode by the cus- 
 toms, regulations, and laws in force at the date of location. 
 A mining claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen 
 hundred and seventy-two, whether located by one or more 
 persons, may equal, but shall not exceed, one thousand five 
 hundred feet in length along the vein or lode; but no location 
 of a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein 
 or lode within the limits of the claim located. No claim shall 
 extend more than three hundred feet on each side of the 
 middle of the vein at the surface, nor shall any claim be 
 limited by any mining regulation to less than twenty-five feet 
 on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except 
 where adverse rights existing on the tenth day of May, 
 eighteen hundred and seventy-two, render such limitation 
 necessary. The end lines of each claim shall be parallel to 
 each other. 
 
 Sec. 2322. The locators of all mining locations heretofore 
 made or which shall hereafter be made, on any mineral vein, 
 Icde, or ledge, situated on the public domain, their heirs and 
 and assigns, where no adverse claim exists on the tenth day 
 of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, so long as they 
 comply with the laws of the United States, and with state, 
 territorial, and local regulations not in conflict with the laws 
 of the United States governing their possessory title, shall 
 have the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all 
 the surface included within the lines of their locations, and 
 of all veins, lodes, and ledges throughout their entire depth, 
 the top of apex of which lies inside of such surface lines 
 extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or 
 ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course 
 downward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of such 
 surface locations. But their right of possession to such out- 
 side parts of such veins or ledges shall be confined to such 
 portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn down- 
 ward as above described, through the end lines of their loca- 
 tions, so continued in their own direction that such planes 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 109 
 
 will Intersect such exterior parts of such veins or ledges. 
 And nothing in this section shall authorize the locator or 
 posession of a vein or lode which extends in its downward 
 course beyond the vertical lines of his claim to enter upon 
 the surface of a claim owned or possesed by another. 
 
 Sec. 2324. The miners of each mining district may make 
 regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, 
 or with the laws of the state or territory in which the dis- 
 trict is situated, governing the location, manner of recording, 
 amount of work necessary to hold possession of a mining 
 claim, subject to the following requirements: The location 
 must be distinctly marked on the ground, so that its bound- 
 aries can be readily traced. All records of mining claims 
 hereafter made shall contain the name or names of the 
 locators, the date of the location, and such description of the 
 claim or claims located by reference to some natural object or 
 permanent monument as will identify the claim. On each 
 claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred 
 and seventy-two, and until a patent has been issued therefor, 
 not less than one hundred dollars' worth of labor shall be 
 performed or improvements made during each year. On all 
 claims located prior to the tenth of May, eighteen hundred 
 and seventy-two, ten dollars worth of labor shall he per- 
 formed or improvements made by the tenth day of June, 
 eighteen hundred and seventy-four, and each year thereafter, 
 for each one hundred feet in length along the vein, until a 
 patent has been issued therefor; but where such claims are 
 held in common, such expenditure may be made upon any 
 one claim; and upon a failure to comply with these condi- 
 tions, the claim or mine upon which such failure occurred 
 shall be opened to relocation in the same manner as if no 
 location of the same had ever been made: Provided, That 
 the original locators, their heirs, assigns, or legal representa- 
 tives, have not resumed work upon the claim after failure 
 and before such location. Upon the failure of any one of sev- 
 eral co-owners to contribute his proportion of the expendi- 
 tures required hereby, the co-owners who have performed the 
 labor or made the improvements may, at the expiration of 
 the year, give such delinquent co-owner personal notice in 
 writing or notice by publication in the newspaper published 
 nearest the claim, for at least once a week for ninety days, 
 
 WWI 
 
no 
 
 GUIDE TO THE KU)NI>IKE. 
 
 and if at the expiration of ninety days after such notice in 
 writing or by publication such delinquent should fail or refuse 
 to contribute his proportion of the expenditure required by 
 this section, his interest in the claim shall become the prop- 
 erty of his co-owners, who have made the expenditures. 
 
 Sec, 2336. Where two or more veins Intersect or cross 
 each other, priority of title shall govern, and such prior loca- 
 tion shall be entitled to all ore or mineral contained within 
 the space of intersection; but the subsequent location shall 
 have the right of way through the space of intersection for the 
 purposes of the convenient working of the mine. And where 
 two or more veins unite, the oldest or prior location shall take 
 the vein below the point of union, including all the space of 
 intersection. 
 
 Sec. 2335. A patent for any land claimed and located for 
 valuable deposits may be obtained in the following manner: 
 Any person, association, or corporation authorized to locate 
 a claim under this chapter, having claimed and located a piece 
 of land for such purposes, who has, or have, complied with 
 the terms of this chapter, may file in the proper land-offlce an 
 aplication for a patent, under oath, showing such compliance, 
 together with a plat and field-notes of the claim or claims in 
 common, made by or under the direction of the United States 
 Surveyor-General, showing accurately the boundaries of the 
 claim or claims, which shall be distinctly marked by monu- 
 ments on the ground, and shall post a copy of such plat, to- 
 gether with a notice of such application for a patent, in a 
 conspicuous place on the land embraced in such plat previous 
 to the filing of the application for a patent, and shall file an 
 affidavit of at least two persons that such notice has been duly 
 posed, and shall file a copy of the notice in such land-office, 
 and shall thereupon be entitled to a patent for the land, in the 
 manner following: The register of the land-office, upon the 
 filing of such application, plat, field-notes, notices, and affida- 
 vits, shall publish a notice that such application has been 
 made, for the period of sixty days, in a newspaper to be by him 
 designated as published nearest to such claim; and he shall 
 also post such notice in his office for the same period.The 
 claimant at the time of filing this aplication, or at any time 
 thereafter, within sixty days of publication, shall file with 
 the register a certificate of the United States surveyor-general 
 
ArPKNDIX. 
 
 irr 
 
 that five hiinclred dollars' worth of labor has been expended on 
 improvements made upon the claim by himself or grantors; 
 that the plat is correct, with such further description by such 
 reference to natural objects or permanent monuments as shall 
 identify the claim, and furnish an accurate description, to be 
 incorporated in the patent. At the expiration of the sixty 
 days of publication the claimant shall file his affldavit, showing 
 that the plat and notice have been posted in a conspicuous 
 place on the claim during such period of publication. If no 
 adverse claim shall have been filed with the register and the 
 receiver of the proper land-oflice at tlie expiration of ihe sixty 
 days of publication, it shall be assumed that the applicant is 
 entitled to a patent, upon the payment to the proper officer of 
 five dollars per acre, and that no adverse claim exists; and 
 thereafter no objection from third parties to the issuance of a 
 patent shall be heard, except it be shown that the applicant has 
 failed to comply with the terms of this chapter. 
 
 Sec. 2327. The description of vein or lode claims, upon 
 surveyed lands, shall designate the location of the claim with 
 reference to the lines of the public surveys, but need not con- 
 form therewith; but where a patent shall be issued for claims 
 upon unsurveyed lands, the surveyor-general, in extending the 
 surveys, shall adjust the same to the boundaries of such pat- 
 ented claim, according to the plat or description thereof, but 
 so as in no case to interfere with or change the location of any 
 such patented claim. 
 
 Act of Congress of January 22, 18S0. — An Act to amend 
 sections twenty-three hundred and twenty-four and twenty- 
 three hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Statutes of the 
 United States concerning mineral lands. 
 
 Be it enacted, etc.. That section twenty-three hundred and 
 twenty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States be 
 amended by adding hereto the following words: "Provided, 
 That where the claimant for a patent is not a resident of or 
 within the land district wherein the vein, lode, ledge or de- 
 posit sought to be patented is located, the application for pat- 
 ent and the affidavits required to be made in this section by 
 the claimant for such patent may be made by his, her, or its 
 authorized agent, where said agent is conversant with the 
 facts sought to be established by said affidavits: And provided, 
 
 tm 
 
XX9 
 
 GUIDK TO THK Kl,ONDIKK. 
 
 That this section shall api)ly to all applications now ponding 
 for patents to mincM-al lands." 
 
 Sof. 2. That section twenty-three hundred and twenty- 
 four of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended 
 by adding thereto the following words; "Provided, That the 
 period within which the work required to be done annually 
 on all unpatented mineral claims shall commence on the first 
 day of January succeeding the date of location of such claim, 
 and this section shall apply to all claims located since the tenth 
 of May, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-two," 
 
 Act of Congress of February 11, 1875. — An act to amend 
 section two thousand three hundred and twenty-four of the 
 Revised Statutes, relating to the development of the mining 
 resources of the United States. 
 
 Bo it enacted, etc., That section two thousand three hun- 
 dred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the same 
 is hereby amended to that where a person or company has or 
 may run a tunnel for the purpose of developing a lode or lodes, 
 owned by said person or company, the money so expended in 
 said tunnel shall be taken and considered as expended on said 
 lode or lodes, whether located prior to or since the passage ( 
 said act, and such person or company shall not be required to 
 perform work on the surface of said lode or lodes in oider to 
 hold the same as required by said act. [See page 43. J 
 
 United States Law. — Sec. 2323. Where a tunnel is run for 
 the development of a vein or lode, or for the discovery of mines, 
 the owners of such tunnel shall have the right of possession 
 of all veins or lodes within three thousand feet from the face 
 of such tunnel on the line thereof, not previously known to 
 exist, discovered in such tunnel, to the same extent as if dis- 
 covered from the surface: and locations on the line of such 
 tunnel of veins or lodes, not appearing on the surface, made 
 by other parties after the commencement of the tunnel, and 
 while the same is being prosecuted with reasonable diligence, 
 
 shall be invalid; but failure to prosecute the work on the tunnel 
 for six months shall be considered as an abandonment of the 
 
 right to all undiscovered veins on the line of such tunnel. 
 
 PLACER CLAIMS. 
 Sec. 2329. Claims usually called "placers," including all 
 forms of deposit, excepting veins of* quartz, or other rock in 
 
APPRNDIX. 
 
 1X3 
 
 place, shall be subject to entry and patent, under like circum- 
 stances and conditiohs, and upon similar proceedings, as are 
 provided for vein or lode claims; l)ut where the lauds have 
 been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in its 
 exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the 
 public lands. 
 
 United States T.avv,— Sec. 23150. Legal subdivisions of 
 forty acres may be subdivided into ten-acre tracts; and two 
 or more persons, or associations of persons, having contiguous 
 claims of any size, although such claims may be less than ten 
 acres each, may make joint entry thereof; but no location of 
 a placer-claim, made after the ninth day of July, eighteen 
 hundred and seventy, shall exceed one hundred and sixty 
 acres for any one person or association of persons, which loca- 
 tion shall conform to the United States surveys; and notliing in 
 this section contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide pre- 
 emption or homestead claim upon agricultural lands, or au- 
 thorize the sale of the improvements of any bo.ia fide settler 
 to any purchaser. 
 
 Sec. 2331. Where placer-claims are upon surveyed lands, 
 and conform to legal subdivisions, no further survey or plat 
 shall be required, and all placer mining claims located afler 
 the onth of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, shall 
 conform as near as practicable with the United States system 
 of public-land surveys, and the rectangular subdivisions of such 
 surveys, and no such location shall Include more than twenty 
 acres for each individual claimant; but where placer-claims 
 can not be conformed to legal subdivisions, survey and plat 
 shall be made as on unsurveyed lands; and where by the seg- 
 regation of mineral lands in any legal subdivision a quantity 
 of agricultural land less than forty acres remains, such frac- 
 tional portions of agricultural land may be entered by any 
 party qualified by law, for homestead or pre-emption purposes. 
 
 PLACER CLAIMS CONTAINING LODES. 
 
 United States Law.— Sec. 2333. Where the same person, 
 association, or corporation is in posession of a placer-claim, 
 and also a vein or lode included within the boundaries there- 
 of, application shall be made for a patent for the placer claim, 
 with the statement that it includes such vein or lode, and in 
 such case a patent shall issue for a placer-claim, subject to the 
 
114 
 
 GUIDK T0]^THE KI.ONDIKE. 
 
 provisions of this chapter, including such vein or lode, upon 
 the payment of five dollars per acre for such vein or lode 
 claim, and twenty-flve feet of surface on each side thereof. 
 The remainder of the placer claim, or any placer claim not 
 embracing any vein or lode claim, shall be paid for at the rate 
 of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, together with all costs 
 of proceedings; and where a vein or lode, such as is described 
 in section twenty-three hundied and twenty, is known to exist 
 within the boundaries of a placer-claim, an application for a 
 patent for such placer claim which does not include an applica- 
 tion for the vein or lode claim shall be construed as a conclu- 
 sive declaration that the claimant of the placer claim has no 
 right of possession of the vein or lode claim; but where the 
 existence of a vein or lode in a placer-claim is not known, a 
 patent for the placor-claim shall convey all valuable mineral 
 and other deposits within the boundaries thereof. 
 
 United Staies Law. — Sec. 2332. Where such person or as- 
 sociation, they and their grantors, have held and worked their 
 claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute 
 of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where 
 the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and 
 working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to es- 
 tablish a right to a patent thereto under this chapter, in the 
 absence of any adverse claim; but nothing in this chapter shall 
 be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any 
 way whatever to any mining claim or property thereto at- 
 tached prior to the issuance of a patent. 
 
 United States Law. — Sec. 2321. Proof of citizenship, under 
 this chapater, may consist, in the case of an individual, of his 
 own affidavit thereof; in the case of an association of persons 
 unincorporated, of the affidavit of their authorized agent, made 
 on his own knowledge, or upon information and beliel; and in 
 the case of a corporation organized under the laws of the 
 United States, or of any State or Territory thereof, by the filing 
 of a certified copy of their charter or certificate of incorpora- 
 tion. 
 
T.ATKST RULKS I-OR THI-: YUKON 
 
 15 
 
 LATEST RULES FOR THE YUKON. 
 
 [ Since this book has gone to press tlie following has been received :] 
 
 Ottawa, Out., Aug. 13.— Major Walsh, who com- 
 inanded the Northwest mounted police during the Riel 
 rebellion, has been appointed administrator for the 
 Yukon district at a salary of $5,000 a year. 
 
 The department of the interior has forwarded the 
 following notice to the Yukon : 
 
 " Clauses 4 and 8 of the regulations governing placer 
 mining on the Yukon river and its tributaries arc 
 amended by reducing the length of a creek and river 
 claim to 100 feet, and the length of a creek and river 
 claim to be granted to the discoverer of a new mine to 
 200 feet. The fee for the renewal of an entry for a claim 
 has been reduced from $ico to $15. 
 
Seattle Hardware 60. 
 
 (WHOLESALE AND RETAIL) 
 
 819, 821, 823 First Avenue 
 Seattle, Washington 
 
 The miners in Alaska must have the best goods 
 made. We know what they want and carry in stock at 
 all times sufficient goods to meet the largest demands 
 that can be made upon us, either at wholesale or retail. 
 
 We are well aware that the demand for miners' sup- 
 plies will be enormous. Seattle, because of her com- 
 manding situation, must supply the great bulk of the goods 
 that go into the Yukon gold fields. We are equally 
 confident that in all lines of Hardware, Tools, Guns and 
 Ammunition we can meet this unusual demand. The 
 fact that our purchases and sales of these goods are vSo 
 large enables us to make prices that are always as low as 
 good goods can be had anywhere. 
 
 The outfits that we recommend to prospectors going 
 to the Yukon have been examined and approved by T. 
 S. Ivippy, former Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. of Seattle, 
 and who now owns one of the best claims on the Klon- 
 dyke. In buying from us, you run no risk of getting 
 anything superfluous or useless. 
 
 Send us your orders, or call and see us when in our 
 city. 
 
 Seattle Hardware Co. 
 
 819, 821 L 823 First Avenue 
 
 Seattle^ / ^ ^ ^ Washington 
 
OUR EXPERIENCE 
 
 IN OUTFITTING MINERS 
 
 Covers many years. In fact we are the Pioneer Outfitters 
 in the grocery line. Time and experience have prepared 
 lis to handle this trade in entire accordance with the wants 
 of the Alaska miners. We are prepared to outfit almost 
 an army; our establishment heinjjjone of the largest in the 
 United States. The essential features of these outfits are 
 Lightness in Weight, Greatness in Sustenance. Packages 
 specially suited for rough handling ami exj)osure to 
 weather. 
 
 We cure the 1888 Brand of Bacon, 
 Specially suited to Alaska's climate 
 
 Write us for further information. 
 
 LOUGH, flUGOSTISE & GO. 
 
 Wholesale and Retail 
 
 Grocers and Miners' Outfitters 
 
 815 d 817 First Avenue 
 
 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 
 
 Seattle Woolen Manufacturing Coi 
 
 PIONEER ALASKA CLOTHING and 
 BLANKET MANUFACTURERS 
 
 Having Our Own Mill we can make the special Kxtra Heavy Wookii'f'.oods 
 needed for the Yukon. Blanket Clolhinj;- of the heaviest kind: Heavy Wool 
 Knit (ioods for the head, hands and feet; Double Woven all wool Mackinaw 
 Rlankets, weighing from twelve to twenty po\nids; Mackinaw Suits, the best 
 that wool and loom will make. 
 
 DON'T MAKE A MISTAKE BY BUYING A POOR CLOTHINU OUTFIT 
 
 Salesroom ^ ^ 1119 First Avenue, Seattle, Wash, 
 
 If you want to keep posted 
 On the Great Alaskan Gold Fields 
 
 THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER 
 
 The Largest and Best Daily Paper in the State, 
 Special Correspondents on the ground. 
 
 Address JAHES D. HOOE, Jr., flanager 
 POST-INTELLIQENCER, = » - - SEATTLE, WASH. 
 
FORTOE_KLONDIKE 
 
 AND YUKON GOLD FIELDS 
 
 ♦TAKETHE^^ 
 
 nortbern Pacific Railway 
 
 Running from St. Paul to the cities on the North Pacific 
 Coast. Its line is the DIRECT ROUTE for parties going to 
 the Gold Fields. 
 
 Every train has Pullman Cars, Dining Cars, Tourist 
 Pullman Cars, and everything conducive to a pleasant trip. 
 
 Before starting West be sure to call on or address any 
 of the Northern Pacific Agents as shown below, who will 
 give full information in regard to this line as well as the 
 Yukon country, and book you through to Dawson City, 
 Dyea, Skaguay or any other Alaskan points. 
 
 GENERAL AND DISTRICT PASSENGER AGENTS 
 
 F. A. GROSS. Dist. Pass. Agent 2150 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. 
 
 THOS. HENRY, Can. Tass ifc Fr't Agent r2S St. James vStreet, Montreal, Que. 
 
 J. H. ROfiKRS, Jr , Dist. Pass. Agent 47 S. Third Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Iv L. lULIJNClSLKA, Trav Pa.«s Agent 47 So. Third St., Philadelphia. Pa 
 
 WM. G. MASON Dist. Pa.ss. Agent 215 Kllicott Sq , Buffalo, N. V. 
 
 CHAS. K. JOHNSON 817 Carnegie Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
 WH. WHITAKHR " " " lo:{ Jeffirson Ave, Detroit, Mich. 
 
 J J FKRRY " " " .a Carew Building, Cincinnati, (). 
 
 JNO. K TURNPIR " " " 42 Jack.son Place, Indianapolis, Ind, 
 
 C. Gt. T.EMMON " " " 208 So. Clark St.. Chicago, ni. 
 
 C. CMOKUOUGH " " " 377 Broadway, Milwaukee, Wis. 
 
 P. H. NOKIv " " " 210 Commercial Bldg. St. I.ouis, Mo. 
 
 GKO. D. ROGERS " " " Fourth and Hroadwav, St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 G. W. JONES " " " 503 W. Locust St', Des Moines, la. 
 
 GEO. W. McCASKF;Y" " " ._. Butte, Mont. 
 
 F. O'NEH.L " " " 255 Morrison St., Portland, Ore. 
 
 p: L RAYBURN, Trav. Pass. Agent 255 Morrison St . Portland, Ore. 
 
 W. K. MERSHON, Cieneral Agent Pass'r Dept 310 Broadway, New York Citv 
 
 F. H. FOGARTY, Getieral Agent.. 208 S. Clark Street, Chicago 
 
 R. A. f;va General Agent Duluth, Minn. 
 
 F. C. JACKSON, Assistant General Agent West Superior, Wis. 
 
 H. SWINFORD, General Agent Depot Building, Water St., Winnipeg, Man. 
 
 A. D. EDGAR. General Agent Cor. Main and Grand Sts., Helena Mont. 
 
 W. M TUOHY, General Agent 23 E. Broadway, Butte, Mont. 
 
 J. G. BOYD, General Agent _ Wallace, Idaho 
 
 F. D. GIBBS. General Agent Spokane, Wash. 
 
 I. A. NADEAU. General Agent ...Seattle, Wash. 
 
 A. TINLING, General Agent 925 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, Wash. 
 
 T. K. STATELER, Gen'i Agent Pa.ss'r Dept (K38 Market St., San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 G. F. McNElLU, Citv Ticket Agt.. 19 Nicollet House Blk . Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 O. VANDERBII^T. City Ticket Agt.._. 162 E. Third St., St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 A. D. CHARI^TON, Asst Gen'l Pass. Agt 255 Morrison St. Portland, Ore. 
 
 A. L. CRAIG. Asst. Gen'l Ticket Agt St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 CHAS. S. FEE. Gen'l Pass and Ticket Agent St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 J. M. HANNAFORD, Gen'l Traffic Manager St. Paul, Minu. 
 

 ; 
 
DIRECT TO KLONDYKE ON PALACE STEAMERS. 
 
 noni) Hmerican 
 
 Cransportation and trading €o. 
 
 MERCHANTS AND CARRIERS 
 
 Operating Steamer lines from Seattle, Washington, direct to all of the 
 Gold Fields of the Yukon River in the Interior of Alaska and the Northwest 
 Territories ; and has well stocked and complete Stores at all of the principal 
 mining towns on the Yuk..i, 
 
 Che only old cstaDlisbed Cottipany runnind Steamers from Seattle, 
 
 and always reliable. 
 
 Tor m Season of i$^$^^- 
 
 We will have large, fast, new, and commodious 
 steamers leaving Seattle, June 10, and every fifteen 
 days thereafter during the season^ connecting at 
 St, Michaels with our palace river steamers for 
 
 All points 
 on the 
 
 You can engage passage now for Season of 1898. For rates 
 and further information call on or address any of the offices of 
 the company. 
 
 San Trancisco Office: ebicago Office: Seattle Office: 
 
 $ California Street. Room 200 Old Colony Bldfl. 6i$ Tir«t Jloenue.