Class Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT v® \J A. N. Marquis £Go/nPAhY~ CHICAGO. ?\v Era Series. No. i. Issued Monthly. Price, $3.00 Per Year. August, 1897. CLAIM IT*? ELDORADO CREEK The Cld\m is 80 Fee r from Rim RocK to. Rim KocK F ronPcipe on CreeK is 500Peer mm ism m mam •.i> : .»£y.: : .V' Ground aLove i3ed RocK always Prozen I b Feel' of Gravel and Sand Mixed fc>id pom .50 to # 5w Per Pan iFeetofGrdvel Fine *nj Coa ri pa i a from*! - Co *5 °-° Per Pan Pe r- Pan A-vevaoe if> 7 FeeVFi n7Bfa-cK"Sa ud ye it a i n£ £ 4'0..PtrPt 1 . Shale JDepfh nol" Known DIAGRAM OF GOLD CLAIM ON EL DORADO CREEK. $40,000 was taken from the shaft alone. This drawing, from sketch made on the spot by New York Journal artist at the Grand Hotel, San Francisco, shows bags, belonging to Clarence J. Berry, which contained over $84,000 in nuggets and gold dust. As they stood on the table, they measured 8j£ x 13>£ inches. The Gold Fields of the Klondike FORTUNE SEEKERS' GUIDE TO THE YUKON REGION OF ALASKA AND BRITISH AMERICA THE STORY AS TOLD BY LADUE, BERRY, PHISCATOR AND OTHER GOLD EINDER5 JOHN W. LEONARD PREFACE. Some books are written for the same purpose that rural newspapers are established — "to fill a long-felt want." The volume now presented, however, aims rather to fill a new- felt want, which, just now, is pressing and wide-spread, for complete and reliable information about the new land of gold, for the word "Klondike" now fills every mouth and every ear. The subject being timely, the writer has endeavored to apply the advantages of an experience covering years of life in mining camps in different parts of the world, in such a manner as to answer the questions daily being asked about the latest El Dorado and gold mining methods. The story of the Klondike discoveries here told is that of those who saw them and were part of them, and the facts in regard to Alaska, Northwestern Territory and the Yukon Region have been gathered from the last and latest resources of information. For those going to the mines the preparations to be made, the outfit required, the details of the route, and the methods of prospecting and mining are minutely described, and the mining laws, both of Canada and the United States, are given, so that the prospector may know his duties as well as his rights. For those who stay at home the story will be none the less interesting, as the Klondike and its doings will long continue to be an important subject of discussion. ACKNOWLEDGMENT. The writer and publishers of this book are indebted to so many people for facts, incidents and subjects of illustra- tion that individual acknowledgment is scarcely possible. Special thanks, however, are due to the Chicago and New York daily press, these newspapers having furnished a large amount of material for the compilation and illustra- tion of this work. Thanks are also due to returned Klondikers for informa- tion in regard to the mining regions, which they have fur- nished for this volume. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Gold on the Klondike ; Wealth-Laden Gravel in a New El Dorado. . 13 CHAPTER II. The Klondike Discoveries; How Adventurous Poineers Found For- tune in the River Banks 18 CHAPTER III. Pioneers of the Klondike; Stories of Those Who Were in the First Rush to the Bonanza District 35 CHAPTER IV. Joseph Ladue's Story; The Klondike Strike Described by the Owner of Dawson 56 CHAPTER V. Official Reports; High Authority Confirms the Richness of the Klon- dike Strike 65 CHAPTER VI. The Yukon Region; General Description of the Great Gold Fields District 72 CHAPTER VII. Yukon Gold Country; Mining Developments in Alaska and North- west Territory 84 CHAPTER VIII. How to Get There; Who Should Go, and How They Must Outfit and Travel 98 CONTENTS CHAPTER IX. The Juneau Routes; How to Go Down the Yukon from its Head- Waters 115 CHAPTER X. Dawson City ; Description of the Metropolis of the Yukon 131 CHAPTER XI. How Women Fare; Experiences of Mrs. Berry and Mrs. Gage, Told by Themselves 154 CHAPTER XII. The Climate; Those who Go to the Klondike Must Prepare for Cold Weather 170 CHAPTER XIII. Gold and its Distribution; Quartz and Placers; How Gold Came to the Klondike 174 CHAPTER XIV. Working Placer Mines; How Gold is Taken from the Ground in the Klondike District 180 CHAPTER XV. The Law and the Miner; How the Prospector Must Proceed to Get His Claim 188 CHAPTER XVI. Alaska; Facts About the Land of Ice, Seals and Gold 206 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND DIAGRAMS. The Gold Fields of the Klondike (Diagram) i Diagram of Gold Claim. El Dorado Creek 2 Placer Miner's Tools and Implements 3 Berry's Treasure 4 On the Road to the Klondike — At Sheep Camp 19 Two " Pans " of Coarse Gold, Bottled 25 Clarence J. Berry 27 Joseph Ladue 31 Frank Phiscator, of Baroda, Mich 33 William M. Stanley 37 Gage Worden 37 Joseph Ladue's Sawmill 41 Exact Size of a Nugget Valued at $231 ; . 47 At Stone House, Chilcoot Pass , 49 Miners and Indians on the Summit at Chilcoot Pass 55 Nugget Imbedded in a Pebble 59 The Treasure Ship ' ' Portland " 63 Miles Canon, Lewis River 67 One of the First Houses in Dawson City 75 McQuesten's Store at Circle City, Alaska 77 The Treadwell Mill, Douglas Island 83 Rafting Through the Ice on the Yukon 89 Prospecting on one of the Tributaries of the Klondike 93 A " Cache " on the Yukon 96 Camping on Klondike River 97 At Circle City 99 Steamboat Landing at Dawson City 103 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND DIAGRAMS PAGE Trading Post, Fort Selkirk 107 On the Way to the Yukon, with Horses in The Treasure Steamship "Excelsior," with Her Captain, J. F. Higgins. 113 Dawson City 117 Store at Forty-Mile 123 Prospectors' Camp on the Klondike 125 Home of Joseph Ladue, Founder of Dawson 128 Winter Route to the Mines with Dog-Sled 129 Bringing Home the Gold 135 Climbing Chilcoot Pass 138 Champion Pan for One Month, El Dorado 142 Miners at Sheep Camp 145 Mrs. Clarence J. Berry 155 Mrs. E. F. Gage 163 Klondike Miner in Winter Attire 177 Mine in Klondike Region, Showing Sluice-Boxes in Place 185 Canadian Mounted Police, in Dress Uniform 189 Canadian Mounted Police 191 ' Rocking Out" Gold on the Klondike 2oi v Jack " McQuesten, " Father of the Yukon " 207 'Panning Out " Gold on the Klondike 213 Map of Alaska and British Northwest Territory , (Attached to inside of back cover.) The Gold Fields of the Klondike* CHAPTER I. GOLD ON THE KLONDIKE. WEALTH-LADEN GRAVEL IN A NEW EL DORADO. Gold for the digging! No piece of news that wires can flash will set more hopes to work than this; for gold means money, ease, comfort, freedom from thousands of cares. What if the road to it be long, full of peril, adventure and perhaps suffering, if a year or two of strenuous labor will bring to one who has toiled, unrequited, for years, the means of future independence? Given a sound constitution, a stout heart, and American grit, and mere physical obstacles will have little weight so that gold in plenty rewards the pur- suit, and the hard knocks of experience are paid for in want- dispelling affluence. SHORTER ROAD TO WEALTH. All industry is prosecuted for the purpose of securing a living, and is mere drudgery unless there be a hope that a surplus over a mere living can be secured to guard old age from poverty. Therefore nearly every active man is seek- ing some shortened road by which wealth can be secured. None of these is so attractive as that which leads to virgin gold — gold which can be had by the mere act of delving for '3 14 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE it and washing from it the earth or dirt by which it has been hid but not contaminated. GOLD ATTRACTED THOUSANDS. Gold in California attracted hundreds of thousands of people to make the tempestuous voyage around Cape Horn, or the shorter but not less perilous trip over the miasmatic Panama route, to the Golden Gate, and thence to the foothills of the Sierra, where they delved and tunneled and panned and fiumed, many to find only disappointment, but a large number also to find that which they sought — -a golden for- tune. Gold in Australia made thousands venture into the heart of an unknown country, much of it a desert, and at Bal- larat, Sandhurst, Bendigo or over the mountains to the Echuca diggings, and now thousands are seeking it in West Australia. Gold in South Africa has opened up a very large area of the Dark Continent to civilized settlement and is adding millions annually to the world's wealth. Gold has been found during recent years in many parts of the United States, but mostly in quartz mines which take machinery and large capital to develop them properly. Many a man has sighed for days like those of '49, when a man could take a pick, a shovel, a pan and a stout heart and seek his fortune with a reasonable expectation of finding it. Thousands have longed to repeat the experiences of the Argonauts of that famous period, and dig for gold dust and nuggets in the earth. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 15 The chance has come again ! And the goal of opportunity is the Klondike, in British America, near the Alaska boun- dary. From there we hear wonderful reports, which, ex- travagant as they may appear, are confirmed from many sources, official and otherwise, to such an extent as to make the wonderful richness of that region beyond dispute. Only a comparatively small portion of the auriferous area has been prospected in any systematic manner, but every indication points to the fact that there, in the frozen North, is a country whose riches exceed "the wealth of Ormusandof Ind," and of which are told, by staid officials and matter-of-fact pio- neers, stories which sound like the romances of Schehera- zade. Except to the pioneers who found the way to the new diggings in the fall of 1896 and winter of 1897, tne nam e, even, of the Klondike was unknown to all except to a very few white persons. It was omitted from a majority of the maps and spelled "Chandik" in nearly all the others, and if the name had been spoken in any company it would have aroused no interest. KLONDIKE SUDDENLY FAMOUS. All this was changed in the middle of July, 1897. Op the 15th the steamer " Excelsior" arrived at San Francisco, bringing about forty passengers, from St. Michaels, Alaska, among whom were fifteen who had won fortune in the Klondike district. The story of these men appeared in the principal papers of the country, but many of the journals made little of the story — evidently doubting its truth, be- 1 6 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE cause the statements made appeared so extravagant. Two days later the steamer " Portland" arrived at Seattle, Wash., with sixty-eight passengers from the Klondike. Of these not one had brought less than $5,000 and one or two had over $100,000. Their stories were even more wonder- ful than those narrated by the passengers of the " Excelsior." They told of thawing out frozen gravel in the cold arctic winter, of washings yielding as high as $150 to $200 to the pan of "dirt," of poverty changed to riches, of hard- ships requited by opulence, of great suffering from poor fare and a rigorous climate, but large returns to all who worked. STORIES VERIFIED. These stories have been more than verified by subsequent reports, some of which are from government officials, the Dominion chief of internal boundary survey, the governor of the Canadian Northwest Territory, as well as many others, of the United States and Canada. It is unquestion- ably true, beyond dispute, that in the Canadian Northwest Territory and Alaska, and in fact for hundreds of miles, in the valleys of the Yukon and its tributaries, is an auriferous region as large as or larger than that of California, part of which, at least, is richer than any district ever known in the history of placer mining. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the people of this country have been filled with excitement, and that there is a general demand for information about the Klondike discoveries; the character of the Klondike country and THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 1 7 adjacent regions of Northwest Territory and Alaska; the climate, resources, food supplies and other information as to things to be done, seen and endured ; the route to be taken, requisite outfit and supplies, cost of living, chances of suc- cess, etc. It is known that the climate is a rigorous one, and there is a general desire to know the impediments and dangers of winter in that region, and the obstacles to be met with on the way. Many inquirers also desire to know something about gold mining in general, the processes and methods pursued and the details of the miners' life. To answer these questions in a plain, concise manner, so as to meet the needs of the in- quiring public, is the object of the chapters which follow. CHAPTER II. THE KLONDIKE DISCOVERIES. HOW ADVENTUROUS PIONEERS FOUND FORTUNE IN THE RIVER BANKS. Ever since the United States acquired Russian America by purchase, and named it " Alaska" after a suggestion of Charles Sumner, there have been rumors of great min- eral wealth there. In southeastern Alaska there is the famous Treadwell Mine, on Douglass Island, opposite Juneau, a wide vein of low grade ore, in the reduction of which a 240-stamp quartz mill, the largest in the world, is used. Several years ago there were rumors of important alluvial gold deposits on the Upper Yukon. The head-waters of the river were discovered by the Hudson Bay Company, in 1840. A government exploration of the region on behalf of the United States was made by Dr. W. H. Dall and Frederick Whymper, who wintered on the Upper Yukon in 1865. The first prospecting party went over the Chilkoot Pass in 1880, and since then miners have gone by that route in increasing numbers. In 1886 there were numerous parties attracted to the Yukon diggings, but the results were not very encouraging. William C. Greenfield, who completed 18 20 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE the account of the Yukon River District for the United States census of 1890, reported : " Alining cannot be called a success on the Yukon, up to the present time. Since the first excitement in 1886, there have been but few instances of individuals taking more than $2,000 for two or three seasons' work." Years ago the Hudson Bay Company established, about eight miles northwest of the mouth of the Klondike, a trad- ing post which was called Fort Reliance, since abandoned. Its exact location is latitude 64 ° 13', longitude 138 50', or fifty statute miles east of the boundary line of 141 °. About forty miles northwest, down the river, is the mouth of Forty-Mile Creek, where Fort Cudahy is located, and about 240 miles further down the Yukon is Circle City. At the latter place, and on Forty-Mile Creek, the principal activity in placer mining on the Yukon had centered. GEORGE M'CORMACK. One of those who had been engaged in mining at the Forty-Mile camp was George McCormack, a native of Illinois. He went to the Upper Yukon region in 1887 as a member of the surveying party of William Ogilvie, chief of the Canadian Internal Boundary Survey. He left that employ and became a prospector and miner, took an Indian squaw wife of the Takuth tribe, known locally as the "Sticks," and from that fact became known among the white Yukon miners as " Stick George." The " Sticks" have a village at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon, and McCormack, who had not done well in Forty-Mile, heard THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 21 from the Indians rumors of large gold deposits on the hranches of the Klondike. He went up to the first branch, and earlv in August, 1S96, located a placer claim. Then, to get provisions, he worked cutting logs for a mill at Forty- Mile camp, and at the end of August returned to his claim with his Indian wife and brother-in-law and set to work. The gravel had to be carried in a box on his back from thirty to one hundred feet and everything had to be done in the crudest and most laborious manner, yet the three, working very irregularly, washed out $1,200 in eight days. McCormack says, with reason, that if he had possessed the proper facilities he could have washed the same amount of gravel in two days. McCormack let his friends at Forty-Mile know of his luck. Clarence J. Berry and others went early- Many other miners did not go with the rush, thinking the report only another of the disappointing hoaxes so often set on foot in mining communities. Most of those who went to the new camp were novices — " tenderfeet" as they are called, or " Chee Chacoes" (new men) in the Yukon dialect — whose hope was greater than their experience. These pioneers of the Klondike named the tributary on which Mc- Cormack had located his claim " Bonanza Creek,'* and it has fully borne out its designation. Then another branch, which flows into Bonanza Creek before it reaches the Klondike, was explored by F. W. Cobb, a Harvard grad- uate, and he and his partner. Frank Phiscator, a farmer from Baroda, Mich., located their claims on this creek. They found their claims washed $10 to the pan of surface dirt. 22 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE STUDDED WITH GOLD. "Frank," said the Harvard man to his partner, "this creek is studded with gold from here to head-waters. We will call it El Dorado." And thus was appropriately named the famous brook which has made many fortunes in the past few months and is making others to-day. The first dozen or so of prospectors who arrived on the ground were followed in a few days by 150 more, who came in on the steamer "Ellis," and a stampede from Circle City, Forty-Mile and other camps was the result of the find. Still it was the "tenderfeet" who showed the great- est faith in the future of the developments. William D. Johns, writing from Dawson City under date of June 18, gives a most graphic statement of the subsequent history of these wonderful gold discoveries up to that time. He says: " Few had much faith in the new region even after they were on the ground, and in spite of the rich prospects on the surface it was generallv regarded as a 'grub-stake' strike on which one might succeed in getting a winter outfit. A little later, howe\er, the prospects found on the river called forth the half-skeptical remark that 'if it goes down it is the greatest thins.- on earth.' Then a few began to believe in the new diggings, but many old miners even vet would not stake out claims, thinking the creek too wide for gold. A number of side gulches along the Bonanza were staked, among them El Dorado, which was rich in gravel near the mouth. But so little faith was manifested in the region that claim holders could net get 'grub' from the stores in ex- THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 23 change for their prospects. There was a general fear that these might be only 'skim diggings.' FABULOUSLY RICH PAY DIRT. u In December bed rock was reached on No. 14 El Dorado and fabulously rich pay dirt was found. Then more holes went down in a hurry. Everywhere were discovered pros- pects on bed rock ranging from $5 to $150 to the pan. The gold was nearly all coarse. Still the greatness of the strike was not realized. Some of the best claims were sold by their owners for a few hundreds or a few thousands. Drifting was carried on by the usual winter process of 'burning,' and the pay dirt taken out as rapidly as possi- ble under the difficulties of intense cold. Pans as rich as $500 were discovered, and nuggets containing gold worth as high as $235 were brought to light. Claims jumped up enormously in price, but still many men sold for a small part of the value of their holdings. They seemed wholly unable to realize their good fortune. Doubts were still expressed about the dumps holding out to the prospects. " Then the test — sluicing — came in the spring when the ice melted and the water ran down from the hills. Then the wildest hopes of the toiling miners were realized. Despite the lateness of commencing work and the scarcity of men about $1,500,000 was taken out of El Dorado alone. On some of the richer claims men who secured ground to work on shares — 50 per cent— cleared $5,000 to $10,000 apiece in from thirty days' to two months' drifting. As high as $150,000 was drifted out of one claim, the other sums be- 24 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE ing less. From seventy-five feet of ground on Nos. 25 and 26, El Dorado, $112,000 was taken, or $1,500 per running foot, and the pay not cross-cut, for it frequently runs from vein to vein, being in places 150 feet wide. $500,000 FOR A CLAIM. "Ground has sold here this spring for over $1,000 a run- ning foot, or at the rate of $500,000 for a claim of 500 feet. Men on whose judgment reliance can be placed and who base their opinion on w 7 hat their own ground and that of others has yielded, tell me that there are claims here from which over $1,000,000 will come. Last winter men on 'lays' (percentage) left 50-cent dirt because they had better in sight and only a limited time before spring to get out ore. Owing to the large number of men on 'lays' the production of almost every claim is known, and no overstatement is pos- sible, since so many are interested in the amount of gold produced. As soon as sluicing was fairly under way the price of claims jumped again and but few would sell. It might almost be said that no one would part with a claim on El Dorado. On Bonanza, where the pay, except on a few claims, is not as rich as on El Dorado, owners who had looked in vain for the $5, $10 and $150 pans, which were plentiful on the rival creek, were disgusted with their moderate gains and were willing to sell. Thus many claims having 20 to 50 cent dirt and three to seven feet of it were sold. On the boat which takes this letter down the Yukon will be many men, some of them having been in this country onlv a few months when the strike was made, who THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE A pan of dirt, in miner's parlance, contains two shovelfuls of the usual "California pattern" miner's shovel. Fifteen cents to the pan is considered "good wages." The small bottle shown on the left-hand side i hows, actual size, the gold found in one pin, amounting to $153.70 in value. The bottle on the right-hand side, which is also actual size, shows the gold from one pan of dirt, and amounting to $300. Both pans of dirt came from Claim No. 5 above Discovery, Bonanza Creek, owned by Clarence J. Berry. 26 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE will take with them to the mint from $10,000 to $500,000, the result either of working the ground or of selling out. The men who sold were paid almost entirely out of their own ground, the men who bought taking the dumps and these, when sluiced, paying for the claims and leaving a handsome margin for the purchasers. In some instances enough gold was rocked out to make a first payment on the claims before sluicing was possible. Many of these men, to my personal knowledge, had neither money nor credit to get 'grub' with last fall." LA DUE LAYS OUT TOWN OF DAWSON. In September Joseph Ladue laid out Dawson City, apply- ing for a town site patent on his claim. It is on the Yukon River, below the mouth of the Klondike, and fifteen miles below the Bonanza Creek mines. It had a population of 3,500 in June, but has a much larger one now, as people from Juneau, Sitka, Forty-Mile and Circle City have gone into Dawson in large numbers, besides those who are on their way or have already reached there from different parts of the United States and Canada. Before the winter set in quite a large population had located in the Klondike district. The population increased faster than the supplies, and until the arrival of boats in the early spring short rations were the rule, and the prices for supplies were exceedingly high. Claims were prospected and partly worked, the method being to build^ fires on the spot to be excavated and, when the ground was thawed out for a foot or so, to dig it out and pile the "pay dirt" on the CLARENCE J. BERRY. With his partner he took out over $130,000 last season, and his clairr is not one-tenth worked. He also owns other rich claims. 30 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE tial evidences of success in gold dust and nuggets. The "Excelsior" arrived in San Francisco on Wednesday, July 15. The names of the returned miners with the amounts of gold they brought and the value of the claims they left be- hind them in the Klondike district are as follows: Brought from Value of Alaska. Claims. T. S. Lippy and wife $65,000 $1,000,000 F. G. H. Bowker 90,000 500,000 Joseph Ladue 50,000 500,000 I. B. Hollinshed 25,000 William Kulju 1 7,000 James McMann 15,000 Albert Galbraith 15,000 Neil Macarthur 15,000 Douglas Macarthur 15,000 Bernard Anderson 14,000 35,000 Robert Krook 14,000 20,000 Fred Lendesser 1 3,000 Alexander Orr 1 1,500 John Marks 1 1 ,500 Thomas Cook , . 10,000 25,000 M. S. Norcross 10,000 J. Ernmerger 10,000 Con. Stamatin 8,250 Albert Fox 5, 100 35,000 Greg. Stewart 5, 000 20,000 J. O. Hestwood 5>ooo 250,000 Thomas Flack -...., 5,000 50,000 JOSEPH LADUE. Long prominent on the Yukon. Founder of Dawson City. Has made a large fortune. 32 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Louis B. Rhoads 5>ooo 35>ooo Fred Price 5,ooo 20,000 Alaska Commercial Company 250,000 Total, $439,000 MRS. GAGE RETURNS. Two days later, on Friday, July 17, the steamer " Port- land" arrived at Seattle, with passengers and a ton and a half of gold. One of its passengers was Mrs. Eli Gage, a daughter-in-law of Lyman J. Gage, secretary of the treas- ury, whose husband is Auditor of the North American Transportation and Trading Company, and is located at Fort Cudahy, N.W.T., forty-three miles below Dawson City on the Yukon River. The other passengers ? who came from the Klondike, were: Clarence J. Berry and wife, Miss E. Nelson, Frank Phiscator, F. Miller, A. McKenzie, C. Anderson and wife, C. A. Branan, O. Finsted, H. Ander- son, W. Sloane, J. Johnson, C. E. Neyer, A. Gray, G. Worden, R. H. Blake, William Stanley, W. Sims, R. McNulty, J. Halterman, J. Anderson, J. Desroche, T. J. Kelly, V. Lord, F. Pellinger, J. E. Poucher, N. Mer- cer, F. Moran, J. Clements, H. Olsen, A. Proteau, H. Dore, M. Kelly, H. Granthier, M. Hall, B. F. Purcell, C. Silverlock, H. Coteland, J. Bergwin, F. Fabhr, J. Moffett, C. H. Loveland, Inspector Strickland and wife, Sergeant Hayne, Sergeant Engel, Corporal Newbrook, Constable Jenkins, Constable Telford, C. Encher, C. Ander- son, J. E. Fairburn, Miss P. Block, Miss E. Sedick and five steerage. FRANK PHISCATOR, OF BARODA, MICH. He went to the Klondike and made a fortune in a year. 34 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE TO-DAY THEY ARE WEALTHY. "These men," said Captain Kidston, of the "Portland," "are every one what the Yukoners call 'Chee Chacoes' or newcomers, and up to last winter they had nothing. To-day you see them wealthy and happy. Why, on the fifteen days' trip from St. Michaels I never spent a pleasanter time in my life. These fortunate people felt so happy that any- thing would suffice for them, and I could not help contrast- ing them with the crowd of gold hunters I took with me on the last trip up. They were grumblers, without a cent in the world, and nothing on the boat was gcod enough for them. Some of these successful miners do not even own claims. They have been working for other men for $15 a day, and thus have accumulated small fortunes. Their aver- age on this boat is not less than $10,000 to the man, and the very smallest sack is $3,000. It is held by C. A. Branan, of Seattle, a happy young fellow just 18 years old. There is no country on earth like the Yukon." Considerable excitement about the Klondike had resulted from the stories told by the lucky passengers of the " Excel- sior," but when the much larger number that came by the "Portland" were heard from, bringing over $1,000,000 in gold dust and nuggets to add force to their statements, the gold fever broke out all over the country, and a rush has begun which will land in the Yukon valley all who can be carried there this summer, while thousands more will go in the spring of 1 CHAPTER III. PIONEERS OF THE KLONDIKE. STORIES OF THOSE WHO WERE IN THE FIRST RUSH TO THE BONANZA DISTRICT. The facts in regard to the Klondike adventurers read like romances, but they agree so well and are so thoroughly for- tified by the large receipts of treasure that their truthfulness is not open to suspicion even. CLARENCE J. BERRY AND WIFE. Perhaps the most romantic story is that of Clarence J. Berry and his wife "the bride of the Klondike." Mr. Berry was a fruit raiser in Fresno County, California. He found it a hard task to make a living there. In 1894 he heard of gold finds in the Yukon region, in far-off Alaska. He had just $40 of his own and managed to borrow $60 more on the promise of heavy interest. He went to Juneau, where he found a number of others who had arrived there with the view of crossing over the mountains. A party of forty was organized, among whom was Berry. It was early spring, when they started out each with a load of supplies and furs. Indians packed these to the top of the Chilkoot Pass. The winter journey in the mountains proved too much for many in the party and many gave up in despair 35 36 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE . and turned back. When the lakes were reached and boats built the water voyage was begun. The melted snow had swollen the streams, and in Lake Bennett the whole outfit of supplies went down. This discouraged all but three. Berry, with magnificent strength and a hero's courage, was one of the three who with meager supply of food pushed on, and after nearly a month's toilsome journey reached Forty-Mile Creek, penniless. He went to work for others and later for himself, with indifferent success, but acquired a faith in future fortune on the Yukon which made him determine to find it or die in the attempt. In the fall of 1895 he concluded to return to Selma, Fresno County, where he had left a young woman who had promised to be his wife. When he returned he found Miss Ethel D. Bush prepared not only to redeem her promise but also to go with him and share his fortunes in the frozen North, although he pictured to her the hardships as well as the hopes that belonged to life in that region. In March, 1896, they were married, and in April the couple reached Juneau on their unique wedding trip. They had little capital, but two brave hearts. They went by boat to Dyea, the head of naviga- tion, and from there over the mountains by dog team. At night they slept under a tent on a bed of boughs. Mrs. Berry's garments resembled her husband's. They were made of seal fur with the fur inside, and came over her feet like old-fashioned sandals. Over them were pulled a pair of gum boots. Over her shoulders was a fur robe and hei hood was of bearskin. This all made a great weight of THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 37 clothing, but she trudged by her husband's side, and in June, three months after they were married, they reached the camp at Forty-Mile Creek. There Berry worked until in September, 1896, he was told of McCormack's find up the Klondike. There was much excitement at "Forty-Mile" over the news, though the experienced miners for the most part ridiculed the idea that anything good would be found "over there on the Klondike." Berry, however, was one of WILLIAM M. STANLEY. GAGE WORDEN. These are two of a party of four who started to the Yukon in March, 1896. None of them knew anything about mining, but they own claims on Bonanza and El Dorado Creeks from which they took out $112,000 and have millions left in the mines. those who believed that something good had been found, and his wife helped him to get ready for his trip into the new dis- trict, Mrs. Berry remaining at Forty-Mile. Two days later, Berry was in the Bonanza district, where it had been decided that 500 feet on the river Bonanza Creek should constitute a claim. His location was " Claim No. 40 above the Dis- 38 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE covery" — which means that thirty-nine 500-foot claims in- tervened between his ground and the original one staked out by George McCormack. ON EL DORADO CREEK. Soon Mrs. Berry went to Dawson City, which had just 1 een started. Mr. Berry built a house, and was joined by his wife. He secured Claim No. 5 above the Discovery on El Dorado Creek and there found rich dirt varying from $2 to the pan just below the surface to $50 to the pan on the bed rock. Mr. Berry hired men at $15 a day and from the $130,000 which he took out before he left he paid out $22,000 to his miners. He still owns his claims on the Bonanza and El Dorado, besides interests in many others, and has a fortune which will reach into the millions. Mrs. Berry will remain in Fresno, but Mr. Berry will return to manage his mines, which he left in good hands to be worked during his absence. Mr. Berry's El Dorado claim was one of the richest that had been worked on the creek during the winter and spring. The principal part of his $130,000 came from thirty "box-lengths " of dirt. A "box length" is fif- teen feet long and twelve feet wide. In one length he found a pocket of $10,000. In another length was a nugget weighing thirteen ounces — next to the largest found in the diggings. REFUSE WORK AT $1.25 pER HOUR. All winter men received $1.25 an hour on the Berry claim, but at these wages not a pick would have been raised THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 39 had it not been for the fact that nothing can be done during the severe cold but pile the gravel on the dump ready for washing in the spring, and many of these men did not have enough food to keep them at this work on their own claims. Every day was pay day. Mr. Berry settled with his men every night merely by taking a pan of dirt, washing it out with water obtained from melted ice, and weighing out each man's time in gold nuggets. His expenses averaged from $100 to $150 a day all winter, but this was a small sum for a place whence every man expects to return home a million- aire, and w r here a man with less than $50 in his dust sack is looked upon as broke. Although Mr. Berry is proud of his plucky wife he did not give her a cent of "pin money" out of his riches while they were on the Klondike. He did not need to do so; for in the intervals of housekeeping she would go to the dump and wash out a few pans of dirt for herself. In this way she secured over $10,000 as her personal perquisites for sixteen months of a bridal "outing" in the frozen North- west. JOSEPH LADUE. One of the best known of the Klondikers is Joseph Ladue, the founder of Dawson, N. W. T., the new metropolis of the Yukon, at the mouth of the Klondike. He is forty-three years old, and lived, until 1882, at Schuyler Falls, Clinton County, New York, and was a farm hand, working for J. H. Lobdell, until he left and went to the Black Hills in search of gold. He met with consider- 40 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE able success at first, but afterwards lost every dollar in a speculation in Deadwood. From there he went to the northwest, finally reaching Alaska. He was at Sixty-Mile for several years, running a saw mill and store there. It was a good investment, although Mr. Ladue found great difficulty in running it, because men preferred mining, even when he was paying his hands $15 per day. But his returns were proportionate to his expenses, as the cheapest lumber he ever sold brought $100 per thousand feet, and planed lum- ber double that sum. After the Klondike boom broke out the price of rough lumber went up to $150 per thousand, and the demand far exceeded the supply. No sooner had the richness of Bonanza and El Dorado creeks been indicated than Mr. Ladue laid out the town site of Dawson, entering the land under the Canadian laws, and having it surveyed into lots. The most eligibly located of these lots are now selling at $5,000 each and upward. Mr. Ladue has also become possessed of valuable mining inter- ests, and has already accumulated a substantial fortune. He came back on the "Excelsior" and went on a visit to Schuy- ler Falls, N. Y., as a guest of ]. H. Lobdell, his old em- ployer. When Mr. Ladue lived at Schuyler Falls he became engaged to Miss Anna Mason, the daughter of prosperous parents. The latter objected to his marriage because of his lack of means, and he went west; but the young woman remained faithful to him and correspondence was kept up. When Mr. Ladue returned to Schuyler Falls the prepara- THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 4 1 tions for the wedding were at once inaugurated, and on July 29 the two were united in marriage, and another romance was added to the story of the Klondike. FRANK PHISCATOR AND F. W. COBB. Two of the most fortunate of the Klondike miners are Frank Phiscator and F. W. Cobb. They are partners in the mines and were the first to locate on El Dorado Creek. JOSEPH LADUES SAW MILL. Frank Phiscator was a farmer's boy in Michigan, and was born at Baroda, in that state, thirty-five years ago. His father died, and Frank, tiring of the farm, went west, and got employment in Yellowstone Park, carrying horseback mail over a sixtv-mile route. Later he went to live in the state of Washington and there, by hard work and thrift, accumulated about $3,000. Then he went back to Michigan, but did not find the people there as cordial in manner as those he had left in the west, so he again turned his face 42 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE toward the setting sun, and when he had reached Seattle he heard reports about mines on the Yukon which attracted him. He went there and struck up an acquaintance with F. W. Cobb, the two agreeing to share with each other. Then when McCormack located on the Bonanza, the two were with the first rush to the new field. F. W. Cobb was born in New England and was graduated from Harvard University. In 1894 ne went to Seattle, but times were fearfully hard, and he worked about, in various capacities, making no more than $7 a week. Finally he sent back east to his relatives for money and with it struck out for the Yukon, meeting up with Frank Phiscator at Forty-Mile and going with him to the Bonanza District. When they reached there Phiscator prospected on the Klondike above Bonanza, while Cobb went up the latter stream until he struck the branch to which he afterwards gave the name "El Dorado." STRUCK IT RICH. A little experimental panning of dirt convinced him that he had "struck it rich" and he located a claim of 1,000 feet, being entitled by right of discovery to twice the usual allotment of ground. Then he hurried down the Bonanza and at its mouth found Phiscator returning, disconsolate, from a fruitless search for the yellow metal up the main stream. To him he communicated the news of his find, and the two returned to the El Dorado, where Phiscator located alongside his partner's discovery claim. The two have made fortunes. In the spring "clean-up" THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 43 of their claims the first forty days brought Phiscator's share of the gold to $96,000, which he brought with him on the " Portland" to Seattle. He left Mr. Cobb in charge of the claims, but will return in the spring and let Cobb come "outside." They have millions in sight on their claims. The noteworthy thing about these two is that neither of them had any mining experience before they went to Alaska in 1896, and they made their fortunes in less than a year. THE STANLEYS AND WORDENS. Among the most wonderful stories of a sudden rise from poverty to affluence is that concerning the Stanleys and VVordens, who formed a company of four working in part- nership in the Klondike gold fields, consisting of William M. Stanley, his son Samuel, and the brothers Gage and Charles Worden. None of them had any previous mining experience. William M. Stanley is a gray-haired man, well along in years. He lived in an humble home in the southern part of Seattle with his wife and several children. He conducted a little book store in an out of the way corner of that city, but found it hard to make a living, for times were hard in Seattle as well as all other parts of the country from 1893 to 1896. In March of the latter year Mr. Stanley got to- gether all the money he could, borrowed a little more from his son William, who was working elsewhere, and with his 23-year-old son Samuel, started for the Yukon country on the steamer "Alki," from Seattle for Dyea. 44 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE On the "Alki" the Stanleys met two young men, Charles and Gage Worden. They came from Sackett's Harbor, N.Y., to seek their fortunes in the west, but found nothing better to do than to work on a milk ranch at small pay. They, too, were on their way to the Yukon. The four men knew nothing about mining, and had even less real conception of the hardships of travel and living in the frozen mountains of the North. WENT OVER CHILKOOT PASS. Laboriously they toiled over the Chilkoot Pass route with their burdens, and after several weeks of wearisome and dangerous travel they reached the mouth of the Stewart River. The four had agreed to w T ork together and divide the proceeds of their joint venture. Up the Stewart they went and finally found a drift near the mouth of the McQueston Creek, an affluent of the Stewart. They built rockers and worked on the dirt in that vicinity, getting out from $10 to $20 per day. Soon the "pay" became less, and the party, after seeking for better locations for a time without success, started for Forty-Mile, and rested en route at Sixty-Mile (so called because the mourft of the river so named is about sixty miles above Fort Reliance). There they met a miner whom they had previously befriended, and who told them of the rumors of McCormack's great "find" on the Klondike. They reached the mouth of that stream and looked about for a favorable location. Next day the steamer "Ellis" arrived from Forty-Mile with one hundred and fifty excited miners aboard. The Stanleys and Wordens joined in the THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 45 rush for the new diggings and on El Dorado Creek made locations on claims Xos. 25, 26, 53 and 54 above the Dis- covery Claim of F.W.Cobb. They began work on Claims 25 and 26 and were soon satisfied that they had a good thing. They then went to work to prepare for a long winter of experience and hardships, and found all they wanted before spring. Thev built a log cabin and made it as snug as possible, and then all four put in their time sinking prospect holes in the gulch. The rest of the intensely interesting story is best told in the graphic description given by William Stanley after his arrival at Seattle on the "Port- land." " I tell the simple truth when I say that within three months we took from the two claims the sum of $112,000. A remarkable thing about our findings is that in taking this enormous sum, we did not drift up and down stream, nor did we cross-cut the pay streaks. "Of course, we may be wrong, but this is the way we are figuring, and we are so certain that what we say is true that we would not sell out for a million. In our judg- ment, based on close figuring, there are in the two claims we worked, and Claims Xos. 53 and 54, $1,000 to the lineal foot. I sav that in four claims we have at the very least $2,000,000, which can be taken out without any great work. PAY DIRT IN EVERY CREEK. " I want to say that I believe there is gold in every creek in Alaska. Certainlv on the Klondike the claims are not 46 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE spotted. One seems to be as good as another. It's gold, gold, gold all over. It's yards wide and yards deep. I say so because I have been there and have the gold to show for it. All you have to do is to run a hole down, and there you find plenty of gold dust. I would say that our pans on the El Dorado claims will average $3, some go as high as $150, and believe me when I say that, in five pans, I have taken out as high as $750 and sometimes more. I did not pick the pans, but simply put them against my breast and scooped the dirt off the bed rock. "Of course, the majority of those on the Klondike have done much figuring as to the amount of gold the Klondike will yield. Many times we fellows figured on the prospects of the El Dorado. I would not hesitate much about guaran- teeing $21,000,000, and should not be surprised a bit if $25,000,000, or even $30,000,000, was taken out. " Some people will tell you that the Klondike is a marvel, and there will never be a discovery in Alaska which will compare with it. I don't believe it. I think that there will be a number of new creeks discovered that will make w r onderful yields. Why, Bear Gulch is just like El Dorado. Bear Gulch has a double bed rock. Many do not know it, but it's a fact, and miners who are acquainted with it will tell you the same thing. GOLD BLACK AS A CAT. " The bed rocks are three feet apart. In the lower bed the gold is as black as a black cat, and in the upper bed the gold is as bright as any you ever saw. We own No. 10 claim, THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 47 below Discovery, on Bear Gulch, and also Nos. 20 and 21 on Last Chance Gulch, above Discovery. We prospected for three miles on Last Chance Gulch, and could not tell the best place to locate the Discovery claim. The man making a discovery of the creek is entitled by law to stake a claim EXACT SIZE OF A NUGGET VALUED AT $231. and take an adjoining one, or, in other words, two claims; so you see he wants to get in a good location on the creek or gulch. Hunker Gulch is highly looked to. I think it will prove another great district, and some good strikes have also been made on Dominion Creek. Indian Creek is also becoming famous. 48 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE "What are we doing with all the money we take out? "Well, we paid $45,000 spot cash for a half interest in Claim 32, El Dorado. We also loaned $5,000 each to four parties on El Dorado Creek, taking mortgages on their claims, so you see we are well secured. "No, I do not want any better security for my money than El Dorado claims, thank you. I only wish I had a mortgage on the whole creek. NO MORE POVERTY. "We had a great deal of trouble in securing labor in pros- pecting our properties. Old miners would not work for any price. We could occasionally rope in a greenhorn and get him to work for a few days at $15 a day. Six or eight miners worked on shares for us about six weeks, and we settled. It developed that they had earned in that length ,of time $5,300 each. That was pretty good pay, wasn't it? We paid one old miner $12 for three hours' work and offered to continue him at that rate, but he would not have it, and he went out to hunt a claim of his own. My son Samuel, and Charles Worden are in charge of our interests in Alaska. Gage Worden and I came out, and we will go back in March and relieve them. Then they will come out for a spell. Gage goes from here to his home in New York State to make his mother confortable. " I am an American by birth, but of Irish parents. I formerly lived in western Kansas, but my claim there was not quite as good as the one I staked out on the El Dorado Creek." ___ — _ * VA V *'-Y 50 the gold fields of the Klondike Mr. Stanley's family had a hard time getting along dur- ing the fifteen months the father and brother were away, but they will never know poverty from this time on. MR. AND MRS. LIPPY. Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Lippy, formerly of San Francisco, also came down on the "Excelsior." Mrs. Lippy went North with her husband in April, 1896, their destination being Forty-Mile, where Lippy and his brothers had a fine paying claim. She was one of the first white women to make the journey over the big divide and says she did not find the trip very difficult. Mrs. Lippy denied emphatically the stories of starvation in the mining districts of the far North. "We enjoyed life exceedingly at Forty-Mile," she said. "To be sure, our amusements are limited, but there are a number of women there now, and we try to make it as pleasant for each other as possible. Everybody is doing well. The story of suffering among the miners is news to me. I never saw nor heard of any suffering. We were skimped for some articles, but there was always plenty to eat. Everybody had a good supply of something, and if one ran out of bacon it was the customary thing to exchange with some neighbor who was short of flour or beans. That is the way we all did and we got along very comfortably." Mr. Lippy brought with him $60,000 in gold dust, and left claims in the Bonanza district worth $1,000,000. His brothers, whom he left in charge, have been equally for tunate. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 5 I This book could be filled with the stories of the return- ing miners. So far as the character of the diggings in the Klondike they all agree. These are certainly the most wonderful gold discoveries ever known. • MARVELOUS RICHES. Not only those who have returned, but also many who remain, testify to the marvelous riches of the country. The following characteristic letters were written from Dawson City to Juneau friend§. Burt Shuler, writing from Klondike under date of June 5, says: "We have been here but a short time and we all have money. Provisions are much higher than they were two years ago and clothing is clean out of sight. One of the A. C. Co.'s boats was lost in the spring, and there will be a short- age of provisions again this fall. There is nothing that a man could eat or wear that he cannot get a good price for. First-class rubber boots are worth from an ounce to $25 a pair. The price of flour has been raised from $4 to $6 and it was selling at $50 when we arrived, as it was being freighted from Forty-Mile. Big money can be made by bringing a small outfit over the trail this fall. Wages have been $15 per day all winter, though a reduction to $10 was attempted, but the miners quit work Here is a creek that is eighteen miles long, and as far as is known, without a miss. There are not enough men in the country to-day to work the claims. Several other creeks show equal promise, but very little work has been done on the 52 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE latter. I have seen gold dust until it seems almost as cheap as sawdust. If you are coming in, come prepared to stay two years at least; bring plenty of clothing and good rubber boots." Here is a letter from another enthusiast: "Klondike, May 27, 1897. "Friend Bill: — "We landed here the 17th and went on a stampede the next day, and have just got back. I came through the camp and saw a good many friends. I saw Burt; he has a claim on Bonanza Creek. Billy Leake has bought a claim on El Dorado; the claim is supposed to be worth a million. There are thirty-four claims" on the same creek which seem to be as good. Bonanza is good, but not so rich. There are 100 claims on Bonanza which are good, and there are other creeks which give good pay. Bill, it is the best camp I ever saw. Wages are $15 a day; everything is high; gum boots are selling at $25. I look for a new strike this summer, as many men are out prospecting, and it is the best gold country I ever saw. I wish you were here; we will make a stake if we stay with it; I will have something before winter. If you come in this fall don't start after the 15th of August; one can make more here in one year than he can in ten out there. There will be work the year round; wages may be cut to $10, but I don't think it; I can go to work at any time and as long as I wish for $15. It will pay to bring anything here which can be carried in ; the demand is good and prices such that there is money in THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 53 anything that can be brought in. Money will hardly buy claims here now, but men can often get in on a 'lay.' I know men who took 'lays' since Feb. 1 and made enough to go out with as high as $20,000 apiece. "Andy Hensley." fears gold will have to be demonetized. Oscar Ashby fears that gold will have to be demonetized, for he says in a letter dated May 18 from Circle City: "Hereafter address all letters to Klondike, X. W. Terri- tory. I would have stayed here in Alaska, but when I heard of McKinley's election I pulled my freight, for I knew that meant gold. I tell you one thing, if they find a few more El Dorado and Bonanza creeks, they will have to demonetize gold. Some of the kings here are hurrying out to spend their money before that is done. However, I am going to take chances on mine." CIRCLE CITY DESERTED. Another letter says : "Circle City is deserted, every one having gone to Klon- dike, where the richest strike of the kind ever known in anv country was made last fall. The stories told are not exaggerated. One hundred dollars to the pan is very com- mon. One can hardly believe it, but it is true, nevertheless. " El Dorado is staked off into claims for eight or ten miles, and every claim so far has shown up big. One claim was sold for $100,000 three days ago. Bonanza is good also, and two or three other gulches close by show up well. Every camp in the Yukon valley is deserted for Klondike. 54 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Wages there are $15, while $12 is the prevailing rate here. No one wants to work for wages, but all are prospecting. This is undoubtedly the best poor man's country in the world to-day. A very hard country to live in on account of the mosquitoes and poor grub, but healthy and a show to make a ten-strike. We heard that McCollough, formerly of the Juneau Hotel, had been drowned while shooting the W 7 hite Horse Rapids; don't know whether there is any truth in it, as he was behind us. A number of parties were swamped and lost their outfits, but escaped with their lives. The trip is anything but one of pleasure, as you will find if you ever make it. "Fred Brewster Pay." CHAPTER IV. JOSEPH LADUE'S STORY. THE KLONDIKE STRIKE DESCRIBED BY THE OWNER OF DAWSON. The true story of the Klondike has never been fully told, not because the history of this eventful strike was not pre- served, but because there were few men present at its birth. I mean by that, few men who went into the region with the real discoverers. For fifteen years I traded throughout that entire section, and coupled with my town to town commerce a saw mill industry, and I have no doubt that many others were equally familiar with the territory. But it remained for a man from Nova Scotia, a Robert Henderson, to turn over the dirt that led to the opening up of what I and others con- sider the most marvellous mineral discovery in the world. I will begin with Henderson's discovery and carry the reader right through the excitement up to the very popula- tion of Dawson, a town which now has 4,000 souls, mili- tary protection and forty families of men, women and children. FINDS GOLD IN GOLD BOTTOM. It was on the 24th of August when Henderson, who had been prospecting for four years in Indian Creek, a tribu- 56 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 57 tary of the Yukon, found himself in another little stream bed known as Gold Bottom, near the Yukon, the high water having driven him out of Indian Creek. He was prospecting around, hoping to find something as good as the ground seemed to contain. After a time he panned out a little gold and put in a sluice box or two. In a very short time he ran out of supplies and went back to Fort Ogilvie, where I was stationed, and reported the find to me. I lost no time getting myself in readiness to proceed to the spot at once, and by the 28th of August I had two men and four horses in Gold Bottom. In the meantime Henderson drifted down to the mouth of the Klondike in a small boat, and found George McCormack, an old friend of his, who was fishing for salmon. Hunting up his friends when there was anything in sight seemed to be one of Hen- derson's best traits. He got McCormack up to Gold Bot- tom, where he located a claim, prospected around a while, and started back across country for the mouth of the Klon- dike River, a distance of twenty miles. That trip was destined to play an important part in the events which followed, for through it occurred one of the big finds. McCormack took with him two Chilkat In- dians, and the three men went off in the direction of Bo- nanza Creek, where the white man struck gravel that went $2.50 to the pan. According to our mining laws in Can- adian possessions, the discoverer can locate an extra claim for himself as a reward for making the find. So McCor- mack took up two locations and the Indians one each. Thev 58 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE set to work at once and took out $120 in gold in three days with little else than a pan. Then they came down to Fort Ogilvie and reported the find. THE RUSH FOR THE MINES. That report which was spread by McCormack, had the immediate effect of sending a thrill of excitement along the Yukon, from the head-waters down to Forty-Mile and Cir- cle City. As though by magic, the trails were sprinkled with pack mules, and the river was dotted with small craft coming up or going down to the new diggings, as the case may be. In less than ten days there were about 150 miners at work on new claims. Strangely enough, and as if by some great good fortune, I had come down the river about the same time McCormack left Gold Bottom, and had picked out a town site where Dawson City now stands, a little more than a mile from the Bonanza Creek claims. In this respect I was very fortu- nate, as it now stands right in the midst of what is called Bonanza Gold Mining District, and all claims are so re- corded. As a matter of fact there is no other suitable place for a town site, and I consider myself lucky in getting hold of it. I hold 178 acres, while the remaining twenty-two are the property of the Government. The Yukon at that point is 600 yards across and about thirty-five fathoms deep, with natural advantages for protection of craft. Dawson City is just below the mouth of the Klondike River. I named it after Dawson, the man who established the boundary line that is now recognized as the correct line dividing Alaska THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 59 from the Northwest Territory. It runs due north from Mount St. Elias to Point Demarcation to the 141st meridian. That, of course, cuts all the present locations, with the ex- ception of those at Forty-Mile, out of United States possess- ions. There is no cause for dispute on that score at all. It aft. This is a nugget imbedded in a pebble. It is valued at $157, and came from El Dorado Creek. The white indicates gold, and the two pictures show the upper and under sides, actual size. is purely a Canadian section, aud is under the Canadian laws. TRICKERY OF GREED. Just as soon as the rush began at Bonanza Creek the 60 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE miners called a meeting, and in order that the claims be relocated and made sure of, it was decided to measure them all off with a rope and reset the stakes that defined them. Somehow or other the men selected to make the measure- ments slid in a forty instead of a fifty foot rope, and thus made the claims from fifty to one hundred feet short in the total. In other words, they were condensed, and the intervening ground was literally grabbed. This state of affairs incensed the miners so that when they made the discovery of how the measurements were conducted, they petitioned William Ogilvie, the Dominion Land Surveyor, to come up to Bonanza Creek at once and settle the com- plications that were arising. He resurveyed the whole group of claims and the matter was then adjusted to the satisfaction of all hands. But even now some of them are a little short. The custom in taking up placer claims is to locate 500 feet the way the valley lies, and then run across from base to the base of the foothills. In the Bonanza Creek it is 800 feet to the base lines. The Dominion Land Surveyor is also a magistrate, and has the power to take sworn testimony, which he did in the case of the false measurements. The men who had engaged in the work, both of playing short rope and shifting stakes, a crime punishable by seven years in the penitentiary, told all they knew, and clemency was shown them, owing to their greatly excited condition at the time. None of them was prosecuted. WOMEN PICK UP GOLD. It is not my purpose to unduly inflame venturesome THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 6l men to go into the Klondike regions, but what really oc- curred there, having seen it with my own eyes, I shall forthwith record in this story. On November 20 Thomas Flack, William Sloan and a man by the name of Wilkinson sunk a hole eighteen feet deep in El Dorado Creek, and struck a four-foot pay streak that went $5 to the pan, or $2.50 to the shovelful. This was not for a short time, but for weeks and weeks. They shovelled out ton after ton of dirt that was literally filled with gold and did not know it. The news of the new strike was spread out all over the Northwest, and not only prospectors but practical mining men came to the diggings. Some capitalists saw the Flack mine, and bought out his partners, Sloan and Wilkinson, for $50,000 each, but Flack would not sell, which proved his sense, as the men who purchased his partners' interest got over $50,000 each out of the dump that the trio had discarded before they struck the pay streak at the 18-foot level. There were very few practical miners there at first, but they soon began to flock in and take hold. Each day brought news of other marvellously rich strikes. The ex- citement grew by the hour. Not a moment was lost in the accumulation of the precious metal ? and even women began to move toward El Dorado. The Yukon had completely frozen up and three steamers — the Weare, the Bella and the Arctic— were fast in the ice. That, however, did not deter the passengers, as they came along on sledges and snow- shoes. It was anything to get there with them. Two ladies, Mrs. Lippy, whose husband now has a claim valued 62 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE at $1,000,000, and Mrs. Berry, picked out of a dump $6,- 000 each a few days after their arrival. They found the metal by poking around in the dirt with sticks. I cite this instance to show how much valuable material was discarded in the wild rush for Bonanzas. The basic principles of placer mining were in many instances utterly ignored, and men delved in the earth for nothing short of nuggets. It was the most exciting scene I have ever witnessed or read about. $95,000 IN ONE MONTH. When the big strike was made in El Dorado the men down at Bonanza Creek became very much dissatisfied with gravel that went from 60 cents to $1.60 a pan, when, as a matter of fact, 5 cents a pan is considered good anywhere else and will pay well in the clean-up. The finding of a nugget would almost drive the prospect- ors crazy. The largest was picked up by Bert Hudson on Claim 6, and was worth $257. The next best was secured by J. J. Clements in Indian Creek, and went $235. There are two hundred claims in El Dorado Creek, and not one of them has failed to produce large returns. In the Bonanza there are thirty-nine claims, and they, too, are wonderfully rich, and constantly improving. There is four and a half miles of pay gravel in one streak, and from all indications more to come. $94,000 FROM A FORTY-FOOT PATCH. A miner by the name of Alex MacDonald took out $94,- THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 63 000 from a forty-foot patch of ground only two feet thick. He employed four men to do the work and consumed but twenty -eight days. That gravel went $250 to the pan, and was in Claim No. 30, El Dorado Creek. THE TREASURE SHIP "PORTLAND." Different men have cleaned up from $175,000 to $50,000 in fine gold, and all of it was done during three months of the past winter. Out of El Dorado alone came $4,000,000, and at least $1,000,000 from Bonanza Creek. How much more there is in it is impossible to say, but to all appear- ances the whole district is full of gold waiting to be taken out. 64 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE When the ice began to melt this summer another rush be- gan. Forty-Mile City and Circle City were depopulated last winter, and the new rush came from the South, Seattle, Juneau and all the states. Steamer after steamer has left the Pacific coast bound for the mines, but for the life of me I do not know where they are to get supplies. All the boats now obtainable by the Alaska Commercial Company are worked to their fullest capacity, and it takes thirty-five days in good weather to get to Dawson from San Francisco. Now that I have touched the subject of transportation I may as well go deeper into it. There seems to be a general belief that anybody can go up to El Dorado and pick up a hatful of gold any time. Perhaps there was a chance to do that at first, but since then the mines have filled up with practical, scientific mining men, and nothing is lying around loose. The nearest point to get supplies at anything like civilization rates is Juneau, but beyond that city is a stretch of territory that an inexperienced man had best avoid, and particularly at this season of the year. I have been careful not to exaggerate in the least bit, and I hope some day to see the region of the Klondike a thriv- ing mining and commercial center, but I trust no one will be foolhardy enough to attempt the trip now. If you must go, follow my advice and do not start 'until the 15th of March, and then go by way of Seattle to Juneau or Dyea, w r alk overland thirty miles to the headwaters of the Yukon and sail from there 400 miles down stream to the city of Dawson, which by this time next year will have 20,000 peo- ple and be able to care for them. Joseph Ladue. Copyrighted, La Koohe, Photo, Seattle. CREVASSE IN MUIR GLACIER. DEPTH OVER 200 FEET. CHAPTER V. OFFICIAL REPORTS. HIGH AUTHORITY CONFIRMS THE RICHNESS OF THE KLONDIKE STRIKE. The news from official sources in regard to the Klondike discoveries is fully as sensational in character as that given by the returning miners. No man living has a closer acquaintance with that region than William Ogilvie, Dominion Surveyor and Chief of Internal Boundary Survey, who, with a field force, has been in the Northwest Territory for over ten years, definitely locating the line of 141 ° west longitude, which forms the boundary line dividing Alaska from the British North- west Territory. He is a man highly respected in the far northern country, where, in addition to his official duties, he is often called upon to settle mining questions as an arbi- trator whose fairness is beyond dispute. Mr. Ogilvie, since the Klondike discoveries, has made an official report in which he says : "The name Klondike is a mispronunciation of the Indian word or words 'Thron-dak' or 'duick,' which means plenty of fish, from the fact that it is a famous salmon stream. It is marked 'Ton-dak' on our maps." After telling of the discovery of gold there in 1896 by G. 65 66 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE W. McCormack, Mr. Ogilvie presages considerable trouble and confusion in the near future from the lack of system in making out claims. He says : "When it was fairly estab- lished that Bonanza Creek was rich in gold — which took a few days, for Klondike had been prospected several times with no encouraging results— there was a great rush from all over the country adjacent to Forty-Mile. The town was almost deserted; men who had been in a chronic state of drunkenness for weeks were pitched into boats as ballast and taken up 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 connection and con- fusion, there being no one to take charge of matters. The agent not being able to go up and attend to the thing, and myself not knowing what to do, the miners held a meeting and appointed one of themselves to measure off and stake the claims and record the owners' names, for which he got a fee of $2.00, it being of course understood that each claimholder would have to record his claim with the Dominion agent and pay his fee of $15. I am afraid that a state of affairs will develop in the Klondike district that will worry some one. Naturally, many squabbles will arise out of those transactions when the claims come to be considered valuable and worked, and those, together with the disputes over the the size of the claims, will take some time to clear off. Many of the claims are said to be only 300 and 400 feet long, and of course the holders will insist on getting the full 500, and it is now probably impossible that they can without up- setting all the claimholders on the several creeks. Many of MILES CANON, LEWIS RIVER. 68 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE them will be reasonable enough to see things in their proper light and submit quietly, but many will insist upon what they call their rights." RICHES OF THE KLONDIKE FIELDS. In reference to the richness of the Klondike field, Mr. Ogilvie says that the rich fields in that district, such as Miller, Glacier and Chicken creeks, have been practically abandoned for the Klondike. Men cannot be got to work for love or money, and the standard of wages is $1.50 an hour. Some of the claims are so rich that every night a few pans of dirt is sufficient to pay all the hired help. Mr. Ogilvie complains sorely of the need of some kind of a court to settle the various claim disputes that are con- tinually arising between the miners. He says that the force and virtue of the miners' meetings prevailed until the mounted police made their appearance, after which sneaks had full swing. The morality of the Klondike would seem to be of a much higher order than is usually found in new mining camps, the presence of the mounted police seeming to have a most salutary effect. Mr. Ogilvie seems to regret it, for he says^ 4 'The man who was stabbed here in November has quite recovered, but may never have the same use of his back as of old, having received a bad cut there. His assailant is out on bail, awaiting the entrance of a judge to try him. As the police are here, there will be no lynching; it is al- most a pity there will not." THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 69 THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. Mr. Ogilvie takes up the subject of the liquor traffic also, saving: "The impression of the best men here, saloon men and all, is that the liquor trade should be regulated, that no one but responsible parties should be allowed to bring liquor in; men in business here of established reputation and having an interest in the country and the retail traffic, licensed as in the Eastern provinces, giving licenses to men of fair character only. Now any loafer who can gather enough money to secure a few gallons and a few glasses and wants to have an idle time, sets up a saloon. In my opinion it is imperative that the business be brought under control at once, or it may develop phases that will be at least annoying in the future." Mr. Ogilvie announces the location of a quartz lode show- ing free gold in paying quantities along one of the creeks. The quartz has tested over $100 a ton. The lode appears to run from three to eight feet in thickness, and is about 19 miles from the Yukon River. Good quartz has been found also at the head of a branch of the Alsek River near the head of the Chilkat Inlet, inside the summit of the coast range in Canadian territory; also along Davis Creek in American territory. The hills around Bonanza Creek also contain paying quartz. Copper in abundance is found on the southerly branch of the White River, and silver ore has been picked up in a creek flowing into Bennett Lake. Mr. Ogilvie says that the placer prospects continue to be more and more encouraging and extraordinary. 70 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE "It is beyond a doubt," he says, "that three pans of dif- ferent claims on El Dorado turned out $204, $212 and $216, but it must be borne in mind that there were only three such pans, though there are many running from $10 to $50." Governor McIntosh. The executive of Northwest Territory, in which the whole of the Canadian Yukon country is located, is Governor H. C. Mcintosh. Speaking of the discoveries in the Klondike region, he said in a newspaper interview: "We are only on the threshold of the greatest discovery ever made. Gold has been piling up in all these innumer- able streams for hundreds of years. Much of the territory the foot of man has never trod. It would hardly be possible for one to exaggerate the richness, not only of the Klondike, but other districts in the Canadian Yukon. At the same time the folly of thousands rushing in there without proper means of subsistence and utter ignorance of geographical conditions of the country should be kept ever in mind. GOLDEN WATERWAYS. "There are fully 9,000 miles of these golden waterways in the region of the Yukon. Rivers, creeks and streams of every size and description are all rich in gold. I derived this knowledge from many old Hudson Bay explorers, who assured me that they considered the gold next to inexhaust- ible. "In 1S94 I made a report to Sir John Thompson, then premier of Canada, who died the same year, at Windsor Castle, strongly urging that a body of Canadian police be THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 7 I established on the river to maintain order. This was done in 1S95, am * tne British outpost of Fort Cudahy was founded. "I have known gold to exist there since 1889, conse- quently upon a report made to me by William Ogilvie, the government explorer. Many streams that will no doubt prove to be as rich as the Klondike have not been explored or prospected. Among these 1 might mention Dominion Creek, Hootalinqua River, Stewart River, Liard River and a score of other streams comparatively unknown. "It is my judgment and opinion that the 1897 yield of the Canadian Yukon will exceed $10,000,000 in gold. Of course, as in case of the Carriboo and Cassiar districts years ago, it will be impossible accurately to estimate the full amount taken out. "There is now far in excess of $1,000,000 remaining already mined on the Klondike. It is in valises, tin cans and lying loose in saloons, but just as sacredly guarded there and apparently as safe as if it were in a vault. Already this spring we have official knowledge of over $2,000,000 in gold having been taken from the Klondike camps. It was shipped out on the steamships Excelsior and Portland. " Incidentally I may say we have data of an official nature which leads us to believe that the gold output of the Ross- land and Kootenai districts for 1897 will be in excess of $7,000,000. I should have said, and I have no hesitancy in asserting, that within the course of five years the gold yield of the three districts named will exceed that of either Colorado, California or South Africa." CHAPTER VI. THE YUKON REGION. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT GOLD FIELDS DISTRICT. The great central district of Alaska and the western por- tion of the British Northwest Territory are drained by one of the largest streams on the American Continent. It is over 2,200 miles long, of which distance about 1,500 miles is in Alaska and the remainder in British America, the dividing line between the two being the 141st degree of longitude west from the Greenwich meridian. The portion of the region which is in United States ter- ritory formed the Sixth Census District in the U. S. Cen- sus for 1890. Up to that time the whole region was prin- cipally known to fur traders, although a few miners had gone in previously for about six years. The settlements, according to the census, were 58. Of the total population of 3,912 there were 2,099 ma les and 1,813 females; 2,082 natives and 1,830 foreign. Racially distinguished, there were 202 whites, of whom 193 were male and 9 female ; 127 mixed breed, of whom 59 were male and 68 female; and 3,583 Indian, of whom there were males 1,847 anc * females ] >73 6 - These figures of seven years ago do not give much indi- cation in regard to present conditions of population. Since 73 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 73 then many prospectors and miners have gone into the country, and the whites now outnumber the Indians in that region. YUKON KNOWN BY OTHER NAMES. The great Yukon River is not known by that name for its entire length. The Pelly and Lewis Rivers, both large streams, unite, and at their confluence in British territory, about longitude 1 37 ° 30' west, form the Yukon. The Lewis River is the better known of these two streams, from the fact that since 18S4 it has been used as a highway from southeastern Alaska to the Yukon gold fields. Its length, from Lake Lindermann, one of its chief sources, to the junction with the Pelly, is about 375 miles, and it lies entirely within British territory with the excep- tion of a few miles of the lakes at its head. The Pelly River takes its rise about Dease Lake, near the headwaters of the Stikine River, with a length of about 500 miles before joining the Lewis to form the Yukon River. The union of these streams forms a river varying from three fourths of a mile to a mile in width. For many miles there is on the northern bank a solid wall of lava, compelling the swift current to follow a westerly course in search of an outlet to the north. The southern bank is comparatively low, formed of sandy alluvial soil. Then the mouth of the White River is reached, that river, which comes in from the south, receiving its name from the milky color of its water. Then the stream takes a northerly course through a rugged, mountainous country, and a short dis- 74 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE tance further on the waters of Stewart River flow from the north into the Yukon. At a high stage of water the cur- rent is quite swift at this point, flowing six or seven miles an hour. From Stewart River to the mouth of the Klon- dike both banks are closed in by high mountains, formed chiefly of basaltic rock and slaty shale. Many of the bluffs are cut and worn into most picturesque shapes by glacial action. At the mouth of the Klondike above the confluence on the right bank is an Indian village, and after the river is passed there is a government reservation on the right side going down. On the left bank, or near it, is a quartz mine, belonging to Captain Healy of the North American Trading and Transportation Co., or rather to his wife. DAWSON CITY, THE METROPOLIS. A little lower down, on the right bank of the stream, is Dawson City, the present metropolis of the Yukon, laid out by Joseph Ladue in September, 1896, and to-day the liveliest frontier town on the American continent. A few miles be- low is Fort Reliance, which was the first place settled by whites in this region, having been used by the Hudson Bay Company as a fur trading post for several years, but after- ward abandoned. There is no town there now, but the lo- cation is important because many points through the Yukon country were named by roughly guessing their distance above or below Fort Reliance. Thus, Sixty-Mile Creek empties into the Yukon about sixty (really fifty-three) miles above, and Forty-Mile Creek about forty (forty-eight) miles THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 75 below Fort Reliance, and the stream which flows into the Yukon from the north and is marked on most of the maps "Clandindu River" is locally known as "Twelve-Mile Creek," being calculated from the same starting point. From Dawson City the course of the river is northwesterly past Fort Cudahy and Forty-Mile, where for several years there has been a considerable amount of successful placer ONE OF THE FIRST HOUSES IN DAWSON CITY. mining carried on. The next point of importance is Circle City, where there is a post office. This town was started about five years ago and was the chief center of mining ac- tivity on the Yukon, being the trading point for the Creek District, the most productive mining district ever worked, so far, in the United States portion of the Yukon country, j6 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE For the first 100 miles after crossing the boundary the river runs in one broad stream, confined on either side by high banks and a mountainous country, known as the "Upper Ramparts." It then widens out and for 150 miles is a net- work of channels and small islands. At old Fort Yukon, an abandoned Hudson Bay post, the river reaches its high- est northern latitude, being within the Arctic Circle. From main bank to bank the distance has been found to be seven miles, at a point just above the site of old Fort Yukon. This place is the most serious obstacle to navigation that is met with on the river from its mouth to the Five Fingers Rap- ids near Fort Selkirk, as the channel at this point shifts from year to year, and at certain stages of the year is diffi cult to find. BELOW FORT YUKON. Below Fort Yukon the country flattens out considerably and the majestic grandeur that one encounters from Circle City up to the headwaters is seen no more. There are occasional mountains, and some of the streams which rise in them and feed the Tanana and other tributaries of the Yukon are known to contain gold. At the mouth of the Tanana is Fort Weare, a trading station of the North American Transportation and Trading Company, and named after its president. Away from the Yukon, sixty or seventy miles northward in the Arctic Circle, are mountain streams upon which gold has been found, on the Koyukuk River and its tributaries. About ten miles below the Tanana there is a quartz claim, but from there westward The gold fields of the Klondike 77 there has been no gold discovery. The points on the lower river are mostly trading- posts, where the trade in furs is carried on. There is a large business done with the natives in skins, and prices are regulated by the standard price of red fox or marten — called one skin — about $1.25. A prime WMmr MC QUESTEN'S STORE AT CIRCLE CITY, ALASKA. beaver would be "two skins;" black bear, "four skins;" lynx "one skin;" land otter two or three skins, etc. Five yards drilling, or 1 lb. tea, or 1 lb. powder, or % lb. powder with 1 box caps and 1 lb. shot, are given for one skin ; 50 lbs. flour, four skins; 5 lbs. sugar, one skin, etc. These are samples of the prices obtained by the natives, with little variation, until the mining district is reached, when the prices are higher, to conform to the prices charged to miners. ^8 the gold fields of the Klondike TIMBER AND VEGETATION. On the lower Yukon, for many miles, the banks are de- void of timber, other than a stunted growth of willow brushy alder and cottonwood. Then spruce timber is encountered in the region of Hamilton's Landing, and from there to its headwaters the river is well supplied with spruce, fir, hem- lock, birch, alder and cottonwood timber. Spruce attains to considerable size, but it is full of knots and blemishes and makes poor lumber One of the most noticeable features of the vegetation of the Yukon region is the great variety of berries to be found all through the country. Among them, growing wild, and often in great profusion, are high and low bush cranberries, blueberries, salmon berries or dewberries, red currants and raspberries. The salmon berries are especially plentiful in the swampy lands of the lower Yukon, where they are gathered by the natives in large quantities. AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES. The shortness of the summer season in the interior of Alaska and the British Northwest Territory will always preclude any great amount of agricultural cultivation. Yet, as is shown by' its productiveness in wild berries, the short summer season brings vegetation to maturity with great rapidity. As soon as the snow disappears in the spring there is a sudden and quick productiveness in all kinds of herbage. Isolated experiments with different kinds of veg- etables have not been numerous, but they have been, to a large extent, successful. When the sun is shining every T11K GOLfo FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 79 day for t went) -four hours it accomplishes great results in a very short season. On the coast numerous successful at- tempts at agriculture have been made on a small scale. Po- tatoes have done well at all points on the river, although they do not grow to any great size; and barley has been successfully cultivated at Forty-Mile, and even at Fort Yukon, away up in the Arctic Circle. On the Stikine River in the Northwest Territory oats and wheat have also been successfully grown. The attempts at cultivation have all been made in a desultory and unscientific manner, and the people of Alaska have long desired the establishing of ag- ricultural experimental stations by the government, both in the interior and on the coast. The expressed intention of the agricultural department to at once establish such stations gives hope that much good will be done by intelligent ex- periments in crops adapted to the rigorous climate. There are numerous plains and open spaces, not only on the coast but also in the interior, which are covered with the arctic or tundra moss, suitable for reindeer grazing, and this food is so widely and plentifully distributed as to make the introduction of reindeer to the Yukon region, now going on, a matter of great importance to the country. The interior has an abundance of nutritious grasses suitable for the feeding of domestic animals, but the winter has here- tofore been found too severe to make the keeping of horses and cattle a possibility. Alaska is a great country for wild game, but during recent years the amount of game to be procured in the immediate neighborhood of the main Yukon has steadily 80 THE GOLD FIELDS OE THE KLONDIKE decreased. Up the tributary rivers, however, game is more abundant. FUR ANIMALS OF YUKON VALLEY. Like all countries in high latitudes, the fur-bearing ani- mals are an especially important feature in the fauna of the Yukon region. The land otter, the brown, grizzly, silver- tip and black bears, the beavers (once very common but now diminishing greatly in numbers), the beautiful silver or black fox, the red fox, cross fox, and, on the coast, the white fox, are among the most valuable of the fur animals. The mink is common, and the Peshoo or Canadian lynx, gray and white wolves, muskrats, wolverines, rabbits, marmots and others combine to make the list of the fur animals of the Yukon Valley very complete. Among them the brown grizzly, silver-tip and brown bears are the most formidable. Grizzly bears are only occasionally met, and the silver-tip bear is not numerous. The brown bear makes its way to the mountains about the time spring opens, and fishes for salmon, a sport in which it is a great adept. About that time the Yukon Indians are engaged in the same occupation, for drying salmon is an important industry with them. If Mr. Bear and Mr. Indian meet at this time the latter generally prefers to retire, for the brown bear is very fierce and his skin is not very valuable. The brown bear retires to the tundra or mossy plains after the fishing season. This bear, in his travels, usually finds the best traveling ground and the shallowest fords, and therefore his well trod paths become the favorite roads with travelers through the THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 8i Yukon country. The black bear is also good at fishing and is a permanent resident of the wooded and mountain regions ; but is by no means to be dreaded to such an extent as his brown relative. The Klondike River and its tributaries were at first best known to the miners of the Yukon as being infested with bears, and a general dislike to ursine society is said to have made prospecting up the Klondike unpopular. If it had not been for the bears, the Bonanza and El Dorado finds might have been made several years ago. Moose, caribou, deer, mountain sheep, and mountain goats are found in the mountains. There are very few if any of these near the river, and one may make the entire trip up to the Klondike from Lake Lindermann without getting a chance to shoot large game. BIRDS ABUNDANT ON THE YUKON. One of the things that will amaze the observant though unscientific new arrival on the Yukon is the great variety of birds he will see during the brief summer season. The snowbirds, and winter wrens and other winter birds of the United States live in Alaska in the summer, and not only they but nearly all of the birds which pass through the United States on their way northward. Of the more than sixty species of the family of American Warblers which are seen in the northern United States when the cherry and apple trees are in bloom, fully half pass on by easy stages so as to reach the Yukon country with the warm weather. In fact this northern region is their birthplace, and it is here, 82 THE COLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE therefore, that their nests are built, their nuptial melodies are sung and their prettiest plumage displayed. The gros- beaks, bobolinks, and a very large number of other favorite American birds, utilize the Yukon region as a summer resort, giving beauty and melody to the surroundings. Humming-birds are especially numerous and the brief Alaska summer brings an influx of bird species which is a delight to the ornithologist. The bald and gray eagles, so plentiful on the Alaskan coast, are also occasionally seen in the interior. Ducks, geese, and other water fowl breed in all of the waters of the Yukon region, and in favorable places may be found in great numbers. FISH IN THE YUKON. Fish are abundant — not only the salt water varieties on the coast, but also the fresh water fish of the interior. The greatest of these is salmon, which abounds on nearly all the streams, and on none to a greater extent than the Klondike, the very name of which is a mispronunciation of the Indian words " thron-dak" or "much fish." Both hunting and fishing are, how r ever, principally rele- gated to the Indians, as the miner, seeking to make his fortune and return to his home in the States, has little time to spare and must keep busy if he would attain his ends. *§§^§££iti*?^§< MSisriift jBpii If IS&Pi 1 11 fflffi 1 Jil 11 f 'III s ;3 ' •>* Imllw' If llflf : 1 fi'- i :ft ^fBI fe- : J I--- 11 '-™ V 1 If! It i; j s^^^^P^ i» 111 1, » 1 SUHtl si ill' 1 :i ' ' 1 S^'::#f I* MM 1 "■'■ ! 1 ™HjlP- ist'^':--'""^^ * illlH « .4 I 1 '\MiMm WSKsiSL** ^ WlIY*5BfflI i J'i 1 ■ ,; :■ ■ - - i,. if- a H . -a 7. o o a, Pu £ o „ P C * "~ < ^H r/a e M a. (^ £ < rt ^ tn 4J t3 CO hn Q W a £ £ £ CD ij ri a (U w a £ O p < w Pd h W h CHAPTER Vlt YUKON GOLD COUNTRY, MINING DEVELOPMENTS IN ALASKA AND NORTHWEST TERRITORY. All over Alaska are mineral resources of value. Down in the southeast portion of the territory, on Douglas Island, opposite Juneau, there is located the great Treadwell mine. It is a well developed property in which the tunnels and drifts show that it is between 300 and 400 feet between the hanging wall and foot wall, the space between being quartz carrying free gold and sulphurets averaging $8 to the ton. This is low grade ore, and to make it pay it is necessary that it be worked on a large scale, with modern machinery. The extent of the deposit, assuring millions of product, justified large expenditures, and the company owning the Treadwell mine has established on Douglas Island the largest quartz mill in the world. It operates 240 stamps and never stops, night or day, summer or winter, except for repairs. There are a number of other quartz ledges in numerous places in the southeastern part of Alaska, includ- ing the Sheep Creek region, where are silver, gold and other metals ; Salmon creek, near Juneau, silver and gold ; Silver Bow Basin, gold; Fuhter Bay, Admiralty Island; Silver Bay district, near Sitka, gold and silver; Besner's 84 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 85 Bay, Lynn Canal, as well as Fish River on Norton Sound, Unga district, and Lemon Creek, all gold districts. LITTLE PROSPECTING FOR QUARTZ. The working of quartz mines in Alaska has practically been confined to coast localities where labor can be had at reasonable rates and supplies and machinery can be procured with comparative ease. In the Yukon region there has been, so far, little prospecting for quartz. The miners who have gone there are mostly men of small means, looking for gold which they can dig themselves and wash out by means of pan or sluice-box. The time for prospecting is short. Unless one has means it is necessary to find "pay dirt" which will yield at least a "grub stake" before winter, or else go to work for wages. If one should find a quartz vein it would be necessary to do the surface prospecting on the ledge before winter set in. Then, if the vein did not turn out to be very rich and the ore high grade, it would not pay to import expensive machinery at heavy freight rates and pay the present high wages. Of course every miner expects that the largest fortunes on the Yukon, in the future, will come out of quartz mining, because where there is so much placer gold there must be a great " mother lode" somewhere, yet every man is now looking for a "poor man's mine" which requires only strength, industry and perseverance to yield either a modest or large fortune. Outside of the Yukon region there are seven other placer districts, all located on streams flowing near the coast, The 86 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Yukon region, however, has been the center of the Alaskan miners' hope for some years past. THE YUKON MINING DISTRICTS. It is an interesting fact that the first Yukon tributary to attract the attention of gold seekers was Stewart River, which is now looked upon as one of the most favorable prospecting regions. It was in 1883 that the first work was done there, and the following year brought quite a number of miners to the spot. The work done there was practi- cally confined to the bars formed near the mouth by the spring freshets. These yielded thousands of dollars, before the discoveries at other points attracted the miners from the Stewart region. The mouth of the Stewart River is about seventy-five miles above Dawson City. Its various tributaries have been little prospected prior to the present year; but doubtless many of those who have been unable to get locations on the Klondike will try the Stewart, unless the rapacity of the Canadian mining regulations should drive the bulk of the prospecting to the American tributaries of the Yukon, which may likely occur. THE PELLY RIVER. Another stream which had something of a mining boom several years ago is the Pelly River, which also made good returns to prospectors on its bars. Little gulch mining was attempted on the creeks and streamlets emptying into the Pelly, but the entire region of the Yukon from Teslin Lake to the Xanana is known to be auriferous. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 87 SIXTY-MILE CREEK. Sixty-Mile Creek and its tributaries Miller and Glacier Creeks are streams in which a considerable amount of mining has been done, although the settlement at Sixty-Mile Post, which is on an island at the mouth of Sixty-Mile Creek, never became very large. Its principal industry was the cutting of lumber to be rafted down to the more important camps below, the small steam sawmill being owned by Joseph Ladue, now widely famous as the owner of Dawson Citv. The logs are rafted down stream to the mill from the timbered regions near and below Fort Selkirk. FORTY-MILE. Forty Mile was long the chief town of the Upper Yukon. In the old Hudson's Bay trading days, when furs rather than gold were the magnet that drew white men to the Yukon, all the streams that were named at all were desig- nated as so many miles from the trading post at Fort Reli- ance. In 1888 the number of miners on Forty-Mile Creek and its tributaries became sufficiently great to cause the Alaska Commercial Company to establish on the east side of the mouth of the creek their station, called after the river " Forty-Mile," placing it in charge of Mr. "Jack" McQuesten, who is known to everybody in the Yukon valley and who conducts stores both at Forty-Mile and Circle City. FORT CUDAHY. Westward of the creek about three quarters of a mile and fronting on the Yukon is the station of the North American 88 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Transportation and Trading Company, known as Fort Cudahy, so named after Mr. John Cudahy, the well known Chicago packer, who is a director of the company. Forty-Mile and its tributaries have been mined with a considerable degree of success for ten years, but the town lost some of its population about 1893 in the rush to the Birch Creek mines. Even since that it has remained an important point, although it has been almost depopulated by the recent rush to the Klondike. The valuable mines of the Forty-Mile district will continue to be worked, however, and the stations at the mouth of the creek remain impor- tant supply points. CIRCLE CITY AND BIRCH CREEK DISTRICT. Circle City is the recently dethroned metropolis of the Yukon mining regions. It gained its prominence in 1893, when the richness of the Birch Creek region became known. It is not, like the other stations on the Upper Yukon, at the mouth of a tributary stream. The mouth of Birch Creek is about two hundred and twenty miles below Circle City, its course being almost parallel with the Yukon. At Circle City the portage from the Yukon to Birch Creek is only eight miles, so that Circle City is the trading point for the Birch Creek Mining District, and both the Alaska Commercial Company and the North American Transportation and Trading Company have stores located here. The eight miles of portage for goods from the town to the Creek makes the cost of pro- visions very high in the Birch Creek mining camps, THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 8 9 There are a few horses at Circle City which pack provisions to the camps forty to seventy miles away, but the carriage costs $45 per 100 lbs. for the greater dis- tance. Some miners carry their goods or have them packed over by Indians the eight miles to Birch Creek. But if this is done one has to pole up stream for from forty RAFTING THROUGH THE ICE ON THE YUKON. to seventy miles, making several portages around rapids, and at the head of canoe navigation to carry the provisions several miles up the particular tributary upon which the claim he is working is located. There are several of these tributaries, of which Mastodon, Molymute and Eagle Creek have turned out a very large amount of gold, and several good claims have also been partly worked on Boulder, In- 90 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE dependence, Greenhorn, Deadwood, Mammoth, and Harri- son Creeks. The Birch Creek District is the most important, so far developed, on the United States side of the Alaska boundary. The Forty-Mile Creek district is partly on the United States side and partly in Canadian territory, the creek emptying into the Yukon on the British side. WHITE RIVER. The headwaters of White River are somewhere in the Mt. Elias group of mountains, and the meager reports of those who have been over the ground indicate that these headwaters and tributaries are gold-bearing. The best road to that region is by the Burton's trail route over Chilcat Pass, but it has been little traveled, and no one except ex- perienced mountaineers who go in a party with a first-class equipment should attempt to make the trip. Going up White River from its mouth is also a troublesome journey, as the current is very swift. TANANA RIVER. The Tanana River, which enters the Yukon at Weare, is another very large stream, wholly in American territory, which will doubtless attract the attention of explorers. Some few parties have made excursions up that river, but the natives are said to be somewhat ill disposed toward white intrusion, and the exploration should be well organized to be successful. A few bars on the lower banks of the Tanana have been worked, and have produced gold in paying quati- THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 91 tities, and the prospect is good, therefore, for good placer locations to be found in paying quantities. The Kovukuk River and its tributaries have also been prospected with good results. Speaking in general terms, it may be said that all of the streams entering the Lewis and Yukon Rivers, from the Hootalinqua down to Hamilton's Landing, show evidences of gold in paving quantities being distributed throughout the interior of Alaska. It is not too much to claim that Alaska, so far as present knowledge exists, has more extensive and richer placer deposits than anv other section of the world, and those who know the country best will be greatly disappointed if the output of the Yukon mines during the next ten years does not exceed that of California in its palmiest days. THE KLONDIKE DISTRICT. The latest discoveries in placer mines in the Yukon region have set the continent in a flame of excitement. Not only those to whom the digging of gold from the ground has an aspect of romance and unreality, but also those whose knowledge of mines is practical and intimate, are so overwhelmed by the tangible and indisputable evidence as to admit that nothing in the history of mining has ever equaled the events on the Klondike during the past year. My own acquaintance with mining covers a third of a cen- tury, beginning with a toilsome and perilous trip to the Echuca diggings in Australia in 1S64, but after all these years, during which I have been in many mining districts all over the world, I am free to confess that the Klondike 92 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE discoveries outclass all of the great gold strikes I ever knew or heard of. The narrative of the finding of gold on Bonanza and El Dorado Creeks has been already told, up to the time that the returning miners brought news of the great discoveries that had been made. It now remains to describe the mines in what is popularly known as "the Klondike District." It may be well to say, however, that there are no mines on the Klondike, so far as known. That river is too large and deep to be worked as a placer mine. There may be, and probably are, bars on the main river that will yield fine gold, but the great mines of which we hear so much are on the tribu- taries of that stream. The Bonanza and its tributaries, especially the El Dorado, are known to be of surpassing richness. Estimates placed upon individual claims by their owners have been given and much tangible proof offered, but the statements of Mr. William Ogiivie, Dominion Sur veyor in charge of the boundary survey, are, if anything, still more astounding. In an official report from Dawson City in regard to the district, he says: "The extent of the gold-bearing section here is such as to warrant the assertion that we have here a district which will give 1,000 claims of 500 feet in length each. Now 1,000 such claims will require at least 3,000 men to work them properly, and, as wages for working in the mines are from $8 to $10 a day, without board, we have every reason to assume that this part of our territory will within a year or two contain 10,000 souls at least, for the news has gone out to the coast and an unprecedented influx is expected next spring. And THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 9-1 PROSPECTING ON ONE OF THE TRIBUTARIES OF THE KLONDIKE. , his is not all, for a large creek called Indian Creek joins the Yukon about midway between Klondike and the Stewart River, and all along this creek good pay dirt has been found. All that has stood in the way of working it heretofore has been the scarcity of pro\ isions and the difficulty of getting them up there even when here. Indian Creek is quite a large stream, and it is probable it will yield 500 or 600 claims. Further south yet lies the head of the several branches of Stewart River, on which some prospecting has 94 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE been done this summer and good indications found, but the want of provisions prevented development. " Since my last the prospects on Bonanza Creek and tribu- taries are increasing in richness and extent, until now it is certain millions will be taken out of the district in the next few years. On some of the claims prospected the pay dirt is of great extent and very rich. One man told me yesterday that he washed out a single pan of dirt on one of the claims on Bonanza Creek and found $14.25 in it. Of course, that may be an exceptionally rich pan, but $5 to $7 per pan is the average on that claim, it is reported, with five feet pay dirt and the width yet undetermined, but known to be thirty feet; even at that figure the result at nine to ten pans to the cubic foot, and 500 feet long, is $4,000,000 at $5 per pan. One-fourth of this would be enormous. Enough prospecting has been done to . show that there are at least fifteen miles of this extraordinary richness, and the indica- tions are that we will have three or four times that extent, if not all equal to the above, at least very rich." Since this report was written there have been a large number of other creeks and branches located, including a number of gulches tributary to Hunker Creek, and its branch, Gold-bottom Creek. Indian Creek or River, which Hows into the Yukon from the east thirty miles above Dawson, has also been located, its tributaries, including Quartz Creek and Dominion Creek, both having had their discovery claims located in June of the present year. The Indians have claimed that further up the Klondike than Hunker Creek there was a creek where there was "too The gold fields of the Klondike 95 much gold," meaning that it was richer than the Bonanza or El Dorado. About thirty-eight miles from the mouth of the Klondike a creek has been found which its discoverers have named " Too Much Gold Creek," and this has also been taken up in claims. Of course it may turn out that these other creeks may not prove to be profitable, but so far as heard from all of them prospect well, and every report that comes tends to increase the probability of rich returns from this famous district. The Klondike River, which heads in the Rocky Mountains, is said to be about one hundred and fifty miles long, and is a bold and rapid stream. Bonanza Creek empties into the Klondike about one and one-half miles up from the mouth. It is twenty- five miles long, and heads at the Dome, a large, bold mountain, in which a number of smaller creeks have their source. El Dorado, which is seven miles long, is a tributary of Bonanza, the confluence being twelve miles above the mouth of the latter stream. The latest reports show that the "pay" on Bonanza is good from the 6o's below the point of discovery, where one claim has 20 and 25 cent dirt, with the pay 125 feet wide, up to forty-three above, claim No. 41 being very rich. Gold on Bonanza is finer than that on El Dorado. There is not a blank up to No. 38, and there are some good claims above that number. The richest claims are in the middle of the gulch, the gold there being coarse, with lots of nuggets. This, with the fractions of claims, makes nearly twenty miles of paying ground. In addition there are a number of side gulches on which 96 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE A CACHE ON THE YUKON. good prospects have been discovered. Bonanza district, it is estimated, is likely to produce not less than $50,ooo,coo in gold, and this is believed to be an underestimate than otherwise. Hunker Creek empties into the Klondike twelve miles up and is twenty miles long. In places $2 and $3 to the pan on bedrock have been found, and the indications are that it will prove a rich-paying creek. Gold Bottom, a fork, and Last Chance, a side gulch, show up equally well for a considerable distance. These comprise, with Bear Creek, which comes into the Klondike between Bonanza and Hun- ker, the extent of territory of which anything certain is known. Quartz creek and Indian creek are reached from the heads of Bonanza and Hunker and they have also some prospects. The country rock is slate and mica schist. Many of the nuggets are full of quartz. Iron rock is found THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 97 with them, and pieces of stratified rock containing iron are found showing plainly on their sides the matrices of gold nuggets. Some fair gold-bearing quartz has been dis- covered, but no rich, free gold-bearing rock in place. The mineral belt seems to run northeast and southwest, if one may judge from the creeks, and to be about ten miles wide. It seems to parallel the main range of mountains about ioo miles distant from it. CHAPTER VIII. HOW TO GET THERE. WHO SHOULD GO AND HOW THEY MUST OUTFIT AND TRAVEL. While there is no question that vast riches are in the ground in the Yukon country, it must be remembered that this wealth can only be procured at the end of a long,tedious journey, that the steamboat route by St. Michaels and up the Yukon is only practicable for about ten weeks of the year; that the usual overland route is beset by dangers which may well appall any but the stoutest hearts, and will tax even the strongest and sturdiest constitutions, and that dangers with strong chances of death are ever present over a considerable portion of the trip. It should further be remembered that in the great multi- tude of gold seekers who are flocking to the Yukon disap- pointment must come to many. There is a very large ele ment of chance in all placer mining, and even in the richest mining districts the blanks are many. At the end of the journey, even under the best circum- stances, are many discomforts. For nine months the com- munity, whether it numbers three thousand or thirty thou- sand, will be absolutely cut off from every source of food supply, except that which it has in its own hands, and the 9 8 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 99 provisions on hand in September will have to last until June. If the supply is adequate, the danger will be reduced to a minimum, but if it falls short starvation — or at least great privation — must come to many. The great rush which has been made will severely tax the meager capacity of the two trading companies to supply. Those who go should be prepared with a year's provisions, at least. AT CIRCLE CITY. Those who go should remember that placer mining, es- pecially on the Yukon, is very hard labor. How hard will be explained in another part of this book. It consists of hard, continuous digging in frozen ground for the greater part of the year, and equally hard work shoveling, panning, etc., during the remaining months. The only variation from this is intervals of house building, carrying wood for fuel, cooking, etc. IOO THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE If you are a professional man your training will do you no good- An ounce of physical culture is worth ten pounds of classical or scientific training so far as placer mining is concerned. A knowledge of carpentering will come handy for one's personal benefit, but not as a means of employ- ment, for nearly every man who goes there will build his own house. Other mechanical trades will avail little ex- cept as they have trained the muscle. EXPERIENCED MINER HAS SLIGHT ADVANTAGE. On the other hand the experienced miner has only a slight advantage. It is of course true that experience is a good thing in mining as in other avocations, and in quartz min- ing is an absolute necessity, but the whole history of placer mining is full of illustrations of the fact that the novice— the "tenderfoot" as they say in the west, or the "new chum," as he used to be called in the Australian mines — is just as likely to find the richest pay as is the old and griz- zled prospector who has been in the forefront of every gold rush from Hangtown to Klondike. The experienced miner, other things being equal, will get at results somewhat quicker than the raw hand, but then there is no avocation in which experience comes quicker, or in more solid chunks, than in placer mining. The requisites, then, are a sound body, a strong and will- ing arm, and a brave heart. Add to these industry and perseverance, temperance and a cool head, and a man is well equipped for the journey and the life at the end. The weaklings, the timid, the easily discouraged and THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 1 01 roysterers would do well to stay at home. In such a climate as the Klondike, with the conditions of life that are there, only the fittest will survive the inevitable struggle with the forces of nature. GO PREPARED. One should go there prepared to fight it out with fortune for two, three or five years. Some women have gone there and stood the ordeal as well as men, but unless at the call of duty, as a helpmeet to a husband, or something out of the ordinary way, it is better for a woman to stay away. Those who go for pleasure will find that they have gone to the wrong place. Life on the Yukon is a hard experi- ence at the very best. THE TRIP BY SEA. If the gold seeker goes by either of the transportation lines to St. Michaels and thence up the Yukon he will save himself many inconveniences. It is a not unpleasant trip, unless one is seasick, and the dangers are onlv those of navigation, which are not many. Going by this route, the ordinary fare from Seattle or San Francisco is $150. One is allowed to carry free 150 pounds of baggage, but no pro- visions. The companies will, however, agree to furnish one with provisions for one year for $400. Therefore for $550, plus the fare to Seattle or San Francisco, one may be relieved from the difficulties about getting to the Klondike and food after he arrives. Yet there is an outfit to get. One cannot go so far toward the North Pole without clothes — very heavy clothing for 102 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE winter. What is needed will be discussed when we get to the overland journey. If one goes on the early boat so as to get there when navigation opens he will need summer as well as winter clothes. It is quite warm up there for two months. NO PLACE FOR STARCHED SHIRTS. There are many things one can just as well leave behind — starched shirts, for instance, and all kinds of gewgaws. The summer season is short, but the daylight is continuous. If we are going to mine we must first find our claim. How we go about it will be explained later. When it is found we have to work on it sufficiently to see if it will justify us in putting in our winter's work on it. If so, we have a house to build and to make tight and warm for winter, wood to bring and a lot more of very hard work which only calls for working clothes. WINTER APPAREL. For winter the nearer we approach the Siwash or the Eskimo in our outside apparel the better off we will be. In making preparations, therefore, use and not appearance should be the controlling consideration. After leaving Seattle, San Francisco or Portland a straight shoot is made for Dutch Harbor, on the island of Unalaska. This island is the most important of the Aleu- tian chain, and was the earliest seat of Russian dominion in Northwest America. The island is mountainous and the higher eminences are snow-capped, but below the snow- line everything is of a beautiful green appearance. Dutch 104 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Harbor is on an island in an enclosed bay, and here there is a supply station of the company which owns the sealing privilege of the Pribilof Islands, as well as of the steam- ship companies engaged in the Yukon trade, and the fleets of whaling vessels also use the harbor as a base of supplies. This place, about 2,000 miles from Seattle, is the first stop made by the steamer. The stop is very brief and the jour- ney is then renewed northward through Bering Sea to St. Michaels Island. You will notice by the map that you have passed the mouth of the Yukon about sixty miles, but this seems to be unavoidable, because the delta lands of the Yukon are so badly overflowed during the high waters of the first half of the navigation season that no suitable place for a station can be found at any point nearer than St. Michaels. It was known as Michaelovsky in the days of Russian domination, and was founded by the Russians in 1835. They were cordially welcomed at that time by the natives, the Mahlemoots, who had two villages known respectively as Tahcik and Agahbak, near which the Rus- sians built a fort. The two native villages were depopu- lated by smallpox in 1842. DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. The town is an irregularly built collection of old Russian buildings mixed in with the warehouses of the companies doing business on the river, and those of some independent traders. Altogether the white population numbers about fifty, and there are also several hundred Innuits or Eskimos who are resident upon the island. The island is treeless, THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 1 05 but is quite green during the summer season, and its rolling surface reminds one of some of the prairie regions of the western states. Across the narrow estuary rise several conical hills, formerly volcanoes, but long retired from active business. It does not get so cold at St. Michaels as in the interior. The average temperature, according to observation, is as follows : January — 5 May 3 2 «8° September .43.3° February.... — 6° June 45. 2 October. ... 28. o° March 9.5 July 53. i° November . 18.3 April 22.1 August 5 2 > l ° December.. 8.9 The season of regular snowfall begins at St. Michaels about October 1, and by October 20 ice has formed at the mouth of the Yukon. Navigation ends before October, however, because the freeze begins earlier on the upper river, and the mouth is closed tight by about the first of November and remains fast sealed until about the fifth of June, when the ice begins to break up. In ten days more the river is agfain clear for navigation. The sea about St. Michaels is usually covered by sludgy floes as early as the middle or end of October, and these open and close irregu- larly until the next June. FORT GET THERE. Near the town proper is the station of the North Amer- ican Transportation and Trading Company, to which they have given the distinctively American name of "Fort Get There." I06 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE When you get to St. Michaels you will perhaps find a boat waiting to take you along up the Yukon. Perhaps you will have to wait for it. When it comes you will get aboard and start back southward until the mouth of the Yukon is reached. Then the trip is made up the river, at first through a flat country, then through one interspersed with mountains. There are Indian villages here and there along the lower river, where all the inhabitants seem to be engaged in drying salmon. When you first get on board your Yukon steamer you think you will like some of this fish. They gratify you on board by giving you plenty of it. Next meal, more salmon, and so on until you are salmon-hungry no more. However, you will fare well on these steamers, considering the distance you are from civilization. In the general description of the Yukon region we have told you of the places you will pass on the river. In the stretch between Weare, at the mouth of the Tanana, and Circle City, you are surprised at the vast number of islands, large and small, that dot the stream, which is through this long distance very wide — at some points as much as seven miles. You begin to wonder how many of these islands there are, until somebody suggests forty or fifty thousand. You are willing to let it go at that, and then fall to wondering how the captain, or pilot, or whoever it is that has charge of the steering directions, can ever find the somewhat uncertain and somewhat shifting channel. That is, you do these things, and some others, if you are coming up late in the season. If you are on the first boat that comes up in June you do not have time for anything trivial. The THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 107 one serious business in life is fighting mosquitoes, gnats and their kindred, and listening to the yarns of the old-time Yukoner (whom you would just then like to strangle), as he tells you how much worse they are higher up, where, he informs you, "you have to chop your way through 'em with an axe." This is one of the things you have to endure, in summer, on the Yukon. TRADING POST, FORT SELKIRK. Above Circle City you will have some magnificent mountain scenery to admire, grand upheavals that are sublime in their rugged beauty. When you get to Dawson you will congratulate yourself upon having reached it without trouble. That is, of course, if you get there. If one does not leave Seattle until the last steamer it is quite possible that he will have to spend the winter at some place en route. The com- pany can not, and will not, guarantee to get their passengers to Dawson City so late in the season, although they try, of course, to do so, and time the steamer's departure with that 108 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE end in view. But any misadventure causing delay, or an early winter season, will prevent them from making the trip through. Doubtless the companies will increase their carry- ing capacity by the summer of 1898. CLOTHING FOR THE TRIP AND MINES. Some of the things that one needs in making the overland journey will not be required if the trip is made by sea, and if one has arranged his food supply with the transportation company of course the load will be lightened. However one goes, however, he will require a good outfit of clothing, all of the useful order. Two suits of stout clothing such as corduroy or the stoutest jeans, or one jacket and two pairs of pants ; about three pairs of heavy wool socks and three of ordinary socks ; two pairs of banket-lined mittens; two pairs of rubber boots and a can of rubber cement to repair them with if they crack; two or three pairs of shoes, both stout and one pair extra heavy, five or six yards of mosquito netting of the best quality; one or two caps; sou'wester cap, rubber coat for summer; three suits heavy underwear; three or four heavy woolen shirts, a sweater, two summer negligee shirts, two rough towels, and a cartridge belt. Take along a bachelor's sewing outfit, needles, thread, pair of scissors, piece of beeswax, shirt buttons, "hand- snap" trousers buttons, etc. You will want a shaving outfit. . You may think you do not, but if you ever have your beard frozen into a solid icicle you will change your mind. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE IO9 For the more severe winter weather fur garments are desirable, in fact essential for comfort. These can be bought in Juneau if the demand has not swamped the supply. There are water. boots, made of seal and walrus skins, and winter or dry weather boots made of various kinds of furs. Trousers are made of various kinds of skin, principally that of the marmot, or Siberian ground squirrel. A most important and characteristic garment is the "par- ka," or upper garment made of marmot and muskrat skins or tanned reindeer hides, with enormous winter hoods or collars of dog-hair, fox-fur, or, still better, trimmed with the long hair of the wolverine or glutton. This "parka" has sleeves and compasses the body of the wearer without an opening before or behind from his neck to his feet. His head is thrust through an aperture left for it; and it has a puckering-string which draws it snugly around the neck. This is a favorite and in fact universal winter garment with the Innuits or Eskimos of the coast, the most esteemed kind being made of alder-bark-tanned reindeer-skin for winter use, with the hair worn inside. The wolverine trimming of the hood is much favored by white residents of the Yukon country, the hair, which is five or six inches long, being use- ful in protecting the face without obscuring the vision. A well made parka will cost from $25 to $100 according to the material, but it is practically cold-proof. Less expen- sive fur garments can be procured, but will not afford as much protection as the native garment. IIO THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Besides the blankets, fur robes will be found very accept- able as a part of the winter bedding outfit. The Chilcat blankets of goat wool used to be famous, but those that the Chilcat Indians sell to-day are for the greater part base imi- tations. Of course, not every one who goes to the Yukon will have the same outfit of clothing, but all should go prepared for an arctic winter. Do not forget a pair of snow glasses, made of blue or green glass, which will be a preventive against snow blindness. Oilskin bags, to hold provisions likely to be injured by water, are also very useful. A fur-lined canvas sleeping bag is a most valuable addi- tion to the outfit. TOOLS, UTENSILS AND OUTFIT. Those going by the overland route will need not only a miner's, but also a woodman's, boatman's and boat- builder's outfit. These can be made as extensive as desired, but it should be remembered that they all have to be carried, either by their owner or by Indians at ruinous rates. A large whip-saw, small hand-saw, draw-knife, pocket knife, pocket rule, small hunting-knife, hatchet, chisel, axe, about six pounds of assorted nails (wire nails two and four inches long are most needed), brace and bit, five pounds of pitch, three pounds oakum, a calking-iron, and about fifty feet of ^-inch rope and some sail canvas is about the mini- mum outfit. If the party consists of three or four a few more 112 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE tools, such as a jack-plane and an additional saw or hatchet, will be found useful. So might an adze, but, as before stated, economy in weight is a very important feature where portages over steep trails have to be made, even after the Chilcoot pass has been scaled. CAMP EQUIPAGE. The camp equipage should consist of a tent (the size of which should be accommodated to that of the party, but it should be snug), a frying pan, baking pan, granite kettle, bread pan, coffee pot, granite plate and cup, large mixing spoon, and a knife, fork and spoon for each of the party. A small sheet iron stove with three telescopic lengths of pipe should be included in the outfit. Fishing tackle (trout line and hooks) will pay for the taking. A pick, shovel and pan will do to start with as far as pros- pecting is concerned. A good Winchester rifle with reloading tools and a hundred rounds of ammunition, with a cartridge belt, is a very useful part of the outfit. Game is not very plenti- ful along the main traveled route, but an occasional shot at fresh meat may be procured. When the journey's end is reached the rifle will help out the larder to a consid- erable extent. PROVISIONS FOR A YEAR. The greatest of all dangers to the man who ventures into the Yukon mining regions is that he may find the food supply scarce. Even if he has money he may not be able to buy enough to eat. The amount of food getting into the THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE ' 1 3 THE TREASURE STEAMSHIP EXCELSIOR AND J. F. HIGGINS, HER CAPTAIN. district before everything freezes up limits the supply until the next June. If many go in without food supplies they will have to depend upon buying at exorbitant rates, and if the stock is exhausted before summer comes they will have to go without. The only safe way is to take a year's supply of food along. This will, of course, vary with the individual, but the appetite is sure to be good, and the stock should be something like this: 500 lbs. flour, 100 lbs. corn meal, 50 lbs. oatmeal, 150 lbs. beans, 25 lbs. coffee, 12 lbs. Jtea, 10 lbs. salt, 75 lbs. sugar, 114 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE ioo lbs. assorted evaporated fruits, good supply of evaporated vegetables, 40 lbs. dessicated potatoes, 150 lbs. bacon, 10 lbs. dried beef, y 2 lb. of pepper, 10 lbs. baking powder. Other things may be added, such as condensed milk, etc., to suit the individual taste and pocket, always remembering that it is a requisite to economize weight as much as pos- sible. A pound of citric acid should be included in the outfit. It is not only a pleasant drink, but is also a preventive against the scurvy, which is the complaint most prevalent on the Yukon. - Other things that should be taken are medicines of a simple character. Above all, do not forget matches. They should be kept in a can or oil sack, and should not be packed so tight as to make the ignition of the whole supply at once a possi- bility. You now have quite a load, but one should not go with- out a full supply. You should have some money in your purse ; not only enough to pay your way, but also enough to last some time after you get to the end of your journey. It will cost something — and a considerable amount too — to get you and your supplies up to the Klondike. CHAPTER IX. THE JUNEAU ROUTES. HOW TO GO DOWN THE YUKON FROM ITS HEADWATERS. In a former part of this book the Yukon River region has been described in a general way. It was there stated that the Yukon is formed by the junction of the Lewis and Pelly Rivers. The most common method of reaching the mines is by the Juneau route. Either from San Francisco or Seattle, one can go by steamer to Juneau, which is the largest city in Alaska — or was until Dawson City attained its recent prominence. THE TIME FOR STARTING. There are parties going over this route all months of the year from March to September. If a party go over before the snow melts in the mountains they can haul their supplies much more easily by the use of sleds. The sled used for the purpose should not be more than seven or eight inches high, seven and a half feet long and about one foot four inches in width. The runners should be metal-shod, brass being the best material for this purpose. Sleds can generally be used until the middle of April. After that the snow begins to melt and the expense and toil of getting the outfit to the headwaters of the Yukon are greatly increased. Some go earlier in the year and use dog-sleds, but the JI 5 Il6 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE cold that must be encountered is terrific and no person who is not experienced in arctic travel should undertake it. WHEN SNOWSTORMS ARE ENCOUNTERED It should always be remembered, too, that those going either too early or too late are likely to encounter snow- storms of such severity that they often overwhelm the trav- eler. Many a person has perished in those storms before being able to reach shelter. Juneau is situated on the mainland, on a narrow strip of nearly level ground between the sea and a lofty, snow- capped mountain, rising 3,300 feet above. It was founded in 1880, at which time Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris prospected in the neighborhood. They found gold in the ravines and gorges of Gold Creek, near the settlement which the miners first called Harrisburg, after Richard Harris, then Rockwell, after a United States naval officer, and finally by resolution of a miners' meeting settled on the name "Juneau." Joseph Juneau was a nephew of Solomon Juneau, who was the founder of the city of Milwaukee, Wis., a fact which the latter city has duly commemorated by the erection of a statue in honor of the latter. JUNEAU WITHOUT LEGAL EXISTENCE. As the government has not yet extended the land laws to Alaska, Juneau, although a city of over two thousand in- habitants, has no legal existence, and the only title of its inhabitants is that of "squatter sovereignty." Yet they ^^^■fi.ir ; • I 114' lr ¥l*5/m*Wsm i_^ \m ilillii * m ) 'iiiiiiii Il8 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE are very enterprising, have a good water works system and electric light plant, and are supporters of two or three news- papers. From Juneau the route lies up the Lynn Canal, which has two inlets, known respectively as the Chilcat and Chil- coot inlets, leading up to the passes of the same names. The Chilcat Pass route is not well known. It is known as the "Dalton Trail," from the fact that Mr. Jack Dalton and a number of Indians in his employ passed over the route a few years ago. It is said that a native in Mr. Dalton's employ passed over the trail afoot and reached the Yukon River, just above Fort Selkirk, in fourteen days. THE WHITE PASS ROUTE. The White Pass route is being developed by the British Yukon Company, who have constructed over it a rough pack trail. The Canadian government is being urged to build over the pass a wagon road, preliminary to the con- struction of a railway. The summit of this pass is 2,600 feet above the sea, and it is said that a little work would make it much superior to the Chilcoot route. The idea is to use the new route as a pack trail, with a saving in expense and toil in reaching Lake Takish, or by taking another direc- tion which presents few difficulties, to reach Lake Teslin, which is at the head of the Hootalinqua River. There the boat can be built and the trip down to Dawson can be made with little difficulty, eliminating the dangers of White Horse Rapids and Miles Canon. The only bad place on the route would then be the Five Fingers Rapids, which THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE II9 are by no means so dangerous as the other two. Recent reports are that several parties have their outfits packed over that route, but it will take some work on the part of the company having it in charge before the prospecting parties will abandon the well-worn Chilcoot route. To reach the White Pass route as well as Chilcoot Pass it is necessary to go to Dyea, sometimes spelled "Ty-a." THE TOWN OF DYEA. From Juneau to Dyea, eight miles, we take the little steamer "Rustler." There are others, now that the road is crowded, but the "Rustler" has taken so. many safely that it seems to be part of the route itself. When reached, Dyea proves to be an Indian village and trading post up a creek of the same name. The village has been there a long while, but the trading post was established later by Captain J. J. Healy, now general manager of the North American Trans- portation and Trading Company. The place is marked "Healy's store" on many of the maps. There are several stores there now, and the last chance to procure supplies for several hundred miles is presented here. From Dyea six miles further can be made by canoes and then we disembark. OVER CHILCOOT PASS. From Dyea we can make arrangements with the Chilcat Indians to pack all of our outfit to Lake Lindermann, about twenty-seven miles distant over the pass. The established packing rate heretofore has been from twelve to fifteen cents a pound. This makes the expense very heavy, but 120 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE the only other alternative is to carry the load ourselves. This is obviously impossible, unless we make many trips backward and forward. This is sometimes done, but it means possibly weeks of toil and exposure. From the head of canoe navigation we go through the canon, up a steep ascent, to Sheep Camp. Sometimes it is possible to have supplies packed on horses to this point, and in winter pack horses can be used to within half a mile of the summit of Chilcoot Pass. At this time the further progress by sleds can be continued for a long distance; but after the snow has melted off the lower levels the route is impassable for animals. After resting at Sheep Camp, where we have " made camp" for the night, we start at daybreak, following the trail up the canon until we reach the overhanging rocks which, affording shelter from storms, have received the name of Stone House. The summit is two miles above, by a precipitous and circuitous route. It must be crossed in good weather, and if a storm is brewing there is nothing else to do except to camp at Stone House and wait. The larger number of those making the trip rest here. THE TUG OF WAR. Now comes the tug of war. The first mile and a hajf is bad enough, but the last half mile is true Alpine work. If you are carrying a load, so much the harder. The 2,400 feet climb from Stone House to the summit, through the snow, or in the summer through a mixture of slush and rocks, is about the hardest physical exertion we shall meet THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 121 on our trip. We reach the top well winded, tired and re- lieved. If we have been carrying a heavy pack we lay it clown and take a rest. On our way up we have passed two or three noteworthy glaciers, — one a short distance above Sheep Camp, and the other as we near the summit, a wall of blue ice towering a thousand feet above the pass. We are not going to meet such another piece of road, unless we are trying to do our own packing. If this is the case we must go back and bring up the goods we have left behind. It is often necessary, in making journeys in this country, to cache part of our outfit, that is to say, to put it in a place where it is covered up so that animals will not devour it. Over in the timbered regions this is often done by building a receptacle of logs, mounted on uprights, high above the groundling vermin and bear-tight. Articles so cached are almost invariably respected, both by whites and Indians, he who would do violence to a cache being looked upon, by Yukoners, in about the same light that a horse-thief is regarded in western Texas. We will assume, however, that in the present case the packing has been hired out to the Chilcats as far as "Lake Lindermann, or at least all except the amount the members of the party can themselves carry in a single trip. THE DESCENT TO LAKE LINDERMANN. If there is snow all the way the nine-mile down-hill trip to Lake Lindermann is quite easy. From the summit the first descent is about six hundred feet to Crater Lake, the top of what was once a volcano but is now a lake about a 122 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE mile wide. It is the actual source of the great Yukon, a river which at its mouth, about 2,200 miles below, dis- charges into Norton Sound a larger volume of water than is emptied into the Mexican Gulf by the Mississippi. There are two or three other small lakes to be skirted and some shallow but swift rivulets to be waded, before we reach Lake Lindermann. Here we make a camp, because we have a raft to build, and we are tired out. There is a difference of many degrees of temperature between this lake and the summit of Chilcoot Pass, but it is still cold enough, even here, except during the period from June to September. DOWN THE LAKE CHAIN. Our journey now lies through a chain of connected lakes which culminate in that arm of the Yukon known as Lewis River. When we get to the shore of Lake Lindermann, we find timber plentiful, but small. It is best to build a raft here, because the timber to build boats is scarce, and there is a portage to be made at the other end of this lake. At the first camp we make on Lake Lindermann the Indians keep us company until morning. They bid us good-bye, after trying to borrow a little tobacco from those of our party who use it, and then we begin, as soon as we have breakfasted, to get logs together for our raft. After enough material has been gathered, we anchor out the largest and longest log, then float out another large log and lash it alongside, and so on until we have it wide enough. Then we make another laver crosswise, then another across THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 123 STORE AT FORTY-MILE. that, and then a fourth, and then light poles, until we can put our goods on top of the raft and have them well out of the water. The raft should be well calculated in this regard, for it may be well above water at the start, but, with a ton or so of freight and several hundred pounds of fortune- hunters, the entire contrivance is likely to be under water, to the great detriment of many of our belongings — sugar and salt, for instance. We are glad we thought of the oil bags. The logs should be all procured and piled up before the raft is made, and the structure should be put together as quickly as possible, because as the logs get water-soaked they sink deeper into the lake. When we are ready we pole out into the lake, hoist a sail if we have one, and with- out hugging the shore too closely we keep toward the right bank until we see a well-worn trail. Then we take our raft 124 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE to the shore, unload it, and make a portage of less than half a mile across to Lake Bennett. A crooked river, a mile long, connects the two lakes; but it consists of rapids and rugged rocks, and we do not care to risk our belongings. LUMBER AT $IOO PER THOUSAND. A year or two ago a party of men brought over the pass, in the early spring when the sledding was good, a small boiler, engine and circular saw. They were going to build a boat, put the engine and boiler into it for motive power, and go down the river. By the time their mill was up and in running order, along came a party of prospectors and wanted to buy lumber of them. Since then they have been kept busy selling lumber at $100 per thousand, or ready- built boats for from $75 upward. They have not been able to supply the demand which the new rush has brought upon them. Many have to cut out their lumber with the whip- saw in order to make their boats, timber being quite plen- tiful. It will take about six hundred feet of lumber to make a boat to hold four men and outfits. It will be from twenty- five to thirty feet long, and should be carefully and strongly made. Boats for the Yukon are made in all styles, and some without any style at all. The best are made with lap streaks, and are tightly calked with oakum and pitch. Take enough time to make the boat a sound one, for it must last a considerable time and withstand rough usage. When the raft is completed and loaded, the voyage is com- menced. A good sail will help immensely, and if our party THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE "5 are not sufficiently adept to make a sloop rig for the boat, a square sail will do very well. KEEP TO THE RIGHT. The right-hand side of Lake Bennett should be followed until Cariboo Crossing is reached. Here there is a stream connecting Lake Bennett with Lake Tagish, and near by is a well worn trail used by bands of Cariboo in their annual PROSPECTORS' CAMP OX THE KLONDIKE. or biennial excursions. The connecting river is about two miles long, and quite sluggish. In Lake Tagish we keep near the left-hand shore for about eighteen miles, and then enter a river which is about six miles long. About half way is Tagish House, a large Indian council house, 126 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE several huts and a burial ground, usually deserted, but be- longing to the Stick tribe of Indians. The river is wide and sluggish, and in some places quite shallow. We emerge into Lake Marsh or Mud Lake, through which we follow the left bank twenty-five miles to the head of a wide river, the Lewis. On Marsh Lake, if it be sum- mer, we learn most completely the suction capacity of the famed Yukon mosquito. But now we are through it and well on our way down the Lewis we have something else to think of, for about twenty miles of the river having been passed we are approaching the worst danger points of the whole journey. MILES CANON AND WHITE HORSE RAPIDS. About twenty-five miles, or a little less, below Lake Marsh a wall of mountains rises up, and the river, which has been about two hundred yards in width, is suddenly confined w T ithin a space of less than fifty feet. This is the famous and deservedly dreaded Miles Canon, in which scores have been drowned. It is three-quarters of a mile long, and about half w 7 ay down there is a sudden widening of the channel into short curved bays on each side, then a contraction of the canon to its original narrowness until it emerges into the broad river. i\t the enlarged center the rushing waters spread out and have a terrific suction toward the sides, and then when the canon narrows again the waters plunge into the confined outlet with seething violence. Some go through the canon safely, some at- tempt it and die, and others take the only safe course THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 127 and make a portage. As we approach the canon we keep to tJie rig Jit. If vve decide to "shoot" the canon we lighten our boat of part of its load, use our efforts to keep in the middle of the channel, and in about two min- utes the boat and its occupants will be through the canon or else sucked down in that powerful current. My advice is — don't! On the right-hand side, about one hundred feet above the canon, there is a smooth trail along a bench, which many hundreds of Yukoners have used in making a portage. If we follow their example, three or four hours will suffice to get boat and outfit over the trail, with everything safe and sound. It is a little work, but none of the party is missing. KEEP TO THE LEFT. Onr troubles, however, are not yet over, for having emerged from Miles Canon it is only between two and three miles to the White Horse Rapids. Keep to the left. As soon as we reach smooth water on the left bank w r e tie up and look for a place to make a portage. Some run the rapids ; but many of those who have at- tempted it have drowned. The portage is not long and the danger to be avoided is equal to that just passed through at Miles Canon. Near the rapids there is a plane of rock, near the river, which is often used to line the boats through the rapids. This will do at a very low stage of water, but even then is dangerous. If the water is high, disaster is more than likely and many a boat has been dashed to pieces on the rocks or swamped in the waters when its owner has tried to line it down. 128 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE ft, HOME OF JOSEPH LADUE, FOUNDER OF DAWSON. The best way is to make a portage of a hundred yards or so to safe water, and a little below is another stretch of equal danger around which a portage should also be made. It is about half a mile through White Horse Rapids. ON TO THE YUKON. The worst dangers of the journey are now over and the boat glides on, with a swift current, sixteen miles to the con- fluence of the Tahkeena River and then twelve miles further until we reach Lake La Barge. It will be understood that we have been talking about the summer trip. Those who come in during March or April, before the thaw begins, will make the journey from Chil- coot Pass as far as Lake La Barge, if possible with sleds. They will then stop here, with the worst dangers of the journey past, to build their boat for the down-river trip. 136 The gold fields of the Klondike: Lake La Barge is a very beautiful sheet of water, thirty miles in length and from five to ten miles in width. At its end we emerge into the river again, and after a run of thirty miles come to the junction of the Hootalinqua River. There are numerous rocks in this thirty miles, but after that it is plain sailing until at 135 miles below we reach the Five Finger Rapids. For five miles before reaching them a marked acceleration of the current is noticeable. Keep close to the right bank and make a landing. If the load is heavy it should be lightened before attempting to go through. DANGER AHEAD. Five Fingers is an obstruction caused by a ledge of rock lying directly across the stream with five openings in it. There are four rocks of large size standing in a row across the river. If not too heavily loaded these rapids can be passed without any difficulty. Keep to the right. Three miles below are the Rink Rapids. Keep to the right. There is no danger here, nor is there any more to the end of our journey. Below Rink Rapids we have the smoothest kind of traveling all the way to the mouth of the Klondike, which is about two hundred and thirty miles. We go on the first fifty-five miles, and the Pelly River coming in and joining the Lewis, we are on the main Yukon. The other important streams are the White, Stewart, Sixty-Mile and Indian Rivers, all streams of golden repute and then — The Klondike and Dawson City ! CHAPTER X. DAWSON CITY, DESCRIPTION OF THE METROPOLIS OE THE YUKON. When you get to Dawson City you are in a typical min- ing camp, with all that- the name implies. Of course there are differences in mining camps, but they are for the greater part climatic, and the general characteristics of mining camps have always been about the same — from Hangtown to Dawson. Some differences will be noted at Dawson which are due to surrounding circumstances. One of the most noteworthy is the absence of "shooting scrapes." In the "boom times" of Hangtown, Washoe, Tombstone, Deadwood, Leadville and Creede they had, as the saying went, "a man for break- fast every morning." This prevalence of lawlessness in the mining camps in the United States is largely an evil arising from the too literal carrying out of democratic principles. Those who are at work in the mines are too busy to attend to matters of law and order, and, as a consequence, the new settlement is largely run, in its earlier days, by the lawless elements in the community, the "sure-thing" gambler, the cappers and loafers, and the professional "desperado," who puts in his intervals between stage-robbing and claim- jumping and loafing around saloons, and who poses as a 131 132 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE bad man " from Bitter Creek" until, in some quarrel, he is killed. ONLY ONE SERIOUS AFFRAY. The Klondike discoveries were made in September, and from that time until the boats came out in June only one serious affray occurred. A man was shot in the back by a vicious character, who was immediately arrested by the Canadian Mounted Police, and was awaiting trial for felo- nious assault, at last accounts, his victim having recovered. There are many and just complaints about the hard rules enforced by Canada in respect to mining claims on the Yukon, but, on the other hand, the protection afforded by their agencies of law and order cannot be too highly com- mended. Dawson is laid out in rectangular shape into lots and 66- foot streets, and has been regularly entered as a town site by Joseph Ladue, its proprietor, and town-lots are as good as gold, for they bring, in favorable locations, as high as $5,000 apiece. It lies on low ground on the east bank of the Yukon, a short distance below the mouth of the Klondike River. The principal part of the inhabitants live in tents, temporarily, although a good many houses have gone up, many of them being finer than anything heretofore known on the Yukon. Yet the best of them would be considered poor affairs in almost any civilized towns or villages in the United States. The most pretentious of them are the saloons, except the large warehouses built by the two trad- ing companies. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I 33 The latter do a big business. They control the means of ingress for all kinds of merchandise, and while they have been straining every resource to get provisions through to meet the big influx of people who are coming in from every direction, while they have practically a monopoly of the business, they do not use it oppressively, although when a shortage comes they put up prices to steep figures until it is relieved. "FOUR BITS" THE MINIMUM COIN. The lowest measure of value in actual use at Dawson is " four bits" or fifty cents. It is the price of the smallest articles. They say that a newcomer who had arrived via the river and whose nether garments were out of repair went to one of the stores and called for a needle, which he got, and then asked what was the price. "Four bits," was the stereotyped response. "Isn't that pretty steep?" asked the tenderfoot. THE FREIGHT THAT COUNTS. "Well, you see, my friend," said the storekeeper, "it ain't the first cost of the needle that counts, but it's the freight." Prices of commodities fluctuate at Dawson, as elsewhere, in accordance with the inexorable law of supply and de- mand, except whisky, which is staple at "four bits" a drink, and you can fill the glass to the rim if you want to. The demand never fails nor the supply. If the latter should threaten a shortage, the river is near by and strength would be allowed to suffer rather than quantity. 134 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE SCALE OF PRICES. As to other commodities, they are all proportionately high. Joseph Ladue, who has been merchandising on the Yukon for years, has prepared the following scale of prices: Flour, per ioo pounds $ 1 2.00 Moose hams, per pound 1 .00 Caribou meat, per pound 65 Beans, per pound 10 Rice, per pound 25 Sugar, per pound 25 Bacon, per pound 40 Butter, per roll 1.50 Eggs, per dozen 1.50 Better eggs, per dozen 2.00 Salmon, each $1 to 1^50 Potatoes, per pound 25 Turnips, per pound 15 Tea, per pound ..... 1.00 Coffee, per pound 50 Dried fruits, per pound 35 Canned fruits 50 Canned meats 75 Lemons, each 20 Oranges, each 50 Tobacco, per pound 1.50 Liquors, per drink 50 Shovels 2 «5o Picks .,..., 5.00 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE *35 Coal oil, per gallon , i.oo Overalls 1.50 Underwear, per suit $5 to 7*50 Shoes 5.00 Rubber boots $ 10 to 15.00 BRINGING HOME THEIR GOLD. Along in the late spring, when the supply runs down to a low ebb, these prices may be doubled or more. Lumber at last quotations was worth $150 per thousand feet, rough; 250 planed. Wages in town $10 per day for unskilled labor, $15 for carpenters and $15 for work in the mines; >ut it was thought wages would get lower with the big irrivals of new people. Logs are worth $30 per thousand 136 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE feet, log measure at the mill. The sawmill at Dawsoti is of small capacity, and although it is kept running day and night it is away behind its orders. MUCH CAROUSING GOING ON. Dawson is what is called "a lively camp." Liveliness, in this connection, largely means drunkenness and carous- ing. Those who have lived in "flush" mining camps will be able to picture the scene for themselves. The people coming to town are of heterogeneous assortment. The first man you meet, rough in garb and grizzled in appearance, may be a graduate of a good college, a scion of a first-class family, and a man who ean interestingly discuss subjects of literature, science and culture. The next, arrayed in the " boiled shirt" only recently introduced into the Yukon, and costing a dollar to launder, is probably the "barkeep" of a favorite saloon, or the "piano-thumper" of the biggest dance house. The saloons are of the mining-camp type. In front the bar, with a pair of gold scales at the end. Back of that the dance is going on, and either a piano that has seen better days, or a violin that would better have never occurred at all, is constantly going. "Git your pardners for a cowtillion," yells a loud voice, w T hich follows w T ith " Balance all ! Alaman left! Ladies chain!" and so on, concluding with "Prom- enade all — to the bar ! " They make the numbers short and lively, so as to make the last call come as frequently as possible. In the back part of the room are the gambling lay-outs, THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I37 the poker games and the other devices by which the miners are inveigled to give up all or a large share of their dust to the boiled-shirt gentry who toil not. Not all miners are patrons of these establishments. Quite a large share of those who are now delving in the mines of the district are men of industry and purpose who came in with a "grub stake" and are straining every nerve for a " home stake," looking perhaps to the relieving of a family pinched by poverty, a mother in humble circumstances, or a loyal sweetheart who waits and watches; all thinking of some one on "the outside." It is queer that home should be so designated. In Arizona, before the era of railroads, when the only means of communication was by buckboard over the desert to the end of the railroad at Los Angeles, we used to call the trip to San Francisco "going inside." Up on the Yukon they recognized the completeness of their isolation by saying that one coming to the " States" is "going outside." THE DISCOVERER OF BONANZA. In Dawson, as in other mining towns, there is the loafer who has no mine, no home, nothing but a consuming thirst, which he is waiting for some other person to gratify. To him, as a boon, comes the miner, usually an old-timer, who has something besides room in his dust sack and who is willing to set 'em up. The latter goes from saloon to saloon with quite a retinue. One of the most generous of these " producers" is said to be George McCormack, owner of the Discovery on Bonanza Creek, He is a man of some r^~ s : 3* 40& f j ON THE WAY TO THE KLONDIKE. Miners and Indians packing outfit up the steep ascent above Stone House, Chilkoot Pass. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I 39 intelligence and an old-timer on the river, with an Indian wife and several brown-faced youngsters. He used to have a little store on the river above "Five Finger Rapids," where he traded with the Indians, and he did some work in developing a coal vein in the same neighborhood. He has lived at every camp on the river and is well known all along the river. He was engaged at the Indian village at the mouth of the Klondike in drying salmon for a living prior to making the great strike on Bonanza. The old-timers call him "Stick George," because of his close relationship with the Stick Indians; but just now he is being made much of by the "rounders" of the camp, and in frontier fashion George frequently "treats the crowd" at an expense sometimes of as much as $50 per treat. Even a discovery claim on the Bonanza will not stand that long. There are men of all sorts and conditions in Dawson, and of all shades of opinion. Many are old Pacific coast miners, and therefore ardent believers in free coinage theories. Many of them think that the gold of the Yukon region is so plentiful that it will cause gold to be demone- tized. Some of those who came out with a "home stake" last summer made the trip with a view to getting the value of their money while it was good. WOMEN IN THE CAMP. There are several good women at Dawson and the mines near by — most of them with their husbands, whose fortunes they are sharing, but a few of them working in various useful ways to improve their own fortunes. I40 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE The women who have been brave enough to go to the frozen north with their husbands are of the kind to prove valuable aids to them, and some of the most fortunate men in the gulches are included among the married men. The Canadian law does not recognize a married woman's prop- erty rights, and she cannot locate a claim in addition to her husband's, but the aid which she extends in giving the home atmosphere even to a lonely hut on the confines of the Arctic Circle is as good as a gold mine. The good luck of the married miners has made a deep im- pression upon the bachelor ones. Some have left sweet- hearts at home, many others are heart-whole and fancy-free, but very impressionable. An unmarried woman of good character who goes to the Yukon will have to stand a con- stant siege of admirers. I do not say this in order to start a stampede of spinsters to the new El Dorado, but merely as a veracious recorder of the facts surrounding the social life at Dawson City. BRIDGET STRUCK ,IT RICH. I give the following story at second-hand, but it is too good not to be true. " P. B. Weare, of Chicago, head of the North American Transportation and Trading Company, says some women do well in the Klondike region. A year ago he and Mrs. Weare rejoiced in the possession of a cook, whose name was Bridget. One day Bridget announced her intention of going to Alaska. Mr. Weare remonstrated. 'You can't mine,' he said. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I4I " 'That's true,' answered the woman, 'but there's them that can.' "A woman of stylish appearance and haughty demeanor swished her silken skirts past the admiring office-boy in Mr. Weare's office last Thursday, and extended a primrose- gloved hand to the stout man who sat at the desk. Looking up, he recognized his old cook. "She told him that before she had got fifty miles up the Yukon she had received 125 proposals of marriage, and that she had held off until an engaging compatriot, with a Kerry brogue and a mine that panned at the rate of $50,000 a month, swore that he could not live without her. 'I am now on my way to Europe,' said Bridget, 'and I thought I'd like to see you as I went through. You mind what I told you when I left?' " In a mining camp, however rough, women of good repute are accorded the highest deference. THE DISREPUTABLE ELEMENT. In Dawson, however, all the women are not of the class named, and the "dance hall fairies" are among the most demoralizing elements of the town. These characters follow successful gold mining everywhere. Inspector Constantine, head of the Mounted Police, succeeds in keeping the dis- reputable element within bounds. The women who went into Dawson wore bloomers over the mountain, and when they reached the city they made up their minds to adopt the costume altogether, thus appearing in the streets and dance halls. But Captain Constantine gave orders that either I 4 2 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE bloomers or their wearers must go, and the women took to abbreviated skirts, instead. The currency is gold dust. The stores and saloons have gold-scales at the end of counter and bar. The saloons issue chips w r hich are good at the bar or in the gambling game. The miner brings in his sack and leaves it behind the bar, saying, "Give me five hundred," or whatever amount he thinks he requires. When he wants his gold again he re- turns the unused chips and pays for what he owes. The summer at Dawson is a queer season, because the sun CHAMPION PAN FOR ONE MONTH ON EL DORADO CREEK, $300. BROUGHT HOME BY CLARENCE J. BERRY. The gold fields of The Klondike 143 never sets and one can read a newspaper without artificial light at every hour of the twenty-four. The famous Yukon mosquito is a terror for some time after the snow melts, but becomes less troublesome in the latter part of the summer. When in full training he is a ferocious demon in comparison with whom the famous Jersey variety is a cooing innocent. Before the snow melted last spring an enterprising cattle- man from Juneau drove in a herd of forty beeves from the coast and slaughtered them. The beef went readily at from 50 to 75 cents a pound. NEW FINDS BRING STAMPEDES. The daily excitement in Klondike, outside of that around the saloons, consists of the news that comes in from the various gulches and creeks. A man will bring news of promising discoveries of "pay gravel" anywhere from ten to fifty miles or more away. Then begins a stampede; picks, shovels, pans and several days' provisions are packed up and a hundred men are on their way to the creek or gulch where the "find" is supposed to be. Some of these trips end in disgust, but so many have turned out well that the camp is kept in a continual state of excitement. Dominion Creek ? a branch of Indian River, and Henderson Creek, emptying into the Yukon near the mouth of Stewart River, called out quite a host of gold hunters and are said to pros- pect well. TOO-MUCH-GOLD CREEK. One of the most common subjects of discussion during 144 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE the early summer was as to the location of Too-Much-Gold Creek. The name came from an Indian yarn that in "Bonanza much gold, in Hunker Creek more gold, and in long creek, higher up, too much gold" — "too much" being an Indian superlative. Along in the latter part of June a creek emptying into the Klondike about thirty-five miles up was explored and many claims located toward its head-waters. It is said to prospect well. They named it Too-Much-Gold Creek. These continual finds keep Dawson agog. It is notice- able that "tenderfoot" is no longer 'a title of disrespect in the camp. So many utter "greenhorns" have made strikes that some of the old-timers are disgusted. The experienced miners thought Bonanza Creek was too wide to be much account, but their theories have been entirely upset by the results. "I'll tell you what, boys," said one of them, "you can't tell anything about gold. You're just as likely to find it where it ain't as where it is!" SHUT OUT FROM CIVILIZATION. Dawson is very anxious to hear from the outside world. Steamers are few and far between and newspapers are a luxury. The mail comes to Circle City, and it costs a dol- lar a letter to get the mail in and out. The Dominion gov- ernment, however, has ordered the establishing of a post- office, and mail matters will be much aided and expedited. When books and papers arrive in camp, they are read and reread and handed about until they are worn out. Those who wearily pack goods over mountains and down I46 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE rapids, are for the most part meagerly supplied in the way of libraries. When the long, dark winter comes on, Dawson will have a larger resident population, but less visitors. If the food supply keeps up the town will be gay. Its rowdy features will perhaps become more pronounced, but the police force is to be augmented, and Captain Constantine, while pursu- ing a liberal policy, keeps a rigid control over any ten- dency toward more serious disorder. The most noteworthy feature of the camp is the rigid honesty and trustfulness that have so far prevailed. Gold sacks representing thousands of dollars in value are thrown under counters and bars without being weighed or counted, and yet these deposits have been as safe and sacred as if they had been placed in safety vaults of the most modern build. Dawson is a rough place in a rough country, but it holds a very large number of men of the best and noblest type, with the physical endowments and character to achieve great and brave things. HORSES, DOGS AND REINDEER. One of the things which will especially impress the new- comer is the absence of horses. There have been horses in the Yukon valley, but they do not do well. The severe winters crack their hoofs .so that thev are useless, and horses driven in during the summer are usually killed for dog meat in the winter, bringing about fifteen cents a pound. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 1 47 There are dogs. You find them of every kind and degree, but they are highly valued because they are about the only beasts of burden in that section. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, who has been in Alaska for years in charge of Indian edu- cational affairs on behalf of the government, has been bring- ing reindeer from Siberia for domestication as a govern- ment enterprise, but the project has not yet sufficiently advanced to make reindeer a factor in the transportation facilities of the country. Some will be sent to Circle City next winter, but Dawson City being in Canada, none will go there. * NO FIREARMS. Another very noticeable feature, which is a leading one in the prevention of crime and disorder, is the absence of firearms. In the old-time Pacific Coast mining towns the six-shooter was regarded as indispensable. But in Dawson the rule against firearms is rigidly enforced by the Mounted Police. There is no necessity for a pistol either in town or outside of it. The natives are all peaceable, and the game is better hunted with rifle and shotgun. The absence of pistols is the very best feature of the management of affairs at Dawson. The region around Dawson is very well timbered. The trees are not large, and the logs for the mill come from points higher up the river, but the supply for fuel comes from points near by. The high cost of labor in cutting and hauling, however, brings the price of fuel up to $25 per cord in Dawson. I48 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE kLONDIKE SOCIAL FEATURES OF DAWSON. The religious element is not predominant in Dawson City, by any means, but it is not entirely absent. Missions have been established by the Church of England (Episcopal) and the Roman Catholics, and regular services are held. New business enterprises are being established almost every day, the saloons being the most numerous. Two or three of the larger ones have most of the trade, and Harry Ash, who moved his dancing establishment and saloon from Circle City to Dawson, is said to be taking in from $2,000 to $3,000 per day. There is no midnight closing ordinance in Dawson and the wet goods establishments keep contin- ually open. The store of the Alaska Commercial Company carries a large stock of goods and is in charge of Captain J. E. Hansen, an energetic young business man who understands the wants of the country. CAPTAIN JOHN J. HEALY. The business of the North American Transportation and Trading Company at Dawson is in personal charge of Captain John J. Healy. He was the originator of the company and enlisted the aid of Portus B. Weare and John Cudahy, Chicago capitalists, in its organization. Out on the Yukon the formal title is seldom used. They call it " Captain Healy's Company." Captain Healy has led a life of adventure. He was born in Ireland fifty-five years ago, but was brought to the United States by his parents when a very small boy. The spirit of THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I 49 adventure was innate in him, and when twelve years of age he ran away from home to join Walker's famous band of filibusters, bound for Nicaragua. Later he went to Salt Lake City with Johnson's army to assist in disciplining the Mormons. From that time he was a foremost figure among the pioneers of the "untrodden west." He discov- ered the Salmon River gold fields in Idaho and was first at the Last Chance leads in Montana. From the latter place he prospected up the Saskatchewan. There he saw a tempt- ^r^S^S^: -^M** « ^ V SIXTY-MILE, YUKON RIVER. ing opportunity to trade with the Blackfeet Indians. He established Fort Whoopup and became so popular with the Indians that for many years the powerful Hudson Bay Company did not venture to invade his territory, although eager to drive him from the field of competition. Later he became sheriff of Choteau County, Montana, in the wildest days of that region. He became a terror to outlaws, and it is said of him that no bandit was ever "quick enough to get the drop on Johnny Healy," 150 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE There are few sections of the west which he has not traversed as miner, trapper or trader, and where he is not known. From Montana Captain Healy went to Alaska and estab- ished, at the head of Chilcoot Inlet, south of the pass of the same name, a store still known as "Healy's Store," at what is now called Dyea. He was up on the Yukon years ago and became impressed with its richness as a gold-bearing region ; and since the establishing of the North American Trading and Transportation Company has been a leader in the development of the country. MRS. HEALY AND HER MINE. Captain Healy has a wife and an established home at Dawson, having moved there from Fort Cudahy. It is noteworthy that he was really the first to try mining in the vicinity of Dawson. Opposite the mouth of the Klondike he located, about five years ago, a quartz ledge, which carries copper and some gold. Out on the Yukon the appetite for quartz mines has even yet not been fully devel- oped, and Captain Healy let the time expire without doing his "assessment work" within the time prescribed by law. It was safe enough, however, for Yukoners had not acquired the claim-jumping habit. About a year after locating his claim Captain Healy and his wife were making a trip on the steamer to Sixty-Mile, and he told Mrs. Healy about the claim, but said that he had not worked it and did not think he would, as it was " too early to bother with quartz." Mrs, Healy told her husband that if he did not want the THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I5 1 mine she did, and she relocated it, named it the " Four-Leaf Clover Mine," and became the possessor of a ledge eighty feet wide from wall to wall, with all its "dips, spurs and angles," turning out rock rich in copper and carrying from $ioto $15 a ton in gold, as far as prospected. The development has been done by tunnelling, and the mine is locally known as "Captain Healv's tunnel." *wi;3 INDIAN VILLAGE ON FORTY MILE CREEK, YUKON RIVER. OTHER ENTERPRISES AT DAWSON. Besides the general stores and saloons there are other busi- ness enterprises. The one blacksmith shop is doing a rushing business, as active mining calls for a considerable amount of work of that kind. A barber shop, bakery and laundry also flourish. It used to be the proud claim of mining camps of '49 on the Sierras that they were so healthful that it was neces- sary to " kill a man to start a graveyard," without which no 152 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE city could be considered full-fledged. Dawson, however, has a cemetery already established. William Stickney and partner started from Juneau to go up the Yukon last winter and Stickney died from exposure on Lake Lebarge. His partner tried to get aid to take the body up to Dawson, but failed, and made the trip alone. Stickney's body was the first buried in Dawson. HEALTH OF DAWSON CITY. In spite of the rigor of the climate, Dawson may be considered a very healthy city. The winter is severe and uncomfortable, but to those who are warmly clad and well housed, and who are careful of themselves, the cold season is the one when there is least sickness. Scurvy, resulting from the lack of fresh meat and vegetables, is the complaint most prevalent, both on the road and in the mining camps. It can be easily prevented, however, by the use of lime juice (which costs $2.50 a quart bottle in Dawson), or, still better, by using citric acid flavored with lemon, making a pleasant lemonade which is, at the same time, the best anti- scorbutic medicine known. Those who go to Dawson should procure at least a pound of citric acid crystals and two ounces of oil of lemons. Some get rheumatism from exposure, although that disease is not greatly prevalent, and there is no malaria. Early in the summer there is some biliousness and consti- pation, but the amount of sickness is not great, although a resident physician who went to Dawson from Circle City, and Police Surgeon A. E, Wills both have a good practice. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 153 They carry their own supplies of staple drugs and medi- cines and compound their own prescriptions. Common reme- dies and patent medicines are carried at the trading stores. Surgeon Wills, in a report to the Canadian government, says of the health of the country : "The diseases most met with in this country are dyspep- sia, anaemia ; scurvy caused by improperly cooked food, same- ness of diet, overwork, want of fresh vegetables, overheated and badly ventilated houses; rheumatism, pneumonia, bron- chitis, and teritis, cystitis, and other acute diseases, from exposure to wet and cold; debility and chronic diseases, due to excesses. One case of typhoid fever occurred in Forty-Mile last fall, probably due to drinking water polluted with decayed vegetable matter." NEW FEATURES OF THE TOWN. During the winter there was a lodging house in Dawson, occupying along, low building of logs. It is being replaced by a larger and more comfortable structure. There are two or three restaurants in Dawson. The staple charge for a meal is $1.50, unless the customer wants luxuries, when the bill is proportionately increased. One of the greatest needs of the town is proper facilities for sending money to the States, but this will likely not last longer than next spring, when Wells, Fargo & Co. will establish a branch in Dawson and furnish the opportunity for miners to send money home safely. A newspaper is one of the things that will be started if the adventurous thought-moulders who are dragging Wash- ington hand-presses over the pass get through. • CHAPTER XI. HOW WOMEN FARE. EXPERIENCES OF MRS. BERRY AND MRS. GAGE TOLD BY THEMSELVES. Her novel experience of going over the divide and living in a mining camp in the frozen north as a wedding trip makes anything from Mrs. Berry, " the bride of the Klondike," especially interesting, and as many women have expressed a desire to go to the " land of the mid- night sun " in search of fame and fortune, they will like to hear her experiences in her own words. She was asked to give her opinion upon the subject of the proposed femi- nine exodus to the north. ADVICE TO WOMEN. "What advice would I give to a woman about going to Alaska? " she said pleasantly. "Why, to stay away, of course. It's no place for a woman. I mean for a woman alone; one who goes to make a living or a fortune. Yes, there are women going into the mines alone, there were when we came out, all with the hope of getting big pay. It's much better for a man, though, if he has a wife along. Whatever stories of miserable living and excessive hard- ships there are, are about the poor fellows who had not sufficient outfit or suffered by their own poor cooking. 154 MRS. CLARENCE J. BERRY. The "Bride of the Klondike" in Winter Costume, 1^6 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE " The men are not much at cooking up there, and that is the reason they suffer with stomach troubles, and, as some say they did, with scurvy. After a man has worked hard all day in the diggings he doesn't feel much like cook- ing a nice meal when he goes to his cabin, cold, tired and hungry, and finds no fire in the stove and all the food frozen. CLOTHES SUITED FOR THE TRIP. " I took an outfit of clothes made especially for the trip. I got everything of the best material, and found it paid in the long run. One doesn't need a great deal, and it is best to take no more than is actually necessary on account of the trouble and expense of carrying the things. My outfit cost about $250. It included three suits of every- thing, right straight through. "I had very heavy woolen underwear and knitted woolen stockings. My skirts were made short, only a little below the knee. I had a heavy fur coat of marten, a fur cape, fur gloves and the heaviest shawl I could get. Shoes are not necessary, except to go to Juneau and come back from there. My fur coat I took from here, because, strange as it may seem, furs cost less and are better here than in Alaska. "A fur robe is necessary. We got one up there from a man coming out, but it is just as well for any one going up to take one along. The fur gloves can be had up there better than here, however, and cost about $3. Moccasins are worn instead of shoes through the winter and mu- THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE i57 clues when it is thawing and wet. They are both to be had there at from $1 to $4 or $5 a pair. The moccasins are made of fur seal, ' with the furry side inside and the inside out', like Minnehaha's clothing. They come to the knee, or half way or all they way up the thigh, as you choose. They are slipped on like a boot, and from the instep the thongs go across round the leg, like the old- fashioned sandals, and tie at the top, where there is also a draw string. "The muclues — that's the native name for them — are the mud moccasins. The soles are made waterproof with seal oil. If a woman keeps her feet warm her health is pretty safe, and for that reason, in addition to the woolen stockings and moccasins, I wore also flannel insoles. In all the time I was in Alaska I never suffered from frost- bite — didn't even get my fingers nipped or my nose — and I wore no veil all the time I was there. I took a good medicine chest with me, too. THREE MONTHS WITH DOG TEAM. "We left Juneau last March with several friends, our supplies and a dog team. I put on my Alaska uniform there, the heavy flannels, warm dress with short skirt, moccasins, fur coat, cap and gloves, kept my shawl handy to roll up in case of storms, and was rolled in a full robe and bound to the sled, so when it rolled over I rolled with it, and many tumbles in the snow I got that way. The supplies for Mr. Berry and myself included his clothes, my small furs, our stove and all our food, cost about $800 jrg THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE and weighed about 2,000 pounds. We did not confine ourselves to a bean-and-bacon diet. We had plenty of canned meats, hams, bacon, dried fruits, and vegetables and all sorts of canned things besides. We arranged for as wholesome a diet as possible with canned goods. "It took us three months to travel from Juneau to Forty-Mile, a distance of about nine hundred miles, I think. We traveled ten or twelve and occasionally fifteen miles a day. We couldn't do more because the dogs wouldn't stand it. Up to the summit we carried our own stores, and on the other side hired Indians. We had fresh meat on the way — moose and caribou. "At first when I saw the dirty natives bringing it in their canoes I could not bring myself to eat it, but I soon changed my mind and got to like it. We prepared our meals by setting up our stove right on the ice, in the open sometimes, and at others pitched a tent and did our cooking under cover, then Tip stakes and on again. At night we pitched our tents, made a bed of boughs, put blankets on, rolled our- selves in blankets, covered ourselves with the fur robes and slept well. We had four pairs of heavy blankets, and I took two small pillows along. ''Our bedding was always packed in an oil-skin cover, and so kept dry all the way. The best time made was across La Barge Lake. We crossed the thirty-six miles in a night. They put the tent upon the provision scow for me, and I went to bed in it and slept all the way across the Lewis River. We had to make such good time because we THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 159 were afraid the ice would begin to run and the boats go under. "We had a fine sunshiny day to cross the summit, but we had to sit still and wait two weeks for it. We got to Forty-Mile in June and went to the Klondike in October. I stayed at the post, now Dawson City, while the boys went on to build a cabin. It took us two days to walk the nineteen miles to the diggings. There was about an inch of water on the ice and I slipped and slid in every direction going over. HOUSEKEEPING ON THE KLONDIKE. "When I got there the house had no door, windows or floor, and I had to stand around outside until a hole was cut for me to get in through. We had a two-room house, and after it was fixed up it was very comfortable for Klon- dike. The boys had a carpet and curtain sent over for me. We had all the camp-made furniture we needed, a bed and stove — a long, little sheet-iron affair, with two holes on top and a drum to bake in. The wood is so full of pitch — it's the meanest, knottiest, scrubbiest wood I ever saw — that the fire burns up and goes out if you turn your back on it for a minute. The water we used was all snow or ice, and had to be thawed. If any one wanted a drink, a chunk of ice had to be thawed and cooled again. The stores that were kept in the cache to save them from the wild animals were frozen, of course, and had to be thaw r ed out before being cooked. The things we wanted to keep from freezing we had to keep warm in the house. 1 66 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Some wines and a case of champagne were sent us for Christmas and I had to keep them under my bed to save them from freezing. "The canned and dried things were very tiresome eating. We had fresh meat now and then and some beef, for last winter was the first time that beef was sent across the pass. We had a nice roast for our New Year dinner and fruit cake, mince pie and nuts and raisins, as well as the usual canned vegetables. "The men had hard times making bread, and I taught several of them how to make yeast bread. We could get hops and canned potatoes, and it was easy enough to make yeast, but how I did long for a raw potato — anything fresh and green. We didn't lack for visitors at the mines. I had nine to luncheon with me there before I even had a table to eat off, and one time it was so that strangers would come and eat — even come and take any food in sight, and bolt with it. We had some one staying at our house nearly every night, for people were always passing through, and they had to have shelter. HOW TO BATHE AT THE KLONDIKE. " The cabins didn't have all the modern improvements by any means; no porcelain tubs or hot or cold water. When we wanted a bath we melted ice, heated the water, got the pan in that we used for washing the gold and did our bathing in that. I was not sick once during all the time I was there, except slight indispositions, and I'm THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE i6l twenty-five pounds heavier now than when I went up, and feel better than ever. "I went out nearly every day when I had finished my housework. I would hunt the dumps for nuggets, or else pan gold. I'd have to melt the water for that, and at first I lost half the gold, but after a time I learned to get it all out. Things were very high part of the winter. At one time we paid $60 for a fifty-pound sack of flour, and 23 cents a pound extra for portage, and were glad to get it. I paid $6 a yard for dress goods and $300 for having a skirt made. Oh, yes, there are dressmakers even up there. They sew for the natives — make the siwash red and blue satin dresses for them, all in the same style, a tight basque, buttoned straight down the front, and a skirt. " Eight months of the year it is dark up there, with only about four hours light each day. There is a gray twilight and the men work through that, but we often had to light the lamps at half-past 1 or 2 in the afternoon. We had oil lamps, but the majority use candles. WINTER IS HEALTHY. "In the winter the Yukon is one of the healthiest places for any one going there with sound health, but when the summer comes it is unhealthy. It is damp, the water is bad, it gets very hot, and the mosquitos are awful. " Coming away from the mines we made the distance between them and Dawson in one night, but the trail is so bad that, notwithstanding I wore a skirt only knee length, I was covered with mud to the waist. Dawson may have 1 62 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE been a quiet city once, but when I came through it it was in such a rowdy state that it was impossible for me to go to my meals and I had to have them sent to me. Men and women — there were about fifty women there — were carous- ing continually. The people who follow on the heels of the good, steady-going, hard-working miners are among the worst up there. " There are good women, too, many who have gone with their husbands. On the Bonanza, near us, there is still a lovely, beautiful woman — Mrs. Galvin, of Helena, Mont. — and I was sorry to leave her when I came away. "Would I go to Yukon again? Never. lam glad I had the experience I really did. It was worth the rough- ing, but once is enough. I'll stay with my mother in Fresno when Mr. Berry goes back in the spring. He will only go from spring to fall after this. I'll stay down here and spend the money when he brings it out." ANOTHER BRAVE WOMAN. Mrs. Eli Gage, wife of the son of Lyman J. Gage, Sec- retary of the United States Treasury, was in the Klondike region when the great finds were made and knows all about the excitement, the stirring scenes and wonderful develop- ments of the winter of 1896 in that far-off northern country. Her husband is auditor of the North American Trans- portation and Trading Company and his duties are in Alaska. His wife will return in the spring in company with Clarence J. Berry and Frank Phiscator, two of the MRS. E. F. GAGE. 164 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE most fortunate of the Klondike bonanza kings, with whom she returned on the treasure ship "Portland" in July. Her views in regard to the country and the doings of its people will be found of great interest. SHE LIKES FRONTIER LIFE. "It is wonderful how fascinating the life on the frontier becomes," she said the other morning. "The man or woman who gets a taste of it and succeeds and thrives by it rarely gets to like anything else. It may be a barbarous confession, but it seems to me that. the kindest, most con- siderate and most practically honest people that I ever met are the miners who are risking all at one throw in the work on the Klondike. It was here that I saw a code of honor which made all men honest — a life in which each man must live a fair part or get a forcible and roughly polite invita- tion to move. " It takes men of sturdy character to get into the valley, and the virtues which they cling to are ones from which they want no man to part. I do not think that I heard of a single case in my summer's stay in upper Alaska where prospectors and diggers had been guilty of dishonesty. It may be that honesty is a trait which thrives because it is backed by the point of a gun, but it is there nevertheless. Explorers going to the field or miners coming out fre- quently undertake greater loads than the teams can pull through. It is the custom at such times to put the surplus at the roadside and go on with half. The part left behind is perfectly safe until it shall be called for. I doubt that THE GOLD FIELDS Of THE KLONDIKE 165 this rule would work in Chicago or other civilized places." TREASURE BROUGHT BACK. "Mr. Phiscator and Mr. Berry were on the Portland — the ship which brought the $1,000,000 cargo of yellow metal into Seattle. It is not likely that one man in fifty could picture these two men as they are. The usual thing would be to have them half-savage, uncouth and hardened by a long season away from men and the world. This sort of description would not fit either in the slightest particular. They are both modest, decidedly bashful and lack all the traits which the tenderfoot gives to the real miner. They have no boastings to make — and this in face of the fact that it is more than likely the next year will prove they are among the richest men in this country. "It is probable that they were the money kings of the Portland, although the ship's safe and the captain's state- room were filled to overflowing with the earnings of other members of the passenger crew. It was like an actual representation of the air castles of fairyland. There was gold stacked upon gold, nuggets and in dust, tied up in old sacks and held in bottles with the corks sealed. I asked the captain if he did not fear to carry such a load of pure money. He said he feared nothing so long as he knew he had no one aboard but miners. FROM POVERTY TO AFFLUENCE. " It was most interesting to study the men and women who had taken the desperate chance and had won. Some of them had gone into the region with barely enough to 1 66 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE keep body and soul together. They had only made the try as a last resort. Having failed to make a success at home, they had resolved to make one plunge and die or come out rich. The most pathetic case of this kind was that of Mr. and Mrs. Berry. They went into the Klon- dike without even a grub-stake. They were on their wedding tour, and when they left they told their friends they might never get back to Fresno alive. "This pair sat on the deck of the Portland fifteen months after their departure, and their plans embraced bigger things than scheming to find a man who would loan them $60 while they risked their lives trying to get over the mountains and into the placer district. They were like two children, Mr. Berry planning to buy the farm upon which he had been unable to make living wages, and Mrs. Berry getting ideas on the newest things in diamond rings. She had been forced to omit this feature of the ceremony when they started for Alaska, but like all women she was pleased that the ring could now be bought. GOLD IN ALMOST UNLIMITED QUANTITIES. "It is evident from the conversation that I had with Mr. Berry and Mr. Phiscator that gold is going to be dug in Alaska in almost unlimited quantities. They were both a year in the center of the gold fields — that is, the center as it exists to-day. They were positive that the claims that had been staked out were only a small fraction of the claims that are going to pay big money. The prospectors in the district have not failed to find paying dirt in a single THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 167 spot where a good search has been made. They said they had no idea how long or how wide the territory would prove to be, since no one has found the ends of the profit- able veins. "There are many claims along the best-known creeks that have been abandoned. The prospectors would be digging on them contentedly, earning big money every day. There would then come a report from some neigh- boring place of fabulously rich finds and there would follow at once a wild rush. In this way sites that paid moderate- ly were passed in the search of others that would banish poverty in a month. The two kings of the region were wise enough to profit by the craze which carried the men along and they bought claim after claim along the Bonanza and the Eldorado. I do not think any man on earth can guess how much these men are worth to-day. They would be millionaires to stay at home the balance of their lives and sell interests in the mines they now have in operation. BEST MINES STILL TO BE FOUND. " Experts say that the best mines are still to be found. It is an old saying that the existence of the placer mine merely shows that not far away the mother rock must be found. It looks as if the gold in the loose dirt about the creeks had been brought down from the mountains by some great glacier. The men who have gone in and are going in have no capital for machinery and the placer min- ing is the only kind they can undertake. The late comers and the men with money for machinery will probably l68 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE search for quartz veins and get bigger fortunes with but comparatively small expenditures. It is reported by gov- ernment officials and everybody else that the whole coun- try is gold producing and the work of 10,000 men who will be able to get there within the next twelve months will not begin to exhaust the resources. WILL TRY THE OVERLAND ROUTE. " It is considerable of a venture for a woman to resolve to try to reach Dawson City by the overland route, but I think I can do it. We will start from Juneau the last of April. Mrs. Berry went over the pass a year ago and I am anxious to have the experience. It is no easy task, but the dangers can be reduced to a minimum by wise prepara- tions. The thing to do there, as every place else, is to do as the Romans do. It being a rather sensible conclusion that the Indians who have been following the trail for years and years have learned the best methods, I shall try to do very much as the Indians do. HOW SHE WILL DRESS. "The weather at the beginning of the trip is likely to be very cold. I shall wear a bearskin hood and short skirts. There is then a serviceable garment, made of sealskin, with the fur inside. It serves as stockings. The shoes are moccasins made of rough leather, lined with thick woolen insoles. Snowshoes are indispensable for part of the way. Gloves of bearskin can be had from the natives and there is no storm that can penetrate the blankets of the Siwash THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I69 Indians. We shall carry a small tent, trusting to the hem- lock boughs for the beds. "One of the hardships of the long tramp over the hills and along the frozen lakes comes from the lack of fresh meats. Game is scarce, and the Indians supply most of the moose and caribou. The flesh is frozen, and before it is cooked must be thawed out and cleaned. The natives riave the crudest ideas of cleanliness. It takes some time to get accustomed to their ways, but necessity breeds for- giveness and forgetfulness as well. I fear nothing on the trip save the Chilkoot Pass, and at this time of year the chances are that we will have but little trouble. There will be much travel over it during the fall and coming winter, and the way will be greatly improved by the time we are ready to undertake it." CHAPTER XIL THE CLIMATE. THOSE WHO GO TO THE KLONDIKE MUST PREPARE FOR COLD WEATHER. Neither those who think that "Alaska is not so cold after all " nor those whose imagination pictures eight months of weather 90 degrees below zero are correct. At times the cold is intense, and of the winter of 1895-6, which was a severe one, Mr. William Ogilvie, the Domin- ion surveyor, reports: " After my return there was some fine clear weather in January, but it was exceedingly cold, more than 60 degrees below zero, one night 68.5 degrees, and as I had both my ears pretty badly frozen and could not go out in such cold without having them covered, so that I could not hear the chronometer beat, I could not observe until the end of the month, when we had two fine nights — 29th and 30th — mild enough for me to work." UNITED STATES REPORT. A more exhaustive and complete statement of the cli- matic conditions of that region is contained in a United States Government report prepared under the direction of 170 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 171 the Secretary of Agriculture by Willis L. Moore, Chief of the Weather Bureau. He says: "The climates of the coast and interior of Alaska are unlike in many respects, and the differences are intensified in this, as perhaps in few other countries, by exceptional physical conditions. The fringe of islands that separates the mainland from the Pacific Ocean, from Dixon Sound north, and also a strip of the mainland for possibly twenty miles back from the sea, following the sweep of the coast as it curves to the northwestward to the western extremity of Alaska, form a distinct climatic division which may be termed temperate Alaska. The temperature rarely falls to zero; winter does not set in until December 1, and by the last of May the snow has disappeared except on the moun- tains. The mean winter temperature of Sitka is 32.5, but little less than that of Washington, D. C. " The rainfall of temperate Alaska is notorious the world over, not only as regards the quantity, but also as to the manner of its falling, viz., in long and incessant rains and drizzles. Cloud and fog naturally abound, there being on an average but sixty clear days in the year. " North of the Aleutian Islands the coast climate becomes more rigorous in winter, but in summer the difference is much less marked. CLIMATE OF THE INTERIOR. "The climate of the interior, including in that designa- tion practically all of the country except a narrow fringe 1 172 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE coastal margin and the territory before referred to as tem- perate Alaska, is one of extreme rigor in winter, with a brief but relatively hot summer, especially when the sky is free from cloud. " In the Klondike region in midwinter the sun rises from 9:30 to 10 a. m., and sets from 2 to 3 p. m., the total length of daylight being about four hours. Remembering that the sun rises but a few degrees above the horizon and that it is wholly obscured on a great many days, the character of the winter months may be easily imagined. "We are indebted to the United States coast and geo- detic survey for a series of six months' observations on the Yukon, not far from the present site of the gold discov- eries. The observations were made with standard instru- ments and are wholly reliable. The mean temperatures of the months from October, 1889, to April, 1890, both inclu sive, are as follows: Degrees. October 33 November 8 December -11 January -17 Degrees. February -15 March 6 April 20 " The daily mean temperature fell and remained below the freezing point (32 degrees) from Nov. 4, 1889, to April 21, 1890, thus giving 168 days as the length of the closed season of 1889-90, assuming that outdoor operations are controlled by temperature only. The lowest temperatures registered during the winter were 32 degrees below zero in November, 47 below in December, 59 below in January, $5 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 173 below in February, 45 below in March, and 26 below in April. The greatest continuous cold occurred in February, 1890, when the daily mean for five consecutive days was 47 degrees below zero. HAS BEEN COLDER IN UNITED STATES. " Greater cold than that here noted has been experi- enced in the United States for a very short time. In the interior of Alaska the winter sets in as early as September, when snowstorms may be expected in the mountains and passes. Headway during one of those storms is impos- sible, and the traveler who is overtaken by one of them is indeed fortunate if he escapes with his life. Snowstorms of great severity occur in any month from September to May inclusive. "The changes of temperature from winter to summer are rapid, owing to the great increase in the length of the day. In May the sun rises at about 3 a. m. and sets about 9 p. m. In June it rises about 1:30 in the morning and sets at about 10:30 at night, giving about twenty hours of daylight and diffuse twilight the remainder of the time. "The mean summer temperature in the interior doubtless ranges between 60 and 70 degrees, according to elevation, being highest in the middle and lower Yukon valleys." CHAPTER XIII. GOLD AND ITS DISTRIBUTION. QUARTZ AND PLACERS HOW THE GOLD CAME TO THE KLONDIKE. Gold has been an object of interest to mankind from the earliest ages of civilization. In placers it is found almost pure, although seldom entirely so, and nearly every nug- get contains some silver, copper, or other metals. The gold from the Yukon is not as valuable as the product of California, the Klondike gold having from fifty to one hun- dred points more base metal. The base metals found in combination with this gold are iron, lead and silver, the iron giving the Yukon gold its fine, rich color. Of course these other metals decrease the value of the gold, which is about a dollar per ounce less than that of California gold. In the latter state nuggets run from $18 to $19 per ounce, and gold dust never less than $17 per ounce, while the Yukon product is valued at $17 to $18 per ounce for nug- gets and $16 to $17 per ounce for gold dust. GOLD IN MINERAL VEINS. While gold is distributed in many ways, its original state is in mineral veins, combined with various kinds of rocks, 174 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE "75 usually quartz, in bodies called "ledges" or 'Modes" of varying width, between walls of stone of the surrounding formation, which is known as "country rock." These ledges are rarely perpendicular, but have a slanting direc- tion, and the upper wall is therefore known as the " hang- ing wall "of the mine, the lower wall being the "foot wall." The quartz or other rock containing the gold and confined between the walls is called the "gangue." Ore taken from a vein must be separated from the rock, and if the gold in it is not largely combined with base met- als it is called "free milling ore," and the gold may be most easily procured by crushing the rock in a quartz mill, which is done by means of heavy stamps operated by power. When crushed as fine as possible it is transferred to pan amalgamators — large iron receptacles in which heavy iron grinders revolve, grinding the pulverized rock between flat surfaces until it becomes a fine mud, water being mingled with the mass. With this mixture quick- silver is used, the particles of gold adhering to the quick- silver and forming what is known as "amalgam." The dirt is washed from the amalgam in various ways, and then the latter is placed in a retort, which is heated until the quicksilver separates itself from the gold. If the gold is in combination with other metals several processes are employed, such as smelting, etc., and the resulting product is called " base bullion." Various chem- ical means have been employed to separate the gold from 176 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE the baser metals, the agent used depending upon the min- erals contained in the composite mass. NEW REDUCTION PROCESSES. Formerly the great expense in the extraction of gold from free milling ore consisted in the loss of mercury by what was called "flouring." When this occurred the par- ticles of quicksilver lost their property of coalescing with and taking up the gold, and the frequent renewal of quick- silver made the cost heavy. It has, however, been discov- ered that this deterioration of the mercury can be almost completely prevented by the use of cyanide of potassium, and this "cyanide process " has greatly reduced the cost of procuring gold from ore, making it profitable to work mines which would be worthless if treated in the old way. Under any circumstances, however, the mining of quartz is an expensive process, requiring capital and machinery, so that prospectors whose means are limited must, if they discover quartz mines, sell them, or an interest in them, to capitalists. GOLD IN PLACERS. In contra-distinction to the quartz mine is the placer mine, which is popularly called a "poor man's mine," be- cause, if a paying claim is located, the owner can work it himself, needing nothing for his success except a pick, shovel, pan, water and a supply of food. Placer gold, in its various forms, is merely the waste of THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 17: gold in ledges, separated and ground by volcanic, glacial or hydraulic action and finally deposited in alluvial soil, sand or gravel. The distribution of gold in veins is very wide, but on the continent of America is especially great KLONDIKE MINER IN WINTER ATTIRE. in the Pacific Coast ranges of mountains which, in the broader sense, may be considered as one chain, extending from Patagonia to the Arctic Sea. Along the entire re- gion of these mountains, including the Rocky Mountain I78 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE and Sierra Nevada ranges in North America and the Andes and Cordilleras in South America, gold has been found at all points. Large deposits of alluvial gold indicate that at some period it has been ground out of the vein in which it belonged by some of nature's forces and transported by others. A strong geological theory is that all the various veins of gold-bearing quartz are more or less disconnected spurs of some great "mother lode " and that this lode ex- ists in some part of the great Pacific chain. Von Hum- boldt believed that the mother vein would prove to be in Alaska, and the unprecedented richness of the deposits on the Klondike make that theory a most probable one. GOLD GROUND BY GLACIERS. When glacial or other action has separated gold from the vein and begun its distribution, the remainder of the work is done by the action of water. The mountain streams, swollen to rapid action by rain or melted snow, carry along dirt, sand and gravel with the gold. The gravel and gold settle on the bottom of the creek and above that sand and dirt in which a comparatively small amount of gold may be found. Usually the largest amount of gold is in the gravel bottom, central to the course of the stream, but in the settling, bars may have been formed by the heavier stones in the gravel, which have caught the gold in especially large quantities, these rich masses being known as "pockets," and there may be crevices in the bed- rock, in which case these are most likely receptacles for THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE i/9 deposits of gold. When the gold is carried along by the force of water its great weight causes it to sink as soon as the impelling force of the water relaxes sufficiently to allow the law of gravitation to work. The coarser parti- cles are left high up the stream, the finer ones traveling further and being deposited in the bed or bars of the lower creek or river. Subsequent floods or freshets repeat the operation of distributing the gold, and the final result is extensive deposits of gold in gravel, sand and earth in gulches, creeks and rivers. NUGGETS AND DUST. Gold lumps of about half an ounce or more are called "nuggets;" when the particles are fine they are called "dust;" and sizes between these two are designated as " coarse gold," the latter frequently being interspersed with nuggets. The gold workings on the Bonanza and Eldorado creeks in the Klondike region are of coarse gold. In this rich district not only in the gravel next to bedrock, but also above in the finer clay and sand, gold is found in pay- ing quantities. CHAPTER XIV. WORKING PLACER MINES. HOW GOLD IS TAKEN FROM THE GROUND IN THE KLONDIKE DISTRICT. In the Klondike region a very peculiar system of mining is in vogue. The ground is frozen from the bedrock to the surface in the winter, and never thaws out to any great depth. The surface is covered with glacial mud, upon which there is a thick mass of moss. The top of the ground is so thickly felted with this moss that the latter acts as an insulation, preventing the warm rays of the 24- hour sun from thawing the ground even in summer. The top " muck," as it is called by the miners, is, when thawed out, about two-thirds water and one-third sedi- ment. Its large percentage of moisture makes it impossi- ble to thaw it out with fire satisfactorily, so this portion has to be removed with a pick or blasted off. The latter process is, however, rarely employed, because of a scarcity of powder, so that it is usually removed with a pick. THAWING OUT THE GROUND. After this murky top layer is cleaned off the method is to build a huge fire, probably two feet wide and six or eight feet long. After this has burned six or eight hours 180 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE J 8 1 the ground beneath it is thawed sufficiently so that five or six inches of dirt can be taken out. This operation is re- peated, and it is found that the deeper one goes the more readily the ground thaws. The shafts are sunk until bedrock is reached. That is the bottom of the deposit, and on Bonanza creek it is en- countered at a depth of all the way from three to 20 feet. The pay streak is often 150 feet wide, and when bedrock is reached what is technically called " burning a breast " is resorted to. That, in plain English, consists in running a tunnel on a level through the pay streak. The ground is much more easily thawed in these tunnels, and it not infrequently happens that one burning thaws out fifteen feet. PLENTY OF WOOD FOR BURNING. There is an ample supply of wood in the Klondike re- gion, so that little difficulty has been experienced on that score, the maximum distance of wood from the mine being about three-quarters of a mile and most claims being much nearer than that to a good supply. As soon as the dirt is thawed out it is hauled to the sur- face and piled upon the dump. When the thawing weather arrives and the water comes down, the "sluicing" begins and the gold is washed from the gravel and dirt by the usual methods, hereafter described. The methods of mining in the winter have only been in- troduced into the Yukon during recent years and constitute l82 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE the novelty in the mining methods of that region as com- pared with those in vogue elsewhere. THE PROSPECTOR'S OUTFIT. In prospecting for mines the outfit required, besides food and cooking utensils, includes a pan, light pick, shovel and axe, and a machete for cutting out underbrush and other purposes will also be found of value. Creeks and gulches are tried in order to find gold, which is done by experimental digging and panning. As only one claim is allowed to each person on one creek (except that the dis- coverer is entitled to twice as much ground as the others) it is a matter of great importance to locate in the best ground possible. LOCATING THE CLAIM. The amount of ground one person may take is limited by general law as to the maximum, and may not be ex- ceeded. Miners' regulations may reduce the amount, but all are to be treated alike in the same district. Claims are numbered from the "Discovery Claim" consecutively — "No. i above" or "No. i below", etc. Thus, Clarence J. Berry's claim is described as "No. 5 above Discovery, Eldorado Creek." When located the ground should be measured off and staked and the locator is entitled, in the Klondike region, to 500 feet along the creek, and from rim to rim, the " rim" being the point on either bank where the " pay dirt " ter- minates or the bedrock emerges above the surface. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE WASHING OUT THE GOLD. '83 After the dirt is taken out and when the water comes in the early summer, the washing out process commences. The primitive mode is to use a pan, which is large enough to hold two shovelfuls of "dirt" and allow for a bucketful or so of water. The dirt is washed by letting that which rises to the top drain off. The pan is shaken gently, water added as required, and the washing is kept up until most of the soluble portion has washed away. From time to time, as the water drains out, the operator looks at the res- iduum. Finally a gleam of yellow is seen at the bottom. The pan shows " color " ! So the miner designates it, and a most exciting thing is this looking for the "color" when prospecting for new mines. TAKING OUT THE GOLD. After the color shows, the final washing is given and the coarse gravel picked out, while the finer sand washes away. The "dust" secured is put a\vay in the sack. Sometimes a smaller pan is used for the final washing. On a larger scale other appliances are used. One of these is the "cradle," so called because it is mounted on rockers to give it the required motion. It has a moveable hopper with a perforated bottom, or "riddle-plate," of sheet-iron, in which the " pay dirt " is placed. Water is poured on the dirt, and the rocking motion imparted to the cradle causes the finer particles to pass through the 1 84 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE holes on to a canvas screen, and thence to the base of the cradle, which is crossed by bars of wood called "riffles" which catch the auriferous particles. Another device is the " torn," a kind of cradle which has a perforated riddle-plate immediately over the "riffle box," and has the riffles arranged on an inclined plane, the in- clination being one foot in twelve. The riffle box of the "torn" is longer than that of the common cradle. "SLUICING OUT" GOLD. For larger washings the method is by sluicing. The " sluice-boxes " are troughs about 12 feet long, 12 to 20 inches wide and 12 inches deep. They are made tapering so as to be joined in series, and the total length depends upon the amount and shape of the ground, but often runs several hundred feet. The size of the sluice boxes should be regulated by the width of the available lumber, as it is not desirable to have the bottom made of more than one width of plank. The sluice boxes are placed at an incline varying from one in eight to one in sixteen. The floor of the boxes is laid with riffles, or pieces of 2 x 2 lumber laid parallel with the side and with notched planks laid transversely. These riffles catch the auriferous particles and are panned out at regular intervals, the "clean-up" ordinarily being made once a week, but oftener where the ground is very rich — sometimes daily. If the gold is very fine, mercury is used above the notched THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 185 planks to catch the minute particles and the amalgam thus formed is separated in the ordinary way, as described in the account of quartz milling. There are numerous other ways of working gold, but MINE IN KLONDIKE REGION. Showing sluice-boxes in place. they are only used by companies operating on a large scale, and are not in vogue in the Yukon districts. PREPARATIONS FOR MINING. Before beginning to work the claim it is necessary to build a house and to prepare for winter. In all of the 1 86 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE Klondike region logs are plentiful. They should be well squared so as to make the interstices between the logs as small as possible, and the cracks should be well filled with the moss which grows all around. The roof is made of poles placed close together, then covered with moss, with a layer of dirt above. It can be so securely felted in this way as to make a tight and comfortable roof. FITTING UP THE CABIN. The interior of the cabin will be fitted up according to the ability of the occupant. A small sash will be required for light, and another outside sash will be needed in the winter. If the miner can not afford a floor he goes with- out. If he has any luck with hunting, a few skins on the floor make excellent rugs. Hemlock boughs, which are plentiful, make a good bed for one who is "roughing it," and keep the body away from the dampness of the ground. Of course the sheet-iron stove is a necessity of the cabin, and a good supply of wood for winter is one of the things to look out for. For the meats which one does not care to keep in the house a "cache" should be built, for Master Bruin (to say nothing of foxes and wolves) is likely to come around when all is quiet and claim a share of the provender. WINTER WORK. In the winter much work can be done under ground. It is not necessary to work long at a time above the ground THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 187 in hauling the dirt to the surface to be dumped ; and below ground it is much warmer, because there one is sheltered from the cold wind. Our miner will need a lantern, because in the winter an hour or two of daylight is the most that can be hoped for. NIGHT IN THE CAMP. The hours of work can be regulated to suit the condi- tions. At night, when the Aurora Borealis is flashing and scintillating in the north, the best place is the inside of the cabin, where, with his partner (every miner should have a partner), the prospective millionaire can tell his day dreams, or if he has a book, can read. If he wants a drink of cheering stuff he will find coffee or tea the best. Under any conditions of work or idleness whisky is the worst thing a Yukoner can drink in either the summer or winter climate of that country, and the surest bar to the success of the hopes he brought with him. CHAPTER XV. THE LAW AND THE MINER. HOW THE PROSPECTOR MUST PROCEED TO GET HIS CLAIM. Part of the Yukon region is in the territory of the United States and part in that of Canada. There seems to be an idea abroad that there is a boundary dispute in regard to the ownership of the recently discovered mines in the Klon- dike region, but there is none. DISPUTED BOUNDARY. There is a difference of claims in regard to the title to the lands in the vicinity of Dyea, Juneau and the coastline of Alaska west to the 141st degree of longitude. It is admitted that the United States took all the title that Russia had, but the dispute is as to where the line runs. If the United States claim should be upheld the line crosses Alsek river and crosses the northeast end of Chil- coot Pass at the head of Lake Lindermann, a small lake to the south of Lake Bennett, and thence runs south- east. The British claim that the line runs from Mount St. Elias down to Glacier Bay, crosses Muir Glacier peninsula and Lynn Canal, and runs back of Juneau only a few miles, taking in St. Mary's Island, on which there is a 188 190 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE United States custom house. This dispute will probably be settled without friction, as it is a question of construc- tion to be placed on a legal document and only affects the Klondike matter by its bearing on the route to the mines, because the British claim takes in Dyea and Chilcoot Pass. KLONDIKE IS IN CANADA. As to the Klondike region itself there is no dispute. The line s the 141st degree of west longitude, and Dawson City is more than a full degree to the east of it. There are rich gold-bearing streams on the American side of the line, and some of these creeks, like Forty-Mile, have their head in American and their mouth in British territory. But so far as the Klondike region is concerned the American miner going in will have to submit to Canadian law, some parts of which are very good, while the remainder is very arbitrary. MUST PAY DUTY. On the route to the mines the miner who goes in with goods bought in the United States will be subject to the customs laws of the Dominion, the Canadian government having appointed D. W. Davis customs officer for the dis- trict embracing the Northwest Territory. LAW IN DAWSON CITY. When the prospector arrives in Dawson City he will find two authorities who are in their special departments su- THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE I 9 I preme. One is the Mounted Police, having charge of the law and order of the district, pursuing a liberal policy but keeping excesses well in hand. The other is the Gold CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE. Commissioner, who, under Canadian law, has charge of the administration of the mining laws, the settlement of disputed claims, and, in fact, all that pertains to the loca- tion, entry, working and title to mines. I92 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE In regard to the maintenance of law and order in the district the Dominion government has recently decided to add eighty men to the twenty already on the force of Mounted Police. POLICE OFFICERS MAGISTRATES. The officers of each detachment of police will be ap- pointed stipendary magistrates, so that means will be fur- nished for the administration of law and order promptly and satisfactorily. A strong customs and police post will be established a short distance north of the 60th degree of latitude, just above the northern boundary of British Columbia, and beyond the head of the Lynn Canal, where the Chilkoot Pass and the White Pass converge. This post will command the southern entrance to the whole of that territory. A strong detachment of police will be stationed there, and the necessary barrack accommodations will be erected. Further on small police posts will be established, about fifty miles apart, up to Fort Selkirk. TELEGRAPH LINE PROJECTED. If it is possible to construct a telegraph line from the head of the Lynn Canal over the mountains to the first post just north of the British Columbia boundary, it would overcome the great present drawback of lack of means of winter communication with the Klondike. It is accord- ingly the intention of the government to ascertain the probable cost of the construction of such a line, and if the 11 #r . ..■■•■'•., >. ■X:t,': ■At .♦'».:*/;. E ' >«• Iff o ■:. *''.% ' •■ - l t -'Of : ; ; 4W ; &&& ',■■'4 "■* •'■•Vi THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 193 project is found to be feasible, to put it into execution. The government proposes also at once to get the approxi- mate cost of a wagon road and of a narrow gauge railroad over the territory between the coast and the post beyond the mountains. The provisions of the Real Property act of the Northwest Territories will be extended to the Yukon country by an order in council, a Register will be ap- pointed, and a land title office will be established. ROYALTY TO BE PAID. The question of the amount of the royalty which the Dominion government will exact from all ore taken from the soil has also been decided upon. This royalty will be 10 per cent on all amounts taken out of any one claim up to $500 a month, and after that 20 per cent. This royalty will be collected on gold taken from streams already being worked, but in regard to all future discoveries the govern- ment proposes that upon every river and creek where min- ing locations shall be staked out every alternate claim shall be the property of the government. FEES FOR THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. The last provision is an addition to the already established charge of $15 registration fee and $100 annual rental already being collected under the laws now in force. It is a most stringent and illiberal provision, excelling in its severity any ever before imposed in either British or United States territory. It is in especially strong contrast to the policy that 194 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE has always characterized the dealings of the United States with those who have braved frontier dangers in the devel- opment of the mining regions. There is no discrimination in the new regulations between Canadians and others, but the extortionate imposts oppress all alike. The following are the laws of Canada pertaining to the location of mines in the Northwest Territory of Canada, and applicable in the Klondike District. PLACER MINING, REGISTRATION AND FEES. At the close of the second sitting of the Canadian cabinet recently it was announced that the government had decided to impose a royalty on all placer diggings on the Yukon in addition to $15 registration fee and $100 annual assessment. The royalty will be 10 per cent each on claims with an out- put of $500 or less monthly, and 20 per cent on every claim yielding above that amount monthly. Besides this royalty it has been decided, in regard to all future claims staked out on other streams or rivers, that every alternate claim should be the property of the government, and should be reserved for public purposes and sold or worked by the government for the benefit of the revenue of the dominion. NATURE AND SIZE OF CLAIMS. For ''bar diggings" — a strip of land 100 feet wide at high water mark, and thence extending into the river at its lowest water level. For "dry diggings'' — one hundred feet square. For "creek and river claims " — five hundred feet along the direction of the stream, extending in width from base to base of the hill or bench on either side. The width of such claims, however, is limited to 600 feet when the benches are a greater distance apart than that. In such a THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 195 case claims are laid out in areas of ten acres, with bounda- ries running north and south, east and west. For " bench claims" — one hundred feet square. Size of claims to discoverers or parties of discoverers — to one discoverer, 300 feet in length; to a party of two, 600 feet in length; to a party of three, 800 feet in length; to a party of four, 1,000 feet in length; to a party of more than four, ordinary sized claims only. New strata of auriferous gravel in a locality where claims are abandoned, or dry diggings discovered in the vicinity of bar diggings, or vice versa, shall be deemed new mines. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF MINERS Entries of grants for placer mining must be renewed and entry fee paid every year. No miner shall receive more than one claim in the same locality, but may hold any number of claims by purchase, and any number of miners may unite to work their claims in common, provided an agreement be duly registered and a registration fee of $5 be duly paid therefor. Claims may be mortgaged or disposed of, provided such disposal be registered and a registration fee of $2 be paid therefor. Although miners shall have exclusive right of entry upon their claims for the " miner-like " working of them, hold- ers of adjacent claims shall be granted such right of entry thereon as may seem reasonable to the superintendent of mines. Each miner shall be entitled to so much of thewater not previously appropriated flowing through or past his claim as the superintendent of mines shall deem necessary to work it, and shall be entitled to drain his own claim free of charge. Claims remaining unworked on working days for seventy- two hours are deemed abandoned, unless sickness or other reasonable cause is shown or unless the grantee is absent on leave. For the convenience of miners on back claims, on benches I96 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE or slopes, permission may be granted by the superintend- ent of mines to tunnel through claims fronting on water course. In case of the death of a miner, the provisions of aban- donment do not apply during his last illness or after his decease. ACQUISITION OF MINING LOCATIONS. MARKING OF LOCATIONS. Wooden posts 4 inches square, driven 18 inches into the ground and projecting 18 inches above it, must mark the four corners of a location. In rocky ground stone mounds 3 feet in diameter may be piled about the post. In tim- bered land well-blazed lines must join the posts. In roll- ing or uneven localities flattened posts must be placed at intervals along the lines to mark them, so that subsequent explorers shall have no trouble in tracing such lines. When locations are bounded by lines running north and south, east and west, the stake at the northeast corner shall be marked by a cutting instrument or by colored chalk, "M. L. No. 1" (mining location, stake number 1). Likewise the southeasterly stake shall be marked " M. L. No. 2," the southwesterly " M. L. No. 3" and the north- westerly "M. L. No. 4." Where the boundary lines do not run north and south, east and west, the northerly stake shall be marked 1, the easterly 2, the southerly 3 and the westerly 4. On each post shall be marked also the claim- ant's initials and the distance to the next post. APPLICATION AND AFFIDAVIT OF DISCOVERER. Within sixty days after marking his location the claim- ant shall file in the office of the dominion land office for the district a formal declaration, sworn to before the land agent, describing as nearly as may be the locality and dimensions of the location. With such declaration he must pay the agent an entry fee of $5. THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE RECEIPT ISSUED TO DISCOVERER. 197 Upon such payment the agent shall grant a receipt au- thorizing the claimant, or his legal representative, to enter into possession, subject to renewal every year for five years, provided that in these five years $100 shall be expended on the claim in actual mining operations. A detailed statement of such expenditure must also be filed with the agent of dominion lands, in the form of an affidavit corroborated by two reliable and disinterested witnesses. ANNUAL RENEWAL OF LOCATION CERTIFICATE. Upon payment of the $5.00 fee therefore a receipt shall be issued entitling the claimant to hold the location for another year. WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP. Any party of four or less neighboring miners, within three months after entering, may, upon being authorized by the agent, make upon any one of such locations, during the first and second years, but not subsequently, the ex- penditure otherwise required on each of the locations. An agreement, however, accompanied by a fee of $5.00 must be filed with the agent. Provided, however, that the ex- penditure made upon any one location shall not be appli- cable in any manner or for any purpose to any other loca- tion. PURCHASE OF LOCATION. At any time before the expiration of five years from date of entry a claimant may purchase a location upon filing with the agent proof that he has expended $500 in actual mining operations on the claim and complied with all other prescribed regulations. The price of a mining location shall be $5.00 per acre, cash. On making an application to purchase, the claimant must deposit with the agent $50.00, to be deemed as pay- ment to the government for the survey of his location. On receipt of plans and field notes and approval by the sur- veyor-general a patent shall issue to the claimant. Iq8 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE REVERSION OF TITLE. Failure of a claimant to prove within each year the ex- penditure prescribed, or failure to pay the agent the full cash price, shall cause the claimant's right to lapse and the location to revert to the crown, along with the improve- ments upon it. RIVAL CLAIMANTS. When two or more persons claim the same location, the right to acquire it shall be in him who can prove he was the first to discover the mineral deposit involved, and to take possession in the prescribed manner. Priority of dis- covery alone, however shall not give the right to acquire. A subsequent discoverer, who has complied with other prescribed conditions, shall take precedence over a prior discoverer who has failed so to comply. When a claimant has in bad faith used the prior discov- ery of another and has fraudulently affirmed that he made independent discovery and demarcation, he shall, apart from other legal consequences, have no claim, forfeit his deposit and be absolutely debarred from obtaining another location. RIVAL APPLICANTS. Where there are two or more applicants for a mining lo- cation, neither of whom is the original discoverer, the min- ister of the interior may invite competitive tenders or put it up for public auction, as he sees fit. TRANSFER OF MINING RIGHTS. ASSIGNMENT OF RIGHT TO PURCHASE. An assignment of the right to purchase a location shall be indorsed on the back of the receipt or certificate of as- signment, and execution thereof witnessed by two disinter- ested witnesses. Upon the deposit of such receipt in the office of the land agent, accompanied by a registration fee THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 199 of $2, the agent shall give the assignee a certificate en- titling him to all the rights of the original discoverer. By complying with the prescribed regulations such assignee becomes entitled to purchase the location. QUARTZ MINING. Regulations in respect to placer mining, so far as they relate to entries, entry fees, assignments, marking of loca- tions, agents' receipts, etc., except where otherwise pro- vided, apply also to quartz mining. NATURE AND SIZE OF CLAIMS. A location shall not exceed the following dimensions: Length, 1,500 feet; breadth, 600 feet. The surface bound- aries shall be from straight parallel lines, and its bound- aries beneath the surface the planes of these lines. LIMIT TO NUMBER OF LOCATIONS. Not more than one mining location shall be granted to any one individual claimant upon the same lode or vein. MILL SITES. Land used for milling purposes may be applied for and patented, either in connection with or separate from a min- ing location, and may be held in addition to a mining loca- tion, provided such additional land shall in no case exceed five acres. GENERAL PROVISIONS. DECISION OF DISPUTES. The superintendent of mines shall have power to hear and determine all disputes in regard to mining property arising within his district, subject to appeal by either of the parties to the commissioner of dominion lands. 200 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE LEAVE OF ABSENCE. Each holder of a mining location shall be entitled to be absent and suspend work on his diggiDgs during the " close" season, which " close" season shall be declared by the agent in each district, under instructions from the minister of the interior. The agent may grant a leave of absence pending the decision of any dispute before him. Any miner is entitled to a year's leave of absence upon proving expenditure of not less than $200 without any reasonable return of gold. The time occupied by a locator in going to and returning from the office of the agent or of the superintendent of mines shall not count against him. ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS. The minister of the interior may grant to a person actually developing a location an adjoining location equal in size, provided it be shown to the minister's satisfaction that the vein being worked will probably extend beyond the boundaries of the original location. FORFEITURE. In event of the breach of the regulations, a right or grant shall be absolutely forfeited, and the offending party shall be incapable of subsequently acquiring similar rights, ex- cept by special permission by the minister of the interior. UNITED STATES MINING LAW. Those who locate upon the American side of the line, which includes the rich Birch Creek mines, the mines on the headwaters of Sixty-Mile and Forty-Mile Creeks, the American Creek, the Tanana River and a vast number of other streams, will find their rights and privileges well THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 20I set forth in the following synopsis, which was prepared by Charles M. Walker for the Chicago Ti?nes-Herald: "ROCKING OUT GOLD ON THE KLONDIKE. PLACER CLAIM DEFINED. The term "placer claim," as denned by the supreme court of the United States, is: "Ground within defined boundaries which contains mineral in its earth, sand or gravel; ground that includes valuable deposits not in place. 202 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE that is, not fixed in rock, but which are in a loose state, and may in most cases be collected by washing or amalgama- tion without milling." SIZE OF QUARTZ AND PLACER CLAIMS. The manner of locating placer mining claims differs from that of locating claims upon veins or lodes. In locating a vein or lode claim the United States statutes provide that no claim shall extend more than 300 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, and that no claim shall be limited by mining regulations to less than 25 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface. In locating claims called "placers," however, the law pro- vides that no location of such claim upon surveyed lands shall include more than twenty acres for each individual claimant. The supreme court, however, has held that one individual can hold as many locations as he can purchase and rely upon his possessory title; that a separate patent for each location is unnecessary. PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP. Locators, however, have to show proof of citizenship or intention to become citizens. This may be done in the case of an individual by his own affidavit; in the case of an association incorporated by a number of individuals by the affidavit of their authorized agent, made on his own knowl- edge or upon information and belief ; and in the case of a company organized under the laws of any state or territory, by the filing of a certified copy of the charter or certificate of incorporation. PATENTS. A patent for any land claimed and located may be obtained in the following manner: "Any person, associa- tion or corporation authorized to locate a claim, having claimed and located a piece of land, and who has or have complied with the terms of the law, may file in the proper THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 203 land office an application for a patent under oath, showing such compliance, together with a plat and field notes of the claim or claims in common made by or under the direction of the United States surveyor general, show- ing accurately the boundaries of the claim or claims, which shall be distinctly marked by monuments on the ground, and shall post a copy of such plat, together with a notice of such application for a patent, in a con- spicuous place on the land embraced in such plat, pre- vious to the application for a patent on such plat; and shall file an affidavit of at least two persons that such notice has been duly posted, and shall file a copy of the notice in such land office ; and shall thereupon be entitled to a patent to the land in the manner following : The registrar of said land office upon the filing of such application, plat, field notes, notices and affidavits, shall publish a notice that such application has been made, for a period of sixty days, in a newspaper to be by him desig- nated, as published nearest to such claim ; and he shall post such notice in his office for the same period. The claimant at the time of filing such application or at any time thereafter, within sixty days of publication, shall file with the registrar a certificate of the United States sur- veyor general that $500 worth of labor has been expended or improvements made upon the claim by himself or grant- ors ; that the plat is correct, with such further description by reference to natural objects or permanent monuments as shall identify the claim and furnish an accurate descrip- tion to be incorporated in the patent. At the expiration of the sixty days of publication, the claimant shall file his affidavit showing that the plat and notice have been posted in a conspicuous place on the claim during such period of publication." 1 ADVERSE CLAIMS. If no adverse claim shall have been filed with the regis- trar of the land office at the expiration of said sixty days, the claimant is entitled to a patent upon the payment to 204 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE the proper officer of $$ per acre in the case of a lode claim, and $2.50 per acre for a placer. The location of a placer claim and keeping possession thereof until a patent shall be issued are subject to local laws and customs. LAWS APPLICABLE TO ALASKA. Many misunderstandings have arisen in regard to the land and mineral laws applicable to Alaska, some of the United States laws being, by explicit enactment, not oper- ative in the district of Alaska. The Commissioner of the General Land Office has recently published a statement which shows that these are the laws applicable to Alaska: (1) The mineral land laws of the United States ; (2) town site laws, which provide for the incorporation of town sites and acquirement of title thereto from the United States Government to the town site Trustees ; (3) the laws pro- viding for trade and manufactures, giving each qualified person 160 acres of land in a square and compact form. The coal land regulations are distinct from the mineral regulations or laws, and the jurisdiction of neither coal laws nor public land laws extends to Alaska, the Territory being expressly excluded by the laws themselves from their operation. The act approved May 17, 1884, provid- ing for civil government for Alaska, has this language as to mines and mining privileges : "The laws of the United States relating to mining claims and rights incidental thereto shall on and after the passage of this act be in full force and effect in said district of THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 205 Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by the President," and lt parties who have located mines or mining privileges therein, under the United States laws, applicable to the public domain, or have occupied or improved or exercised acts of ownership over such claims shall not be disturbed therein, but shall be allowed to perfect title by payment so provided for." There is stiil more general authority. Without this special authority the act of July 4, 1866, says: "All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and lands in which these are found to occupa- tions and purchase by citizens of the United States and by those who have declared an intention to become such under the rules prescribed by law and according to local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States." The patenting of mineral lands in Alaska is not a new thing, for that work has been going on, as the cases have come in from time to time, since 1884. CHAPTER XVI. ALASKA. FACTS ABOUT THE LAND OF ICE, SEALS AND GOLD. A sudden interest has sprung up in the United States in regard to the great land which, although owned by this country for thirty years, has received but little general attention. SEALS AND TOTEM POLES. Alaska has, to the general reader, been principally known as a land of seals and totem poles — the seals being with us always as a subject to quarrel over and be arbitrated. For a long time Alaska was looked upon as a good joke, and Secretary Seward's purchase of the country from the Rus- sians was freely and keenly ridiculed as a piece of useless extravagance only to be condoned in consideration of the friendly sympathy which Russia had shown to the Union cause during the Civil War. So the matter was allowed to drop as a subject of discussion, and the allusions to " Uncle Sam's Ice-Box, " as the country had been called, became infrequent. Later it became the fashion for tourists to take a brief trip to the southern coast of Alaska to see the gla- ciers and other scenery, while the country north of the 206 'JACK MC QUESTEN. Mr. McQuesten, who has a store at Circle City, has lived in that region for years and is a man of large heart and ready sympathy, and probably the most popular man on the Yukon. 208 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE coast range remained a terra incognita unknown and un- heeded. DISCOVERY OF ALASKA. Alaska came into the possession of the United States by purchase in 1867, the price paid being $7,200,000 in gold. Before that it had been known as Russian America, having come into the possession of Russia by right of discovery, the first Europeans to see the Alaskan shores having been the Russian navigator, Vitus Bering, who was a Dane by birth but was in the service of the Russian government. He sailed east from Kamchatka, reaching the American shore in 1728. Bering made several voyages and was the first European to sail on the waters now known as Bering Sea and Bering Strait. RUSSIAN DOMINION. The explorations of Bering were followed by many voy- ages by Siberian fur hunters, who took control of the Aleu- tian islands and enslaved the natives, treating the latter with such severity that their numbers decreased 90 per cent in the sixty years prior to 1818. The Russian- American Company was organized in 1799, and received from the Emperor Paul, a charter. Their manager, Baranoff, conquered the country as far as Sitka, which was founded in 1801; established a colony in Cali- fornia, and engaged in commerce with China, Hawaii and the Spanish colonies of the Pacific main. He established THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 209 the seat of government at Unalaska and was a man of iron — cruel and despotic. The Russian government inter- fered in behalf of the natives in 1818 and their enslave- ment ceased, the Christianizing efforts of the missionary Innocentius Veniaminoff, afterward primate of the Greek Church, resulting in the conversion of thousands of Aleuts and other natives. NATIVES BADLY TREATED. Although some of the grosser features of oppression were eliminated after the imperial intervention in 1818, the natives received very bad treatment during the entire period of Russian occupation, the fur company having no object in the country except to enrich itself. Its barbarous treat- ment of the natives at the various trading posts it estab- lished became such a scandal that upon the expiry of its charter in 1862 the government refused further renewal. UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES. After the negotiations of purchase were completed with Russia in 1867 the Russian standard was lowered and the stars and stripes unfurled on the barracks at Sitka and from Russian America the name of the country was changed to "Alaska." The names of "Polario," "American Siberia," "Zero Islands" and "Walrussia" were suggested, but Charles Sumner advocated the name "Alaska" from the aboriginal "Al-ak-shak" meaning "the great country" or "the continent." 2IO THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE SIZE OF ALASKA. Alaska has an area of 531,400 square miles, equalling one- sixth of the United States or one-seventh of Europe, and being twice as large as Texas, the largest of the American States. It presents great varieties of climate, Southern Alaska, under the influence of the Japan stream which flows by it, having its climate moderated so that it has no great extremes of heat and cold, the mean temperature of Sitka being 54.2 degrees in summer and 31.9 degrees in winter. That part of the country is very humid and the rainfall is from 80 to 130 inches in a year. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. The general characteristics of the interior have been elsewhere described in the chapter on the Yukon Valley and the special one on the climate of the country. In Southeastern Alaska there are large forests, the principal tree being the Sitka spruce, which not infrequently reaches the height of 250 feet and covers thousands of square miles of the Alexander archipelago. Yellow cedar, a wood admit- ting of high polish and having a pleasant, perfumed odor, is one of the many excellent trees of this region. THE ALASKAN COAST LINE, The coast of Southeastern Alaska curves northward and westward from Dixon Entrance to Prince William Sound 550 miles and from there the shore-line extends southward and westward for 725 miles to the tip of Alaska. From THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 211 that point the coast line takes a zigzag northward course to Bering Strait and the Arctic Ocean. THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. From the southwestern peninsula extends out into the ocean the Aleutian islands, dividing Bering Sea from the Pacific main. This archipelago extends for over 1,650 miles in the direction of Asia and is composed of treeless, grassy, mountainous islands, around which blow storms which make the name of the Pacific seem a hollow mockery, while the overhanging mists testify to the humidity of the climate. The moderating influence of the ocean stream that flows by these islands is shown by a temperature which averages 50 degrees in summer and 30 degrees in winter. OUR ULTIMATE WEST AND NORTH. The island of Attu is the most westerly point of the United States, and is situated 400 miles east of Kamchatka and 400 miles west of the nearest Alaskan village. It rises to a height of 3,084 feet and is the home of about 140 Aleuts. This island is 2,943 miles west of San Francisco, or a little further than the distance (2,900 miles) between the latter city and the most eastern point in Maine. The most northerly point in the United States is Point Barrow, where there is a building erected by the govern- ment and a relief station. It is maintained as a trading and relief point ; many whalers being lost at this dangerous coast. Near the point is the Eskimo village of Nuwak. 212 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE RIVERS OF ALASKA. The principal river of Alaska is the Yukon, which is fully described elsewhere. It enters American territory between Fort Cudahy (Forty-Mile) and Circle City and empties into Norton Sound. Its principal tributary in United States territory is the Tanana which joins the main river at Weare. The Kuskokwim River, and the Nootak River, the former emptying into Bering Sea and the latter into the Arctic Ocean north of Bering Strait are both long rivers whose tributary branches and creeks are said to be rich in gold. The climate and other conditions along these rivers are about the same as those on the Yukon. The Copper River, which empties into the Pacific to he west of Mount Elias, has been explored by several parties, including Lieutenant Schwatka, who came out from the Yukon by way of White and Copper rivers. The river is little known but is regarded as one of the more promising prospecting grounds. It has been said that a route by the Copper River could be made to the Klondike country which would reduce the distance to not more than 300 miles from the coast. PROPOSED ROUTE TO KLONDIKE. The proposed route starts inland from the mouth of Copper River which it follows up to the mouth of its principal tributary, the Chillyna River, which is navigable for a considerable distance. From the head of the Chillyna THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 2I 3 a short road over a low pass would, it is said, reach White River, a navigable stream entering the Yukon between Fort Selkirk and the mouth of Stewart River. PANNING OUT GOLD ON THE KLONDIKE. GOLD AT MANY POINTS. Gold has been found at many places in Alaska besides the Yukon, and on Cook's inlet a number of placer mines are being successfully worked. Mr. George F. Beecher, in an unpublished report made to the geological survey of his investigation in 1895 of the coastal gold districts, says that most of the islands of the Alexander archipelago contain gold deposits, yet unworked, that would probably 214 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE repay very handsomely well-directed efforts of placer min- ing. These deposits are in the neighborhood of Sitka and gen- erally on Baranoff and Admiralty islands and the beaches of the adjacent mainland. Another fairly promising region is in a group of deposits on the Kenai peninsula, on the southeast shore of Cook inlet and at Yakutal bay and the beaches of Kadiak island. These regions have as yet been exploited only to a lim- ited degree, owing to the unfavorable physical condition of the coast. THE NATIVES OF ALASKA. The ethnological features of Alaska are very interesting, the Eskimos of the north and west; the Aleuts, a Mongo- lian race inhabiting the Aleutian archipelago; the Tlingits of Southeastern Alaska and the various Indian tribes of the interior all being races of great interest to the scientific in- vestigator. The aboriginals of the Upper Yukon are the Takudh or Takuth Indians, although they always speak of themselves as Yukon Indians. Their language is known to missionaries as a dialect of Takudh, but they converse with traders in a jargon called "Slavey," a mixture of Ca- nadian French and hybrid words of English. MOUNTAINS OF ALASKA. The Alaskan mountains reach magnificent proportions and are the highest mountains north of Mexico. Mt. St. Elias is 1 8, 200 feet high ; Mt. Wrangell, an active volcano, THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 215 19,400 feet; Mt. Crillon, 15,900 feet; and Mt. Fairweather, I5> 500 feet, being among the most lofty. Alaska is famous for its glaciers, which number thousands along the south- ern coast line. The Muir glacier, on its sea front, is three miles long, and presents a great wall of blue ice 350 feet high, with a background of mountains 15,000 feet high. There are numerous glaciers between Juneau and Chilcoot Pass on the way to the Klondike region. SEAL FISHERIES. The seal fisheries of Alaska are famous, and the plant of the Russian-American Company was in 1870 bought by the Alaskan Commercial Company, composed of San Francisco capitalists, who continued the seal fisheries under a twenty-years' charter. In 1890 the lease of the fur seal islands passed into the hands of the North Amer- ican Commercial Company. The breeding grounds are on the Pribyloff Islands in Bering Sea and regulations are now in force to prevent the destruction of the seals at a greater rate than their natural annual increase. FISH IN ALASKAN SEAS. The fisheries of Alaska are of great and growing value, and the salmon canning industry is one of large importance. Codfish, halibut and other valuable food-fish abound in Alaskan waters, which are destined to become a most pro- lific source of supply. 2l6 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE The agricultural possibilities of Alaska are not well known. The southern section raises some vegetables and even the Yukon valley has shown considerable capabilities for summer cultivation of quickly maturing plants. The gold excitement will have a great tendency to call attention to Alaska's many other resources and to bear still further testimony to the wisdom of the once derided but now universally approved purchase of the country from Russia, ' '3671- KLONDIKE... AND ALL POINTS IN The Direct Route to Seattle, Wash. From which Port all Steamships leave Direct for the Gold Fields. Inquire further of any Railroad or Steamship Agent, or W. M. LOWRIE, F. J. WHITNEY, Gen. Agent G. N. Ry., Chicago. G. P. T. A. G. N. Ry., St. Paul, Minn. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 017 185 243 2 ■