d-' ^ - tUJ J \ 1 1 1 . 1 . i;n ' kir • r- ER% ^vlOSANCElfj;^ ?0 C5 *S- %a3AIN' Odin N> F. CAJ wv^iiBRAP -\mi JJO^' 13DM Oi %-;■ 1}% o -r?/^ CMlMWn ]\V' "AilP: ^ ^.OFCAIIFO% -r. ^-^/smm] ,^,OFCALIF0%, TWO YEARS IN THE ilvLONDIKE AND ALASKAN GOLD-FIELDS I ^ Eljrilling Warratiijc t PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND ADVENTURES IN THE WONDERFUL GOLD REGIONS OF ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE, AVITH OBSERVATIONS OF TRAVEL AND EX- PLORATION ALONG THE YUKON PORTRAYING THE BANGERS, HARDSHIPS, AND PRIVATIONS OF A GOLD- SEEKER'S LIFE ; WITH A FAITHFUL DESCRIPTION OF ILtfr antr i& n2?orft, M\i> Along the Dyea TraiI;, . . . Frontispiece A lone gold-seeker crossing the Dyea River on his way to the Gold Fields. In Camp on the Dyea River after a Day's March, Facing 58 A Supper of Beans and Coffee, . . Facing 76 A party of gold-seekers eating their supper at the entrance to Miles Canon. A Tired and Disgusted Party of Gold-seekers, Facing 94 Looking for hotel accommodations on the Dyea Trail. The signs "Hotel," "Lodgings," "Meals," and so forth, indicate that these accommodations are to be found only in the snow-covered tent. A Dog Team on the Yukon River, . . .99 On the way to the Gold Fields. Rafting down the Yukon River, . Facing 116 The mining outfit of these two Klondikers, consisting of provisions, arms, camp equipage, dogs, and so forth, is piled on to their rude raft. A Long and Hard Journey over the Skagway Trail, . . . . . Facing 142 Entrance to the Canon. Two Klondikers with heavy packs making their way on foot through the deep snow. (V) ^ -L268902 Vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE. 8. A Hakd Place on the Tkail, . . Facing 168 Packers transport iiig the goods and outfits of gold-seekers over the Skagway Trail. 9. On the Move, ..... Facing 186 A long pack train of heavily-loaded horses en route to the Gold Fields. 10. Testing a Stream for Gold, . . Facing 2U6 A gold-seeker panning for gold in a small creek in the Klondike Gold Region. 11. Crossing the Skagway River, . . Facing 234 The bridge consists of the trunk of a single tree over \\hich two gold- seekers are making their way. This is only one of many similar places along the trail. 12. An Exciting Time, .... Facing 272 Arrival of the first Yukon steamer at Dawson. 13. Ready for Winter, . . . Facing 292 A wayside cabin on the Skagway Trail, made of logs and whip-sawed boards. The chinks between the logs are filled with mud and moss. N 14. After a Day's March, . . . Facing 312 A party of gold-seekers just after pitching their tent on the Skag\vay Trail. 15. Caught on the Trail, . . . Facing 342 A party of gold-seekers who failed to get over the summit in the fall. Their provisions are cached in the little hut at the right. The party win- tered here until spring enabled them to continue their journey. 16. "White Pass Hotel" on the Skagway Trail, Facing 360 Contrast size of the sign with that of the " Hotel." The latter consists of only a small log hut. 17. A Mid-winter Camp at the Mouth op Skagway Canon, ...... Facing 378 Tents afford the only shelter from the heavy suow'S-and bitter cold of an Arctic winter. 18. Tf>o Late. A Disappointed Pair op Gold-seekers, Facing 400 They failed to reach their destination before winter set in. Here they cached their outfit and food before returning to civilization to wait until spring. The trunk of a tree was erected as a landmark to guide them to the spot on their return. 19. On the Border, .... Facing 434 Canadian mounted police collecting Customs duty from Klondikers at the point where the Canadian Government has established a boundary line at White Pass. The huge pile of boxes, bags, and goods of all kinds belong to gold-seekers en route to the Gold Fields. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VH PAGE. 20. A Restaurant and its Proprietor on the Dye a Trail, ...... Facing 450 The sign " Meals " is painted on the remains of a pair of old trousers. 21 . A Blockade on the Skagway Trail, . Facing 460 22. A Pack Train Crossing the Skagway Trail in Winter, ..... Facing 468 23. Mid-winter on the Trail, . . . Facing 490 Tent of a pah- of gold-seekers pitched by the side of a corduroy bridge in Skagway Canon. 24. A One-horse Sledge Team, . . . Facing 510 A pair of gold-seekers on their way to the Gold Fields. 25. Snowed in. Waiting for Better Weather, Facin/j 528 A gold-seeker clad in his parka, with dog and horse, near his snow- covered tent. CHAPTER I MY BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE — WHAT LED ME TO ADOPT THE LIFE OF A GOLD-SEEKER — WHY MY EYES WERE TURNED TOWARDS ALASKA. Boyhood on a Vermont Farm — Scanty Rewards of Toil — Forgetting the Cows — My Father Has Ambitions for Me — I Am Sent to School but Am Negligent in Study — The Mystery of Inheritance — Book Knowledge — I Choose a Business Career in the City — Behind a Counter in a Dry-goods Store — My Unhappy Lot — Sighing for the Great West — Temptation to Break Away — It Finally Over- comes Me — News of Wonderful Finds of Gold — I Take My Little Belongings and Arrive in Chicago — Life as a Brakeman — Falling in with Gold Miners — Something about Nuggets — A Tramp's Luck — The Creede Rush — Cripple Creek — Two Irish Boys and Their Mountain Patch — Alaska for the Gold-Seeker, . , 33 CHAPTER II HO FOR ALASKA ! — EXTENT OF OUR GREAT TERRITORY- GETTING READY FOR THE START — OUR OUTFIT AND WHAT IT CONSISTED OF. My Meager Ideas of the Territory — Joe Draws on His Store of Infor- mation — Vast Extent of the Country — Dull and Dirty Natives — (ix) CONTENTS A Race of Shirks — Habits of tlio Dogs — Navigatiou of the Yukon — Mosquitoes That "Kill Bears "— Story of the Miners' Search for Gold on the Yukon — A Pioneer Prospecting Party — Some of the Early Finds — Gold Everywhere — The Klondike Moose Pas- ture — Despised by the Gold-Seekers — Coarse Gold on Forty -Mile Creek— The Rise of the Town — Sixty Mile — Miller and Glacier Creeks — A Missionary Picks up a Nugget — Founding of Circle City — My Partner Becomes Impatient — Making Our Plans — ^^We Proceed to San Francisco — Buying an Outfit — What It Consisted of — Our 31ediciue Chest — Over a Ton and a Half to Carry — A Peep into the Future — Ominous Suggestions, . 45 CHAPTEK III CHOOSING A ROUTE— OUR VOYAGE ALONG THE COAST — ARRIVAL AT DYE A — FIRST EXPEREENCE WITH NATIVES. Departure from San Francisco — Port Townsend — Through Puget Sound — Points of Interest and Beauty — A Gap in the Island Belt — Few Moments of Seasickness — The Great Scenic Region — la Alaskan Waters — Tide Water Glaciers — Juneau as a Metropolis — A Glimpse of Totem Poles — Indian Traders — The Mines of the Vicinity and their Discovery — Famous Tread well Mills — The Largest in the World — The Skagway and Dalton Trails — Pro- ceeding to Dyea — Dumped on the Beach — Getting Supplies Together and Beyond the Tide — The Problem of Moving Ahead — Approached by Indian Packers — Dangers of Bidding up Prices — A Contract with the Heathen — Our First Night in Camp — Dark Ways of the Chilkoots, 58 CONTENTS XI CHAPTER IV LIFE ON THE TRAIL — STRANGE SIGHTS AND SCENES — STORM BOUND IN SHEEP CAMP — A WOMAN'S AD- VENTURES AND EXPERIENCES. Along the Famous Dyea Trail — Walking Twenty Miles and Making Four — Snow, Boulders, and Glaciers —Exhibitions of Grit — Tent- ing in the Snow — A Democratic Crowd — The Yukon Stove — The So-called Gridiron — Beans and Bacon — "It will be New On the Yukon" — Asleep on a Bed of Boughs — What a Trail Consists of — A Crack Two Miles Long — Pleasant Camp — Sheep Camp and the Faint-Hearted — A Discouraged Man and a Resolute Woman — Going Over Anyhow — Not All so Brave — Having a Good Cry — My Theory as to the Fortitude of Some Women — Throwing off the Fetters of Civilization — Two Weeks of Storm — ]\Ionotony and Silence — An Active Glacier Entertains Us — Nature' s Untamed Moods — Sunshine at Last, 72 CHAPTER A' THE DREADED CHILKOOT PASS — HOW WE CROSSED IT — SLIDING DOWN THE MOUNTAINS AT LIGHTNING SPEED — "THERE COMES A WOMAN." A Steep Trail — Climbing the Mountain Forty Times — Some of the Difficulties — Missteps that are Dangerous — Straight up over Seven Hundred Feet — An Obscure Summit — Facilitating the Re- turn — Trousers Fortified with a Canvas Patch — A Slide in the Trench — Tobogganing Outdone — A Collision — Out of Sight in the Deep Snow— " There Comes a Woman " — Down Like a Flash — Runaway Sleds — An Alaskan Sunburn — Snow-blindness — A Painful Experience — On the Summit at Last — A Grand Spectacle — Turning Sleds Loose down the Mountain — Bounding over Crater Lake — Lake Lindeman — Observing the Timber — The Xll CONTENTS Irresponsible Indian — Signaling by Burning Trees — Ice-sledding across Lindeman — Flapjacks and Congratulations, . . 85 CHAPTER YI CAMP LIFE IN ALASKA— WE BUILD A BOAT TO CONTINUE OUR JOURNEY— ADVENTURES WITH BEARS. Our Camp at Lake Tagish — Building a Boat — The Saw Pit — Pre- paring the Trees — Whip-sawing — Its Effect on Character — An Accident — Almost a Quarrel — A Case in Which Angels Would Lose their Amiability — Spoiling the First Log — " Work it Some- how " — The Dish-Rag and the Dog — A Bargain — Adventure of a New Yorker with a Bear and Three Cubs — An Excited 3Ian — He Empties His Gun and Nearly Kills His Dog — I Lend Him My Rifle — The Bear Finally Gives It Up — Catching the Cubs — Tough Hams — Our Triumphant Return — An Old Timer's Bear Story — Face to Face with a Wounded Bear — Playing Possum — Just in Time — A Narrow Escape, 100 CHAPTER YII A DANGEROUS VOYAGE — OVERTURNING OF OUR BOAT — LOSS OF AN S800 OUTFIT — WE ESCAPE WITH OUR LRT:S — HUNTING FOR A CAMP THIEF. We Name Our Boat the Tar Stater — More Handsome than Adequate — Drifting amid Scenes of Wild Grandeur — Magical Vegetation — Fifty Mile River — At the Mouth of the Caiaon — We Conclude to Pack Around — Several Boats Go Through — The Trail — An Offer to Take the Tar Stater Through for 85 — 1 Am Invited to Ride, and Accept — A Quick Repentance — Discarding Gum Boots — A Serious Catastrophe — At the Mercy of the Current — Clinging to an Overturned Boat — Over Again — Saved — A Four-Minute CONTENTS Xlll Experience — The Milk is Spilled — Loss of an $800 Outfit — Recovering Our Boat — Towards White Horse Rapids — Disap- pearance of the Sugar Saved from the Wreck — I Am Mad — Strapping on My Gun — Looking for a Camp Thief — Sympathy for Us — A Phase of Yukon Life, 118 CHAPTER VIII SOME THRILLING EXPERIENCES — DISCOVERY OF THE THIEF — HIS SUMMARY PUNISHMENT— PICTURES BY THE WAY. Through the White Horse Rapids in an Empty Boat — Close Shave for the Tar Stater — Rough to Experience but Interesting to Watch — Overtaking Three Boats — I find the Sack of Sugar and the Thief — Swift Preparations for a Lynching Bee — " Say the Word and Up He Goes " — I Refuse — " Nothing Less Than Fifty Lashes, Then " — I Administer Them on the Thief's Bare Back — The Victim Becomes a Good Citizen — Lake Lebarge and Tagish Indians — Eggs for a Change — In the Twilight of the Midnight — Nature in Her Great Work — Cutting Down Hills and Valleys — Where Eagles Nest — Twisting and Turning — Five Fingers — Rink Rapids — Arrival at Fort Selkirk — A Touch of Civilization — The Route Marked with Graves of the Fallen — Reflections on the Journey, . . 128 CHAPTER IX LIFE ON A YUKON POST — OUR FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE KLONDIKE — HOW MINERS ADMINISTER JUSTICE IN ALASKA — THE PLAGUE OF MOSQUITOES. The Latest News — The Swift Yukon and Its Branches — The Upper Ramparts — White River and Its Probable Sources — Stewart River and the Tales of Indians — Reports of Prospectors — Sixty Mile XIV CONTENTS Creek — Passing the Mouth of the Troan-Dik or Klondike — Its Various Names and How They Were Obtained — A Peep at the Moose Pasture — Moose Skin Mountain — Old Fort Reliance — Forty Mile and Its Institutions — Justice as Administered at Miners- 3Ieetings — A Little German's Trouble — French Joe's Experience — A Tailor and His Bill — The Canadian Police — A Plague of Mosquitoes — How They Operate and How Their Bites Work — Old Pharaoh's Troubles Not a Circumstance — What Miners Suffer — No Preventive Sufficient — Tough Miners Sit and Cry — 3Iore Indian Tales — Bears and Dogs in a Frenzy — Frost Comes as a Blessing, 141 CHAPTER X ARRIVAL AT CIRCLE CITY — DANCE HALLS AND OTHER PLACES OF AMUSEMENT — THE YUKON SLED — ALASKAN DOGS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES. Pushing on to Circle City — Some of the Yukon Creeks — Old Man Rock and Old Woman Rock — A Flight of Native Fancy — The Poor Man and His Scolding Wife — His Last Resort and its Petrifying Results — Prospecting American Creek — Our Lumber Venture — A Thunder Storm and a Wreck — Escaping on the Tar Stater — Arriving at Circle City — Our Reception — Some of the City's Institutions — Convenience of the Saloons — No money but Gold Dust — How Purchases Are Made — The Dance Halls — The Relaxation of Faro — Dogs Invade Our Boat — Their Thieving Propensities — Faithful Workers — Their Enormous and Indiscrim- inating Appetite — Eating Their Harness — An Arctic Turnout — The Dog Whip and Its Uses— The Yukon Sled—" Ouk," "Arrah," and "Holt," 158 CONTENTS XV CHAPTER XI GUARDING AGAINST EVIL-DOERS — LIFE IN A GOLD- SEEKER'S CABIN — HOW IT IS BUILT AND FURNISHED. Society in Circle City — Cabin Doors Open — The Pimishment of Evil- doers — Miners' Meetings — Methods of Procedure — Judge and Jury — No Pistols — Our Money Runs Low — Joe Hurries to the Mines — Great Demand for Log Buildings — High Price of Lots — Process of Building a Cabin — Two Things to Remember — How the Moss Comes into Play — Doors and Windows — The Interior of Cabins — Rude Furniture — Unique Beds — Something More Substantial — The Yukon Palace — Access to the Second Story — How Storm Sheds are Made — Tents Good Enough for People with No Gold Dust — A Man With an Axe a Skilled Workman — A Bustling Scene — Logs and Chips Everywhere — An Ounce a Day for Some Workmen — Dreaming of a Coming Metropolis on the Yukon 173 CHAPTER XII WORK AND WAGES IN ALASKA — AGRICULTURAL POSSI- BILITIES IN THE ICY NORTH — COST OF LIVING. Misleading Rate of Wages — Cost of Bringing Provisions to the Yukon Valley — A Sample Price-List at a Circle City Store — Value of Fresh Meat — A Roast of Beef — A Woman Who Baked Bread at a Dollar a Loaf — Fourteen Loaves a Day on a Yukon Stove — Monotony of Diet — Ordinary Laws of Agriculture Upside Down — Difficulties of Raising Garden Stuff — Plenty of Berries in the Summer — A Dream of Agricultural Possibilities — Deceptive Flatlands — Nig- gerheads and How They Grow — Grass That Makes Poor Fodder — A Question of Transportation — Has Not Been Regarded as a Poor Man's Country — Competition in the Stores — Jack McQuesten — XVi CONTENTS A Groat Night at Circle City — Order of Yukon Pioneers — Ai Indication of the Hardships of Alaskan Life, . . . 183 CHAPTEK XIII ^ WE REACH THE GOLD DIGGINGS — LOCATING A CLAIM — HOW GOLD IS MINED — THE MINER'S PAN, ROCKER, AND SLUICE BOXES. The Trail up Birch Creek — Some of the Gulches — Great Cost of Wood — The Process of Placer Mining — How the Prospector AVorks — Testing the Dirt — The Miner's Pan — The Trick of Shaking Out Gold -^ All the Fascination of Gambling — Nature Holds the Cards — Placer Mining Conditioned by the Climate — The Old Process of Sun-Thawing — Soil That Resists Picks, Dynamite, and Hydraulics — Where Fire Burning is Necessary — Burning at Night — A Long Process — Sinking through the Muck — Rockers — Sluices and How They are Constructed — Nature Caught in the Act — Claims Regulated by the Miners Themselves — The Birch Creek Yield of Gold 199 CHAPTEK XIV MY VOYAGE DOWN THE MIGHTY YUKON — INCIDENTS AND EXPERIENCES DURING THE TRIP — IN THE SHADOW OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. Down the Yukon River — Yukon Steamers — Flat-Bottoms and Stern- Wheels — Carrying Machine Shops Along — A Perfect Labyrinth of Water — Going Wherever ItsVarying Moods Take It — Barren Islands — Fort Yukon — Lazy and Filthy Natives — Trading for Curios with Yukon Indians — Birch and Beaver Creeks — A Sudden Change — Out of the Flatlands into the Ramparts — Some Good-Looking Creeks — The Munook — The Great Tanana River — Wooding Up CONTENTS XVU — Indian Settlements — The Women and Children — Dogs Galore — The Inevitable Ca(;he — Nowikakat — Short Cut Portages to the Coast — Thrilling Journey of a Party of Miners — Almost Ex- hausted and Starved — Perils of Traveling in Alaska, . . 215 CPIAPTER XV STILL JOURNEYING ALONG THE DREARY RIVER — SIGHTS AND SCENES ON THE WAY — HABITS AND PECULIAR- ITIES OF THE INDIANS. Holy Cross Mission — Soap at Laet Has Legal-Tender Value — Some Domestic Scenes — Close Race with the Climate — The Sisters of St. Anue — Mass in a Log Church — The Untutored Innuits — Their Unpleasant Environment — Queer Heirlooms — Geese and Ducks Find a Favorable Abode — The Trip to the Coast — ^'St. Michael — Why Ocean Steamers have to Anchor a Mile and a Half Out — Alaska Commercial Company — Fort Get-There — A Lone Government Official — The Question of Transferring Cargoes — Characteristics of the Natives — Watching a Chance to Reach the Yukon's Mouth — Difficulties of Getting in with a Load — Breasting the Swift Current — A Hard Nut to Crack — Return- ing up the River, 227 CHAPTER XVI ARRIVAL AT FORTY MILE — WONDERFUL STORIES OF NEW DIGGINGS — HO! FOR THE KLONDIKE ! — MAD RUSH OF EXCITED GOLD-SEEKERS. Something Has Happened — Forty Mile Almost Deserted — A Genuine ■ Stampede — The Discovery on the Thron-diuck or Klondike — Henderson's Find on Gold Bottom — He Returns for Provisions — Meeting Cormack's Fishing Party — He Tells of His Discovery — 2 'k^ ■-v XVlll CONTENTS Cormack Concludes to Find Gold Bottom — Over the Trail — Re- turns to His Fishing Camp — Prospects a Little on His Way — Stumbles on a Good Pan on Bonanza Creek — Claims for Himself, Tagish Charlie, and Tagish Jim — Siwash George's Reputation for Truth and Veracity — Where Did He Get the Gold ? — Tremendous Excitement — Forty Mile Deserted — Old Miners Lack Faith — Skim Diggings — Highly- Colored Tales — I Conclude to Go and See for Myself — Poling Up Stream — Returning Prospectors Shoot By Us — "It's a Big Thing, Boys " — Never Mind the Blisters — Tired and Footsore — A Lively Camp — Trying to Sleep — Ten Dollars to the Pan, 240 CHAPTER XYII MY FIRST TRAJtIP IN THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS — WHAT A PLACE FOR GOLD ! — A PEEP INTO THE SLUICE BOXES — I STAKE A CLAIM. Preparations for a Start — Over the Mountain into the Swamps — A Hard Tramp — Cranberries to Quench Thirst — A Mysterious Pup — The Klondike Valley from the Summit — Glimpse of the Arctic Rockies — "AH the Goold in the Worruld" — An Old Story — Hurrying On — On Bonanza Creek at Last — Calculating the Dis- tance — Blowing a Little — Looking for I^enry Ward Beecher — A Disgusted Irishman — Too Tired to Keep On — A Look at the Gravelly Bar — I form a Poor Opinion — Ready to Change My Mind — Too Tired to Care — Forgetting One's Name — Chilled Through — Nuggets Fished Out with a Shovel — Washing Out the Gold — Objects of Suspicion — Pushing on for a Claim — Indications Do Not Count — I Stake My Claim — Starting Back in the Rain — Over the Trail Again — Our Turn to Yell, . 253 CONTENTS XIX CHAPTER XVIII THE DISCOVERY OF ELDORADO — THE FOUNDING OF ^ DAWSON — CONFUSION AND QUEER COMPLICA- TIONS OVER CLAIMS — " THREE INCH WHITE." Resting a Little — Carrying in Provisions — Promising Strikes of one of the Pups — Eldorado — Joining Another Stampede — A New Metropolis — Joseph Ladue and His Career — Mining in the Black Hills — Attracted to Alaska — Sinking Holes without Success — Faith in the Country — Grub-staking Henderson — How Ladue Secured the Site for Dawson — -His Sawmill — The Mines in October — High Price of Lumber — Rapid Growth of Dawson — Much Confusion as to Claims — Miners Appointed to Measure — Fractional Claims — How They Came About — The Mystery of the Rope — Hibernian Bluff — Jim White and His Attempt to Secure a Fractional Claim — The Canadian Surveyor Arrives — "Three Inch White" — How Claims are Staked — The Fees and the Requirements, 265 CHAPTER XIX RICHNESS OF THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS —THE GREAT > WINTER EXODUS FROM CIRCLE CITY — FIRST RE- SULTS FROM TESTING PANS — MINERS WILD WITH EXCITEMENT. Realization of the Richness of the Klondike Claims — Why old Miners were Skeptical — How Tenderfeet Suddenly Became Rich — Selling Claims at Low Figures — Cutting Logs to Get Provisions — El- dorado All Staked — Great Stroke for Some Men — Circle City Skeptical — The First Big Pans — Excitement at Circle City — A Mad Stampede — Scarcity of Dogs — Dogs at $2.50 Per Pound — Some Big Strikes — Grumbling Canadians — Bed-Rock on Eldorado — Lippy's Bargain — Nothing Like It in the History of the World — Pans of Dirt Worth Five Hundred Dollars — X XX CONTENTS The Miners Simply Staggered — Mrs. Berry Picks up $50 in Nuggets While Calling Her Husband to Supper — Scarcity of Labor — Hunting up Claims — Gold Everywhere, . . 280 CHAPTER XX WINTER IN THE KLONDIKE — CAMP LIFE AND WORK — A MINER'S DOMESTIC DUTIES — CHRISTMAS IN A GOLD-SEEKERS CAMP. Dreariness of Camp Life — Preparations for Winter — Cut Off from the World — Even Labels Make Interesting Reading Matter — The Only Library in the Camp — A Few Old Newspapers — Nuggets for the Benefactor — Joe Arrives from Circle City — Gold, Gold the one Topic of Interest — Forgetting the Day of the Month — Domestic Duties — How We Kept House — Things That Must Not Be Neglected — A Remedy that Kills or Cures — My Bread and Biscuit — A New Recipe — Exorbitant Prices for Necessaries of Life — Some of the Other Expenses — A Trip to Dawson — A Bit of Recreation — Christmas in Camp — Story of a Christmas at Fort Cudahy — No Turkey or Plum Pudding — A Klondike Christmas — Presents for the Half-Breeds — How Toys were Obtained — A Scene of Merriment — A Yukon Santa Claus — First Christmas Party on the Klondike, 291 CHAPTER XXI ALASKAN WEATHER — ON THE VERGE OF STARVATION- HOW WE PULLED THROUGH — DANGERS OF WINTER TRAVELING— PAINFUL EXPERIENCES. The Paradox of Alaskan Weather — A Difference in Humidity — Miners' Thermometers — Time to Take Care of One's self — Seventy- two Degrees below Zero — Sunset and Sunrise — Dangers on the CONTENTS XXI Trail — We Discard the Hut and Take to the Tent — Building Fires in the Morning — Hearing One's Breath Strike the Air — An Involuntary Bath — Paiul'ul Experiences — Eyelids Freeze To- gether — Protection against the Bitter Cold — The Parka and Its Uses — An Alaskan Opera Cloak — As a Frost Protector — Care of the Feet — Snow Shoes — Shortage in the Food Supply — How it Seems to be without Salt — Sold for Its Weight in Gold — The Pulling- Through Process — Northern Lights as a Compensation for a Win- ter in Alaska — Tlieir Brilliancy, 305 CHAPTER XXII PREPARING FOR SLUICING — THE SPRING "CLEAN-UP"— ASTONISHING RESULTS WHEN DIRT WAS WASHED OUT — SOME LUCKY STRIKES — THE ROMANCE OF FORTUNE. Joe and I Have Poor Luck — Trying to Locate the Pay-Streak — Big Pans in March and April — Pay-Dirt — How the Value of the Dirt is Reckoned — Old Miners Begin to Speculate — Expense of Getting Sluice Boxes — Some of the Fortunes — Berry and His Wonderful Strike — Very Blue when He Heard of the Klondike — Takes Out $130,000 — A Bird in the Hand vs. a Bird in the Bush — A Wiscon- sin Schoolmaster's Experience — Worth a Million — Better than Trading — Sudden Rise in the Value of Claims — Computing the Value of a Bonanza Claim — Wonderful Results — The Aggregate Amount of the Spring Work — Some of the Lucky Ones on El- dorado Creek — Fortunes on the Bonanza — Lucky Days — " What AVill I Do With All That Money V " 318 XXll CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIII STORIES OF GREAT HARDSHIPS AND SCANTY REWARDS — A ROMANCE OF THE KLONDIKE — CLAIM JUMPERS — AN OLD SLAVE'S LUCKY STRIKE. Gold by the Ton — The Unfortunate Ones — Alaska Mining a Lottery — Deceptive Placers — Weary Men Who Show No Nuggets — Ex- perience of an Old Scotchman — Mining for Forty -Two Years — A " Homestake " at Last — Poor Luck Still Followed Him — Others Less Fortunate — Feeling of the Old Miners When They Saw the Teuderfeet Taking Out Gold — A Little too Much — Hardships of a Miner — His First Good Luck — Neal McArthur and His Narrow Escapes — Scarcely Making a Living — Catching at a Straw — Hard Conditions of a Prospector's Life — Troubles after Gold is Found — The Massachusetts Man and His "Boy" — Threatened by Claim- Jumpers — The Old Man Shot — The Boy Handles the Gun and Turns Out to Be a Pretty Girl — A Heroic Act — Queer People — An Old Slave from down in Georgia — His Lucky Strike, ' .... 328 CHAPTER XXIV INCIDENTS OF THE TRAIL — DEATH AND BURIAL OF A BABY — A WOMAN'S THRILLING EXPERIENCES. News of the Outside World — When the Ice Goes Out of the River — It "Marks Time" — An Unpleasant Sight for a Hungry j\Ian — Grub at Last — Happy Incident of a Yukon Honeymoon — Mrs. McKay's Story — Death of a Baby — The Little Casket and the Grave by Lake Lindeman — Misfortunes of John Matthews — His Troubles Over — Impression of the Trail — Strong Men Dismayed at the Outlook — Trying to Look Cheerful — Learning of the Klondike Discoveries — Taken for a Man — Over the Summit — Ravenous Appetites of the Men — Through the Canon and the CONTENTS XXIU Rapids — A "Woman's Experience — Clinging to the Boat in Terror — In the Presence of Death — Quick Decisions of Gold-Seekers — Many Unfit for Work in Alaska — The Situation Facing the Tenderfoot — Where Shall He Find Gold? — "Did You Take This for a Picnic?" 338 CHAPTEK XXV THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MONEY-MAKING IN ALASKA — THE COSTLY EXPERIENCE OF TWO TENDER- FEET — APPALLING PRICE OF A SUPPER — A HORSE MISSING WITH §49,000 IN GOLD. A Cit}^ Laid out on a Bog — Natural Floral Displays — Lousetown — A Cold Place in Winter — Fabulous Rise in the Price of Building Lots — Expense of Log Cabins — Making Money Quickly — Expe- rience of a Cigar Drummer — Clearing §20,000 in Twenty Days in Real Estate Options — Better than Mining — Spring Water at Twen- ty-five cents a Pail — Money Brought in by New Comers — Bonanza Kings and Millionaires — Alec McDonald and His Investments — " Satin Bags," the Italian Bonanza King — Indulging in a Square Meal at a Dawson Restaurant — " Your Bill is §52 " — How it was Itemized — Pack Horses with Gold Dust — One of the Horses Missing — An Exciting Mystery — A Vision of Highway Robbers — The Lost Horse Returns Safely — Just Stopped to Graze — Found Dead with $30,000 — The Strain of Too Hard Work, . . 354 CHAPTER XXVI DAWSON AND ITS INIQUITIES — GAMBLING PLACES, ^ THEIR DEVICES AND THEIR WAYS — NIGHT SCENES IN THE DANCE HALLS — REAL LIFE IN NEW MINING CAMPS. Saloons and Gambling the Natural Products of New Mining Camps — Strange Sights and Sounds — Gold Dust as Free as Water — XXIV CONTENTS Saloous aud Tlieir ' ' Brace Games " — Who Pay the Fiddlers — Expeusive Society — " Stiid-Horse Poker" and High Stakes — Methods at the Faro Table — Gold Bags in Pigeon Holes — Settling Up — "Shorty's" Fatal Forgetfulness — Few Instances of Shoot- ing Now — Ruling Prices in Saloons — The "Rake Off"— When "Swiftwater Bill" Breaks Loose — Losing $7,500 in an Hour — Appearance of Gambling Places — The Dance Halls and the Women — Gallant Partners in Spiked Boots — An Occasional Free Fight — Tobacco-Laden Atmosphere — Tired and Dishevelled Women — More Orderly than Mining Camps in the Rockies — Not a Hard, Reckless, Wide-Open Town — Harvard, Yale, and Vassar Graduates, 370 CHAPTER XXVIl A REFUGE FOR CRIMINALS — THE MINES MORE PROF- ITABLE THAN SPORTING DEVICES — PURSUING A FUGITIVE — A CHASE OF 25,000 MILES FOR AN ES- CAPED MURDERER. Too Many Sports for the Demand — The Arrest of Frank Novak, the Murderer — History of His Crime — Enticing an Irish Farmer to His Death — Searching for Novak — The Wrong Man Arrested — Another Clue — It Takes the Detective to Vancouver — Searching Resorts on the Coast — Every Ship's Crew Questioned — Requisi- tion on the Governor of Alaska — Gone to the Klondike — Extradi- tion Papers from Washington — Taken to Ottawa — Over the Chilkoot in Pursuit — Passing the Fugitive without Suspecting Him — The Pursued Follows the Pursuer — Arrival at Dawson — Searching the Camps — Giving it Up — Arrest of the Murderer — Returning by the Yukon — A Chase of 25,000 Miles, . . 382 CONTENTS XXV CHAPTER XXVIII ^ WOMEN IN THE KLONDIKE — SOME ROMANTIC STORIES — EXPERIENCE OF A WOMAN ON THE TRAIL — HOW WOMEN HAVE MADE FORTUNES. A Little Home Life — Two White Women in Camp the First Winter — Mrs. Lippy the Pioneer — Mrs. Berry's Story of Her Journey — Be- ginning to Despair — Starting for the Klondike — A Cabin Unfit to Live In — Picking Up Nuggets of Gold — Wading in Mud Waist Deep — Housekeeping No Joke — Arrival of a Plucky Little Wife — Makes Her Home on a Scow — On Terra Firma at Last — An Eye to Business — One Hundred Dollars a Month for Caring for Two Children — In Doubt as to the Day of the Week — Dogs and Mosquitoes, "but the Gold 's all Right " — Romantic Career of a Woman — Joins the Stampede from Circle City — Cooking for $15 a Day — Facing Claim-Jumpers — Making $12,000 in a Few Weeks — Opportunities to Marry Rich Husbands — Gallantry of the Men — What a Woman Should Wear, .... 392 CHAPTER XXIX A SEASON OF WILD STAMPEDES — THE CURIOUS CON- DITIONS ON SKOOKUM GULCH — NEW WONDERS IN ALASKA DISTRICT — MY NARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH. Spreading Out Over the Wild Country — Stampedes a Daily Occur- rence — How they were Started — Enterprise of an Exhausted Party — Returning from One Rush Only to Fall in with Another — The Astounding Results on Hunker Creek — Sudden Rise of Skoo- kum Gulch — How it was Discovered — Kicking Over Boulders and Finding Gold — Bench Claims — Strike on Dominion Creek — An Old German's Good Luck on Sulphur Creek — Endeavoring to Keep it Quiet — The News Leaks Out — Another Great Stampede — Joe and I Conclude to See for Ourselves — A Misstep and a Drench- XXVI CONTENTS iug in Ice Water — lDi""ed aud Exhausted — A Bliudiug Storm — "Oh, for a Little Meat" — Joe Starts to Hunt for a Moose — Returns and Finds Me Helpless — "I Guess I'm Done For" — A Long Night and Day — Walking in a Circle — I Revive on Moose Broth — My Last Prospecting Trip, 407 CHAPTEK XXX STAMPEDERS WHO NEGLECTED TO RECORD CLAIMS — CREEKS TOO NUMEROUS TO REMEMBER — POS- SIBILITIES OF OTHER DISTRICTS — NEW GOLD FIELDS. Midnight Rush to Montana Creek — Staking by Torchlight — A Pugil- ist on Hand — Locaters Rested after Their Journey — Their Stakes Stealthily Removed and Others Substituted — The First to Record Takes the Claim — Great Stampede to All Gold Creek — The Rush for Bryant Creek — Intended to be Named for William J. Bryan — Result of the Slip of the Pen — Neglecting to Record for Fear Something Better Would be Found — Tenderfeet Frozen Out — Waiting Three Days to Reach the Gold Commissioner — The Country Staked for a Hundred Miles Around — Frauds Perpe- trated — Impossibility for the Officers to Measure Claims during the Wild Stampedes — Wild Race down the Frozen Yukon to Buy a Claim — Old Miners' Belief in Stewart River — Gold Found Everywhere — Difficulties of Prospecting on the Stewart — Some of the Gold-Bearing Creeks Which May Be Heard From — In the Same Belt as the Klondike, 420 CHAPTER XXXI THE GOVERNMENT OF THE KLONDIKE — THE CANA- DIAN MOUNTED POLICE— CANADIAN REGULATIONS — MAILS THROWN AWAY ON THE TRAIL — A QUES- TION OF LIFE OR DEATH. Attention Paid the Yukon District by Canadian Government after Gold Discoveries — Concerned Over Loss of Revenue — Detach- CONTENTS XXVll ment of Police Sent Iq — When the Organization was Formed — Its Principal Features — Officers and Constables — The Yukon Territory — Powers of the Gold Commissioner — His Word Final in All Cases as to Claims — Experience of a Seattle Man — How a Double Sale was Quickly Untangled — Government Rights over the Yukon Region — The Proposed Royalty — Indignation of the Miners — A Meeting and a Protest — Possibilities of Trouble — Uncertainty of the Mails — Difficulties of a Carrier — Mail Matter Taken by Returning Miners and Thrown Away on the Trail — A Matter of Life or Death, 431 OHAPTEE XXXII THE SUDDEN RISE AND MAGICAL EXPANSION OF SKAG WAY — CURIOUS SIGNS FOR THRIVING EN- TERPRISES—THE DEBATING SOCIETY IN MRS. MALONEY'S BOARDING TENT. Seeking an Easier Pass than the Chilkoot — Why Gold-Seekers Began to Stop at Skagway — A Peaceful Scene in July — The Original Promoters Quickly Overwhelmed — A Thousand Tents and a Thousand Pack Animals — Organizing the Town — Marvelous Real Estate Business — How a Hotel Keeper Announced His Facilities — A More Modest Announcement — "Any Old Thing Bought and Sold " — Tons of Provisions Scattered on the Beach — Saloons and Dance Halls — An Opening Night — The Symbol of Law and Order — Herds of Gambling Men — " An Easy Graft " — Greenhorns at Packing — Runaway Animals — Many Ludicrous Scenes — The Serious Side — A Clergyman's Observations — The Part tlie Women Played — Widow Maloney's Debating Society — Respect for the Chair — Debating the Merits of Armies of the World — Some Race Feeling — Mrs. Maloney Does Not Permit Abuse of " Ould Ireland" — A Hundred Days of Growth — " Biggest " Town in Alaska 446 XXVUl CONTENTS 1 CHAPTER XXXIII DIFFICULTIES AND HORRORS OF THE SKAGWAY TRAIL — PRECIPICES OVER WHICH HORSES TUMBLED — A LIFE FOR A SACK OF FLOUR AND A LITTLE BACON. Au Impassable Trail — The Blockade — Stories Brought to Dawson — Principal Features of the White Pass Route — Slippery Places for Horses — Over Precipices into the River — Porcupine Hill — Where Most of the Horses Were Lost — The Sight of a Life Time — Death on Summit Lake — Efforts to Open the Trail — All Kinds of Pack Animals — Scarcity of Fodder — Selling Hay and Throw- ing in the Horses — The Big Marsh — Floundering in tlie Mud — Thieving on the Trail — Looking for Pierre, the Frenchman — Discovered with Stolen Goods — Appealing to Hearts of Stone — Six Shots Sounding as One — The Limp Form of a Thief Hanging bj' the Wayside — A Heap of Stones Cast on the Body — Chances to Make Money on the Trail, 459 CHAPTER XXXIV THREATENED FAMINE — STORES OF THE TRADING COM- PANIES CLOSED — STEAMBOATS STUCK ON THE YUKON FLATS — THE PERILOUS SITUATION REAL- IZED. Miners Hasten to Secure Provisions — Companies Fear Speculation in Food — Eggs at $4 a Dozen — Good Mining Claims Traded for Provisions — Candles at a Dollar Apiece — Waiting Three Hours to File an Order — The Trading Companies Confer — Doling Out Provisions — The Steamboats near Fort Yukon — Fruitless Efforts to Get over the Bar — Captain Hansen's Efforts — Returning to Dawson — Watching the River for the Steamboats — The Situation Realized — Plenty of Whisky, but Little to Eat — Police without Supplies — The Warehouses Threatened — Police Contemplate the CONTENTS XXIX Necessity of Seizing Provisions — Fancy Prices for Dogs — Mine Owners Threatened by Failure to Pay Debts, . . . 476 CHAPTEK XXXV THE GREAT EXODUS FROM DAWSON — DOWN THE RIVER TO CIRCLE CITY AND FORT YUKON — SAD FATE OF SOME OF THE EXILES — A BURIAL UNDER THE ARCTIC SKY. A Great Day iu Dawson — Drawing Lots to Determine Wlio Should Go — The Restaurants All Closed — Effort to Go Up the River Thirty-five Miles in Seven Days — The Party Finally Returns — People Pouring iu While Others Were Pouring out — Arriving With AVorthless Outfits or None at All — Swept By Dawson iu the Running Ice — Petty Larceny Becomes Frequent — Food Scarce at Circle City — Men Arrive from Circle City Badly Frozen — Suffer- ing on the River — Exiles Badly Frozen — Sad Fate of Young Anderson — Wounded, His Friends Dragged Him on a Rude Sled — Dying within Sight of Circle City — Thawing an Arctic Grave — The Funeral — Extracts from His Diary — Strong Miners Weep — The Scarcity of Supplies — A Restaurant Price List — A Fresh Supply of Caribou Meat — Curtailing the Work on the Mines — Those Left Pull Through, 486 CHAPTER XXXVI DISCOVERY OF GOLD ON MUNOOK CREEK — THE SUD- DEN RISE OF RAMPART CITY — THRILLING EX- PERIENCE AND LOSS OF LIFE ON THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL. A Rival to Dawson and the Klondike — American Territory Preferable — Old Munook and Little Munook — Taking a Fortune from a Small Hole — Stream Prospected Before — The First Excitement — y XXX CONTENTS Stampedes from the Arriving Steamboats — Beginnings of Ram- part City — Arrival of the Hamilton — Crew Stampedes and Takes the Knives and Forks — A Literary Woman's Rush for a Claim — Settling in the New Camp — High Prices for Claims — Taking out $1,500 in Five Days — The Fever of Speculation — Wealth of a Man with a House and Lot — High Price of Timber — The Rough Trails — Fatal Experience of Two Yale Graduates — Spending the First Night on Hoosier Creek — Taking Food for Only One Day — A Terrible Night — Tucker Falls Exhausted — Running for Help — Secured at Last — Returning to Find His Companion Dead — Buried in the Wild Gulch — Situation of Munook — High Value of Its Gold 496 CHAPTEK XXXVII WE DECIDE TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY — INCIDENTS OF A HARD JOURNEY IN WINTER TO THE COAST — THE DEATH OF JOE — MY ESCAPE. Preparing for the Winter — Our Gold Dust — Returning to Dawson We Realize the Food Situation — We are Unable to Secure Pro- visions for the Winter — Selling Our Claims and Counting Our Fortune — Down or Up the River ? — We Decide to Return for a Good Outfit — Dogs an Expensive Luxury — Encountering Wrecks — Difficulties at Lewis River — Picking up Tales of Hardship and Suffering — Hardships of a Man with Poor Dogs — A Young Man with Frozen Feet Left to Die in a Hut — A Young Woman Rescued from Death — Lashed to a Sled — We Arrive at the Canon — A Cry from Joe — Into the Icy Rapids — Last of Poor Joe — I Sit Down and Cry — My Awful Predicament — Pro- visions, but Nothing Else — A Sad and Lonely Journey — A Tent Buried in the Snow — Saved! — " Got Anj^ Grub ? " — Kicking the Dogs out of the Snow — Over the Chilkoot in a Blizzard — Homeward Bound — "Poor Joe!" ..... SO.') CONTENTS XXXI CHAPTER XXXVIII THE GREAT RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE AND ALASKA — EXCITEMENT ALL OVER THE WORLD — PREP- ARATION FOR A QUARTER OF A MILLION PEOPLE — WHAT IT WILL MEAN IF ALL BECOME RICH. At Seattle — The Stampede of 1898 — Nothing to Compare with It — The Days of '49 Eclipsed — Transportation Engaged in Advance — Fitting Up Vessels to Accommodate the Trade — " Klondicitis " — The Topic of Conversation Everywhere — Preparing Outfits — Returning Klondikers Besieged — Women and Children Have the Fever — Old Gold-Seekers Aroused — All Sorts of Men Join in the Rush — Great Exodus from California — Associations of Women — Gold Dust on Exhibition — The Craze Reaches Jerusa- lem — A Quarter of a Million of People — How It Appeared to a Returned Klondiker — All After Gold — Money Spent for Out- fits—What It May Mean — Doubling the Gold Production in a Single Year — If All Make Fortunes Gold Will Become Cheap, 519 CHAPTER XXXIX RESOURCES OF THE YUKON VALLEY — POSSIBILITIES OF QUARTZ MINING — COOK INLET, UNGA ISLAND AND COPPER RIVER — THE FUTURE OF ALASKA. Waiting for More Thorough Prospects — Comparative Smallnessof the Klondike District — Room for a Million to be Lost in — The Klon- dike all Located — The Government's Gold Map — Traces of Gold Everywhere — Most of Alaska Unexplored — Some Comparisons with Early Production in California — Difference in Conditions — Obstacles to be Overcome — Possibly a Dozen Klondikes — Induce- ments for Quartz Mining — A Belt of Rich Rock Thousands of Miles Long — The Quartz Mines of Unga Island — A String of XXXll CONTENTS Islands that ]May bo Rich in Gold — A Test of Klondike Quartz — Credit for the First Diseovery — Cook Inlet and Its Mines — The Benefit of Waiting a Little Longer — The Copper River Country — Stories of Rich Diggings — Friendly Indians with Mineral AVealth —Points of Distribution — Unforeseen Results of Our Purchase of Alaska — Its Future 534 CHAPTER XL ADVICE TO GOLD-SEEKERS — THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A GOOD OUTFIT — POINTS TO BE RE- MEMBERED—WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO. Some Advantages in Not Being in a Hurry — Not a Poor Man's Country — Good Advice from a United States Government Expert — A Place for Strong Men and Those Who Can Afford to Lose — Expenses Which Have to Be Met — The Cost of Cabins and Facili- ties for Working Mines — One Thousand Dollars for Sluice Boxes — The Advantage of Having Partners — Unv\ise to Take Less Than a Year's Outfit — Suicide Cheaper in Lower Latitudes — It Takes a Week to Dig a Grave — Times When Every Man Looks the Picture of Distress — Sail North Only, in Good Vessels — How to Mark Packages — Trunks an Inconvenience — Sugar and Salt as Hard as Quartz — Tobacco as Good as Money on the Yukon — As to Furs — Shot Guns Better Than Revolvers — Jack Dalton's Rules for the Trail — Possibilities of Lo.siug a Toe or a Foot, . 548 TWO YEAliS IN THE KLONDIKE AND ALASIvAN GOLD FIELDS CHAPTEK I MY BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE — WHAT LED ME TO ADOPT THE LIFE OF A GOLD-SEEKER — WHY MY EYES WERE TURNED TOWARDS ALASKA. Boyhood on a Vermont Farm — Scanty Rewards of Toil — Forgetting the Cows —My Father Has Ambitions for Me — I Am Sent to School but Am Negligent in Study — The Mystery of Inheritance — Book Knowledge — I Choose a Business Career in the City — Behind a Counter in a Dry-goods Store — My Unhappy Lot — Sighing for the Great West — Temptation to Break Away — It Finally Over- comes Me — News of Wonderful Finds of Gold — I Take My Little Belongings and Arrive in Chicago — Life as a Brakeman — Falling in with Gold Miners — Something about Nuggets — A Tramp's Luck — The Creede Rush — Cripple Creek — Two Irish Boys and Their Mountain Patch — Meeting Joe— Alaska for the Gold-Seeker. THIS is the plain story of one wlio began life in a little township of Vermont about thirty-two years ago, and who, several times during the past two years, has been dangerously near losing it in a search for gold along the glacier-bound coasts of Alaska, in the frozen regions of the Yukon, and in the rich gulches of the Klon- dike. It is of the observations, adventures, and experiences of the last two years that this story is written. That of the first thirty may be briefly told, for it is commonplace — the story of a country boy upon whose future career his '3 (33) 34 BOYHOOD ON A NEW ENGLAND FARM struggling parents built great expectations only to be cruelly disappointed. That is usual enougli, for parental fondness ahvays indulges extravagant hopes in a youth whose own more moderate expectations are seldom realized, even after his hardest struggles. If at last there comes a time when, in some measure, their fond anticipations are realized, they may be sleeping in their narrow graves. My parents were industrious and poor, a combination of circumstances of which life affords many instances, especially upon remote and somewhat stubborn New England farms. A boy grow- ing up in such surroundings could not fail to be impressed with the scanty rewards of the most unremitting toil. But any boy finds sources of delight in his surroundings, be they never so poor and unpromising, and, though early enlisted in some of the necessary work of the farm, such as replenishing the wood-pile and churning the cream, my inclinations were always to wander in the woods or over the meadows, chasing the squirrels, or endeavoring to drive the woodchucks from their holes; so that many times when sent off on the mountainside after the cows, I often entirely forgot my errand in the pursuit of some chance game or childish fancy. The admonitions of my father on such oc- casions never seemed to do any good. Seldom was I able to enter with persistence and interest iiito any useful piece of work. But for one thing, however, I should probably have re- mained there on the farm like so many others, who, not having looked beyond their own narrow horizons, settle down to think their little world is like all the rest. Though very poor, my father entertained high ambitions for me, and he determined, at whatever sacrifice, to provide me with an education. He never ceased to regret what he himself YOUTHFUL DREAMS 35 lacked in this respect, and fondly hoped that, if I were blessed with a little learning, I would fill a place in the world of which he would be proud, and that his declining years would be years of happiness and contentment. So at the age of fifteen I was sent away to an academy in Massachusetts, and immediately my ideas began to undergo a marvelous change. I became possessed by a de- sire to break away from the limitations of a routine life and rush into the great world of which I thought I saw a glimpse. But I had no definite purpose. I had not the least idea of what I should do if I entered the world which my imagination so brilliantly pictured. My disposition re- mained the same. It was simply let loose in a wider field, like an unbroken mustang. Anytliiug like hard study was out of my line, and I seldom engaged in it. I would sit for hours and hear the city boys tell stories, would read tales of wonderful adventure, forgetting entirely to go to bed. Little by little my taste in reading improved, and I wan- dered about aimlessly in the fields of literature, not neglect- ing the great masters. But I never studied the lessons staked out by the teachers like so many narrow garden plats, I knew that my low marks were a se^'ere trial to my parents, and it was painful to me, when I came to think of it and realize what a sacrifice they were making in my behalf. At times I would resolve to do better, and would try to study hard, but it was no use. My mind (quickly fled away into more congenial fields. It seems to me that it is unkind to hold a man too rigidly responsible for the mixture he finds in his nature. We are largely controlled by inherent qualities of which it is dif- ficult to rid ourselves. These innate characteristics make us what we are, and I suppose that is why we are oblivious 36 A father's ambition thwarted to our own faults. I know now that my dis])osition has always been that of a wanderer, though I cannot under- stand why I .>!;hould have inherited &ueh a nature from ray parents. Possibly it may be explained upon the principle that the chemical union of substances results in combina- tions surprisingly different from the originals. It may be that a person can inherit a nature widely different from that of either parent, and still be the natural coml)ination of their natures. [Notwithstanding my neglect of prescribed studies, I managed somehow to squeeze through the curriculum, and I was declared to be fitted for college, but really I was fit for nothing which had any definite aim in it. I had extracted from the books I had so diligently read a certain amount of information which, for the right ])erson, would doubtless have been more useful than all that the hardest students had extracted from their text-books and teachers, but it was ap- parently of little use to me. ]\Iy fi'lher had hoped that I would develop a determination to enter the ministry. He sat in his pew every Sunday, looked up to the minister and imagined me in the pulpit, eloquently holding forth upon decrees and judgments, while the people hung breathlessly upon my words. But I had no more taste for theology than for politics, which I entirely ignored. Prom my reading I had formed the opinion that a wise Providence would con- trol the world in its own way, without regard to systems of theology, and that our civil government would somehow " run itself," no matter which party was in power. I was quite willing to let others expound theology, or struggle for political prizes. My nature was different, and my purpose, or lack of it, might be summed up, as nearly as it could be summed up at all, in the words " aimless adventure." DULL DAYS IN A DRY GOODS STORE 37 So I adroitly begged off from going to college, explain- ing to my father that, even if I had any inclination in that direction, I knew tliat he conld not afford it, and that it would be better for me to go into business. I had no ambi- tion in that direction either, but I had the unpleasant real- ization that I must do something for a living. Thus it happened that at twenty-two I was behind a counter in a big dry-goods store in Boston. It took very little time for me to discover that there was no romance in the life of a dry^goods clerk. The lequirements were alto- gether too definite to suit my nature. All my inclinations were to drift about, to find adventure, to see life in its various phases, and there I was day after day for long hours in a crowded corner of a great store, answering myriads of questions, some of which I thought the women who asked them knew better how to answer than I, and calling for a cash boy who loitered until my customers had become im- patient and upbraided me. Variety, there was none. I made my board, and a little more, because I paid very little for my board and received accordingly. My Sunday respites brought me little consolation, for though they afforded me temporary delight in wandering off into the country, they only served to sharpen my appetite for greater freedom. I used to v/ish that a war would break out so that I could enlist and give my nature vent in an atmosphere of gunpowder. Often I thought of joining the recruits to the regular army, bnt upon investigation I concluded that there was little for a soldier to do except to waste his time in a dull routine. To a spirit like mine the possibilities of the great West naturally appealed. I had very little idea what any part of it was like, and that is i^-^ubtless one of the reasons why I 38 AN ENGROSSING SUBJECT longed to see it for myself. It made no particular diiference to what part of it I went, nor was it essential that I should go for any wcll-dctined ])ni'pos('. That would take care of itself; indeed, I disliked to be hampered by certainties. I knew I was not in my right place. Yf hat business had I, a big six-footer, built on Vermont lines, broad, muscular, and tough, dallying behind a dry -goods counter! stuck up in a corner like a house plant when I sighed for the free open air, the winds, and the storm. I clung resignedly to my unpleasant work, however, saving all I could at many a bitt-er sacrifice of my inclina- tions, for I had sufficient wisdom to realize the risks of rush- ing empty-handed into regions of vv^hich I knew little, and where no one knew me. I was sick and discouraged at times over the monotonous routine of my daily duties. In such papers as I allowed mvself to buy I always read wnth great interest and care every scrap of information or news about the Great West, and like many others, even with a disposition less restless than mine, I Tvas deeply impressed wdth the stories of rich strikes in the mining regions and the fortunes made in what seemed an incredibly short time. I began to read all I could lay my hands on relating to mines and mining, and to study, with a zeal which I had never shown before, the science of that great industry ; thus acquir- ing a store of information that would be very valuable if ever a time should come when it could be Ijrought into con- nection with practical experience, but worth little without it. In the spring of 1880 came the stories of the ex- citement caused along the Pacific coast by the discoveries in Lower California. During IMarch an average of six hun- dred men a day rushed to the mines in the Santa Clara dis- trict, about one hundred and twenty miles south of San MAKING MY WAY WESTWARD 39 Diego. One of tlie first workers, so the stories ran, washed out fonr thousand dollars' worth of gold in four hours, and a Mexican digger took out one thousand five hundred dollars in two days in a space eight feet square. As I read these and similar tales, the temptation became too great for me to resist. I had as yet saved only a small amount of money, but I had enough to take me a part of the way, and then, I thought, I might secure employment further west, and a little nearer the region of the Pacific Coast. So, after one of my hardest, most exasperating days behind the counter, I resigned my position, and for the first time in many months walked to my boarding place with a light heart. After i-eceiving what was due me at the store, and buying a ticket for Chicago, I packed my small belong- ings in a valise, and with my accumulated capital, about thirty dollars, in my pocket, westward I took my unde- termined way. Considerable time was lost in an unsuccessful search for employment at Chicago, and gradually my small capital became greatly reduced. I avoided the dry-goods stores and of course knew little about any other line of business. My eyes were still turned westward, and quite naturally I haunted the railway depots and offices until destitution finally compelled me to engage as a brakeman on a freight train on one of the leading lines ninning West from Chicago. It was a hard life, and yet I enjoyed some features of it. Even my imagination had not portrayed the Great "West as I found it, with its broad stretches of prairie, its busy cities and towns, its teeming harvests, and thrifty homes. Gradually I worked my way westward, constantly shift- ing from one division of the railroad to another, each tend- 40 "FELLERS AS STRUCK IT RICH" ing still farther west than the last, till one evening 1 fonnd myself in Colorado Springs. Seeking out a moderate- priced hotel, I entered and found myself in an eating-room where a number of men were drinking and smoking, most of them engaged in earnest conversation. Seating myself at a ^'acant table, I ordered as good a meal as I thought was warranted by my rather scanty funds. " Yes, thar's some mighty big stories 'bout fellers as struck it rich," I heard the old man who sat at the next table say to his companions, who were all considerably younger, " but I'm only tellin' what I've seen to be true. One day, when I was in Shasta county, 'bout fifteen years back, three fellers that looked like Frenchmen druv into town, and droppin' into a hardware store to get somethin' or other, asked the proprietor whar was a likely place to mine. They looked tenderfoot like, and I guess they was. The pro- prietor kinder careless like, ye know, p'int-ed north, and said ' Go over to Spring Creek.' Wal, sir, they went, and after prospecting around they located a claim a little ways up the stream, an' in a few days one o' them durn'd French- men picked up a nugget wutli over six thousand. " You don't find secli nuggets as them in these days," chimed in one of the younger men as he took out a roll of bills and beckoned to the waiter. He had a swaggering manner, and it was easy to see that the others regarded him with a degree of deference. " How big d' ye say yourn w^as, Sandy? '^ asked the old man. " Only fort,y-eight ounces, but it was enough, so I sold the claim for big money to the Denver parties." " Wal, ye say, Sandy," resumed the old man, " that big strikes ain't made tliese days, but it ain't so long ago when A BIG NUGGET 41 I was clown on the Gila that I heard of a lucky find a little way ofi^ the Southern Pacific in Californy, Two fellers tranipin' up the coast got put off a freight train at Calliente, and they started to hoof it to Bakersville. In two days, back they came to Calliente with a lump of gold and quartz. The boys thought they might have robbed a camp, and p'raps killed the miner to get it. But they told how they was goin' 'bout in the dry bed of an old stream not far from the Bealeville placer camp, in search of wood for a fire, and stumbled on the gold. They had ofi'ered to sell it to a rail- road man before they came back to Calliente, but he sus- pected the strangers, and wouldn't bargain. Wal, sir, that lump was sold afterwards in Los Angeles for two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. It weighed 116 ounces. The boys rushed into that old stream but they never found any more big nuggets." I forgot my supper, hungry as I was. The effect of such conversation upon a tenderfoot with but a little silver in his pocket, and who was impatient to send comforting news to his far-away home in Vermont, may be imagined. '^ Houghing it," and "striking it rich," was just my ideal then. I had tried roughing it somewhat, and all I needed was to strike it rich. " Excuse me, gentlemen," I said, slowly turning my chair, and somewhat nervously facing the group, " but I am down this way to ^ee what I can do in a mining country, and I am interested in your talk. Is there any chance any- where around here for a fellow like me to strike in? " They looked at me critically for a moment, and the young fellow who seemed to be spending tliQ^money, said: " Stranger, you look all right, and I guess you are. Say, stranger, where you from? " 42 FIRST RUSH TO THE GOLD-FIELDS I told tliem that 1 caiiic from jSTew England, and tlicy glanced at my clothes, which,' notwithstanding the rough wear of the ]iast few weeks, were not at all bad. At this the man whom they called " Sandy " informed me that he had just sold one of his claims, but he had another that could be bought for fair money, and his companions also began to expatiate upon the value of claims they would dispose of. I had to confess, sorely against my inclination, that my capital did not permit me to buy claims, but I would like to get work in a mining region, and trust to my luck. It seems that Sandy had recently come in from the wild regions about Willow Creek, and a rush was then just begin- ning toward the place where Creede made his discovery. I listened eagerly to the stories of fabulous fortunes and sud- den wealth narrated by these prospectors. To my over- wrought imagination it seemed easy to become rich Where gold was so abundant. The result was that the next day I started with a party of a dozen others on my first rush to gold fields. Thus it was that I began to supplement my store of book information about mining with the details of practical experience. These details were not unlike those of others in the mining districts of the Rockies, and the stor}^ has often been told. I worked in the mines till I secured a good understanding of mining as it was there con- ducted. I was grub-staked and spent much of my time wandering over the mountains, along creeks and streams, and through gulches. It was on the whole an agreeable life, but I failed to make a strike. That is also a story which has often been told. I^ot long afterwards came the rush to C^ripple Creek, where a cowboy had found in Poverty Gulch ore which, when taken to Colorado Springs, was found to yield two FINDING PAY-ROCK 43 luuidred and forty dollars to tlie ton. Those going in early found ore of even higher value. After the Buena Vista mine was sold, the attention of the entire country was at- tracted to Cripple Creek, and the great rush to that now famous district began. They poured in over the mountaiu tops and through the gulches, and claims were staked in all directions, regardless of the character of the rock. Many hardships were endured in the early days of the opening of this district, but a rough life proved not at all distaste- ful to me, though I met with no marked success. Still, there was always the chance, and, in some notable cases, men, after prospecting and suffering many hardslii]3s with- out success, had, when on the point of packing their traps and returning to their former employments, stumbled upon ore that made them rich within a few months. One of the notable discoveries coming some little time after the rush was that of the Portland mine. Two Irish boys from Portland, ]\[e., owned a small patch of poor land which they did not know exactly what to do with. One day a miner of some experience came along and asked what they would give if he found pay-rock for them. They offered a third. The miner found it that afternoon, and in time that third interest became worth millions. I kept on prospecting, always buoyed up by the hope of making a great discovery that would eclipse all others and yield me a princely fortune. In the fall of 1S05 I fell in with another prospector about my age, named Joseph Meeker. There was a certain compatibility in our dispositions and tastes, and we soon became fast friends. Joe had originally come from I^orth Carolina, but he had spent a year in Alaska, and had been mining for several years in Colorado, but with no better sue- 44 A STARTLING PROPOSITION cess than had attended my efPorts. lie never grew tired of talking ahont ALaska. It had a strange fascination for him, and he would return to the subject again and again. We were sitting close to the fire in the cabin one night when Joe suddenly inquired how much money I had. " I've saved about eight hundred dollars," I replied, wonderingly. "Why?" " I've got 'bout seven hundred dollars," he said, " and I'll tell you why I ask. You are strong and hearty. You ought to stand it, and I know I can. The only place to hunt for gold now is in Alaska. I was up there two years ago, worked in the Tread well mills awhile, and in the sum- mer crossed over to the upper Yukon. There's gold there in river banks, but the ground's frozen twenty feet deep, and the climate is beastly in the winter. I got caught on the Yukon late in the fall, and had a hard time getting back. I didn't have any outfit, and when I came out I was as near dead as I could be. But I believe that's the place for us, and if we put our money together it will be enough to buy a good outfit and pay our way to Alaska, and next spring we can go in all right. How does it strike you? " The proposition startled me. Alaska was a long way off, and it was comparatively an unknown country. I was already far from home and kindred. Besides I was not so sanguine of success as my companion appeared to be, and mining in a country where the ground was " frozen twenty feet deep " did not at first impress me as a particularly at- tractive scheme. I hesitated, but only for a few moments; for, impelled by my restless and unsatisfied love of adven- ture, and the alluring possibilities in a new land from whence rumors of gold had already come, I said, " I'll go." CHAPTER II HO FOR ALASKA ! — EXTENT OF OUR GREAT TERRITORY — GETTING RExVDY FOR THE START — OUR OUTFIT AND WHAT IT CONSISTED OF. My Meager Ideas of the Territory — Joe Draws on His Store of Infor- mation — Vast Extent of the Country — Dull and Dirty Natives — A Race of Shirks — Habits of the Dogs — Navigation of the Yukon — Mo.s(iuitoes That "Kill Bears" — Story of the Miners' Search for Gold on the Yukon — A Pioneer Prospecting Party — Some of the Early Finds — Gold Every vphere — The Klondike Moose Past- ure — Despised by the Gold-Seekers — Coarse Gold on Forty-Mile Creek— The Rise of the Town — Sixty Mile — Miller and Glacier Creeks — A Missionary Picks up a Nugget — Founding of Circle City — My Partner Becomes Impatient — Making Our Plans — We Proceed to San Francisco — Buying an Outfit — What It Consisted of — Our Medicine Chest — Over a Ton and a Half to Carry — A Peep into the Future — Ominous Suggestions. ALASKA was about the only country of the world into which my venturesome imagination had not taken me. I knew that the United States bought it of Russia in 1867 for less than half a cent an acre, but I had never figured from the total purchase price how many acres it made. It was something of a revelation to me, there- fore, when Joe, who was an exceedingly well-informed man in many ways, and particularly upon Alaska, convinced me that this territory was nine times the size of T^ew England, twice the size of Texas, and three times that of California; that it had a coast line of over eighteen thousand miles, (45) 46 OUR WONDERFUL TERRITORY greater tlian that of all the rest of the United States, and that, measuring from the most eastern point of Maine to the most western point of the Aleutian Ishuids, wliieh ex- tend over into the eastern hemisphere, the half-way point of the United States would be a little west of San Francisco. Joe had a fund of general information concerning the country. T\Tiile I had been dreaming vaguely of the Great AVest, he had been looking with quiet detennination to- wards that land from which he had w'itli so much difficulty only recently escaped, and in spite of that severe experience he had been working hard to save money enough to enable him to return and prospect mth safety on the Yukon. While it was generally known that the first lease of two tiny islands retiu'ued to the United States Treasury a sum equal to the purchase money, and that the salmon industry had yielded a like sum for the fii^t six yeai^s of its establish- ment, the outside world had as yet heard very little about its gold resources. Summer pleasure-seekei-s had turned back at the Muir Glacier, which is over a thousand miles south of Point Barrow, and had rarely ventured as far as the Aleutian Islands, which stretch to a point two thousand miles west of Sitka. A few explorers had wandered over some of the rough Indian trails, and Ijad nearly lost their lives in climbing the snow-capped mountain peaks. For several years poorly maintained trading posts had been col- lecting furs from the Indians, and here and there over the vast region were mission stations which had produced little effect on the dull and dirty natives. Dogs and Indians were the beasts of burden, the dogs being far superior, for. though bom thieves, they would work under the lash ; but the Indians were lazy, and, after exacting the most extrava- gant prices for packing over the trails, were quite likely VORACIOUS INDIANS AND MOSQUITOES 47 to throw down their packs and return home, leaving the explorer helpless in the desolate regions. As all contracts with these Indians included their keeping, and as no one had had ever discovered a limit to their appetites when others provided the food, the poor explorer usually found that the Indian packers would cat up all they could carry before go- ing far into the interior. At home they would live frugally on nothing but fish, some of it very ancient, for most of them were too lazy to catch any till driven to it by gnawing hunger. When carrying a pack for a white man they were rarely able to lift an ounce till they had eaten two or three pounds. Then they would trot along with a pack that no white man could stagger under. What means of navigation existed on the Yukon were exceedingly primitive. Running two thousand miles across Alaska and into the Northwest Territory, into which the head tributaries stretched five hundred miles further, navigation could hardly be attempted before July, and towards the last of September the river generally began to freeze. The quickest way to reach the headwaters of the Yukon was overland from the coast, but one could do little more than take his life in his hands, to say nothing of pro- visions, if he ventured from the trails, which were full of dangers, while in the summer the mosquitoes, Joe em- phatically said, had been known to " kill bears." In five months the country receives as much sunshine, or rather daylight, as California receives in eight, and in seven months as much night as California receives in nearly a year and a half. " But there's gold there," said Joe. " And T know it." It was the erold that he was thinking of, and though I was not unmindful of it either, I could not help but weave 48 ALASKA'S FIRST PROSPECTORS fanciful pictures of life in a little-known country reputed to be full of dangers, and hence attractive to one of my dis- position. To me it was a pleasant picture to contemplate. I knew nothing about the reality. What little was known of the mineral possibilities of the country in the fall of 1895 was fairly well known by my partner, who had industri- ously sought information from every possible source. It is a curious fact, though an experienced miner will not recognize it as such, that the Yukon and the streams which tlow into it have been prospected for years. The reader must not suppose that all one has to do is to come to the right spot to find gold staring him in the face. Expe- rienced prospectors traveled many times over some of the richest rocks in Colorado l>efore their treasures were discov- ered, and the conditions along the frozen banks of the Yukon are even more misleading, as will be seen later. But as early as thirty years ago, even before the seventies, gold w^as known to exist in the beds of the streams which empty into the Yukon. Only a few prospectors ventured into these forbidding regions and they found small returns for their hardships and drudgery. It appears that the first real prospecting was done by George Holt, who crossed either the Chilkoot or the White Pass in 1878 and found coarse gold in the Hootalinkwa river. In 1880 a party of twenty-five, headed by Edward Bean, found bars yielding $2.50 a day on a small tributary of the Lewis. In subsequent years gold was found on the Big Salmon, Pelly, Hootalinkwa, Lewis, and Stewart rivers. When Lieutenant Schwatka made his trip down the Yukon in 1883 he made the acquaintance of Joseph Ladue, wdio was years after to become famous as the founder of Dawson. Ladue was digging about persist- ently, but he found little in the holes which he sunk with FAILURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT 49 the greatest difficulty. Scliwatka also heard of others who had been prospecting many seasons with poor results. Still there were traces of gold almost everywhere, and a miner knows that where there are traces of the precious metal a source of supply must exist somewhere. Early in the seventies there were miners working at the headwaters of the Pelly River, near the Cassiar Mountains, and, as will be seen by the map, near where some of the feeders of the Pelly and the Mackenzie approach each other. Some of them had learned of tlie existence of a large lake beyond the Cassiar and made an effort to reach it, but failed and returned disgusted. In 1872, two Irish- men named Harper and Hart ; Fitch, a Canadian ; Kanselar, a German; and Wilkinson, an Englishman, believing that gold existed on the Mackenzie because it had been found in some quantities on some of the principal streams, started on a prospecting trip. At Laird River they fell in with two men named ]\[cQuesten and Mayo, who were also pros- pecting. Wilkinson determined to try his luck there, but the others continued, and finally by way of Bell's River and the Porcupine came to Fort Yukon, an old supply point at the junction of the Porcupine and Yukon and close to the Arctic Circle. There they found an Indian who had some native copper which he said had come from White River, 400 miles up the Yukon. They determined to work their way up there, and did eventually, but were stopped near the White River in Sep- tember by ioe. They built a cabin and during the winter prospected for the copper, but found none. By spring their provisions had run out and they started down the river again, prospecting as they went. They found indications of gold near the mouth of Stewart River, but could take 50 SOME EARLY PIONEERS no advantage of this till thev had obtained provisions. They had to make their way nearly 2,000 miles to St. Mi- chael, near the mouth of the Yukon, and on their way back met McQuestin and Mayo, Avho had meanwhile gone into the service of the Alaska Commercial Company. When about -iOO miles uj) the river and near the mouth of the Koyukuk they encotmtered an Indian having some gold which he said had come from the mountains in that vicinity. So they spent two years prospecting in that re- gion, but with no results. Meantime, McQuestin and Mayo had gone up the Yukon and established Fort Reliance, six and a half miles from the stream which is now known as the Klondike. Harj^er and his companion joined them a little later and formed a trading partnership. The region near this stream was kno^\m only as a fishing and hunting ground, and no one thought of prospecting there then, for the beds were formed of uninviting dirt and nothing but surface prosi>ecting was done. Harper had written concerning the traces of gold to some of his old comrades in British Columbia, where he had mined for years, and some of them made their way to the new diggings. Early in the eighties gold was found in the StCAvart River, and it was about this time that rich quartz fields were discovered in the vicinity of Juneau, on the coast, and the attention of the outside world was mainly directed towards them. In 1886 Har- per erected a trading post at the mouth of the Stewart fnr the benefit of the thirty or more minei*s who had been in- duced to go into these regions, but in the same year coarse gold was fotmd on Forty ]\rile Creek. Coarse gold is the miner's delight, and as soon as the discovery became known, the St-ewart River diggings, the product of which in 1885 and 1886 was estimated at $300,000, were deserted for SLUICING WITH A STEAMBOAT ENGINE 51 Forty Mile Creek, and Harper moved his trading post to that point; this was the beginning of the settlement of that name. The same year the Klondike stream, which then appeared on the maps as Deer Eiver, was prospected for several miles, but no gold was found. On the other hand, gold was found nearly the whole length of Forty Mile River and in all its gulches. The news of this discovery was brought out by Tom Williams, who died at Dyea from the effects of cold and exhaustion endured in crossing the Chilkoot pass. Flis information caused several hundred men to go to Forty Mile from the Pacific Coast. The only mining done on the Stewart was on the bars of the river. The bench and bank bars were all timbered and frozen so that to work them it was thought would en- tail a resort to hydraulic mining, for which there was no ma- chinery in the country. During the fall of 1886 three or four miners combined and got the owners of one of the little river steamboats to allow the use of her engines to work pumps for sluicing with. The boat was hauled up on the bar, her engines detached from the wheels and made to drive pumps manufactured on the ground, thus supply- ing water for a set of sluice boxes. With this crude ma- chinery the miners cleared $1,000 in less than a month, and paid an equal sum to the o^vners of the boat as their share. But scarcely anything was heard of these discoveries by the outside world, though the Canadian agent reported them to his government. Few miners were there, the sea- son for work was short, and the little gold which came down attracted no attention, while many rich mines were being discovered in Colorado and California. Not long after the discovery of gold in Forty Mile Creek a few miners crossed the narrow divide which sep- 52 A MISSIONARY PICKS UP A NUGGET arates the licadwaters of Forty ]\lile from those of Sixty Mile and discovered gold on Miller and Glacier creeks. The former had already been prospected three different times and given up as worthless, but it turned out to be the richest creek in the region and enjoyed that reputation for yeai's. In 1891 gold was found on the headwaters of Birch Ci-^ek, which flows into the Yukon a.bout forty miles below Fort Yukon. According to the story which came down the coast, this discovery was due to Archdeacon ]\[acdonald, a Canadian missionary on the Peel River, who in connection %nth his missionary labors traveled over much of the country. In coming from the Tanana River he picked up a nugget in one of the gulches of Birch Creek. He told some of the miners and a party made a search. While they failed to find the place answering the missionary's descrip- tion they found gold. This Avas the beginning of Circle City, on the banks of the Yukon, about 200 miles below Forty Mile and only a few miles by portage from Birch Creek. During 1893 the Klondike stream was again pros- pected, but nothing was found. But Circle City attracted to it many of the old miners who had had poor success on other creeks and most of the newcomers. These, however, were very few until 1894. My partner had learned the stoiy of some of these dis- coveries while at Juneau and during his unsuccessful ven- ture inland. He returned to California in the hopes of providing a good outfit, but was obliged to prospect and work in the mines, trusting to luck to raise the necessary money. Attracted by the stories which came down, several hardy miners from California went up to the Yukon regions in 1894, but Joe remained behind and worked hard to se- cure the means which he had learned by observation and PLANNING A NEW ENTERPRISE 63 experience were required to prospect in such a wild country. ].ate in the summer of 1895, a lot of gold came down to San Francisco from the mouth of the Yukon, and for the first time Alaska began to attract a lively attention in the min- ing camps of the Rocky Mountains and along the Pacific Coast. Joe was greatly excited but knew it was too late that year to venture safely into the new El Dorado. When we became fast friends he saw the advantages of forming a partnership with me in the enterprise. It was then November, and we wished to be ready to start by the first of March. He said it would be no use for us to try to start earlier, for owing to the difficulties of travel before the Yukon broke up no time would be gained, while a good deal of needless hardship would be incurred. It was fortunate for me that I had a companion who knew something of the route and what to expect. It would have 1icen just like me to start in with little thought of pro- visions and with an inadequate outfit of clothing and sup- jilies. AVe worked along till the end of the year making our plans, and early in January we bade good-bye to Colo- rado and started for San Francisco to secure our outfit and passage. I have seen many statements of the outfit a man needs in going into the Alaska mining regions, but I have never seen one that enumerated all tlie things which a man wants after he is there. It must be borne in mind that he is going to a place which is practically cut off from the outside world for the greater ]>art of the year and which is very little better, as far as supplies are concerned, at any time. All this may be remedied some time, but I was going in before the attention of the commercial world had been greatly attracted to the region. While one with money 54 A YEAR S PROVISIONS enough in his pocket can travel all over the United States and want for nothing, when he crosses the mountain passes or goes up the Yukon to the interior of Alaska he needs to have with him all that he is likely to want for a year. He may want it very badly and in vain, and still have any amount of gold in his pockets. We secured a cheap boarding place near the wharves in San Francisco and soon set to work to collect such articles as Joe's experience and the best information we could ob- tain from every possible source convinced us would be necessary. After taking out of our capital what was needed for passage, living expenses till March, and quite a sum for expenses on the way, we concluded we might with the remainder purchase enough clothing and pi"ovisions for a year, or more, besides the necessary hardware. I have a list of some of the things we purchased and others I have sup]ilied from memory. The following is about what we took in the way of ]irovisions: Flour, 800 lbs. Bacon, .... 300 lbs Corn Meal, 50 " Dried Beef, 60 " Rolled Oats, . 80 " Dry Salt Pork, 50 " Pilot Bread, . 50 " Roast Coffee, . 50 " Baking Powder, 20 " Tea, . . ' . 25 " Yeast Cakes, . 6 " Condensed Milk, 50 " Baking Soda, . 6 " Butter, hermetically sealed 40 " Rice, 100 " Salt, 40 " Beans, 200 " Ground Pepper, 3 " Split Peas, 50 " Ground ]\Iustard, . 2 " Evaporated Potatoes, 50 " Ginger, .... 2 " Evaporated Onions, .20 " Jamaica Ginger, 3 " Beef Extract, . 3 " Evaporated Vinegar, 12 " Evaporated Apples, 50 " Matches 25 " Evaporated Peaches, 50 " Candles, 2 boxes contaiuin 3 Evaporated Apricots, 50 " 240 candles, 80 " A GOLD SEEKER S OUTFIT 55 Dried Raisins, . . 20 lbs. Laundry Soap, . 15 lbs. Dried Figs, . 20 " Tar Soap, . 5 " Granulated Sugar, . . 150 " Tobacco, . . 30 " In the hardware line our outfit was of a more miscel- laneous character and as complete as we knew how to make it, and everything came in handy. We purchased as fol- lows : 1 Hand Saw. 2 Hatchets. 2 Shovels. 1 Whip Saw. 30 pounds of Nails (assorted sizes). 2 Scissors. -^ dozen assorted Files. Fish Lines and Hooks. 2 Handled Axes. 1 Gold Scale. 2 Draw Knives. 1 Chalk Line. 1 Jack Plane. I'Measuring Tape. 1 Brace and 4 Bits. 2 Money Belts. 3 Chisels, assorted. 2 Cartridge Belts. 2 Butcher Knives. 2 Gold Dust Bags (buckskin) 2 Hunting Knives. 2 Pairs Snow Glasses. 2 Pocket Knives. 6 Towels. 2 Compasses. 1 Caulking Iron. 1 Set Awls and Tools. Knives and Forks. 150 feet of |-inch Rope. Table and Teaspoons. 1 Medicine Case. 2 Large Spoons. 15 pounds of Pitch. 2 Bread Pans. 20 pounds of Oakum. Granite Cups. Pack Straps. Granite Plates. 2 Gold Pans. 2 Coffee Pots. 4 Galvanized Pails. 2 Frying Pans. 1 Whetstone. 1 Stove (Yukon). 2 Picks and Handles. 4 Granite Buckets. 2 Prospector's Picks. 1 Camp Kettle. 2 Grub Bags. I have no exact record of the wearing apparel that formed an important part of our outfit, but it was ample. There is nothing in the following list which will not come in very handy if a man intends to move around in the rain 56 GARMENTS FOR ARCTIC WEATHER storms of summer and iu the frigid weatlier of an Alaskan winter: 3 Suits Underwear, extra heavy. 2 Extra heavy double-breasted Flanuel Overshirts. 1 Extra heavy Mackinaw Over- shirt. 1 Extra heavy all-wool double Sweater. 6 Pairs long German knit Socks. 2 Pairs Gerinan knit and shrunk Stockings, leather heels. 1 Mackinaw Coat, extra heavy. 1 Pair Mackinaw Pants. 4 Pairs All- Wool Mittens. 2 Pairs Leopard Seal Waterproof 1 Pair Hip iJoots. [JMitteus. 2 Pairs Rubber Shoes. 2 Pairs Overalls. 1 Waterproof, Blanket-Lined Coat. 2 Pairs Blankets. 1 Fur Cap. 1 Wool Scarf. 1 Pair Leather Suspenders. 1 Extra Heavy Packing Bag. 1 Suit Oil Clothing and Hat. 1 Doz. Bandana Handkerchiefs. 1 Canvas Sleeping Bag. Any woman who thinks of going to Alaska can read this list intended for a man and govern the selection of her garments accordingly. Onr outfit, which altogether we estimated would weigh about 3,200 pounds, embraced other little odds and ends, personal effects, and so on. We each had a rifle, and we also provided ourselves with revolvers. We haunted gTO- cery stores and clothing houses for over a week, and as our purchases were delivered I began to get a dim realization of what Joe was preparing for. Still I was often surprised at the wholesale manner in which he bought. One day he bought a medicine chest, wdiieh looked like a miniature drug store. Tt had been recommended to him by a phy- sician. It took up a lot of room and it was about the only thing that we did not use in our subsequent wanderings. The trouble was that we did not know how to use it. Some of the remedies might have been for blisters or cramps or any other human ailment so far as we knew. We managed GRIT MORE THAN HALF 57 to sort out a few remedies with whicli we had some famil- iarity. We found tliat a few stock remedies, such as most ]5ersons are accustomed to use, are about all that it is worth while to carry over the mountain trails and long voyages by water. In winter a hot drink of tea did us more good than anything else, and in summer a few quinine pills were taken as bon-bons. " Over a ton and a half," I said when the collection was completed. " You will think it weighs five times that before you get it on the Yukon," remarked Joe. " But it's a mighty good outfit, and I hope we shall get it there all right." Joe was sometimes vague as to the details of some of the difficulties for which he was so carefully providing; and though a faint suspicion would now and then arise in my mind when he confined himself to general statements in answer to some of my questions, I quieted my misgivings. I think even he had no clear conception of the magnitude of some of the dangei's and hardships we were destined to en- counter. " It'll be the roughest roughing it you ever saw," he would say. '' But you've got grit, and that's more than ball" CHAPTER III CHOOSING A ROUTE — OUR VOYAGE ALONG THE COAST- ARRIVAL AT DYEA— FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH NA- TIVES. Departure from San Francisco — Port Townsend — Through Puget Sound — Points of Interest and Beauty — A Gap in the Island Belt — Few Moments of Seasickness — The Great Scenic Region — In Alaskan Waters — Tide Water Glaciers — Juneau as a Metropolis — A Glimpse of Totem Poles — Indian Traders — The Mines of the Vicinity and their Discovery — Famous Treadwell Mills — The Largest in the World — The Skagway and Dalton Trails — Pro- ceeding to Dyea — Dumped on the Beach — Getting Supplies Together and Beyond the Tide — The Problem of Moving Ahead — Approached by Indian Packers — Dangers of Bidding up Prices — A Contract with the Heathen — Our First Night in Camp — Dark Ways of the Chilkoots — We Decide to Do Our Own Packing. AT the time we started for Alaska there were but two general routes from the Pacific Coast of the United States to the gold, regions of the Yukon. The first was by the way of the Yukon River, and that means a jour- ney of about four thousand fiye hundred miles, all by w^ater, at such times as the sand bars do not obstruct nayigation. This yoyage can only be made between the middle of June and the first of September, and it usually requires forty days to reach Circle City. The other way, which is .shorter and quicker, if conditions are favorable, can be undertaken much earlier in the year, and is by the way of Juneau, Dyea, and the mountain passes to the lakes and upper waters of the (58) BEGINNING THE VOYAGE 61 Yukon. The fare from San Francisco by way of tlie Ynkon is about three hundred dollars, and a charge of ten cents a pound for freight over the amount allowed for per- sonal baggage. From San Francisco to Juneau the fare is fifty dollars, and the freight charges amount to but little. After reaching Dyea the charges for packing and ferrying are extravagant. One can spend as much as he likes. There is no limit to what the Chilkoots will try to make out of a person disposed to give. We were too impatient to get into the country to wait for the water route, and I should have dreaded its monotony. I looked forward to the overland route with pleasure, especially that part of it supposed to impose the obstacles at which Joe had so vaguely hinted. We sailed out of San Francisco harbor on March 15th. We were not the only gold-seekers aboard. Still, we were not crowded, and our quarters were comfortable. Port Townsend, the " Key City of the Sound," is the port of entry for the Puget Sound customs district, and point of departure of the mails for Alaska. Here we transferred to the Alaska steamer which came from Tacoma and Seattle, and fell in with a few more Alaskan adventurers. The voyage from Port Townsend, which we left on the 20th, to Juneau, is one of the most varied and delightful that any coast line aifords. I do not believe there is another journey on the face of the earth, the first half of which is so enjoyable and the second half so dismal, as the journey from Port Townsend to the Yukon in a Juneau and the passes. For two thousand miles the vessel steams through land- locked channels, straits, and passages. The landscape is wonderfully beautiful all the way, and the traveler never ceases to wonder at its varietv. 02 PAST SNOW-CAPPED SUMMITS All the upper end uf the Puget Sound is dominated by ^h. Baker, an extinct volcano over ten thousand feet high. We crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca, close-walled on the southern side by the Olympic range, and touched at Vic- toria on the souther]! point of Vancouver Island. AVe then skirted the shores of San Juan Island through Active Pass, and entered the Gulf of Georgia, which is a great inland sea with the snow-capped mountains of Vancouver Island continuously on one side, and the Cascade Peaks on the other. Rounding Cape Mudge, we entered Discovery Passage, which is, at points, less than half a mile wdde. At Queen Charlotte Sound there is a forty-mile gap in the island belt, and the swell of the outer ocean is felt. Those subject to mal de mer disappear for a time, but that is the only place in this salt water voyage of two thousand miles where any discomfort need be expected. We soon entered the narrow way again, steaming through Lama Passage, which is beautifully wooded, revealing here and there glimpses of the aborigines and their totem poles. Having crossed Millbank Sound we entered the great scenic regions of the trip. The shores, which are seldom more than two miles apart, rise abruptly for over a thousand feet, rugged promontories underneath whose shadows limpid mirrors lie; while above them rise the snowy ridges, gh'stening with glaciere and cascades. After passing Fort Simpson we entered Alaskan waters. The coasts continued mountainous and the scenery became more grand. A little above Fort Wrangel we reached the region of tide-water glaciers, whose bergs sparkling along the sound, and on every foot of the shore on both sides, is a suggestion of the wonders of this mighty land of the north. Mountains rear their snow-capped summits far into the sky, ARRIVAL AT JUNEAU 63 and, peering throngli the clefts once riven by some great shock of natnre, we see other ranges, over-topping ranges, frowning darkly or standing with a ghost-like whiteness; and, nearer, the mighty glaciers glow in all their varied tints. We passed inlets, where , . . " the clmnuel's waters spreading Turn toward the land, and find it So entrancing in its fairness, So stupendous in its grandeur ! Find its ice-bound coast so willing To receive their bright advances, That they lie in sheets of silver At the foot of lofty ice-peaks." On tlie fonrth day out from Port Townsend we steamed into Gastineau Channel, and soon arrived at Juneau, the metropolis of Alaska. AYe had feasted on the delights of the voyage, and the disagreeable portion was to come. Xature has a way of evening things up, and though some- times the process is so long that we do not realize it, her rigid law of compensation is always in force. We disembarked at Juneau with our precious supplies. It is a queer metropolis, lying at the base of precipitous mountains about three thousand feet high, and the flat plain between the shore and the base of the mountain seems very narroAV, It is now well built up with houses, though it con- tained at that time only about two thousand people. Its streets are narrow, crooked, and muddy, and here and there the tree-stumps remain unpleasantly in the way. It has a court house, several hotels and lodging houses, theaters, churches, schools, newspapers, a hospital, a fire brigade, and a brass band, but more saloons and dance-houses than all the other institutions put together. Among its more modern improvements are water-works and electric light plants. 64 THE METROPOLIS OF ALASKA Adjuiiiiiii;' on tlu> I'ast below the wharf is a viUage of 'I'aku Indian^;, and on the Hats at the mouth of Gokl Creek is a viUage of Auk Indians, back of which we get a glimpse of totem poles over the graves of the dead, and hung with offer- ings to the departed spirit^s. As we pass along through Third and Stewart streets, in the heart of the city, we find the Indians squatting about their wares, fish, vegetables, berries, and curios, and in the larger stores are fine displays of fur's. One can get about everything he needs here, and a good deal more, especially in the lines of gambling, drink- ing, and dance halls. Such, in brief, is the metropolis of a country larger than Germany and Austria-Hungary to- gether. Juneau is essentially a mining town, owing its su- premacy to the adjacent quartz mines which have much more than paid the cost of Alaska, to say nothing of its seals and valuable fisheries. Until recently the territory's repu- tation as a gold country has been due to these mines. It was about twenty yeare ago that a party of Indians brought a bit of gold quartz to Sitka, where a merchant grub-staked Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris, and sent tliem in search of the ore. Although this was the beginning of «Tuneau, it was three years later before the place took its name. The settlement was first named Harrisburg, but the mining com- pany Avhich had named the district the Harris Mining Dis- trict gave the name of Juneau to the town. Miners flocked to the new" camp, but many came too late to find claims there, and crossed over to what is now known as Douglass Island, then an untouched wilderness. After they had staked out claims they sold for something less than five hun- dred dollars, and a corporation, mostly of California men, finallv secured it. It is now the site of the famous Tread- AN INEXHAUSTIBLE SUPPLY 65 well gold mills, the largest plant of the kind in the world. Abont a million of dollars has been spent on the plant, at which six hundred tons of ore are milled daily at a cost of about one dollar and twenty-five cents a ton. The ore varies in value from three dollars to seven dollars a ton. The supply seems inexhaustible. The company is capi- talized at five million dollars, and has paid nearly four mil- lion dollars in dividends. Joseph Juneau died a poor man. Being the center of such an industry, and also the chief rendezvous of the miners going over the passes into the in- terior, Juneau City will doubtless maintain its supremacy as Alaska's metropolis. The news of the Yukon dis- coveries has wrought a great change in the place since we went in, and promises to work greater. Joe Avas perfectly at home in this region, where he had worked during his former sojourn in Alaska. I played the part of the tourist, he of guide. While waiting at Juneau we purchased a couple of sleds well adapted to Alaskan uses, and with these our outfit seemed complete. From Juneau to Dyea is one hundred and eighteen miles up Lynn Canal and the Ghilkoot and Taiya (Dyea) Inlets. The route by Dyea and the Chilkoot Pass was the old reliable one, having been used by the Indians for years, and the one which most of the gold-seekers we had encoun- tered were taking. There are two others, the Skagway over the White Pass and the Dalton trail from the Chilkat Inlet. The first was thought by some to be the easier route, and was the one generally chosen by those who were ex- perimenting with horses in this rough country. It is about seventeen miles from tide water to the summit of the White Pass, and abont four miles of this is through a flat timbered valley. The summit is about two thousand six hundred 66 THE DALTON TRAIL feet above tide water, and the remainder of tlie rontc nntil it joins the Chilkoot trail is over marehes and an undidatinii; rocky surface exceedingly difficult for pack animals, and with very little soil. In 1896 this trail attracted little at- tention. Its prominence was to come the following year. If the Alaskan traveler is to experiment with horses, and the temptation is certainly great in view of the un- reliability of the Indians, he had best try the Dalton trail, which takes its name from Jack Dalton, who went to Juneau many years ago, as one story goes, because he was iiccused of stealing horses. He was innocent of the charge, but he took veugeance on the man who had accused him. His trail affords a tolerably good road for two hundred miles from tide water. The first forty miles from Chilkat Inlet is on a river flat with an easy grade, thence to the divide, which is three thousand feet above the sea level. Another divide is crossed twenty miles further on at the watershed of the Alsek and Chilkat rivers. The rest of the trail to the Five Finger Rapids is a succession of valleys with hardly perceptible divides. It is said that in summer a man with a saddle horse and pack animal can make thirty miles a day on this trail. Dalton is one of the most expert of Alaskan trailers. But it is the Dyea route which concerns us, and thus far it has remained the most practicable one. We left Juneau for Dyea on March 25th, on a fair-sized steamer, but quickly encountered difl"erent conditions from those which had yire- viously afforded us so much pleasure. AVe should have reached Dyea in twelve hours, but there seemed to be a hur- ricane trying to get out of the canal, which some have called the grandest fiord on the coast. There are a few indenta- tions on the coasts, which are made up of abru]")t palisades A SCENE OF CONFUSION 67 varied with glaciers and forests. The water is very deep in the channel, and a strong cold wind sucked down between the cliffs of either side, and tossed us about in the most bois- terous fashion. Drifting icebergs from the Eagle, Auk, and Davidson glaciers added to the confusion. After pitching about helplessly for some time, we put up in a little bay, and lay over there one day. Meanwhile most of the wind seemed to have worked itself out of the channel. Thus we did not arrive at Dyea till the 27th, and after pick- ing up on the way a party which had been wrecked on a small sailboat and had lost most of their provisions. Dyea is an Indian word meaning " pack " or " load." Certainly you would have thought it a very appropriate one if you had seen the gold-seekers and their belongings dumped on the beach, almost every man and woman with provisions for a year or more, while some of the dirtiest- looking Indians on the face of the earth hovered around like evil spirits. There was a small improvised wharf, which was of no use, as there was too little water in the chan- nel to permit the steamer to come up, and her cargo was dis- charged by scows and small boats. The beach was flat and covered with small rocks which the people there, who make their living by unloading car- goes and packing over the trail, leave just where Nature dropped them. It might hurt their business to remove such obstructions to convenience and safety. The steamer anchored about two miles from the village, it being- low tide. Boats were lowered and the unloading com- menced, the contents being dumped on the rocks, anywhere to get rid of them, and there was considerable confusion. After our goods were deposited and had been sorted out, the next thing was to get them up above the reach of the 68 TENTING IN THE SNOAV tide. AVe worked like beavers, and so did the others. With a little hig,h-priced help from the Indians, we man- aged to carry everything back about a mile from the beach, where we found a place to camp. There we set up our tent, and made preparations for the season of roughing it before us. About ten inches of snow covered the ground, and it was quite soft in places. While we ^v•ho had been used to a miner's life did not mind it much, there was a noticeable change in the faces of those who were less inured to hard- ships. It is not pleasant to leave the steamer and to begin living in a tent pitched in nearly a foot of snow. When we had settled ourselves as comfortably as we could, and had taken the opportunity to observe our sur- roundings, w^e were struck with, the transformation wdiich some of the women had undergone. Generally speaking, their dresses had disappeared, and they came forth in bloomers, and many of them in the regulation trousers of the other sex. It does not do to be '' squeamish" in Alaska. There are obstacles enough to travel, without the in- cumbrance of skirts. The w^omen were of all ages under fifty, and, as we gradually learned, the majority of them were unmarried, at least had no husbands wdth them, and their destination was the dance halls of Circle City and Forty Mile. They were not as a rule an attractive lot for fastidious people to encounter socially, but out of about thirty women, four or five were wives traveling with their husbands, or daughters with their fathers, and were very respectable and well-appearing people, with marks of refine- ment which their life in mining camps had not obliterated. But there is little time to observe human nature. There are over three thousand two hundred pounds to get over the trail somehow. On our two sleds w^e could di-aw a ENGAGING PACKERS 69 fair load over good roads, but the advisability of securing Indian packers for the bulk of the provisions was naturally suggested. A few of the gold pilgrims started at once to pack their goods further up the trail before camping. A feverish haste will ahvays be noticed among such pilgrims, though it helps but little in the end. In a short time a dirty one-eyed Indian came towards us, and in English which just escaped being unintelligible asked if we had packing to do. lie knew well enough we had. " How nnicli you give to summit? " he asked. According to the ethics of the trail the price for pack- ing should 2iot be bid up. If one party put up the price in order to secure quick service, every other Indian on the trail would know it in an inconceivably short space of time, and all would throw down their packs at once, contracts or no contracts. They would refuse to carry for less than the man in a hurry was willing to pay. One man who had plenty of money, it was said, bid up the price, and as a result received a very cold ducking in the creek. So we offered the Indian the prevailing price, which was seventeen cents a pound, and he promised to be on hand with twenty-five Indians early the next morning. " You may see that heathen in tlie morning, and you may not," remarked Joe, as the Indian slowly loafed away towards the little ^'illagc of about three hundred Chilkoots. We cut some hemlock brush and laid it on the snow in the tent, put our blankets on it, and filling our pipes sat down near the opening of the tent, Joe on a box of soap, I on some evaporated apricots. " Do you see that notch up yonder? " said Joe, blowing a cloud of smoke from his mouth. I saw it, though it was 70 THE UNRELIABLE HEATHEN hardly distiiiguisliable in the whiteness of tlic towering mountains. " Well, this truck of ourn' has got to go up through there." I never slept better in my life than I did on those hem- lock boughs laid over snow. AVe were up bright and early to be ready for the Indians. There were no signs of them. We finished our breakfast, and packed the sleds which we in- tended to draw ourselves. Then we took down our tent, but no Indians came. I grew impatient, but Joe seemed not at all surprised. After a time he went do^^^l to the Indian village, but came back alone, saying tlie Indians were not all up. As they showed no indications of taking off their clothes when they retired for the night, I concluded that getting up could not be a long process. But it was over an hour before an Indian appeared, and then there were less than a dozen. " Where are the others? " I asked sternly of the one- eyed Chilkoot. " They come bimeby," he remarked indifferently. The wretched-looking Siwashes poked around among the packs, hefted them critically, then jabbered away among themselves, and finally informed us that they ob- jected to some of the articles unless an extra price was paid. The very Indians we had engaged were dickering with other parties in the same way. I tried threatening one of them, but it had no more effect than if he had been an iceberg. Joe laughed at me, while the Indians stood about chattering in a language that is perfectly inexpressible in any phonetic signs we have. Xo one would ever take it for speech but for the slight motions of their lips, and the convulsions in the throat. " A confusion of gutturals with a plentitude of GOOD SUBJECTS FOR MISSIONARY WORK 71 saliva — a moist language with a gurgle that approaches a gargle," is the best description of it I have ever heard. None of the Indians seemed to be in the least hurry to start; indeed, they did not appear to care whether they started or not. Once in a while the one-eyed fellow would come and demand more on some flimsy pretext or otlier. Finally my patience gave out completely. I told Joe that I would rather pack our stores over a dozen Chilkoot passes than fool with heathen like these. So, after losing con- siderable time, we concluded to do our own packing, and I think some of those fellows went away actually relie^'ed. They are too lazy to regard the loss of w^ork as anything but a blessing. So far as I observed them, they had one virtue, and that was a remarkable regard for other people's prop- erty. They will not steal, but their word is absolutely worthless. They have no conception of the obligations of a contract. After demanding exorbitant pay, and being promised it, they will delay starting to suit their own feel- ings, and will throw down their packs at the slightest ]3rovo- cation. They will even trudge along with them for a long distance, and then, after demanding extra pay, will drop their burdens and return with no pay for what they have done. JSTo one can afford to engage them for any but short distances, for the point is soon reached when they have eaten up all they started with. These people may be interesting to ethnologists, and they may seem i^romising material for devout missionaries, but for the man who is in a hurry to get to the gold regions of Alaska they are more often a hindrance than a help. Where one cannot depend on horses or dogs, he will save his tom]~»er by depending on himself. PTe will also save a lot of money and a large percentage of his provisions. CHAPTER lY LIFE OX THE TRAIL — STRANGE SIGHTS AND SCENES — STORM BOUND IN SHEEP CAMP — A WOMAN'S AD- VENTURES AND EXPERIENCES. Along the Famous Dyea Trail — Walking Twenty Miles and Making Four — Snow, Boulders, and Glaciers — Exhibitions of Grit — Tent- ing in the Snow — A Democratic Crowd — The Yukon Stove — The So-called Gridiron — Beans and Bacon — "It will be New On the Yukon" — Asleep on a Bed of Boughs — What a Trail Consists of — A Crack Two Miles Long — Pleasant Camp — Sheep Camp and the Faint-Hearted — A Discouraged Man and a Resolute Woman — Going Over Anyhow — Not All so Brave — Having a Good Cry — My Theory as to the Fortitude of Some Women — Throwing off the Fetters of Civilization — Two Weeks of Storm — Monotony and Silence — An Active Glacier Entertains Us — Nature' s Untamed Moods — Sunshine at Last — Now for The Chilkoot! THE beginning of the trail over Chilkoot Pass does not give any indications of the difficulties a little further on, esiiecially under favorable conditions in the latter part of March. Tlie streams are still frozen, except in open places, and the trail along their banks is cov- ered with snow, wliicli in most places lias become solidly packed. In the early winter tlie snow is apt to be soft and deep, while in the summer the trails are soft and slippery, and streams with treacherous bottoms must be forded. The water is considerably colder at all times than any man- ufactured ice water, and tlie current is swift and strong, (72) PACKING UP THE TRAIL 73 being" abundantly fed by the melting glaciers and rains that nevea- end till one has forgotten when they began. " Does it always rain here ? " I once heard a traveler ask of an Indian. " Snows sometime," replied the native, in the most mat- ter-of-fact manner. Before we got through the pass we found that it could do both at the same time without show- ing any signs of exhaustion. Joe superintended all the preparations. We increased the loads on our sleds to 400 pounds each, and found that we could pull them very comfortably for the first five miles, the river being frozen and the track hardened by those who had gone ahead. At the end of five miles the way became more difiicult, and, coming to a spot well timbered and watered, where several othei's had camped, we unloaded, cached our goods, and returned to camp for another load. We saw that we could not make the four trips necessary to bring up all our goods without working half the night, and we were tired enough to stop when we returned from the third load, but concluded to keep on. The Dyea Valley is an old river bed full of huge boul- ders, which make a summer trip over the trail exceedingly difiicult. Even in winter they are serious obstacles, as there are places in the river which do not freeze, and unless the snow is deej) the sledding is very rough on the banks. On either side, high up on the mountains, the tops of which were hidden in the clouds most of the time, were small gla- ciers cutting down through the scraggy growth of spruce and hemlock. Back and forth through this desolate valley w^e tramped, continually meeting others engaged in the same work. There is no time to stop to cultivate acquaintances. 74 GRIT OF THE (K)LD PILGRIMS Occasionally we came up just in time to help a man right his overturned sled, or to extricate a woman who had stepped into a treacherous drift or fallen into a little crevice. Here and there along the way tents were passed, as well as caches of provisions, which were left unguarded without incurring serious risk. But in Alaska all provisions must be cached to be out of reach of the dogs. They are the only thieves. Many strange sights are witnessed even in these days, when the gold fields at Forty-Mile and Birch Creek are at- tracting fortune-seekers. AVe met a young woman who was going in with her husband, slowly working her way to- ward the pass. She was trudging along with packs of over forty pounds on her back, and her face bore the marks of refinement. The grit and nerve displayed on every side were marvelous. Some men preferred to make short marches and piled on their backs sixty or seventy-five pounds, keeping up a brisk gait for a mile or so, then strik- ing camp, and in the same way bringing up the remainder of their outfits. That is the hardest way and nothing is gained. It was very late before we arrived with our last load and had our tent again set up in the snow.. Those who have not tried it can hardly imagine what it is to tramp twenty- five miles, half the way pulling four hundred pounds, in an intermittent snow storm, over a road which, while smooth for Alaska, would be deemed almost impassable in Xew England. Yet there was a novelty in the experience which was exhilarating, so that it did not fatigue us as much as it might otherwise have done. Having put up our tent and cut a few scraggy hemlocks, we trimmed off the tops for a bed FLAPJACKS ON A YUKON STOVE 75 and used the stumps for a fire, not so easily started with green wood in a snow storm. It was a very democratic gathering. Theire were no formalities, no hint of conven- tionalities of any kind. The picturesque element was not lacking, and the ludicrous side of life was ever present. Looking a few feet up the hillside through the flying snow I caught a glimpse of a woman who, attired in her husband's trousers, was turning flapjacks on a " Yukon stove," utterly unconscious of the ridiculous appearance she presented. The " Yukon stove," by the way, is a small sheet iron box with an oven at the back and a telescope pipe. Novices sometimes have to stud}^ a moment to decide which is the oven and which is the fire-box. This simple arrangement is set on a " gridiron," that is, three poles about eight feet long, so that when the snow melts underneath, the poles continue to form a support for it. Necessity is nowhere a more fruitful mother of invention than in Alaska. Joe and I confined ourselves to beans and bacon, a staple dish in these regions; indeed, an odor of beans and bacon predominates in nearly all the camps along the trail. AVe lighted our pipes and sat close to the little stove to dry our clothing. Mingled with the sighing of the wind and the soft beating of the snow on the tent, came the shrill voice of one of the dance-house girls singing a hackneyed air. " It will be new on the Yukon," observed Joe, as he threw himself full length on the bed of boughs, and he was asleep before I had time to follow. I went out and care- fully brushed the snow off the roof of the tent before re- tiring, for I had learned the importance of such a measure in roughing it in an even milder climate. If the interior of the tent is heated, the snow falling on the outside will, of 76 SEVEN MILES IN FOUR DAYS course, become claiiij), aiul, later, when the lire has gone down or out, aud the interior has become cold, the damp snow will freeze so hard that it is almost impossible to take down the tent. Many found this out to their sorrow when the next day they started to move ahead. The stonn had been a cold one, and it was hours before they could pack their tents, and then they were weighted with ice and ex- tremely difficult to handle. People can cause themselves a world of trouble in Alaska by neglecting a few details. We were four days in moving our stores to Sheep Camp, ^\•hicll is al)0ut seven miles further on. For the first two miles we could haul about three hundred pounds, but through the canon it was only by the greatest exertion that we could pull one hundred and fifty. The trail was much better from Pleasant Camp, on the other side of the caiion, to Sheej) Camp, but it was up-hill all the way. It snowed continuously, sometimes gently, and occasionally furiously. A trail in Alaska should not be confused with the ordi- nary highway of settled states. When a trail is spoken of as existing between two points in Alaska it has no further meaning than that a man, and possibly a beast of burden, may travel that way over the natural surface of the ground. There is a very strong improbability concerning the beast, unless it be a dog. The path may consist of nothing more than a marked or blazed way through an otherwise impen- etrable wilderness, and unless it is used more or less con- tinuously the traces are apt to disappear in one of Alaska's seasons. Xo eager prospector stops to make it any easier for someone else. A man carrving his food, his cooking utensils, and working tools on his back, has no time nor dis- position to cut down trees. When he comes to an unfrozen stream he wades it, or if a tree has fallen across it, so mucli ALONG DYEA CANON 79 tlio better. The Cliilkoot trail 2)ossesses the advantage of having been nsed by miners since 1880, but it was hiid ont 1:»y Indians, who are too lazy to improve it; and, besides, they make a living because it is almost impossible for pack animals to go over it. The opening of Alaska may put an end to all this, so far as the Dyea trail is concerned. Dyea Canon is a crevice in the mountains about two miles long and fifty feet wide, with a raging river at the bottom. The topography abruptly changes. Great boul- ders are piled in confused heaps, and the snow-laden stumps of trees and upturned roots stick out in fantastic shapes. We kept to the iee when we could, but frequently took to steeper and rougher }>aths. For a short distance the grade is about eighteen degrees, until an elevation of five hundred feet is reached, and then the trail descends slightly to Pleasant Camp, which is not far from the mouth of the canon. It is a spot which is anything Init " pleasant," ac- cording to the significance of that term in civilized regions. It is applied here because a few trees have had the good fortune to get a living there, and they afford a kind of shelter and a convenient place for a camp. The trail from Pleasant Camp to Sheep Camp was fairly good, at an average elevation of five hundred feet, and with but few shnr]) jiitches. The cam]! itself is in a valley or canon about half a mile wide, with very high, steep, and rocky mountains on either side. The white summit of the Chilkoot towers three thousand feet above, but we caught only glimpses of it in the fickle storm. Xo timber grows above us. It is a frowning ]ficture and it tells on faint hearts. As we slowly dragged our loads, we met more than one mau who had turned back, unt caring to l)rave the ]iass for all the oold tliat niiiiht be on the other side. Alaska 80 SHEEP CAMP AND ITS REVELATIONS OF CHARACTER is no place for a man who, becoming- discouragecl at the hrst serious obstacle that presents itself, leaves a camp where \w sees women keeping up hearts as strong as iron, and turns his back. Sheep Camp is a favorable ])lace to discover the differ- ence in men and to see what some women are made of. AVe came across one man completely disheartened and limp, right at the foot of that great climb of three thousand five hundred feet, pleading piteously with his wife to turn back, while she, not half his size, but with wonderful nerve, bustled about their snowy camp in the bitter cold, con- stantly wearing a smile and cheering up her forlorn mate in every possible way. How will slie get him over the sum- mit? I thought. But she did. She just told him that she was going- over anyho^v, and that if he wanted to go back he could. She had a woman's shrewdness. She knew that, much as he feared to go ahead with her, he would not dare to go back without her. Shortly after pitching- our tent at Sheep Camp I looked out and saw a slim woman swinging an axe at a small hem- lock. Her tent was near l)y and she seemed to be alone. With a spirit of gallantly, Avhich, T am glad to say, is never altogether lost in mining life, I walked over and offered my assistance. She wanted the tree for a fire, and I soon had it in front of her tent ready for a blaze. She had been making trips to the summit of the pass all day, carrying packs of twenty-five pounds, and was then preparing the camp for her husband, who had gone to the summit with the last load. Her clothes were wet through; she was lame and tired, but she laughed good-naturedly as she told me some of her experiences on the awful trail, how she had slipped ofi" a log and fallen into the river and an Indian EXHILARATING FREEDOM 81 had pulled lier out by the collar of the thick coat she wore. But it must not be thought that all women along the trail were as brave as tliis. There were exceptions. I saw one sitting down and having a good cry, crying for home and other women to talk to, perhaps, for carpets, and baker's bread, and the gossip of the city, and the comforts of civilized life. Her husband, who was pretty blue him- self, was tiying to comfort her. I noticed that she still clung to her petticoats. One could not fail to notice many instances, however, in which tlie women seemed to show a fortitude superior to the men. It was a revelation, almost a mystery. But after a wliile I began to account for it as the natural result of an escape from the multitude of social customs and restraints which in civilized society hedge about a woman's life. Hardened miners enter on the Alaskan trail as a sort of gi'im business, something a little worse than they have been accustomed to, and yet much the same. The stimulus received from the novelty of the situ- ation is much less than in the case of a woman, especially one who has not been used to roughing it. She steps out of her dreSvS into trousers in a region where nobody cares. Her nature suddenly becomes aware of a freedom which is in a way exhilarating. She has, as it were, thro\\Ti off the fetters which civilized society imposes, and while re- taining her womanliness she becomes something more than a mere woman. Her sensitive nature is charmed with the new conditions, and her husband, who has had the advantage of no such metamorphosis, sits down, tired and disheartened by the obstacles in his path, and marvels at his wife as she drags her heavv rubber boots throuch the 82 THE THUNDKKOUS CRASH OP FALLING ICE snow and climbs; with a light liL-art the precipices of mighty mountains. Tlie weather was fairly good wdiile Ave were bringing our stores up to Sheep Camp, but as soon as we had them settled there and were ready to begin on the summit it be- came ferociously cold. The mercury fell to eighteen de- grees below zero, the snow flew at intervals, and at times the wind would swoop down through the valley like an avalanche, rolling from the great peaks above us. On one side of the valley is a large glacier. We could stand at the entrance of our tent, looking across the canon, and see it very plainly, about two miles a^vay. A w^all of ice eighty or ninety feet high marked its lower end, and occasionally a great piece of ice would break off and c»me rolling down into the valley. Tlie earth would tremble and the roar of the mighty crash was like a |>eal of distant thunder through the mountain gorges. TA^dce while I was watching I saw gTeat pieces of ice many times larger than the great sky- scraping buildings of Chicago break away and come tumb- ling into the caiion below. The scenery was sublime, but the weather continued abominable and we were detained at this camp for Uyo weeks. Few thought of venturing over the summit under such conditions. The wind must be still and tlie sky clear. Once, when the prospects seemed brighter, we strapped on our packs and started out, but soon it began to storm again. "We met a party of Indians and prospectors who had started earlier and had cached some of their goods at a ]>oint well up on the trail and were going back to wait again. They warned us that it was dangerous to attempt an ascent, but as we had light packs and tho wind was blowing in our direction we decided to push ahead. The trail grew worse, AMONG THE SILENT HILLS 83 the wind increased and sifted the snow across the track so that we could not fail to recognize the serious dangers of a misstep. And so we followed the others back to camp. It was a very dreary camp during those two weeks. There was no laughter there. The everlasting hills and the apparently everlasting storm hung over the little valley like a harsh penalty. Difficult as it is to follow the trails, there is nothing so hard as to keep still in these regions, especially when the mercury is far below zero. We got along very comfortably, however, as our tent was a good one and we had plenty of blankets. There were about a hundred others in the camp, but they kept closely to their tents most of the time. Indeed, wdien the wind went down the stillness over that little clump of white habitations among the stunted trees was almost appalling. No hum of industry or sound of sociability disturbed the silence. Cut oif from the world, a man feels himself dwindling into a mere atom amkl these silent, everlasting hills. He feels almost like speaking in whispers when, suddenly, on the op- pressive stillness there breaks a sharp report like a claj? of thunder, and it goes on roaring, and dies away grumbling and murmuring amid the mountains. Then all is still again. A glacier has moved. Here is where iSTature is working. She is young yet, the hills have not been ground down. But in her youthful, untamed moods she is terrible. The anomaly presented by the region forced itself more clearly upon us when we considered that we were practi- cally in the same latitude as St. Petersburg, where the bril- liant court of a great enrpirc is held. AVe were still eight hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle. We were hardly 84 THE CAMP ASTIK. iivc huiulreJ feet above tlie sea level, but in an inhospitable region, where heroic courage and endurance are requisites; a wilderness with the snow and ice around and above us. At last the clouds passed away, and the sun shone out for a time with dazzling brightness. The white peaks above us fairly glowed. The little camp was alive. CHAPTER V THE DREADED CHILKOOT PASS — HOW WE CROSSED IT — SLIDING DOWN THE MOUNTAINS AT LIGHTNING SPEED — "THERE COMES A WOMAN." A Steep Trail — Climbing the Mountain Forty Times — Some of the Diiliculties — Missteps that are Dangerous — Straight up over Seven Hundred Feet — An Obscure Summit — Facilitating the Re- turn — Trousers Fortified with a Canvas Patch — A Slide in the Trench — Tobogganing Outdone — A Collision — Out of Sight in the Deep Snow — " There Comes a Woman " — Down Like a Flash — Runaway Sleds — An Alaskan Sunburn — Snow-blindness — A Painful Experience — On the Summit at Last — A Grand Spectacle — Turning Sleds Loose down the Mountain — Bounding over Crater Lake — Lake Lindeman — Observing the Timber — The Ir- responsible Indian — Signaling by Burning Trees — Ice-sledding across Lindeman — Lake Bennett — Flapjacks and Congratulations. FROM Sheep Camp to tlie summit of Chilkoot Pass is about four miles, and we determined to carry all our things up on our backs. The trail was so steep most of the way that it would have been impossible to haul more than a hundred pounds on a sled, and added to this would be the weight of the sled. The latter part of the way is altogether too perpendicular for comfortable sled- ding. It is a steady ascent from the camp to the " Scales," which is a flat place at the fqot of ^' the last climb." The grade from the camp to Stone House, so called because nature seems to have arranged the rocks with more sym- metry than usual, and that is saying very little, is from 6 (85) 86 FORTY TRIPS TO THE SUMMIT twelve to eiiilitecn degrees; from tlicre to the ** Scales " it is about twenty-five degrees, aud from that place to the summit about thirty degrees, though the last ascent is nearer thirty-five. The ascent is one thousand nine hun- dred and fifty feet in the first three miles, and one thousand two hundred and fifty in the next mvle. This does not look great on paper, and it is not; for mountain climbers are every day ascending steeps as great and twice as high. But they are not compelled to take along all they are to have to eat, to wear, and to use for a year or more. Therein lies one of the main difficulties in proceeding to the interior of Alaska. If one could depend upon warehouses within easy reach, could buy what he wanted as he journeyed from place to place, traveling in Alaska would have a few pleasures in it. At least it would not be difficult. Joe and I were compelled to make forty trips over these steep places to get our outfit to the summit, and climbing a mountain forty times with a heavy pack on the back is dif- ferent from climbing it once almost empty-handed and for fun. Many took all their goods to the Stone House at first, and then by another stage carried them to the " Scales " ; then by another to the summit. AVe adopted difl^erent tac- tics. Having strapped our packs on, we continued to the foot of the last ascent, and there if the weather was bad we would leave them, otherwise we continued on to the sum- mit. As the wind was blowing most of the time, this re- sulted in our having most of our outfit at the foot of the final ascent before we had many opportunities to view the summit, or any at all to indulge in a view from it. The trail up to the " Scales " looks smooth when the snow lies decjD OA^er it, but it is, nevertheless, difficult, and A TREACHEROUS TRAIL 87 by a single misstep the traveler may find himself bnried to the armpits. Underneath are great masses of rocks, and part of the way fallen trees, but the timber belt ends com- pletely at Stone House. One of the difficulties in the ascent lay in successfully passing those who were descend- ing for another load, for the way is exceedingly narrow, and one must not step out of the trail except with the great- est caution. Occasionally a man would find himself at the bottom of a crevice forty feet or so below the trail, and he could make his way back only with the greatest difficulty. The last climb of nearly seven hundred feet up a moun- tain peak that seemed to rise almost straight before us was the hardest of all. The trail winds in zigzag fashion in and around the boulders and over the glacial streaks, but at this time it was covered with snow, in some places fifty feet deep. In tlie steeper places steps were cut in the ice and snow, and in taking a pack up one was compelled to lean forward and use his hands on the icy steps. Occasionally a tired man would make a misstep, or his foothold caved off, and down the precipice he rolled, landing in the soft snow, from which he had to extricate himself and again attempt the tiresome climb. Its was drudgery in its simplest and purest form. One hundred pounds was the most that either of us could take, and then it required an hour to cover that seven hundred feet to the summit, which we generally found covered with a blinding snow storm or bathed in an ice-fog. Fortunately, in returning we could make up for lost time. So steep and so treacherous was the trail, and so many were working up it, that the descent by the steps for another load was as trying work as the ascent. The grim mother of invention again came to the rescue. Nearly everybody fortified the seat of his trousers by sewing on a S8 LIKE RIDING AN AVALANCHE piece of canvas, aiul as there was a short cut back to the bot- tom of the trail, straight and smooth bnt too steep to climb, it was brought into use for the purposes of returning, a trench being formed thereby. One would sit down in this trench at the top, and just hold his breath till he struck the bottom. He need not hold it long. It took less time to slide down than it takes to tell of it. Once started there was no opportunity to stop, and no time to consider such a question. I remember that at the first trial I picked myself out of the snow" and thought I would give up that sport. It seemed a little too much like riding an avalanche bareback, I was so much larger and heavier than the rest that gravity gave me a greater speed. In places the ditch was as much as four feet deep, but in other places it w\as shallow, and there was danger of jumping the track. Once I ran into a little man and w^as thrown completely out of the groove. Down the mountain side I plowed, plunging entirely out of sight in the soft snow at the bottom. I picked myself out and was not in the least hurt. The little man righted himself somehow, and came doAMi the groove in good order. After awhile the experience began to have the flavor of true sport, and the more we tried it the better we liked it. The women Avere a little timid at first, but they looked as if they would like to try it. " I'll try it if you w^ill," they kept saying to one another. Standing at the bottom and seeing men come down the seven-hundred-foot groove, it looked easy, but when standing at the summit and looking down was something appalling. Finally, as w^e were about to start up with a pack, some one shouted, " There comes a woman." We could see her fidgeting a little at the top; tlien she WTapped her coat about her, dropped into the trench, and COASTING DOWN THE HILLS 89 down she came like a flash. She picked herself up out of the snow rosy and smiling. Then this method of descent became general. They seemed to enjoy it as much as the men, but most of those whom I saw going down were of the (lance-hall variety. It appeared to be a little too much for the staider matrons, even in men's clothes. Occasionally, on our way back to Sheep Camp for a load we also saved a little time by securing a ride on some one's sled. There was one hill, quite steep and over a mile long. By having one man to guide the sled, and another to run a stout stick down through the center for a brake, a small load of men could slide to the bottom in a very short time, and generally without mishap. An experienced man will guide these sleds with a pole about six feet long very cleverly, but the inexperienced sometimes make bad work. There were nmaway sleds about every day, and generally some one was hurt. But in such places nothing is serious, so long as a man escapes with his life. It is, however, in the milder winter months only that the difficult ascent can be varied with such amusements as these. After the snow has melted the trail becomes one of confused boulders, roaring streams, and creviced glaciers. To be sure, we suffered from the cold, and sometimes severely, but, on the Avhole, going over the summit is much pleasanter at this season than in the rains of the summer months, when the trails quickly become muddy and the streams must be forded. On my trip over I suffered from sunburn more than anything else. It may sound strange to speak of sunburn when clambering over snow many feet deep, but when in Alaska the sun begins to shine, it is wnth a blazing fierce- ness. My epidermis was well hardened before I started for 90 SUNBURN AND SNOW-BLINDNESS Alaska, but some of the time, wliile working over the pass, my face became so swollen that I could hardly see out of my eyes. It was exceedingly painful, and often kept me awake nights when T was very tired. AVhen the wind blew and the snow flew, my face would smart as if burned by steam. Many of us learned to blacken our faces with burnt cork or charcoal, and this served not simply to protect the skin somewhat, but to protect the eyes. AVe were gruesome objects with our black faces and goggles. Snow-blindness was another serious danger. Snow glasses are an absolute necessity in Alaska, and especially when going over the snowy passes in the full blaze of the sun ; and one must be very careful about taking them oif. Occasionally, when several of us would be trudging up the steep path together a cry would be heard. Some one had suddenly become snow blind, and had to be led back to camp. Such unfortunates would suffer intense pain, and would not regain their sight for three or four days. But at last we have reached the summit of that snow- wrapped peak towards which we have been making our wa}'- for twenty-three days. Fifteen miles in twentv-tliree days! After such a journey there should be something besides the mere consolation of having at last conquered the obstacles in the path. There is. It is a great temptation not to throw off the snow-glasses, as we stand on that dazzling summit. The clouds have been blown away for a time. The whole scene lies under the fierce sunlight of an Alaskan April day. And what a picture! It seems not of this world; it is so strange, so unique. Almost at our feet is the little armlet of the Pacific which we left nearly a month ago, and bevond that and this side of the great Pacific a hun- "nature's fierce artillery" 91 dred miles away, stretch the snow peaks and their shining glaciers. " Silence reigus! the awful stillness Like a phantom presence lingers All unseen, but felt so plainly That it seems to touch the senses. "Far away the mountain ranges Pile in wild unclassed confusion, Eagged peaks, extinct volcanoes, Rounded knolls and wave-like hillocks Clustering near or stretching outward Far beyond our wondering vision: Snow-clad all, or maybe sliiniug Underneath an icy garment. Glacier, cliff, and mountain shoulder Leaning close against the other, By the ice-keen chisels blended, Until ice and stone are welded In a firm eternal union. " Crash and boom! the silence wakens With a shock, whose mighty roaring Rends the clouds with thunderous pealing! Sends its varying detonations Rolling o'er the bay's clear surface! Bounding forth o'er mountain summits Where their echoes catch its thunders And repeat them loudly, wildly, As if Nature's fierce artillery Joined its mightiest cannonading In one grand, triumphant salvo! In a thousand-voiced announcement Of an iceberg's bold departure On its evanescent journey." Turning in the other direction we behold the hills mel^ ing nway into the great watershed of the mighty Yukon, which runs its winding course to the Bering Sea throe thou- sand miles. At our feet lies the first of the frozen lakes.; a 0'2 ACROBATIC INDIANS body of water lying in an okl crater and now covered with ice and snow. This is the next stage of our journey, and the old adage that it is easier to fall than to climb was illus- trated in Chilkoot style. The descent to the lake, which is five hundred feet, is smooth and straight, and the Indians, wlu) were packing for parties on the trail, securely tied their ])acks to sleds, mounted them as a clown would mount a circus donkey, and off they went. The sleds shot down the decline with terrific speed and bounded off on to the frozen lake, sometimes going eight hundred yards before stopping. But for the snow^ they would have gone much further. Sometimes a sled would swerve a little or strike a slight ob- stacle and the Indians would fly off into the air and roll like bimdles to the lake. A -perpendicular bank about six feet high stretches around the lake, and this the sleds would clear with a long leap to the ice below, and he was a good Indian who stuck. As the sleds seemed to go equally well without Indians as with, we concluded to let ours go alone. They behaved nicely, and clambering down the decline after them we drew them on across the lake, where they were unloaded, and we then pulled them back for another load and a slide. At the end of the lake we cached our provisions and pushed on with our tent and a few articles to Lake Lindeman. The trail at this season is not difficult, as trails go in Alaska. The lakes were frozen and the only impediment on them was the snow, wdiich in plac-es was soft and wet. The lengthening days were beginning to have their effect on the lower lands. Crater Lake is not more than a mile in diameter, and the outlet is over a lava bed of rough boulders. Long Lake lies a little lower, and is studded with glaciers. The traveling becomes tedious, difficult, and slow, and the LAKE LINDEMAN 93 greatest care must be used in places, the dangers of which may be hidden by the weakening snow. After passing Deep Lake, we follow a dim trail, almost indiscernible at times, and then, from the top of a rough little hill, Lake Lindeman lies below. It is said to be less than ten miles from the summit to Lindeman. It seems twice that distance, but we managed to bring up our entire outfit in four trips, and were the best part of three days in doing it. In the summer we were told the natives maintained what were called ferries on this chain of little lakes, but the charges were enormous and many preferred to keep to the trails, trying though they were. From the Stone House to the vicinity of Lindeman not enough wood can be found to start a fire. At first we came to little clumps of short, scrubby pines or spruce, scarcely three feet high and twisted into all sorts of fantastic shapes by the winter gales, but around Lindeman could be found a few fair-sized trees, though few were over thirty feet high. They are mainly confined to varieties of spruce, yellow cedar, hemlock, and balsam fir, but spruce everywhere pre- dominates, and its lumber resembles that of southern or pitch pine. The hemlock is less plentiful. White spruce is the staple timber, and though in some places near running streams it attains the height of from fifty to one hundred feet, it is most commonly found below forty, and averaging about fifteen inches at the butt. It is a fairly clear white wood, straight grained, and easily worked, light, and yet very tough. It endures the weather well, and a log house built of it is good for over twenty years. It abounds in a light and delicate looking gum, and those addicted to the chewing-gum habit can always be sure of a supply. 94 SIGNALING BY BURNING TREES Good timber, however, was not plentiful at Lindeman, even at this time. Much of it had been burnt off. In the summer, we are told, when the Indians are resting on their journeys and are pestered bv insects, they set fire to the leaves and twigs about them and then sit in the dense smoke which keeps a few of the mosquitoes at a distance. After his rest the native goes fonvard without extinguishing his fire, and as the vegetation is rank and inflammable in the long summer days, the fire quickly spreads to the trees and to the forests. The Indian also has a way of signaling by burning trees. When in a locality wdiere he expects to find his friends or family, he sets fire to a tall spruce, and then calmly sits down and watches the horizon for an answering column of smoke. The wind will fan these flames into a fierce forest fire in a short time, and the Indians are too ut- terly indifferent to think of putting them out. Some gold pilgrims, worn out by the arduous tramp over the pass, pitched their cainps at Lake Lindeman to await the ]:)reaking up of the ice, meanwhile entering upon the con- struction of a boat which they fondly hoped would diminish the tediousness of the further trip. But the ice was in such excellent condition here and the timber so poor that we de- cided to push on. Lake Lindeman is a narrow piece of water six miles long, hemmed in with ragged hills. It is close to the bound- ary line between the territory of the United States and that of Queen Victoria. On the cone of an immense boulder on the left, as w^e looked down the frozen lake, fluttered the Stars and Stripes, and from another staff close by waved the ensign of Great Britain. Both had been tattered in the gales from the great regions of the Xorth. A stiff breeze was blowine; in our direction as we started SLEDDING ON THE ICE 97 from the head of the lake. The snow was not deep except in spots; so, rigging up sails on our sleds, we fastened them together, and away we sped with a load of one thousand two hundred pounds. This was sport. Taking a position on the back of the sleds we used two long poles as a rudder, though it was a severe task on the arms. Occasionally we would run into a drift of snow and the speed would slacken, or we might stop altogether while the mnd tore over our sails in a threatening manner. Then we would jump out, pull tlicm beyond the drift, jump on, and resume our steer- ing. In this way we made the length of the lake in forty minutes. Others adopted the same tactics, and the scene of these ice sleds sailing over the lake, which seemed like a great canon, was indeed picturesque, and very much pleasanter than the raft trips made later in the season, when the wind is likely to " kick up " a lively sea and drench the poor gold-seeker and his goods. He has usually by this time become so hardened and so accustomed to the ways of the country, that he does not mind such a little matter as a wet skin, and a camp in the snow or on the spongy lowlands. The portage from Lake Lindeman to Lake Bennett is along a rocky canal which plunges into a canon filled with boulders. The stream cut through a wall of granite and basaltic formation for three-quarters of a mile, and has a fall of forty feet. The latter part of the portage is over a sandy ridge, away from the stream and much better traveling. Here many of the gold-seekers decided to camp and build their boats, but as the weather was fair and the travel- ing on the ice easy, we concluded to push to the other end of the lake, or further, before going into camp. Lake Ben- nett, so named by Seliwatka after James Gordon Bennett, is thirtv-four miles Ion"', and from one to two miles in width. 98 NO WORSE TRAVELING THIS SIDE THE MOON About foiirtG'en miles down, the southwest arm of the lake joins it, and from its hills fierce winds usually blow. Thus the trip over the lake is much more comfortable on the ice than on the water. We made the first trip in one day. The wind favored us, and we exchanged services with a man who was endeavoring to take in some horses, which helped us very materially. On the second trip, however, when compelled to depend on ourselves, we had head winds, and we were three days in making the single trip. It was hard work at that. At Caribou Crossing, which separates Lake Bennett from Tagish Lake, we learned that there was some open water beyond. The crossing is a neck of sluggish river, and is so named because the caribou use it in their migrations south in the spring and north in the fall. The ice and snow were growing very soft under the sun of the lengthening days, though the air from the peaks continued cold. AVe determined to halt at Tagish Lake and luiild the craft upon which we were to depend to take us down the upper waters of the Yukon. '' I guess the worst is over for a time," said Joe that evening, as we sat by the little box of a stove devouring flap- jacks as fast as they could be cooked., AVe both were hungry and kept well ahead of the stove. " Our health has been good, anyhow," I remarked; " but I don't belicA-e there is any worse traveling this side of the moon. And there is one consolation, I'm thinking, Joe, whatever society we have will at least be made up of persons of grit. Anybody who gets over here has got to be made of stout stuff, even though it is put together wrong. If you had just sat down in 'Frisco and told me in detail what this tramp would be, I think I should have looked on it HUNGRY PILGRIMS 99 as a rather long and at times agreeable method of premedi- tated suicide." " Well, it may amount to that yet," said Joe, as he turned over another flap jack, eagerly waiting for it to brown. I had finished mine, and was patiently waiting for my turn to brown another. CHAPTER VI CAMP LIFE IN ALASKA— WE BUILD A BOAT TO CONTINUE OUlt JOUKNEY— ADVENTUKES WITH BEARS. Our Camp at Lake Tagish — Building a Boat — The Saw Pit — Pre- paring the Trees — WhijJ-sawiug — Its Effect on Character — An Accident — Almost a Quarrel — A Case in Which Angels Would Lose their Amiability — Spoiling the First Log — "Work it Some- how" — The Dish-Kag and the Dog — A Bargain — Adventure of a New Yorker with a Bear and Three Cubs — An Excited Man — He Empties His Gun and Nearly Kills His Dog — I Lend Him My Kifle — The Bear Finally Gives It Up ~ Catching the Cubs — Tough Hams — Our Triumphant Return — An Old Timer's Bear Story — Face to Face with a Wounded Bear — Playing Possum — Just in Time — A Narrow Escape — " Dou"t Go Off Half-Cocked." IT was the first of May wlieii we went into camp near Tagisli Lake, which is nsnally reckoned as al)ont sixty miles from Dyca. Although we had made much better time after crossing the Chilkoot, we had averaged less than two miles a day on the whole tramp, and now we were destined to lie in camp for an indefinite tiine while building our boat and waiting for the river to be safely free of ice. But this, bear in mind, was before anything was known of the Klondike. AVhile some were hurrying along as fast as they could, and faster than was safe, the majority were taking time, and really enjoying their rough fare in camp after the ordeals of the pass. The location was very good for camping purposes, and as four or five other parties were (100) BOAT BUILDING AT TAGISH LAKE 101 there building their boats we did not lack for company. We were also afforded a little opportunity to study the methods of boat-building in these primitive regions. I knew nothing at all about the construction of boats and Joe's experience had been small. Very soon I came to the conclusion that all the knowledge about boats there was in the whole camp would not have taken a man far out to sea. But Joe pretended that he knew all about it, and I had the greatest confidence in his judgment, mainly because he had been over the route before. The first essential in building boats a la Yukon is to know what constitutes suitable trees, and the next is to find them. Two logs w^oulcl be sufficient, if they would cut nine-inch boards, but the great majority of the trees will not allow it. After roaming about for some time Joe found three which he thought would do, and these we cut down and dragged to a place near the lake. The next essential is a " saw-pit." As little boat-build- ing had been done at this lake we could not avail oureelves of what someone else had left, but had to construct a pit of our own. We hunted about for four trees near the beach, standing as nearly as possible in the same relation to each other as the corners of a rectangular parallelogram. These, when found, we cut off about six feet from the ground, thus constituting the four legs or support of the platform. The tops of these stumps were then hollowed out so that logs could be laid across each pair, that is the narrow sides of the parallelogram. We fastened these cross-pieces, after a fashion, with spikes, and the saw-pit was complete. The only difficulty about this part of the process is that it is hard work, and takes time, and generally has to be done either while it rains or while it snows. The man who travels in 102 THE UNHALLOWED WHIP-SAW Alaska only when the weather is gocxl will make about a mile a month, on an average. And it is a country of mag- nificent distances. The pit being- ready, we squared off the butt ends of the logs and spotted them, that is, cut them the right length, and straightened them as well as we could with an axe. Skids were then placed against the pit and a log was rolled up to the platform ready to be sawed; also two others to serve as a sort of foot-rest for the victim destined to stand above. We then peeled off the bark and sap-wood, and with a chalk-line marked off two slabs. " You see," said Joe, " that will give you a good place on which to stand and see the chalk-marks when we come to saw off the boards." It looked very reasonable, like very many other theories which can be found without taking the trouble and risk of going to Alaska. "NVe put a wedge under the logs so as to prevent them from rolling while sawing off the slabs, and tlien the sa^\ang began; also the trouble. A whip-saw is a long, coarse-toothed saw, tapering to one end and with handles fixed to each end at right angles. It is an invention of the tempter. It ought to be sup- pressed. No character is strong enough to withstand it. Two angels could not saw their fii-st log' with one of these things without getting into a fight. I learned this gi-adually, however. I had allowed Joe to boss all proceedings, and when he said that I might stand on top while sawing off the slabs, I thought, perhaps, that out of the goodness of his heart he was gi-anting me a con- siderable privilege, for the man on top has only to pull up the saw while the one below imlls it down and does the cut- ting. So up I climbed, and, taking my end of the saw ^^^th IT PROVOKES PROFANITY 103 a light heart, we worked aw^ay at the butt end of a log for a while, and finally got the saw started on the chalk line. As a matter of fact, we both were green at this business. Pretty soon I was startled at hearing Joe swear. This was unusual. He was a man who swore only on great occasions. " What's the matter ? " I asked, looking down, and see- ing Joe's face distorted and his eyes blinking. " You mind your own end of it," he answered back, rather spitefully. I kept on pulling up the saw with a feeling that I was doing my duty, Avhen Joe shouted savagely: " Say, don't you know a chalk-line when you see it ? " " I'm not doing the sawing," I replied, " you pull the saw down, and if you don't keep on your mark I can't keep on mine." " Well, you just keep her running on your line and I'll look out for the under one," he retorted. I have not quoted him exactly. There are certain figures of speech used by men of strong natures, when angry, that look some- what harsh in print. I tried to pull the saw towards the mark, and did so, but soon it got to running the other side; then I steered it back, and so it went, wobbling around the line, till Joe, firing another chain-shot of forceful expres- sions, gave the saw a spiteful pull. The wedges slipped from under the slippery log I was standing on and it shot off the pit, saw and all, with a suddenness which would have turned a firecracker green with envy. I came down on my back on one of the little stumps under the pit. Joe stood watching me for a moment as I sat there rubbing sev- eral of my shorter ribs. " You're a dandy," he said, as he walked over and ex- tricated the saw. 7 104 IT ROUSES WRATH 1 felt that he was to blame for giving the saw such a spiteful pull, and my first impulse was to get up and have it out with him. We had been good friends for a long time. We were '' pardners " in all that that word signifies in a mining camp. We had shared all the hardships of the tramp, and I would have risked my life any day to save his, and I knew he would have done the same for me. We had braved the Chilkoot together and the severities of camp life in the snow, and here we were at odds over sawing a log; at odds before we had sawed five feet for the first slab. And we were to saw enough boards to build a boat. " See here, Joe," I said at last. " If I am to kill anyone over this business I'd rather it wouldn't be you. Suppose I swap off with someone in one of the other parties, and then you or I can have it out with some other fellow." But we finally made up, rolled the log up to the pit again and resumed. We managed to keep quiet for a long time under the greatest temptations. No two green men can follow a chalk line on their first log. One will be on one side of it on top and of course the saw will run on the other side on the bottom. The first log is nearly always spoiled and boards three-quarter-inch on one edge and one and a quarter on the other will be the result. Such boards will not do for w^ater-tight joints. We spoiled our first log and had several wordy tussles, and lost four or five days, and, I am afraid, came near losing our immortal souls. But finally we got down to work and towards the end sawed out as nice lumber as could be had at a sawmill. I found that the man on the under side had the worst of it, after all, for in pulling the saw down the saw dust spurts into his eyes, and the chalk-line is a more troublesome thing to contend with than when on top. It was more trying than SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS 105 the Chilkoot Pass. Others had similar experiences, and some of the boats turned out in that camp were fearful and wonderful to behold. Some of them looked like coffins; but we discovered afterwards, when we came to some of the rapids, that looks did not count. After one of the days of hard work, the one in which we had at last completed the sawing of the logs, and while I was washing the supper dishes in the lake through a hole in the ice, I began to reflect. The experience of whip- sawing had developed elements of danger which I had not suspected in the beginning, and I was now in the dark as to what new surprise might be lurking in the building of the boat, now that the lumber was ready. Joe was sitting in front of the tent, enjoying a smoke and the scenery. " Do you know how to put this lumber together ? " I asked. Joe twisted one leg over the other with the air of a man who knew exactly what was to be done, and was just self- sacrificing enough to impart a little of his knowledge to the ignorant. " It's easy enough," he said. " You see, in the first place, we must make the frame of her. We'll take some small poles and set them about two feet apart. The bottom piece must be ' half-scarfed,' or ' half -checked' ; that is, cut through at each end half way, at an angle at which the upright pieces are to stand. Midships the ribs will be nearly straight up and down, while at the bow they will be much more inclined. The bottom and sides of the ribs must be nailed firmly together, and then the boat is ready to be built. A platform of saw-horses and two planks must be made, and over these tlie ribs will be laid, bottom up. for that is the way she will be built." 106 "WORKING IT somehow" " I hope that's not the way she'll sail," 1 said. " The center jjlank, or keel piece," continued Joe, witliont noticing sncli a trivial interruption, " must be nailed down to the ribs first, and each rib then put in its proper place from stem to stern. Each bottom-piece must be nailed on in turn and brought up close. By the way. Bill, did you bring a boat-clamp ^ " " Xot that I know of." '*' I knew we'd forget something we would need, but we can work it somehow." I suggested no objections, having by this time learned that about the only way to do things in Alaska was " to work it somehow." " AVhen it comes to putting on the side planks," con- tinued Joe, " the ribs will have to be shaped a little, so as to bring the planks up close to them, so as not to have them rest on sharp edges, for, you see, I am going to give her a pointed nose and a square stern." " That seems reasonable and commendable," I said, as T threw the dish-rag at a dog that was sticking his nose into one of the kettles, and which thereupon picked up the rag, ran off a little distance, and began to eat it up. I was be- ginning to learn something of the ways of the country. " A stem-piece must be firmly attaqhed to the keel- piece," continued Joe, " and over this, to protect the bow of the boat, must be fastened a strip of tough wood, about three inches thick by four wide. Then comes the caulking. Anybody can do that." TVe had cut our lumber twenty-six feet long and eight inches wide. T suggested to Joe that the lumber did not seem to me long enough for a boat to take us and all our provisions. CATERING FOR THE CAMP 107 But Joe had been clown the river before, and he qnietly " allowed '' that he knew what sort of a boat was needed. In fact, I think he rather resented my criticisms, for he made the projiosition that he should build the boat him- self, and that I should look after the camp, do the cooking, and so forth. I agTced to the bargain readily, for I knew that these duties would give me much spare time, and my hunting instincts had been aroused by an occasional glimpse of game in the woods. So Joe kept at work on the boat, and nearly every day I shouldered my rifle and disappeared in the woods. Grouse and rabbit w^ere plenty about this place, and I brought in a great many, so we would have lived quite like epicures had I made fewer disastrous ex- periments in cooking. One day I ran across two mountain sheep, and I saw a good many moose and bear tracks, but they were difficult to trace, for the snow was nearly off the ground by this time and everything was beginning to look green. One day I started out with two other boys in the camp, one a fellow by the name of Cook, from New York. We were simply after any game we could find. Coming to a small hill in the timber, we separated, I to go one side. Cook the other, and the third fellow was to go to the top. I had gone on slowly for perhaps half a mile when I heard Cook's dog barking, and then Cook began shouting for us with all the strength of his lungs. I started on a brisk inin, imagining that he must have come across a dragon by the way he was shouting. The other fellow came tearing down the hill, too, and when I reached them they both were look- ing up a tall spruce and the dog was dancing about in a per- fect frenzy. Hanging to the limbs near the top of the tree were four 108 FIRING WIDE OF THE MARK bears, an old one and t.lircc cubs. Cook had never seen a bear before outside of a menagerie, and his excitement was such that he could hardly tell one end of the gun from the other. But according to the ethics of the woods they were his bears. His dog bad treed them, and it was bis privilege to do the shooting. His desire was to kill the mother and catch the cubs alive. He walked off a few steps and aimed, but I could see the muzzle of his gun wobbling like a weather-vane. He had a good, clear chance, but he did not hit her, nor anything else. But the next time he fired he crippled her, and down she came with a tremendous thump at the foot of the tree, wdiere she picked herself up and faced the dog, which, more brave than discreet, pitched into her. She gave him a savage little cuff, which sent him rolling through the underbrush, and Cook, who was scarcely thirty feet off, fired again and missed her. The dog began to dance around her again, and at Cook's next shot the dog ran away with a yelp. The bullet had grazed his neck. Cook was getting more excited than ever. He emptied his gun, and though the poor bear was too crippled to keep her feet she was still lively. I was longing for one shot at her, but I gave my gun to Cook, and after he had nearly emptied that the bear gave up the ghost. " Cook," said I, " if it takes two gunsfor one bear, w^hat would you do with two liears and one gun ? " " They die hard, don't they ? " " Unless you hit 'em." Then we turned our attention to the cubs. The other fellow volunteered to go up the tree, and when he had climbed as far as it would hold him, he cut off the top, and dowTi the cubs came, one of them getting his back broke. AVe rushed in to catch the others, and they scratched and LIVELY LITTLE CUBS 109 bit like demons. The one I had canght hold of was par- ticularly ferocious, and I carry on one hand a scar which he gave me. Cook had a tussle with his, but he was better at catching them alive than shooting them, and, after skin- ning the old bear and appropriating the hams, we started for camp, leading the two cubs, while the dog urged them on from behind. On the way. Cook slipped in crossing a ravine, dropped his cord, and in a twinkling his cub was up a tree. We had to cut oif the top of that one also before we had him again. We found the hams too tough to eat. That night one of the cubs broke his chain somehow and got away, so Cook had only one cub and a bear skin to show for all his shooting. Our exploit aroused considerable interest in the little camp that night, but Cook didn't enjoy it, as much sport was made of his marksmanship. These brown bears will sometimes fight very fiercely, and a man needs to keep a cool head and to be a good shot. " It would 'a been all day with you," said one of the old-timers who was coming in with us, " if you had shot like that when meeting the brown bear I once did. I was down at Cook's Inlet, washing gold from the beach sand, last year, and, a cold snap coming on, we were obliged to close work. I had two Indians with me, and as they were anxious to make a trip up the bay for some traps, and possibly to get some bear meat, they asked me for my Winchester rifle in exchange for a large single-shot. I complied, like a fool, and one day when I had got l)ack to the cal)in from pros- pecting, and it was too early to turn in, I went out and sat down not far from the beach to see if there were signs of the Indians returning. Suddenly I was thrown into a 110 A STARTLING ENCOUNTER lluttiT by eceiiig- two big brown bears walking leisurely along in my direction, not two hundred yards away. I crawled along in the grass to the cabin, and got the Indian's ritle, putting some extra cartridges in my pocket. I now wished for my six-shooter. I crept down towards the bank, and, sitting down in a cutting, tried to keep myself cool. Presently the nose of one of them came into view, a short distance from where I sat, and he saw me, and gave a deep angry growl. I had a good shot at his head, and he fell in his tracks. Then I started down the beach for the other. The report had alarmed him, and he was scampering away. I dropped on one knee, took a slow aim, and fired. He wavered a bit ;, evidently, the ball had struck home, but he turned in around the bank before I could get a second shot. I tried to track him, but couldn't, and I concluded he had some hidden shelter. I finally turned towards the cabin, and put the hammer of the gun down. I had hardly gone fifty yards, however, when, rounding the edge of some scrub bushes, I came right on the wounded bear, lying in the grass. He jumped to his haunches, his mouth streaked with foam, his eyes glaring defiance, and his whole air was so ferocious, and I had been taken so by surprise, that I have to confess I turned and ran. The bear gave instant chase. AVhen I had gone some distance I triiD]3ed and fell, and, looking back, expecting to see the bear close by, I saw that I had gained on him. I recovered my courage, and thought that if I fired and missed I would still have time to run on. But I waited too long. When he came within a few feet he raised himself on his haunches^ and I pulled the trigger, but, to my horror, it failed to act. I had, in my excitement, forgotten that I had put down the hamnier. Before I had time to recover myself he hit me a tennble PLAYING 'possum 111 blow on my left side. Instinctively I turned my face down- ward and played 'possum. He came up, sniffed about me, clawed me once or twice, and walked off' a little ways. My gun had been thrown off somewhere in the grass and was out of reach. I lay there for a minute, and finally the bear came back and clawed me some more. I was beginning to think he was going to turn me over, when I heard a shot, and the big bear dropped beside me. The Indians had come in just in time. When I got up I found that the blow of the bear had torn clear through my clothing and made an ugly wound in my side, which was bleeding freely. If I hadn't played 'possum I should have been a dead man." Every one appreciated the moral of this tale. When you are gunning for bear in Alaska, or anywhere else, do not go off " half-cocked." There was very little game of this sort about here, nor, indeed, is there much anywhere near the gold regions. The forest fires started by the Indians drive away the good game, and the pest of the mosquitoes in the summer is trying -to the bears. In some parts of Alaska there is a variety of bear called " silver-tip," which is very ferocious, and does not wait to be attacked, but attacks on sight. The miners, unless« traveling in groups and well armed, give it a wide berth. Though I saw many moose tracks while I was on my excursions, I never came across one. It usually requires a three or four days' hunt to come up with tliem. There are two species of caribou in the country; one, the ordinary kind, much resembling the reindeer, and the other called a wood caribou, which is a much larger and more beautiful animal. The ordinary caribou runs in herds and is easily approached, and, when fired at, jumps around and is as likely to run towards one as from him. At last, when several have been killed, the 112 A LONG RUN rest will start on a continuous run, and may not stop for twenty miles. The Indians kill them in large numbers sometimes, even when they have meat enough. They are rarely found, I was told, in two successive seasons in the same place. The mountain sheep which I found around here were pure white in color, but otherwise they resemble vers" much the gray ones found in the lower latitudes. But they have finer horns, more handsomely curved. CHAPTEE VII A DANGEROUS VOYAGE — OVERTURNING OF OUR BOAT — LOSS OF AN §800 OUTFIT — WE ESCAPE WITH OUR LIVES — HUNTING FOR A CAMP THIEF. We Name Our Boat the Tar Stater — More Handsome than Adequate — Drifting amid Scenes of Wild Grandeur — Magical Vegetation — Fifty Mile River — At the Mouth of the Canon — We Conclude to Pack Around — Several Boats Go Through — The Trail — An Offer to Take the Tar Stater Through for $5 — 1 Am Invited to Ride, and Accept — A Quick Repentance — Discarding Gum Boots — A Serious Catastrophe — At the Mercy of the Current — Clinging to an Overturned Boat — Over Again — Saved — A Four-Minute Ex- perience — The Milk is Spilled — Loss of an $800 Outfit — Recovering Our Boat — Towards White Horse Rapids — Disappearance of the Sugar Saved from the Wreck — I Am Mad — Strapping on My Gun — Looking for a Camp Thief — Sympathy for Us — A Phase of Yukon Life. WHILE I was acting as chief cook and wood-cutter, and was making excursions for game in tlie country, Joe kept himself busy with the boat, and I helped only when it was ready for the caulking. It was finished in about ten days, and was a very good speci- men, considering the tools we had to work with. I thought it looked small for the purpose of carrying our large outfit through very rough water, but Joe insisted that it was large enough, in spite of the warnings of one of the old-timers. But Joe had been over the river as well as the old-timer, and he was satisfied, I was a fair swimmer, and I knew (113) 114 A PICTURESQUE REGION that I could get out of any place that he could, so 1 kept still. We named her the Tar Staler, in honor of Joe's native State. Every boat on tlu^ lake had a name, and one could see all sorts of clumsy-looking boxes carrying the names of all the States in the Union and of prominent men from George Washington to Grover Cleveland. The ice continued to block the lake, being five or six feet deep in places, but the weather suddenly growing warmer, it broke and it seemed safe for us to embark. As we piled in our effects I saw that the boat was going to be pretty full, but Joe persisted that he knew what we wanted, and so off we started, w^orking our way through the cakes of ice, and finding no very open water till we reached the lower end of the lake, which is about twenty miles long. Running out from it are long arms, the most prominent of which are Windy Arm and Taku Arm, reaching far up between the terraced and evergreen hills. The group lies in a depression between the coast range and the main range of the Rockies, and altogether it is a very picturesque region, abounding in striking promontories with a continuous fringe of wooded landscape along the banks, and back of them the impressive mountains seamed mth little glaciers — gleaming like sil- ver ribbons — while, breaking out here and there, little rivu- lets leaped down precipitous heights and sometimes rose to the dignity of torrents. ]\[ile after mile of wildest grandeur glides by like a continuous panorama. At the mouth of Windy Lake are three small islands, and beyond them tower mountains of limestone and marble, and the beach abounds in marble of various colors. When we come to a little clear w^ater we find it so transparent that we can peer to the bottom of the lake and see the fragments of marble scattered about. From the junction of Taku POOR STICKS 115 Arm, of which little appears to be known, to the north end of the lake, the distance is about six miles, and the width for the greater part of the way is over two miles. It is a line piece of water, but apparently very shallow. At the lower end the river issues from it and flows six miles to Marsh Lake. It is not more than 150 yards wide, and some of the way not more than six feet deep. On its bank, about one and a half miles from the lake, the Cana- dian police and customs officers are stationed. On the other side are the Tagish houses, or council houses of the little band of Stick Indians which wander about the lake country, and which, until recently, were not allowed by the Tlingit tribes to come down to the coast to trade. The buildings, though the only ones in the interior of Alaska with any pretensions to skill in architecture, are little more than rough enclosures, and the natives are exceedingly poor specimens of humanity. They have a simple way of dis- posing of their dead, and one of their buryiug-places can be seen from the river. The departed one is laid on a pile of dried logs which have been smeared with grease. A fire is then started, but the remains are seldom thoroughly burned, only charred, and over this they hold their funeral services, which are too complex for the civilized mind. It is their delight to go to a funeral, and when they are employed in packing for the miners or upper Yukon travelers they will, on hearing of a death, at once drop their packs and not re- turn till the funeral is over. A little distance below the Tagish houses is the entrance to Lake Marsh, so named by Schwatka after Prof. O. C. Marsh of Yale, but most of the miners call it Mud Lake, though there is no good reason for such a name, and it is possible that it was originally given to the lower part 116 LAKE MARSH AND MOUNTAIN TERRACES of Tagisli Lake, which is shallow and in places somewhat muddy. Lake ]\Iarsh is about twenty miles long and two miles wide. Its shores are low, flat, and stony, and the waters are shallow. The boat must be kept to the left bank. When we went through, it was still full of ice, though it was rapidly disappearing under the sun, which was now ap- proaching its long summer course. Along the shores the vegetation was springing up as if by magic under its con- tinuous Vv'armth, while the rivulets formed by the melting- snow and glaciers tumbled over the rocks of the hillsides, falling in glittering cascades. The surrounding region ap- peal's low to us after what we have passed through, but it is picturesque in any season, the great terraces rising to high ranges on either side and not more than ten miles away. Prominent on the east stands ]\Iichie Mountain, five thou- sand five hundred and forty feet in height (so named from Professor Michie of West Point), and on the west Mounts Lome and Lansdowne, six thousand four himdred, and six thousand one hundred and forty feet high, respectively. Wild fowl are plentiful along the flats, but nothing alive abounds like the mosquitoes, which begin to come up in swarms from the swamps. The traveler finds the names of all the prominent features of the landscape of recent origin. ISTothing more clearly indicates the newness of the country. Of course the natives have long had their names for the prominent ob- jects, but they are seldom adopted by explorers. It is easier to go over the Chilkoot than to pronounce them as they pro- nounce them, for there is nothing in the English language sounding like their clicking syllables. ISTear the foot of Marsh Lake a stream called McClintock Kiver enters, and its valley is but yet little known, though it ijKrf'^^^ -itater down the side, and then went I'^G THEFT A CARDINAL SIN up to wnti'li ]n'()ceedings and to lit'lji one of tlie other boys down with his boat. We were gone some little time, and when we returned to our boat the sack of sugar was missing. I was mad. Some villain had stolen the most valual)le part of the provisions w'e had saved from the wreck; that was about all we had left of that eight-hundred-dollar outfit. I strapped on my six-shooter and went hunting for that sugar with a vengeance. Theft is one of the worst crimes a man can commit in this country, and it is not common. Only tcnderfeet who have not outgrown the privileges of life in civilized regions will dare commit it. Generally, anything can be left with perfect safety on the trails, provid- ing it is out of the reach of dogs. There are no storehouses, and traveling necessitates leaAdng articles of value all along the route. Traveling would be impossible but for a rigid regard for other people's property. It is the unwa-itten law of the land, and it comes as naturally to the Indians as to any one. Morose, superstitious, utterly ungrateful, and never to be believed, these Indians rarely touch a thing that belongs to any one else. They will leave their own belong- ings all along the trail, and they will be often passed, but no one thinks of touching them. They know they will be there when they return. I knew it was some white man who had taken the sugar, and I went through the boats with fire in my eye. It would have been easy to find it had it been there, but it was not. On the other hand, everybody was in perfect sympathy with my attempt to find the thief, and if he had been found they tvould liave given liim, then and there, wdiat, in the ])arlance of the Yukon, is called a " jig-in-air " at the end of a rope. It was lucky, perhaps, that I did not find him, for I was in a dangerous mood. I could have shot him dead and no one A CROWD OF SYMPATHIZERS 127 would have said a word against it. I should have been criti- cised if I had failed to. Two or three boats had gone on through the rapids, and the thief had evidently taken the sack just as he was putting off, in the expectation of escaping safely. It would not have been so serious had he taken something from a party that was well-stocked with provisions, but taking it from us who had lost nearly everything but that, was sufficient to raise the indignation of the whole camp to the boiling point. The fellows offered us all we wanted. We suf- fered for nothing. We could make ourselves at home in any tent there. There are some rare qualities in the rough breasts of the pilgrims of the Yukon, a consideration for the condition of others which is not always found in a softer climate and in an easier life. CHAPTEE VIII SOME THRILLING EXPERIENCES — DISCOVERY OF THE THIEF — HIS SUMMARY PUNISHMENT— PICTURES BY THE WAY. Through the White Horse Rapids in an Empty Boat — Close Shave for tlie Tar Stater — Rough to Experience but Interesting to Watch — Overtaking Three Boats — I find the Sack of Sugar and tlie Thief — Swift Preparations for a Lynching Bee — "Say the Word and Up He Goes " — I Refuse — " Nothing Less Than Fifty Lashes, Then " — I Administer Them on the Thief's Bare Back — The Victim Becomes a Good Citizen — Lake Lebarge and Tagish Indians — Eggs for a Change — In the Twilight of the Midnight — Nature in Her Great Work — Cutting Down Hills and Valleys — Where Eagles Nest — Twisting and Turning — Five Fingers — Rink Rapids — Arrival at Fort Selkirk — A Touch of Civilization — The Route Marked with Graves of the Fallen — Reflections on the Journey. THERE were, as I remember, six boats witb ours at the entrance of Wliite Horse Rapids, and we all went throngh in safety, but it was a thrilling ex- perience. We were swept along over the raging torrent, which here and there throws white spray into the air, a fact from which the rapids take their name. The foaming waves seem to come from every direction. Ragged rocks liang over the passage, the current sncking in under them, and at times we could have reached up and touched the rocks with our hands had we cared to. We had too much to do for amusement of that kind. The rapids extend straight away for nearly a quarter of a mile, and then take (128) SHOOTING WHITE HORSE RAPIDS , 129 an abrupt turn to the right. It is after passing the turn tliat the most dangerous part is encountered. With a stream that is two hundred yards wide, full of ugly boulders, coupled with a fall of two hundred feet in five-eighths of a mile, it is no wonder that this stretch of river has become the terror of Alaskan gold-hunters. If the cur- rent in the canon appeared to speed along with the swiftness of an arrow, that in the rapids seemed to equal the flight of a swift bird. The last hundred yards of the journey was particularly dangerous. At the spot called the " White Horse " the waters tumbled and tossed in most fantastic fashion, piling up the spray in long white columns ten or twelve feet high. There is a sheer fall of nine feet at that point. '' Joe, we're goners sure," I shouted, holding on in terror. But the Tar Stater took the plunge in a way that gladdened our hearts. True, it seemed that we would never come up; and, when we did, it looked as though we would never come down. Into the air the bow went, and when the boat again struck the water flew over us in a torrent. We thought that the next moment would see the Tar Stater sink, but she did not. I think it was the swiftness of the current that kept her afloat. At any rate, we reached shore safely, but wet through to the skin. If anybody imagines that shooting the White Horse Rapids is easy or pleasant he is very much mistaken. There may be some pleasure in boasting of having shot these fearful Avaters, but it is the height of folly to run the risk. Many go through safely in empty boats, but they are at the mercy of as angry a bit of water as there is in Alaska, and there are a great many such places. The summer before we went through, it was said that thirteen persons lost their 130 SUGGESTIONS OF GLACIAL DAYS lives there, and all because they preferred to take the risk than to drag the boat around. It requires but a minute or so to shoot through, but days to get an outfit around. Terrible as is the experience, there are few places more sublime to the view. Standing on the bank in safety, the eye is charmed by the waters that leap and foam around the highly-colored rocks. You may watch it for hours and turn away with regret, and if the eye wanders off it rests on the somber stretches of trees, in their varying colors, the luxuriant grass, and the tundra, while standing like ghostly sentinels over all are the snowy peaks in the dis- tance. Everything is on a grand scale, and one acquires a faint realization of what this planet must have been in those untrimmed, uncut, glacial times when the earth was dotted ^^'ith raging waters like these, and mammoths stalked or crawled about the gloomy hillsides. Below the rapids the river flows swiftly on for several miles, much of the time between gravel banks, but the water is smooth, the banks one hundred and fifty yards apart, and no obstacles except bars appear; so we made good progress. The current becomes less and less as the river turns northward through the same wide valley. The Ijluffs along the bank are of white silt, which gives a cloudy yellow tint to the waters. About thirteen miles down we come to the mouth of the Tahkheena River, a muddy stream about seventy-five yards wide, flowing in from the west. Its sources are near the Chilkat Pass, and its waters flow through a large body of water named Arkell Lake, not far from the Dalton trail. Tt is said to have been formerly used by the Chilkat Indians in reaching the interior, but now it is seldom used, though its waters are said to be navigable from the head of the lake down. "hang the man who steals anything!" 131 Onr little party of six or seven boats kept close together as we drifted down the rapid stream, and, towards evening, as we were looking along the banks for a good place to camp, we came upon three boats and a little camp back from the bank. I had not forgotten the sngar; neither had the others. We disembarked with assnmed indifference, bnt I immediately raised some consternation by going through the boats. In one of them I found a sack of sugar. In less that a minute that boat and the man claiming it were covered with a dozen guns, but I was somewhat surprised to see my friends put a rope around his neck and lead him struggling towards a tree. The day before, when I was boiling with rage, I might not have said a word. I knew how heinous the crime of theft was considered in Alaska. But now I was somewhat taken aback by the swiftness with which my friends proposed to mete out jus- tice. The man could say nothing. He was badly fright- ened, and those who had been with him on the bank made no protest; and, if they had, we were too many for them. The rope was thrown over the limb of a neighboring tree, and a half a dozen men caught hold of it ready to pull. " Hold on a minute, boys," I said. " It strikes me it's pretty tough to hang a man for stealing a sack of sugar." '' Hang the man who steals anything! " said one of the old timers. " But I don't want to be too cruel on the fellow," I re- ])licd. " He may know better next time." The poor fellow was trembling like a leaf. His face was ghastly pale, and he looked at me with beseeching eyes. " Wal, it's your sugar," said one of the men, " and all you've got to do is to say the word and up he goes." " I won't do it," said I. " Settle it some other way." 132 EFFICACY OF THE LASH " He's got to be punished somehow," said the old-timer, in a determined tone, " and, if yon don't want to have him pulled up, you'll have to give him the lash. We sometimes does that." " All right," I said, knowing that some form of punish- ment would certainly have to be administered. So they made him take off his clothes down to his bare back, tied his hands together, and swung him up so that his toes barely touched the ground. " Kothin' less than fifty lashes," said the old-timer, handing me a piece of rope. So I began to lay it on, and the more I did so, the more T began to think he deser\'ed it. He stood it remarkably well, but finally began to cry w^itli pain, and I stopped. " Xothin' less than fifty," shouted the old-timer. So I kept on till the number Avas reached. It was a pretty tough-looking back he had when I finished, and he drew^ his shirt on with the greatest care. I came to know that man very well later on. Strange as it may appear, we grew to be friends, and he made a good citizen of Alaska. I never knew of his again taking a thing belonging to another. These primitive methods of punish- ment are quite effectual, after all. There would be fewer burglars and sneak thieves in the States if the lash were used publicly, instead of the so-called enlightened method of retiring them to a rather agreeable life in a prison, to which they take their own evil natures, and w'here they exchange lessons in criminality with their prison associates. Proceeding a few miles further, we arrived at Lake Le- barge, which lies nearly north and south, surrounded by mountains, those on the southeast presenting very abrupt and castellated forms, with summits of white limestone. It LAKE LEBARGE 133 is tliirty-one miles long with an average breadth of nearly five miles. Its southern half is somewhat wider, but then it narrows down to about two miles for a distance of about seven miles, and at the north end expands to about four miles again. The western shore is indented with shallow little bays. Just before reaching the place where it nar- rows there is a large island, the southern end flat, with gravel banks, and the other end rocky. The rocks are a bright red, and makes a very pretty picture against the other colors along the shore. The lake is about two thousand feet above the sea-level, and we found it rough sailing most of the time, though the wind held in our direction. Its rough w^ater is usually dreaded by miners, who sometimes are forced to camp on its banks for several days, till the wind goes down. The whole valley seems to be a great trough, sucking inland the south- erly winds, which are apt to prevail in the summer montlis. It is a favorite spot for the Tagish Indians, exceedingly filthy and degraded creatures, who will bargain almost any- thing they have for a little whisky, for which they have acquired a taste through the expanding trade of our Chris- tianized countries. The missionaries came at the same time, but their efforts have little effect on them. To them, the greatest importation of civilization is " fire-water." We made good progress on Lake Lebarge, in spite of its roughness. Other names have been given this body of water, and the Indians have one of their own. Its common name is derived from one Mike Lebarge, who not many years ago was engaged by the Western LTnion Telegra]ih Company, exploring the river and adjacent country for the purpose of connecting Europe and America by a telegraph line overland, except for the short distance at Bering Strait. 13-i IN THE BLAZE OF THE ARCTIC SUN The days had become so long by this tiiiie that we could travel nearly all the time, stopping only now and then for a square meal. It will be difiicult for anyone who has not been in the Arctic regions to form a good idea of the pictur- esque features of a sail along one of these lakes at this time of year. The shore of the large lake is fringed with a line of trees, which stretch back over the low hills, but over the tops of these trees towers the white line of mountains miles away. And above these mountains is the canopy of heaven. Around this circles the blazing sun, hour after hour. One does not realize what a relief the darkness is till he comes to a region like this, at a time when there is no darkness. On we drifted, over the ruffled waters, taking a cold lunch when hungry, but without any adequate realization of the time of day, unless we looked at our watches. Finally the sun set, and Venus was the only star which became dimly visible in the twilight of midnight. About half way down the lake is a large bare rock, where flocks of gulls make their home. Eggs are a great luxury in Alaska, and we laid in as good a supply as we could and feasted on them for several days. One can scarcely appreciate the amount of pleasure there is in in- stituting a little variety in Alaskan diet, for the appetite knows no bounds, and the staple food is extremely limited in variety. Besides, since the loss of our outfit we had been obliged to use our money to buy what stores the others could spare, though they were very kind, and would have given us food at any time had we asked it. I kept my eyes on the shore most of the time, in the hopes of seeing game, and although I found enough to ]irovide us with many good meals, I could not fail to notice that it was becoming more and more scarce. GREAT TRIBUTARIES OF THE YUKON 135 The Lewis river, as it flows out of tlie lake, is about two hundred yards wide, and for about five miles preserves this width, and a swift current of from four to six miles an hour. It then makes a sharp turn about a low gravel point, and flows for a mile in a direction opposite to its general course, when again it sharply resumes its way nortliAvard. Twenty- seven miles down we come to a great tributary from the southeast, the Teslin Eiver, as it is now called, as it drains the great Teslin Lake; but tlie miners call it by its Indian name, the Hootalinkwa. Schwatka called it the I^ewberry, and Dr. Dawson had given it the name of Teslintoo; from which it appears that names in Alaska are sometimes uncer- tain, and time alone will tell which name will prevail. We were told by the Indians that gold could be found on this stream, but few explorations of it appeared to have been made. The water of the Teslin is of dark brown color. In- deed, one cannot fail to notice, at least in the spring of the year, the amount of dirt these streams are carrying down. It is another feature of a fact that strikes a traveler at every point, the immense amount of work that Nature is doing in these regions. The country in the section we have re- cently passed is extremely mountainous, with torrents plung- ing down througli the rough valleys from the eternal snows. The water in the lakes appears to be remarkably clear, but as soon as we touch any of the connecting streams we notice that they are so full of sediment that one cannot see an jnch below the surface. If a basinful is taken out and allowed to stand until it clears, a thick deposit of mud is found at the l)ottom. The current boils and flows very rapidly, and as the boat glided along a sound was heard almost like that of frying fat. It 130 nature's forces in action was onlv the constant friction on the boat of the immense amount of large particles of earth whieli the water was carry- ing in suspension. This is noticeable all along the river, and is an indication of the wearing-down process that is con- stantly going on in this great country. It furnishes the reason for the shifting bars which exist on the lower Yukon, and for the difficulties that prevail at its mouth. AVhen time has done its work, the shores of x\laska, about the mouth of its great river, will be pushed out much further into the Pacific. As we proceeded down the ri^^'er we easily saw whence comes all this material. Along the silt and sand bluffs, loose material is constantly falling into the stream. These little landslides, occurring all the time, except in the months when everything is frozen, result in an immense amount of dirt being dumped into the river. We should be surprised if it w^ere measured. I had read how ISTature worked through countless ages, l»ut I never realized the extent, the capability of the mighty forces, till I took that first trip down the upper Yukon region. But while we see Xature work- ing in an earlier process than that to which we are accus- tomed, one is appalled to think how long she has been work- ing even here. For all those mighty canons which we have seen, and through some of which we have barely escaped with our lives, have been worn out by the torrents. These great rocks and boulders, which fill the stream and around which the swift current plays, have been rolled down from the mountains by the receding glaciers. "\Ye found these huge boulders a great obstacle all the way down this part of the river. Sometimes it was all we both could do to handle the boat. The current would carrv us against them before we could stop it, but we managed A WINDING RIVER 137 much better than some of our friends with headed boats. Many of them bumped into the rocks, and one man lost nearly half his outfit. About thirty-three miles below the mouth of the Teslin River the Big Salmon pours into the Lewis. Thirty-four miles more and we come to the Little Salmon, which is sixty yards wide at its mouth, and is shallow. Here the valley becomes so broad that no mountains are in sight, only low hills, at a distance from the bank. The Lewis makes a turn to the southwest, and after running six miles it turns again to the northwest; then, at the end of seven miles, to the southwest again, around a low, sandy point. Thus we proceeded for twenty miles or more, without gaining more than five in our northern course. The first turn is around Eagle's Nest Eock, wdiich stands up on the slope of the eastern bank, and in it is a huge cavern, where it is said gray eagles rear their young. It is composed of light gray stone and rises fully five hundred feet above the river. About thirty miles further on, another river, the jSTor- denskiuld, draining a chain of lakes far to the westward, empties into the Le^vis, which continues its course with a width of from two hundred to three hundred yards, occa- sionally expanding as it flows around little islands. Its course is very crooked, and near the mouth of the ISTordens- kiold it winds under a hill, and away from it several times, once for a distance of eight miles, and after making all these turns it has gained but a mile. From this the river flows on in a straight course to the Five Finger Rapids. We did not stop to look at this place, but ran right in, and soon were bobbing about like a chip on the whirling current. It is a cataract of ferocious mien, but not at all dangerous, as a boat can. be easily kept away from the haz- 9 138 FIVE-FINGER AND RINK RAPIDS anions points. As in the (irand canon, the water rolls away from the sides and is ridged in the center. Just before entering the rapids there is a whirlpool, which is studiously avoided, though it is not dangerous. If a boat gets caught in it she is liable to be whirled about in it for some tune be- fore being released. The current continues very rapid for six miles below Five Fingers, so-named because of the five large rocks standing in mid-channel, and then we began to hear the roar of the Rink Rapids. They make a great deal of noise, but are not dangerous, as the only obstruction is on the west side, where the water pours over the rocks. On the east side the current is smooth and the water deep, and a boat can run through without the slightest difficulty. For fifty-eight miles, the distance between the Five- Finger Rapids and the place where the Pelly River unites with the Lewis and forms the great Yukon, no streams of any importance appear. The river continues through a pleasant landscape for the whole distance without the slight- est indication of civilization. About a mile below the rapids the stream spreads out, and many little islands appear. We passed in and out among these islands for about three miles, when the liver contracted to its usual width, but islands and bars were common all the way, and the current is about five miles an hour. After passing a long bank called Hoochecoo Bluff, the river again spreads out into a very archipelago. For three or four miles it is nearly a mile from bank to bank, but so close and numerous are the little islands that it is often diffi- cult to tell where the shores of the river are. At the confluence of the Pelly and the Lewis the country is low, with extensive terraced flats, running back LAYING IN NEW SUPPLIES 139 to rounded liills and ridges. The Pelly is about two hundred yards wide at its mouth, and from here these great w^aters flow swiftly on in an uninterrupted course one thousand six hundred and fifty miles to the Bering Sea. The Yukon, below the junction, averages about a quar- ter of a mile wide, with a current which carries everything swiftly along. It is dotted by many little islands, and we quickly came to the ruins of old Fort Selkirk, a trading post which was established by the Hudson Bay Company in 1848. Indians pillaged and set fire to it in 1853, leaving nothing but the remains of two chimneys, which are still standing. The place has been put to some later uses, how- ever, an English church mission and an Indian village being- established there, and for some time Arthur Harper, whom we have already mentioned as a pioneer in these regions, maintained a trading post there. Here we were enabled to use some of the money we had brought along in case of emergency, and which we had saved by packing our goods, in the purchase of new sup- plies, but it did not enable us to put in all we could wish, for goods are high after they have been brought up the long Yukon. But we were glad to have a tent again, and some articles which are a prime necessity in such a country. We felt as if w^e had again come in touch with civilization. We had made good time from the lakes and were in good health, but it had been a long, hard voyage, and it always will be, in any time of the year, till modern methods of communication have overcome some of the terrible ob- stacles. All along the route wo had noted the graves of those who have been lost in previous years on this route. Both Indians and white men have fallen in the struggle to press into the gregt valley of the Yukon by the Dyea 140 A SENSE OF GRATITUDE trail. Ami avc licai'd of others, besides tlie two drowned in the canon, who lost their lives that same spring in wdiich we came in. One man was killed in the Five Finger rapids, bnt fJoe and I were safe at last on the waters of the mighty river, and he avIio will never stop to think of an overruling Providence in the feverish rush of life in the busy centers of the United States, mnst in these immense regions, where he feels so small, where he finds so little to measnre him- self by, feel a sense of gratitnde filling his whole being as lie stands strong and imhnrt at the end of such a voyage. CHAPTER IX LIFE ON A YUKON POST — OUR FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE KLONDIKE — HOW MINERS ADMINISTER JUSTICE IN ALASKA — THE PLAGUE OF MOSQUITOES. Tlie Latest News — The Swift Yukon and Its Branches — The Upper Ramparts — White River and Its Probable Sources — Stewart River and the Tales of Indians — Reports of Prospectors — Sixty Mile Creek — Passing the Mouth of the Troan-Dik or Klondike — Its Various Names and How They Were Obtained — A Peep at the Moose Pasture — Moose Skin Mountain — Old Fort Reliance — Forty Mile and Its Institutions — Justice as Administered at Miners' Meetings — A Little German's Trouble — French Joe's Experience — A Tailor and His Bill — The Canadian Police — A Plague of Mosquitoes — How They Operate and How Their Bites Work — Old Pharaoh's Troubles Not a Circumstance — What Miners Suffer — No Preventive Sufficient — Tough Miners Sit and Cry — More Indian Tales — Bears and Dogs in a Frenzy — Frost Comes as a Blessing. THERE were many inquiries at the trading post as to the news of the day. TvTot having been burdened witli a heavy outfit after leaving the canon, we were among the first to put in an appearance at the post that spring. In the winter montlis tlie posts along the Yukon are practically cut off from civilization, and they can only imagine what is happening as the world moves rapidly on. No hermit is so secluded. But naturally we had little of recent date to tell. Nearly three months had elapsed since we had set out from Snn Francisco. Joe, who took more in- terest in political affairs than I did, in reply to many (pies- (141) 143 ALONG THE HURRYING RIVER tions narrated to eager listeners events on the Pacitic coast wliicli had then receded into the forgotten past. An okl newspaper which we had bronght in, wrapped about some of my clothing, was read with all tlie eagerness with which a starving man would eat. This serves to sho\v how remote Alaska is from the world most of the year. We were still about three hundred and eighty miles from Circle City, to which we were destined, and which was then the center of the mining interest in this great territory. So with our new supplies and a few tools needed by t!ie pros- pector, we resumed our way. Below the fort and for a dis- tance of ninety-six miles to the mouth of the White River, the Yukon maintains its width of from four to six hundred yards, and its course is a little north of west. The current continues swift, over four miles an liour on the surface, and so numerous are the little islands that there is no part of the river where one or more cannot be seen. Gravel bars abound, but cause no trouble. It is a broad, majestic, hurrying river, displaying some of the grandest views eyes ever beheld. We drifted on with but few stops, and those were brief. It made no difference whether it was night or day — it was nearly all daylight then. The circling sun would dip be- hind the hills or the bluffs along the river for a little while, and a sort of twilight would fall on the majestic scene, the heat would suddenly disappear, and for a couple of hours the frost in the ground would fill the air with a cold moist- ure. Then the sun would come up again, and for twenty hours pour its blazing heat on the broad valley. Under its influence the grass rises to phenomenal height, and so bright a green is seldom seen. All day long, and night, too, birds W'ith unfamiliar voices were singing about us, seeming to A LONG AND HARD JOURNEY OVER THE SKAGWAY TRAH^. Entrance to the canon. Two Klondikers with heavy packs making their way on foot through the deep snow. PICTURESQUE PLACES 145 mock the trials of mankind and tlieir greedy rush for gold, and occasionally we caught sight of a bit of game — a moose too far away for us to reach, or a duck, too hard a shot for me with a rifle. Had we possessed the proper weapon w^e could have feasted on ducks and geese. They are very plentiful, and every Yukon man should have a shotgun. We stopped upon the banks but little, never except for a substantial meal, for the mosquitoes make camp life an ex- cruciating experience. Joe slept while I managed the boat; and then he took his turn at the oar, and I would catch a nap. Upper Ramparts is one of the most picturesque places in Alaska. Steep basaltic bluffs tower like monster cathe- drals along the banks. The lights and shadows work unique effects among their rocks, standing out like minarets from the walls. About thirty miles below the fort a little stream called Selwyn River enters the Yukon from the south. Good tim- ber abounds in its valley, and we saw men getting out the logs ready to float down the river to places where they are needed for houses. White River comes in from the west about seventy miles further on, and after the Yukon has re- sumed its northerly course. It is a powerful river, about two hundred yards wide at its mouth, and it plunges down loaded with silt over ever-shifting bars, the main channel being not more than a hundred yards in width. The current is not less than ten miles an hour, and its name is derived from the milky ajDpearance of its waters. With numerous other creeks so much easier to ascend, this river has been neglected by prospectors, and its source is somewhat prob- lematical, though the Indians say that it rises far inland near an active volcano. For aught that may be known, the 146 GOLD AND GAME richest gold fields in the world may lie near the sources of this great Avatercourse so turbid and rapid at its mouth. Between AVhite and Stewart rivers, ten miles, the Yukon spreads out to a mile in width, and is a maze of islands and bars between wonderful banks. The Stewart River enters from the east through the middle of a wide valley; the current is slow and the water dark colored. While camping here for a brief space we encountered a small party of miners who had been pros- pecting on the river above. They had found considerable gold on the bars, and were returning for provisions, but they told us that it would depend upon how other points on the river turned out whether they returned to the Stewart. They had done most of their digging in the bars along the river, and had not explored the creeks running into it. The current above, they told us, is swift, and it is neces- sary to pole boats up the stream. The banks for some dis- tance from the mouth are steep and uninviting. Further up they found bars and the river bottom covered with grass. They had been compelled to go into camp about forty miles up, because of high w^ater, and, while there, had found plenty of game, including moose and bear. The fish w^ere also good. They said that on some of the upper bars they had found gold which yielded over twenty dollars per day, but they found the digging was irregular because of the high water at times. From what information they had acquired from the Indians, who declined to ascend the river, there exists a very savage tribe of Indians, holding the coun- try around its sources. They are at war with the other Indians lower down, occupying a stronghold in a moun- tainous wilderness, and they will not permit any white man or other Indian to enter their territory. They make their IN THE MINING REGION 147 living" by Imnting, occasionally bringing their fnrs down to the trading points, getting gnns and such ether things as they desire in return. These Indians, it is said, are met about two hundred miles up the river. But there are few things more unreliable than Indian stories. White pros- pectors have not met these Indians in their explorations. At some time they may have existed there, thus giving ground for the tradition. The prospectors had no informa- tion which could tempt us to turn aside, and we concluded to waste no time on the river. About twenty-three miles below the Stewart a small stream enters from the west, called Sixty-Mile Creek. We are now in the region of the miners. This stream has been prospected all the way to its sources, and gold had been found nearly everywhere, but not in rich quantities except on two creeks. A few miners were working there. For some time after the discovery of Miller and Glacier creeks the diggings there were considered the richest in the region, but the more recent discoveries on Birch Creek had drawn the miners in that direction, and the year before a rich spot called Mosquito Creek, an appropriate name for any creek in the river, had been discovered running into Forty Mile River. At the time we came into the regions this creek was making the sensation. So we pushed on, passing Indian River, a stream destined to gain great notoriety, but then considered of no particular account. A little further on we passed another stream about forty yards wide at its mouth, which emptied into the Yukon from the east. The Indians called it Troan- T)ik, or Thron-Diuck. As to how the Indian appellation of this stream should be spelled, and what it means, there is considerable uncertainty, which, however, is not strange 148 EVOLUTION OF THE WORD "•KLONDIKE" considering" the difficnlty of putting into Englisli characters anything which an Indian pronounces, and the further dif- ficulty of securing from an Indian of these parts an intel- ligible idea of what he means by anything he says in his own language. According to some, the name of this river means '' water full of fish." According to others, it takes its name from the fact that, the stream being swift, the Indians have to set their salmon traps or nets by driving in stakes with a hammer, and so they gave it the name Troan-Dik or Ham- mer Creek. The sure thing about it is that it seems to have something to do with fish. The miners, probably in an effort to cast into phonetic English the Indian pronuncia- tion, had in 1896 fallen in the habit of calling it Cluned^'ke. It should be remembered that when one of the natives of this region pronounces one of his words he does it as if he were doing his best to strangle himself with it, and the effect is as if he just barely escaped doing it. In 1883, when Schwatka rafted down the Yukon, he camped at the mouth of this stream, and according to his re- ports he found that the traders called it Deer Creek " from the large number of caribou or woodland reindeer seen in its valley at certain times of their migrations." The valley looked as though it might abound in moose and caribou, and for years it had been a fa^'orite fishing ground for the In- dians Avho were waiting for the salmon to run up. AVe floated by in blissful ignorance of what lay under the tundra of its creeks, and no one would have suspected that in a few weeks there would be a lively city on the swamp near its mouth, and that a pushing civilization would have transformed the Indian's Troan-Dik and the miner's Clunedyke into Klondike, a word which philologic- ally means absolutely nothing except that your practical AN INVITING STREAM 149 civilization does about as it pleases in naming things, and that when it does it that ends the matter. The Indian name for one of the landmarks near the month of the stream is, when translated to the best of hnman ability, Moose-Skin Monntain, a name that is likely to ad- here to it, nnless at some time some one finds something there except the monntain, and practical civilization takes liberties with the native appellation. I conld not fail to notice as we floated past this region, the river being qnite narrow here, its inviting aspect for hnnters and fishermen, and but for the fact that we were now anxious to arrive at the center of the gold diggings we might have stopped a day to see what we could bag in this moose pasture. Proceeding on, we passed old Fort Reliance, an old private trading post of no great present importance, the stream flowing in from the east called by Schwatka the Chandindu, and a little over thirty miles further we come to Forty Mile, which for years had been considered one of the richest sections in the territory, and had been one of the chief attractions to those who had braved the difficnlt trails from the coast. Joe and I landed here, and for the first time entered into the vortex of white civilization on the Yukon. Forty Mile contained nearly a hundred log buildings, and such are the most palatial residences in Alaska. Some of them had cost over ten thousand dollars, for even logs are dear here, though they are so abundant. The town is situated on the south side of Forty Mile River at its junction with the Yukon, and the Alaska Commercial Company has a station here which was located by McQuestcn shortly after gold had been found on the creeks above. It is in the British 150 FAMOUS FORTY MILE Territory, and a few of the mounted police were at hand, bnt the diggings are mostly located across the border line, which crosses the stream about twelve miles from its mouth. The best mines are sixty miles up stream, but Forty ]\Iile is the headquarters. At this time it was the second place in size on the river, contained a sawmill, several blacksmith shops, restaurants, billiard halls, saloons and dance halls, of course, and a few bakeries. It also contained an opera house, and here, a little later, we found some of the women who had come over the pass with us singing the same old songs we had heard at San Trancisco, and had heard once in awhile during the journey. They had had a hard time of it, but they received " big money " for the display of their talents. It is one of the peculiarities of mining- regions that much of the gold goes to those who do not dig it. At the time we were at Forty Mile, miners' meetings as a means of settling disputes were being brought into dis- repute. For a long time they had answered very well, as the miners in the district were few and acquainted with each other. But as the influx of all elements began with the re- ports of discoveries on Forty Mile River, and saloons in- creased in number, disputes became more frequent, and miners' meetings became a mere burlesque. We heard of several cases which had been thus tried. In one instance, a poor little German was passing quietly along the street one day, and a big ruffian, who rather prided himself on his capabilities as a bully, drew out and stnick the little man a blow that paralyzed him. He was powerless to help him- self; he could not match his strength against that of his as- sailant; and so he consulted a German friend of his as to what he should do in the matter. The friend suggested a A CURIOUS VERDICT 151 miners' meeting-, wliicli was called at once. Now what do you think the miners' meeting did. They fined the plaintiff twenty dollars for calling the meeting, and the fine was ex- pended for drinks on the spot, the meeting being held in the saloon, and the chairman being the proprietor of the place. Another instance reported was that of four miners who were partners in four claims. These did not return more than expenses, and they decided to sell. One of the part- ners was going to Forty Mile for something or other, and the others instructed him, if he could, to sell out for the whole lot. He asked them what was the lowest they would be willing to take for their interests, so that he might have something to go on. After consultation they decided that five hundred dollars was the least they would be willing to take, but at the same time instructed him to get all that he could. At Forty Mile he sold the four claims for two thou- sand eight hundred dollars — seven hundred dollars apiece. He handed the three partners five hundred dollars each, and put the one thousand three hundred in his own pocket. Soon after they discovered this fact, and called a miners' meeting to make him divide even. The meeting by reso- lutions decided that: " As long as they got their five hundred dollars apiece, it was none of their business what he got." Again, a miner, commonly known as French Joe, a French Canadian, was going down " the creek," as it is termed, to Forty Mile. While passing the cabin of a cer- tain miner he was asked where he was going. " To Forty Mile," he said. " Well, you're going by Dick Rol)inson's; will you take down those two ounces and give it to him? " " Oui — ccrtainment, M'sr." 152 FRENCH joe's EXPERIENCE The two ounces were weighed out and handed over to Joe, who carried them down and faithfully presented them to Kobinson as directed, w^ith the explanation that they had been received from the miner. " But," said Robinson, " he owes me three ounces." Joe was pained and surprised and a little indignant at his reception, " I don't know for dat. He gif me two bounce — der she was. Dat's all I know for." " But he owes me three," said the persistent Robinson. " Yell, dat may be. She maybe he owe you tousan'. He giv me two bounce — dere she is. You got two bounce? " " Yes; there's two ounces here." " Yell, dat's all he gif me." " But I want my other ounce." " Yell, sacr-r-r-e " — the Frenchman was becoming warm — " perhaps next time you see him you ask him about her. I give you two bounce — dat's all I got." Robinson called a miners' meeting to decide whether or not Joe should pay him the extra ounce. Eighty-two miners attended, and after much discussion, in which Rob- inson admitted having received the two ounces from Joe, six voted that the Frenchman should pay the extra ounce and five that he should not. The rest, as Joe explained, " didn't giv dam no how — one vay or de other." So the Frenchman was compelled to pay the extra ounce, with the costs of the meeting added, amounting to nearly one hundred and fifty dollars. Joe remarked afterward, in. telling the tale of his misfortune : " By Gar, dat satisfy me with miners' meeting. I don't vant any more dem things." DEFYING THE COURT 153 What first brought the miners' meetings into disrepute was the result of one held at Forty Mile in June, 1896, or shortly before our arrival. A tailor there had demanded payment of a bill of four dollars and fifty cents from a bar- ber. The barber put in a counter bill which fully paid the tailor's bill. The tailor called a meeting to decide between them. The meeting gave the tailor one dollar and fifty cents, and one of its members then gravely proposed that he be fined twenty dollars for calling the meeting. This was just about to pass unanimously, as things sometimes do at miners' meetings, it being sufficient only to have a mover and a seconder, when another member stood up and protested against this action, urging that if they fined a man for call- ing a meeting the poor man would have no way at all to get justice. They had awarded the man one dollar and fifty cents, and the imposition of a fine would be manifestly unfair. The meeting saw the force of this and let him go. The barber then rose, and slowly, deliberately, and with a picturesque profusion of profanity and an eloquence of metaphor that did credit to his originality, requested all present to go — not to any more frigid clime. He would go down the river on the underside of a log, he observed, if the worst came to the worst — but as for that dollar and a half, they could — ! ! A committee was forthwith appointed to try and collect the amount adjudged due. They could, however, find no one who owed the barber anything, or, if he did, was will- ing to pay it over to them. It was well known that if they tried to enforce payment from the barber he would apply to the mounted police for protection, and of course their action in so doing would be punishable. The absurdity of the 154 DEFYING THE COURT sitiuition dawned on the parties to the affair, and miners' meetings fell below par. This and similar cases brought the miners' meetings into sncli contempt that all in the country were quite ready to join in their obsequies when the Canadian police insti- tuted a diflferent condition of things. All seem to be heartily glad that they had been abolished. They seem to be particularly pleased with the fact that a man's just rights do not depend upon his personal popularity, that his title to his claim is not based on the number of times he treats when near the saloon, nor yet upon the quantity of whisky he drinks, or any kindred merit, but simply and purely on his just and legal rights, whether or not all in the country are his friends or all his enemies. In the first stages of settlement, however, these miners' meetings and the laws they made answered the purpose better than anything else could. There is a sense of justice among the miners which is not always found in society, and it would not become per- verted except for the introduction of elements depending less on their hands and muscles than on their wits. The general coui-se of Forty Mile Kiver as far as the boundary line, a distance of twenty-three miles, is south- west, but after this it runs nearly south. The miners work their way up in small boats. It is about one hundred and twenty-five yards wide at its mouth, and all the way the current is strong with many rapids. Eight miles from its mouth is a placed called the Caiion, though it is simply a crooked contraction of the river with high and steep banks for a distance of about a mile. At the north side there is plenty of room for a trail along the beach. The rumors of the rich finds at IMosquito Creek had been one of the incentives in our coming to Alaska. Joe, THORNS IN THE FLESH 155 who had followed reports closely, had never ceased to urge upon me the possibilities of this creek whenever I had shown an inclination to turn aside and travel into regions un- known. Here was where he expected to make his fortune, but Avhen we had worked our way to the object of all our exertions we found that gold was being washed out plenti- fully, but the creek was completely occupied, and, of course, we had no money to go into a speculative business. The law allows a claim of one thousand three hundred and twenty feet measured in the general direction of the stream, and the few avIio had been in the country at the time of the strike had taken all the claims, although the rule up to that time had been claims of five hundred feet only. Such was the condition of things at Mosquito Creek. But we found mosquitoes. They are no more abundant there than anywhere else, so far as I have seen in Alaska in the summer months, but they had a better chance to prey upon us. We had had our trials with this pest on our voy- age down ever since the ice had melted, but it was not till we were camped around the headwaters of Forty Mile River that we began to realize their capabilities as thorns in the flesh and destroyers of the soul. For he is a pretty good missionary in Alaska wdio will not swear once in a while in the mosquito season. These insects, which are apparently no larger than the ordinary mosquito of low^er latitudes, are several times as venomous. They begin operations about the first of June, and close them about the first of September, and during that brief season they make up for any lost time that the latitude imposes. They seem to tlirive on any ordinary smoke. They revel in fire unless it consumes a whole forest. One may hurl a blanket through a cloud of them, but ranks are 10 lo6 THE MADDENING MOSQUITO closed up and the cloud is again intact before the blanket lias hit the ground. .Vll day long, and of course in July that means for about twenty-four hours, they are on the alert, always after anything that has blood in its veins. Any one who reads the Bible in this region in the summer must won- der at the weak nature of Pharaoh. There surely never could be a plague like this. They rise in vast clouds from the peculiar moss along the banks and creeks, and their rapaciousness knows no limits. They have been known to drive men to suicide, and the sting of a f ew^ dozen will make a man miserable for days. I have seen tough miners sit and cry, and it is a com- mon sight to see them so worn out and nervous that they can not sleep even after they are protected from them. My wrists have sometimes been so bitten that for days they were too lame for me to work to any advantage. It is absolutely essential to wear cheese cloth or mosquito netting of some kind for a protection, but in the summer time, when there is scarcely a breath stiiTing, this of itself becomes almost unbearable. They pile themselves upon any netting worn over the face so thickly that it is dif- ficult to breathe, and they will make so much noise that it is sometimes difficult to convei*se unless one almost shouts in his neighbor's ear. The tent door must be covered with netting, there must be netting over the bed, netting must be worn while at work, gloves must be worn on the hands, everything must be done to prevent these insects from devouring the body and wearing out the nerves. Like everything else in Alaska, the mosquitoes are on a large scale. I do not wish to make it out any worse than it is, for the reality is bad enough. Any one who goes to Alaska will at times be im- SUBDUED BY FROST 157 pressed with the paucity- of the English language as a medium of expression. I wish those scientists who write so learnedly upon the benefit of the mosquito as an antidote for malaria would take a trip to the Yukon regions in sum- mer. They have something to learn. The Indians say — and it is more readily believed than most Indian stories — that they have known bears and dogs to rush madly off cliifs when frenzied with a swarm of mosquitoes, and that native horses will break harness and run madly away, and that dead bears have been found in the woods swollen by the bites of these insects. But one thing is certain, the miners in their work along the creek suffer agonies from them, no matter how well protected. A strong wind is always welcome, and a frost seems like the soft, comforting touch of Nature, although it may be the forerunner of a long winter and a season of deprivation. CHAPTER X ARRIVAL AT CIRCLE CITY— DANCE HALLS AND OTHER PLACES OF AMUSEMENT — THE YUKON SLED — ALASKAN DOGS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES. Pushing on to Circle City — Some of the Yukon Creeks — Okl Man Rock and Old Woman Rock — A Flight of Native Fancy — The Poor Man and His Scolding AVife — His Last Resort and its Petrifying Results — Prospecting American Creek — Our Lumber Venture — A Thunder Storm and a Wreck — Escaping on the Tar Stater — Arriving at Circle City — Our Reception — Some of the City's Institutions — Convenience of the Saloons — No money but Gold Dust — How Purchases Are Made — The Dance Halls — The Relaxation of Faro — Dogs Invade Our Boat — Their Thieving Propensities — Faithful Workers — Their Enormous and Indiscrim- inating Appetite — Eating Their Harness — An Arctic Turnout — The Dog Whip and Its Uses — The Yukon Sled — " Ouk," "Arrah," and "Holt." FINDING no promising opportunity for suddenly be- coming rich on the creeks of Forty Mile, as all the best locations appeared to be occupied, we concluded to return to the town and to push on towards Circle City, which was reported to be flourishing in the most magical manner, and where wages were high, whether the mines proved profitable or not. We each located a claim, how- ever, on one of the Forty Mile creeks least prospected. There could be no doubt that there was gold enough in that section, if the mines could be properly worked. One man we saw had cleaned up $50,000 as a result of three (158) AN ALASKAN LEGEND 159 months' work on his claim, but much dead work was necessary and heavy expenses were to come out of tliis. Circle City is about two hundred and twenty miles further down the Yukon, which continues in its same gen- eral character much of the way. A large number of streams flow into it, all called creeks, although they are of considerable size. Small steamers could make their way up them but for the bars at points. Where the river cuts the boundary line it flows between two large rooks, one called Old Man Rock, on the west side, and the other. Old Woman Rock, on the east. These respectful appellations are the translations from Indian names, which, as we afterwards learned, are derived from a legend, indicating that even in the dull intellect of the natives there are occasional flights of the imagination, such as among other more promising aborigines have been woven into graceful song and stirring epics. Tliis legend, as it has been culled from natives by traders who are not experts in legendary lore, and which therefore may be somewhat misty in spots, runs something like this : In remote ages there lived here a powerful tshauman, which is the equivalent in the speech of these interior In- dians to the word " shaman," — medicine man — used by the tribes of the south coast. These medicine men are the magi, or wise men, of the Alaskans, and by their absurd mana'uvcrs exercise a wonderful influence over the super- stitious natives. In this powerful tshauman's locality there lived a poor man who, like Socrates, had an inveterate scold for a wife. He bore his troubles for a long time without murmuring, in the hopes that she would relent, but time only served to increase the infliction. At length, his pa- tience weakening under the unceasing torment, he com- 160 A WARNING TO SCOLDS plained to the tsliauman, who, of course, went through some of the motions common to all powerful wise men in his position, and then sent the poor man home, telling him that in a short time all would be well. Soon after this the poor man went out to hunt, and remained away for many days, endeavoring to secure some provisions for home use, but without avail. He returned, weary and hungry, only to be met by his wife with a more than usually violent outburst of scolding. This so pro- voked him that he gathered all his strength for one grand effort, and gave her a kick that sent her clear across the river, which is here about half a mile wide. On landing, she was converted into a mass of stone, which remains to this day as a monument to her viciousness, and a warning to all female scolds. Of course, it was the tshauman who effected the metamorphosis, and there is some doubt as to whether it was he or the enraged husband who did the kick- ing, but it makes little difference, as the husband could not have done it had not the tshauman rendered some mirac- ulous assistance. Like a great many other ancient legends, important features are left unexplained, as, for instance, how it was that the husband, after kicking his spouse across the river, was himself turned into a mass of rock.- The Indian intel- lect, having gone thus far in its flight of poetic fancy, doubt- less become quite exhausted, and was unable to proceed. Perhaps the old man was petrified with astonishment at the remarkable effect of his kick. From an artistic standpoint, it will be seen that it lacks some of those rare qualities of those northern legends which the genius of "Wagner has set to sonl-stirrina' strains. But it is a remarkably sublime fancy for a Yukon Indian. THE WRECK OF THE RAFT 161 Going on a few miles, we came to American Creek, and Joe's disposition to prospect got the best of him for a while. It looked promising, so we entered and spent a few days there. We found gold, but none of our diggings averaged more than five dollars a day, and it would be better to work for wages, which were reported to be at least ten dollars a day at Circle City, than to bother with dirt of that kind. Having learned that good logs were in great demand at Circle City for building purposes, we stopped on our way down the river at a place where the timber was particularly good_, and constructed a raft of fine spruce timber. But we had proceeded but a little way with this down the swift current when we were caught in a thunder storm, which came up suddenly, and, like everything else in this great country, operated on a large scale. In these silent solitudes a clap of thunder caroms through the hills in mighty rever- berations, and the claps follow on each other's heels so rapidly, and their reverberations become so confused, that they seem to be tearing each other and the hills into frag- ments. The roar was deafening, the rain was blinding, the wind was like the blast from a mighty air pump, driving the murky waters of the river into a frenzy. The Tar Htater, which was tied by her nose to the raft, danced about, while the water swept over the raft, nearly taking us from our feet. Desperately we poled along, trying to keep in the stream, but, in spite of all efforts, the raft ran with fearful force on a bar, and instantly began to break to pieces. We had barely time to jump into the boat and cut the rope be- fore being thrown into the river. With great difficulty we worked toward a partly sheltered bank, and there awaited the passing of the furious storm. That ended our 162 A COSMOPOLITAN CITY lumber venture, and towards evening we continued our way down in the boat. After rowing" about one hundred and sixty miles from the boundary line, we drifted into the Yukon flats and the center of a great mining district, that of Birch Creek and the upper Tanana. Circle City, the metropolis of this great region, and then claimed to be the largest log city in the world, makes a brave front on its bluff, overlooking the river. At the time we reached it it was the booming town of Alaska, and had nearly a thousand inhabitants. It had more during the Avinter, but at this season many of the miners had gone over to the creek, which is reached by a six-mile portage, to work their claims. It Avas early in July when we arrived in sight of this place, and during the twilight hour, that l)rief space of time during the summer months when the sun dips below the horizon, spreading the whole sky above with a wondrous mellow light. We anchored our boat out from the shore in a sort of slough, and went up to see the city. The places of business face the river, and Avere going at full blast. There Avas a theater, four large Avarehouses, three stores, and three blacksmith shops. AVe counted tAventy-eight saloons and eight dance halls. Back of these Avere log houses, interspersed Avith tents, laid out in fair order, and altogether presenting a A^ery comfortable ap- pearance for these regions. Our approach had been noted from the shore, and there was a general gathering to Avel- come us, for the appearance of a boat on the river, no matter hoAV small, is an event in this far-away center of civilization. It Avas a cosmopolitan croAvd of men and Avomen from every- Avhere in Xorth America, a sprinkling of dirty Indians, and a croAvd of hoAAding dogs. THE PRECIOUS DUST 163 The stores and saloons are the only places to go to. If seeking information, it is found there. If looking for a friend or acquaintance, the chances are that he will not be at his cabin, but in the saloons or one of the stores. Nearly all the men congregate in the saloons, tell yarns, play cards, and occasionally drink too much, though a man without gold dust is not in danger of it, for prices are high. The tenderfoot will doubtless expect to see men going about with a gun and knives stuck in their belts, but, rough as humanity is here, it generally has an orderly appearance. There is no specie except such as newcomers manage to bring in over the passes or up the river. Everything is transacted in gold dust. Every man and woman carries a buckskin sack, and when they enter a store to make pur- chases they throw out their sack of dust, and the amount of the purchase is weighed out in front of the purchaser. The seller never cheats himself, but makes sufficient allow- ance for poor dust. For instance, a man who puts twenty dollars' worth of dust in his sack, and goes from place to place making purchases, wnll find that he gets but about eighteen dollars' worth of goods for his twenty dollars. Sometimes in the stores the dust on five hundred dollars' Avorth of sales will weigh up to five hundred and twenty-five dollars, but, of course, it works both ways in the long run. It seems to be more the custom of the place than a trick of dishonesty. But the dust and the scales are always in evi- dence, even if it is nothing l)ut a spool of thread that is desired. (^lo into a saloon and buy a cigar, and fifty cents worth of your dust is weighed out; if a man drinks, fifty cents' worth of dust goes out of his sack for one of the worst mixtures that ever was labeled whisky. A dance hall at Circle City at this time was not such n 104 THE ENLIVENMENT OF A REEL den of wickedness as is generally supposed by those who read newspaper accounts of life in these far-off mining camps. In 18UG the Alaska jjlaces had not become sufficiently attract- ive to draw thither in large numbers the professional rough element. It is rather one of the institutions of society as it must exist here, among hard-working miners, like the blacksmith shop, or the schoolhouse which sets back among the cabins. It is a community of men, rough in aspect, but not wholly vicious. After long seasons of hard work in the mines up the creek, or after tiresome journeys over steep and dangerous trails, in the solitudes of the great for- ests, or among the mountains, even the rasping music of a dance hall sounds sweet. The rough miner delights in a bit of a square dance, or the enlivenment of a reel, or, pos- sibly, if his early education has not been neglected, of a waltz or polka. He knows that he is in a society which cares nothing about the cut of his clothes, and is not critical about the grace of his step. A touch of feminine life, even if not all that the fastidious or the strictly moral might desire, comes like a warm breath from the southern lati- tude over the frozen hills, a reminder of the city life in the States. Of course, the miners have to pay well for it, as for everj^thing else. Before he leads " one of the charming young ladies " into a set on the floor he must dig a dollar's worth of dust out of his sack. The young lady gets a quar- ter of it, and the house, which takes the rest, furnishes the pair a drink if they call for it. The miner need not pull off his big boots and put on pumps, or even take his hat off, and he can swing his partner with all the gusto of which he is capable. Every set he dances in costs him a dollar, and a round dance the same. The man who plays the violin DREAMS OF EQUALITY REALIZED 1G5 on the roiiglily-improvised platform receives anywhere from twenty-live dollars to forty dollars a night. He does not need to snffer the hardships of working a claim, but the chances are that he has one, and that someone is work- ing it for him. If the miner does not take to dancing he can seek relax- ation at the faro table. If he loses, as he probably does, there is more dust in the hole on his claim up the creek; if he wins, so much the better. Under such conditions, and loading a life which for many days in the year is full of hardships, he seeks amusement when the chance offers, and is satisfied that he is getting his money's worth, no matter what it costs. Every one is on a perfect equality. The col- lege man, if he happens to be here, is no better than anyone else; a man with thousands of gold dust tied up in his belt exhibits no haughtiness ; indeed, in the busy season, he may not be able to buy a lodging, and may pay for the privilege of sleeping on the dance-house floor " after the ball is over." Here the socialist might see the realization of some of his dreams of equality, but there are precious few, I imagine, who would have the fortitude to brave the dangers of a miner's life under the midnight sun, to enjoy the realization of the dream. After observing something of the town, and making some arrangements for a temporary abode, Joe and I went liack to our boat, where we learned other facts concerning the ways and possibilities of the country. While we were away the dogs had swam out to our boat, chewed off the rope by which it was held, and dragged it ashore. There they tore open every sack of ]>rovisions we had, and. when we approached, were having a regular feast. Thev had even chewed up some of the flour sacks and the dishrag, the IGG DOGS AND THEIR DOINGS flavor of which was undoubtedly agreeable to them. Every- thing in the boat was wet, and the damage we figured up to amount to forty dollars. Everyone who gets along well in Ahiska must have a proper understanding of dogs, and a few facts concerning them may be established at this point, though the pioneer may not acquire a complete knowledge of them until he has been some time in the country. Dogs are fed here but once a day, unless they find an opportunity to feed themselves, and they rarely let an available opportunity slip, even if they have to bite through a tin can or climb a pole. They are fed dried fish, whenever it can be obtained; if unobtainable, bacon and flour. All provisions must be set up on a cache, and that should be as high as possible, or they will climb up to it when there is no one at hand to disturb them. They will lie down in- nocently enough near a tent, watching and waiting for hours for the owner to leave and give them a chance to ransack it. I have known them to come into my tent, go up to a boiling- pot of beans on the stove, push ofi" the cover, take out the piece of bacon, and walk ofi^ with their tails curled up over their backs in the most nonchalant manner. But they are too precious to shoot. They are a prime necessity in Alaska, and are sometimes worth almost their weight in gold. They do nearly all the packing in the summer, and they will carry from forty to fifty pounds, keeping up with a man. In the winter they do all the freighting, haul all the wood, and canw the mails. Har- nessed tandem to sleds — and I have seen twenty in a single string — they will go anvwhere, ninety miles from Circle City to the mines, or a thousand to Juneau, and if a man wishes to take out for a drive one of the few young ladies of the city who conforms to his ideas of respectability, and A YOUNG lady's DIVERSION 167 whose acquaintance is, therefore, of considerable value, he rigs up a couple of dog teams, for Yukon sleds hold but one, and off they go. But there is very little driving for pleasure over the Arctic snows, though the experience is not without its delights, so unique are all the conditions. I met one young lady who had become enthusiastic over dog-sled rides for pleasure. Her father owned a fine team of native dogs and she had a good Yukon sled. The winter before, when the weather was clear, and often when the thermometer was hovering far below zero, she used to bundle up in her fur parka and moccasins, slip the dogs into their harness, and streak off across the frozen flats, going- many miles before she returned. Squeezed down into the little box of a sled, wrapped in furs so that she could hardly move, and so that little but her eyes could be seen, she flew along after the scampering dogs, up and down, over the deep snow. " Tip over ? Oh, yes, many times," she said, laugh- ingly, " but that's a part of the fun. And sometimes I would have to get out and run along with the dogs. Those rides did me more good than any sleighride I ever had over your smooth, monotonous roads after a big horse. These dog turnouts are positively delightful." Two good dogs will haul from five to six hundred pounds on a good trail, and run twenty-five miles in six hours, and they will haul a man from forty to fifty miles a day and show little sign of weariness. A native Yukon dog is much more valuable than any importation because they endure the climate so much better. The natives are of all colors, and most of them have very long hair, as fine as wool. They look like wolves, but they rarely bite or bark at persons. They simply howl. They are faithful to the last degree 168 AN INSATIATE APPETITE iu their work, and have that single failing — they are born thieves. Buckskin moccasins are provided by many owners to keep the feet of the faithful little animals from becoming raw and sore on the ice and snow. They are made like a child's stocking, about nine inches long. Sometimes pack- saddles are used, whereby a dog can carry from ten to twenty pounds, besides drawing a sled. A dog harness commonly weighs a little over two pounds. The collar, which is usually made of leather, faced with sheepskin, and stuffed with deer hair, slips over the dog's head — fumbling with buckles would be severe on the fingers in Arctic weather — and on each collar are rings, to which the traces are attached. These traces are usually made of heavy web material, otherwise the dogs would eat them up. They have an insatiable appetite for leather, and will devour their collars if they are allowed a chance. They have t-o be kept separate when harnessed, or they will eat each other's col- lars, and when the web traces become oily they will eat them. They are so adroit that, sooner or later, even with the most careful master, they will devour their trappings. An Arctic appetite is something enormous in a man, but it is completely distanced by that of a dog. An old prospector in Alaska told me that once wdien he w'as driving a pair of native dogs one of them slipped his collar while he was camping for the night near Fort Yukon, and ate up a pair of large gauntlet gloves, all the leather off a snow-shoe, a whip, and a part of the handle, a long leather strap on a gun case, and the leather binding on the canvas case, and badly chewed a part of the harness. TVlien the man got up in the morning the dog was asleep, and never showed any sijrns of the night's dissipation. But these dogs will do a good day's work on four pounds of dried fish. WHIPS THAT MAKE THE FUR FLY 171 They do not drive themselves. A good leader is gen- erally placed ahead, but dogs \(^ill often lie down in the trail unless kept going. They are driven with a dogwhip, a device which is a miracle in the hands of an expert, but a dangerous thing in the hands of a novice. It has a handle about nine inches long, and a lash about thirty feet long, and weighs four pounds. Tlie lash is made of folded and plaited seal-hide, and for five feet from the handle averages about one and a half inches in diameter; then, for fourteen feet, it gradually tapers off, ending in a single thong half an inch thick and eleven feet long. When traveling tlie lash drags along at full length behind, and, when the driver wishes to make use of it, he gives a skillful jerk and twist of the wrist which cause the lash to fly forward, the thick part first, the tapering end continuing the motion till it snape at full length ahead. Sometimes it is merely snapped over the heads of the dogs as a reminder or warning, but a skill- ful driver can pick out any dog in a team and touch almost any spot on a dog's back, and, if hit just right, the fur will fly. But till the driver is used to the management of this weapon, he is liable to receive most of the injury himself, for when awkwardly thrown the lash may wind about him like a snake and inflict painful injuries on his own face. The standard sled for an Arctic traveler consists of a narrow box four feet long, the front half being covered or boxed in, mounted on a board eight feet long, resting on runners. In this box the passenger sits, wrapjied in skins so that he can hardly move, with only his head and shoulders projecting. In front and behind and on top of the box is ])laced all the luggage, covered wntli canvas, and securely lashed, to withstand all the jolting and possible upsets, and the snow-shoes are kept within easy reach. 172 HOW THE DOGS ARE GUIDED The dogs are harnessed to the front of the sled, some- times each by a separate trace. The nearest dog is about fifteen feet from the sled and the leader, with bells on his neck, as far off as the number of dogs in the team. They are guided by the voice, using husky Esquimaux words, " owk " — go to the right; " arrah " — to the left; and '" holt " — straight on. If the driver nms ahead on snow- shoes, as is frequently required, the dogs will follow him. CHAPTER XI GUARDING AGAINST EVIL-DOERS —LIFE IN A GOLD-SEEK- ER'S CABIN— HOW IT IS BUILT AND FURNISHED. Society in Circle City — Cabin Doors Open — Tlie Punishment of Evil- doers — Miners' Meetings — Methods of Procedure — Judge and Jury — No Pistols — Our JNloney Runs Low — Joe Hurries to tte Mines — Great Demand for Log Buildings — High Price of Lots — Process of Building a Cabin — Two Things to Remember — How the Moss Comes into Play — Doors and Windows — The Interior of Cabins — Rude Furniture — Unique Beds — Something More Substantial — The Yukon Palace — Access to the Second Story — How Storm Sheds are Made — Tents Good Enough for People with No Gold Dust — A Man With an Axe a Skilled Workman — A Bustling Scene — Logs and Chips Everywhere — An Ounce a Day for Some Workmen — Dreaming of a Coming Metropolis on the Yukon. WE found society at Circle City not at all bad for a mining town. Being on the American side, no authority existed there except miners' law, but under that one must walk straight as far as honesty goes. With all the idleness, drinking, and gambling, there was less crime there than would be found in most cities of its size in the United States. Cabin doors were nearly always left unlocked, and in them bags of gold and other valuables were left when the owners were away. The Miners' As- sociation was more feared by evil-doers than any courts or police would have been. To be sent down the river in a small boat was to delinquents a worse punishment than im- 11 (1T3) 174 AN EFFICIENT COURT prisonment, and it might happen that no boats were avail- able and the evil-doer would depart on a log. Depart he must.' To be turned out to shift for one's self in Alaska is no laughing matter. In minor cases simply involving disputes over money or claims, the miners' meetings appeared to afford satisfactory justice, and they had not become liable to some of the abuses noted elsewhere. When such a meeting is called all the miners at hand assemble, a chairman and secretary are appointed, and the plaintiff is called upon to state his case. Then the defendant is heard, and any other testi- mony introduced. The assembled miners act as the judge and jury together, can ask all the questions they desire, and make any motion they please. Any motion that is carried for the disposal of the case settles it, and a committee is ap- pointed to see that the judgment is carried out. So long- as the majority of the miners are actuated by a sense of see- ing fair play for every man, no court could be more efficient or just. The element of danger comes when a little frontier politics works its way into the system and justice is defeated by some man of influence, who more than likely may be a saloon-keeper. But so far as I witnessed the operation of justice in Circle City at this time, it was adequate and fair. There being no police force at hand, as over the Canadian border, and the authority of the United States being too far off to be effective, the miners fully realized the importance of not abusing their own authority, and of being fair and just to all concerned. The judgments rendered would sometimes appear curious to an outsider, but when all the conditions of life in these regions were taken into account, their rationality would become apparent. It was a miners' law that no pistol should be carried in A TWO-YEAR OLD TOWN 175 the citj, and it was obeyed. A spirit of good feeling and good comradeship prevailed. There was a sort of feeling that the dangers of existence here were too many and too real to have them aggravated by any unnecessary outbreaks of the evil side of human nature. Questionable as some of the characters were in this booming town, there were many respectable families there, the education of the children was provided for, a good hospital was among the institutions, and it was as complete a town as one could expect on the Yukon, founded as it was but two years before, and rising so suddenly to importance in 1896. Joe, w4th the restlessness of an old prospector, was in- clined to make for the mines at once, but as wages were averaging about twelve dollars a day in the city, and as our supply of money had run low because of our misfortunes on the trip, I was disposed to work awhile in the city, and acquire some shelter and provisions for the winter. So we concluded to separate for a time. I Avas handy with car- penters' tools, and with the axe, and (juickly secured a job putting up log cabins, for which there was a gTeat demand at this time. One could fairly see the city spread out and grow. Lots in good locations were selling for five thousand dollars and over. Log houses may be made pretentious or otherwise, de- pending upon the uses to which they are to be put. An ordinary dwelling for the accommodation of two or three people need not be large — fourteen feet l\y sixteen feet in the clear, that is to say, built of sixteen feet and eighteen feet logs. To a lumberman or carpenter the building of such a cabin is an easy matter, and a green hand who is handy can learn very quickly how to put it up. There are two things to remember. The cabin must be built. to keep 176 BUILDING A LOG CABIN the cold out iu the winter, and to keep the mosquitoes out in the summer. For this the cabin must be equally tight, for wherever a draft can get in a mosquito mil find its way, too. iSTo foundations are needed. The only preparation is leveling oft" the frozen ice and '" muck," as it is called. The logs must either be cut and floated down the river, or can be bought as they lie in the water ready cut in proper lengths. The average size of these logs is seven inches in diameter, and the length varies considerably. The cabin should be seven feet high to the ronf line, and so will require at least forty-eight log's - — that is twelve a side for the walls. Smaller logs are used for the gable ends and the roof, and some pieces of cut lumber will be needed for the tables, stools, and bunks. It costs not less than five hundred dol- lars to build a log cabin complete, as prices run on the Yukon. The first thing to do is to " spot " the logs. By this a lumberman means to strip off the unevenness and skin them on the top and bottom sides about three inches wide, so as to insure their lying close together when placed one upon the other. All the logs must then be " notched " at the end, half-way through, beginning five inches from the end. Each notch will have to be about seven inches vdde and cut half-way through the log, so that wlien a similar notch is cut in another log the two can be fitted together and be level top and bottom. Several sacks of moss must be gathered in readiness, and then the miner is in shape to commence building his home. The two side beams are laid in place and the two end beams are put across, the notches of the side beams fitting into those of the end beams so that a solid rectangular frame is PACKING WITH MOSQUITO-PROOF MOSS 17? formed. Moss must now be spread all along the top of this frame of logs. It should be laid evenly, about three inches thick, and in such manner that when the next frame of logs is in place the joints of the notches will be held about half an inch apart. The reason for this is that, as the log house is built up higher and higher, the weight of the upi:)er logs will gradually squeeze down the lower ones until the notches are a close fit, and in so doing must squeeze the moss between the logs, making it airtight and mosquito-proof. This looks like a very trifling matter, but it is one of those little things upon which the comfort of the whole cabin Avill depend. There are many little matters like this which are of the greatest importance to him who winters on the Yukon. The walls are built up solid like a box to the proper lieight, and the windows and doors are put in afterwanls. When the proper height for the window is reached, vertical saw-cuts should be made in the log the width apart of the windoAv-pane. These cuts are merely a convenience, so that when the cabin is finished it will be an easy matter to insert the saw and cut down through the logs on each side the square spaces into which the window and door are to fit. The same saw-cuts must be made at the height of the top of the door for the same reason. The logs are laid up by means of skids and block and tackle. When the walls have been raised to the height of six feet, the roof logs are laid, those at the ends being shortened to correspond with the pitch desired to be given to the gable. This is a part of the work which needs a fairly good craftsman. To the top of the roof, that is to the ridge-pole, the cnbin is usually eleven feet high — in other words, the gal)lo or slant of the roof is four feet higli, meas- ured perpendicularly. The logs for these gable-ends must 178 A TIGHT ROOF OVERHEAD be cut in tlie proper lengths. The first one will be about t\\'eh'e feet and the top only a few inches long; the others between will be graded in size. In order to hold these logs in place one over the other, wooden pegs or dowels must be made and driven in tight. The dowels in each lower log should fit snugly into the upper ones, and be made long enough to allow for the moss betw^een the logs, and to let the upper logs press the lower ones together. When the logs are all in place for the gable ends, they must be " sniped " off; that is to say, all the ends of these logs must be cut off on the proper slant. When the roof logs have been laid and a ridge pole is in place, a rough roof of split poles is laid, the poles extending from the ridge to oiie or two feet over the side walls, form- ing eaves. The poles are secured in place by logs laid across them transversely, through which peg-s may be driven into the poles of the roof and logs of the superstructure. When this has been done, the poles are covered with earth and moss to the depth of a foot or more, thus forming a sub- stantial, tight roof that excludes both wet and cold. In making the roof care is taken to leave a vent at the top in addition to the hole for a stove-pipe. A cabin built in this fashion, whether at the claim in the mines, or in the city, usually serves only as a temporary shelter, and when circumstances warrant it a more imposing and pennanent structure may be built. Should the claim prove profitable, such a cabin will serve later on as a store- house, or should a better abiding place be desired in the town, it may serve as an ell to the larger building. Rude bunks are made in such a cabin, and a door made of whip-sawed lumber is fitted to the opening. A fire is built in the center to warm the interior, smoke making its escape CABIN FURNITURE 179 tlirough the central vent in the roof. The stove is com- monly used in camp huts for cooking only, and is not suf- ficient for warmth in severe winter weather. Such a cabin, while not inviting, is not an unhealthful shelter. Having been built of green logs, its walls will be ice-coated through- out the winter whenever the fire is out, as the moisture is drawn from them when the fire is burning. The interior of the cabins is pretty much the same every- where. The beds or bunks are always opposite the door, across the far end of the cabin, the table is always under the window, and the stove on the far side from the window. Three or four-legged stools and a few boxes complete the furnishing. All the furniture is to be made by the miner, and having built his cabin this cabinet work will not be dif- ficult. For the table, two horizontal props driven into the side of the cabin and supported by slanting struts are all that will be necessary. On the horizontal props the table- top of planks must be nailed. The tables are usually large enough for four people, one at each end and two at the free side. The bed is a shelf across the back end of the cabin. Is usually divided in the center, and so wide that two men can sleep on each side of the partition. It is made in the simplest way by placing a pole horizontally across the end of the cabin, say four feet from the back wall, and joining the ends between the chinks of the logs in the side walls. The partition in the center can be made to afford additional support. Some people put the slats for the bed across — that is to say, width-wise — but there is more spring, more ease and comfort if they are placed lengthwise. The mat- tress is nothing but moss and straw well bedded down. In building a new, substantial, and better arranged log 180 A MANSION ON THE YUKON house, the first business is to carefully select the logs. Drift logs are preferable, being dried and seasoned. In the ab- sence of such the bark is peeled from green logs, and they are cut to the desired length and hewn square with adze and broad axe. When the foot logs have been laid — prefer- ably the largest and soundest obtainable — -joists fashioned from whip-sawed lumber are laid in mortises made in the foot logs, and secured thereto with wooden pegs driven through holes which have been bored therein. At the cor- ners the logs are mortised so that their round or square sides fit closely upon one another. But when laid up a coating of moss or mud is used to fill up all the interstices. Openings are left in the sides and ends for such doors and windows as may be desired. When the side walls have reached a height of six or eight feet in the clear above the floor joists, a second series of joists for a ceiling and the floor of an attic may be laid if desired. Having raised the walls to the required height the roof construction is begun. Two forms are in use in such build- ings — one of the kind already described in the temporary cabin, the other built of whip-sawed timbers coA'ered with split shakes laid like shingles. In this form of construc- tion the gabled ends of the building are built either of squared logs laid one upon the other and pegged together, and with ends sawed at an angle corresponding to the angle of the roof, or are built of a frame work of whip-sawed lum- ber, and the space between the joists and siding stuffed with moss. When duly enclosed the spaces between the joists are filled with earth and moss, and the floors laid. The roof is fitted with a galvanized chimney, and Avhen the ceiling has been finished the house is read v for habitatii tn. In sucli THE LUXURY OF A DWELLING 181 a house access to the garret is had either by a Ladder nailed against the wall, or a narrow stairway, according to the fancy of the builder. Glazed sashes are fitted to the win- dows so as to make them donble, and battened doors are hung with strap hinges. Most of the Ynkon houses are but one story in height, but some are two. In nearly all the roof projects from three to five feet over the front entrance, and a storm shed is erected by standing poles upright from the ground to the roof as close together as possible. By having the opening into this storm shed at one side, the en- trance to the dwelling is protected from the wind and drift- ing .snow. Such a dwelling as this is a palace on the Yukon. The poor resident in town or the new pros]3ector at the mines is fortunate to have a tent over his head. While lum- ber is plenty, cabins are expensive when labor is twelve dol- lars a day an-d over, and when logs sometimes have to be hauled some distance by dogs. One must have begun to take out gold dust in good paying quantities before afford- ing the luxury of a good log dwelling. At the time we reached Circle City the demand for capable workmen for building purposes was altogether out of proportion to the supply. The trading companies had large buildings contemplated, and any one who could swing an axe handily was a skilled workman and commanded large pay. The very lowest that was paid was ten dollars a day, and few could be had to work at that figure. To those who were skillful in fitting windows, doors, shelves, and the like, as high as an ounce a day was paid — seventeen dollars being the recognized value of an ounce of gold on the Yukon. Tt was indeed a bustling scene which Circle City pre- sented in the early summer days of 189G, The banks of the 182 BOOM TIMES AT CIRCLE CITY river and the streets of the to'mi were covered with logs. Chips were scattered evervwhere, and the sound of the axe and the saw mingled with that of the squeak of the violins in the dance halls and the howl of the dogs. The Birch CYeek mines were rich and gold dnst was plenty. There was no such thing as an idle man if he had any disposition to work. People talked glibly of the coming metropolis of the Yukon. Xo one conld have imagined a livelier place of its size. Xeither cotild any one in the busy place anticipate that within a year it would be as dead as a door post — almost a silent city. CHAPTER XII WORK AND WAGES IN ALASKA — AGRICULTURAL POSSI- BILITIES IN THE ICY NORTH — COST OF LIVING. Mkleading Rate of Wages — Cost of Bringing Provisions to the Yukon Valley — A Sample Price-List at a Circle City Store — Value of Fresh Meat — A Roast of Beef — A Woman Who Baked Bread at a Dollar a Loaf — Fourteen Loaves a Day on a Yukon Stove — Monotony of Diet — Ordinary Laws of Agriculture Upside Down — Diliiculiies of Raising Garden Stuff — Plenty of Berries in the Summer — A Dream of Agricultural Possibilities — Deceptive Flatlands — Nig- gerheads and How They Grow — Grass That Makes Poor Fodder — A Question of Transportation — Has Not Been Regarded as a Poor Man's Country — Competition in the Stores — Jack McQuesten — A Great Night at Circle City — Order of Yukon Pioneers — An Indication of the Hardships of Alaskan Life. IT may seem to many hard-worked individuals earning no more than two dollars a day in the thriving cities of the United States that the mining centers of Alaska mnst afford a man a fine opportunity, wdien labor is so scarce that it commands from ten dollars a day tipwards. But scarcity does not figure in this amount hardly as much as the cost of living. Circle City was more or less regularly reached by the Yukon steamers from St. Michael, and the trading companies have stores there, and, moreover, in the summer of 1896 there had been no great rush for the gold fields and the town was not faced by any prospects of scarcity of provisions. There was every promise of abun- dant stores at Circle City then. But to appreciate the high (183) ]S4 PKEVAILING PRICES cost of pro^dsions, even when tliey are plenty, it must be remembered that almost everything, except gold, must come from the Pacific ports of the United States by the way of St. Michael or Juneau, and that the freight charge on the river route is about one hundred and twenty -five dollars per ton, while no one could bring over the pass more than the main things he needed, and sometimes, as in our case, failed to do that. "While I was at Circle City, in July of 1806, the follow^- iug prices were prevailing: Flour, S8 per hundred weight. Bacon, 40 cents per pound. Ham, 40 cents per pound. Beans, 15 cents per pound. Oatmeal, 15 cents per pound. Rice, 15 cents per pound Sugar, 25 cents per pound. Crackers, 25 cents per pound. Butter, §1 per pound. Soda, $1 per pound. Coffee, $1 per pound. Tea, $1.50 per pound. Condensed Milk, 50 cents per can. Vinegar, $2 per gallon. Corned beef, 50 cents per can. Baking powder, §1 per pound. Dried fruit, 30 to 50 cents per pound. Potatoes, 25 cents per pound. Condensed potatoes, 30 cents per pound. Eggs, §2.50 per dozen. Lemons, $3 per dozen. Sulphur, saltpeter, alum, SI per ounce. Cathartic pills, .$2.00 per box. Overalls, $2.50 per pair. Hat, $5 and up to $15. Shoes, $(3 to $10. Cheese Cloth, 25 cents per yard. Common white cotton cloth, 25 cents per yard. Xo cloth could be obtained for less than twenty-five cents per yard. The price of bettt-r qualities ranged ac- cordingly. Anything like a comfortable outfit f(^r the winter cost at least five hundred dollars at these prices, and it must not be supposed that work was possible every work- ing day in the year. The expenses of living while working must, of coui'se, take away much of the extra money earned, though one confine himself to the simple necessities of life in such a climate. A woman's enterprise 185 One must kill or buy of the Indians all the fresh meat he enjoys. The awakening from a dream of a juicy beef- steak is very painful. The only fresh beef that I ever heard of in Circle City was brought over the summit and killed at Forty Mile, and a piece weighing ten and a half pounds was brought down and raffled off for the benefit of the Circle City Hospital. In this way the piece sold at the rate of nineteen dollars and twenty-seven cents per pound. Moose, bear, caribou, and mountain sheep furnish the only fresh meat to be obtained, and as a rule they must be hunted. Everyone was too busy for sport then, so at times such meat was very scarce. It readily brought twenty- five cents per pound by the quarter, and sometimes the price was much higher. Up near the mines, if one were a good shot, he could secure a good supply of game and caribou meat. As I am fond of hunting and claim to be handy wdtli a rifle, I went in search of game quite often between working hours when I was at Circle City. It was daylight all the time. I had very good luck in running on to bears, but as their hide is of no value except when they first come out of their holes, and as they are generally pretty lean, and always tough, they are hardly worth the powder and ball. One day when I was out hunting for caribou I came across a black bear and shot him, but he was useless. As an indication of the cost of living at Circle City, at this time, I may cite the enterprise of a woman with whom T became acquainted, and who was one of the pioneer female gold-hunters in this section. Mrs. Wills had lived in nil portions of the AVest, from T^ew Mexico to Washington, and liad followed vnrious occupations. But the collapse of one of her enterprises in Tacoma had necessitated a new move, and she fixed her eyes on Alaska. 186 THE CIRCLE CITY BAKERY She went first to St. Michael, and obtained employment as a cook. She earned good wages, and, being an excellent cook, soon became a favorite. Hearing so many stories of life on the Yukon, she soon concluded that the Simon- pure pioneer life of Alaska was to be found only ujDon that river. Much to the regret of the boarders, Mrs. Wills re- signed her position as head of the culinary department in the boarding-house at St. Michael, and took passage on the river boat to Circle City. She took with her the regulation camp outfit, and soon pitched her tent at Circle City. What to do was the next question. After a few days of investiga- tion she concluded that she would set up in business for her- self. The very next morning the Circle City bakery took rank among the flourishing institutions of what was then the chief city of the land of the midnight sun. In her camp outfit she had a sheet-iron camp stove and two baking pans. The two pans were all that the oven would hold, and for that reason her " bakings " were limited to two loaves at a " batch." But a ready market was found for her bread at fifty cents a loaf. The miners soon learned that Mrs. AVills could " double discount " them when it came to a matter of baking bread, and before the week was over the demand for Wills's loaves was such that the price went up to seventy-five cents, and a few days later to one dollar, and there it remained for the season. By working fourteen hours a day she could turn out twenty-four loaves, and in the meantime, while the oven Avas doing its share of the work, Mrs. "Wills filled in the time washing, ironing, and mending. Buttons were sewed on at two bits a button, and double that price was charged for patches. The day's baking was always sold out a day or two in advance, and customers had to wait their turn. On more MONOTONY OP ALASKAN DIET 189 than one occasion men fought for the right to the next loaf, and, to obviate further dilticulties, Mrs. Wills each after- noon sold twenty-four slips of paper, numbered from one to twenty-four. The first slip sold was 'No. 1, and so on in rotation, until the last fellow had to take No. 24. Each slip was redeemable next day in bread, and Xo. 1 called for the first loaf out of the oven, and so on down the line to the end ; and when ISTo. 24 was out the bakery closed for the night. When side issues, such as washing and mending, did not encroach too much on spare time, Mrs. Wills would bake a pan of biscuits and a batch or two of cake. The biscuits went lively, and the cake sold at one dollar and fifty cents a pound. Six mince pies, made of moose meat, sold at Christmas time for five dollars each. But Mrs. Wills was too busy with plain baking to give much attention to the fancy end of the art. Her laundry business was less flour- ishing, for the requirements of the miners in this direction are not large. Starched shirts were almost as scarce as palm trees. The monotony of the ordinary Alaskan diet is something which requires a strong stomach and the patience of Job. I did not appreciate this till afterwards, when mntering in the Klondike, for a tenderfoot ^vill gaze in wonder at the way vegetation grows here in summer, and he is a]>t to be de- ceived by visions of fresh vegetables of mar^^elous size and delicious flavor. But all the ordinary laws of agriculture are turned upside down. With the sun shining throughout the twenty-four hours, the plants, never resting at night, hurry on with a feverish haste to maturity, but few have time to ripen. The summer lasts no more than eighty days, on an average, and though measured in sunlight, it is equal 1!»0 RAPID VEGETABLE GROWTH to one hundred and twenty days of the growing capabilities of the Middle States, the rapid growth of plants gives them such a weak vitality that the lirst breath of frost lays them low ; and a frost may occur at any time during the summer. A snow storm in August is not unusual. I have seen lettuce raised in excellent condition along the Yukon, but as the seeds will not ripen and few importa- tions are made, such a luxury is scarce. Cabbages will thrive mightily, producing enormous leaves, but, alas, they never form heads. Russian turnips, however, seem to be just suited to the short and vigorous summer season. They Avill grow to average five pounds in weight. Radishes will flourish to a certain degree, but potatoes are about as un- suited to the soil and climate as Florida oranges are to the Xorthem States. The tubei*s attain such small size that it takes many to make a meal, and even then much work must be expended in protecting the vines from the early frosts. Evenings when the sky was clear and frost was threat- ened, I have seen those who were tiwing to raise a " little garden stuff " go out and carefully suspend blankets or heavy ticking over the vines and plants. It would protect them somewhat, but would never save them entirely. Even success to this degree is possible only along the river bot- toms; nothing can be done back in the hills, where the in- dustrious mind's must spend their time. And when a woman can get a dollar a loaf for her bread, and a miner can get ten dollars or more a day in the hills, there will be little fooling away of the summer season in nursing garden stuff. But Alaska has some products of her ow^l which may vary the epicure's diet in the summer. Every third bush DELICIOUS BERRIES 191 is a beiTj busli, which produces white and purple flowers, and then berries, of the richest hues. The berries ripen in two months after the first leaves appear. Cranberries from Alaska have been considered desirable delicacies in the San Fraiicisco markets for many years; they are brought down by the steamers in crates and boxes at a season of the year when cranberries are not in market on the Pacific Coast. They are small, wild berries, not much larger than peas; but they are deliciously flavored and highly prized in their native country. The Indians and new settlers eat them freely in summer, and make jellies and preserves for winter use. Blackberries and huckleberries are as abun- dant in a large part of the country as on Long Island or the mountains of Georgia and Carolina. Nearly all of our common berries are found in parts of Alaska — red and black currants, wild strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and dewberries, and many others that are indigenous only to Alaska, such as the roseberries, mossberries, bearberries, and salmonberries. All of these are eaten fresh by the na- tives, and preserved by crushing and dryiug them. On the coast of the mainland and on the islands the inevitable oil of Arctic regions is utilized even in preparing the berries for eating. It is not uncommon to find the natives greedily eating a dish of crushed strawberries or blueberries, mixed with sugar and seal-oil — a combination that is sufficient to nauseflte most Americans. The agricultural possibilities of this region of long winters and short summers have recently been painted in hues which my obsen^ation there inclines me to think are much too rosy. The Secretary of Agriculture has made a prediction that before many years Alaska's grain and food products will more than equal in value all the gold 12 192 AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES which is now supposed to be hidden beneath the surface. He says: " The soil of Southern Alaska, along the coast, is rich and best suited for barley and oats. Fish will be an im- portant feature of the Alaskan's diet, and thus the race will become a seafaring one, well suited for the United States navy. If we send to the peojile now living there commissioners who oan teach them in a j^ractical man- ner how to raise these and other foods profitably, I believe the country will develop rapidly. Grass is abundant, and can be easily cultivated further, and by a special process we can teach the Alaskans how to make hay even in the worst kind of Alaskan climate, where it rains a little every day. "We would introduce whatever vegetables could be successfully cultivated, and make the best of the soil, now so rich already. " The winters need not be especially hard, for food will be abundant in the summer, and can be easily stored away for winter consumption. In barley alone a tremendous traffic could be built. More than enough barley to feed a greater population than is probable in a number of years to come can be successfully raised, and that is grain for which there is a constant market. I repeat, Alaska's agri- cultural possibilities will yield her more money than will ever be taken out of her gold mines." The realization of a dream like this would be a great thing for Alaska, but it is largely a region of icy mountains. Comparatively speaking, the flats near the rivers are of ex- ceedingly limited area, and many of these are less attractive than they look. There are great stretches of tundra cov- ered with clumps of grass which have sprung up sometimes on fields of solid ice. White people here call these grassy inventions of human torture '^ niogerheads," but the tenn "niggerhead" swamps 193 is weak. It is not half bad enoiigli. Call them the vilest thing you can think of. Why is it necessary for Madam xs atiire to utilize every wretched spot of the earth's surface ? Here, for instance, was once a pond of water, and that be- came frozen; then a root of some kind crawled from the margin out on to the ice, and the wind carried dust from the hills and bits of decaying moss from the trees, and small leaves to this venturesome root. The little rootlet thrives under this covering, and soon a little mound is begun, and some seeds are blown along, and lodge in this little mound, and they sprout and grow a little the first year; the dead shoots catch more decayed or decaying stuff, and the mound grows higher and more seeds are lodged upon it, and more grass grows, and perhaps a weed, and thus each year adds to the height of the mound. And it widens only so far. When it has attained about a foot of breadth the heat of the sun can no longer penetrate to the center of the mound and it ceases its lateral growth, but grows higher, and the grass grows stronger because the sun's heat can warm all sides of the cylindrical mound. From all along the margin these mounds have started and grown, and from these other mounds have started and grown, but the ice foundation is always there, and in time the pond is covered with these mounds a foot or less in diam- eter and usually more than a foot in height, and the long grass stands up in summer, looking like a meadoAV. It has a distinctly agricultural look from a distance. One might think that a thousand cattle could be fattened on this level meadow in a summer. In winter this grass falls and tangles one's feet, and when you want to walk through one of these flats you must step over these mounds and place your foot between them. 194 SCARCITY OF TIMBER and you sink in the ooze that has collected there, until your foot touches the ice, and if you have far to go you become very tired, and if a foot slips or you stagger from any cause, down you go. Sometimes you think you can walk on the tops of these mounds, but you cannot. They sway under you and down you go on your knees in the mud between them. In time you quit trying to do so, and stick to the trail, if there be one, no matter how deep the water and ooze may be. The result is that the miners and other residents of that country keep as far away from a niggerhead swamp as they conveniently can, avoiding it as they would the plague. For the rest of the country, the surface is covered by from one foot to two of moss, and, underneath, the ever- lasting frost. On this a scrubby growth of trees is found, extending up the mountain side to an altitude of from one thousand to one thousand five hundred feet above the river. It is this which appears to those passing down the river in boats to be a continuation of the good timber seen along the banks. Timber that is fit for anything is scarce. Some of the islands of the Yukon have a very rich soil, but they are locked in ice usually from October to June, and. owing to the swiftness of the current, Yukon ice is not apt to make good skating. T once heard a woman describe it as an ice house blown up by dynamite. There may be through- out all Alaska room for a thousand farms, but the Indians would be altogether too lazy to work them — they would die first — and a white man who would begin fanning there when gold could be shaken out of the sand-bars all along the river would be set down as a man of unsound mind. The Alaska Commercial Company has had a couple of acres in a favorable spot near Forty Mile in cultivation for GRASSES OF THE YUKON VALLEY 195 several years. The have sown oats, but they say they have never ripened. They made fair fodder. Good fodder for cattle could be had in this way by importing barley and. oats, but the seed would have to be brought in every season, as there is no kernel in the pod or shell. Those contemplating taking horses or cattle into the country for other purposes than slaughter should go in a couple of years in advance, get :i favorable piece of land, clear it, and prepare for the culti- vation of such fodder as this. Otherwise, they will have to import all their fodder. Horses have been in use at Forty Mile for several years, but the owners depend largely on the trading companies for the food for their subsistence. Mr. Harper has had a few horses at Selkirk for several years, the fodder for which he cuts from ponds in the vicinity. On this they pull through the winter, but they are not in a condition to do any work. Throughout the Yukon valley, wherever the soil is rich and fertile, a great variety of grasses grow, and cover the land with heavy mattings of vegetation. They constitute the coarse varieties, but many of the finest grazing grasses are seen, such as the blue joint, Avhich reaches a height of four or five feet, and the blue grasses. One would tliink that no better forage for cattle could be desired than what is furnished by these grasses in the Yukon Valley and along the coast, and that, so far as food is concerned, pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats could live and grow fat in the valleys. But grasses of such rank growth do not seem to afford the proper nourishment for our domestic animals, even if secured in good condition, and that is difficult, in view of the frequent rains. Of course, for the greater part of the 196 MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION NEEDED year these fields are buried under tons of frozen snow, and the animals must be housed. To care for them is not easy or inexpensive in such a climate. Much more can be done for the opening up of Alaska by improving the means of transportation so that the regions of the Yukon may be accessible, instead of inaccessible, for a greater part of the year. With the Yukon open only long enough to enable a steamer to make two round trips from its mouth to the upper trading posts, and with the old Indian trails, fit only for Indians and dogs, and with a population which must import the greater part of what it consumes, the problem resolves itself to the simple proposition of trans- portation. Alaska cannot be successfully developed so long as tough moose hams will fetch forty dollars apiece in the winter. While, therefore, the high rate of wages prevailing at Circle City might make Alaska seem to those who have never been in it like a great country for a poor man, it had always been a poor country up to the summer of 1896. There were plenty of old miners about there who had been on the Yukon for years and had l)arely made more than their " grub." When one is making money rapidly the temptation always is to spend it with a lavish hand. But even if one lives economically, he needs to strike a rich vein of gold in order to acquire wealth. I could see that if Joe and I were so fortunate as to get together two thousand dollars by working at high wages during the short summer, it would be scarcely enough to pay for taking a winter's outfit to the mines and putting up a poor shelter there, for provisions become several times more valuable by the time they are hauled over the rono-b trails to the mines. The list of prices already quoted in this chapter were THE FATHER OF THE COUNTRY 197 reasonable enough for Circle City at that time, and their apparently high cost was not due to scarcity, but to the value of articles after they have been carried over four thousand miles, a third of the way against a swift river current. There was a fair competition among the stores, and at the head of one of them was Jack McQuesten, an old pioneer in the country. He has been in Alaska for over a quarter of a century, and was really " the father of the country." He had come in contact with nearly all the men who had risked their lives in the search for gold in its frozen soil, aiid had ever been their friend. It has been said that he has out- fitted, supported, and grub-staked more men, and kept them through the long winters when they were down on their luck, than any other person on the Yukon. Hundreds of men now on the river owe all the success they have to his help, and they know it and appreciate it. It was a great night at Circle City when he v/as pre- sented with a gold watch and chain, bearing the insignia of the Order of Yukon Pioneers. It was said that the watch cost five hundred dollars, but McQuesten's bill for enter- tainment was probably much more than that, for there was no half-way business about his generosity, and the boys needed no gold dust when they stepped up to the bar. The Order of Yukon Pioneers was started in 1890, and was composed only of the men who had been in the country since 1887. It had a very limited membership, therefore, till the rules were changed so as to make men eligible who had been in the country before 1893. They have a lodge at Circle City and hold meetings every Tuesday night. It levies on its members for the care of the sick, for the relief of widows, and the sendiuc out of the countr\^ of those who had been broken down by hard work and privations. It is 198 A HELPFUL INFLUENCE an influence for good, and is also an indication of what sort of a life these pioneers were compelled to lead in a country which is supposed to be lined with gold. CHAPTER XIII WE REACH THE GOLD DIGGINGS — LOCATING A CLAIM — HOW GOLD IS MINED — THE MINER'S PAN, ROCKER, AND SLUICE BOXES. The Trail up Birch Creek — Some of the Gulches — Great Cost of Wood — The Process of Placer Mining — How the Prospector Works — Testing the Dirt — The Miner's Pan — The Trick of Shaking Out Gold — All the Fascination of Gambling — Nature Holds the Cards — Placer Mining Conditioned by the Climate — The Old Process of Sun-Thawing — Soil That Resists Picks, Dynamite, and Hydraulics — Where Fire Burning is Necessary — Burning at Night — A Long Process — Sinking through the Muck — Rockers — Sluices and How They are Constructed — Nature Caught in the Act — Claims Regulated by the Miners Themselves — The Birch Creek Yield of Gold. GOLD-seekers were continually going back and forth from Circle Cit}^ to the diggings on the npper waters of Birch (Jreek, and in this way I occasion- ally heard from my partner, who was working most of the time on other claims for wages, for the season was not propi- tious for prospecting. This is easier done after the freezing weather comes on. As I had managed to locate a very good cabin in town for onr needs while there, and had earned a fair snm dnring the early part of the bnilding rush, I de- termined to carry over a light store of provisions to fFoe, as he wished to remain on the creek during the winter and prospect as opportunities offered. Birch Creek empties into the Yukon more than a Imn- (199) ::iOO TRIALS OF THE TRAIL tired miles below Circle City, but in its tortuous course its upper waters flow but six miles from the town, though the headwaters are back in the mountains from sixty to one hundred miles away. The short portage across the neck of land to the creek is not difficult, though low and wet in places in the summer, and a hotbed of mosquitoes. The}^ were almost unendurable unless a wind was blowing. I have seen strong men on the trail through these swamps driven to the verge of hysterics by the swarming pests. The trail up the creek leads through a wild country, and by the time a winter's supplies have been dragged over it to the camps the_y are worth something. If taken in a boat they must be pulled against a swift current and sometimes up rapids. By carrying only a pack I made fair time over the rough trail. In an earlier chapter I have alluded to the discovery of gold in this region, an Episcopal missionary having picked up a nugget in returning from the Tanana River district. This was in 1891. By 1894 the district had been pretty thoroughly explored and bad yielded large results. The gold consisted of coarse flakes and nuggets; forty dollars a day was made by some men, and all did well. The drift is not as deep here as in some other streams, and water can be applied to greater advantage. I found Joe on one of the farthest of the most remote creeks, nearly a hun- dred miles from Circle City. On some of the nearer creeks I passed they were taking out gold in good quantities, par- ticularly at Deadwood Gulch, a little stream ten miles long. Mastodon is a rich tributary, but the very rich claims are rare. It was asserted on one claim there that they had taken out gold enough to clear one thousand dollars a day for seven weeks. ■ On Miller Creek there were claims to be THE BIRCH CREEK DISTRICT 201 had where a man coukl easily pan ont from six dollars to ten dollars a day, but they were not worth owning in such a region, for more can be made in wages on the richer claims. The district was in its most flourishing condition in the summer of 1896. ' Most of the gulches were then running, miners were working on double shifts, night and day, which at this season in this latitude are very much alike, and large profits were reported. On Mastodon Creek, which seemed to be the best producer and Avhich was thoroughly staked, over three hundred miners were at work. There was every evidence that the creeks would continue to pay well for five years^ and after that were the untold possibilities of hydraulic mining, . which might without difficulty except that of expense be introduced by tapping some of the creeks near their head. If some of these claims which are discarded as prac- tically worthless could be set down in a place nearer trans- portation facilities, and in a kinder climate, so that they could be worked continuously, they would yield fortunes. Joe had proceeded to a creek where the ground was un- doubtedly rich, but it was an expensive job to work it. By the time wood had been cut by men receiving twelve dollars a day, and hauled a distance of six or seven miles by dogs, it was worth about sixty-five dollars a cord. It is clear, therefore, that a claim must be very rich in order to pay the large expenses of working it. If a miner is paying the ex- pense of having his provisions brought out from Circle City, it costs sixty cents a pound in summer and fifteen cents in winter, the trail being so much easier in the latter season. In order to well understand the recent progress of min- ing in Alaska, a few facts as to placer mining in general. X*03 ■ TLACER MINING and as to tlie processes in the frozen north in partii-uhir, is necessary. The process in Ahaska is peculiar, and the novice shoukl give it some study before he starts in to make his fortune. It is the desire of the expert prospector to locate oxev river gravel, and he has a theory that the short side of tlie bends in the river will prove the richest. Free or native gold, such as is found in placer mines, is supposed to be brought down in the course of ages from a " mother lode " by the action of running water or glaciers. The sands and rocks of river beds, dry creeks, and gulches, there- fore, are the places which secure the attention of the ex- perienced prospector. He observes the characteristics of the loose rocks in ravines and gulches, or in any place where matter is left after freshets have subsided. The natural presumption is that, if the bed of a river flowing through an open country yields fine gold dust, larger grains will be found in the nearby hills and mountains from which it flowed. The heavier particles are, of course, looked for near the probable source. Sometimes gold is in dust too fine to be readily distinguished by the naked eye, or the dirt is so combined with it as to make it deceptive, and the prospector must proceed with the greatest care and skill. Having secured a place which may give the desired promising indications, because of surface -conditions, which are apt to be deceptive in Alaska, the next thing is to begin sinking a shaft to get down to bed-rock •• so that the value of the diggings may be determined. In a climate where the temperature runs down to sixty degrees or more below zero in a winter lasting for nine months of the year, Avater in large quantities is scarce except in the short summer. Snow * Bed-rock. Solid rock lying under loose detrital masses, such as sand and gravel. Detrital matter consists of jiarticles broken or worn away from the land, and carried along by the streams to be deposited elsewhere. THE FASCINATION OF PANNING 203 may bo melted for testing, and there liave been instances in very rich chiims in Alaska mines where a miner conld wash out in his cabin enough to pay his help for taking out the frozen dirt. Both in prospecting and in sinking his shaft the miner makes frequent use of his pan, which is broad and shallow and an inseparable companion. After clearing off the coarse gravel and stone from a patch of ground, he secures a little of the finer gravel or sand in his pan, fills it with water and gives it a few rapid whirls and shakes, which brings the gold to the bottom of the pan on account of its greater specific gravity. IMany miners prefer to sink the pan of dirt under water and shake it there, in such a dex- terous manner as gradually to throw the lighter dirt off into the stream, but this cannot be practiced to a great extent in Alaska unless a large tub of water is used in the cabin. Many old miners believe that under-water jianning is so much better that they use such tubs in winter. An old and skilled miner will sometimes shake out more gold in a day than a beginner can in a week from the same quantity of dirt. I'liere is a trick about it that comes only by ex- perience, and out of the same gravel a greenhorn may not get fifty cents' w^orth of gold where an experienced man would get a dollar. A good man can pan a ton of gravel a day, but it is hard, back-breaking work. There is the fascination, however, of ever watching the yellow color as the dirt washes away, and it will keep a man at work till ho finds himself exhausted. It is the same fascination tliat is felt by the confirmed gambler, for every pan of dirt is a gamble. Dame Nature is dealing tliff cards. Will the player make a big stake, or will ho lose ? TTaving won it from N^ature by hard work, ho will very likely lose some of a04 ROASTING THE AMALGAM his winnings in an ordinary gambling game. He lives in an atmosphere of chance. What comes easy, goes easy. After the pan is shaken and held in such a way as to gradually wash out the sand and gravel, care being taken near the end of the process to avoid letting out the finer and heavier particles which have settled to the bottom, all that will be left in the pan is whatever gold there may have been in the dirt, mixed with black sand, which is nothing but jndvcrized magnetic iron ore. Should the gold thus found be fine, the contents may be thrown into a tub of water con- taining a pound or so of mercury. The gold coming in contact Avitli this forms an amalgam. When enough of this has been formed it may be fired or roasted. First it is squeezed through a buckskin bag to work out all the mer- cury possible, and what comes out is put back in the tub, while the contents of the bag is put in a retort, or, what is more probable in a mining camp, is put on a shovel and heated till the mercury has evaporated. The gold will re- main in a lump, though with more or less mercury com- bined with it. This washing process must be continued after the layer of best paying dirt is reached, for in no other way can the pay-streak be followed. While this is a process characteristic of all placer min- ing in Alaska, it is conditioned, like everything else, by the climate and the soil. When gold was first discovered in the Yukon valley the great drawback in successfully operating the rich placer mines was found to exist in the auriferous gravel being frozen into a solid, compact, adamantine mass, which the rays of the summer's sun could never melt, and with which the methods usually employed in washing out gold were totally ineffective. There seemed to be no end of the depth to which the frost penetrated the earth's sur- SUN-THAWING 205 face, as the deepest shaft or prospect hole has yet to reach unfrozen gravel except in certain localities, and in such places no one has been able to account for the strange phenomenon. Various ways were tried by the miners of ten years ago to expedite the slow work of the sun in thaw- ing out the congealed mass. Picks were found to be of no avail, as the heaviest blows would produce but little more impression than it would have done on a solid block of granite. Dynamite was experimented with, but a heavy shot resulted in blowing out only a " pot hole," and had no effect whatever in loosening the surrounding gravel. Hydraulics were proven equally futile, the stream from the giants serving only to bore a hole in the bank against which it was directed. In fact, the only manner by which the shallow or summer diggings could be worked at all was to strip or burn off the heavy coating of moss covering the earth, thus allowing the sun to reach the gravel beneath. This in a day would thaw to a depth of three or four inches, and after the frozen muck under the moss had been thawed out and thrown aside, the sun could then work on the gravel. As fast as it thawed it could be shoveled into the sluices, and another like amount would be workable the day following. But it was an unusual summer season that would permit of more than ninety days' work at the sluices, and claims that would not pay an ounce to the shovel were abandoned. Then came the discovery of the Birch Creek mines, and the problem of profitably operating the mines in the winter time solved itself as a simple matter of necessity. With the pay-streak located from fifteen to twenty-five feet beneath the surface, it would have been impracticable and almost impossible to remove the barren eartli lying above it. Prospecting had to be done by burning holes in the gravel. 200 BURNING DOWN TO THE PAY-STREAK A Img'e pile of logs would be fired on the spot where it was proposed to sink and allowed to burn over night. In the morning a foot in depth, possibly, would be found to have been thawed out, and this was shoveled aside and a fresh fire kindled. By continuing this operation a number of days, the shaft would finally reach the pay-streak, and then it be- came a comparatively easy matter to ascertain the probable worth of the claim. If the gravel panned an ounce or two a day, more fires were built at the bottom of the shaft, and " drifting " was begun with the pay-streak, the latter being followed the same as in a quartz lode. The night is the time employed to " burn/'' the fires being heaped up with logs just before the day's work is finished. These last all night, and by morning, if the amount of fuel has been properly gauged, nothing remains but the dying embers and hot ashes; the smoke and gases have all escaped, and the work of shoveling the loosened gravel begins without delay. As the shaft sinks a windlass is erected over the opening, and as fast as the bucket is filled the contents are hauled to the surface and dumped in a convenient place for washing the following season. AVhcn the drift has reached a short distance under- ground the bitterly cold weather of the winter has no terrors for the placer miner, and he prosecutes his work in com- parative ease and comfort. As distance from the shaft is gained, a wooden track is laid on the floor of the tunnel, and a car pushed by hand is employed to convey the gold-bearing- gravel from the ever-receding breast of the drift to the primitive hoisting works. "Wlio it was who first concei^'ed the idea of drifting under the muck banks and thawing the frozen gravel by means of log fires would be difficult to determine, but who- A FORTUNE IN THE DUMP 209 ever lie may be, lie deserves a monument as a perpetuation of his memory. The ability to mine in the winter has length- ened the mining season from three to eight or nine mouths. As soon in the fall as it becomes cold enough to freeze the water and prevent the shaft from filling up, tben the winter miner begins his labors only to cease in the spring when the water begins running again. During the cold weather he has hoisted the muck to the surface, and there lies on his dump many tons of gravel wherein may be a small-sized fortune as a compensation for his work of the winter. Ex- posed to the sun, the gravel quickly thaws, for it has frozen again after being cast upon the dump, and then it is shoveled into the sluices, and the glittering yellow grains of gold are caught by the riffles, finally finding a resting-place in the Inickskin sack of him who has toiled so unremittingly to wrest them from their gravelly bed. Placer mining in such a country, therefore, is a long process, involving much hard work under very uncomfortable conditions, and a great consumption of fire wood, which in most places is very ex- pensive. This was particularly the case on Birch Creek. Six, eight, ten, and twelve feet of the surface is decayed vegetable matter and alluvial deposit of sand in the clay, termed by the miners " muck." As soon as gravel is struck, prospecting is commenced ; that is, a pan or two of the dirt is washed to determine whether it is worth " keeping " or not, as the refuse is thrown on one side of the hole and the pay- dirt on the other. ISTcar to and on bed-rock the " pay " is found, which is generally not more than two or three feet thick. * All the way through the so-called muck which lies on the surface are found trees lying in every direction, and they appear to be similar to those growing on the hills to- 13 210 FURTHER DIFFICULTIES day, but these logs and roots have evidentl}^ been deposited there a long time. "While bones of animals now common in Alaska are found in it, there have been found at the same depth bones of other animals belonging to much lower lati- tudes to-day. Well preserved horns of buffaloes have been found. Occasionally, in a part of frozen pay-streak nearly twenty feet under the surface, bits of bones will be found with parts of the flesh still clinging, but they quickly crumble when exposed to the air. It must not be thought, however, that the difficulties of the Alaskan gold-seeker are all overcome by simply sinking a hole through several feet of frozen earth by the process above indicated. The time it takes to sink a hole is meas- ured by its depth, as fires tliaw on an average about a foot a day. But should a hole be sunk in a claim without find- ing a good pay-streak, the process must be repeated in an- other locality. One claim-holder may locate at the very first hole, while another, on perhaps as good a claim, may have to sink a dozen or more, bearing in mind that his liv- ing expenses are all this time enormous, and, if he is hiring men at twelve dollars or more a day, his profits are by no means measured b}^ the amount of gold he takes out in a season. After the pay-streak, which is seldom more than three feet in thickness, is struck, the fire must be continued on the side of the shaft showing the best indications. This is also a slow process, only a few inches being thawed out in a day. This process is continued in the direction of the best pay, a distance which is governed by the thickness of the crust on top. If tins is twenty feet, you may drift thirty feet with safety, wdien a new hole or shaft has to be sunk and the drift- ing continued. In this way the pay-streak is taken from ■underneath the surface in the winter until the water begins THE ROCKER 211 running in the spring, finds its way into tlie shafts, and hinders operations to snch an extent that they are closed. Preparations for the erection of dams are then made and sluice boxes procured. The washing process was in full operation at the Birch Creek mines in the early summer of 1896, when I made my trip through them, and the miners were hoarding their dust in anticipation of having a good time at Circle City in the winter. So in the case I have mentioned, where gold was taken out at the rate of one thousand dollars a day for seven weeks, it must be remembered that these miners had done a great deal of hard work before they had taken out any. They were simply cleaning up the dirt, they had so laboriously and expensively accumulated. After taking out their heavy expenses and what they squandered at the sa- loons and gaming tables of Circle City, it will not appear strange that many old miners had been operating in this re- gion for several years, when gold was everywhere, and still remained comparatively poor men. In placer diggings where sluicing may not be possible, what are called " rockers " are used for cleaning up. A rocker is simply a box about three feet long and two feet wide, the interior fitted with a sheet-iron division punched full of quarter-inch holes, so placed as to make the first division very shallow. The lower part is fitted with an in- clined shelf about eight inches lower at one end than at the other. Over this is laid a heavy woolen blanket. The whole is placed on two rockers much resembling the rockers on an old-fashioned cradle. This arrangement is set up on two lengths of wood convenient to the water supply. Hav- ing put some pay-dirt, in, with one hand the miner rocks the cradle, and with the other he pours in water. The finer 212 THE SLUICE BOX matter with gold falls through to the blanket, which holds the fine particles of gold, while the coarser particles of dirt are washed on and out of the box, Avhich usually has some mercury on the thin slats over which the refuse runs to catch any gold that may have escaped the blanket. Of course, any large nuggets will be held on the iron division. At intervals the blanket is taken out and washed in a barrel of water containing mercury. Sluicing is always employed wherever possible, as it is much more rapid, and, when well arranged, more economical. It requires a good supply of water, which can usually be obtained on most of the Yukon creeks during the summer season from the little rivulets running from the melting snows and ice above. But the construction of sluices is generally an expensive operation, as if mill-sawed lumber is used it must be brought from a great distance, and if whip-sawed lumber, it requires much labor. In either case the cost is considerable. A sluice box is about ten inches in width and twelve feet in length, the boxes so made that they fit into each other like the joints of a telescope. In these are placed what are called riffle bars, which are strips of wood about one inch square and eight or ten feet long, nailed together at their ends so as to be parallel with each other,, and about one-half to three-quartos of an inch apart. These are placed longi- tudinally in the sluice boxes, which are set up so as to have an incline of two or three inches fall per foot of their length. A common method of an-angement is to place the slats cross- wise at suitable intervals, or to bore shallow holes in such order as to catch heavy particles. Into this system of boxes a stream of water is directed, which must be of sufficient volume to carry with it the gravel and dirt that are in the dump. GLACIERS STILL AT WORK 213 As soon as the sun lias attained sufficient force to tliaw out the surface of the dump, it is shoveled into these sluice boxes. The water carries down with it to the tailings, as it is termed, the refuse — that is, the gravel, sand, and other matter which is not wanted. The gold and the black sand, or pulverized magnetic ore, owing to their much greater weight, fall between the riffle bars and are held there. As soon as the riffle bars are filled, so that there is danger of the gold passing over and downward to the tailings, the flow of water is stopped, and what is called the clean-up is made; that is, the riffle bars are lifted out and the contents of the sluice boxes gathered and the black sand and other refuse separated. To one who has made a study of the gold leads of the mountains of the Pacific coast, the conditions of the placers of Alaska make an interesting study. Gold leads have been associated with glacial action, and in Alaska the frozen placers are in close proximity to the active glaciers grinding down the quartz-ribbed mountains and depositing the heavier substances in the furrows carved out at their feet. jSTo matter how ancient, therefore, the gold deposits in Alaska, they are recent as compared with those which till lately attracted the attention of the world. The frost has not had time to leave the ground yet. The glaciers are still at work. The Yukon miners have, as it were, caught N^ature in the act. Little or no attention had been paid to the rocks about Birch Creek, all the work being devoted to the gravel washed down from the sides of the gulches. Miners' laws governed the district. In each gulch prospectors were at liberty to stake out claims not already taken, the size of the claims being decided by a vote of the miners in each gulch 2U BIRCH CREEK MINES according to the richness of the graveh When a prospector had staked out his claim, it was recorded by one of the miners elected by those at that gulch, and that was suf- ficient to secure him a title. Securing a claim was much the easiest part of it, for the district is a large one, and traces of gold could be found almost anywhere, but the dif- ficulty was to secure one that would pay for working when owners on the rich claims already worked to some extent were offering twelve dollars a day for laborers and furnish- ing the timber. These Birch Creek mines are on American territory, and only need economical working to make them as profitable as any mines in Uncle Sam's domains. Cheaper and better transportation facilities are required, so that the cost of pro- visions and of fuel shall be much less, and so that wages may come down. As it was, in the summer in which I spent a short time there, the yield was put down as five hundred thousand dollars, which was large considering the number of claims that were really worked and the number of men employed. Most of this sum came from a half dozen mines. Many, under the existing conditions, could not be thor- oughly worked, and many more, of course, will not pay when the cost of everything is so high. But in two years these mines had built up Circle City into a lively town, the second place in population in the whole territory of Alaska. CHAPTER XIV MY VOYAGE DOWN THE MIGHTY YUKON — INCIDENTS AND EXPERIENCES DURING THE TRIP — IN THE SHADOW OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. Dowa the Yukon River — Yukon Steamers — Flat-Bottoms and Stern- Wheels — Carrying Machine Shops Along — A Perfect Labyrinth of Water — Going Wherever ItsVarying Moods Take It — Barren Islands — Fort Yukon — Lazy and Filthy Natives — Trading for Curios with Yukon Indians — Birch and Beaver Creeks — A Sudden Change — Out of the Flatlands into the Ramparts — Some Good-Looking Creeks — The Munook — The Great Tanana River — Wooding Up — Indian Settlements — The Women and Children — Dogs Galore — The Inevitable Ca^he — Nowikakat — Short Cut Portages to the Coast — Thrilling Journey of a Party of Miners — Almost Ex- hausted and Starved — Perils of Traveling in Alaska. AS little could be clone to advantage in mining till win- ter set in, and as, when I had returned to Circle City, a favorable opportunity was offered me to go down the river on one of the returning steamers, I rented my cabin, for which there was demand enough, and set out, pleased with the chance thus afforded of studying the mighty stream and the possibilities of its tributaries. Such steamers as plied on the river previous to the summer of 1897 looked fairly well from a distance; the greater the distance the better they looked. They were of the stern- wheel, flat-bottom variety, and but for a soniPwhat pre- tentious smoke-stack would have looked like small barns built on scows. The rush of people as a result of the gold (215) 21G STEAMERS ON THE YUKON discoveries on Birch Creek had brought two larger and somewhat improved vessels up the river, but they were still of the stern-wheel variety, and indeed nothing else seems to suit the conditions. The old steamers on which the pioneers had to depend were usually without staterooms, except for the use of the officers and employes, and tempo- rary quarters Avere fitted up on accompanying barges when there was a rush of travel. At such times apartments were partitioned off with canvas on the barges and fitted up with rude bunks, supplied with bedding by the passenger himself. These scows were sometimes harnessed and trussed to the front of the steamer and pushed ahead in a clumsy fashion. Two years ago half a dozen dirty little '' wheelbarrows " plied up and down the murky stream, making semi-oc- casional trips to Circle City, sometimes apparently at- tempting to go overland in the effort to shorten the journey. They were good boats, as boats were known to Yukoners, and the pioneers of that country were thankful when the Circle City excitement induced the building of one or two additional steamers of increased power and capacity. The machine-shop is a necessity to every Yukon River steamer, for there are no repair shops along the stream, nor at either end. If a rudder post is bent or a shaft broken, the repairs must be made on board the vessel, and such re- pairs are made in surprisingly short time. The passenger soon learns that there is no use in being in a hurry. It was on such craft as these that the Yukon pioneer was compelled to travel up and down the river, but he was duly thankful for the opportunity, without reference to the possibility of going in comfort. Inured to the hardship of travel on foot over ice and snow, any means of locomotion other than his own legs was a welcome relief, and he could AN ERRATIC RIVER 217 wrap his blankets about him and lie down on the floor, on the table, anywhere, and really enjoy life. Below Circle City the river spreads out into what are known as the Yukon flats, and it has the appearance of flow- ing all over the country. When once well into this maze of narrow channels and bars, one has little idea of what part of the river he is in or where the banks are. There is noth- ing permanent about the banks. A new channel is liable to eat its way almost anywhere, and the current is quite as fickle, though it rushes along everywhere between the flat islands, which stretch as far as the eye can see in any direc- tion. One has a feeling that he must be nearing the mouth of the Yukon. It is a perfect labyrinth of water. Some say the river here is ten miles wide, and others say fifty, and others guess anyivhere between those figures. No one seems to know, and it would be difficult to imagine any one making the effort to find out. There is a suspicion that the river has no defined main banks, but just goes wherever its varying moods take it. It has all the appearance of having given up trying to be a river at all. Many of these islands are merely wide stretches of sand and gravel, some of them covered with desolate-looking ridges of drift-wood. On others tall grass flourishes, but they are nothing but swampy lands. At high water the little steamers could pick their way through these channels with no difficulty with an Indian pilot at the wheel, but in low water the task is much more difficult, and one of the amusements of a trip is an occasional struggle of the little boat to pull her nose out of sand and try again, only to ground it somewhere else. But the current nowhere abates its swiftness, and it is less than a day's ride to Fort Yukon, which lies just above 218 FORLORN FORT YUKON the Arctic Circle. It is a curious geographical fact that the river here, after having pursued a steady course towards the northwest for some seven hundred miles, turns abruptly to the southwest, just as if it had suddenly changed its mind, a thing that it seems quite capable of doing at any point along the flats for three hundred miles. It is here that it is joined by the Porcupine, which comes in from the north- east, and the new turn the river takes is evidently a joint ar- rangement of the two currents, the Porcupine having the best of it. There is a class of Indians about Fort Yukon trading in curios and the like, and its individuals will do almost any- thing but work. While I stopped there, one of the trading companies was endeavoring to put up some log warehouses. It was a convenient place for wintering provisions, for often, late in the season, as was afterwards more fully developed, the steamers find it impossible to cross the bars above the fort, and are compelled to leave their cargo in log caches here. The overseer of the company which was putting up these buildings had ordei*s to hire all the Indians needed for help, but he could not induce them to work, though he oifered them fi^-e dollars a day. All they had to eat was fish, but they subsisted on this and took it easy. They take no thought for the morrow. One wdiite man, his wife, and two children, were the only white people there at that time. It is the most forlorn of places, close on to the Arctic Circle, and on the bank of a river which, spotted with dreary islands, stretches away as far as the eye can see in nearly every direction. For something over a hundred miles after joined by the Porcupine, the Yukon flows a little south to westward, naain- taining its character for uncertainty. The boats keep to the THE SCENE OF A STAMPEDE 219 channel along the sonth bank, but where the north main bank is keeping itself is purely problematical. Channels separate and appear to start off like other rivers bound for a sea in some other parts of the world, while others are com- ing in at various places. The islands gradually become larger and make a somewdiat better appearance. Birch Creek, the upper waters of which flow within a short distance of Circle City, empties into the Yukon about forty miles below the fort, and, according to the maps, the Tadrandike empties on the opposite bank from the flat lands of the north, but one would have to go out of the river's course to find the mouth of this stream. About sixty miles further on Beaver Creek flows in from the south. A little time before this had been the scene of a great stampede of miners from the upper Yukon. Gold had been picked up there and many flocked in, but the excitement had proved to be without cause, and the disappointed gold-seekers gradually scattered back to the old diggings. Soon after Fort Hamlin is passed, the maze of islands is left behind. The mighty river " gets itself together " again; the banks become higher and the mountains begin to appear. It is a great relief after steaming for nearly four hundred miles through a bewildering maze of water and flat islands. The change is so great as to almost impress one with awe. These miles of dreary flat lands are sud- denly succeeded by what are called the Lower Ramparts, and the Yukon Rapids sweep between bluffs and hills, which rise about fifteen hundred feet. The river is not more than half a mile wide, and seems almost as much underground as one of the upper canons. The bed is of granite, and the current has worn it away on both sides so that there are two good channels. •i-iO A RIVER OF GREAT POSSIBILITIES Some promising looking streams enter tlie river along this stretch of monntainous banks, but they are so common as to attract little attention from those on the river boats. One of them, however, was soon to spring into importance, for at this very time an Indian half breed named Munook was stmnbling on his way to a rich discovery on one of its nppcr tributaries, and in another year, on one of the high and more beautiful spots on the south bank of the river, was to spring up a lively mining town called Rampart City. The Tanana River, which flows in from the picturesque country to the south, is the largest tributary of the Yukon, and at its mouth seems the larger river. But it is from this point over one thousand three hundred miles to the head- waters of the mighty Yukon, and in its course it has flowed clear around the Tanana, wdiich heads up directly to the territory of the gold diggings of Forty Mile and of Circle City. The Tanana l)rings down a vast flood of water from the mountainous regions of the interior, and yet it is only recently that a white man dipped his paddles in it. The late explorations have shown that it is a river of remarkable power and possibly of unnumbered treasures. It is navi- gable for steamers for nearly two hundred miles, for which distance the current is quite slack. Then it becomes swift — swifter than that of the Yukon, it is said. All the way on the left hand are rugged mountains and the most siib- lime scenery, while on the right hand, or to the south, the mountains stand at a distance. Colors of gold have been found in all of the many creeks which empty from glacial sources into the river, but no one has yet sunk a hole tx3 bed- rock. Nearly all of the prospecting that has been done has been by those who have crossed over the mountains from Forty Mile or Circle City. IMPROVING THE NATIVES 221 In 1896 the junction of tlie Yukon and Xanana showed signs of becoming the important trading point it now is. There has long been a trading station there of the Alaska Commercial C-ompanj, and now the settlement of Weare holds an important point at the very junction. Geographic- ally, this is about the center of the great territory, though it is over eight hundred miles in a straight line from the old capital of Sitka. A short distance below, St. James Mis- sion, attached to the Episcopal Church, has for some years been successfully maintained, and the changes which have been wrought upon some of the native children are certainly noticeable. As a general thing the Indians which are en- countered along the Yukon River are no improvement over those farther up. Though they are classed under diiferent tribes they appear quite similar until we reach the point where the true Eskimo makes his appearance. They have some good qualities and are exceedingly useful in the trade of the lower Yukon. Along the banks of the various places are wooding sta- tions, where the Indians cut up timber for firewood for the steamers, which, however, are compelled to stop much more frequently in facing the swift current up than on the down- ward passage. The appearance of a Yukon steamer is a great event at these remote settlements, and the whole population within reach of the sound of the whistle flock down to the banks. If wood is needed, a line of Indians, carrying the sticks in the primitive way, file over the gang- plank and scamper out again, and for such services they are paid fair wages, but their disposition is to trade. They take various articles, and many prefer to take it out iu something to drink. One thing they never take is soap, and yet that is what they most appear to need, 222 THE INDISPENSABLE CACHE Tliese settlements are for the most part all alike. They are thickest about places where the companies keep their stores, and these become the trading centers. The natives live in huts and tents, and there is the inevitable crowd of dogs, which, upon the advent of a steamer, line the bank and howl. It is the most dismal din imaginable. Along the banks also will be seen in season big salmon hanging from long poles drying in the sun. The children are not quite as thick as the dogs (nothing is in Alaska, except the mosquitoes), but they toddle about in their dirty garments as if life were something of a delight. The women come dowm the bank canwing queer baskets of trinkets, mostly of their handiwork, which gives evidence of an enormous amount of patience and skill in the use of crude materials — baskets of unique shape woven very fine from some of the long grass of the valley, and dyed in the most striking colors, moccasins of rare quality, and so on. Wherever there are settlements, and where there are none, for that matter, the cache appears. These curious log boxes on stilts are sprinkled all over Alaska, for dogs are everywhere and the cache is an absolute necessity. They must be made to hold whatever is fit to eat, and a good deal that is unfit, for the dog will eat both. The cache is the lock and key of Alaska. And the only thief is this little animal, which will in harness haul his master for miles over the Arctic country, and then go to sleep in a snow bank. One of the important stations which we come to in pass- ing down this part of the river is Xowikakat, about seventy miles below the mouth of the Tanana. It is situated on the north bank and upon a fine bay, which is connected by a nar- row entrance with the Yukon. In passing it is easy to ATTRACTIVE TO PROSPECTORS 223 judge of the nature of the soil from the crumbling banks. Layers of sand show the deposits of annual inundations. In many places where the bank has been undermined these layers may be counted by the hundred, and all the way great masses of dirt from the banks are hurried off by the swift current to the sea. When the river has flowed on in its westward course to w^ithin about eighty miles of the sea, it takes another sudden turn and proceeds southward, for two hundred miles, parallel with the coast. This turn is made where the Koyukuk enters from the north, and, as above at the junc- tion of the Porcupine, the river dodges off in another direc- tion like one billiard ball hit by another. The Koyukuk has been well explored, but not very thoroughly prospected. Gold has been found in large quantities on it, and as much as a hundred dollars a day has been made on some of its bars by the use of a rocker. But little or nothing has been done on its important creeks, though the presence of coarse gold in the bars would imply unusual richness somewhere further up. The river at its mouth is shallow, and for some distance up has many of the characteristics of the Yukon and Tanana. About a hundred miles from the mouth the mountains begin to hem in the banks, but it can be navi- gated for nearly five hundred miles. This accessibility should make it attractive to prospectors, for the headwaters lie in the same belt of mountains that hold the gold-bearing creeks of the upper Yukon. The worst thing against it is that so much of it lies above the Arctic circle. The Yukon, after its union with the Koyukuk, flows with a still swifter cui-rent along stretches of uninviting country, among marshy islands and sloughs, and at one place is only about fifty miles from the sea. Two trails or port- 224 A HAZARDOUS TRIP ages from the river to St. Michael or T^nahaklik have been in use for some time by the Indians and missionaries, but either is a hard road to travel, especially in the summer, and dangerous after the winter sets in. Winter, however, is the time when it becomes useful as a short cut from the in- terior after the river has frozen at its mouth. A party of miners once tried to reach St. Michael over this route and had an exceedingly hazardous trip. It teaches the lesson that traveling in Alaska is perilous unless amply provided for. They had only a few blankets and barely enough pro- visions for the trip. They walked over the frozen sloughs with the ice cracking under them at e\'ery step. Sometimes they had to lie flat on their stomachs and creep along, push- ing their blankets ahead of them, in order to keep the ice from giving way under their weight. They knew that if any one went through that would be the end of him. There would be no possibility of getting him out. One of them gave out the first day, and they divided his load among the others and helped him along as best they could. The first night they slept in an abandoned Eskimo win- ter house that was full of mice and vermin. That is, they stayed in it, but slept little, because the moment they dropped ofF the mice began nibbling at their noses and run- ning down their necks. The next night they stayed in one of the inhabited Eskimo houses, and it was a million times worse than the other. There were seventeen of them crowded with ten Eskimos into an underground hut, without a breath of fresh air, and with all the bad smells imaginable reeking off the filthy Indians. They gagged and stifled and suffocated all night long, and the next night they took to the open. It was storming, and bitter, bitter cold. Five of them had onlv four blankets between them, and thev PRIVATION AND SUFFERING 225 were so near freezing that they were afraid to sleep. Tliey stumbled and crept along, uncertain whether or not they were even going in the right direction. On the second day after the first night they slept out another man broke down. He was a man of fine courage, but so utterly spent and ill that they could scarcely get him along. He would stumble and fall in his tracks, and before they could reach him he would be asleep from exhaustion. Much of the time that day they had to carry him in their arms. Nearly all day there was an awful storm of howling wind and snow and rain, and all were wet to the skin. But the^ kept right on as rapidly as they could make their way across the tundra, and when night came crawled into the shelter of a lake bank and made a fire. They had run out of provisions and had left only a flapjack and a sliver of bacon for each. They put the sickest man into the middle of the group and all huddled around him, trying to keep him warm through the night. It was a sorry-looking crowd that left that camp the next morning. They knew not where they were, or if they were going in the right direction, or how soon they might have to lie down and die of exhaustion and starvation. But they drew up their belts, set their teeth, took the sick man on their shoulders, and started on. The weather was not quite so cold as it had been. It was warm enough to rain, and the water was just pouring out of the sky. At last they reached the top of the first hill and saw St. ]\richael l)clow them. They were six days traveling that one hundred and ten miles. The portage from N"ulato leads to Unalaklik and is the least difficulty, but neither of these trails offers any advan- tages except as a short cut to the base of supplies. At this 14 226 A HARD COUNTRY TO LEAVE point the river flows within about fifty miles from the sea and not much further than that from St. Michael, but it is about six hundred miles to that port by way of the river, Alaska is a difficult country to get into, and equally dif- ficult to get out of. The erratic Yukon has all the appear- ances of having met the latter difficulty. During its long course it runs tow^ards every point in the compass, and in some places seems to be running in all directions at once. CHAPTEE XV STILL JOURNEYING ALONG THE DREARY RIVER — SIGHTS AND SCENES ON THE WAY — HABITS AND PECULIAR- ITIES OF THE INDIANS. Holy Cross Mission — Soap at Last Has Legal-Tender Value — Some Domestic Scenes — Close Race with the Climate — The Sisters of St. Anne — Mass in a Log Church — The Untutored Innuits — Their Unpleasant Environment — Queer Heirlooms — Geese aud Ducks Find a Favorable Abode — The Trip to the Coast — St. Michael — Why Ocean Steamers have to Anchor a Mile and a Half Out — Alaska Commercial Company — Fort Get-There — A Lone Government Official — The Question of Transferring Cargoes — Characteristics of the Natives — Watching a Chance to Reach the Yukon's Mouth — Difficulties of Getting in with a Load — Breast- ing the Swift Current — A Hard Nut to Crack — Returning up the River. AS we proceeded down the river towards Anvik, the high ground ceased to come down to the water's edge, and the flat lands began to reappear, though the horizon is met by low hills some distance away. At some points rise lofty clay cliffs, made np of various colors. Spruce and fir trees, poplars and willows, are sprinkled along, but they do not extend back far into the country, which rapidly becomes more and more marshy and dreary. While stopping at Anvik, our attention was divided be- tween the strange old trading station, with its storehouses on stilts, and the ancient Russian mission, with its silver candelabra, luminous wall paintings, and sacred relics. (327) 228 WOMEN AND FLOWERS Much more progress seems to have been made mth the natives at the Holy Cross Mission, a short distance further down, though I think they must be a better class naturally. Here a cake of soap seems to have considerable legal-tender value, and some of the children are attractively clad in the garments of civilization, and wear clean faces, as well as the inevitable Jnnuit smile. The buildings of the Holy Cross Mission are well constructed, and include a church, two schools — one for boys, another for girls; a convent, and the necessary outbuildings for a well-ordered farm. Large cultivated fields adjoin the establishment, and in them vegetables of prodigious size are grown, as well as strawberries. But it is a close race with the climate. Upon the hillsides, in well-kept terraces, the more delicate plants are grown, and in the dooryard sweet mignonette, phlox, pansies, violets, nasturtiums, marguerites, dahlias, and other homelike llowers flourish in the summer months, nurtured by the slender hands and tender solicitude of the Sisters of St. Anne. These heroic women have immured themselves in this inhospital)le region, and have undertaken to subdue nature and nature's children by gentle persistency, and their efforts are telling in the manifold results to be ob- served about them. But being unfitted for Innuit life by these civilizing in- fluences, the wonder is what is to become of them and their acquirements in such a country. The school has its press, and has issued several volumes in the native tongue. There is the great log bani. with its well-filled hay-loft, and even a cow; the haystack outside, and various other evidences of rural domesticity and comfort. There are the wofully homely but peachy-cheeked native girls, neatly A PLEASANT DIVERSION 229 clad in their uniform ginghams, with a delicious French ac- cent in their very precise English, the source of which be- comes apparent in conversation with these sisters of St. Anne. And all these wonders compensate the traveler for the delay of several hours usually made there for the pur- pose of obtaining wood, cleaning boilers, and giving the passengers a pleasant diversion. It has grown to be the custom of the mission to hold special services whenever a vessel is in port, and the chorus of fresh young Indian voices in the mass rings from the organ loft in the church of logs with much impressiveness, set in these unique sur- roundings in a desolate country. These Innuit people are a queer lot, the untutored housed in their squatty mounds of earth, the entrances to which are holes under ground, and subsisting on mixtures the flavor of which nearly kills a white man. They are, however, as a whole, niuch superior to the Indians of the interior, being a trifle less lazy. They are used by the com- panies to man their steamers, but if one can shirk work he will. They seem to look on the industry of tlie white man as a great exhibition of foolishness. They live in a country which in summer is a great flat swale full of bog holes, slimy and decaying peat, innumerable sloughs, shallow and stag- nant, and from which swarms of mosquitoes rise to fairly destroy any animal life. The insects come out of tlieiv watery pupse with the earliest growth of spring vegetation, early in May, and remain in clouds till destroyed by the frosts of September. The natives seldom go into the woods at this summer season, and their dogs, though protected by their long hair, sometimes die from bites about their eyes and paws. Close-haired beasts, like horses and cattle, could not live a month, unless protected by man. ^30 A LABYRINTH OF CHANNELS In the winter and early spring fierce gales of wind at zero temperature sweep over these fiats of Alaska in constant succession, and, although it is in this season that land travel is easiest, it is full of dangers t-o any but the natives, who are muffled in their skin parkas. Their undergarments con- sist mostly of a skin shirt, which is handed down from one generation to another, but it is difiicult for an inexperienced white man to tell whether the odor of one of these garments belongs to the present owner or to one of his more or less re- mote ancestors. The bluifs which here and there come down to the river are desolate enough, with their barren slopes, but they give the only indication that the country is not all under water. The channel zigzag's from side to side in a way common to such swift bodies of water, which are constantly washing out and building up bars and islets, and sweeping down in its resistless flood an immense aggregate of soil and timber. The banks, where they rise above this surging current, which runs at an average of eight miles an hour, are con- tinuall}' caving down, and so sudden and precipitate are these landslides sometimes that any craft in their way is liable to be destroyed. "When the Yukon has in its tortuous career again turned towards the coast, it manages somehow in the course of over one hundred miles to empty itself. It makes a very bad job of it. It breaks up into a labyrinth of blind, mis- leading channels, slough and swamps, which extend over an immense territory with a most mournful and distressing prospect. The country itself is scarcely above the level of the tides, and is covered with a monotonous cloak of scrubby willows and rank sedges. It is in summer water, water — here, there, and everywhere, — a vast inland sea. ST. MICHAEL HARBOR 231 filled with thousands and thousands of swale islets scarcely peeping above the surface. Myriads of geese, ducks, and wading water fowl resort to this desolation, where in the countless pools and the thick covers of tall grass and sedge they are provided mth food and protection from their enemies. With good luck and a good pilot, the steamer finally works its way out by the northern channel, and reaches the sea at Kutlik, which is a meagre settlement where the steamers take on drift wood. The rest of the trip is along the coast. A voyage in one of these small, flat-bottom boats of the Yukon, is a good deal like knocking about the Atlantic on a plank, unless the weather is very favorable. In this region it has few such agreeable moods. A cursory glance at St. Michael harbor tells why the question of getting supplies up the Yukon is a serious one to overcome, even were the other conditions partially favor- able. The harbor is but little more than a crescent on the shores of isTorton Sound. It is neither deep nor well-pro- tected. The port itself is on an island, about five by eighteen miles, shaped something like an ink spot, and sep- arated from the mainland by a narrow slough. The hills of the mainland are some four or five miles back from the shore to the south. At the other points tundra is broken only by rolling hills, which are hardly more tlian large mounds. Ocean steamers have to make a wide detour away from the mouth of the Yukon on account of the dirt it has been pouring into the sea, and St, Michael is the only place where they can get within a hundred miles of it, but steamers drawing over twenty feet anchor about a mile and a half, even, from St. Michael, and none of the vessels lie in nearer 232 FOKT GET-THERE than lialf a mile from the Alaska Commercial Company's wharf. The pQit is a clustering village of some thirty or more small houses, and is nearly wholly given over to the interests of the Alaska Commercial Company. Scattered huts and Eskimo dwellings make up the rest of its entirety. Half a mile further on is now Fort Get-There, headquarters for the Xorth American Transportation and Trading Com- pany. The iskmd is undoubtedly of volcanic origin, it be- ing nothing more than volcanic rock and tundra, entirely treeless, and, even at this season, dreary-looking. The tundra is nothing but the moss and peat covering rock. Soil there is none. The tundra may vary up to two feet in de]3th, but below this it is frozen solid at all times of the year. Imagine agiieulture where the plow would turn up ice and frozen moss at from eight inches down beneath the surface. In spite of this the grass is almost knee-deep, and bright-colored wild flowers are luxurious in their gTOwth and profusion. Innumerable small ponds break the sur- face, filled with water which seej^s through the moss, and which is neither palatable nor good. It appears to be im- pregnated with alkali. All the water used by the Com- mercial Company's post is brought from the mainland by boat. That at Fort Get-There is said to be filtered from the ponds. The fii'st settlement here was made by the Rusvstans in 1836. At the time of the purchase of Alaska this fort and post were a part of the transfer, about one hundred thousand dollars being paid for the buildings and fortifications. The United States must have let their interest go by default, as now all that i-s left is a small blockhouse and half a dozen small cannon, and even these are a part and parcel of the Commercial Company's post. Our lone government ofli- A WONDERFUL DELTA 233 cial, deputy collector of customs, has his office in a dwell- ing rented from the Alaska Commercial Company. St. Michael is eighty miles, at least, north of the pass l)y which the steamers enter the river, and the river proper is over a hundred miles further on, as we have seen, the extent of its delta being second to none in the world. After an ocean steamship reaches St. Michael the question of get- ting its cargo ashore and up the river commences in real earnest. Everything has to be lightered from the boat to the warehouses, which, with the present improved facilities, is tedious and exasperating. A small launch and two scows have constituted the outfit. Lighterage is also subject to the conditions of the weather, for the wind frequently blows here at a terrific rate. When the river steamers are in they take in cargo alongside the ship, which greatly expedites matters. Having been loaded, the river steamer must watch its chance to cross JSTorton Sound to the Aphoon IMouth, and thence over a hundred miles to the main river. This must all be done between June 15th and October 1st. Sometimes the river starts freezing by the middle of Sep- tember, and St. Michael's Bay has never been opened before June 18th. The sound freezes over early in winter, and seldom is opened before June 20th. One of the inhabitants very tersely puts the situation thus : " For nine months it means from thirty to sixty degrees below, and everything frozen over. For two months it's mosquitoes, and for the other one month, it depends on the weather whether it is fog or sunshine." In spite of this, the people here do not seem to be particularly discontented. For ages the natives have lived in these ice-bound regions of the north, and have met and overcome the most inhos- pitable conditions that could confront human beings. Phys- 234 INVENTIVE AND RESOURCEFUL NATIVES ically tlioy are good specimens of manhood. Mentally tliey are far superior to most savage tribes. In their do- mestic pursuits they are skilled to a degTee that challenges admiration. They are inventive, and out of the slender re- sources of their native land they have gathered much that would be accounted wealth if the arts of civilization had not intruded. They have learned to tan the hides of the seal and walrus into leather that is waterproof and resists wear like iron, "With it they construct their kyaks and canoes and their summer dwellings. Out of the walrus tusks they fashion implements of the chase, and ornament them with faithful likenesses of the animals, birds, and fish with which they are familiar. Ivory-carving is an art with them. The women sew, and make the fur garments, and boots and shoes that are worn by all. They are a merry race, giving themselves up to pleasure completely when the season for labor has passed. Honest and truthful to a de- gree, they are trustful of the stranger, and hospitable, too, though to the newcomer their hospitality is sometimes op- pressive. The journey from St. Michael to the mouths of the Yukon, and thence up its swift current, pushing a barge, is a much longer and more serious task. AVe were fortunate in connections, and the little stern-wheeler and barge were soon loaded, ready to make the spurt across the sound. The weather was caught in a favorable mood, and we were quickly in the safer waters, where narrow banks like dikes rise out of the sea and extend oceanward for miles, inclosing the channel. These narrow strips of land resemble great wliarves or breakwaters when seen from the ocean side. The practical navigator anchors his craft in the lee of these banks to wait BREASTING THE CURRENT 237 a favoring tide, and when it rises pushes his vessel forward with all possible speed to cross the shallows at the entrance, nor stops until the first station of the journey up the river is reached at Kutlik. Only at high tide, or when the river is very high, is it safe to push loaded boats over these bars, for once caught on them it may be a matter of weeks before the boat can be got off and the journey resumed. There is more or less of this all the way up the river. As one traveler expressed it, " it is touch and go, or touch and not go," much of the way. There can be no time-table. The river proper is not generally entered until the second day out from St. Michael. During all this time the steamer has been winding in and out, seeming never to directly approach the range of distant hills that marks the beginning of the mainland, yet ever coming nearer through the sinuous channel. Suddenly the steamer emerges from the narrow and shallow w^ay into a broad, swift-moving current confined between something like banks, and point- ing a long, straight, dreary course toward the mountains. The pulse of the engines quicken, there is a straining of timbers, and with quick leaps forward the steamer breasts the mighty current, and backward from her bow the white foam curls as she rushes onward. But it is up-hill work. Occasionally the strong ma- chinery, which takes up most of the room in the boat, will break down, and the machine shop, which has to be a fea- ture of Yukon craft, is kept busy. Or perhaps the wood gives out before a station is reached, and the crew, and, pos- sibly, the passengers, are brought into service to cut a fresh supply from the banks. As the little steamer puffs along the incidents observed in coming down the river are re- 238 DEVELOPMENT OF THE RIVER ROUTE pcatcd. Tlie natives tlirong to the landings, and when vil- lages are passed, the Indians and dogs line the banks, in picturesque confusion. There is a sort of delight in riding swiftly down the current while these scenes are j^assing in panorama, but in struggling ui>, day after day, the monot- ony is tedious, though everyone tries to make the best of it. There can be no question that the river route to the gold regions of the upper Yukon, with all its drawbacks, and the length of time it consumes, is the least dangerous, the easiest and the most agreeable. It must in the future be made to play a great part in the development of Alaska, and yet, for commercial purposes, it is a hard nut to crack. It is a strange river in a strange country. If Alaska still belonged to Russia, and development had to come from Kamschatka and Siberia, its position would be right enough, but it is wrong end to for the United States. Access to it involves the crossing of two turbulent seas, the ISTorth Pacific and Bering Sea, three thousand miles to a far northern point, then in a horseshoe route up and south again, over a rapid current and shallow and shifting bed that at the best has but little more than four months per year of ticklish navigation. Even with improved facilities it must always be expen- sive business to carry freight so long a distance. All efforts to improve the channel must be wasted, because of the swift nature of the river, which is continually pouring down silt and constructing its own shallow channels. In some places the na^ngable way is here to-day and gone somewhere else to-morrow. It is almost impossible to mark a channel at the mouth, for the movement of the ice in Bering Sea is con- tinually changing the depths at this point, so that what mis'lit be the channel one season would not be the next. PLANS FOR THE WINTER 239 From this cause, and hioli winds making it too rough for river steamers to cross the intervening eighty miles from St. Michael to the mouth, there is much delay here, and it would be impossible to fix regular dates of sailing. To deepen one of the channels sufficiently to allow ocean vessels to enter the mouth of the river would be very expensive, and even when done could hardly be expected, under the con- ditions, to be permanent. In spite of all the difficulties, the transportation com- panies have struggled nobly to provide for the necessities of the increasing population at the mines, and it remains the only way by which provisions can be carried in in large quantities. To the people there these little river steamers mean life, if winter is to be spent in the interior, and unless winters are spent in the interior there can be no develop- ment of the mines. It is then that the digging must be done. Meeting with generally favorable conditions on our way up the river, we arrived at Circle City in good time. Joe was down from the mines for another load of supplies, and he informed me that so far as he had worked the ground where our claims were the prospects were good, and he pro- posed to stock up with provisions and continue the work through the winter. It seemed best for me to continue on the steamer up to Forty ]\Iile and seek to make some arrange- ments, if possible, for the working of our claims there be- fore returning to Circle City for the winter. So up the river I went, little dreaming of the events which had thrown the miners of the upper Yukon into a fever of excitement. CHAPTER XYI ARRIVAL AT FORTY MILE — WONDERFUL STORIES OF NEW DIGGINGS — 110 ! FOR THE KLONDIKE ! — MAD RUSH OF EXCITED GOLD-SEEKERS. Something Has Happened — Forty Mile Almost Deserted — A Genuine Stampede — The Discovery on the Thron-diuck or Klondike — Henderson's Find on Gold Bottom — He Returns for Provisions — Meeting Cormack's Fishing Party — He Tells of His Discovery — Cormack Concludes to Find Gold Bottom — Over the Trail — Re~ turns to His Fishing Camp — Prospects a Little on His Way— - Stumbles on a Good Pan on Bonanza Creek — Claims for Himself, Tagish Charlie, and Tagish Jim — Siwash George's Reputation for Truth and Veracity — Where Did He Get the Gold ? — Tremendous Excitement — Forty Mile Deserted — Old Miners Lack Faith — Skim Diggings — Highly-Colored Tales — I Conclude to Go and See for Myself — Poling Up Stream — Returning Prospectors Shoot By Us — "It's a Big Thing, Boys" — Never Mind the Blisters — Tired and Footsore — A Lively Camp — Trying to Sleep — Ten Dollars to the Pan. WHEN we readied Eorty Mile it was at once appa- rent that sometliing had happened to that lively little settlement with which \^e had become ac- quainted a few weeks before on onr swift trip down the river. A great change had come over it, and Ave were not long in discovering the reason. The greater part of the place had vanished, moved bag and baggage to the " Thron- diuck," the moose valley forty miles above. It was here that we heard the story of the " Klondike " discovery. There is some dissimilarity in the accounts of how the (240) THE DAUNTLESS THREE 241 discovery was made, but tlie most reliable seems to show that the credit for it in the first instance should be given to three men, Kobert Henderson, a Canadian, a native of Prince Edward Island, Frank Swanson, a Norwegian, and another man named Munson, who, in July, 1896, were pros- pecting on Indian Creek, which, as will be observed by the map, empties into the Yukon some twenty-five miles above the Klondike. They proceeded up the creek without finding sufficient to satisfy them until they reached Dominion Creek, and after prospecting there they crossed over the divide and found Gold Bottom, where they got good prospects and went to work. Gold Bottom is a little creek whose head- waters are very close to Dominion Creek. It flows north- ward, emptying into another creek, which, in turn, empties into the Klondike about twelve miles from its mouth. It is said that the attention of these prospectors was fii-st directed to Gold Bottom by the stories told by Indian fishermen. But these stories had often been told, and little confidence was placed in the acuteness of the Indians of this region in noticing traces of the yellow metal. The prospectors kept at work for some days with results that seemed promising, but, provisions running short, Hen- derson retraced his steps to the mouth of Indian Creek, leaving the other two at work. From the mouth of Indian Creek he went up to Sixty Mile, but failing to obtain a sup- ply there he had to make for Forty Mile. On ihe way down he passed an old mining comrade named George W. Cor- rnack, a native of California, wdio had associated witli him two Indians, Tagish Jim and Tagish Charlie, natives of the upper waters of the Yukon. Cormack was what is known as a " squaw man," having, like many other pioneers in the 2-i2 THE CAMP OF " SIWASH GEORC^E " country, married an Indian woman, and thus liaving be- come more closely associated witli the "Stick" Indian ways. He was commonly called " Siwasli George." AYitb liis In- dian associates lie had been fishing near the mouth of the Klondike for some days, but without much success, as the salmon did not run up well in the simimer of 1896. He had heard stories of the Indians as to traces of gold on the creeks emptying into the Klondike, but like most of the old- timers had paid little attention to them, and in his Indian life had looked upon the salmon season as a time when the energies must be expended in laying up a store of fish for the winter. The scene as Henderson came drifting down the rapid- flowing Yukon towards the little camp near the mouth of the Klondike, where Cormack and his associates were con- ducting their unsuccessful fishing operations, may be easily imagined. Here M'ith majestic swiftness the great river rolls between its steep banks, on which plants and flowers flourish in the colors and exuberance characteristic of a Yukon summer. To the voyager it was a weird, picturesque scene, as the sun cast a flood of light on the sweeping river and the steep mountains, fringed with green and tipped with streaks of white, and fell brightly on the camp of Cormack, his In- dians, and his dogs. An opportunity for a brief companion- ship in these solitudes is seldom missed, and Henderson steered to the camp, where items of news were exchanged. It is one of the articles of the miner's code that he shall proclaim all discoveries made by him as soon as possible, and Henderson, who had already dropped the word to a few at Sixty Mile, to which place he had first gone for pro- visions, but without success, at once advised Cormack of the discovery on .Gold Bottom, and advised him to try there. FINDING A BONANZA 243 Making inquiries of the local Indians as to the situation of Gold Bottom, Cormack learned the route to it, and, along with the two Indians mentioned, started, climbing over the ridge which divides the valley of the Yukon from the valley of the creek now called Bonanza, down into that creek and up it to the rich stream now known as Eldorado. It was a rough, agonizing journey, but Cormack and his Indians were hardened to such conditions. They went up it about three miles and then followed the ridge dividing its waters from those of Bonanza until they struck the watershed between Indian Creek and Klondike, along which they trav- eled until they reached the head of the creek that they as- sumed to be the Gold Bottom. They went down, found Swanson and Munson at work, but Cormack was not sat- isfied with the prospects there. They Avere fair, but not sufficient to justify the conclusion that placers of exceeding richness lay in streaks under the frozen soil. Often had prospectors been tempted into these hills only to work their way out in disgust to seek provisions. Cormack determined to return to his fishing, prospecting the creek from its head downwards, as it lay in the direction of his camp. He found nothing of note until he came down about midway, where from a little nook in a bend of the creek he panned out a good prospect. This encouraged him to try again. He did so, and in a few moments panned out twelve dollars and seventy-five cents, which he put in an old cart- ridge shell and corked with a piece of stick. This was on August 10, 189G. The next day he staked discovery claim and l!^o. 1 below for himself, ISTo. 2 for Tagish Charlie, and No. 1 above for Tagish Jim. He then made his way down the creek as fast as possible and went down the river for a supply of provisions. 15 244 THE STAMPEDE FROM FORTY MILE On the way he met several miners and informed them of his discovery. At first they would not believe him, as his reputation for truth was not above par. These miners said they could not tell when he was telling the truth, if he ever was. Yet there was no question about the man having the twelve dollars and seventy-five cents in gold. The only question, then, was, Where did he get it? He had not been up the Sixty Mile, nor yet the Forty Mile, and he must have got it somewhere near where he was engaged in fishing, and that was right at the mouth of the Klondike. There must be gold there somewhere. Then followed the excitement. It takes very little to start a stampede of miners. Boatload after boatload of men went up from Forty Mile. They went up any how and any way, starting at all times of the day and night. Men who had been drunk for weeks and weeks, in fact, were tumbled into the boats and taken up Avithout any knowledge that they were travelers. One man, it was related, was so drunk that he did not realize that he had left Forty Mile until he was more than two-thirds of the way to the Klon- dike. Yet this same man is settled on one of the best of claims. In less than three days every boat had gone from Fort Cudahy and the town of Forty Mile, and only enough people were left to watch the business houses and the police barracks, w^hile a few who could not obtain boats were act- ing in the most distracted manner. ISTo one knew anything about the richness of the ncAV discoveries; they only knew that a man had been there and had come away with a few gold nuggets. I knew enoTigh of miners' stampedes not to be greatly interested in the new development at Forty Mile. I was "big pans" 245 aware that there had been at that place a lot of miners who had been having poor luck, and leading a very unsatisfac- tory existence. They were the bluest of the blue, for they had been tramping over the rough trails in the country back from the Yukon in the hopes of making a strike, had failed, and were, as the winter season approached, com- pletely disgusted with the country. Those who had been working for wages in some of the paying mines were better off, but the moment the Klondike news came they threw up their jobs, and some owners of the mines on Forty Mile either stopped work or sold out their claims, and departed with the rest. A large number of them rushed off mthout provisions or the means to obtain them. Very soon some of these came down the river, having located claims, and then it was learned that there was really something on the Klondike w^orth traveling after. " It's a big thing," they said. " Everybody is finding big pans." They were speaking comparatively, for none of the really big finds had been made as yet. The surface pans were large as compared wdtli those that the miners had been ac- customed to in the region. It was easy enough to find gold, but the thing was to find it fast enough to pay. A " grub- stake " strike, by which one might succeed in obtaining a winter's outfit, Avas something. All the returned miners could say was that the surface was good, and '' if it went down it would be the biggest thing on earth." There was a belief among those remaining at Forty j\Iile that they were only what are called " skim diggings." This impression was intensified by a few old miners who had come back either in disgust or highly skeptical. They said the valley was too wide, that the -willow^s did not lean the right way, and that the waters did not taste right. It was simply V 246 STARTING FOR THE KLONDIKE another crazy staiii])C'de. Sonic of tlieni did not even wait to stake out a claim, while others staked them and sold them for what they could get, thinking themselves in luck to do that. The creek had been staked principally by " chee- chacoes," as the Indians call them, or tenderfeet. So little faith was shown at Forty Mile that some of the claim- holders could not obtain " gTub " at the stores in exchange for their prospects. But more and more highly colored tales began to come down, though no one, so far as we could hear, had reached bed-rock as yet, and I determined that I would put out and see for myself. I knew it would be an impossibility for one man to Avork a boat up the rapid Yukon, so I picked out a helper, with w^hom I was well acquainted, from among the feverish throng that were waiting for a chance to go up. AVe threw a tent, a stove, and a month's provisions into a boat, and started off, but before we had got far we overtook two men who insisted that their happiness in this world, and, perhaps, in the next, depended upon our taking them along with us. They would pull the boat, do anything, if we w^ould only let them come in. So we did. AVorking up stream with a loaded boat is a laborious undertaking. The current is too swift to pennit of rowing or paddling except for occasional short stretches, and so we had to pole most of the way, and when that failed we had to tow or " trick " the boat along. These two men would grasp the tow line and pull with all their strength, for they were anxious to make the best time possible, but neither of them were experts in handling a boat in the peculiar methods required on the Yukon. ]\Iy brief summer's ex- perience, however, had been of value to me, and we worked along in fair order, but most of the time in a drizzling rain. NO WILD GOOSE CHASE 247 It was very dismal. We camped wherever the lengthening nights overtook us, and generally on a gravelly bank, for the heavy moss on the top of the banks overlooking the river is full of water. We ate hurriedly, slept little, and hour after hour dragged the tow line over rough places on the shore, the boat all the time pulling a dead weight against us. Long before we reached the Klondike many boats passed us loaded with men who had been to the new diggings and were returning for provisions. They shot by us gaily in a five-mile current in strange contrast to the men on the tow line, who, with blistered feet, were slipping and sprawling along the rocks on the bank. " Hurry up, boys. It's a great thing! " they shouted as they shot past, as if we could hurry any faster against that current. " Five dollars to the pan, boys," shouted another, " but take it easy, for there's lots of good claims there," and we pulled away on the tow line harder than ever. " Hello, Bill, is that you? " came a voice from another boat later on, and I recognized a man with whom I had be- come acquainted on the trip in, and who had stopped at Forty Mile. " It looks good," he shouted. " Yes, I've staked. Will sell for one hundred dollars, for there are more claims there. Take some grub over the mountains and look around a little. I'll be back shortly." I made up my mind that it was no wild goose chase. I could take that man's word, for he was an old miner, and not easily deceived. " It must be a big thing." I said to my companions, and they pulled and poled with renewed energy. How exasperating a five-mile current can be when it is against one, and there is gold at the other end! Never mind the blisters on the feet and the sore hands! 248 GOLD SEEKERS ON THE BEACH Never 111 hid stopping to cat! AVe immcbed crackers and kept on pulling and poling. On the third evening we reached the little native village at the month of the Klondike. When Joe and I had gone past there in the early snmmer there had been but two white men in the village. Now they were camped all about the banks. We were too tired and footsore to attempt to go over the mountains that night, so we put up the tent and dragged our boat up on the beach. Some of the men who were camped there had been over the trail, and had come down for more provisions which they had left in caches, or in the native huts, while some were bound down the river to Forty Mile, like those we had passed on the way. Others had just arrived and, like ourselves, were waiting to go over the trail. We had a bite, a little hot coffee, and then a pipe, then sat and listened to the stories of those who had been in. These stories, however, did not agree. Some said they were not coming back, that the Klondike couldn't " hold a candle " to Forty Mile Creek, others spoke of big strikes, but we were shown little gold. They had just staked out their claims and were going back for supplies. All night the boats kept arriving and pulling up on the gravelly beach. They came from Sixty Mile, Stewart River — from everywhere in this part of the Yukon valley, and when we wondered how they came to hear of it we found that they had been sent for by their friends on the stream. The natives had been used as messengers. Then we were startled by a wild whoop like a Comanche yell from the brow of the first rise of the mountain over which the trail comes from Bonanza. Then came a volley of yells, and a stranger would have thought that a whole band of savages were pouring down the hill after us. We looked EXCITING NEWS 249 lip through the bushes to see tlie rocks tumbling and rolling down with them. The yells increased; and rocks and men came down faster and faster till they reached the bottom a few yards away. Of course we knew what was up. They had just come in from the creek. We were up and shout- ing, too. " How is it? "' everybody asked as the men came nearer. " Ten dollars to the pan, right in the bank of the creek on No. 11." " Above or below? " " Oh, below, of course. Nobody has done any panning above." It is, of course, understood that when a discovery is made on a creek that claim is called " Discovery Claim," the next above is called '•' ISTo. 1, above," the next one down stream " No. 1, below," and so on as far as claims are made either up or down. The little camp of scattered tents was at once alive with eager men. The returning miners were seized and button- holed, to use a polite expression which is sometimes out of place in Alaska for want of buttons. More wood was thrown on the fire, the coffee-pot was put where it would boil quickly, and the frying pan was soon doing its duty, while the visitors squatted around and were pumped for informa- tion. We were told that three men on Bonanza Creek worked out seventy-five dollars in four hours, and that a twelve- dollar nugget had been found. Nothing had yet been done except to pan, though two men with two lengths of sluice boxes had taken out four thousand dollars. The gold is coarse. That was enough to set the miners wild. It was evident, from the ferocity witli which the men "ioO PILGRIMS OF THE NIGHT attacked the solid food, and poured down tlic Loiling-liot black coffee, that the trip to the creek was not exactly a picnic, thongh they say it is " fair." We knew enough to know that in Alaska that word applies to any place where a man can go without breaking his neck. In a little while I saw a few men slipping away from the small crowd clustered about the fire, and in a few minutes the sound of stones and rocks rolling down the mountain side was heard again. But there were no yells. iSTo one was returning. Here and there a man had slipped away and strapped on his pack, and was climbing upward, cling- ing to the small bushes, working slowly, but going on per- sistently. They could not wait a moment after hearing the stories of those wonderful pans. I kneW' we were too tired and footsore to attempt to make the climb till morning. If we had attempted it we should probably have had to stop somewhere on the moun- tains without water. Still, we regretted that we could not push on. My companions showed no signs of being sleepy, although I knew they needed rest like myself. Finally w^e got into the tent, rolled ourselves in our blankets, and tried to sleep, but every once in a wdiile another boat would scrape on the gravelly beach, and more men would come up and cook a meal, or hurriedly shoulder their packs and scramble on up the steep trail. "While I lay there, almost ready to drop off and forget about the wonderful pans, I heard a noise in the tent. Some one was moving about. But I recognized the sound. I have already related a few facts concerning the Alaskan dog, and there is no mistaking that peculiar, gentle sound of a pan being licked by a " huskie." I picked up a hatchet and threw it at the dark object, but it did not hit him. MISSING THE MARK 251 Nothing' but a rifle ball would liit one of these dogs. The hatchet made a big hole in the tent, but time was too precious to waste in sewing it up. Finally, I fell asleep, only to be awakened by more boats grinding on the gravel, more Comanche yells, more men clambering up the mountain, more stones rolling down to the beach. CHAPTER XYII MY FIRST TRAMP IN THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS — WHAT A PLACE FOR GOLD! — A PEEP INTO THE SLUICE BOXES — I STAKE A CLAIM. Preparations for a Start — Over the Mountain into the Swamps — A Hard Tramp — Cranberries to Quench Thirst — A Mysterious Pup — The Klondike Valley from the Summit — Glimpse of the Arctic Rockies— "All the Goold in the Worruld"— An Old Story — Hurrying On — On Bonanza Creek at Last — Calculating the Dis- tance — Blowing a Little — Looking for Henry Ward Beecher — A Disgusted Irishman — Too Tired to Keep On — A Look at the Gravelly' Bar — I form a Poor Opinion — Ready to Change My Mind — Too Tired to Care — Forgetting One's Name — Chilled Through — Nuggets Fished Out vrith a Shovel — Washing Out the Gold — Objects of Suspicion — Pushing on for a Claim — Indi- cations Do Not Count — I Stake My Claim — Starting Back in the Rain — Over the Trail Again — Our Turn to Yell. BY the time daylight had found its way into the valley our breakfast was disposed of, and the dishes set away out of the reach of the dogs. We cached, most of our provisions, and fixed in small packs what we deemed necessary for the next few days. Then we set out over the trail, taking our turn at tearing up the little bushes, and making the stones rattle down the mountain side. I had become accustomed to climbs of this character during the summer, and, difficult as it was, I could by this time re- gard it as quite the usual thing. IMy companions also had good muscles and lungs, and made no complaint. Besides, (252) A YUKON BERRY PASTURE 253 there were those stories about those wonderful pans of gold, and there was no time to lose — at least, that was the way we all felt about it. After going half a mile or so the trail became less pre- cipitous, and undulated through a ' patch of wind-swept spruce and cottonwood. The ground was covered with moss of that large variety which lies all over the Yukon valley and hills, while everywhere were clumps of cran- berry bushes, the berries being just in their prime. Huckle- berry bushes also abounded. In a little while we came to a swamp with a wealth of hummocks. The water in the trail was over ankle-deep, but there was no use trying to walk outside of it, so we splashed along, and soon came to comparatively dry ground again. Some of my com- panions grew very thirsty and looked about for water, but none was to be seen. That in the swamp was not fit to drink. On we went, picking a few cranberries by the way to relieve thirst, and causing the grouse to flutter from among the bushes, for berry time is their feasting season. We met a returning party, and were told that we should find a spring just before we reached the summit, but we forgot our thirst a moment while they told more tales of the great strikes of gold on the creek. We pushed on, finding no spring; others came down the trail, and some overtook us. We saw a down-trail man take an up-trail man to one side and evidently whisper some advice. Once I heard the word "pup " mentioned. In Yukon parlance that means " gulch." Every creek has its pups, and if any of them become of considerable importance they may have pups also. The natural conclusion was that some of the prospectors had struck it rich on one of the pups of the Bonanza. Of course, I was then in utter ignorance of the 254 THE GATEWAY OF THE KLONDIKE nature and locality of that particular pup. The world was to learn about it lat^r on. AVe finally reached the longed-for spring, and indulged in a little rest, for we greatly needed it. People never know what work is till they have followed an Indian trail in Alaska for half a day. As we hun-ied on again to the summit we encountered returning men about every half mile, and they told of ricli prospects being found in different places along the creek. Some of them thought they existed only in spots and on the rim-rock,* otliei*s were sure the creek was good from source to mouth. jSTow and then one assured us that it was all a fraud, and that the men who claimed to have got big pans never got them. These pessimistic pros- pectors always looked weary and fagged out, and I knew they had had no breakfast, and perhaps had no supper the night before, and probably did not sleep much. In the first place, doubtless, they had met poor luck in panning the surface dirt, and, being wdtliout provisions, they had naturally taken a very gloomy view of the whole subject. On the summit we dropped down exhausted and took another rest. As we toiled upward the trees had become fewer, more scrubby and wind-swept, and at the top they permitted a view of what lay about us. The Klondike Valley made a beautiful picture in the- foreground. We looked up the valley and could see the windings of the silvery thread of water for fifty miles, and where it came out of a gateway in the mountains fully one thousand feet in depth, with the two sides so exactly alike and so evenly inclined that one could hardly help believing this to be an engineering feat of the Titans. Beyond this, and one * Rim-rock. The efl2:es of the channels worn away in the rocks hy streams of former ages. W'ithin these channels the auriferous detritus was accumu- lated. THE SNOWY GRANDEUR OF THE ROCKIES 255 Inmdred miles on either side of the round-topped moun- tains which form the foothills of the Rockies now, but did not once, as they are evidently a more recent formation and upheaval, lay the Rockies, peaked and pinnacled and jagged beyond description. Every ravine visible could be traced by its string-like glacier, and as you followed one upward with your eye you could see the side ravines coming in like branches of a tree. In some cases these branches are suf- ficiently numerous to give the appearance of an outline drawing in chalk of a leafless tree. I suppose if one should live constantly where such views were ever before his eyes, they would become commonplace enough. When at home in Vermont I used to hear of people who seemed to be overcome by the majesty of the White Mountains, and who, sitting on a rock on Mt. Wash- ington, would break out with one of David's majestic psalms. What would they do in the Arctic Rockies ? They are wonderful, wheji one stops to look and to think, l)ut these men who were passing up and down over the trail seldom did such a thing as that. Big pans of gold ! That is the vision before them, and one who lies tired, bruised, and footsore at the summit, looking oft' on the wonderful scene, cannot hel]i but wish that the Creator had put all the gold away down deep in the bowels of the earth, where man would never have known of it. Doubtless it was a foolish thought, for that yellow metal will w^ork wonders on the mind which may be unaffected by a view of these snowy billows of the Arctic Rockies. The Indians have been going over such trails all their days, and yet they are the dullest, dirtiest, most unemotional creatures under the sun. But we must move on ! "NTever mind the mountains ! Tt was to seek the golden creek and its pups that we were 'i56 A GOLDEN LEGEND eliiiiltiiig over tlicse rocks, and we forced our tired muscles iuto action and again struck into the traiL After winding along on the summit for about a mile, we began the descent, which is gradual for a half mile and then becomes steep, then steejier, and, further on, most steep. xVgain we were clinging to the bushes and rattling doAvn the rocks. As we descended the rain began to fall — one of those Alaskan drizzles, in which water takes the place of the atmosphere. Nature does nothing by halves here. The trail became very wet, soft and slipjDery, and we slid and rolled along till someone declared that he must rest. All were willing, and we crawled under the limbs of the largest spruce we could find and tried to keep out of the range of the drops from its branches. Presently we heard someone struggling up the trail. Soon a rough and jovial fellow of Hibernian mould came into view. " Are ye there, b'yes, and have ye ary a match ? " We had. " And wdiich way might ye's be goin' ? " he asked, as he drew at a pipe of over-moist tobacco. "\Ve pointed down the mountain. 'To Bonanza, is it? Begon-y, ye'r right. I'm after thinking all the goold in the woniild is down there, but it's a domned rough counthry." Oh, yes; he had a claim, but he had not worked it. He took one as near to the discovery as he could, set up his stakes, and ran for provisions, like most of the others. He had no idea what there was in the dirt he had staked off, and he would not have for Aveeks, even if he worked, but — " all the gold in the world was there." I had heard of such places before. He told us to hurry, as there w^ere many — UNPROMISING BONANZA CREEK 257 ahead of us, and then he puffed along up the trail, and we straightened up and slid and tumbled along down. It did not matter if the rocks were a little hard and sharp when a slip was made and one of us came down with undue haste. We were going to a place where there was all the gold in the the world. An old story. Finally we reached the bottom, our necks still unbroken. ^Ye were not at Bonanza yet. It was only one of her pups which crossed the trail, something as yet of no consequence. We brewed a little tea and ate some bread, that is, we called it bread. " Anything goes," as the gold hunters say, in Alaska. Soon we pushed on towards the creek, the trail being ankle-deep, and more, with slush and mud. It was one of those tundra bottoms, which at a distance have such a fine agricultural aspect, a tract of " niggerheads," and to walk across such a place is one of the most fatiguing exercises a man can take. Finally, after a mile or so of it, we arrived at Bonanza Creek. It looked very little like a gold-bearing stream. A little washed gravel could be seen, but few glimpses of quartz w^ere to be had, and there was nothing at all that an old miner would call an indication. It was no wonder that prospectors had waded and tumbled over these places and left them in disgust to the Indian hunters and fishermen. We said to ourselves that if anyone had got ten dollars to the pan out of this stuff, there ought to be a million tons of gold within twenty miles of such a place. We got out of the trail — if there was one — and had to wade the creek and walk the banks; then wade again, and so on very slowly, watching the location notices. At last we found one, l^o. 64, which told us the disiancc to Discovery Claim, for ten and a half claims make a mile. 258 A DISCOURAGED TENDERFOOT '1 hat iiic-aiis about six miles, on paper, but several times that Oil foot. We plodded on, climbed over rocks, slid down rocks, tumbled up against rocks, and met two men. " Ho^v far is it staked ? " I asked, in a weary and dis- gusted way. " -Why, my number is 45 ; several men ahead of you; just stop at Discovery and look in the sluice box; two Siwashes packing dirt in buckets; George shoveling tailings." George Cormack, as I have said, was the discoverer of gold on Bonanza Creek. AVe thought we would stop and look in the boxes, if we ever got there. The men passed on, and we toiled ahead over a long tundra bottom. A man ought to find " all the gold in the world " to compensate him for such a tramp. The moun- tain trail was a positive delight to this. '' Say, let's blow a little," exclaime.d one of our com- Certainly I was willing to " blow " a whole lot — in- definitely. A venerable Irishman, apparently a tenderfoot, came plodding along, falling over hummocks and sinking knee- deep in the mud beneath the weight of a heavy pack. Alto- gether he presented a most discouraged, and disconsolate ap- pearance. " 'Av ye's seen onything of thot man Beecher ? " he asked, as he came up. " What Beecher ? " " Hinry Wa-r-r-d Beecher." " Xo. AVhat do you want of him ? " " I'd loike to shpake wid 'im wan minnit. They do be tellin' me he wunst said there was no hell," and he dropj>ed WAY-WORN PILGRIMS. 359 his heavy pack and wiped the dripping perspiration from his liushed face. " Is it gold ye's do be afther here ? " he then ateked. " Yes," I replied, with as little enthnsiasni as possible. " All the saints help ye! " and he shouldered his pack again with a sigh and groan. The last number noticed was somewhere in the twenties; two miles and more from George's. One of the men said he could go no further that night. I looked at him and thought so too. lie insisted that we should go on and leave him, but right down in my heart 1 felt like doing nothing of the kind. I was tired enough myself. He looked thoroughly exhausted, and I doubted if he would have had the strength to make a fire if we left him. It was almost dark. I could have crawled under a rock, under anything, and gone to sleep at once, but his condition required a warm fire and a hot drink. So we got wood, not particularly dry, made a roaring fire on a sandy spot, and brewed a pot of tea. Then we shoved our feet to the fire and meditated. I thought after a while that I was rested a little, but when I tried to get up I could hardly stand. I wanted to take a look at a gravelly bar a few yards aw^ay before it l)ecame too dark, so I hobbled down to it, and found nothing but comminuted micaceous schist, with some glassy quartz, such as is always associated with these stratified schists in sheets and intervening layers. The mica was muscovite. and T thought the whole arrangement must belong to the Silurian age; that is, I thought so when T was too tired to think clearly about anything. I might change my mind when I could see the rocks adjoining these schists. But it was a matter of indifference to me whether I changed my 16 •-2G0 DESPONDENCY OF WEARINESS iiiiiid or not. If I did, all I felt like asking was that I could do it lying down. I began to believe that I wouldn't stand up for anything — not even for my native land. What a place for gold ! When I started out, I regretted that Joe was not with me to share in the fortunes of the great strike, but it would have taken many days to reach him and to return. Besides, I knew that as soon as these stories reached Circle City there would be another rush. My best lay was to push in and get a claim, and let Joe keep on working his. But now I was glad Joe was on Birch Creek. Any one ^^'ho had seen the diggings on Fort}^ ]\[ile, and on the tributaries of Birch Creek, would think all these fellow^s running up this Klon- dike waste had been driven out of their wits by the mos- quitoes. I could dig a hole two feet deep in this stuff wdth my hands, and the quicksand would run right in and fill it i;p. AVho w^ould think that such loose stuff was full of gold? I thought to myself that I Avould not wash a pan of it if the owner would give it to me; but I was ignorant as to who the owner was, and too tired to care. I hobbled back to the fire and thought some more. AVe were all thinking or trying not to think. Xo one said a word. I spoke to one of them twice before he answere-d. He remarked that he guessed he had forgotten his own name. I was not surprised. Pie was too tired to remember such a trifle. One by one they rolled themselves up to sleep almost anywhere. I looked around for a soft spot, threw my blankets down, and myself upon them. As I dozed off the words of the Irishman we had met on the mountain, " All the goold in the worruld is there," ran through my brain and gradually faded into indistinctness as sleep over- came me. A POCKETFUL OF NUGGETS 261 "VVe awoke just as the daylight was beginning to work its way into the valley, and found that we were chilled through. A white frost spread over everything, but after a cup of hot tea and a little bread we felt better. Sleep had done us some good and we moved on up the trail, making very good speed — as speed goes on an Alaskan trail. About a mile from George's we met more men, and one of them pointed to a spot where he had washed a dollar from a pan of the loose stuff he called gravel. It did not appear to have a washed pebble in it. But they had washed it out, and, like so many others, were rushing back after pro- visions. At last we reached Discovery claim, where George was at work. We took a look in the sluice boxes, and there was certainly plenty of gold there. Some one asked him why he was shoveling the tailings up on to the hillside, and he re- plied that there was five dollars to the pan wdiere the tailings dropped, the tailings, be it understood, being the refuse dirt falling at the end of the sluice. He put his hand in one of his pockets and drew out three nuggets worth about twenty- five dollars. *' Fished 'em out of the bottom of the creek with a shovel," he said. " Jimminy-crickets," observed one of my companions. I thought so, too. " Well, I'll be hanged," said another newcomer. He looked like a fit subject for the operation. Still, we all did, for that matter. After one has traveled a little in the moose tracks of such a region as this, he cannot step out into a civilized community in the same clothes without being an object of suspicion. We picked up our blankets and what little we had left 262 INSPIRITING REPORTS to eat, for we had shared witli those who passed us on the trail, with liardly enough to keep them alive, a good deal of what we started with. They were in a hurry and had al- ready staked out their claims. We walked back a ways to cache the remnant, far enough, one would suppose, to be out of the reach of the dogs at Discovery claim, but if we had stopped to think, we were aware that the dogs would get at it, no matter how far we went, unless it was put up high enough. Still one always has a natural disposition to avoid building a cache right over a dog's nose. This done, we started on and found it very much easier without our packs. The creek bottom gradually became wider and the hills on either side lower, and it was plainly to be seen that the greater part of the rush into the region had been along there. It was fair to presume, therefore, that the best pay- dirt would be found there, but I thought to myself that there is no telling in such a field as this. Indications do not indicate, in the Klondike. The only thing to do is to stake anywhere. After a wdiile we met more men, who said that the creek was at least staked up above 60. One man infonned us that he obtained twenty-five cents to the pan on 60. The trail wound along over acres of tundra flats, and I thought what a fine moose pasture it was, and expected to see a moose, but they had evidently been frightened away by all these people rushing in here and digging in the dirt. There were plenty of moose tracks. As we passed along I noticed a pup which seemed to have a more inviting look for a gold-seeker. It certainly appeared more like a gold stream, but, of course, like all the rest at first, we rushed with the herd. Before we got to the fork we met more men and learned that it was staked up TAKING THE CHANCES 263 into the seventies. The trail did not reach above the forks. Even the moose had deemed it wise to go somewhere else. At last we came to the end of the claims and added ours, blazing trees, and putting up our notices. Then we rested a little, and looked around. We had no pans, and, in fact, did not think of washing out any gold. It was all a chance. Gold might be there and it might not. It certainly looked little like it. Then we started back and reached our caches at dusk in a rainstorm, built a fire, cooked what we thought would appease our appetites, rigged up a blanket tent, and went to sleep. We had seen the place where there is " all the goold in the worruld." We felt much better — tolerably well in the morning. We were all foot-sore, but a little breakfast — all that we had left — with some strong coffee, straightened us up, and we were ready for the weary tramp back to the river over the trail. As we traveled along we met plenty of gold- seekers, all of whom asked about the same questions. " Oh, yes," we told them, " it is a big thing." We had no gold to show, but we told them about the five-dollar tailings, and the nugg'ets fished out with a shovel. We noticed a few men on their claims, but they were cut- ting logs for houses and were not prospecting. Some were working along with big packs, having been over before, and Avcre now getting provisions in for the winter. Back we climbed over the summit, and I stopped to look again at the picture. The sun was shining, the day was quite warm, and the ground was dryer than when we went over. We could lie on the ground, pick berries, and eat our fill. When at last we arrived in sight of the camp on the river near the Indian village, we, in our turn, yelled like Comanches and jumped and tumbled down the hills with 264 ONE DETAIL OF THE PICTUKE the rattling rocks. There was an ever-accumuhiting crowd there, and we were quizzed and " pumped." We told wliat we knew, which, after all, was very little, and, as when we went over, we noticed that here and there a man slipped awav, and soon we heard them toiling up the bluff and the rocks came rolling back down to the bottom. AVe slept soundly that night, and I would not have had energy enough to throw a hatchet at a dog if one had tried to eat up the tent. CHAPTER XVIII THE DISCOVERY OF ELDORADO — THE FOUNDING OF DAWSON — CONFUSION AND QUEER COMPLICA- TIONS OVER CLAIMS — " THREE INCH WHITE." Resting a Little — Carrying in Provisions — Promising Strikes of one of the Pups — Eldorado — Joining Another Stampede — A New Metropolis — Joseph Ladue and His Career — Mining in the Black Hills — Attracted to Alaska — Sinking Holes without Success — Faith in the Country — Grub-staking Henderson — How Ladue Secured the Site for Dawson — His Sawmill — The Mines in October — High Price of Lumber — Rapid Growth of Dawson — Much Confusion as to Claims — Miners Appointed to Measure — Fractional Claims — How They Came About — The Mystery of the Rope — Hibernian Bluff — Jim White and His Attempt to Secure a Fractional Claim — The Canadian Surveyor Arrives — "Three Inch White"— How Claims are Staked — The Fees and the Requirements. WE took life as easy as circumstances allowed for tlie next two or three days; indeed, we made ourselves think we were actually deriving some pleasure out of it, for, while an ever-increasing number of feverish men were landing on the gravel beach and hurry- ing on to the new region, and an ever-increasing number were returning over the mountain trail, we were in the de- lightful position of having staked our claims and of hav- ing about a month's provisions at the foot of the trail. We could feed the newcomers with interesting stories of what we had seen, and hear the latest news from those who were (265) 206 "any packing is cheap" eoinino- out. AVo ate as niiu-li as wo thought we couhl ali'orcl to, and nursed our feet a little. The tow on the river and the tramp on the trail had been a severe ordeal for them. As the time was fast approaching when the Yukon would freeze over, and running ice had already increased the dif- ficulties of navigation, many participating in the rush de- termined to wait for the ice so they could sled their pro- visions up the creek. In fact, quite a village of t€nts was springing up not far from the mouth of the Klondike. But dragging loads over the rough ice of these rapid streams is, on the whole, not much of an improvement upon packing over a mountain and swamp trail, so at the end of four days we strapped on packs three times as heavy as those we had first carried, and started out. It makes a great dif- ference in carrying a pack on a trail whether a person is in a hurry or not. Having our claim, we could afford to pro- ceed leisurely and rest when we felt like it, without being harrassed by the feeling that we might be too late. We even stopped occasionally to break up a rock to see what it was made of, and I admired the scenery to my heart's con- tent. We chatted Avith those whom we met, and still made about as good headway as when we first went over, and we camped at the same places. Once, while we were resting, a party of Indians carrying heavy packs overtook us. Following them came the owner, looking very weary under an extremely light burden. He said he had hired the Indians to pack his supplies over; " and," he added, " I got it done cheap, too." " How much a pound? " I inquired. " I don't know." " Then how do you know it's cheap? " " Oh, any packing is cheap over a trail like this." AN AMAZING PANFUL 267 When we approached the creek again we learned that big strikes liad been made on the "' pnp " that had looked so l)roniising to me on onr previons trip, and that I had been tempted to ascend and test. It seems that a party which had rushed in when the news of the Bonanza was noised aronnd had worked np the creek till their provisions had run out. They were about to turn back and go to the nearest trading post for provisions, when they met and joined an- other party having more provisions than they needed. While they were cooking their supper near the mouth of the pup, one of them suggested that they walk up the bed about a mile and wash a pan of the gravel. They did so, and were amazed when one of the pans yielded over six dol- lars. They at once staked out claims, and, returning, told others. This had been the significance of the whispered communications we had noticed between the ]iarties we en- countered on the trail when we first came over. We resolved to go up the creek and see for ourselves. So, in the morning we pushed on and camped at its mouth. It had been named Whipple Creek, after the discoverer, and no longer bore the obscure name of " pup." I ascended it, and found some men washing out gold where the discovery was made, and I washed out a pan myself. It contained about a dollar. The others seemed to get about the same. Going on up the creek, I found it staked for much more than half its length, and I concluded that I w^ould rather hold the claim I had than exchange for one here. Bonanza and this new creek were in the same district, and no one was entitled to stake more than one claim in a district. J^ot long afterward, parties buying some claims on the new creek named El- dorado. '26S A NEW METROPOLIS The next dav we heard of another rush for creeks in an- other section. AVe joined in this, too, and tramped up the Bonanza to the forks and thence over the mountain to Gold Bottom, where the earlier discoveries of Henderson were made, and thence down to Hunker Creek, to which tlie new rush was directed. Hunker empties into the Klondike about twelve miles from its mouth. By the time we reached there the creeks were well staked, and so we went over to the Indian River district and prospected along there for a day or two without remarkable results. The snow began to fly, and we finally made our way back to the Yukon to await developments. During this tramp we met the same obstacles and had similar experiences to those re- counted in the previous chapter. In the meantime Ave found that a new metropolis had sprung up on a low stretch of ground on the banks of the Yukon, just below the mouth of the Klondike. A clever man could see that this flat was about the only place avail- able for a city in that nigged region, and there was a clever man there who saw it. In fact, the honors of the discovery of gold in this district must be divided between Joseph Ladue, who had fitted out Henderson, of whom we have spoken, and Cormack, to wliom Henderson told of his find- ings on Gold Bottom Creek. At the veiy time Cormack was washing his first pans of gold in Bonanza Creek, Ladue, who had not yet heard of Cormack's find, was com- ing down the Yukon to locate a town site at the mouth of the Klondike. He had heard from Henderson, Joseph Ladue is, as his name shows, of French extrac- tion, and was born in Plattsburg, X. Y., about forty-four years ago. His grandfather was a French Huguenot, who, driven from home in the early persecution of bis church, THE YOUTH OF JOSEPH LADUE 369 settled with many others of that sterling faith in Canada. He removed across the line into the United States and located at Sclin jler Falls, abont ten miles sontheast of Platts- burg, where Joseph Ladiie was born. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father, a stone-mason, mar- ried the second time. Young Joseph Ladiie was strong and active for his years, and a neighboring family, the head of which was James H. Lobdell, took a liking to the lad, who had found some things not altogether to his liking at home, and who was ready, at the age of nine years, to accept the adoption of his neighbor. Joseph was therefore brought up under the influence of Mr. Lobdell and his wife — good, old-fashioned Methodists — who sent the young man to school and gave him work on their farm until he grew to an age when he was ready to look out for himself. Upon the death of his father in Iowa, in 1874, Joseph decided to go "West and look after the small estate of his parent. The affairs of his father's estate having been adminis- tered, and his attention being at the time attracted to new discoveries in the Rockies, he started for the Black Hills with a fixed purpose of becoming a miner of gold. He ar- rived at Deadwood in 1876 with about one hundred dollars in his pocket, full of grit, industry, honesty, and determina- tion. The town was enjoying a boom, and the young man at once started in for himself by securing little jobs as a con- tractor for moving houses and doing other public work. Meanwhile he was constantly on the watch for better em- ployment, his ambition being to secure a place in a quartz- mine. The only place he could find came in about a month in the shape of a job as engineer in the mine at four dollars per day. The young man had never run a steam-engine, and was utterly unfamiliar with mechanics, but his natural 270 GAINING EXPERIENCE aptitude stood liim in good stead, and he accepted the ])hice and for eigliteen months held it successfnlly. In 1878 he was advanced to the position of foreman or superintendent of the " night shift " of miners in the famous Hidden Treasure mine, which was a most profitable producer of gold. His pay was now five dollars per day, and he spent all his leisure time in studying the secrets of gold-mining. Mr. Ladue so thoroughly familiarized him- self with gold-mining that he was fully competent for al- most any task that might be oifered him, and he was soon offered, and accepted, the place of superintendent of a sixty- stamp gold-mill at the wages of ten dollars per day. After a year in this employment he decided to strike out to make a fortune, and for some years followed the adventurous life of a prospector in Arizona and Xew Mexico. He there found several promising prospects, and for one of these, in ISTew Mexico, which subsequently failed to meet his expecta- tions, he, unfortunately for himself, refused an offer of twenty-five thousand dollars. After two years of this hard, but practical, experience, he decided to strike for the newly-discovered mining coun- try in the British Northwest Territory adjoining Alaska. He made the long and tedious journey to Juneau, and was one of the first prospectors in that new country. He then passed over into the interior, and it is a sigiiificant fact that he was hunting for gold as early as 1882 within six miles of the present rich mines of the Klondike. H he found little gold then, he acquired a great faith in the richness of the country and in its future. He did not fully explore the valley of the Klondike, because it was his belief as an ex- perienced miner that it was not of the right sort. "Wlien Schwatka made his famous voyage on a raft down PUSH AND PLUCK 371 the Yukon in 1883, he ran across Ladue at Charley's Vil- lage. With a partner he was prospecting the streams in that vicinity, which is about fifty miles above where Circle City was founded later. Ladue was familiarly known among the Indians as " Joe," and he was in great favor among them. For fourteen years, with a determination that never faltered, and a confidence in his ultimate success that was never diminished, Ladue lived in the dreary wilds of the Xorthwest. LTp to five or six years ago his headquarters were at old Fort Reliance. Every year he added to his capi- tal by prospecting and trading, until at last a business open- ing presented itself in the purchase of a profitable sawmill at Fort Ogilvie, forty-five miles up the Yukon from Fort Reliance. Here the enterprising young man remained for five years, earning money and carefully saving it, but his faith in the golden resources of Alaska never abated. He met a young Xova Sootian prospector named Robert Henderson, in 1893. Henderson was about the same age as Ladue, and in the solitary wilderness of the frozen IsTorth they es- tablished a warm and lasting friendship. For three years the thrifty Ladue furnished the necessary implements, tools, and provisions of a prospector to Henderson — " grub- staked " him, in the mining vernacular. Indications of gold were found in many places, but nothing of great value until one day Henderson came into Ladue's sawmill camp radiant with smiles and carrying a small bottle. He held it up to Ladue, filled witli bits of yellow metal. It was the gold he liad panned out of Gold Bottom Creek, one of the tributaries of tlie Klondike. This was on the twenty-fourth day of August, 1896. On his way to Ladue, Henderson had told 272 THE RISE OF DAWSON Corniack, a.-^ already related, and Cormack, on tlic twenty- sixth, as the story goes, made liis strike on Bonanza Creek. Ladue, who knew only of Henderson's find, saw that his time had come. His keen eye for business was Avide open now. He did not rush into the gold-diggings, for he fore- saw the enormous value of the town site at the place where he knew that a prosperous city must be located. He sent Henderson with four horses and four men back across the country eighty miles, to the new gold-fields. He himself took a raft loaded with lumber and went down the Yukon by the quickest route, landing August 28th, and located the town site of Dawson City, on the only site in that rugged country that had been left open for it. He built a store and hastened to Tort Cudaliy, forty-five miles distant, to make the ofiieial entry in the British Land Office. Having secured this great prize, he looked over the gold country and carefully selected and quickly purchased some of the richest claims that could be found. He built a sawmill, which was soon running day and night, and earning a little fortune every twenty-four hours, in a region where the timber limit extended fifteen miles. Thus was Dawson started. AVhen the gold strikes were made, in the latter part of August, there were not half a dozen white people in the Klondike Valley. In a month there were a thousand. The lumber mill did a big business, and Ladue made thousands of dollars by selling cheap pine lumber to the minei"s at one hundred and forty dollars the thousand feet. The increasing cold made no difference to the crazy miners at Dawson City and in the cabins along Eldorado and Bonanza Creeks. By October about six hundred claims had been staked out up and down both sides of the creeks. The Canadian mining laws made five HUSTLING TIMES 275 hundred feet along the creek or river bank a single claim, and one man was allowed to locate but one claim in each district. Putting up a cabin in Dawson was expensive business. Logs, which in that region means poles from four to six inches in diameter, sold generally from four dollars to eight dollars apiece. A man really needed almost as much money as he would to put up a brownstone residence in New York in order to secure a building which would have any of the comforts of a home. The timber had to be hauled about twenty miles, and the so-called hotels, which were soon open, were little more than moderate-sized log houses, ad- mitting of a few box-stalls. People who arrived late had at once to set about finding a way to protect themselves from the winter blasts. What a hustling there was for lumber to build shanties and cabins ! It was growing colder every day, and many men paid over two hundred dollars the one thousand feet for lumber. Laborers that got a few dollars a day in August now were snapped up at fifteen and eighteen dollars a day. The native Indians sold fur garments for one hundred and fifty dollars each, or for some gewgaws that were more precious there than diamonds are here. Lots were soon selling in Dawson from two hundred and fifty dollars up to ten thousand dollars. The Alaska Commercial Com- pany and the Ts'orth American Transportation and Trading Company quickly prepared to concentrate their forces and supplies there. Moose meat was sixty cents a pound, and all canned goods seventy-five cents per can. The com- panies adopted a cash system, and carried as large a stock as could be brought up. The government consisted of a gold commissioner and the chief of the mounted police. T^ew '^76 MEASURING CLAIMS enterpriijC'^ t^praiig up every day, and, of course, the saloon predominated. iS'aturally, in such a rush of business and fever of spec- ulation, there existed much confusion. Men who had been in a chronic state of drunkenness for weeks had been pitched into boats as ballast and taken u^ to stake themselves a claim, and claims were staked by men for their friends who were not in the country at the time. All this gave rise to much contiiction and confusion, there being no one to take charge of matters. The land agent not being able to go up and attend to the thing, and the Canadian surs^eyor not knowing what to do, the miners held a meeting and ap- pointed one of themselves to measure off and stake the claims, and record the owners' names, for which he got a fee of two dollars, it being, of course, understood that each claimholder would have to record his claim with the Do- minion agent, and pay his fee of fifteen dollars. Just how it happened no one seems to know, but it was said that the men who were selected to measure the claims, somehow slid in a forty, instead of a fifty, foot rope, thus making the claims considerably short. Others have an idea, w^hich is not entirely without reason, that when the claims were first staked off, the excited miners, being- anxious to secure all the room possible, would, in their measurements, which were sometimes made at night, stretch the line a little. The one taking the next claim would be- gin where his predecessor left off, and stretch his line more or less, according to his sense of morality. However it happened there was considerable uncer- tainty, and the miners finally petitioned the Dominion land surveyor to come ur> to Bonanza Creek at once and settle the complications that were arising. One of the late A GREEDY PROSPECTOR 377 arrivals was an Irishman, who, when he found he could not secure a claim, went np and down the creek, trying to bully the owners into selling, boasting that he had a " pull " at Ottawa and threatening to have the claims cut down from five hundred to two hundred and fifty feet. He came along one day and offered to wager two thousand dollars that within a year they would be reduced to two hundred and fifty feet. One of the men to whom he had made this offer went to the Dominion surveyor and asked about it. " Do you gamble ? " asked the surveyor. "A little," was the reply. Then the surveyor told him that he was never surer of two thousand dollars than he would have been if he had taken that bet. This ran to such an extent that the surveyor put up notices to the effect that the length of the claims was regu- lated by act of the Parliament of Canada, and that no change could be made except by that Parliament, and tell- ing the miners to take no notice of t4le threats that had been made. A fellow kno\vn as Jim White located a fraction be- tween jSTos. 36 and 37, thinking that by getting in between he could force the owners to come to his terms, forgetting that the law of this country does not allow any man to take more than he has a right to. For three or four days this state of things kept the men in an uproar. The surveyor was making his survey, and getting towards i^os. 36 and 37; when he approached them he delayed operations and wont up to Xo. 36, finding there would be no fraction, or, at least, an insignificant one of inches. He worked along slowly, and in the moaiitiiiic flic owner of Xo. 36 became very uneasy, and White also. The 17 278 FIVE INCHES FOR FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS officer set in a stake down in the hollow iintil he saw how much of a fraction there was. It was only a few inches. He was purposely very deliberate with this portion of the work, and the man who was with him seemed to have quite a ditiiculty in fi>;ing the stake. Then the officer went down, with the remark that he would do that himself. He had made it a rule never to tell anyone Avhether there was a fraction until it was marked on the post. AVhile he was standing by the post Jim White came up to him. He had a long way to go down the creek, he said — and lie did not want to wait any longer than w^as neces- sary. " Well," said the surveyor, " I can't tell you just yet exactly how much of a fraction it will be — but something about three inches." This is why -Jim came to be known as " Three Inch White." He resurveyed the whole group of claims, and the result was a lot of fractional claims, which were open to entry. This occurred at about the time some of the later arrivals of the early winter were looking for places, and they gTabbed these fractional claims on the rich creeks as fast as they were declared open. These fractions varied all the way from three inches to forty feet, and, were valued accord- ingly. Of course, no one could w^ork the narrower ones, but they were desirable property to the adjacent o^vners, who either bought them outright or formed a partnership with their owners. In one case it Avas reported that a frac- tional claim of five inches sold for five hundred dollars, after the richness of the adjacent claim had been determined. In locating a claim on Canadian creeks, a man is sup- posed to measure five hundred feet the way the valley lies. LOCATING A CLAIM 279 and then run across from base to base of the foot-hills, or from rim-rock to rim-rock. It must be marked by four legal posts at the corners. Posts must be at least four inches square. One post must be marked " initial post," and on that post a written notice must be placed, stating number, length, and general direction of claim, the date of notice, and name of locator. All placer claims must be recorded in the mining recorder's office of the mining division in which such claims are situated within three days after loca- tion thereof, if within ten miles of the mining recorder's office; but one additional day is allowed for each addi- tional ten miles. The recorder must be furnished with the following particulars in writing: ISTame of claim, name of locator, number of free miner's certificate, local- ity of claim, length in feet, period for which record is required, date of location. Placer claims may be re- corded for one or more years on payment of fees — two dollars and fifty cents for each year. After the miner has located and recorded his claim, he, or some one on his behalf, must work it continuously during working hours; and, if unworked on working days for a period of seventy- two hours, except during sickness or for some other reason- able cause, the claim will be considered abandoned and for- feited. Leave of absence for one year may, however, be ob- tained by any free miner, upon his proving to the gold com- missioner an expenditure equal to one thousand dollars in cash, labor, or machinery on a claim, without any return of gold or other minerals in reasonable quantities. CHAPTER XIX RICH^'ESS OF THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS —THE GREAT WINTER EXODUS FROM CIRCLE CITY — FIRST RE- SULTS FROM TESTING PANS — MINERS WILD WITH EXCITEMENT. Realization of the Richness of the Klondike Claims — Why old Miners were Skeptical — How Teuderfeet Suddenly Became Rich — Selling Claims at Low Figures — Cutting Logs to Get Provisions — El- dorado All Staked — Great Stroke for Some Men — Circle City Skeptical — The First Big Pans — Excitement at Circle City — A Mad Stampede — Scarcitj' of Dogs — Dogs at $2.50 Per Pound — Some Big Strikes — Grumbling Canadians — Bed-Rock on El- dorado — Lippy's Bargain — Nothing Like It in the History of the World — Pans of Dirt AYorth Five Hundred Dollars — The ]\Iiners Simply Staggered — Mrs. Berry Picks up $50 in Nuggets While Calling Her Husband to Supper — Scarcity of Labor — Hunting up Claims — Gold Everywhere — Opening Up New Territory. IT was many weeks before anyone had a proper realiza- tion of the richness of the newlv-discovered placers, and for a long time all the excitement was confined to Bonanza Creek and its tributary, Eldorado. Those who staked claims were, of course, met with the same conditions imposed upon all placer mining in Alaska. There were several feet of frozen muck and gTavel to be worked out of the way by the slow process of burning before anyone could say what lay at bed-rock, and many old miners who had been over the ground laughed at the idea of rich placei-s in such a locality, and did not even take the trouble to join (280) GOLD ALMOST EVERYWHERE 281 in the rush, while others who did looked about in a know- ing way and departed without staking any claims. Stampedes had occurred so often, and had so generally proved unprofitable, that the old miners had become weary of them. They had, in their more tenderfooted days, rushed from Forty Mile to Sixty Mile, to Beaver Creek, to Birch Creek, and a lot of other creeks, in which the Yukon Valley abounds. The fact w^as that there was some gold almost everywhere, and when anyone stumbled on a spot containing a particularly rich deposit near the surface, there was the natural temptation to believe that the whole creek was made up of such material. The miners had become so tired of this unsettled state of things, the fatiguing jour- neys, and loss of time, that they were disposed to regard with discredit any reports of rich finds, and when they heard that " Siwash George " had struck gold on the " Thron- diuck," it was enough to make the soberest of them laugh. Even had Cormack's reputation for truth and veracity been first-class they would have doubted the value of his dis- coveries on the creeks of a river which they had so often prospected without success. They just lay back and allowed the tenderfeet to rush in and stake to their heart's content up and down this moose pasture, and that is the reason why so many old miners were " left," and why so many new-comers suddenly became rich. But there were, as I have said, a great many miners about Forty Mile and adjacent diggings who had be(>n work- ing in poor luck and were sick and discouraged of the whole country. These constituted the greater part of those who first rushed into the Klondike. It was to them a last chance, merely, and a mighty poor-looking one at that. They had nothing better to do, and so rushed in. 282 CLAIMS BOUGHT AT BARGAIN SALES Yet the way they sold their claims in the first weeks succeeding the stampede is evidence of their lack of faith in them. The}' had no money, or very little. Two-thirds of all the claims could have been bought in September by those who would have provided " grub " for the claimants for the winter. As some of the poorer ones were unable to raise on their claims sufficient provisions to enable them to go to work, they sold out cheap to anyone who came along with a little dust. Claims which were afterwards worth thousands could have been picked up by the dozen in September and October for a hundred or two dollars. Many were sold, and old miners who had clambered over the trail and staked considered themselves exceedingly fortunate in receiving that small amount, and congratulated themselves that by their rush they had at least made enough to pro^dde themselves with a small supply of winter provisions. They knew that to hold their claims, build a cabin, and convey their tools and supplies over the rough trails to the new creeks would cost them several hundred dollars, and that the claims must yield something over ten dollars a day to pay at all for working them. They had not a particle of belief that the creeks would yield such a return. They looked with pitving eyes on the tenderfeet who were greed- ily acquiring claims in the new district,' and were confident that in the coui^se of the winter they w^ould discover the difficulties of working placers in Alaska, and in the spring would somehow work their way out into other districts with no money and little to eat, sadder and wiser men. Only a few men remained on the creek after staking. Most of them came back to Dawson, where affairs were already becoming lively, and either sold out or wont to work for what thev could get. Even the discoverer, Siwash TAKING A BEE LINE 283 George, had been compelled to cut logs for the new mill before he could get a few pounds of provisions to enable him to begin work on liis claim. The fishing having totally failed him, he got together as many provisions as he could, and in the first part of September, with his wife, his Indian brother-in-law, and another Indian, he set out for his dig- gings. He was short of appliances, and managed to put to- gether only three lengths of sluice-boxes, a very defective apparatus, to wash what gravel he could before the ground froze up completely. The gravel itself he had to carry in a box on his back for a hundred feet. Notwithstanding all this, it was soon reported that he had washed out one thousand four hundred dollars by the first of October, and it was known that he had as yet come nowhere near bed- rock. Up to this time the rush had not been so great as to take up all the available claims on the creek, but the news was reaching both down and up the river, and boat loads of men continued to arrive. Once landed they made a bee-line over the mountain. One of the greatest rushes was soon after T returned from the creek, and soon after the discovery of Eldorado. The little steamer Ellis landed with about one hundred and fifty excited men, who poured over the trail. Eldorado was staked in a jiffy, and many of these turned out to be the lucky ones. They set about making preparations for the winter, such as building cabins and getting ready to sink holes on their claims. The pans averaged about three dollars, with prospect of improvement. What a stroke this was for some of the men may be seen from a single instance. One of the men on the boat had come from a little village in Oayuga County, ISTew York. He was a cash boy in a Buifalo dry goods house 284: A FORTUNE AT LAST ten ycai-s ago, and went "West as a tramp, riding on freight cars, lie learned something abont mining in tlie gokl dis- trict of California, and more in a spirit of recklessness and adventure than anything else, he joined the Yukon mining rush in 1894. He had a temble experience with cold and hunger for two yeai-s, and suffered more in that time than many men do in a lifetime of hardships. He was too poor to go back to the United States, and so he stayed on the Yukon. He tried gold mining in fifty different spots, and lived on half raw" salmon for days at a time. He said he was about to commit suicide in September, when he realized that another long and dreadful winter was beginning. A friend told him to go up to Klondike and make one more trial anyhow, for there were iiimors at Fort Yukon, where he was at the time, that the diggings were good on the Klon- dike. He sold his rifle for passage on the last boat on the river before navigation closed. In two weeks he had made his claim to five hundred feet along Bonanza Creek and was working in the cold and ice to get out the golden nuggets. When, the following spring, he went back to the United States, he had with him about thirty-five thousand dollars, and he had worked but thirty feet of his claim. Although news of the finding of gold on the Klondike and of the rush there had made its way down to Circle City, it at first created little attention. A few miners who were in straits came up on the boat, but the majority remained, and Circle City began the winter as lively a town as ever. On November 23d a man by the name of Rhodes, located at jSTo. 21, above the Discovery, on Bonanza, obtained as high as sisfty-five dollars and thirty cents to the pan. This was the first large pan of any importance, and Dawson was thrown into a blaze of excitement. The news spread AN EXODUS FROM CIRCLE CITY 285 up and down the river like wild-fire, and more men hastened in. Some of the old miners who had gone away without staking began to come back. In a little time the news reached Circle City, but nobody would believe it. Yet this claim on Bonanza was the one which really proved the value of the district. The owner was in the habit of clean- ing up a few tubfuls of dirt every night in his cabin and getting en'ough to pay his workmen at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents an hour. In that way he discovered the richness of the dirt. Melting water enough to pan out gold under cover was a slow process, but he found that the soil paid him to do it. Others began to adopt similar methods. Claim JSTo. 5, Eldorado, next produced a pan of fifty- seven dollars. This was succeeded by one of upward of eighty dollars. Then came one of one hundred and twelve dollars. Soon after, claim No. 16 showed up a pan of two hundred and twelve dollars, and this it was that caused the intense excitement in that country. The news went down to Circle City early in December, and it at once emptied itself and came up to Dawson. The scenes of the Forty Mile rush were repeated. The miners came up any way they could, at all hours of the day and night, with provisions and empty-handed. It was a great day in Circle City, so they said, when the news of the Klondike richness came with such force and authenticity that even the skeptical old miners began to believe it and quietly made their plans to go up the river. It Avas carried down by J. M. Wilson, of the Alaska Commer- cial Company, and Thomas O'Brian, a trader, and they also had with them some of the Klondike gold. When it was seen that a few were starting, of course, nothing more was needed. It at once grew into a stampede. The price 286 DOGS SOLD BY THE POUND of (logs jumped almost out of sight. In a few days tliey were so valuable that they began to be sold by the pound, first at one dollar and fifty cents a pound, and then as high as two dollars and fifty cents. One man told me that he saw one dog sold for twenty ounces of gold dust, and, as in trade an ounce is worth seventeen dollars, the dog sold for thi"ee hundred and forty dollars. The purchaser was de- termined to go, and he had the money. He was bound to have dogs no matter what they cost. It was a melancholy time for the Circle City saloon-keepers, who saw the signs of prosperity vanish, but many of them joined in the rush for the new diggings. It was a melancholy time, also, for those who had failed to go up when the river was open, and now had not the means to buy the fancy-priced dogs, for they were too wise to think of setting out without at least four months' provisions, and it required dogs to drag that quan- tity over the rough ice of the Yukon in the face of the biting- blasts of the dead of winter. Yet it was the greatest ex- odus that was ever known on the Yukon. As many as four hundred men and women worked their way up, and none of them lost their lives, though several had their faces and toes frozen. Dawson fairly leaped into importance. By the time the Circle City contingent arrived greater discoveries had been made, and the value of the diggings surpassed all the dreams of the most sanguine. But locations on the Bonanza and Eldorado had been staked weeks before. A good many Canadians and othere who, at Circle City, had out-Ameri- caned the natural, native-born Americans in their protesta- tions and professions of Americanism, came up to Dawson, which is in Canadian territory, in this rush with certain ex- pectations in realizing something in the new finds by reason SURPASSING RICHNESS 287 of their nationality, and made lond professions of loyalty, cnrsed their hiek, and declared it strange indeed that a Cana- dian or a Briton conld not get a foot of gronnd in his own country. In December bed-rock was reached on Ko. 14, El- dorado, and dirt of surpassing richness was found. Other holes began to go down in a hurry — that is, as fast as the slow process of burning them out would admit. Pans were taken out occasionally and tested, reaching from five to a hundred dollars, and yet the workers could scarcely believe it. They had an idea that they must have struck an un- usually fine piece of dirt. In a hole eighteen feet deep, on Eldorado Creek, two men struck a pay-streak that went five dollars to the pan on the average of the testing they gave it, and, without knowing it, they went on shoveling out into the dump dirt which was rich in gold. Many of those going in early, of course, had endeavored to secure claims on Bonanza, but they could not be had, so they rushed up the Eldorado. When Professor Lippy, one of the fortunate ones, arrived there, this creek was staked up to ISTo. 36, and he took that. But a man who had staked No. 16 wished to go further up the stream, and they ex- changed. When Lippy first struck the rich pay-dirt on his claim, the man he had traded with was " joshed " by the boys without mercy. He looked rather sober, but he, too, could laugh after all, for his claim turned out to be very valuable. It was difficult for anyone to realize the richness of the dirt, and even late in the winter claims were sold for a price ridiculously low, considering what was in them. The miners were continually expecting to meet a linn't to the richness. Einally, pans as n*ch as five hundred were dis- 288 THE NEW GOLDEN RULE covered, and nuggets containing gold worth as higli as two linndrcd and thirty-five dollars were bronght to light. Claims jumped up enormously in price, but still many sold out for a small fraction of the value of dirt that lay in the frozen dumps which they had so laboriously dug out of the earth. Xothing in the history of the world had ever been found to equal, or, in fact, to anywhere near approach the yields taken from pans gathered indiscriminately. In an early day in California the best claims ever discovered had run but thirty-five to forty cents a pan, and these were con- sidered marvels of richness. Alder Gulch, in Montana, had been thought for years to have contained the richest gravel ever dumped into a sluice-box, but even that was in- significant when compared with not only one but many of the claims on these two tributaries of the Klondike, which was worked in a haphazard fashion. But what was thought to be a profitable season in those days could scarcely equal a few days' work in the new El- dorado. Think of a pay-streak nine feet thick, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and five hundred feet long, every pan of which, so far as could be ascertained by sinking prospect holes to bed-rock in various parts of the claim, would contain over one dollar in gold, some of them as high as two hundred and fifty dollars. Xor was this the exception, but the rule. On one of the Bonanza claims a doubting Thomas was asked to go down the shaft, pick a pan of dirt at random, and then test it himself. He did so, and with a pan and small pros- pector's pick he dug out a piece of gravel on the very upper edge of the pay-streak, then another small amount a foot lower down, then more was taken still lower down from the opposite wall of the shaft, and so on until the pan was filled bv the time bed-rock was reached. Ascending to the "BEYOND THE DREAMS OF AVARICE" 389 surface, ice was melted until sufficient water was secured to wash the gravel, and with his own hands the contents were panned out. The task was of but few moments' duration, and his doubts were entirely removed, as at the bottom of the pan was found enough gold to more than cover a ten cent piece, and it weighed two dollars and twenty-seven cents. When it is remembered that dirt that averages ten cents to the pan is considered very rich, Avhat must it be when it runs four and five dollars to the pan? On No. 6, El- dorado, all the men that could be had were given employ- ment during the winter at one dollar and twenty-five cents an hour, and some fifteen or twenty prospect holes were sunk to bed-rock, and the pay-streak located for a width of one hundred and fifty feet, and averaging three feet in thickness the full length of the claim. Pay-dirt was en- countered immediately under the muck, which in that local- ity is about nine feet thick, running from eight to twenty- five cents to the pan, but the pay-streak was not considered to have been struck until seventy-five cent dirt was reached. Pans taken from the bed-rock on this claim simply staggered the miners, as they not unfrequently ran as high as one hundred and fifty and two hundred dollars. The owner of this claim, Clarence Berry, worked his claim more extensively than most proprietors, and his ex- penses ran as high as one hundred and fifty dollars a day. He settled with his employes every evening after working hours, using only a pan and some water secured by melting- ice to wash out the amount necessary to pay his labor. One evening when Mrs. Berry came down from the cabin to call her husband to supper, while waiting for him to come up the shaft, she picked up over fifty dollars in coarse gold and 200 ONE DIFFICULTY IN WORKING CLAIMS nuggets that were lying loose in the gravel just as it came from bed-rock, not five minutes' time being occupied in doing it. The effect of sucli results as this in the camps along the creeks was to make it practically impossible for an owner of a claim to secure men to help in working them. Some old miners would not work for any price. Sometimes it was possible to rope in a newcomer and get him to work for a few days for fifteen dollars, and a few old miners worked on shares for a time and made good money, but they soon dropped this to hunt up claims of their own. It is impossible to work these Yukon placers successfully without help. The result was, that while many of the claim-owners were lying idle waiting for someone to work their ground, the men who were competent to do it, because they under- stood the process and had the necessary provisions, were prospecting among the creeks to see what they could find. In the end, perhaps, nothing was lost by it, for it served to open up a much larger district than anyone had supposed possible, and other creeks came forward to share the honors with Bonanza and Eldorado. CHAPTER XX WINTER IN THE KLONDIKE — CAMP LIFE AND WORK — A MINER'S DOMESTIC DUTIES — CHRISTMAS IN A GOLD-SEEKER'S CAMP. Dreariness of Camp Life — Preparations for Winter — Cut Off from the World — Even Labels Make Interesting Reading Matter — The Only Library in the Camp — A Few Old Newspapers — Nuggets for the Benefactor — Joe Arrives from Circle City — Gold, Gold the one Topic of Interest — Forgetting the Day of the Month — Domestic Duties — How We Kept House — Things That Must Not Be Neglected — A Remedy that Kills or Cures — My Bread and Biscuit — A New Recipe — Exorbitant Prices for Necessaries of Life — Some of the Other Expenses — A Trip to Dawson — A Bit of Recreation — Christmas in Camp — Story of a Christmas at Fort Cudahy — No Turkey or Plum Pudding — A Klondike Christmas — Presents for the Half-Breeds — How Toys were Obtained — A Scene of Merriment — A Yukon Santa Claus — First Christmas Party on the Klondike. THERE is but one thing more dreary than camp life and work in the gold-bearing placers of the regions of the Arctic, and that is camp life and work in the same regions when the placers bear no gold. There is less difference than one might suppose. It is undoubtedly a great relief to feel all the time that, as a result of hard drudgery, rich dirt is being heaped up, and that in the spring, after the long winter night is over, shining gold dust and nuggets will buy some consolation in a milder region where life is worth living. If there were no use for gold except to spend it in Alaska, none of it would be dug (291) 292 IN THE BUSY SOLITUDE there. It is a splendid ooimtry to leave whether one has gold dust or not. When the middle of October came we were nearly cut off from the rest of the world. Of course we heard from Circle City and Forty Mile occasionally, through those who came into the Klondike during the winter. Immediately after the discovery and my short stay at the mouth of the creek, I had taken an opportunity to send word to Joe, ad- vising him to come up, as I thought the prospects looked promising, and meanwhile I set to w^ork to construct a place in which w^e could make life endurable for the winter on my claim. It was nothing more than a liut backed up into a crevice in the side hill, but I had neither the time nor the means to pur together anything more substantial. By a liberal use of moss, which is the cheapest article in Alaskan regions, I flattered myself that I was at least pro- viding for myself a warm place, even though the logs were green and the ground of the cabin frozen. As the nights lengthened, loneliness settled down like a pall over the desolate gulch. The snow fell nearly every day, mantling the great frowning hills. It was a scene of solitude, and a time of deep silence broken only by the wail- ing of the wind through the little spruce trees scattered about on the hillsides. Miners, muffled up in their thick winter clothing, passed up and down, and I had some neigh- bors on the creek^ but there was little time for sociability. liearly every one was busy working to bed-rock, setting their cabins to rights, or getting their provisions up. When the few rich strikes had been made, all who could redoubled their efforts at their own shafts. When digging for gold "with a feverish rusli and attending to household duties be- sides, there is little time for sociability, and we were too busy z < THE CONTRIBUTION BOX 295 to think of the outside world. It would have done us little good if we had, for there were no mails that we knew of. According to the established regulations, mails were sup- posed to be brought in from Juneau every six weeks, but time-tables are of uo value in these regions any more than they are for the Yukon boats. iSTo one wrote letters, and there was hardly a bit of reading matter in the whole camp except the labels on some of the boxes in which provisions came. If one wishes to realize how interesting they can be, let him camp in a gulch somewhere in latitude sixty-four, M^orth America. A trademark on a pick handle becomes fairly eloquent in that solitude. Two fellows named Dick Butler and Charley Myers had been prospecting in the coun- try for some time, and a friend of theirs in Seattle one day had the forethought to wrap up a few newspapers and send them in by one of the slow mails. These boys had about the only library in the diggings in those old Seattle papers, and the miners congregated from all the creeks and read them, advertisements and all. One day when a crowd was in the cabin Butler said : " Boys, I don't min^ your reading the papers, but I think you ought to remeiuber the fellow who sent them to me. I'm going to put up a little contribution box," and he left a bottle near the papers. They did not forget it, and dropped in their nugfl|(sts. When in the spring the bottle was sent to the Seattle friend it contained nearly four hun- dred dollars' worth of the shining nuggets. After Joe arrived with a part of the Circle City con- tingent, life became a trifle plcasantcr for me, for it was easier getting along and we could talk, though he was naturally uncommunicative. But wlicn men who never liad more than a few hundred dollars all their lives are faced 18 ^96 THE ONE TOPIC OF INTEREST A\itli the prospect of making a few hundred every day, they are too restless to converse, or to think of letters or reading matter. Gold, gold was the one topic of interest in that gulch. There were fires to build from the pitch pine, and then when the ground had been tha^ved and loosened, the alluvial was dug out and put in piles, either in a warm cabin or left out to freeze. Then the fires would be started again, and more digging would follow. Then on alternate days ice was melted, and the water used for panning the gold. Sometimes a half ton of gravel would be worked over in a day by those anxious to get out the rich metal. It grew dark at two o'clock in the afternoon, and lamps and candles were lighted. Then there was water to be made by melting ice and snow for washing and drinking purposes, besides a round of domestic duties in our cabins. It A\'as hard work day after day. We never knew when Sunday came, and there were constant disputes as to the day of the month. We had no time for games or for mel- ancholy, for we were all so weary from, hard work when night came that sleep at once overcame us. In December and January there was scarcely any light, and very little work was done. Some miners built their cabins over their claims, and by building a hot fire in the cabin kept the ground more or less thawed all the time. They would go down through the floors of their habitations to dig gold from the ground some fifteen feet 'or more below. How tired exery one got of canned food and salt meats ! ]\Iany a time that winter I would often have gladly given one hun- dred dollars in nuggets for a slice of beefsteak. It did seem at times as if all the riches we were taking out were not to be compared with even the lowliest home in civilization. Domestic duties were by no means light for two hungry ACTIVITY OF THE ALASKAN APPETITE 397 men during that dark winter, when the thermometer reg- istered far below zero, honr after hour, and day after day. It was easy enough to make beds in Alaskan diggings — your sleeping bag can be chucked anywhere except out doors — but making a fire or making bread is a different matter. Some of the most trivial precautions are neglected at one's peril. In their eager pursuit of the golden dirt, too many of the tenderfeet that winter neglected to perfonn those little duties which were necessary for comfort, and which unperformed might lead them to within an inch of losing their lives. Every day, as regularly as it came around, I shaved splinters from the wood that we had cut, to be dried on the Yukon stove for starting the fires the next day. Without these dried splinters it was next to im- possible to start a fire when everything was covered with snow. It was a question whether the gold dust or some of the bread made in that camp had the greater specific gravity. It is fortunate that in such a climate the digestive organs are equal to almost anything. They will seize with avidity the coarsest and hardest material, and clamor for more. There is no possibility of getting the appetite into a less active state, so that food will stay by a little longer. It is like a roaring lion seeking what it may devour. A winter in the Arctics, devoted to digging dirt out of a frozen hole, is the only complete dyspepsia cure I ever saw. It will either kill or cure ; indeed, it can do both. I became quite an expert in making bread, which in Alaska always means baking-powder bread or biscuit. Some miners brought in a little yeast and tried to raise bread in that way, but it was soon discarded for baking- powder. My method was simple. I would take a quart 298 COOKING SCHOOL METHODS IGNORED of flour, throw in a couple of tablespoonfiils of baking- powder and about a half a teaspoonful of salt, and mix till quite stiff with water, which had to be previously obtained by melting snow or a fragment of a glacier. Then I would grease the tin with the best grease that was obtainable, and which usually was veiy poor ; but little things like that are not worth a passing thought in an Alaskan camp. Having a red-hot fire in the little Yukon stove, I would push the tin into the oven, and in half an hour take out a loaf of bread which, in the ravenous condition of our appetites, would make our eyes water. The only difficulty was that a loaf would disappear at eveiw meal, so that as long as our supply of flour continued abundant I was compelled to bake two or three times a day. At evening, and that meant whenever we decided to quit work, for it was night nearly all the time, I would often make a few biscuit, though sometimes we were so tired that we would eat something cold and immediately go to sleep. My biscuit were concocted by nearly the same formula as my bread. Having put a quart of flour, two tablespoon- fuls of baking-powder, and a half teaspoonful of salt to- gether, I would mix it while dry vdth lard, if I had any, but more commonly with bacon fat. This I stirred in with water, and rolled out the stiff dough on the smooth side of a slab. The rolling pin I had manufactured from a section of a spruce pole. Then I would cut the dough into circles with the top of a baking-powder tin, and bake about fifteen minutes. But while we could eat enough of these to make a meal in any ordinary climate, they were used only to piece out, as it were. They had to be accompanied witb ?ome such staple article of diet as flapjacks, or bacon, and beans or oat meal. UNVARIED BUT COSTLY DIET 29 NUGGETS BENEATH THE MOSS looking for gold there. Experienced miners would have laughed at a man as a fool for thinking that gold might be there. Yet in a few weeks about four hundred bench claims were staked out. Boulders were turned over, and there, lying exposed on the gravel, was coarse gold. The moss was about twelve inches thick, and beneath it in one day two men picked up eight hundred dollars in nuggets. It was difficult to offer a theory of how the gold got there. It was worn but little, and just below^ in the gulch some rich specimens of float were found. Some good miners thought it might be only the edge of a wonderful pay-streak of quartz, as some quartz was found adhering to the gold. When one old miner saw what was being picked up under the moss, he said: " Who'd ever thought of finding gold on the surface of such a looking mountain as that. If science went for any- thing, there wouldn't be an ounce of gold in the whole mountain. 'No, sir, I'm ready to confess that I don't know anything about placer mining, and I've been at it, off and on, for years. These discoveries have been too much for me." The excitement was intense. Hundreds of ounces were taken out of the rockers by the dazed miners. In half a day two men picked out with a rocker five hundred and eighty-five dollars in coarse gold. Attention was early directed to the creeks of the Indian Eiver district whose headwaters lay in the same range of hills in which the rich streams of the Klondike took their rise. Various stampedes to Sulphur, Dominion, and Quartz creeks took place, and by September there was not a claim to be had, except at large prices, on any of these streams. The strike on Dominion Creek was made on June 10th by a man who had been on the Yukon for years, and the result THE STAMPEDE TO SULPHUR CREEK 413 was one of the wildest stampedes of the year. The miners brought back many favorable reports and some gold dust. Pans running as high as two dollars and fifty cents were found long before bed-rock was reached. The discovery claim was located about three miles from the head of the creek, which was soon staked for its entire length of twenty miles. Some of those who arrived too late to secure claims here started to return to Dawson, and instead of returning by the Indian Kiver went over the hills towards the Yukon. On the 20th one of the party came to what is now known as Sulphur Creek, at a point about seven miles from the hill that separates it from Hunker Creek, which flows into the Klondike. They found good prospects, and, going into a partnership arrangement, sunk a shaft. They worked quietly without letting any one know, but had not pro- ceeded far before they found pans running as high as five dollars. Then they staked out claims for themselves and went to Dawson to record them. They endeavored to keep it quiet, but in August it leaked out, and there w^as another stampede, over five hundred men crossing the rough moun- tain between Eldorado and Dominion creeks. They had not been working long before pans running over thirty dollars were found not far below tlie surface. Two men took out three hundred dollars one day in simply prospecting their claims. The formation seemed to be much like that of Eldorado Creek, which bears the same relation to Bonanza that Sulphur docs to Dominion, and the process which brought gold into one must have brought it into the other. As these streams flowed into the Indian River they were in another mining district, and so those having claims on the Klondike streams were at liberty to 414 EXCITED AND IMPROVIDENT MINERS stake on Dominion and Sulpliur. The excitement was in- tense and continued for some time, as new strikes were con- stantly reported. The old German who located the dis- covery took out thirty dollars to the pan, and in most places the water on the creek was not deep, so that the claims could be worked easier than those on the Klondike. But many of the locators either did jiot have energy to sink their prospect holes, or were too restless on account of the daily stampedes to other creeks to remain, and so it began to be rumored about that Sulphur Creek was of no value. A few of the first locators, however, staid by it, and they were richly rewarded. When the large pans began to be taken out, another stampede occurred. Claims that had been abandoned were staked by other parties and soon could hardly be bought at any price. About forty men rushed out on this forty-mile tramp, and many of the newcoiuers were so excited and in such haste to find a hole from which they could take gold that they rushed oif without taking their blankets or enough to eat. Indeed, this was a feature of all these stampedes, and many came near losing their lives, and, doubtless, would have done so but for the kindness of more provident pros- pectors. Indeed, the dangers incuiTed in these wild scrambles over the mountains could not be altogether avoided by those who were careful enough to make ample provisions for their trip. Joe and I had a rather narrow escape ourselves dur- ing the fall excitement over the tributaries of Dominion Creek. We had not, as a rule, indulged in the stampedes, for we were well aware of their dangers and uncertainties, and aware also that claims were being staked constantly by those who immediately rushed off to another localit}', so that WE START OUT PROSPECTING 415 if at any time actual prospects should reveal any surpassing richness in the new discoveries it would be time enough to rush in and secure some of the deserted claims. But when the fall excitement over Sulphur Creek occurred we con- cluded to go over the hills and prospect a little thereabout for ourselves. We were at the camp at that time, and dur- ing the rush men had dropped their picks and run from wiiidlasses to hurry over to the Indian River district. Joe and I took our time and put in our packs a good supply of beans and blankets. I had not been feeling well for several days, ha\dng been weak and sometimes a little feverish. I had at- tributed it to drinking poor water and to the everlasting monotony of diet at the camp, but I felt better when we started, and thought little of it while we plodded along over the rough hillsides through the snow. All this country is so rugged that the eye is startled at surveying it from some commanding peak. Hill crowding hill, mountain jostling mountain, on and on they sweep to the uttermost reach of the vision. Reaching wliat we took to be the upper part of Sulphur Creek, we prospected through that region and then started to work our way up a gulch which looked as promising as anything could in that locality. I Avas struggling along over a high bluff of rocks along by the bed of the stream, when I made a misstep and rolled, pack and all, over the edge of the rocks, striking on a bit of thin ice at the bottom. It gave way and let me into the ice-cold water. Joe was ahead and did not miss me till I shouted. But before he could make his way to the bed of the stream I had pulled myself out, dripping and shivering. My aide of order. The police built posts and protected white settlers, and the surveyors who had already began parcelling out the country and exploring the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1877 nearly the whole of the little force was concentrated on the southwesteni frontier to watch and check the six thousand Sioux wdio sought refuge in Canada after their defeat and massacre of Custer and his command on the Little Big Horn. It was through the efforts of the mounted police that the Sioux were finally induced to surrender peacefully to the United States authorities in 1880 to 1881. After the outbreak of the half-breeds under Louis Riel in 1885, the force was increased to one thousand men, their present number. Like the Eoyal Irish Constabulary, on which it was modelled, the mounted police is, in the eye of the law, a purely civil body. Its officers are magistrates, the men are constables. But so far as circumstances will allow, its or- ganization, internal economy, and drill are those of a cavalry regiment, and when on active service in a military capacity the officers have army rank. The afi'airs of the force are managed by a distinct department of the Canadian govoru- 26' 434 ITS OFFICERS AND RECKUITS incnt, under the supervision of a cabinet minister. The executive command is held by an officer styled the commis- sioner and ranking as lieutenant-colonel. The assistant commissioner ranks as a major, and, after three years ser- vice, as a lieutenant-colonel. Ten superintendents with captain's rank command the divisions, with about thirty-five inspectors as subalterns who correspond to lieutenants. The medical staff consists of a surgeon, five assistant sur- geons, and two veterinary surgeons. The non-commis- sioned officers are as in our army, while the troopers are called constables. The rank and file are not excelled by any picked corps in any service. A recruit must be between twenty-two and forty-five years old, of good character, able to read and to write English or French, active, well built, and of sound constitution. Their physique is very fine, the average of the whole thousand being five feet nine and a half inches in height, and thirty-eight and a half inches around the chest. There has always been an unusual proportion of men of good family and of education in the service. Lots of young Englishmen who came out to try their hand at farming in the far west have drifted into the police, as bave also well- connected Canadians. Waifs and strays from ever^'^where, and of every calling, are to be found in the ranks. The roll- call would show defaulters if no man answered to any name but his own. There is at least one lord in the force, and many university graduates. As a rule they are men who get along well with the miners. They experience much the same hardships in winter, and they like to see fair play, but they are stern in camming out the law of the land. The Yukon Territory, so designated by Canada for the purpose of government, is about one-half as large as Alaska, GOVERNMENT OF THE YUKON TERRITORY 437 and extends from British Columbia on the south to the Arctic Ocean on the north, and from the one hundred and sixty-first meridian on the west to the mountains eastward separating the watershed of the Mackenzie from that of the Yukon. The chief official is known as the Commissioner of the Ten-itory, and all the officials, with the exception of the judge of the court, may be suspended by him for cause. The police is under his orders, and he is given ample author- ity to meet any emergency that may arise without waiting to hear from Ottawa. The judge is sent to administer the ordinary laws of the territory. Besides the gold commis- sioner there is a registrar of the land district, a lawyer, whose duties combine the clerkship of the court and the registration of titles, four land surveyors acting under the gold commissioner, and a number of custom offieere sta- tioned at various points along the line of entry into the district. The mounted police force on the Yukon was but a hundred at first, but has been increased to two hundred and fifty, stationed along the trails and at Yukon centers. But a small part of the machinery of government was on hand during the first year of the Klondike excitement. Some of the higher officials did not start until late in 1897, and during the winter were tied up at the mouth of the Big Salmon River, unable to proceed to Dawson. Meanwhile authority was vested in the inspector of police and the gold commissioner. The power of the latter to settle all dis- putes as to claims is absolute. He listens to cases involving ownership to gold claims, and renders his decisions promptly. If there has not been some mistake in reports, his decision is final. And the adjustment tlmi lie an- nounces becomes the law by which all interested parlies must abide. 438 THE WAY A SNARL WAS UNTANGLED A single case will illustrate. Michael Kcllv, a Avell- knoAvn pioneer, went to the Klondike with his son. Father and son located several claims on different- creeks with the understanding that they would share the proceeds equally. The elder Kelly decided to return to Seattle early in 1897, and left his son on the claim last located. At that time the Klondike was not knowni to be a bed of glittering gold. Kelly was anxious to return to the gold fields, but de- sired to raise money in order to leave his family in comfort- able circumstances. He met a man by the name of Craw- ford and proposed to sell him a half interest in his claim for one thousand dollars. Crawford mortgaged his property, disposed of his jewelry, and, by taking some friends in with him, secured enough money to pay Kelly the one thousand dollars. Crawford went to the Klondike in the spring, and, to his dismay, found that young Kelly, not knowing what his father had done, had sold the Bonanza claim to an Eng- lish syndicate for ten thousand dollars. When the'elder Kelly learned what had taken place, he said that Crawford had made his purchase in good faith and that his rights must be protected. The affair was referred to the gold commissioner, who decided that Crawford and his associates were to have half of the claim, but that they must pay to the English syndicate one thousand five hun- dred dollars out of the first clean-up, while the Kellys should return to the English syndicate five thousand dol- lars, or half the original purchase price. This decision was accepted by all parties w^ithout a murmur, and a tangle was settled in a day that in the United States would have been a source of endless litigation. Miners said that Crawford's claim was worth between one hundred thousand and three hundred thousand dollars. A ROYALTY PROPOSED 439 It should be iniderstood that all the territory in these re- gions constitute what are known as crown lands, the govern- ment having the right to reserve it all from pre-emption for any purpose. The reservation of gold-bearing lands is simply a partial exercise of the right of the crown to ex- clusive domain, and the British government has always claimed that gold and silver were royal metals, and has claimed the right to draw royalty from such metals. As soon, therefore, as the government heard of the rich dis- coveries on the Klondike, steps were taken to reduce the length of the claims to' one hundred feet, and to exact a heavy royalty. At first it was proposed to make this royalty twenty per cent, and to reserve every alternate claim for the government to dispose of in any way it saw fit. It would have the right to work them for the crown if it chose, and the government would be in a position thus to draw rich revenue as a result of the long searches and many hardships of the pioneers of the country. When the intention of the Dominion government be- came known in Dawson, there was great indignation among the miners, Canadians as well as Americans. A meeting was held on the street, and it was evident that any attempt to enforce such a law would either amount to nothing or else the development of the mines would stop. " What inducement is there for us," said one miner, "' to endure all the hardships and expense of mining in this country, if, after we have found gold, the governniont steps up and takes a fifth of what we dig, and, above that, takes one-half of the claims? Many of us have been enduring hardships here for years, and until now have scarcely made more than enough to provide ourselves with provisions. ISTow, when we have found something worth developing in 440 FORCEFUL WORDS this frozen region, Canada talks of keeping the best half for herself while we do the work. I guess not." The Canadian officials on the spot seemed to sympathize with the sentiments of the miners, but they said they should strictly enforce whatever became the law. A protest was drawn up and a committee appointed to proceed to Ottawa and present the case of the miners. In their protest, which was a long docuitient worded with skill and force, they claimed that the value of the placers had been exaggerated, and many claims would not be profitable if such a tax were imposed, the rate of wages and the cost of provisions being so necessarily high. " This," they said, " is a land of tremendous solitudes and marvelous wildness. It appears to be a land of im- mense promise to the prospector, but the appearance may be deceptive. It is outside the range of language to picture the trials that encompass the explorer who goes forth here with pick, shovel, and gold-pan to search for gold. Only strong men are equal to the task, and only men of great courage and perseverance can press far. If the government place a heavy hand on the prospectors, already almost fren- zied Avith toil and privation, prospecting in this district will be abandoned by the majority, and prospectors will turn toward other gold fields. This is not- a threat; it is a con- dition." It was pointed out that if the government reserved every alternate claim of one hundred feet it would be impossible to co-operate along the creeks for building dams for sluicing without trespassing on government claims, and if the government should sell its claims it would simply mean that the old minei-s who had found the mines and suffered all manner of privations would be crowded out by capital, EXPENSIVE RESTRICTIONS 441 which would reap the profit without having heen forced to undergo the hardships. But the temptation to reap a large revenue was too great for the Ottawa government. Besides, it was a source of no little chagrin to many Canadians to see the gold worked out of British soil l\y Americans to be carried down the coast and into the mints of the United States instead of those of Canada. This was natural. Doubtless the people of the United States would have felt in much the same way had the conditions been reversed, although no restrictions what- ever had ever been placed on Canadians mining on Birch Creek and in other portions of Alaska. The Canadian government did not wish to impose so heavy a tax as to put an end to the development of the country, but it evidently intended to impose all that seemed possible of endurance. So during the early part of 1898 the laws were modified to some extent. The length of claims to be thereafter al- lowed was to be two hundred and fifty feet, a royalty of ten per cent, should be levied and collected on the gross output of each claim, and every alternate ten claims should be re- served for the Canadian government. These are the main features of the restrictions which the government propose to begin enforcing with the spring of 1898. How success- ful it will be remains to be seen. It will be observed that these regulations add greatly to the expense of mining on Canadian territory. In the first place, in order to prospect at all, a man must secure a free miner's certificate, which costs him ten dollars a year, and if for any reason he fails to renew it promptly he shall for- feit all rights to whatever claims he has. When he stakes off a claim of two hundred and fifty feet along a creek he must at once have it recorded, and that costs him fifteen dol- 443 THE NATURAL RESULT lars. To Avork it Juriiiii' tlie winter he must pay something like a thousand dollars for provisions by the time they have reached the camp. His fuel will cost him at least five hun- dred dollars, and timber and appliances for sluicing as much more. To work his claim successfully he must pay at least ten dollars a day for all help. If he hires two men his ex- penses under this head are not likely to be less than four thousand dollars. Supposing in the spring he is so for- tunate as to clean up ten thousand dollars. The Canadian government takes a thousand of it, and his expenses have used up at least six thousand. He might, therefore, be so fortunate as to save three thousand for himself, a sum which would not much more than provide for his necessities for another year. It is evident, therefore, that placers must be very rich, and must be worked on a large and economical scale to meet such restrictions and expenditures. The natural result will be to stimulate the search for gold placers on American soil, and if any at all comparable with those in the Klondike are found, the Klondike will be deserted in a twinkling, by Canadians as well as Ameri- cans. If paying mines are not found elsewhere, and the Klondike region continues to disclose new riches, the re- strictions which Canada has imposed may lead to difficul- ties. Of one thing we may be sure ; the laws, whatever they are, will be enforced. If a royalty is demanded it will have to be paid, and whatever customs duties are levied upon sup- plies brought into the country will have to be paid. The police will see that the law is carried out, even though they consider it unjust. One might think that a handful of police could do very little with the thousands of miners who within a year will be scattered all through the hills about Dawson, and that UNCERTAINTIES OP THE MAIL SERVICE 443 if these people took it into their heads to regulate mining there to suit themselves, Canada could do little to prevent it. But while there may be dangers in such a possibility, they are not great. The country is of such a nature that a few police can hold all the points at which gold must pass in going out of the country. But what is of more importance, the people who are there recognize the advantages of police protection in maintaining their rights against each other. If any one is looking for a strong illustration of the un- certainties of existence in this world, he can find nothing better than the mail service on the Yukon. Some realiza- tion of its efficiency can be derived from the fact that gold was discovered on the Klondike creeks in August, 1896, and that it was not till the middle of July, 1897, that the world knew about it. It did not learn of it then through the mails, but because a dozen or more men who had meanwhile be- come millionaires, or something approaching millionaires, walked oif a ship just in from St. Michael with several hun- dred pounds of gold dust. Yet there was supposed to have been a mail service. In 1896 the United States made a contract for can-ying the mails between Juneau and Circle City, and in writing to the postmaster-general in the fall of that year concerning his first round trip, one contractor said that he had started from Juneau on June 10th. He took along lumber for building a boat, but after the Indians had packed it to the foot of the summit and taken nearly seventy dollars for it, they refused to carry it further, and so he had to leave it there and build a raft at Lake Lindeman. Keaching Lake Bennett, he built a boat, and finally reached Circlf> Cily. But he found he could not undertake to pole up the rivci- alone on a return trip, and so he came out l)y (lie way of Si. 444 LETTERS SACRIFICED IN AN EMERGENCY Michael. It cost something like six hundred dollars to make the trip, and some of the contractors threw up their contracts. When Dawson was established there was no way to re- ceive or send mail except by those who happened to be going in or out. Whoever wished to send a letter would pay from one to two dollars to one starting out over the passes, but who gave no guarantee that the lettei's w^ould be delivered or mailed in the United States. Indeed, it was always understood that if emergency came, the letters woidd hare to be thro^ra away. Any one who goes over the trail will find in many places bits of paper, evidently the frag- ments of letters which had been sent out in the hands of some one who could carry them no further, and so tore them up. Of course, there are many miners around Dawson who never expect to hear from home, and these men will never loiow whether their friends or relatives ever received letters sent them. The missives are started in good faith, and the man going out agrees to put them in the post-office, but when he is struggling on the trail nearly dead from ex- posure and fatigue, hurt by accident, or anything like that, the situation resolves itself into a question of life or death for many a traveler. In an emergency he goes into his pack and throws away everything he can possibly throw away — probably leaving nothing but a few provisions and his outfit. Going over the passes and lakes, with their at- tendant perils and difficulties, is too much for eighty out of one hundred. They simply give up. It is a crucial test of strength and grit. The few that pull through know what it means. Couriers have left Dawson with great packages of letters, fully intending to carry them through. On the A DANGEROUS POSITION 445 way they gave it up in despair, and so, to prevent tlie letters being found and read, they are torn up or burned. The experience of two partners who started to make the trip out shows clearly why a little mail matter may be a serious addition to the burden. They had dogs and sleds. One of the men fell into a crack in the ice, and went in over his head. By a miracle his head came up at the right place, and his partner pulled him out of a very dangerous position. By the time he was on the ice again his clothes were frozen stiff and he was nearly done for. As the sled had remained on the ice, his partner quickly lighted a fire in the stove — materials for a fire always being " laid " beforehand — and cut and tore off the wet garments on the spot. Tlie fel- low was nearly stripped in an air where the thennometer registered about twenty-five degrees below zero. Part of their outfit was lost. If the stove had gone in, it would have been a serious matter. After that they lightened their packs. The destruction of letters was not unusual. In fact, that possibility was understood by all parties. The guides who agreed to try to carry a package of lettei*s accepted the money for the service, but said that if it came to a pinch they would throw them away. On this basis of chance did the Yukoners conduct their correspondence with the outside world. Recently the mounted police have undcrinkcii to forward the mails from station to station along the trail between the coast and Dawson. CHAPTER XXXII THE SUDDEN RISE AISTD MAGICAL EXPANSION OF SKAG^ WAY — CURIOUS SIGNS FOR THRIVING ENTER, PRISES — THE DEBATING SOCIETY IN MRS. MALONEY'S BOARDING TENT — ONE HUNDRED DAYS' GROWTH. Seeking an Easier Pass than the Chillioot — Why Gold-Seekers Began to Stop at Skagway— A Peaceful Scene in July — The Original Promoters Quickly Overwhelmed — A Thousand Tents and a Thousand Pack Animals — Organizing the Town — Marvelous Real Estate Business — How a Hotel Keeper Announced His Facilities — A More Modest Announcement — "Any Old Thing Bought and Sold " — Tons of Provisions Scattered on the Beach — Saloons and Dance Halls — An Opening Night — The Symbol of Law and Order — Herds of Gambling Men — " An Easy Graft " — Greenhorns at Packing — Runaway Animals — Many Ludicrous Scenes — The Serious Side — A Clergyman's Observations — Tho Part the Women Played — Widow Maloney's Debating Society -- Respect for the Chair — Debating the Merits of Armies of tha World — Some Race Feeling — Mrs. Maloney Does Not Permit Abuse of " Ould Ireland" — A Hundred Days of Growth —> "Biggest " Town in Alaska. PEltHAPS no feature of tlie rush for the Klondike in 1897 is more significant of the conditions affecting travel in these northern lands than the stories of the efforts to enter by the Skagway trail, as told by the few who managed to work their way through and reach Dawson early in the winter. It is an instructive chapter, not simply in the story of the Klondike, but in the annals of human nature. It is doubtful if there is anything in history to compare with the sudden rise of the city of Skagway, and (446) A CITY OF MUSHROOM GROWTH 447 the trials of the thousands of people who endeavored to make their way from it over the White Pass to the head- waters of the Yukon. Parties from the Pacific coast had for some time been seeking an easier way to pass into the Northwest Terri- tory than that afforded by the Chilkoot heights, and one Captain William Moore, who had been a pioneer in that region, and had acquired much experience in steamboating, persuaded, these parties to take hold of the White Pass. ]\[oore's son had meanwhile located a hundred and sixty acres where the Skagway harbor would necessarily be, and work was begun to put the pass in shape. The company proceeded to build a sawmill and a wharf, and was intending to open a trail when the first news of the richness of the Klondike awakened the people of the west coast. One day, when one of the earlier steamers heavily laden Avith the first of the gold-seekers was steaming up Taiya Inlet, the captain of the steamer remarked : " I understand that there is a good trail over the mountains here, and a better pass than the Chilkoot. It is easier to land cargoes, too. Suppose I put you all ashore here." The gold-seekers consulted, and the resvilt was that they were put ashore. This was on the 26th of -luly, and at that time Skagway presented as peaceful a scene as any one could wish. There was one log building and. a tent. In less than a month, and long before the forerunners had made their way over the pass, Skagway was a place of two thousand people, while twice as many more were scattered along on the trail. It had become a place of a thousand tents and buildings, mostly the former, and a thousand pack animals. Saloons and dance halls had sprung up like magic l)nildings, and were in full blast, and many of those who liiid iirrived 448 A TOWN MEETING Avitli the intention of going over quickly settled down, either in despair of getting over at all, or simply to fleece those who bravely persisted and those who were constantly arriving. The sudden inpoiiring of people completely over- whelmed the original promoters of the enterprise ; they had been dreaming of rich results from the monopoly control of this trail after being put in shape, but they soon found that they had nothing to say, not even concerning the site of the town and harbor to which they supposed they were entitled. On August 12th the people held a meeting and organ- ized a town government by electing A. J. McKinney mayor, and a committee was chosen to lay out the town in regular form with streets sixty feet wide and lots fifty by one hun- dred feet. A law was passed forbidding any man to hold more than one lot, and he must do fifty dollars' worth of work on it within thirty days. Within a few days real estate business was flourishing; lots w^ere being transferred for from one hundred dollar to two hundred and fifty dol- lars for such rights as the squatter had. Lots in what ap- peared to be the business portion were held at high figures, and few were sold, while more squatters settled back in the woods, and even down on the tide flats, in ignorance of the tides that sometimes run up. Some of the business enter- prises which sprung up in those few days were indeed pic- turesque. There were restaurants in tents, of course, but some of the signs were very pretentious. A Seattle man, who started for the gold fields in August, and who was, like so many othei's, caught at Skagway, de- voted his energies to running an improvised hotel, the an- nouncement of which was conspicuously posted as follows on the " outer gates " : SIGNS PRETENTIOUS AND UNPRETENTIOUS 449 Holley House, Holleywood. Skagway, Alaska. Hotel and cottages; The Most Delightful Health Resort ou the Coast of Noi'th America. Cusine and Accommodations First-Class. Six Cottages in Connection With the Hotel. Barber, Billiards, Bath, Private Supper Rooms, Music in the palm garden adjoining the dining room. Charges from |2 up according to the location of the rooms. Meals a la carte. Private Suites. Extra charges for meals served in rooms. Note — Anybody kicking about looking-glasses or pillows will be " trun." Some were more modest, however, as, for instance, one man who had pitched his tent in a rough spot in the midst of trees. On a line stretched from his tent to one of the trees hung a pair of okl light-colored trousers, and painted on them in large letters was the word : " MEALS." On a large sign on the outside of one tent was a legend announcing to the passers-by that they could there buy or sell " boats, horses, provisions, outfits, or any old thing." Horse-shoeing was a great industry, and there were too few who understood it. In one shop four men were kept busy, so busy that they had no time to straighten up their acliing backs. But they received large prices, five dollars for put- ting on an old shoe. All prices for services were " uyt in tlie air." Men charged two dollars and fifty cents for swim- ming a horse ashore, two dollars for landing a boat, four dollars a ton for lightering freight. Camping sites were ruling at ten dollars a week. In less than two months more than one thousand one hundred locations were being made, and the town of tents began to give way to the town of frame liouses. I'lic trail 450 A SIGNIFICANT SYMBOL wae not ojH'ii, and not even the correct distance was known, before the eager throng was crowding wuth horses, goats, oxen, and mules hitched to carts, wagons, and drags, and carrying pack saddles loaded with flour, bacon, beans, dried apples, and hay. Already the saloons and dance halls were np and ready for patrons. Tons of stuff were scattered over the beach, and shiploads strung along the trail. Lumber was in great demand, and lots selling as high as one thousand five hundred dollars. The first dance hall was opened a few hours after the ar- rival of one of the steamers laden with people bound for Klondike, about the middle of August. A Juneau man had put a piano aboard, and, having secured quarters, he had a great opening, taking in one hundred and thirty-four dollars the first hour from drinks alone. On the outside of the dance house was a tree to which was hung several sig- nificant notices, and from one of the limbs dangled a one- inch rope with a noose, put there as a warning or symbol of law and order by the Vigilance Committee, and it was quite effective against high crime. Three of the notices read : " Free Dance To-night." " Packers Wanted on the Trail. Apply to Mack & Company." " Saddle Hoi-ses Wanted — Xo Cheap Hatracks." Of course herds of gambling men hurried from .the Pacific coast to set up at Skagway, and, for a time, every kind of a game was running in the most open manner. As one of ihem expressed it, it was the " easiest graft " on earth. But as the place grew the citizens regulated these enterprises and order was fairly well maintained. " Skag^vay," said one man, " reminded me a good deal of a circus town, there were so manv tents. It looked a NEW TROUBLES AND ANNOYANCES 453 g'ood deal as Cheyenne did in the early days. Eating booths were scattered all about. The saloons were made of boards loosely thrown together. You could almost throw a cat through the cracks. There are some very curious and interesting signs painted on boards and stuck up outside the tents to announce the business of the occupants. One that particularly attracted my attention read : ' Hot bread and stamps for sale.' " On arriving, people made reconnoitering trips over a portion of the pass, returning full of exuberance at the easy time they would have in getting over. They were right in this at that time, but they reckoned without their host. They did not know of the trouble in store for them in get- ting their stores and belongings off the boat. It took nearly a week to get things sorted, and then there was the greatest jumbled-up mess one ever looked at. Many of the goods were damaged much by water. It would have taken a Philadelphia lawyer to straighten things. When the in- dividual outfits were finally distributed, new troubles hap- pened, caused chiefly by the inexperience of the people themselves. Men attempted to pack horses who liad never before in their lives seen a pack; the horses were new to the business, and more than once I have witnessed sights that convulsed me with laughter, and at the same time caused a feeling of sadness for the poor chaps whose troubles would almost drive them to desperation. A greenhorn (we were nearly all greenhorns) would pack his horse down witli flour, beans, and other things too numerous to mention, and tie them on any way, when all of a sudden there would be a kick, a buck, and the next instant a maddr'iicd horse would be running over tents and through the lilUc 27 454 AN ENERGETIC YOUNG WOMAN city, scattering beans and flour in all directions. Some- times it would take a wliole day to capture tlie horse. It was such thing's as these that caused many a fellow to sell his outfit for anything he could get and return to civiliza- tion. " This, though, was the ludicrous side, many things occurring on the trail, when the mud in the meadows was knee-deep, that would drive the stoutest-hearted man to despair." A clergyman who came in over the trail said that when the history of the present excitement should be writ- ten up, woman's part in it would form a chapter of special interest. " Along the Skagway trail," he said, '' I was at- tracted by the sound of an axe in the wood, and, going in its direction, I found there, all alone, a slim woman about twenty years old, felling trees and building a cabin. I took a snap-shot picture of her before she knew of my presence. She told me that she and her husband started for the Klon- dike, but, not being able to proceed, her husband opened a saloon till spring, and wished her to serve in it. This she positively refused to do, but, being willing to take her part in the struggle, she determined to build a log cabin and sell it when the rush was on. I gave her a lift with a few logs she had ready for the wall, and left, feeling that she was a noble woman and a true wife. " There were hundreds of idle men, grudging every day the food they ate, and impatient to reach the diggings. Many of them were quarrelsome and given terribly to pro- fanity. Therefore, I suggested that we might get together and form a debating society. It would at least take our minds off our monotonous surroundings and help pass away the idle hours. This w^as agTced to, and Widow ]\Ialoney's THE SKAGWAY DEBATING CLUB 455 restaurant was selected, being the largest tent in the camps. The time for discussion was to be anywhere from 4 to 10 P. M. The chairman was to take his seat when the boarders got throngh snpper, abont an hour after sundown, and pre- serve order as the disputants came and went at pleasure. The audience, too, was free to come and go as the spirit moved, and no objections were to be raised by the chairman if in the heat of passion any one went a-scattering lead from his revolver, for it was conceded by all that the only two governments which in any event could interfere were those of the United States and Canada, and as these bodies them- selves did not know which had jurisdiction over Lindeman, it was evident that moral snasion alone could be appealed to. The question then came up, AYho had enough of this com- modity on hand to preside over the turbulent crowd? Sev- eral were suggested, but they were objectionable, because on the feast provocation they might open a blazing battery from the seat of authority. Finally, I was made supreme spokesman in Mrs. Maloney's restaurant, presumably be- cause of a meek and lowly appearance. On taking my seat, however, at the first meeting, I presented a rope, and, hold- ing it before the astonished audience, assured them that while I might be living in a place without political rule, I would hang by the neck, on the pine tree outside, every mother's son of them who did not respect the chair. This had a soothing effect, and the lion, the lamb, the kid, and the calf huddled together for a while in sweetest harmony. " One evening the subject of debate was, 'Is Prosperity Coming or Going in the United States? ' Tlie discussion at times was very animated, as all the political parties of the country were represented, and each claimed that his, and liis alone, could give the people the horn of plenty. Tlie cut- 456 A WAR CLOUD THREATENS down in the New England factories was freely talked over, and it was generally agreed that cotton operatives in the States are only befooled by the politicians w^hen they promise them anything. Their only hope lies in them- selves, When they agree, Xorth and South, to work only for living wages and uniform hours of labor, they may think as little of politics as they do in other countries. Not pauper labor in Europe, nor political parties in America, are at the root of the present troubles. " Another evening was given up to the discussion of the merits and demerits of the several armies of the world. This was the liveliest night of all. Men from all nations w^ere present, and, of course, each reckoned his owm best and bravest. The Englishmen thought there was nothing on earth that could stand up before the redcoats, and the Irish- men present declared that that was so because there were no Saxons inside. The Celtic race alone made the* British array respected. An Englishman pertinently asked ' If Irishmen were such fools as to fight for the greatness and glory of old England?' 'They have to, or starve,' cried a dozen voices. Paddy Sheehan, however, got into hot water when he attempted to prove that it was the Irish that fought and conquered in the late "VVar of the Re- bellion. " A Rhode Islander present was so cruel as to charge against poor Paddy's race in reply, that the only time it dis- tinguished itself was at the first battle of Bull Run, when they made the quickest time on record to the other side of the Potomac. This led to pulling of revolvers, and for a time there was a threatening war-cloud over the head- w^aters of the Yukon. It capped the climax, however, when a Canadian boastingly declared that there was a fragrant AN IRISHWOMAN IN THE MOON 457 smell to the English rose and a piercing sting to the Scotch thistle; but nothing but a butterfly would either love or fear the shamrock. " Up to this point Widow Maloney took no part in the discussion ; but to sit still and hear a ' hathen f urn'r ' speak disparagingly of the emblem of her dear land was more than she could stand, and, taking up a stick that lay by the stove, she made for him, shouting, ' An' is it ould Ire- land ye're abusin', ye blackguard ? ' '' To pull his gun on a woman would have been sure death to the Canadian, and he knew it. He also knew that to stand up or sit down was dangerous, and therefore he put himself outside of Widow Maloney's tent quicker than I can tell. Everyone who had said anything slightingly of the Irish race, or of Ireland, was now profuse in his apologies to Mrs. Maloney. But Jack Rogers, from Chicago, went beyond all others in exalting Ireland, in that he declared there was a woman in the moon, and that he believed her to be an Irish maiden, for she had a shamrock on her breast. The idea of a woman being seen in the moon was such a novelty that the meeting adjourned to see her. Every one who witnessed the new and strange sight that night will never forget it, and, as for Mrs. Maloney, her anger was charmed away by the thought that perhaps in the moon there were Irish maidens who bore the shamrock, and her wounded feelings were healed by the assurance of all present that the woman in the moon was not either Canadian or British, and most likely was a daughter of one of the kings who reigned of old in Tara's halls." It will be diiRcult for people of staid eastern towns of slow growth, or no growth at all, to realize the extent of the mushroom expansion of Skagway. As I have said, in 458 A HUNDRED DAYS' GROWTH the last week in July, it was a quiet nook in the dreary liills with a log hut and a tent near the flat beach. In one hundred days there was a substantia] town of five hundred frame and one liiuidrctl log buildings, besides tents scattered all through the woods. Many of the buildings were of two stories and some of them of three. Among the enterprises which were flourishing were : A wide-awake six-page weekly newspaper — the SJcag- icay Keu's. A church and schoolhouse combined, seating capacity three hundred persons, built by contributions from all de- nominations. A private post-ofiice. Three wharves for heavy-draft vessels, costing twenty thousand dollars each. An electric light system was being introduced, and a city water system, consisting of a simple board flume, brought an ample supply of good water from a lake on the mountain side. A jail was built, and sundry United States government officials, including a United States commissioner, with a number of doctors, lawyers, etc., were among the citizens. Skagway could accommodate one thousand eight hun- dred people at the hotels and lodging-houses. A three- story hotel, fifty by one hundred feet, was in course of con- struction, capable of accommodating four hundred people. In three months it had become the " biggest " town in Alaska. CHAPTER XXXIII DIFFICULTIES AND HORRORS OF THE SKAGWAY TRAIL — PRECIPICES OVER WHICH HORSES TUMBLED — A LIFE FOR A SACK OF FLOUR AND A LITTLE BACON. An Impussable Trail — The Blockade — Stories Brought to Dawson — Principal Features of the White Pass Route — Slippery Places for Horses — Over Precipices into the River — Porcupine Hill — Where Most of the Horses Were Lost — The Sight of a Life Time — Death on Summit Lake — Efforts to Open the Trail — All Kinds of Pack Animals — Scarcity of Fodder — Selling Hay and Throw- ing in the Horses — The Big Marsh — Floundering in the Mud — Thieving on the Trail — Looking for Pierre, the Frenchman — Discovered with Stolen Goods — Appealing to Hearts of Stone — Six Shots Sounding as One — The Limp Form of a Thief Hanging by tlie Wayside — A Heap of Stones Cast on the Body — Chances to Make Money on the Trail. THE immediate cause for the rise of Skagway was the apparently reasonable assertion that the White Pass was much easier to go over than the Chilkoot Pass, the latter being about a thousand feet higher than the former. But the secondary and main cause for the growth of Skagway was the fact that, from the first, the White Pass route was well-nigh impassable. In the firet place, the people had rushed in before the trail was ready. Severn] thousand people set out to take Xature as they found her in Alaska, and then discovered that she was utterly unmanage- able. The pass might have afforded a comfortable route for (459) 400 A GRIM JOKE the few wlio were acqiiaintccl with the conditions of trails, and familiar with the requirements of packing, but when several thousand people endeavored to pass over in midsum- mer, with all sorts of rigs, with horses, mules, and oxen, they found it an impossibility. The result was a blockade. Only a small number of those who started reached even the summit of White Pass. The great majority simply settled back, and made Skagway a booming town for no better reason than that its inhabitants could not get out of it. I do not believe that history can show a grimmer joke than that town. It had not the slightest reason for existence in that desolate region, except as a gateway to an entrance which could not be forced. The stories which were brought into Dawson of suffer- ings on the trail were vivid and stirring, though, to tell the truth, we had very little sympathy for the eager crowd that was endeavoring to come in. Most of us had been in Alaska long enough to know that it is very difficult to secure a suf- ficiency of food when only a few are in the country, and we realized that, if the crowd at Skagway got through, there would be an enormous number of mouths to fill with com- paratively few provisions in sight for the purpose. By the time we began to hear the stories of the Skagway trail it had become sufficiently evident that the only salvation of Daw- son for the winter was in the White Pass proving impass- able. We regarded the stories of the difficulties of that trail, therefore, with a sort of selfish satisfaction. Unlike the Chilkoot Pass route, which is a constant ascent, ending with a steep climb to the summit, the White Pass route is a succession of hills, so that a great deal of waste climbing is done, ]-)robably enough to make up for the difference in altitude, which, apparently, is in favor of the DIFFICULTIES OF THE WHITE PASS 463 White Pass. The trail was constructed something on the principle of a huge trap. For the fii*st three or four miles it looked very easy and attractive. For this distance there was a wagon road over which horses and wagons would meet with little difficulty. Then the Skagway, which is a shal- low stream, though very swift, had to be crossed. Some of the first pilgrims had constructed a rude bridge of logs over which but one horse could pass at a time. Wagons had to be unloaded, horses led carefully over, then the wagons drawn over and reloaded. From this bridge wagons could be used three miles further, when what was quite appro- priately dubbed Devil's Hill was encountered. Here the trouble began. The trail was not over two feet wide, and at the top of the hill horses were compelled to make a jump of two feet high and alight on a slippery rock. At one place there was a path up a steep incline on which logs had been laid, fonning a sort of ladder. " When you get to the top of it you are five hundred feet above sea level," said one of the few who came through safely. " The hill is very rocky, but I was careful to make notes of its condition, and there is no reason why a moun- tain climber should not put his horse over there with com- parative ease. iSTotwithstanding that fact, T found a dead horse on the pass. I examined it and found that it liad broken one of its legs. The owner had no more use for it and killed it. After leaving the first hill you descend, entering a canon, when another hill is encountered with a rise of eight hundred feet. " The path over it, or, rather, around it, should not be dignified by the name of trail. It is less than two feet wide at many places, and the walking, especially for hoi-ses, is the worst imaginable. The formation on the surface is a 404 ON POKCUPINE HILL soft, slippery, slate rock. The path winds its crooked way around the mountain, while below it drops oft" sheer five hun- dred feet to the river. This is the place where so many horses and packs have been lost. '' One pack train of seventeen horses lost eight of them down this slide on the first trip over. The footing is all that a clear-minded, strong-nerved man would care to encounter, and it is practically impossible for such horses as are there to pack any considerable amount of supplies around this bluff. " On the farther side of Porcupine Hill is a place where one must be very cautious. Boulders from four to ten feet square are met with. One must work around the corners of these boulders to get down in safety. It took me about one hour and a half. I went slowly, picking my way, as one ac- customed to mountain climbing will do, and had no difficulty in reaching the foot of the hill. I was careful to note the dangers that a horse would encounter, and I say that a horse can go over Porcupine Hill all right if the person handling the animal knows his business. Inquiry satisfied me that the death of many horses was due solely to the inexperience of those in charge. The packs are put on the backs of the horses with gross carelessness, and wdiat is the result? It is up hill and down hill, and around boulders, and before the journey is accomplished the packs begin to slide, and the horse's burden is thus increased threefold. A slip is made, the pack gives way, and the animal goes down to its death, or breaks a leg and is killed by the owner, who curses his luck and starts back for another horse. " Following this place is what is known as First Bridge Hill, which covers a distance of three miles. Then comes the hill called Summit Hill, four miles of as tough climbing A HOPELESS TANGLE , 465 as one ever saw. It was on this hill that the great loss of horses occnrred. The trail runs along the side of a rocky mountain, where a misstep will send an animal from five hundred to one thousand feet below. On the side of nearly all thes3 hills the liquid mud was two feet deep, and in some places it ran like a stream. There were sharp rocks and round rocks, and great slabs of granite down which the hoi^ses slid into mud holes. " Half the people are greenhorns and don't know how to pack a horse. They pile on the load, and when the horse gets to a bad place, the pack hits against the rocks, and, of course, makes the horse step out to keep his balance. Down go his feet, and over goes the horse. I saw one mule turn three complete somersaults, and the owner never went after either the mule or the packs. You can see dead horses and lost packs all along down the precipice, and all mixed up to- gether. 'Why don't they go after them?' Well, it would take them a week to go down there and bring up a pack. It's two thousand feet down there in some places. Some men, after packing heavy outfits over seventeen miles of this trail, sold out for enough to pay their fare back to the United States. " It was a sight such as one would not care to see more than once in a lifetime. Horses, tents, feed, supplies, and men were piled together is an apparently hopeless tangle. A drizzling rain was falling most of the time. Stubborn fires were smouldering and sputtering, and men were standing or wandering about as tliough they were dazed by the obstacles ahead. I couldn't help noticing the tired, haggard look on almost every face that T saw, as though the load of anxiety and care was more llian tliey could endure." 466 BRAVE STRUGGLES ALONG THE TRAIL Summit Lake is about a mile wide and six miles long, and near the middle is a tall, rocky inlet which, in rough weather, is noted for the breakers which dash upon its shores. One foggy moniing, shortly after a party had started on its journey, a squall sprang up, and not being able to make out their bearings in the fog, their little boat was driven straight upon the rocks. She capsized and threw the three men into the icy water. One of them im- mediately sank and was never seen again. The other two struck out for the shore and finally reached it, though one was so exhausted that he had to be dragged out of the water. There were any number struggling along the trail who w^ould have turned back had it not been for their pride. All those poor fellows worked as they had never worked be- fore, and w^hen they finished were wet through with per- spiration or rain, or both. When night came, they lay down on the damp ground. By morning they were too stiff to move at first, but, when they got around to it, another hard day's work followed. All along was strung a line of struggling horses and cursing men, picking their way over and around rocks, logs, and dead animals. Completely balked by this impassable mountain barrier, with the prospect of spending a long Alaskan winter on an inhospitable sea coast, where blizzards and storms have free play for over four months of the year, the six thousand or more gold-seekers at Skagway finally combined to close the trail and assail it with dynamite which had been brought up from Juneau. So an army of about two hundred men started in to open it for all. ISTotices were posted all along the trail warning miners to get out of the way under penalty of punishment. Fp to this time but five parties had suc- ceeded in getting over the summit, and the other thousands THE FEW WHO SUCCEEDED 467 were strung all the way along from the coast for fourteen miles into the mountains of the interior. From time to time steamers arrived loaded down with other gold-seekers. When in a few days the trail was reopened it soon became as bad as ever. After a time the stench from dead horses became so offensive in Skagway that a mass-meeting was held to plan for the abatement of the nuisance. As a result a great num- ber of bodies were gathered together and cremated. One passenger said that up to October not more than twenty complete outfits had reached the lakes over the Skag- way trail. " A majority of those who got through," he said, " had not more than two hundred or five hundred pounds of outfit. I knew one man with only one hundred and seventy-five pounds. On the summit snow is now fully six feet deep and the fall continues quite heavy. There are some of the miners who will make an attempt to get in with sleds and dog trains, when snows have covered the trails, and the lakes are frozen. No one has been getting in of late, and, in fact, very few have attempted to do so, for the trail is in such a bad condition that it is absurd to think of doing so." Every description of pack animals could be seen on the trail, from the family driving horse and the trick mule, down to the smallest Mexican burro. It was impossible to hire any packing done, and only an option on a horse after the owner w^as through with him could be obtained, and these sold for ten times as much as the animals Avere worth anywhere else. Two people who hnd an option on four little cayuses for four hundred dollars, to be delivered in one week, dead or alive, were shortly afterwards offered six hundred dollars for them. 4.08 FLOUNDERING IN THE MARSH AVhen this sort of thing had been going on for a little time, horse feed became scarce and horses were at a dis- count. Early in September a man could pick up a good horse for ten dollars. A party which, during the season of hio-h prices had rushed back to the United States and secured a few horses, found, when they returned, that they could not be sold. So they loaded their horses with fodder, which was at a great premium, and started for the summit. Reach- ing there they sold the feed for eighteen dollars a sack and threw the horses in, so they got out of the dilemma very well. But by the time the hay was l^rought up to the hungry animals waiting for it, the other animals met on the trail, by each taking a passing nip, had reduced the quantity by about fifty per cent. The horses are fond of birch leaves, but they soon contracted mud fever, and, as they were in- sufiiciently fed and not sheltered at all, they soon became worthless. They really died from lack of care. Horses were a good deal better on the Skagway trail than burros, although the best thing of all was an ox, which was A'ery good for muddy traveling, and could carry a big load. The burros taken up were almost a failure. They were good over rocks, but no good at all in the swamp, which forms about two-thirds of the entire distance. Those who succeeded in working their way past these obstacles found themselves finally at the big marsh. Of this no adequate description is possible. It is a terror for packers. A horse flounders and rolls in the mud, until he either gives up from exhaustion, or else tears his pack loose, or breaks a leg. ]\Iany of the miners were camped on this bog, which is a mile and a half long, waiting till the freeze of winter covers the ground so that they could get across. The ground was soft and springy, and very muddj' even be- LUMBER THROWN AWAY 471 fore it was trampled up. A man went to his knees in the mud, and a horse wallowed to his belly. After crossing the marsh the trail is much the same as in the earlier stages, up and down over a continuous chain of hills and mountains. At times the gold-seekers were encouraged to believe that there was a betterment, owing to the men's efforts to corduroy the bad places, and the occasional glimpse of sun, but a night's rain would undo it all, and the morning would show it worse than ever. The horses floundered over the boulders and through the mud, which is nothing more than decomposed vegetation, and broke their legs. Then they were shot or knocked on the head. Lack of animals, and particularly the fact that it is impossible to move supplies, led many to split up their outfits and Iiurry on Avith barely enough to last them until they reached the river camps. People who had flattered themselves that they had suf- ficient foresight to take in lumber to be put together for boats after crossing the pass, found that the proper thing to do with it at Skagway was to throw it away. One man built his house entirely out of lumber which had been intended for lake boats, and which had cost nearly three hundred dol- lars in the United States. This Skagway man picked up all he wanted of it for eighteen dollars a thousand, and much of it cost him nothing. Owners were glad to give it away to get it off their hands. Towards the end of the season, when thousands of men and animals and tons of freight were scattered along the trail, thieving began. Some who had sold their outfits at Skagway, and pushed on light-handed so as to get through, began to appropriate new outfits on the other side. A party of prospectors had, after great hardships, packed their goods over the worst part of the Skagway trail, lind 472 A THIEF DETECTED caelicd them, and were inoving- tliem by relays to the lakes. Some of the goods it had cost thirty dollars a hundred to get over. One day, about the middle of August, they missed from their cache a sack of flour and one hundred pounds of bacon. They had taken no precaution against theft, be- lieving that under such conditions as exist in Alaska a man's property would be held sacred. Immediately upon discovering their loss they notified the other miners in the vicinity. A meeting was called at once. Each gold-seeker felt that his sack of flour might be the next to go, and it was agreed that a food thief was as dreadful an enemy as a murderer. Food to these men was life. A committee of six vigilantes was chosen by lot to search out the criminal and punish him, the penalty to be death. In a tent near the summit lived a Frenchman known only as " Pierre." He was low-browed, dark-visaged, and surly. He had no friends and seemed to desire none, while his doubtful manners and appearance made him an object of suspicion and dislike. At dusk of the day on wdiicli the loss was made known the vigilantes climbed to the summit. They went silently and paused when near the tent for a whispered consultation. Approaching still nearer, tliey saw that a dim light was burning within, and upon the canvas was cast the grotesque shadow of the Frenchman. He was stooping close to the ground. " He's burying the grub," whispered one of the vigi- lantes. Leaving two men outside, four entered the tent. One was the prospector who had been robbed. Pierre started up at the appearance of his visitors. His movement for a gun was arrested by a sharp word of warning, and he stood THE PUNISHMENT OF PIERRE 473 as though petrified, his eyes riveted on the muzzles of four revolvei-s. There was no need of searching further. In a rude hole dug in the hard earth in the center of the tent lay the sack of flour and the bacon. The owner recognized the marks and identified them as his property. Without a word the Frenchman was seized, and with stout ropes, brought along for the purpose, was tied hand and foot. He begged piteously for mercy, and his black whiskers stood out on a face pale as that of a corpse. He appealed to hearts of stone. There was no softening light in the eyes of his cap- tors. They carried him out, and to a pole before his fragile habitation they lashed him fast. All six withdrew a short distance, and, at a word, six shots rang out, sounding as one. Then the vigilantes left. A life for a sack of flour and one hundred pounds of bacon! The limp form, bleeding from six wounds, hung there all night, and the next day it was there, and the next. Over the trail, a short distance away, passed many men. When they looked toward the lonely tent and saw its sentinel they averted their faces and hurried by. Even the horses shied, seeming to feel a nameless horror in the atmosphere. Late on the afternoon of the third day two men stayed in their journey to finish the work of the vigilantes. They un- bound the body and dragged it further up the hill. They could not wait to dig a grave, but they piled stones high above the body and left it there. The lonely cairn is a warning to others who, like Pierre, hope to reach the Yukon with no other outfit than light fingers. While this terrible struggle was taking place on the 28 47-4 A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY Skagway trail, the route by the Chilkoot Pass remained open, and hundreds went over. But the prices for packing were enormous. The Indians and professional packers (juickly raised the price to thirty and even forty cents a pound, and many threw their outfits away rather than pay such rates. Others who had money were willing to pay almost anything, so great was their haste to get through, while many who had the sense to proceed more moderately took advantage of every opportunity for making money. A man named Johnson had early in the season managed to get himself and family over the Chilkoot Pass, together with a small knockdown boat. When he reached Crater Lake he determined to cut off part of the distance around it by putting his boat together and ferrying his supplies. "While loading his boat a man came along and offered him ten dollars for a lift over the lake. Johnson said he was not in the ferrying business, but, if he had room when his own goods had been loaded, he would do so. He found that he had room, and while loading in the stranger's effects an- other came along and offered ten dollars for a lift over the lake. The result was that Johnson made forty dollars that afternoon after two o'clock. Xow, when an old Yukon miner strikes a placer capable of yielding about one hundred dollars a day by hard work, he regards himself as one of the lucky men of the earth. The early pioneers had wintered with the blizzards and summered with the mosquitoes, and up to the discovery of the Bonanza had barely made enough to pay for their sup- plies. And here Johnson with his knockdown boat had a Klondike shoved by Fate right under his nose. He had sense enough to see it, and to take advantage of this golden opportunity. Many were so anxious to get to Dawson and A HUNDRED DOLLARS A DAY 475 pick gold off the bushes that they wouldn't have seen a chance twice as big. Johnson just set up his tent and established his family, and announced that he was the only ferryman on Crater Lake. In thirty-one days he made three thousand dollars, and meanwhile his wife had broken open some of their sup- plies and was making pies that sold like hot cakes for a dol- lar each. Later in the season Johnson sold his little boat for three hundred dollars, and bought a larger one and a new stock of supplies from those who were anxious to drop a part of theirs, and made his way to the Yukon, where he was in plenty of time to get a good claim in one of the pay- ing districts. Some of those who had iiished by him had spent a lot of money, more than they would earn in a long time working at fifteen dollars a day, and working hard, and they had allowed their provisions to be reduced. Then, caught in the ever-shifting eddies of the stampedes, they rushed here and there staking claims, some of them doubt- less securing good ones, but it was as yet unknown, and their claims were no better because they had hurried. Those who came later had the same opportunities, and meanwhile had been picking up the money which the others had dropped. CHAPTEK XXXIV THREATENED FAMINE — STORES OF THE TRADING COM- PANIES CLOSED — STEAMBOATS STUCK ON THE YUKON FLATS — THE PERILOUS SITUATION REAL- IZED. Miners Hasten to Secure Provisions — Companies Fear Speculation in Food — Eggs at $4 a Dozen — Good Mining Claims Traded for Provisions — Candles at a Dollar Apiece — Waiting Three Hours to File an Order — The Trading Companies Confer — Doling Out Provisions — The Steamboats near Fort Yukon — Fruitless Efforts to Get over the Bar — Captain Hansen's Efforts — Returning to Dawson — Watching the River for the Steamboats — The Situation Realized — Plenty of Whisky, but Little to Eat — Police without Supplies — The Warehouses Threatened — Police Contemplate the Necessity of Seizing Provisions — Fancy Prices for Dogs — Mine Owners Threatened by Failure to Pay Debts. AS soon as the old miners became aware of the great rush from the States which was threatened, they hastened to the storehouses of the different com- panies to secure their supplies for the next winter. This began as soon as the first provisions arrived, and the result was that the greater part of the cargoes were sold as fast as the boats came to Dawson. A little later the companies, instead of turning over the provisions, took orders and the gold dust for them and kept tabs on the buyers, something as rations are distributed in army camps. Prices were not raised by the companies, but it was evident that the threat- ened scarcity would gTeatly enhance the price of such pro- (476) PREVAILING PRICES 477 visions as found their way into the hands of the people, and there were evidences that many who had plenty of money were calculating to buy from the companies all they could and hold for speculation. It was largely to shut off specula- tion of this kind that the companies adopted the system of doling out provisions in small lots, carefully noting how each man was taking. Curious instances of the value of food came to light every day. Two men arriving early in June brought in four hundred dozen eggs,, which they had collected on the way. Within eight hours they sold nearly all of them at four dol- lars a dozen in gold dust, and they had a fair working capital right away. Bacon was then selling at sixty-five cents per pound, but flour held at twelve dollars per hundred; indeed, flour seemed to be the cheapest article, except gold, on the market. When the question of supplies began to assume a very serious character many bright men who had brought in large outfits saw a chance to dispose of a part of them for interest in claims. Old miners who could not secure provisions enough for the winter, and who realized that it would be cheaper and better for them to dispose of a part of their rights for food rather than leave their claims and endure the dangers of a journey up or down the river, made such arrangements, and it was a very fortunate thing for some of the newcomers. Some of those wlio had thrown away their jirovisions on tlie passes, or had disposed of them earlier on the trnil in order to get through, then saw men who had arrived somewhat later pick up choice claims that their money would not have bought. One fellow liad six boxes of candles, wliieh were very scarce. He sf)hl off a lot rtf lliciii 478 LINING UP TO BUY PROVISIONS at n dollar cacli, and obtained besides some good interests in claims on (^^uartz and Hunker creeks. Too many on their arrival at Dawson made no prepara- tions for the winter, and it was difficult to make them realize the kind of weather that was before them. There was plenty of work, and money in abundance, so everything looked rosy to many who were so constituted that they would have difficulty in taking care of themselves any- where. When the stampede " for grub " really began it had about the same effect on the stores which a run has on a bank. They closed their doors, and but one was open for sales in small quantities. When the last two steamers up arrived from St. ^Michael bringing about a thousand tons of provisions, extra offices were opened to receive winter orders, and the rush to get them in resembled the opening of a box-office sale for some great theatrical attraction. Hundreds stood in the long lines. One man told me he waited for three hours before he could get his order in, and then he did not receive the goods, though he had to pay cash in advance. The orders, however, were guaranteed. All this time men were coming in daily, many of whom, in the rush and the difficulty of getting over the passes, had thrown away their provisions or sold them at Dyea or Skagway, ex- pecting to stock up at Dawson. The day before the steamer left Dawson, the North American Transportation and Trading Company closed its doors. A notice was posted announcing that nothing would pass over its counters until the arrival of another steamer with supplies. But the days passed and no steamer came. The people eagerly watched the river, hoping to hear the familiar STEAMERS GROUNDED ON THE BAR 479 sound of tlie whistle announcing one of the little steamers, and to see it come around the bend of the stream, but they waited in vain. About the middle of August the two companies had a conference and they estimated that there were about five thousand five hundred people then in the Klondike district, a large number of whom were wholly without outfits and unprepared for the winter. The North American Com- pany had four hundred paid orders unfilled, and no pro- visions there with which to fill them. The Commercial Company had about five hundred paid orders, one-third of which had been filled, and there was enough on hand to fill about fifty more. Plenty of provisions, they said, were down the river, but the water was very low. They did not know then that the boats were stuck below Fort Yukon, and could not possibly get up. At the Alaska Commercial Company's office a crowd sometimes numbering fifty was daily lined up in front of the doors, begging for an ()])])or- tunity to purchase sustinence for themselves and their part- ners at the mines. As fast as one man was waited on, the doors were unlocked and another admitted. Then the click of the locks would be heard, bolts would slide to \)\aco to prevent a raid from the desperate men, and a sack of flour with a few pounds of bacon would be doled out. T^To one could secure much more than enough to sustain life for a few weeks. To those who were preparing to leave, food enough was given to last them over the trail to salt water, if everything went well. Everything possible was being done to get people to leave. During the first two weeks in September several at- tempts were made by no less than four steamers to cross the 1)ars abovf^ Fort Yukon. They failed sim|)ly because it is 480 CAPTAIN Hanson's fruitless errand impossible to get a three-foot steamer over a twenty-two-incli bar, that being the depth as measured. Even had they gotten over the bar the situation would not have been greatly improved, for they were carrying in men who would need most of the provisions they had aboard. Captain Hanson went down from Dawson on a steam barge expecting to pick up the barge of another steamer, and on his arrival at Fort iTukon he loaded his own barge with a cargo. He made the most persistent at- tempts to get over the bar so as to return, but failed. Half the cargo was removed for a second attempt, but that failed. Then he started with no load at all, but that time also failed, so uncertain are these bars in the bed of the Yukon. His steamer drew but twenty-four inches. Having thus failed to return with an empty boat, the captain deemed it his duty to return to Dawson and inform the i^eople of the situation. He left the fort in a patched bark canoe, and the next night was obliged to send Indians back with the following message: " The bottom dropped out of canoe and only my shoul- ders are dry. I am at the cache twenty-eight miles above Fort Yukon. Get another squaw canoe and send it up as soon as you can." There was no other canoe to be had, so an arrangement was made w^ith two fellows who were going up the Yukon to pick Hanson up. Day after day the people at Dawson watched the river for the steamers wdiicli they thought must surely come. The toot of a steamboat whistle w^ould have brought the whole population to the river bank, eager to welcome the arrival of the much-needed supplies. The river, which had frozen over a little once, opened again, and many w^ondered what was the trouble. LITTLE FOOD, BUT PLENTY OF WHISKY 481 On September 26tli Captain Hanson arrived in his In- dian canoe, and told the people that it wonld be an impos- sibility for the boats to get up before the river closed for good. Then the situation dawned upon them in all its ap- palling reality. Men who had been exulting in their success, and were counting upon returning in the spring with sacks of gold, suddenly realized that to remain till then they must run the risk of starvation. In the saloons, which were the public resorts, men congregated and talked over the situation. There was whisky enough. Large as was the consumption, there was the fact that a full winter's supply of liquor had l)een brouglit in somehow, but not half enough food. Among the more industrious miners who wished to stay and work their claims the disadvantage of having so many non-producers in the place was very apparent, and there was a feeling that such should go, if any. Three or four liundred gamblers and sporting men had come in during the summer, and some advocated driving them out and dividing the provisions equally among the workers. The thirty mounted police at Dawson, who were practically without food for the winter, were said to be openly in favor of such a step. Up to the first of September the new arrivals had aver- aged from three to twenty per day, and there seemed to be every prospect that this rate would be continued far into the winter. The old miners, and those used to the Yukon win- ters, began to appreciate the dangers of the coming situa- tion. When the river rose a little, winter was settling down, and doubts were entertained as to the possibility of more boats reaching Dawson. Tlicrf were at least three hundred men working in the gulches, and in (lie hills were 482 THE RIVER TO BLAME several prospectors who knew nothing of the situation, and wonhl not till thev came in for provisions. They were de- pending- on the company stores for supplies. The situation became the great subject of discussion in the city of cabins and tents. It was evident that a large number, even a thousand, could winter safely at Circle City, four hundred miles below, for to that place they could draw their supplies from Fort Yukon by dog teams. There were at least five hundred people who intended going down the river to St. Michael, and from there home, but when that avenue was closed earlier than expected by the freezing of the river, some other steps had to be taken, for some of these had already sold off their stock of provisions and could not buy them back. There was considerable complaint that the trading com- panies had allowed whisky to take too large a place in the cargoes of their Yukon boats, and there was no doubt as to the large quantity brought in, but there ^vould have been serious complaints in various quarters had this failed to ar- rive. Had the river permitted the boats to come up there would have been provisions enough for the people to have worked through the winter somehoAv. It was estimated that during the summer there had been brought to Dawson about eighteen hundred tons of food, clothing, and other merchandise. Meanwhile, nearly every one on Circle City, Forty Mile, and Fort Cudahy had come to Dawson. It was estimated that there were something like six thousand people in the city and about the adjacent coun- try who expected to depend upon Dawson for supplies. Boats were arriving at the rate of five a day, and each aver- aged about three passengers. jSTot more than one in ten of these parties carried provisions enough to keep them through the winter. THE SITUATION BECOMES ALARMING 483 At Fort Yukon, about three hundred and twenty-five miles from Dawson, there was about six hundred tons of provisions. The question was a very simple one. As " grub " could not be brought to Dawson for everybody, some of us must go down to Fort Yukon for it, or go out by the coast and winter in the United States. Captain Hanson gathered the miners together and made a short speech to the effect that it would be vain to hope for the arrival of the river vessels, and that his company had done the best it could to supply the increased number of mine-owners, but that there were still more than two hun- dred and fifty unfilled orders on their books. All he could do was to advise people to go to Fort Yukon, where there was plenty of food, and live through the winter. He told them they could find employment there cutting cord WQod for the use of the steamers next year. He had, he said, done all he could to relieve the situation, and had it not been for the thousand people who had rushed in without sufficient sup- plies all would have been well. The situation as regards the other company was as bad, or worse. Indeed, the company, in anticipation of the ar- rival of the boats, had taken a lot of orders, and with them the miners' money, and when the time came they could not be filled. There was much grumbling. Some spread the idea that the company had a good stock of provisions, but were holding off for speculation, and the warehouse was threatened for a time. Only the fear of the Canadian police prevented an attack upon it. But it became evident that the companies had no stores to speak of. The only thing that could possibly be bought Avas sugar, baking- powder, spices, and a little dried fruit. Major Davis, in command of the police, said: '' Tn- 484 VALUABLE MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY stances have occurred in this territory before when supplies ran short, and it was necessary to form police and civic com- munities to seize all provisions in camp and issne weekly rations. It was done at Forty Mile post two years ago. Tlie necessity for similar action is beginning to be apparent in this case, and I wonld not be surprised to see an uprising, and the non-producers ordered to leave the camp and go down the river to Fort Yukon, where there is plenty of grub, and the provisions in this camp seized and distributed. My force is destitute of winter supplies." Apparently, it would have required only an uprising of this sort to have secured the co-operation of the police. An- other unpleasant phase of the situation consisted in the lack of dogs, and provisions for them. Any one would have said, to have seen the swarms of dogs which were always a feature of Dawson, that there were altogether too many for a camp facing starvation, but these dogs were kept busy most of the time going to and from the mines, dragging slabs for the fires to thaw the frozen ground, and logs to build miners' cabins. And when it became evident that there would have to be an exodus on accoimt of the food situation, dogs were w^orth their weight in gold. To add to the complications, a good many of the mine- owners were deeply in debt for claims they had purchased, the obligations, which bore an enormous rate of interest, falling due the next May or June. They had leased some of their claims on lays, and they were quietly falling back and waiting for the lessees to dig the gold out to liquidate their indebtedness by the time it became due. The men on lays, unless they had been so fortunate as to provide a sufficient stock of provisions, were in time compelled to throw up their profitable contracts and run with others for IN A POSITION TO DICTATE 485 food. This left some mine-owners in a very threatening position, for they might have to turn the property back to the mortgagees. September 13th a large number of the owners held a secret meeting at the junction of Eldorado and Bonanza creeks, and promulgated a notice to the effect that after October 1st, and to June 1st, the wages for miners would be one dollar an hour, instead of one dollar and fifty cents. But in less than twenty-four hours the situation changed, for the men who had food could almost dictate their wages and the owners were glad to get them at fifteen dollars a day. There was the possibility that they might have to pay more. CHAPTER XXXV THE GREAT EXODUS FROM DAWSON — DOWN THE RIVER TO CIRCLE CITY AND FORT YUKON — SAD FATE OF SOME OF THE EXILES — A BURIAL UNDER THE ARCTIC SKY. A Great Day in Dawson — Drawing Lots to Determine WTio Should Go — The Restaurants All Closed — Effort to Go Up the River Thirty-five Miles in Seven Days — The Party Finally Returns — People Pouring in While Others Were Pouring out — Arriving With Worthless Outfits or None at All — Swept By Dawson in the Running Ice — Petty Larceny Becomes Frequent — Food Scarce at Circle City — Men Arrive from Circle City Badly Frozen — Suffer- ing on the River — Exiles Badly Frozen — Sad Fate of Y'oung Anderson — Wounded, His Friends Dragged Him on a Rude Sled — Dying within Sight of Circle City — Thawing an Arctic Grave — The Funeral — Extracts from His Diary — Strong Miners Weep — The Scarcity of Supplies — A Restaurant Price List — A Fresh Supply of Caribou Meat — Curtailing the Work on the Mines — Those Left Pull Through. THAT was a great day at. Dawson when the miners fully realized the situation and immediately began to make their calculations for the wdnter. After the government officials had posted their bulletin warning the miners to get out of the country if they valued their lives, many of the men pooled what provisions they had and drew lots to decide who were to remain for the winter and who were to attempt the trip to Fort Yukon or the coast. It was a question which were taking the greatest risks, those who remained prepared to spend several months on (486) THINNING OUT THE POPULATION 487 short rations, or those who faced the hard thirty-days trip with just enough provisions to last them if not delayed, for those to whose lot it fell to leave the country were grub- staked for the trip. In this way the population was thinned out Some who had to go started for Fort Yukon, and others for the coast. Later, others started out for Fort Yukon, hoping to get back to Dawson with supplies. The exodus was stimulated by two facts, the first being that there might be a famine if all stayed, and the second, that those who had provisions, and at the same time had claims, could sell their provisions at greatly advanced prices to those who wished to stay and work. Thus they were in- sured a profit on what they could bring in on their return, and a profit from the working of their claims while they were out. The restaurants all closed in the fall, though one ran on for several days on a supply of beefsteak which sold at two dollars and fifty cents a meal, and the meals were not large. A man with a truck load of potatoes, flour, and bacon couhl have bought a good interest in any of the rich chums of the richest streams. A little steamer named Kiii]:iil\ which was to run up to the Felly River where the Dalton trail begins, was called into service by men who oifered as high as two hundred and fifty dollars to be taken aboard for her journey of one hundred and seventy-five miles. She was as crazy a craft as there was on the Yukon, about fifty feet long, and of thirty horse-power only. She was old, rickety, and pretty much broken down. She had just before made two trips up to the Felly, taking over eight days at eacli trip. Ordinarily, one would not have cared to make a sliorl I rip on her in smooth water, yet tlicre were severiil iiicii wlio actually wanted to pay a big price for lier to hike licr down iSS A YUKON "GREYHOUND ' the Yukon to St. Michael. They were persuaded from this foolhardy undertaking, and so they obtained her for the trip u]) the river to Selkirk, expecting to take the trail there. She left with about fifteen passengers, and in a few days back they came to Dawson. They had spent seven days on the steamer and had gone only thirty-five miles. Ilcr machinery broke down from one to three times a day, and she had a faculty, strong in any Yukon steamer, for con- stantly running aground. On one occasion, but apparently through mismanage- ment, she was driven head-on to a rocky shore where her bow was violently torn away and her frame severely shaken. But for the double protection in her bows she surely would have sunk. At the end of the seventh day, suiTounded by an ice pack, the trip was given up and they returned. The only thing left was to drift down the river, or, if wanting to get out of the country entirely, to pole up the stream with its freezing waters and floating ice. ]\[any Avho had had ex- perience on the stream, and had a few provisions, preferred to wait and make the trip after the river Avas thoroughly frozen and the snow, wdiicli now was falling, had grown hard. It would have been an amusing scene, had it not savored so much of the pathetic, to watch the people who were pour- ing into Dawson from the trail, while others were pour- ing out the same way. These people had suffered all man- ner of hardships on the journey, and many of them, in their haste to get over, had disposed of their outfits. Their im- pression seemed to be that so long as wages were fifteen dol- lars a day, they could not want for anythtng. It was some time before they could be made to understand the peculiar difficulties of the situation. They could not get over the AN APPALLING PROSPECT 489 impression that where there was so much gold there must be enough to eat. It is a pitiable situation when men are huddled together in a little place in the Arctic regions, in need of food, offer- ing any amount of money for it, and unable to get it because there is no chance for any to come into the country for six or eight months. Few of those who came in had packed their outfits cor- rectly. Each month's supplies should be put up separately and labeled, and then if one loses a part of his supplies the variety is not sacrified. Many lost their flour and saved their baking-powder, or vice versa. Provisions should be put in water-tight sacks of not over fifty pounds each. The covering should be made of good ducking, capable of being handled roughly, of standing out in the rain, if necessary, and of not being torn by limbs, snags, and the like. Many a man reached the river only to find his beans damp, flour a pasty mass, and his dried fruit fit only to give to the all- devoimng dogs. Many boats, containing men who had been working for many days and enduring great hardships, came floating- down the river in the ice and were unable to make a landing. Once eight boats loaded with provisions, but with no pas- sengers, went floating by. The owners had doubtless left them to go ashore and camp for the night, and meanwhile the ice had broken and taken the boats down the river. Tt was useless to try to reach the boats at that time. Matters assumed a very serious aspect by the middle of October. There were over a thousand people, including women and children, living in tents in Dawson, and they were arriving at the rate of seventy-five a day. Many of them had provisions enough to last them onlv a part of the 89 490 A FROST-BITTEN POET winter. A heavy snow was falling, and beans, flour, bacon, and other provisions were selling from one dollar and twenty-five cents to one dollar and fifty cents a pound. The few head of cattle which Dalton had brought in over his trail only temporarily relieved the situation. Petty larceny began to be frequent in a place where but a little before a man could leave anything lying about with safety. But no one stole gold. People were stumbling over that and never thinking about it. They began to steal from caches. One man was detected in stealing from a cache and shot through the leg, but he was not a thief naturally. The food situation had made him desperate. Altogether about nine hundred people had left Dawson by the first of December, and as nine-tenths of these had hardly more than three months' provisions, the situation at Dawson was considerably relieved. So many went down to Circle City or Fort Yukon that many began to fear that they Avould need all the provisions at the latter point, and that the spring supply for Dawson would therefore be late in coming up. When the heavy detachment reached Circle City the stock there at once became so short that most of them had to procure sleds and continue their journey, the river being frozen. The hundred or so people at Circle City were calculating to send to Fort Yukon for provisions. Joaquin Miller, the poet of the Sierras, who had been among the summer arrivals, reached Dawson from Circle City on December 4th, very badly frozen, having lost a part of the great toe of his left foot, his left ear sloughing off, and both cheeks frozen. He had left Circle City wnth a party thirty-five days before without dogs, as there were none left there. They worked along all right till tliey reached Forty Mile, where they encountered a blizzard. SUFFERING AND FORTITUDE 493 From that place they endured all manner of hardships. Circle City was not a bed of roses for the miners there. Reports, he said, had reached Circle City of miners being frozen in between Dawson and that place. One miner was brought in so badly frozen that he had to have his feet amputated. Such was the fate of some of those who had left Dawson just before the winter's fury set in. Among those who had started down the river in boats was a young man named Anderson, who belonged in Brook- lyn, N. Y. On the way down, and when seventy miles from the nearest habitation, he accidentally shot himself in the abdomen. He pushed on with grim determination, though suffering great agony, but when thirty miles from Circle City a cold snap came on and froze the river. The party with him saw that it was necessary to abandon the boat, and so they rigged up a rough sled and started to pull the wounded man over the ice. It was terribly cold. Day by day his strength failed, and dreary were the camps they made on the frozen shores of the river. His two companions toiled bravely on, but he kept sinking lower and lower, and when almost within sight of their destination he passed away. Two hours later they drew the body into Circle City on the rude sled. Out in the little cemetery was piled a heap of wood, and soon it was blazing fiercely in the Arctic winds; for graves must be dug here — if they are dug at all — as gold is mined, by thawing the ground. As night settled down the glowing coals shone out brightly in the darkness. More wood was heaped on, and little by little the grave was sunk in the icy soil. Then came the burial. There was no minister, no choir, no melodious anthem, no words that told of the Christian's 404 THE DIARY READ BESIDE THE GRAVE hope in a glorious resuiTection. Rough miners carried the body to its last resting place, and as they stood there rev- erently some extracts from the young man's diary were read. He had kept it almost to the last moment, and there were many references to his mother, to his home, and his hardships, and between the lines could be read a record of the indomitable courage and the filial love of the man who had sought his fortune on the Yukon. Strong miners, muffled in their heavy winter coats, stood \vith tears in their eyes while the words were read, and then the frozen clods were shoveled into the icy grave. There are other graves on the Yukon — many others. And there are dead without graves. There was a party of two or three hundred between Forty Mile and Circle City when the river suddenly froze, and they were compelled to abandon their boats and push on, almost wholly unprepared for the hardships of such a journey. Some of them suffered severely. Ten or a dozen women were subjected to the ordeal of losing their boats and taking the long, wearisome tramp to Circle City in the biting cold. The prices of all supplies continued to rise till they were hardly within the reach of those who had not rich gold mines to depend upon. Flour was wortb from seventy-five dollars to one hundred dollars for fifty-pound sacks; beans, one dollar and fifty cents a pound; candles, one dollar and fifty cents each, and very few of them at that; fresh fish, one dollar and twenty-five cents a pound, and very scarce. Cooking utensils, too, were none too plentiful, men satisfy- ing themselves with pieces of tin for frying pans and old tin cans were in demand as coffee pots and for other cooking purposes. Meals, $3.50 Coifee, tea, or chocolate. .50 Sandwiches, .75 Boston baked beans, , 1.00 Pie and cake. 1.00 WORK IN THE MINES DELAYED 495 This was the sign hanging over the counter of one of the Dawson restaurants early in December : Ham and Eggs, . . . 5.00 Porterhouse steak, . . 5.00 Cove oysters fried, and ham and eggs, , . . 9.00 In the latter part of November a large band of caribou crossed the Yukon a few miles below Dawson in the migra- tion from the headwaters of the White and Copper rivers, and Dawson hunters went out and killed about fifty head. This supply of meat was a great relief, and it sold at good figures. Of course meat can be kept in prime condition all winter in such a climate. Though game was scarce it could be found in small quantities if hunted for, and men who were hungry would take their guns and start on hunting- expeditions, seldom, however, going far from camp. The inevitable result of the scarcity of food and the exodus of people was to delay work in the mines. It was useless for owners to attempt to work their shafts unless they oould secure provisions, and there were many cases where men who had begun to take out of their shafts many hundred dollars a day, on coming down to Dawson and find- ing that their bags of gold could not buy the ordinary ijeces- sities of life, at once departed either for the coast or for points down the river. The newcomers who had reached the city with barely enough provisions to feed a canary bird were, of course, of no use in the mines. But the exodus was so great that those remaining were left with a fair chance of pulling through, which is about all any one can expect to do on the Yukon during the winter. From time to time some little additions in the way of meat were made to the supply. CHAPTER XXXVI DISCOVERY OF GOLD ON MUNOOK CREEK — THE SUD- DEN RISE OF RAMPART CITY — THRILLINO EXPERI- ENCE AND LOSS OF LIFE ON THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL. A Rival to Dawsou and the Klondike — American Territory Preferable — Old MuDOok and Little Munook — Taking a Fortune from a Small Hole — Stream Prospected Before — The First Excitement — Stampedes from the Arriving Steamboats — Beginnings of Ram- part City — Arrival of the Hamilton — Crew Stampedes and Takes the Knives and Forks — A Literary Woman's Rush for a Claim — Settling in the New Camp — High Prices for Claims — Taking out $1,500 in Five Days — The Fever of Speculation — Wealth of a Man with a House and Lot — High Price of Timber — The Rough Trails — Fatal Experience of Two Yale Graduates — Spending the First Night on Hoosier Creek — Taking Food for Only One Day— A Terrible Night— Tucker Falls Exhausted — Running for Help — Secured at Last — Returning to Find His Companion Dead — Buried in the Wild Gulch — Situation of Munook — High Value of Its Gold. OXE important result of the inability of the river steamboats to reach Dawson, and the consequent shortage of provisions there, was to turn the at- tention of gold-seekers to ]\Innook Creek, on the lower Yukon. Those who could not reach Dawson from St. ]\richael, and those who, having' reached it from the coast, could not stay but went down the river, were naturally at- tracted to the new region. Xow that public attention has been turned towards the Yukon valley, the sudden rise of new mining camps and new cities may be expected, for the (496) OLD munook's find 497 country has a wealtli of gold-bearing streams wliicli have never been properly prospected, and many promising ones have never even been explored. While the sudden rise of Dawson was phenomenal, it soon had a dangerous rival, and that on American territory. It is needless to say that experienced miners will prefer gold-bearing streams on American territory if they can be found of a richness to compare with the Klondike, If the Dominion government insists on the restrictions she has ordained, mines on American territory, which are consider- ably less rich than those in the Klondike, will prove more attractive, for they will yield larger net returns. In view of these facts, the rise of Kampart City in the vicinity of the Lower Ramparts of the Yukon in the fall of 1897 can occasion no sui'prise, and it would not be strange if the pre- dictions made as to its rivaling Dawson should be quickly verified. An old Indian by the name of Munook, a Russian half- breed, found large quantities of gold on the creek which now bears his name some time in August, 1896. Accord- ing to the story on the river, some Indians had informed Munook that they had seen gold on a branch of the creek, and with his son he started in. In a short time he had taken out three thousand dollars' worth of gold from a hole eight feet square and fifteen feet deep. The stream bad Ix^en prospected in a superficial way for years, and while gold was always found, it had not been in sufficient quantities, for the conditions were the same here as in other Alaskan fields. A. layer of muck covers the gravel from a few inches to two or three feet in thickness; in winter it is like adamant, and in the summer like axle grease that lias been exposed to the sun. 408 BOLTING FOR THE MOUNTAINS Old Munook and his son worked on quietly, taking out considerable gold, but nothing was known about it by ex- l>crienced miners till the boats began to run on the river in the spring of 1897. The evident advantages of the situa- tion lay in its nearness to the base of supplies, and several miners made their way up the creeks and at once struck good pay-dirt on Little Munook and another tributary which was called Hunter Creek. The first excitement was when a steamboat loaded with people bound for Dawson reached the mouth of Munook Creek. Miners there were looking for supplies, and when they told what they had found, the excitement was so gi'eat that many of the passengers bolted for the mountains at once, also many of the crew. The principal creeks were staked for some distance, for the law which the miners had instituted allowed claims of one thousand feet in length, and from five hundred to a thousand feet in width, accord- ing to the nature of the valley. Observing that as many as a hundred men would winter there, the Alaska Commercial Company made preparations to supply them with food. But when the next steamboat came up there was another st-ampede, some fresh discoveries having been made, and so many of the crew left the boat, carrying away the knives and forks, that ,the passengers left were compelled to resort to their fingers in eating. On bed-rock two and four dollars to the pan had been dis- covered, and nuggets worth ten and twelve dollars had been taken out. The miners were at work clearing up a sightly place high up from the river for a town site, and in hardly any time there was a town of tents there. The Commercial Company began building its log warehouse, and everything promised to thrive. "WTien the steamer Hamilton, after THE RISE OF RAMPART CITY 499 continuing on her way up the river, went aground a short distance from the new city, many more of the men came down decided to settle in the new camp. Many claims were staked off quite near the city, but little could be done except at bar diggings before winter came. By the first of September the discovery claim on Little Munook had sold for five thousand dollars, and Rampart City was a cluster of tents on the hillsides, but the Com- mercial Company were finishing up their building and the newcomers were busy putting up log cabins. The popula- tion was then three hundred and increasing with every boat that came up the river. Ten days later all figures and values had quadrupled. One claim on Little Munook was held at fifty thousand dollars, for the owner of the adjacent claim had taken out one thousand five hundred dollars in five days, and had not reached bed-rock. The news spread, and in a little time the recorder had taken in over two hun- dred dollars in registering claims, and people were clamber- ing over the hills in every direction. A literary woman from the Pacific coast who had started for the Klondike was infected by the excitement, jumped oif the boat when it reached Rampart City, and rushed for a claim, taking the trail like a man, and sleeping on the ground with her blankets wrapped about her. Gradually the population approached a thousand, and the fever of speculation was rife. Real estate offices were opened and the scenes enacted at Dawson a little earlier were repeated. Had there been iio KloiKlikc, which bad become a sort of shibboleth on every one's lips, the discoveries on Munook would have been enough to have created a rush from the States, for the creeks and gidclics are uniiiislak- aldy rich. On one claiiu two thousand dollars were taken 500 A BOOM IN REAL ESTATE out while siiikiiic; to bed-rock. On another, two men took out six huiuh-ed dollars in six days, and the top gravel seemed to be full as rich as that in the Klondike district, ac- cording to reports of men who had had some experience in both places. Xone of those who left the United States later than the first of August to go by the water route arrived at Dawson City, but they were frozen in all along the river. Those who reached Munook Creek, however, were fortunate. By the last of September, a man who owned a house and lot in Kampart City counted himself worth two thousand dollars. Every fresh boatload rushed up the creeks to stake out claims, and many large transactions took place. By Octo- ber the new town had a population of over one thousand souls, including several w'omen. Lots w'ere selling for as high as one thousand two hundred dollars, and any kind of a cabin for eight hundred dollars. The Indians were paid nine dollars a day and board for building cabins, while the wages of men in the mines ruled at iifteen dollars a day. The real estate boom rather outstripped that of the previous year at Dawson. The value of lots and buildings sometimes increased tenfold in a very few hours. The reason for the excessive price for building is that there is no wood to speak of nearer than eighty miles. The trails over the mountains to the creeks were no ex- ception to such routes in other mining regions. Indeed, if anything, they were a little worse, for the country had not been so traversed by Indians. A mile seemed as long as five miles in any ordinary country. It was a wild and pre- cipitous region, and in going from one creek to another it was necessary to cross great divides, tearing through the brush or stumbling over niggerheads. Unfortunately, as A TERRIBLE UNDERTAKING 501 at other places of mining excitement, people rushed in with- out any adequate idea of what they were to encounter, and without sufficiently providing for such a journey. Only a dozen miles or so over the hills seemed easy. One September morning three young men started for Hoosier Creek, about twenty miles away, to locate claims. Their names were H. B. Tucker of Troy, IST. Y., J. P. Powell of New York city, and George M. Reed of Boston. It was raining when they set out and growing colder, and the trails were getting worse every hour. After traveling about seven miles Reed sprained his leg, and, finding that he would be unable to continue the trip, he left the party and made his way back to town. Tucker and Powell proceeded on their way and reached a cabin at the mouth of Hoosier Creek, and spent the night there. They were wet through, and as there was no stove in the cabin they dried themselves as best they could before an open fire at the door of the cabin. Friday morning they started for the head of the creek. They left their blankets and all their food, except barely enough for one day, hav- ing been told that they could make the trip and get back to the cabin by evening. The cold rain continued all day. The creek became very much swollen, and traveling up the gulch, wading through icy waters, and wandering through the swamps and brush was a terrible undertaking, especially for men without experience in the country aiul Avithont knowledge of the conditions. The two finally made tlicir way to the headwaters of the creek and staked their claims, but by that time it was night and they knew it would be ut- terly impossible to make their way back through the dark- ness. When they had started in the morning Tnckor hnd ])iit 502 ANOTHER TRACiEDY the day's provisions in liis liantlkcreluef, and he lost tliem while wading- the creek. All they had left was four hard- tacks and a piece of chocolate to divide between them. Most of this they had eaten during the day. These two exhausted men had a terrible night to face in that wild gulch with the cold rain pouring steadily down on them, without food, without shelter, without blankets or covering of any kind except their soaked and half-frozen clothes. About tw^o o'clock in the morning the rain turned to snow, and by dawn the ground was white. Tucker slept a little through pure exhaustion, but Powell was awake all night. As soon as light came, the latter urged Tucker to start dow^n the creek before the snow became so deep as to make walking impossible. Tucker made a heroic effort to respond to Powell's appeal, but after proceeding a little way his knees gave out and he fell. Powell put him on his feet and they started once more, but Tucker's strength was all gone and he fell again and again, and finally could go no further. He grew delirious and at last became unconscious, Powell, after doing everything in his power to get Tucker down the creek to shelter, found that it was im- possible, and at about seven o'clock, seeing that the only chance to save Tucker's life was to get assistance, he placed him in as comfortable a position as possible and started down the creek shouting for help and firing his revolver to attract attention. His hope was to find a party of friends who had talked of coming up Hoosier Creek that day. He was finally successful in his quest, but not till some hours had passed, and one of the party immediately started back with Powell to find Tucker, carrying food with them. They reached him about one o'clock, but they were too late. The poor fellow was dead. A PROMISING GOLD FIELD 503 Marking the spot, tliey came down the creek to the cabin, where Powell rested that night, and made his way back to Rampart City the next day. A party set out to the place where Tucker died and he was buried there in the wild and lonely gulch, as it was impossible to bring his body in until the trail was in a better condition. Tucker was a graduate of Yale in 189-1, and his father is editor of the Troy Press. Powell was also a Yale graduate. The trouble in this case was that they miscalculated the dis- tance that they could travel in a day, and went utterly un- prepared to spend a night in the mountains. One may realize something of the dangers of traveling on Alaskan trails from incidents like these. Considering the number of people who have rushed in without any proper understanding of what tramping on these trails re- quires, it seems a miracle that so few have perished. Yet the death roll is by no means a short one. Munook Creek, which promises to be one of the richest gold fields in Alaska, runs into the Yukon about nine hun- dred miles below Dawson. It is situated below the bars which obstruct vessels, and if the rich prospects already found continue, its chances for development are very much greater than those of Dawson. There are a number of small creeks flowing into the Munook, and upon nearly all of them gold has been found near the surface. Even if it is less rich than the Klondike it may pay better, and cer- tainly people there will run less risk of starvation. The Munook gold which has been assayed has boon found to be of much greater fineness than that of the Klon- dike, which has proved something of a disappointment to those who have brought large quantities of Klondike gold to the mints. Munook gold yields about eighteen dollars 50i THE DIFFERENCE IN FAVOR OF MUNOOK to tlie ounce, while Klondike gold averages about sixteen dollars to the ounce. The difference on twenty-five pounds would buy a man a winter's outfit in Alaska. Taking into consideration the Canadian restrictions as to the size of claims, as to royalty, and customs taxes, together with this difference in the intrinsic value of the gold, a man in the Klondike would have to take out at least thirty per cent, more gold in weight than at Munook to net the same return, while living expenses at Munook should be much cheaper. CHAPTEE XXXVII WE DECIDE TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY — INCIDENTS OF A HARD JOURNEY IN WINTER TO THE COAST — THE DEATH OF JOE — MY ESCAPE. Preparing for the Winter — Our Gold Dust — Returning to Dawson We Realize the Food Situation — We are Unable to Secure Pro- visions for the Winter — Selling Our Claims and Counting Our Fortune — Down or Up the River? — We Decide to Return for a Good Outfit — Dogs an Expensive Luxury — Encountering Wrecks — Difficulties at Lewis River — Picking up Tales of Hardship and Suffering — Hardships of a Man with Poor Dogs — A Young Man with Frozen Feet Left to Die in a Hut — A Young Woman Rescued from Death — Lashed to a Sled — We Arrive at the Cafion — A Cry from Joe — Into the Icy Rapids — Last of Poor Joe — I Sit Down and Cry — My Awful Predicament — Pro- visions, but Nothing Else — A Sad and Lonely Journey — A Tent Buried in the Snow — Saved! — " Got Any Grub ? " — Kicking the Dogs out of the Snow — Over the Chilkoot in a Blizzard — Homeward Bound — " Poor Joe ! " DURING the summer and fall of 1897, or wliile tlie events narrated in the preceding chapters were oc- curing, Joe and I did what we could on our Klon- dike claim, much time being spent in preparations for drift- ing the coming winter. Our spring clean-up, while not large, because we had been nimble to work as extensively as others, and because we had poor luck in finding the pay- streak and were compelled to sink several holes before strik- ing rich dirt, was still good enough to provide us with a (505) 506 CONSIDERING OUR DEPARTURE ooiufortablc ainouiit of gold di;st. AVliile only the large for- tunes suddenly amassed by the few who had worked large fractions of their claims attracted attention, we, neverthe- less, congratulated ourselves upon our good fortune, know- ing that our money was in the ground and could be taken out, if we chose, in the winter. When we returned from our somewhat unpleasant trip to the Indian River district, we at once became aware of the situation as to the food supply at Dawson, and, as we had neglected to lay in pro- visions early, we realized that our hopes of a prosperous win- ter might be dashed to the ground. We hurried down to Dawson and found affairs as already described. It was im- possible to secure a full stock of provisions for the winter, but any one who would leave the country could get enough for the trip. To those who insisted upon staying a little was being doled out, with the understanding that when enough time had elapsed for its consumption another batch would be sold. The possibilities of speculating in food sup- plies were carefully guarded against. Joe and I reflected and consulted. We had experienced a touch of famine the previous winter when but a few people were in the Klondike, and we did not look forward with any degree of satisfaction to the possibility of something worse. It was necessary for us either to stay to hold down our claims, or to find some one who would work them on shares. It Avas easy enough to find among the eager newcomers men who would make such an arrangement, but as they had no provisions to depend upon, and knew scarcely anything about mining, they would be able to do little work. It so happened at that time that the excitement over the Indian River district was at a high point, and we had a good offer for our claims there and also the claim on Bonanza. WE DECIDE TO GO TO THE COAST 50? Joe and I lit our pipes and thonght. There were many points in favor of the bird in the hand. " But there may be millions in those mines," said Joe. " Possibly," I replied. " We don't know about that, but we do know that there's a lot of frozen muck and gravel and hard work in them. And we know, too, that by next April we might be willing to trade one of them for a hun- dred of flour." We smoked and thought a little more, and concluded to take the bird in the hand. We reckoned that when we got the money we should have about twenty-five thousand dol- lars apiece. "We can afford to have poor luck for a year or two," I said to Joe. " And I don't feel as if we were selling our birthright, for there is plenty of gold to be found in Alaska ; better diggings, I'm thinking, than these British moose pastures, especially if the government concludes to take a large share of the profits." The next question was whether we should go down or up the river. Joe was inclined to take the former course, but as his claim in the Birch Creek district was being worked, and as we heard rumore that there was little food to be had at Circle City unless it was sledded from Fort Yukon, we de- cided that we would go out to the coast and in the spring bring in a big outfit. Outfits are always profitable, and we thought there was money in the scheme. But we were in no hurry, for we wished to wait till the ice had become solid and the trail a little packed. We got together our stove, tent blankets, and other necessities for the trip, and took life easy. So many small parties had been going out that dogs were extremely scarce. T]\v jiricc had started at one hundred and fiftv dollars, but lind ening the tent, a breath of warm air met me. Crouching close to a hot stove was a man who looked weak and sick. On a pile of boughs was another man looking still weaker and sicker. " Got any grub? " said the man at the stove, in a husky voice, looking up to me with eager eyes. " Too much," I said. " I want a fire and a tent." " Wake up, Jim! Wake up! Something to eat! " he said, rousing the other man. They had lost their provisions a long ways down the river, and had been passed along from camp to camp with just enough food to last them, l)ut one of tliciii IkkI frozen 518 SAD THOUGHTS the soles of his feet and for a whole day they had been camped there with nothing to cat. " I began to think I should have to kill one of the dogs and eat him," said one of the men, after we had feasted. " Dogs? I saw no dogs about." '' AVait a minute." AVe mixed np some flour and bacon and stepped out to where the snow was drifting ever deeper and deeper. Kick- ing about in some little mounds in the drifted snow we found three dogs, sleeping as peacefully and snugly as possible. But how they ate! And then they lay down and let the snow drift over them again. The next day we pushed on rapidly, for Jim's feet were better, though still painful. I knew we must make good time if my provisions lasted three men and three dogs over the pass. But we had fair weather till we reached the sum- mit, which we crossed in the teeth of a blizzard. AVliile we were at Sheep Camp there was a bad accident on the summit which we had just safely crossed. The blizzard was still raging, and as a party of coast-bound miners w'ere coming over, an avalanche came thundering down the mountain side above the narrow defile through which the miners pass. It covered a large section of the new tramway, and several sleds and tons of provisions were a total loss. On the other side a glacier broke away, and rushed down with terrific force, burying two sleds and a part of the outfit of two men. We reached Dyea without further adventures. It was a sad journey. And as I stood on the deck of the steamer, looking back on those sombre shores and frowning sum- mits, my thoughts were of my lost friend and his tragic death. CHAPTER XXXVIII The great rush to the Klondike and Alaska- excitement ALL over the world — prepara- tion FOR A QUARTER OF A MILLION PEOPLE — WHAT IT WILL MEAN IF ALL BECOME RICH. At Seattle — The Stampede of 1898 — Nothing to Compare with It — The Days of '49 Eclipsed — Transportation Engaged in Advance — Fitting Up Vessels to Accommodate the Trade — " Klondicitis " — The Topic of Conversation Everywhere — Preparing Outfits — Returning Klondiiiers Besieged — Women and Children Have the Fever — Old Gold-Seekers Aroused — All Sorts of Men Join in the Rush — Great Exodus from California — Associations of Women — Gold Dust on Exhibition — The Craze Reaches Jerusa- lem — A Quarter of a Million of People — How It Appeared to a Returned Klondiker — All After Gold — Money Spent for Outfits — What It May Mean — Doubling the Gold Production in a Single Year- If All Make Fortunes Gold Will Become Cheap. BY the time I had arrived in the harbor of Seattle I had about made up my mind that I had seen all I cared to of the Klondike, and that I should look about for a chance to employ my capital in the States. I had formed no adequate idea, even from the stories which had leaked into the Yukon valley, of the extent of the excite- ment over the Klondike discoveries, and my surprise upon landing and learning' the true situation may be imagined. I do not believe there is a more remarkable incident in the whole drama of human history than the great stampede of 1898, a term which must be giveu to the exodus of jicdplo (519) 520 MORE ARGONAUTS THAN IN '49 bound to the frozen regions of the north in search of gold. The stampede of Eastern people to California in 1849 and 1850 cannot be compared with it. That movement was gradual, in a sense. It could take place at any time of the year, and people had more and easier routes than Alaska affords. But all the miners who poured into California in the first three years did not number over one hundred and twenty-five thousand, and many careful historians have put the number at less than a hundred thousand. There were never more than fifty thousand arrivals in the South African gold fields in any one year. Xot more than seventy thousand people went to Australia when gold was discovered there. But the number of people leaving the Pacific coast alone for the Klondike or other parts of Alaska- in the spring of 1898 was estimated at seventy thousand, and it was cal- culated that one hundred and fifty thousand more from the Eastern states, Canada, Europe, Australia, and South America were preparing to set out. By the first of January, 1898, the five transcontinental railroads had contracted to sell to Eastern agents tickets for carrying more than forty-five thousand people going to the Klondike before June, and the demands for tickets were coming in every day. The two principal steam navigation companies, operating between Seattle and San Erancisco on the south and the Yukon river on the north, had orders for the transportation of over twenty thousand travelers, while new companies for the trade had be,en formed by the score and were bringing into use almost every steam craft of any size on the coast. The more conservative estimate of the number of people transported by the railroads to the coast to take north-bound vessels was placed by passenger agents at not less than two hundred and fifteen thousand. " KLONDICITIS " 521 At the shipping towns all winter hundreds of men were employed night and day in fitting up vessels suitable for carrying people and provisions up the Yukon River from the time navigation opened to September. It was said that every vessel on the Pacific coast from Chili to British Co- lumbia that could be bought and made serviceable for a sea voyage was in preparation for the Klondike business. Twenty or more sea-going craft were fitted out in Eastern seaports and went around the Horn to be ready for the grand rush to Alaska. Millions of dollars' worth of capital was put into shipping and transportation companies, and the demand for facilities seemed to have no limit. The way the fever had taken hold of the people of the coast, especially in California and Washington, was some- thing appalling. The papers called it '' Klondicitis." In the larger centers of California the preparations for going to the Klondike were as general and as earnest as they were in Eastern localities for men going to war in the early sixties. Wherever I went I heard little but " Klondike " talked about on the cars, in the hotels, in the saloons, and even on Sunda^^s at church. Whenever you observed a knot of men in the street, in a rural highway, or in any public place in California, you were pretty sure to find that the latest news of new strikes in the Klondike diggings was under discussion. All the letters that had come straggling down from Dawson were passed from hand to hand and read aloud until they fell into tatters. " Yes, I'm going this spring," was a popular button worn. In all the large cities nuggets and bottles of gold dust were on exbil)ition in show- windows, and groups of men were always aboiit lli(> yellow stuff which at Dawson would not liavc niti'ncfcd 1i;ilf as much of a crowd as a nice roast of beef. Wherever 1 went, 522 STUDYING THE TOPOGiRAPHY OF ALASKA railroad billboards were covered with Klondike circulars, and, later, in every depot I entered as I came East were to be found circulars announcing an easy route to the Pacific coast and the Klondike. The fever affected all lines of enterprise. It was a great thing for business on the Pacific coast. Hundreds of firms and individuals were preparing outfits of fur caps and coats, rubber goods, sleds, stoves, tents, and all sorts of devices, and were selling them like hot cakes. The Klondike fever seemed to be in the air. Women and children shared in the desire to get rich in the Klon- dike, and maps of Alaska were pored over by whole families for e^'enings at a time. When I was visiting an old friend of mine in Los Angeles I was besieged by all the neighbors for information as to the Klondike. One evening I asked his son, a bright lad of ten years, if he knew the length of the sea coast of California, and he said he did not. But I found that he knew the exact length of the Yukon River. Little schoolboys and girls knew the topography of the Yukon and Klondike regions better than they did that of their native State. The fact that several hundred men went from the Pacific coast to the Yukon River mines in 1894, 1895, and 1896, all very poor, and that they came back in 1897 very rich — some of them millionaires and some of them bringing with them sixty thousand dollars, seventy thousand dollars, and eighty thousand dollars in actual gold — set the communities in which these successful Klondikers were personally known well-nigh vnld with anxiety to go and do likewise. The desire on the Pacific coast for information about the possibilities in the marvelous new diggings has amounted almost to hunger. The public libraries all had constant FORCED TO GO INTO HIDING 523 calls for literature relating to Alaska. All tlie returned Klondikers were run after and appealed to by crowds of men and a few women for Klondike information. The more successful Klondikers were driven to exasperation by un- countable questions from droves of people. William Hewitt, who came back to his Ventura country home with a five-gallon oil can filled with gold dust and nuggets, had more than one hundred callers and talkers every day for weeks, and as many letters from every State in the Union. J. C. Miller was on the verge of nervous prostration and had to leave his Los Angeles home when he got back from the Klondike because he was visited by a swarm of gold- crazy men day after day for a month. Clarence A. Berry and his wife, who came from Daw- son with more than one hundred and ten thousand dollars, were followed by such throngs on the streets of San Fran- cisco that they fled to their quiet ranch home at Selma, where a flood of letters came in upon them with every mail. Jacob Wiseman, a returned Klondiker in Walla Walla, Wash., was bothered so much and so long by Klondike-wild people that he quit the town secretly and went and lived under an assumed name at Tacoma for a few weeks. The men who were making ready for the Yidvon Kiver and Klondike country were of all stations. Naturally, the old-time miners were most mightily moved by the news of the gold find in Alaska, and, possessed by the characteristic restlessness of gold-seekers, many of them had gone to Alaska and had been struggling all winter from I)y(\'i and Skagway over the Chilkoot Pass to Dawson, About every able-bodied and ambitious man in (California who had been out of employment for a time was either arranging to slai't for the Klondike or was just itching for a cbancc to get 524 EVERY HAMLET SENDS ITS SHARE away. Iluudrecls of men gave notice to their employers that they would quit their jobs and sail as soon as possible fur Alaska. The Santa Fe and Sonthern Pacific raih-oad companies each received applications from scores of men for relief from duty. Every police force in the larger cities up the Pacific coast States had vacancies caused by the resig- nation of men going to the gold diggings. Clerks, lawyers, editors, reporters, doctors, merchants, butchers, cobblers, stablemen, ranchers, and especially engineers and men who love adventure were getting ready to start for the Klondike when navigation began. The men who had a few thousand dollars saved, and believed they could soon double their capital by lending it at exorbitant interest rates, or by trading, were largely in evidence among those who were soon going north. ]\Iore than three-fourths of the members of the graduating classes of the San Fran- cisco and Los Angeles medical schools were hastening their studies with a view to getting established in the practice of their profession somewhere in the Klondike country. Every community, even the most humble hamlet, had some citizens who were packing and planning to live a year at least in the Klondike gold region. In such towns as Eresno, Stockton, Riverside, Pomona, and Redlands there were companies of twenty and thirty men who were going to dig for Klondike gold. The greatest rush of people in any Eastern city in the United States for the Klondike placer mines was from Chicago. The number of women going to the Klondike as soon as navigation opens was increasing as the continuous reports of richer and more abundant finds came down from the frozen north. The allurements of the yellow metal were almost as potent among the women of California as among MINING ASSOCIATIONS OF WOMEN 5"25 the men, and the exhibits of Klondike nuggets and golden dust in the store and bank windows and public places, and the personal knowledge of men who went to Alaska poor in 1895 and came back rich, all had their effect. The book- sellers said they had hundreds of calls from women for books and maps giving a knowledge of Alaska, and the newspaper accounts of the work and success of the miners on the Klondike were read by as many California women as men. Every community of two thousand or three thou- sand people had a few women residents making ready to go to live in the Klondike region for a year or two. In Los Angeles there were twenty women making Klondike prepa- rations. San Diego had half a dozen, San Francisco more than one hundred, Portland, Ore., a score, and Seattle twice as many more. But few of these women were going with husbands. The greater part of them had no husbands, and they went to the gold regions expecting that where men may get rich either as workers in mines or owners of mining claims they also may do so. A few women went as mining prospectors. Miss Jennie Hilton, who has made a small fortune in gold-mining in Arizona, contracted with a syndicate of business-like women to spend two years in gold-mining in the Klondike region. The profits were to go to the members of the syndicate, who will pay Miss Hilton a good salary and twenty per cent, of the first year's find of gold. Several associations of women were formed for mining in the Klondike region, and each sent several w^omen to seek gold for thoin. The competition among the transcontinental niilroad companies for the transportation business, niid jmiong tlio cities of San Francisco, Seattle, and Tacoma for the enor- mous sums spent on the coast for Klondike^ outfits, was very 31 536 TRAVELING EXHIBITS keeu. Three of the raih'oad companies had cars tilled witli Klondike exhibits traveling from town to town in the Eastern States. The cars were substantially the same. Each contained glass jars of nuggets and gold dust, litera- ture about Alaska and the new diggings, and a complete and varied assortment of the articles necessary for living and successful mining in the Arctic regions. There were miners' pans, rockers, picks, hammers, shovels, quicksilver contrivances for holding particles of gold, besides samples of fur and wool garmentvS worn in the Arctic regions, fur hoods and muffs and walrus skin shoes. There were hun- dreds of pictures showing how the gravel of the mines is thawed and dug out, and how it is finally sluiced when the warmer weather of midsummer comes; pictures of miners' life in the Yukon cabins, and photographs of Dawson and the surrounding country. The rush of people to the Klondike during the five months of navigation in 1898 was the most wonderful ever known to any region — gold or otherwise. White, red, brown, and black men alike were stirred by the discovery of a new gold field, and all came over seas from the antipodes and across continents to join in a grand rush northward up the Pacific. One company alone received more than twenty-five thousand inquiries from people saying they were making ready to go to the Klondike. The letters that the transportation companies received every day showed that the Klondike fever was by no means local. It reached Russia and even staid old Jerusalem, where one would believe that digging gold within the Arctic circle would not have a moment's consideration. A gentle- man in the Central Pacific offices showed me a letter from a THIS MADNESS REACHES ROUND THE WORLD 527 Greek in Jerusalem who said tliat be and a company of other Greeks there are going to Dawson with stores of goods to trade. Norwegians and Swedes have been more deeply interested in the newly-found gold mines in Alaska than any people on the continent of Europe. Several of their countrymen were among the Klondikers who came down from Alaska with fortunes. A sloop having on board ninety Norwegians left Christiania in October, going around the Horn and reaching San Francisco in April. Hundreds of letters from Englishmen were received, and there were large concerns doing a thriving business in Lon- don in fitting out prospective Klondikers with Arctic raiment and miners' tools. The Canadian Pacific Railroad expected to carry several thousand young Englishmen and Canadians across the continent on their way to the Klon- dike. Dozens of large expeditions were forming in Eng- land and Scotland for digging gold in the Yukon Kiver country. The Britannia-Columbia Company sold thousands of pounds' worth of stock and sent more than five hundred men to mine and trade in the new gold region. An expedi- tion of three hundred Scotchmen sailed for Montreal in the latter part of January on their way to Alaska. A company of young Italians was in San Francisco, impatiently await- ing the sailing of the first boat for the Yukon. They were, they said, the advance guard of several hundred of their countrymen who have been charmed by the news of the fortunes made on the Klondike. A fairly conservative estimate of the number of ])eoi)lG who were going into the Klondike or to other gold fields in Alaska was two hundred and fifty thousand. T mot tliem all the way on my trip East. Every wcst-bouiiss than five hundred dollars. By the time ho has staked a claim, built a hut, and prepared to work the mine, he has spent nearer two thousand dollars, and if he is careful and has good luck he may get out of the country at the end of a year on the balance. But, it will be said, there were several men wlio went in with thousands in the summer of 1(S07 and caiiic out with millions. They certainly came out with thousands. So much the worse, then, for those avIio did not uinkc thou- sands, for, as I have said, the outjuit per jxtsou was not 532 A MONETARY UPHEAVAL greater than three thousand. If a hundred or so came out with thousands, how about the other one thousand nine hun- dred who did not ? It has been said that ten thousand people rushed into the Klondike and to other points on the Yukon in 1897. But the output can hardly be greater than twenty million, that is two thousand per pei-son. If two hundred and fifty thousand people rush into the country, it is not likely that they will spend less than three hundr&d dollars each in get- ting into the country. That means seventy-five million dollars. They will probably spend more on the average. Supposing that these people spend a year in Alaska and take out an average of two tliousand dollars each — an amount that would not pay their expenses — the aggregate output for 1898-99 would be five hundred million dollars, or more than ticice the gold prod net iou in JS97 for the entire trorld. It is plain, therefore, that the great rush of people into the Yukon valley means one of two things; either a great loss of money for those engaged in the rush, or a complete upsetting of the standard on which all values are based. But they are not after the paltry two thousand dollars! They would not rush in for that. Their hopes are to come out as some of the lucky ones did last year with fortunes of fifty thousand dollars or more apiece, perhaps a million. They do not stop to think what that means. If one-half of them made fortunes of only twenty-five thousand dollars each and the other half made nothing, it would mean an output of over four billion dollai*s in gold, or more than all the coined gold in a world which has been coining it for fifty centuries. THE FINAL RESULT 533 Tliere must either be a terrible disappointment to the thousands who are going into Alaska and the Klondike or there must be a monetary upheaval. If all become rich in gold, the metal will become cheap, too cheap to be worth the hazards and privations endured by those who sought it. CHAPTER XXXIX RESOURCES OF THE YUKOX VALLEY — POSSIBILITIES OF QUARTZ MINING — COOK INLET, UNGA ISLAND AND COPPER RIVER — THE FUTURE OF ALASKA. Waiting for More Thorough Prospects — Comparative Smallnessof the Klondike District — Room for a Million to be Lost in — The Klon- dike all Located — The Government's Gold Map — Traces of Gold Everywhere — Most of Alaska Unexplored — Some Comparisons with Early Production in California — Difference in Conditions — Obstacles to be Overcome — Possibly a Dozen Klondikes — Induce- ments for Quartz Mining — A Belt of Rich Rock Thousands of Miles Long — The Quartz Mines of Unga Island — A String of Islands that May be Rich in Gold — A Test of Klondike Quartz — Credit for the First Discovery — Cook Inlet and Its Mines — The Benefit of Waiting a Little Longer — The Copper River Countrj' — Stories of Rich Diggings — Friendly Indians with Mineral Wealth — Points of Distribution — Unforeseen Results of Our Purchase of Alaska — Its Future. WHILE it may seem that there can be but one answer to the question as to whether the hopes of the thousands of people who have gone to the Yukon valley can be realized, it is certainly impossible for any man to say what may be the results till the great country has been more thoroughly explored and prospected. The general conception of wdiat is required in life in Alaska or the British Xorthwest Territory, is quite as inadequate as the usual idea. as to the size of the country, and of the comparative size of the so-called Klondike district. The (534) ROOM FOR A MILLION MORE 535 area of the whole of the Klondike and. Indian River dis- tricts, upon which any work of importance was done before .the spring of 1898, is not greater than that of the State of Rhode Island. But the area of Alaska alone is four hun- dred and twenty times that of Rhode Island, and the British Yukon district, in which the Klondike region lies, is at least two hundred times the size of the State of Rhode Island. In other words, almost the whole excitement over gold dis- coveries in the north has centered in a little clump of moun- tains forming about one six hundred and twenty-fifth part of the great country whose future has become a matter of such interest, and upon the development of which results so largely depend. It wdll thus be seen that while there re- mains little chance for newcomers in the Klondike, it would be easy for a million people to be so placed in the whole country that they might feel lonesome. Those who stumbled upon the Klondike placers just happened to find one of the rich pockets under the moss and muck of the land, and even as a result of nearly two years of excitement much less of the district has been worked than has been preempted. Comparatively little ground has been worked yet. The claims on the various creeks forming the dis- trict have all been located; wherever gold has been found on the side hills above the creek beds bench claims have been located, and a few quartz claims have been recorded. But even so, the Klondike district is a small one compared with the area of country over which gold has been found. As a result of the now interest in these gold fields, the government of the T'nited States has recently prepared a gold map combining the results of its recent explorations and the reports of those who have found traces of gold in various parts of the country. AVliercvcr such I races liiiv(> 530 ASTONISHING RESULTS POSSIBLE been found it is indicated by yellow spots, and the most striking thing about it is the extent of the country so dotted. Gold is everywhere, apparently, on all the creeks and rivers, and yet most of the gold that has been taken out has been from a few small creeks and gulches. A large part of Alaska is entirely unexplored, is a real terra in- coy)! if a. The fact that so many have had their attention attracted in its direction constitutes the possibility of start- ling results. When we consider that the country in question is five times as large as California, and that gold is found over such a large area, while the placers of California were not large in comparison with the whole State, and, further, that placers of such richness as those of the Yukon have never before been found, it is easy to see that the most astonish- ing results are possible, when human energy and ingenuity is once centered on the problem of securing the gold. The gold production of the United States for the first six years of the California discoveries (nearly all of it the result of working the alluvial of that State) is officially o-iven as follows : 1848, . . $10,000,000 1851, . . 155,000,000 1849, . . 40,000,000 1853, . . 60.000,000 1850, . . 50,000,000 1853, . . 65,000,000 From that point it began to decline rapidly, for the placers were exhausted to a large degree. On about a score of mines, which were worked in a crude way during the wint-er of 1896-Y on two streams in the Klondike, fully five million dollars in gold was produced. The evidence of this fact is that more than that amount was brought riown in the summer of 1897 from this region, and there U'as certainlv considerable ffold taken out that winter that A HUNDRED MILLIONS ANNUALLY 537 was not brought down. While during the succeeding win- ter more claims were worked, the scarcity of food rendered the labor of many who were in the district inefficient. Nevertheless, the production can hardly be less than twice what it was in California in 1 848, and if the people rushing into the country in 1898 accomplish anything like what the Forty-niners did, or what the gold-seekers in 1851 in Australia did, it can not be an exaggeration to say that the gold production of Alaska and the upper Yukon territory may reach a hundred millions annually; and while the rich placers of California were quickly exhausted, those of the North seem inexhaustible. But the difference in climate and in the conditions as to placer mining between California or Australia and the Yukon must be taken into consideration. In Australia and California a man with pick, shovel, and pan could, in the days of gulch or creek mining, prospect in all seasons, was nearly always within easy reach of supplies, and could prospect many miles of creek in a few weeks; for there the ground was not frozen and was not covered with muck, and the pay was, in most cases, found along the present streams, something that is not true on the Yukon, where the gold in all creek claims is mined from what is called a pay-channel, or, sometimes, two pay-channels. Tlie pay-channels do not follow the lines of the present streams at all, though confined by the same walls; and prospectors in endeavoring to locate the pay are in no way guided l)y the course of (lie present streams nor assisted by modern erosions, except that in summer they may find evidence that there is a rich pay-channel in the presence of gold in the bed of the stream, washed from such pay-cli;iinicl ; biil in (n-clcr to tiii- posit the prospector must wait until the ground is iVu/.cii. 538 POSSIBILITIES IN QUARTZ MINING But such obstacles will not baffle hiimaii inocniiitj, and it is safe to say tliat tlie discovery on the Klondike is but the beginning of systematic mining on a large scale, for, innnense as the riches of the district are, they are merely an object lesson of the opportunities which lie waiting thronghont the Yukon basin. Even the crowds who have already gone will hardly make a showing in that vast area. "We have yet to hear from creeks like Sulphur, ]\Iontana, and ]\rooschide, which are known to be rich and which were largely discovered and staked by those who first rushed in after the news of the Klondike. It is not extravagant to say that another year may develop a dozen Klondikes, and that the principal scene of operations will be in Alaska, where miners are free from the extortion of royalty and taxes by the Canadian government. In many respects quartz mining offers greater induce- ments to those seeking fortunes in Alaska than the working of the frozen placers, but, as yet, little is known of the pos- sibilities in this direction. There is the natural assump- tion that where such rich deposits are found in the creek beds and on some of the hillsides, gold-bearing rock of great value must exist. It would seem to be a fact that the gold in nuggets found on Bonanza and Eldorado bears no evidence of having traveled any distance — in fact, the ma- jority of the nuggets are as angular and irregular in shape as though just pounded out of the mother lode. This leads to the inference that that mother lode is not very distant from where this gold is now found, and the only debatable question is, is it in lodes of sufficient dimensions to pay for working by stamp mills, or is it a series of widely-dis- seminated, thin seams that the miners term " stringers," so THE GOLD-BEARING ZONE 539 scattered as to render working them unprofitable? Time alone will reveal this secret. Gold has been foimd at the head of Lake Lebarge on a stream flowing into the lake from the east. Prospects, too, are found on the Dalton trail, on the other side of the Yukon River. A man riding across the Alsek on this trail was thrown from his horse, and in clambering ashore caught at a small tree, which pulled out by the roots. AVhere he landed he saw something shining on the rock. He picked it up and found that it was gold. He showed this gold at Fort Cudahy in July, 1896, the amount being about one dollar and sixty cents. Other prospects have also been found along the same trail, about midway between there and Selkirk. From these circumstances and discoveries it may be as- sumed that in all this country there is gold, while in one particular zone it is especially abundant. This zone lies outside of a range of mountains which extends to the west- ward of the Rockies and has the same general trend. It consists of cretaceous rock, rising into very high peaks in some places, and crosses the Yukon River just below the boundary. The ore-bearing rocks crop out at intervals on the hills, being covered up in between by thousands of feet of sedimentary shales, the peculiar formation being due to a tremendous crumpling up of the whole region in some ancient epoch. Opposite the mouth of Klondike Creek, and opposite Dawson, a tunnel has been driven into a wide body of ore in the rocks, which is said to assay thirty-six dollars in gold and eighteen dollars in silver to the ton. On the trail from Circle City to Birch Creek is a quartz vein ten feet wide 540 MINES ON DOUGLAS ISLAND that shows much free gold. On Deadwood Creek, in the neighborhood of Birch Creek, is a wide vein ricli in silver. So far as any tests of importance have been made, there can be little donbt of the existence of a great belt of ore, and some rich specimens have been reported. The Cana- dian surveyor who made a test of a specimen taken from a claim on Gold Bottom Creek said of it : " I had no sieve and had to employ a hand mortar, which those who know anything of the work will under- stand would not give the best results. The poorest result obtained, however, was one hundred dollars to the ton, while the richest was one thousand dollars. Of course, I do not know what the extent of the claim is, but the man who found it said that from the rock exposed the deposit must be considerable in extent." The credit for the first quartz discovery in the Klondike seems to belong to one W. Oler. On December 15th he found a well-defined ledge of gold-bearing quartz on Hunker Creek, just above Last Chance. It was of pure white, re- sembling the rose quartz of California, and the ledge aver- aged seven feet wide on the croppings. Crude assays of the quartz showed free gold, and a half interest in the claim was purchased by Ladue for eight thousand dollai's. Oler was regarded as one of the best quartz experts on the Yukon. Reference has already been made to the large stamp mills on Douglas Island opposite Juneau. Several other mines in that vicinity are being successfully worked by capital. Indeed, it requires capital, for while the ledge of gold-bearing rock stretches for many miles the ore is of low grade. With capital these mines in 1897 produced almost as much gold as the Klondike placers. THE COOK INLET DISTRICT 541 Nearly all the mining in western Alaska thus far is at Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Unga Island. At Unga there are a number of quartz mines, one of which, the Apollo Consolidated, has a development of about eight hundred feet, and forty stamps at work. In 1896 it crushed about forty one thousand tons and produced over three hundred thousand dollars' worth of bullion. It is now shipjjing about thirty thousand dollars a month to San Francisco. The island is but one of that great group whicli stretches for such a distance into the Pacific, and scarcely any prospecting has been done upon them, though there are many indications that they are nearly all of the same formation. For anything that may l^e known, all these islands may be rich in gold. Actual ojjerations have been largely confined to the districts known as Cook's Inlet and Prince AVilliani St)iiiid, into which flows the Copper River. The country about Cook Inlet is not develoiDed yet, so that it is impossible to say how rich it may be. So far, while no very rich placer claims have been reported, many are paying well. Mills Creek is reported to be the best. One company located there, working twenty men, averaged one thousand dollars a day for the season of 1897. The season lasts for not mova than four months. There were only about forty men win- tering at Sunrise City, and thirty at Cook City, and they had provisions for three years, so that they possessed some advantages which were lacking in the Yukon districts. A man who has been at Sunrise City for two years tells me that the miners have not really commenced on the (^)ok Inlet district yet. It requires a whole season to fully pros- pect a claim. Some men work a while witlioul nviiino- anything, and then go away in-onouneiug the place ol" no 542 FORTUNE SMILED AT LAST value. But one fellow illustrated the wisdom of staying a little longer, lie had five hinidred dollars when he ar- rived at the Inlet, and went to work on Lynx Creek. He took out about one dollar and fifty cents a day to the man, and was drawing on his capital to pay his help at the rate of four 'dollars a day per man. When his money was nearly all gone the men stopped work and pulled away, saying there was no gold there and that the poor fellow had lost his capital. One day, however, he came to town with a sack of one thousand dollars, wdiich he had taken out in a week, and he took one thousand a week for the re- mainder of the season. Only two streams and their tributaries have ever been mined — Six ^Alile River and Resurrection Creek. The tributaries of the former which are paying are Cahon^ Mills, a tributary of Caiion, and Gulch creeks. Some mining is being done all along the banks of Six Mile River, which is a big stream one hundred and eighty- five feet wide at Sunrise City, with a rapid current. There is gold in its bed, but on account of its size and the current it is not an easy stream to work, so most of the miners keep to the gulches. There are places where Six Mile River might be turned from its course at a small expense, and the exposed bed should furnish rich ground for extensive work. Large companies have organized to develop this district on an extensive scale. One report states that the best paying property is on Crranite Gulch, a tributary of Six Mile, but no one has yet seen bed-rock there. The tributaries of Resurrection Creek which are paying are Bear and Palmer, but the gold on the former is w^orth only about fourteen dollars and forty THE COPPER RIVER COUNTRY 54o cents per ounce, while that on the other is worth about six- teen dollars. Right across Turnagain Arm is Burt Creek, which was the scene of a rush during the season of 1897. It is not thoroughly prospected, but it is reported that a man took out pans of from eighty cents to one dollar and twenty cents right on the surface. There is one good thing about the Cook Inlet country — it is a comparatively cheap place in which to live. It costs but about one hundred dollars to build a cabin, and provisions cost very little more than at ports of the United States. Freight rates from Seattle are only about half a cent a pound, which is very different from the rates to the upper Yukon. On Prince William Sound is what is commonly known as the Copper River country. Some copper ore ledges of great size have been found on Fidalgo Bay and Latouche Island. Some of the ledges are said to be fifty feet wide and to carry copper sulphides assaying from twenty to fifty per cent, of copper, but little gold. Where there is any placer gold on Copper River re- mains to be seen. It is a very rough country around the mouth, and the men who have been up the river far are hard to find. Those who have been up a little distance claim that for the first one hundred and twenty miles the gold to be found is too fine to pay for getting out, but that beyond there are placers which will rival tlie Klondike. This, however, must be partly guesswork, until more pros- pecting has been done. From letters received, liowever, from a party which went on a prospecting trip in the summer of 1807, very rich gold fields arc a possibility of the upper river. One 32 544 MARVELOUS MINERAL RESOURCES mciiiber of the ex])cditioii stated that he had discovered quartz whieli yiekled twenty dollars to the ton, and that the streak was a very wide one. In the fall of 18!) 7 there were about two hundred pros- pectors at Orca and the vicinity of the mouth of the Cop- per Kiver, awaiting a favorable opportunity to advance towards the headwatei-s. One of the men who had been to a point about fifty miles up the river heard of rich de- posits of gold which had been found north of Spirit Moun- tain, on a tributary of the Chittyna River, about tweity miles from its confluence with the Copper. It was said that one of the locators had taken out sixty thousand dol- lars the season before, and that supplies had been brought in to the camp by men avIio had kept the discovery secret. There were all sorts of stories about these diggings, which, it was said, would rival those of the Klondike, but time only will prove the truth of these assertions. Copper River is not a good place for a tenderfoot. Forty miles up the river are the rapids. The entrance to the mouth of the river is very difficult, and can be made only by those who know the roundabout way of getting in. Above the rapids the river freezes over towards the last of October, and the slush and snow make it almost im- passable for any but the strongest traveler. By January the snow is likely to be about twenty feet deep on level places, and that is the best and most practicable month for traveling. People who have made the journey up the river at this propitious time have reported that the Indians are friendly and that they have marvelous mineral resources, though their implements are very crude. Their chief metal is copper, wliich they have in abundance, as pure as'ever came OTHER POSSIBILITIES 545 from a smelter. They also have gold bracelets and finger ornaments, but when asked where they got this gold they are very reticent and simply point mysteriously towards the northeast. There are numerous other places in Alaska in which gold has been found, and many more where it is just as likely to be found. The Kuskokwim River is one of the great streams of l^orth Am£rioa, but probably not half a dozen white men now living have any knowledge of it be- yond the Roman Catholic mission at Oknagamut, and cer- tainly no man who has been heard of is qualified to speak with authority of the possibilities of the country it traverses, so far as mining is concerned. All that can truthfully be said is that on two or three of its bars " colors " have been found. In the coast region above the mouths of the Yukon practically no prospecting has been done save on the shore of I^orton Sound, and not much even there. Silver has been discovered on this sound, the ore yielding one hundred and forty-three ounces of the white metal to the ton, and a ten-stamp mill is kept thundering. Gold has recently been found there in the sea-sand. A few years ago Lieu- tenant Stoney found a few grains of gold on bars of the Burkland and Selawik rivers, and Mr. Miner Bruce, in tlio summer of 1894, saw in the possession of an Eskimo iu>ar Fort Morton an ounce of coarse gold said to have been washed from gravel of the Kowak River. Further tliau this scarcely anything is known. Tliis district also waits the investigation of prospectors. I have already spoken of the possibilities of the Taiiana and Koynkuk rivers, each having tribnlarics heading up into the same belt of mountains from ihe gn]('h(>s of wliirli 546 PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED gold lias been taken. This is the story all over the great country. So long as the wealth is there it will undoubtedly be secured in time, but it will take a long time unless some- thing is done for transportation. Therein lies the key to the development of such a country. Whoever can suc- cessfully solve the problem of cheap transportation and easy communication will not simply do a great thing for the country but will make millions of money. If there is coal in the mountains, and it is asserted that there is, others can become rich in mining and selling that great article of fuel. The sale of merchandise cannot fail to be IDrofitable. Indeed, I have heard of several who, having been in the Klondike regions, have said that, so long as merchandise sold at such high prices on the Yukon, they would be satisfied with the profits upon that business, let- ting those who sought the gold take their chances. This species of speculation will be of great advantage to the country, for it will, perhaps, insure the workers in various placers the supply of food needed to take them tlu'ough an Arctic winter. Another requirement will be suitable points of dis- tribution. For example, Dawson under the present con- ditions can be used as a distributing point for only a small section — that little section of mining land about the Klon- dike. If those w^ho are prospecting on the Stewart find another rich region it will be necessary to have another dis- tributing point further up the river. It now takes so long a time to go back and forth to Dawson for provisions that little time is left for work in the creeks. When these problems have been solved there will be a new era in the world. There will no longer be a com- NOT A BAD DEAL AFTER ALL 547 plaint of the scarcity of money if gold continues the stand- ard of value and the great means of exchange. The future of Alaska may have a great deal to do with the future of society in general. When Russia sold that great country to the United States for less than half a cent an acre, it was little dreamed that in a year or two a single industry would pay the bill; there was little thought that the salmon industry would pay it again; no one but a most extravagant dreamer would have dared to declare that in a quarter of a century it might be one of the richest mineral iields in the world. When W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, negotiated the purchase it was almost universally decried by the politicians and other wise people considered it a l)ad deal. Most Ameri- cans thought they were getting what Russia did not want, and were paying a big price for it. The purchase was op- probriously termed " Seward's Folly," " America's Polar Bear Reserve," and " The jSTew National Refrigerator." But now Great Britain is ready to dispute every inch of that small section of the boundary line about which there can be any dispute. Seward and Sumner, who supported the \n\Y- chase, were doubtless even wiser than they knew, but it shows that the foresight and sagacity of some men may be vindicated long after they are dead CHAPTER XL ADVICE TO GOLD-SEEKERS — THE IMPORTANCE OF HAY- ING A GOOD OUTFIT — POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED — WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO. Some Advantages in Not Being in a Hurry — Not a Poor i\Ian's Country , — Good Advice from a United States Government Expert — A Place for Strong Men and Those Who Can Afford to Lose — Expenses Which Have to Be Met — The Cost of Cabins and Facili- ties for AVorkiug ]\Iines — One Thousand Dollars for Sluice Boxes — The Advantage of Having Partners — Unwise to Take Less Than a Year's Outfit — Suicide Cheaper in Lower Latitudes — It Takes a Week to Dig a Grave — Times When Every Man Looks the Picture of Distress — Sail North Only in Good Vessels — How to ^lark Packages — Trunks an Inconvenience — Sugar and Salt as Hard as Quartz — Tobacco as Good as Money on the Yukon — As to Furs — Shot Guns Better Than Revolvers — Jack Dalton's Rules for the Trail — Possibilities of Losing a Toe or a Foot. NOTWITHSTAXDIXG the richness of Alaska and the belief that a great future lies before it, no bet- ter advice, it seems to me, can be offered any one in search of a fortune than to stay away from Alaska, and especially the upper Yukon, for the present. There will be time enough to secure some of the gold in the country when better and safer means of communication and ways of living are provided. That may not be long lience. Already steps have been taken to greatly miti- gate the difficulties of the passes, but these passes are only the Ix'ginning of difficulties. At present, a trip to (548) THE PLACE FOR CAPITAL 549 Alaska witli the intention of staying there a year or more is a great risk for any man, and for the poor man who knows nothing abont placer mining, and has a family depending upon him, it would be almost criminal to put a large amount of money into an Arctic outfit and make the attempt. Such a man would have about as good a chance to make a fortune by staking all that his outfit cost him on the gambling table at once. Alaska placers, I have no doubt, offer better oppor- tunities than most other gold-fields. But only prospectors and capitalists who can lose without being badly damaged should go there until more is known. I cordially indorse the advice given by Mr. Samuel C. Dunham, the expert sent into the Yukon country to report for the United States De- partment of Labor. He said, in Dawson, after studying the Klondike : " The poor man should not be encouraged to come here. ISTo man should think of coming who cannot bring with him at least a ton of food and at least one thou- sand dollars in cash, and who cannot lose a year of his labor, his ton of food, and his thousand of cash without wre(;king his family or imperiling his life scheme. Neither should the weak man be encouraged to come here. Only the strong, healthy man, capable of enduring the utmost hard- ship and the severest toil, is adapted to this region. For the prospector who is strong, and who has the degree of in- dependence I have suggested, this land affords excellent opportunities; and for capital I know of no ])lace tliat holds out better chances." In a previous chapter I have said that no one could afford to go to Alaska or to the Klondike and mine a year for less than three thousand dollars. Yet some seem to think that an outfit costing something like four lniii(li'c(l OOO NECESSARY EXPENSES OF MINING dollars is about all that is necessary. Possibly, a little more sjieeitic information as to some of the essential expenses of mining would enable intending gold-seekers to advise them- selves. We will assume that a man has gone to the Klon- dike successfully on about five hundred dollars, that is, tliat he has taken in a year's outfit without losing it, and has ])aid the necessary charges in getting it there by any of the routes. We will assume also that he has located a claim in some district which promises to be paying and that he has paid the charges incident thereto, charges the nature of which have been already explained. This is assuming that he has made a pretty successful beginning, though he knows nothing as yet about the richness of his claim. He has simply arrived at the jioint where he must endeavor to find out how much he can make out of his spot of frozen earth. The first essential is to built a cabin on his claim. The cost of a rude hut about ten by fourteen feet will be about six hundred dollars, and this is assuming that he will not go to the extravagance of using sawed lumber. Having his hut ready and his outfit cached, at the beginning of win- ter he can set about working his claim. This requires both labor and wood. If he reaches bed-rock on one hundred dollars' worth of wood he will be doing well. If he finds the pay-streak the first time he is doing very well. If he hires labor to remove the dirt that is thawed out it will cost him about ten dollars a foot for each shaft he sinks. The cost of handling dirt from shaft-sinking to clean-up (labor bills), winter working, averages twelve dollars a cubic yard. In other words, by the time he is ready to think about sluicing he has spent on his outfit and his cabin, and for fuel and labor, not less than two thousand five hun- dred dollars. Seventy-two sets of longitudinal riffles per COST OF TOOLS AND LABOR 551 claim are used during the summer season, as claims are at present worked in the district, and these cost on an average five dollars a set. The cost of sluice-boxes, riffles not in- cluded, averages twenty-five dollars a box. The cost of set- ting a line of sluice-boxes and keeping the line set through a summer averages two thousand dollars. The cost of building a rough dam sufficient for the or- dinary working of the average five-hundred-foot claim in the Klondike division is about one thousand dollars. The cost of constructing a waste-ditch on claim Xo. 30, El- dorado Creek, was about one thousand two hundred dol- lars.' It is an average ditch. The cost of handling the dirt (labor bills), summer work- ing, from the ground-sluicing to the clean-up, averages five dollars a cubic yard on the entire quantity removed. The cost of pumping for drainage of a summer pit four hundred feet long by thirty feet wide, averages seventy-two dollars for twenty-four hours. AVheelbarrows cost twenty-five dollars apiece, whetlier bought or made ; shovels, three dollars and fifty cents apiece ; mattocks, five dollars apiece; blacksmith's portable forges, about two hundred dollars apiece; sluice-forks, six dollars apiece; axes, four dollars and fifty cents apiece; hand-saws, five dollars and fifty cents apiece; nails, forty cents a pound; gold-scales of average capacity, fifty dollars a pair; ([uick- silver, one dollar and twenty-five cents a pound; black powder, one dollar and twenty-five cents a pound. These prices are for the supplies delivered on the claims. Some of these articles may have been taken in with the original outfit. These are the main items of expense to bo iiicuri'cd by one who wishes to become the owner of a claim, who woi-ks C)i>2 IMPORTANT ADVICE it himself with hired help, and who has taken into the coun- try all he wants to eat. In no other way can he expect to make a fortune unless in pure speculation. He could not iKH'ome rich by working at days' wages, though his expenses would be less. If the dirt turns out to be rich he will be all right. If it docs not he will wish he had never heard of Alaska. In any case, the dirt must be of exceptional richness to pay him for such an outlay of money. It cost Clarence Berry about twenty-two thousand dollars to take one hundred and thirty thousand dollars out of some of the richest dirt that was ever discovered. AVith the knowledge of these facts a man who is intend- ing to go to the Klondike to become rich can advise himself, for he can understand what it means when I say that a per- son who knows nothing ab'out mining, and has little money, would have as good a chance of making a fortune by put- ting it at once upon a gambling table. Still, the gold is there, and millions will be made, and it is probably useless to advise against seeking to become one of the millionaires. The most important advice to be im- pressed upon those who are going to the Klondike or other points on the Yukon is have a good partner and a year's outfit. Partners are a necessity in Alaskan travel, but parties larger than three or four do not get along well to- gether, and usually split up. A two-years outfit is safer and better than less. It is constructive suicide for one to go to the Klondike wdth less than one year's supply of food. If the men wdio are starting out so gaily from comfortable homes could only look ahead and see wdiat fate awaits every one of them in the way of hardships and privations amid those frozen mountains and unspeakably depressing gorges A SCENE ON CHILCOOT PASS 553 and canons, tliey would not leave a thing undone to insure some greater degree of comfort and to protect their lives. Suicide comes cheaper in low latitudes than in the frigid North, and funerals cost less. Consider that it takes a week to dig a grave at Dawson, and crape sells for twenty-two dol- lars a yard. If they could stand where I did not long ago, on the summit of Chilkoot Pass, and look below, down through the bald and frozen gorge, upon the camp fires of several hundred haggard, gold-hungry men on their way to Daw- son, they would have some idea of what going to seek a fortune in mining in the Arctic Circle means. Used as I am to the severities and grim hardships of life, that scene at Chilkoot Pass was very imju^essive. I saw companies of men wearily working their way, in the face of a gale that seemed strong enough to topple over the very mountain peaks, up the rocky, tortuous trail to the toj) of the pass. Every man looked a picture of distress. I know that I did. They all slept in snowbanks, ate frozen canned food, and risked a thousand mortal ailments from ex]iosure. Another point to be strongly impressed upon those start- ing out is that they should sail northward only in a first-class ship. Some of the best vessels have had narrow escapes from shipwreck, and others have been lost. The doniaiid for sailing vessels has called into the service many on wliidi it is unsafe to risk life. There are chances enongh for a sudden death after Alaska is reacheil witliunt iiiciiiTing any more than are necessary l)efore disend)arkiiig. All packages should be marked clearly with (iistiiictive characters which can be easily and readily recognized in addition to the name and address. Tin's will be found very scrviceal)le wlum a shi])'s enlire cargo is diniipcd on eillier 55-1: HOW TO PUT UP SUPPLIES the Skagwny or Dyca beach without anv thought of the owners; and wlien it is essential to have them picked out and placed farther up on the beach in a short time. Take no trunks. They are about as difficult to get over the passes as six-story buildings. The Indians will not touch them, and they are apt to make a sled unmanageable. N"o package of more than a hundred pounds should be al- lowed, and the more that can be packed in bags the better. Flour should be i)iit in fifty-pound sacks and two of these slipped into a strong bag. Oil-skin sacks are a good thing in rainy weather and in shooting the rapids, but in cold weather they often become brittle and break. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to reach the Yukon without hav- ing some of the goods damaged or spoiled. Flour will get wet, and the best of it will, very likely, have to be dug out from a surrounding layer of dough. Sugar is even more difficult to handle successfully in wet weather. If a part of it gets damp the whole will have a tendency to turn to syrup, unless the weather is freezing, when it will become as hard as quartz. Salt is likely to be affected in much the same way. Supplies which can be obtained in compressed form, such as tea, are best to take, for the less bulk the better. I have found canned goods always serviceable, though one gets very tired of them. Bacon and beans can be easily managed, and generally constitute a staple article of diet. If you use tobacco, take along plenty of it. It is as good as money on the Yukon, better than paper money. The In- dians will take no money but coin. As to clothing, the principal difference between Alaska and a milder clime is that the former requires much heavier underclothing. Too heavy outer garments only impede SOME OF THE ESSENTIALS 555 the movements of the limbs and really do not keep out the wind. Fur coats might seem valuable, and some will say that they are. They are most usually worn when people are having their pictures taken to send home to their friends. A good fur blanket or robe is, however, well-nigh indis- pensable. People in Alaska, as everywhere else, have dif- ferent tastes, and in these matters you will know better how to suit your own after spending a winter there. Take needles, thread, buttons, comb, brush, looking- glass, and such other toilet and domestic articles as you need; also a ball of twine, sail-needles, and wax. Make a canvas-case with pockets to hold these things — one that can be rolled up and tied. Take also fishing-tackle and shot- guns. It is a great mistake to take anything except what is absolutely necessary if the trip is made overland. The jour- ney is long and arduous, and a man should not add one pound of baggage to his outfit that can be dispensed with. Men have loaded themselves up with rifles and revolvers, which is entirely unnecessary. Kevolvers will get you into trouble, and there is no use of taking them with you, as large game is rarely found on the trip. Persons who have prospected through this region for some years have seen few moose. You will not now see any large game whatever on your trip from Dyea to Dawson. wShot-guns are handy for geese. When on the trail there are a hundred little essentials which can be neglected only to the greatest discomfort and possible peril. Jack Dalton, who is one of the most expert and experienced of men in following Alaskan trails, once laid down the following set of rules for a small party, and they contain many useful suggestions tersely expressed: "Establish camp rules, especially regarding the fooil. Allot rations, those while idle to be less than when at work, 556 JACK dalton's rules of the trail and also pro rata during heat and cold. Pitch the tent on top of the snow, pushing the poles and pegs down into it. While some are busily engaged in building a fire and mak- ing a bed, let the best cook of the party prepare the sup- per. If you have no stove, build a camp fire, either on an exposed point of rock or in a hole dug in the snow; if you have a stove, arrange it on a " gridiron " inside the tent, the gridiron consisting of three poles some six or eight feet long, and laid on the snow, on which the stove is placed. The heat from the stove will soon melt a hole underneath, but there will be enough firm snow under the ends of the poles to hold it up. For the bed, cut hemlock brush and lay it on the snow to a depth of a foot or more, and cover this with a large square of canvas on which blankets and robes are put. When finished it forms a natural spring bed, which will offer grateful rest after hauling a sled all day. I» all ex- cept the most sheltered locations the tent is necessary for comfort, and the stove gives better satisfaction than the camp-fire, and, as it needs but little wood, is easier to cook over, and does not poison the ej^es wdth smoke. " There are fewer cases of snow-blindness among those who use stoves than among those who crowd around a smok- ing camp-fire for cooking or warmth. Comfort in making a trip of this kind will depend, in a gTeat measure, upon the convenience of camping, suitable clothing and light, warm bedding. Choose your bunk as far from the tent door as possible, and keep a fire hole open near your camp. If by any chance you are traveling across a plain (no trail) and a fog comes up, or a blinding snowstorm, either of which will prevent your taking your bearings, camp, and don't move for any one until all is clear again. " If it is ever necessary to cache a load of provisions TO INSURE PHYSICAL COMFORT 557 put all articles next to the gToiind wbieli will be most af- fected bv beat, providing, at tbe same time, tbat dampness will not afl'ect tbeir food properties to any great extent. After piling your stuff, load it over carefully witb beavy rocks. I'ake your compass bearings and also note in your pocketbook some landmarks near by, and also tbe direction in wliicli tbey lie from your cacbe i. e., make your caobe, if possible, come between exactly north and south of two given prominent marks, so that you can find it. " Keep your furs in good repair. One little slit may cause you untold agony during a march in a heavy storm. You cannot tell when such will be the case. If your furs get wet, dry them in a medium temperature. Don't hold them near a fire. Keep your sleeping bag clean. If it becomes inhabited, freeze the inhabitants out. Keep all your draw-strings on clothing in good repair. Don't forget to use your goggles when the sun is bright on snow. A fel- low is often tempted to leave them oif. Don't you do it. A little dry grass or hay in the inside of your mittens, next your hands, will promote great heat, especially when it gets damp from the moisture of your hands. After the mittens are removed from the hands, remove the hay and dry it. Failing that, throw it away. Be sure, during the winter, to watch your footgear carefully. Change wet stockings be- fore they freeze or vou may lose a toe or foot." Remember that if intending to build a boat for travel down the Yukon the start shoidd be early enough to reach the lower lakes when the ice goes out. Usually the lakes remains frozen until late in May. The Lewis and the up- per Yukon open a week to a fortnight earlier. Last year the ice broke on Lake Lebarge in the last of AFay, at l^aw- son on the I7th of May, at Fort Yukon three days after- 558 KEEP ON YOUR OWN SIDE wards, three liiiiKlrcd miles furtlier down on the 23d of May, and at the nioutli somewhat hiter. The first steamer for the season reached Dawson on June 2d, having voyaged from winter quarters beloAV Circle City. Uo not beguile yourself with the thought that working down the river in open water is at all easy. The Yukon has as many moods as a woman, and presents problems which few men are capable of solving in a hurr}^, and some which have to be solved in a hurry or it may be too late. Finally, I would advise the man on his way to the Klon- dike to go to some creek on the American side of that re- gion — that is, unless he has special reasons for going to the Klondike to seek golden placers. I mean that if he in- tends merely to go as a tenderfoot to prospect for gold, he will now stand about as good a chance of finding riches on the American side of the line as on the Canadian, and he will not only avoid the impost duties of Canada, but he will save the rather expensive legal procedure of locating claims under the Canadian mining law^s. Besides, most of us who have been in the Klondike region think the richest finds of gold in the near future will be principally on the Ameri- can side. Several hundred men in Dawson and Circle City who have vainly sought gold in the Klondike for months have begun vigorous prospecting on the American side. Some of them are crack prospectors, and that is why we need not be surprised to hear of rich finds in our own Alaska before long. THE EXD. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles l^-Xbiivbook is DUE on the last date stamped below. %i\m m^^ OCT & JANl9ia7t| DISCHARGE-URL *" NOV 2 / 19/18 DISCI iAi^GE-ilM, FEB kT-T?^ "^ MAY ni. H^^y ■''. % Vfi JS. JUL 9 ^1985 .noA RqC'D LD-DRC OE(t 191984 L9-Series4939 '^.!/0JllV3JO'^ .10^ JO^ ^: L 009 535 536 8 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001334168 o Vj>^.