a
EH-
AN UP-TO-DATE: GUIDE:
KLONDIKE DISTRICT
YUKON VALLEY
Sand, McNally&Co.,
'uhlishers,
SEwAYG0RKMD E!
North American
Transportation and
Trading Company
000
DIRECTORS...
JOHN J. HEALY, Dawson, Klondike Gold Field-,
ELY E. WEARE, Fort Cudahy. N. W. T.
CHARLES A. WEARE, Chicago, III.
JOHN CUDAHY, Chicago, III.
PORTUS B. WEARE, Chicago, III.
MICHAEL CUDAHY, Chicago, III.
ALASKA and
NORTHWEST TERRITORY
MERCHANTS and CARRIERS
*
STEAMERS :
*
TRADING POSTS:
Portus B. Weare
*
Fort Get There
John Cudahy
*
Weare
C. H. Hamilton
J. J. Healy
T. C. Power
J. C. Barr
*
*
*
*
*
Healy
Circle City
Fort Cudahy
Klondike
*
Dawson
Operates Steamships
between Seattle and Ft. Get There, St. Michael's Island, and
steamboats from Ft Get There, St. Michael's Island to all
pointson the Yukon River. The only established line running
from Seattle to Klondike. Also operates large, well-stocked
♦ stores at all of the principal mining points in the interior i >r
Alaska and Northwest Territory on the Yukon River. For
rates and full information of this wonderful mining country
call on or address anv of the Company's offices.
Steamers leave September io, 1897, first steamer in 1898,
June (St, and every two weeks thereafter.
CHICAGO OFFICE...R. 290 Old Colony Building
SEATTLE, WASH., 0FFICE...N0. 618 First Avenue
SAN FRANCISCO OFFlf F "- ° "• " - '
"THE GREATEST GOLD DISTRICT ON EARTH."
The Yukon-Cariboo
British Columbia
Gold Mining
CAPITAL
$5,000,000 Development Company
Shares...
#1.00 each. Full Paid-Non Assessable.
J. EDWARD ADDICKS, President, Claymont. Delaware.
SYLVESTER T. EVERETT, 1st Vice-President, Cleveland.
BENJAMIN BUTTERWORTH, 2d Vice-President, Washington.
E. F. J. GAYNOR, Treasurer,
Auditor Manhattan R. /?., New York City.
CHARLES H. KITTINGER, Secretary.
66 Broadway, New York City, Harrison Building, Philadelphia.
DIRECTORS.
HON. JOHN H. McGRAW, Ex-Governor, State of Washington.
Vice-President First National Hank, Seattle.
CAMILLE WEIDENFELD, Banker, 45 Wall Street, New York.
CHARLES E. JUDSON, President Economic Gas Company, Chicago.
HON. BENJAMIN BUTTERWORTH, Com'sioner of Patents, Washington.
HON. JAMES G. SHAW, Manufacturer, New Castle, Delaware.
NVLVESTER T. EVERETT, V-Pres't Cleveland Terminal
& Valley R. R., Cleveland.
. HARLES H. KITTINGER, 66 Broadway, New York,
Harrison Building, Philadelphia.
HON. JOHN LAUGHLIN, Ex-State Senator, New York,
Laughlin, Ewell & Haupt, Attorneys-at-Law, Buffalo.
I ULIUS CHAMBERS, lournalist, New York.
GEN. E. M. CARR, of Preston, Carr & Oilman, Attornevs-at-Law, Seattle.
THOMAS W. LAWSON, Banker, 33 State Street, Boston.
GEORGE B. KITTINGER, Mining Engineer, Seattle, Wash.
E. F. J. GAYNOR, Auditor Manhattan Railway Co., New York.
PHILO D. BEARD, Treasurer Queen City Gas Co., Buffalo.
J. M. BUXTON, M. E., Vancouver, British Columbia.
GEORGE A. KELLY'. 66 Broad wav, New York.
J. EDWARD ADDICKS. Delaware.
. . . THIS COMPANY is formed to explore and develop the GOLD
FIELDS of British Columbia, including- the Cariboo District and the Klondike
District at the headwaters of the Yukon River. Shares of its Capital Stock
are offered to the public at par $1.00 per share. The Company has placed
exploring parties in the Gold Regions, and now has its own Agents in this
marvelously rich field. Each party is in charge of mining engineers, fully
equipped for successful discovery and development.
Prospectus and additional information furnished, and subscriptions to
stock received at office of
J. EDWARD ADDICKS, Harrison Building,
1500 Market St„ Philadelphia.
GOLDEN ALASKA
A COMPLETE ACCOUNT TO DATE
Yukon Valley
ITS HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, MINERAL AND OTHER
RESO URGES, OPPOR TV XI TIES A XD
MEANS OP ACCESS
Ernest Ixgersoll,
(Formerly with the Hayden Survey in the West)
author of
Knocking 'Round the Rockies" "The Crest of the Continent,
etc., and General Editor of Rand. McNally &
Co.'s "Guide Books."
Chicago and New York-.
RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY.
1S97.
ALASKA.
Bullion Safe Gold
mining
Companp
CAPITAL. .$1,000,000
Shares... $ i .00 each
Full Paid
Non-Assessable
Mines on the Yukon.
Mines on the Blue River.
This Company owns 160 acres of Gold-bear-
ing gravel from five to forty feet thick con-
taining manv millions of value.
A limited amount of the full paid, non-assessable shares
will be sold at one dollar each.
For prospectus and particulars, address,
W. L. Boyd <£ Co.,© wall street,
C^NEW YORK.
r
INTRODUCTION.
To make "a book about the Klondike" so shortly
after that word first burst upon the ears of a sur-
prised world, would be the height of literary impu-
dence, considering how remote and incommunicado
that region is, were it not the public is intensly cu-
rious to know whatever can be said authentically in
regard to it. "The Klondike," it must be remem-
bered, is, in reality, a very limited district — only one
small river valley in a gold-bearing territory twice
as large as Xew England; and it came into promi-
nence so recently that there is really little to tell
in respect to it because nothing has had time to
happen and be communicated to the outside world.
But in its neighborhood, and far north and south
of it, are other auriferous rivers, creeks and bars,
and mountains filled with untried quartz-ledges, in
respect to which information has been accumulat-
ing for some years, and where at any moment
"strikes" may be made that shall equal or eclipse
the wealth of the Klondike placers. It is possible,
then, to give here much valuable information in
.'J65948
iv Golden Alaska.
regard to the Yukon District generally, and this the
writer has attempted to do. The best authority fur
early exploration and geography is the monumen-
tal work of Capt. \V. II. Dull, "Alaska and its Re-
sources," whose companion, Frederick Whymper,
also wrote a narrative of their adventures. The
reports of the United States Coast Survey in that
region, of the exploration of the Upper Yukon by
Schwatka and Hayes of the United States Geological
Survey, of Xelson, Turner and others attached to
the Weather Service, of the Governor of the Terri-
tory, of Raymond, Abercrombie, Allen and oilier
army and naval officers who have explored the
coast country and reported to various departments
of the government, and of several individual exph >r-
ers, especially the late E. J. Glave, also contain facts
of importance for the present compilation. Tin-
most satisfactory sources of information as to the
geography, routes of travel, geology and mineral
ogy and mining development, are contained in tin
investigations conducted some ten years ago by tin
Canadian Geological Survey, under the leadership
of Dr. G. M. Dawson and of William Ogilvie. < if
these I have made free use. and wish to make an
equally free acknowledgement.
It will thus be found that the content.- of thi>
pamphlet justified even the hastv publication whid
Golden Alaska. v
the public demands, and which precludes much at-
tention to literan' form; but an additional claim to
attention is the information it seeks to give intend-
ing travelers to to that far-away and very new and as
yet unfurnished region, how to go and what to
take, and what are the conditions and emergencies
which they must prepare to meet. Undoubtedly the
pioneers to the Yukon pictured the difficulties of
the route and the hardships of their life in the high-
est colors, both to add to their self-glory and to re-
duce competition. Moreover, every day mitigates
the hardships and makes easier the travel. Never-
theless, enough difficulties, dangers and chances of
failure remain to make the going to Alaska a matter
for very careful forethought on the part of every
man. To help him weigh the odds and choose
wisely, is the purpose of this little book.
GOLDEN ALASKA.
ROUTES TO THE YUKON GOLD-FIELDS.
The gold-fields of the Yukon Valley, at and near
Klondike River, are near the eastern boundary of
Alaska, from twelve to fifteen hundred miles up from
the mouth of the river, and from five to eight hun-
dred miles inland by the route across the country
from the southern Alaskan coast. In each case an
ocean voyage must be taken as the first step; and
steamers may be taken from San Francisco, Port-
land, Ore., Seattle, Wash., or from Victoria, B. C.
The overland routes to these cities require a
word.
i. To San Francisco. This city is reached di-
rectly by half a dozen routes across the plains and
Rocky Mountains, of which the Southern Pacific,
by way of Xew Orleans and El Paso; the Atchison
& Santa Fe and Atlantic & Pacific by way of
Kansas City, and across northern Xew Mexico and
Arizona; the Burlington, Denver & Rio Grande, by
wav of Denver and Salt Lake City; and the Union
8 Golden Alaska.
and Central Pacific, by way of Omaha, Ogden and
Sacramento, are the principal ones.
2. To Portland, Oregon. This is reached directly
by the Union Pacific and Oregon Short Line, via
Omaha and Ogden; and by the Northern Pacific,
via St. Paul and Helena, Montana.
3. To Seattle. Wash. This city, Tacoma, Port
Townsend and other ports on Puget Sound, are
the termini of the Northern Pacific Railroad and
also of the Great Northern Railroad from St. Paul
along the northern boundary of the United States.
The Canadian Pacific will also take passengers there
expeditiously by rail or boat from Vancouver, B. C.
4. To Vancouver and Victoria, B. C. Any of
the routes heretofore mentioned reach Victoria by
adding a steamboat journey; but the direct route,
and one of the pleasantest of all the transcontinental
routes, is by the Canadian Pacific Railway from
Montreal or Chicago, via Winnipeg. Manitoba, to
the coast at Vancouver, whence a ferry crosses to
Victoria.
Regular routes of transportation to Alaska are
supplied by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company,
which has been dispatching mail-steamships once a
fortnight the year round from Tacoma to Sitka,
which touch at Juneau and all other ports of call.
Thev also maintain a service of steamers between
Golden Alaska. 9
San Francisco and Portland and Puget Sound ports.
These are fitted with every accommodation and lux-
ury for tourist-travel; and an extra steamer, the
Queen, has been making semi-monthly trips during
June, July and August. These steamers would
carry 250 passengers comfortably and the tourist
fare for the round trip has been $100.
The Canadian Pacific Navigation Company has
been sending semi-monthly steamers direct from
Victoria to Port Simpson and way stations the year
round. They are fine boats, but smaller than the
others and are permitted to land only at Sitka and
Dyea.
Such are the means of regular communication
with Alaskan ports. There has been no public con-
veyance north of Sitka, except twice or thrice a
year in summer in the supply-steamers of the Alas-
kan commercial companies, which sailed from San
Francisco to St. Michael and there transferred to
small boats up the Yukon.
Whether any changes will be made in these
schedules for the season of 1898 remains to be
seen.
Special steamers. — As the regular accommoda-
tions were found totally inadequate to the demand
for passage to Alaska which immediately followed
the report of rich discoveries on Klondike Creek,
io Golden Alaska.
extra steamers were hastily provided by the old
companies, others are fitted up and sent out by
speculative owners, and some have been privately
chartered. A score or more steamships, loaded with
passengers, horses, mules and burros (donkeys) to
an uncomfortable degree, were thus despatched from
San Francisco, Puget Sound and Victoria between
the middle of July and the middle of August. An
example of the way the feverish demand for trans-
portation is found in the case of the Willamette,
a collier, which was cleaned out in a few hours and
turned into an extemporized passenger-boat. The
whole 'tween decks space was filled with rough
bunks, wonderfully close together, for "first-class"
passengers; while away down in the hold second-
class arrangements were made which the mind shud-
ders to contemplate. Yet this slave-ship sort of a
chance was eagerly taken, and such space as was
left was crowded with animals and goods. Many
persons and parties bought or chartered private
steamers, until the supply of these was exhausted
by the end of August.
Two routes may be chosen to the gold-fields.
i. By way of the Yukon River. This is all the
way by water, and means nearly 4,500 miles of voy-
aging.
2. By way of the seaports of Dyea or Shkagway,
. ■■'■ -i i
Golden Alaska, 13
over mountain passe?, afoot or a-horseback, and
down the upper Yukon River and down the lakes
and rivers by raft, skiff and steamboat.
To describe these routes is the next task — first,
that by the way of St. Michael, and second — up the
Yukon River.
Route, via St. Michael and the Yukon River. —
This begins by a sea-voyage, which may be direct,
or along the coast. The special steamers (and fu-
ture voyages, no doubt) usually take a direct course
across the Xorth Pacific and through the Aleutian
Islands to St. Michael, in Norton Sound, a bight of
Bering Sea. The distance from San Francisco is
given as 2,850 miles; from Victoria or Seattle, about
2,200 miles. The inside course would be somewhat
longer, would follow the route next to be described
as far as Juneau and Sitka, then strike northwest
along the coast to St. Michael.
This town, on an island near shore in Norton
Sound, was established in 1835 by Lieut. Michael
Tebenkoff, of the Russian navy, who named it after
his patron saint. Though some distance to the
mouth of the Yukon entrance. St. Michael has al-
ways been the controlling center and base of sup-
plies for the great valley. The North American
Trading and Transportation Company and the Alas-
ka Commercial Company have their large ware-
14 Golden Alaska.
houses here, and provide the miners with tools,
clothing and provisions. Recently the wharf and
warehouse accommodations have been extended.
and the population has increased, but if, as is prob-
able, any considerable number of men are stopped
there this fall by the freezing of the river, and com-
pelled to pass the winter on the island, they will
find it a dreary, if not dangerous experience.
The vessels supplying this depot can seldom ap-
proach the anchorage of St. Michael before the end
of June on account of large bodies of drifting ice
that beset the waters of Norton Sound and the straits
between St. Lawrence and the Yukon Delta.
A temporary landing-place is built out into water
deep enough for loaded boats drawing five feet to
come up at high tide, this is removed when winter
approaches, as otherwise it would be destroyed by
ice. The shore is sandy and affords a moderately
sloping beach, on which boats may be drawn up.
A few feet only from high water mark are perpen-
dicular banks from six to ten feet high, composed
of decayed pumice and ashes, covered with a layer
about four feet thick of clay and vegetable matter
resembling peat. This forms a nearly even meadow
with numerous pools of water, which gradually as-
cends for a mile or so to a low hill, of volcanic ori-
gin, known as the Shaman Mountain.
Golden Alaska. 15
Between the point on which St. Michael is built
and the mainland, a small arm of the sea makes in,
in which three fathoms may be carried until the
flagstaff of the fort bears wrest by north, this is the
best-protected anchorage, and has as much water
and as good bottom as can be found much farther
out.
The excitement of the summer of 1897 caused an
enlargement of facilities and the erection of addi-
tional buildings, forming a nucleus of traffic called
Fort Get There. Here will be put together in the
autumn or winter at least three, and perhaps more,
new river steamboats, of which only two or three
have been running on the lower river during the
last two or three years. These are taken up, in
pieces, by ships and fitted together at this point. All
are flat-bottomed, stern-wheeled, powerfully engined
craft, the largest able to carry perhaps 250 tons,
such as run on the upper Missouri, and they will
burn wood, the cutting and stacking of which on
the river bank will furnish work to many men dur-
ing the coming winter. To such steamers, or small-
er boats, all the persons and cargoes must be trans-
ferred at St. Michael.
For the last few years there has been no trader
here but the agent of the Alaska Commercial Com-
pany, and a story is told of the building of a river-
16 Golden Alaska.
boat there in 1892, which illustrates what life on
the Yukon used to be. In that year a Chicago man,
P. B. Weare, resolved to enter the Alaskan field as
a trader. He chartered a schooner, and placed upon
it a steamboat, built in sections and needing only to
be put together and have its machinery set up, and
for this purpose he took with him a force of car-
penters and machinists. On reaching St. Michael
Weare was refused permission to land his boat sec-
tions on the land of the Commercial Company's
post, and was compelled to make a troublesome
landing on the open beach, where he began opera-
tions. Suddenly his ship carpenters stopped work.
They had been offered, it was said, double pay by
the rival concern if they would desist from all work.
Weare turned to the Indians, but with the same ill-
success. The Indians were looking out for their
winter grub. Here was the Chicago man 2,500
miles from San Francisco and only two weeks
left to him in which to put his boat together and
then hope for a chance to ascend the river before
winter came on. There was no time in which to
get additional men from San Francisco. In the
midst of his trouble Weare one day espied the rev-
enue cutter Bear steaming into the roadstead. On
board of her was Captain Michael A. Heal}'. That
officer, on going ashore and discovering the con-
Golden Alaska. 19
dition of affairs, threatened to hang every carpenter
and mechanic Weare had brought up if they failed
to immediately commence work. The men went to
work, and with them went a gang of men from the
Bear. The little steamer was put together in a few
days, and the Bear only went to sea after seeing
the P. B. Weare steaming into the mouth of the
Yukon.
The Weare was enabled that summer to land her
stores along the Yukon, and was the only vessel
available for the early crowds of miners going to
Klondike.
The mouth of the Yukon is a great delta, sur-
rounded by marsh of timber — a soaking prairie in
summer, a plain of snow and ice in winter. The
shifting bars and shallows face out from this delta
far into Bering Sea, and no channel has yet been
discovered whereby an ocean steamer could enter
any of the mouths. Fortunately the northernmost
mouth, nearest St. Michael and 65 miles from it, is
navigable for the light river steamers, and this one,
called Aphoon. and marked by its unusual growth
of willows and bushes is well known to the local
Russian and Indian pilots. It is narrow and intri-
cate, and the general course up stream is south-
southeast. Streams and passages enter it, and it has
troublesome tidal currents. The whole space be-
20 Golden Alaska.
tween the mouth is a net-work, indeed, of narrow
channels, through the marshes.
Kutluck, at the outlet of the Aphoon, on Tastol
Bay, is an Indian village ,long celebrated for its man-
ufacture of skin boats (bidars), and there the old-
time voyagers were accustomed to get the only
night's sleep ashore that navigation permits between
St. Michael and Andraefski. On the south bank
of the main stream, at the head of the delta, is the
Roman Catholic mission of Kuslivuk; and a few
miles higher, just above the mouth of the Andraef-
ski River, is tne abandoned Russian trading post,
Andraefski, above which the river winds past Icog-
mute, where there is a Greek Catholic mission. The
banks of the river are much wooded, and the cur-
rent even as far down as Koserefski averages over
three knots an hour. Above Koserefski (the Cath-
olic Mission station), the course is along stretches
of uninviting country, among marsh islands and
''sloughs,'' the current growing more and more
swift on the long reach from Auvik, where the Epis-
copal mission is situated, to Xulato.
The river here has a nearly north and south
course, parallel with the coast of Norton Sound and
within fifty miles or so of it. Two portages across
here form cut-offs in constant use in winter by the
traders, Indians and missionaries. The first of these
Golden Alaska. 21
portages starts from the mainland opposite the Isl-
and of St. Michael, and passes over the range of hills
that defines the shore to the headwaters of the An-
vik River. This journey may be made in winter by
sledges and thence down the Auvik to the Yukon,
but it is a hard road. Air. Xelson, the naturalist,
and a fur trader, spent two months from November
16, 1880, to January 19, 1891, in reaching the Yu-
kon by this path.
The other portage is that between Unalaklik, a
Swedish mission station at the mouth of the Unalak-
lik River, some fifty miles north of St. Michael, and
a stream that enters the Yukon half way between
Auvik and Xulato. In going from St. Michael to
Unalatlik there are few points at which a boat can
land even in the smoothest weather; in rough
weather only Major': Cove and Kegiktowenk before
rounding Tolstoi Point to Topanika, where there is
a trading post. Topanika is some ten miles from
Unalaklik, with a high shelving beach, behind which
rise high walls of sandstone in perpendicular bluffs
from twenty to one hundred feet in height. This
beach continues all the way to the Unalaklik River,
the bluff gradually decreasing into a marshy plain at
the river's mouth, which is obstructed by a bar over
which at low tide there are only a few feet of water
except in a narrow and tortuous channel, constantly
22 Golden Alaska.
changing as the river deposits fresh detritus. Inside
this bar there are two or three fathoms for a few
miles, but the channel has only a few feet, most of
the summer, from the mouth of the river to Ulu-
kuk.
Trees commence along the Unalaklik River as
soon as the distance from the coast winds and silt
air permit them to grow; willow, poplar, birch and
spruce being those most frequently found.
The Unalaklik River is followed upward to Ulu-
kuk. where begins a sledging portage over the
marshes to the Llukuk Hills, where there is a na-
tive village known as Yesolia Sopka, or Cheerful
Peak, at an altitude of eight hundred feet above the
surrounding plain. This is a well-known trapping
ground, the fox and marten being very plentiful.
From Sopka Yesolia (Cheerful Feak) it is about
one day's journey to Beaver Lake, which is only
a marshy tundra in winter, but is flooded in the
spring and summer month-. From the high hills
beyond the lake one may catch a first glimpse of the
great Yukon sweeping between its splendid banks.
The native.- call Xulato emphatically a "hungry"
place, and it was once the scene of an atrocious mas-
sacre. Capt. Dall, from whose book much of the
information regarding this part of Alaska is derived,
describes the Indians here as a verv <jreat nuisance.
OLD RUSSIAN BLOCK HOUSE AT SITKA.
Golden Alaska. 25
"They had," he explains, "a great habit of coming
in and sitting down, doing and saying nothing, but
watching everything. At meal times they seemed
to count and weigh every morsel we ate, and were
never backward in assisting to dispose of the re-
mains of the meal. Occasionally we would get des-
perate and clean them all out, but they would drop
in again and we could do nothing but resign our-
selves."
The soil on the banks of the Yukon and that of
the islands probably never thaws far below the sur-
face. It is certain that no living roots are found at
a greater depth than three feet. The soil, in layers
that seems to mark annual inundations, consists of
a stratum of sand overlaid by mud and covered with
vegetable matter, the layers being from a half inch
to three inches in thickness. In many places where
the bank has been undermined these layers may be
counted by the hundred. Low bluffs of blue sand-
stone, with here and there a high gravel bank, char-
acterize the shores as far as Point Sakataloutan, and
some distance above this point begin the quartzose
rocks.
The next station on the river is the village of No-
wikakat, on the left bank. Here may be obtained
stores of dried meat and fat from the Indians. The
village is situated upon a beautiful bay or Nowika-
26 Golden Alaska.
kat Harbor, which is connected by a narrow en-
trance with the Yukon. "Through this a beautiful
view is obtained across the river, through the numer-
ous islands of the opposite shore, and of the Yukon
Mountains in the distance. The feather)' willows
and light poplars bend over and are reflected in the
dark water, unmixed as yet with Yukon mud;
even- island and hillside is clothed in the delicate
green of spring, and luxuriates in a density of foli-
age remarkable in such a latitude."
Xowikakat is specially noted for the excellence of
its canoes, of which the harbor is so full that a boat
makes its landing with difficult}" among them. It is
the only safe place on the lower Yukon for winter-
ing a steamer, as it is sheltered from the freshets
which bring down great crushes of ice in the spring.
At Xuklukahyet there is a mission of the Episco-
pal church and a trading store, but there may or
may not be supplies of civilized goods, not to speak
of moose meat and fat. This is the neutral ground
where all the tribes meet in the spring to trade.
The Tananah, which flows into the Yukon at this
point, is much broader here than the Yukon, and
it is here that Captain Dall exclaims in his diary:
"And yet into this noble river no white. .man has
dipped his paddle." Recently, however, the Tana-
nah lias been more or less explored by prospectors
Golden Alaska. 27
with favorable results towards the head of the river,
which is more easily reached overland from Circle
City and the Birch Creek camps.
Leaving Nuklukahyet, the "Ramparts" are soon
sighted, and the Yukon rapids sweep between bluffs
and hills which rise about fifteen hundred feet above
the river, which is not more than half a mile wide and
seems almost as much underground as a river bed
in a canyon. The rocks are metaphoric quartzites,
and the river-bed is crossed by a belt of granite.
The rapid current has worn the granite away at
either side, making two good channels, but in the
center lies an island of granite over which the water
plunges at high water, the fall being about twelve
feet in half a mile.
Beyond the mouth of the Tananah the Yukon
begins to widen, and it is filled with small islands.
The mountains disappear, and just beyond them the
Totokakat, or Dall River of Ketchum, enters the
Yukon from the north. Beyond this point the river,
ever broadening, passes the "Small Houses," de-
serted along the bank at the time, years ago, when
the scarlet fever, brought by a trading vessel to the
mouth of the Chilkat, spread to the Upper Yukon
and depopulated the station. This place is noted
for the abundance of its game and fish.
The banks of the river above this point become
2& Golden Alaska.
very low and flat, the plain stretching almost un-
broken to the Arctic Ocean.
The next stream which empties into the Yukon
is Beaver Creek, and farther on the prospector
bound for Circle City may make his way some two
hundred miles up Birch Creek, along which much
gold has already been discovered, to a portage of
six miles, which will carry him within six miles of
Circle City on the west.
Meanwhile the Yukon passes Porcupine River and
Fort Yukon, the old trading-post founded in 1S46-7,
about a mile farther up the river than the present
fort is situated. The situation was changed in 1864,
owing to the undermining of the Yukon, which
yearly washed away a portion of the steep bank un-
til the foundation timbers of the old Redoubt over-
hung the flood.
Many small islands encumber the river from Fort
Yukon to Circle City, and the river flows along the
rich lowland to the towns and mining centers of the
new El Dorado, an account of which belongs to
a future chapter.
This voyage can be made only between the middle
of June and the middle of September, and requires
about forty days, at best, from San Francisco to Cir-
cle City or Forty Mile.
Route via Juneau, the Passes and down the Up-
■§* J***:1*.
INDIAN TOTEM POLE. TORT SIMPSO^
Golden Alaska. 31
per Yukon River. The second and more usual, be-
cause shorter and quicker course, is that to the
head of Lynn Canal (Taiya Inlet) and overland.
This coast voyage may be said to begin at Victoria,
B. C. (since all coast steamers gather and stop
there)., where a large number of persons prefer to
buy their outfits, since by so doing, and obtaining
a certificate of the fact, they avoid the custom du-
ties exacted at the boundary line on all goods and
equipments brought from the United States. Victo-
ria is well supplied with stores, and is, besides, one
of the most interesting towns on the Pacific coast.
The loveliest place in the whole neighborhood is
Beacon Hill Park, and is well worth a visit by those
who find an hour or two on their hands before the
departure of the steamer. It forms a half-natural,
half-cultivated area of the shore of the Straits of
Fuca, where coppices of the beautiful live oak, and
many strange trees and shrubs mingled with the all-
pervading evergreens.
Within three miles of the city, and reached by
street cars, is the principal station in the North Pa-
cific of the British navy, at Esquimault Bay. This
is one of the most picturesque harbors in the world,
and a beginning is made of fortifications upon a very
large scale and of the most modern character. This
station, in many respects, is the most interest-
32 Golden Alaska.
ing place on the Pacific coast of Canada.
Leaving Victoria, the steamer makes its way cau-
tiously through the sinuous channels of the harbor
into the waters of Fuca Strait, but this is soon left
behind and the steamer turns this way. and that, at
the entrance to the Gulf of Georgia, among those
islands through which runs the international boun-
dary line, and for the possession of which England
and the United States nearly went to war in 1862.
The water at first is pale and somewhat opaque, for
it is the current of the great Fraser gliding far out
upon the surface, and the steamer passes on beyond
it into the darker, clearer, salter waters of the gulf.
Then the prow is headed to Vancouver, where the
mails, freight and new railway passengers are re-
ceived.
From Vancouver the steamer crosses to Xanaimo,
a large settlement on Vancouver Island, where coal
mines of great importance exist. A railway now
connects this point with Victoria, and a wagon road
crosses the interior of the island to Alberni Canal
and the seaport at its entrance on Barclay Sound.
This is the farthest northern telegraph point. The
mines at Xanaimo were exhausted some time ago.
after which deep excavations were made on Xew-
castle Island, just opposite the town. Tut after a
tremendous fire these also were abandoned, and all
Golden Alaska. 33
the workings are now on the shores of Departure
Bay, where a colliery village named Wellington has
been built up. A steam ferry connects Xanaimo
with Wellington; and while the steamer takes in its
coal, the passengers disperse in one or the other vil-
lage, go trout fishing, shooting or botanizing in the
neighboring woods, or trade and chaffer with the
Indians. Xanaimo has anything but the appear-
ance of a mining town. The houses do not stretch
out in the squalid, soot-covered rows familiar to
Pennsylvania, but are scattered picturesquely, and
surrounded by gardens.
Just ahead lie the splendid hills of Texada Island,
whose iron mines yield ore of extraordinary purity,
which is largely shipped to the United States to be
made into steel. The steamer keeps to the left, mak-
ing its way through Bayne's Sound, passing Cape
Lazaro on the left and the upper end of Texada on
the right, across the broadening water along the
Vancouver shore into Seymour Xarrows. These
narrows are only about 900 yards wide, and in them
there is an incessant turmoil and bubbling of cur-
rents. This is caused by the collision of the streams
which takes place here; the flood stream from the
south, through the Strait of Fuca and up the Haro
Archipelago being met by that from Queen Char-
lotte Sound and Johnstone straits. These straits are
34
Golden Alaska.
about 140 miles long, and by the time their full
length is passed, and the maze of small islands
on the right and Vancouver's bulwark on the left
are escaped together, the open Pacific shows itself
for an hour or two in the offing of Queen Charlotte's
Sound, and the steamer rise- and falls gently upon
long, lazy rollers that have swept all the way from
China and Polynesia. Otherwise the whole voyage
is in sheltered water.-, and seasickness is impossible.
The steamer's course now hugs the shore, turning
into Pitz Hugh Sound, among Calvert, Hunter's
and Pardswell islands, where the ship's spars some-
times brush the overhanging trees. Here are the
entrances to Burke Channel and Dean's Canal that
penetrate far amid the tremendous cliffs of the main-
land mountains. Beyond these the steamer dashes
across the open bight of Milbank Sound only to en-
ter the lung pa>sages behind Princess Royal. Pit
and Packer islands, and coming out at last into
Dixon Sound at the extremity of British Columbia's
ragged coast line.
d he fog- which prevail here are due to the fact
that this bight is tilled with the waters of the warm
Japanese current and the gulf stream of the Pacific
from which the warm moisture rises to be condensed
by the cool air that descends from the neighboring
mountains, into the dense foirs and heavv rain
Golden Alaska. $7
storms to which the littoral forest owes its extra-
ordinary luxuriance. During the mid-summer and
early autumn, however, the temperature of air and
water become so nearly equable that fog and rain
are the exception rather than the rule.
Crossing the invisible boundary into Alaska the
steamer heads straight toward Fort Tougass, on
Wales Island, once a military station of the United
States, but now only a fishing place. Between this
point and Fort YVrangel another abandoned military
post of the United States, two or three fish canneries
and trading stations are visited and the ship goes on
among innumerable islands and along wide reaches
of sound to Taku Inlet (which deeply indents the
coast, and is likely in the near future to become an
important route to the gold fields), and a few hours
later Juneau City is reached.
Juneau City has been lately called the key to the
Klondike regions, as it is the point of departure for
the numberless gold hunters who, when the season
opens again, will rush blindly over incalculably rich
ledges near the coast to that remote inland El Do-
rado of their dreams.
Juneau has for seventeen years been supported by
the gold mines of the neighboring coast. Tt is situ-
ated ten miles above the entrance of (lastineau Chan-
nel, and lies at the base of precipitous mountains.
38 Golden Alaska.
its court house, hotels, churches, schools, hospital
and opera house forming- the nucleus for a popula-
tion which in 1893 aggregated 1,500, a number very
largely increased each winter by the miners who
gather in from distant camps. The saloons, of which
in 1871 there were already twenty-two, have in-
creased proportionately, and there are, further, at
least one weekly newspaper, one volunteer fire bri-
gade, a militia company and a brass band in Juneau.
The curio shops on Front and Seward streets are well
worth visiting, and from the top of Seward Street a
path leads up to the Auk village, whose people
claim the flats at the mouth of Gold Creek. A curi-
ous cemetery may be seen on the high ground across
the creek, ornamented with totemic carvings and
hung with offerings to departed spirits which no
white man dares disturb.
FROM JUNEAU TO THE GOLD FIELDS.
The few persons who formerly wished to go to
the head of Lynn Canal did so mainly by canoeing,
or chartered launches, but now many opportunities
are offered by large steamboats. Most of the steam-
ers that bring miners and prospectors from below
do not now discharge their freight at Juneau, how-
ever, but go straight to the new port Dyea at the
head of the canal. Lynn Canal is the grandest fiord
on the coa<t. which it penetrates for seventy-five
Golden Alaska. 39
miles. It is then divided by a long peninsula called
Seduction Point, into two prongs, the western of
which is called Chilkat Inlet, and the eastern Chil-
koot. "It has but few indentations, and the abrupt
palisades of the mainland shores present an unri-
valled panorama of mountains, glaciers and forests,
with wonderful cloud effects. Depths of 430 fath-
oms have been sounded in the canal, and the conti-
nental range on the east and the White [Mountains
on the west rise to average heights of 6,000 feet,
with glaciers in every ravine and alcove." No Cam-
eron boundary line, which Canada would like to es-
tablish, would cut this fiord in two, and make it use-
less to both countries in case of quarrel. The mag-
nificent fan-shaped Davidson glacier, here, is only
one among hundreds of grand ice rivers shedding
their bergs into its waters. At various points sal-
mon canneries have long been in operation; and the
Seward City mines are only the best among several
mineral locations of promise. A glance at the map
will show that this "canal" forms a straight continu-
ation of Chatham Strait, making a north and south
passage nearly four hundred miles in length, which
is undoubtedly the trough of a departed glacier.
Dyea, the new steamer landing and sub-port of
entry, is at the head of navigation on the Chilkoot
or eastern branch of this Lynn Canal, and takes its
40 Golden Alaska.
name in bad modern spelling, from the long-known
Taiya Inlet, which is a prolongation inland for
twenty miles of the head of the Chilkoot Inlet. It
should continue to be spelled Tiaya. This inlet is
far the better of the two for shipping. Chilkat Inlet
being exposed to the prevalent and often dangerous
south wind, so that it is regarded by navigators as
one of the most dangerous points on the Alaskan
coast. A Presbyterian mission and government
school were formerly sustained at Haines, on Seduc-
tion Point, but were abandoned some years ago on
account of Indian hostility.
The Passes. — Three passes over the mountains
are reached from these two inlets. — Chilkat, Chil-
koot and White.
Chilkat Pass is that longest known and formerly
most in vogue. The Chilkat Indians had several
fixed villages near the head of the inlet, and were
accustomed to go back and forth over the moun-
tains to trade with the interior Indians, whom they
would not allow to come to the coast. They thus
enjoyed not only the monopoly of the business of
carrying supplies over to the Yukon trading posts
and bringing out the furs, and more recently of as-
sisting the miners, but made huge profits as middle-
men between the Indians of the interior and the
trading posts on the coast. They arc a sturdy race
Golden Alaska.
43
of mountaineers, and the most arrogant, treacherous
and turbulent of all the northwestern tribes, but
their day is nearly passed. The early explorers —
Krause, Everette and others — took this pass, and
it was here that E. J. Glare first tried (in T891) to
take pack horses across the mountains, and suc-
ceeded so well as to show the feasibility of that
method of carriage, which put a check upon the
extortion and faithlessness of the Indian carriers.
His account of his adventures in making this experi-
ment, over bogs, wild rocky heights, snow fields,
swift rivers and forest barriers, has been detailed in
The Century Magazine for 1892, and should be read
by all interested. "No matter how important your
mission," Mr. Glave wrote, ''your Indian carriers,
though they have duly contracted to accompany
you, will delay your departure till it suits their con-
venience, and any exhibition of impatience on vour
part will only remind them of your utter depen-
dency on them; and then intrigue for increase of
pay will at once begin. While en route they will
prolong the journey by camping on the trail for two
or three weeks, tempted by good hunting or fishing.
In a land where the open season is so short, and
the ways are so long, such delay is a tremendous
drawback. Often the Indians will carry their loads
some part of the way agreed on, then demand an
44 Golden Alaska.
extravagant increase of pay or a goodly share of the
white man's stores, and. failing to get either, will
fling down their packs and return to their village,
leaving their white employer helplessly stranded.
The usual charge for Indian carriers is $2 a day
and board, and they demand the best fare and a
great deal of it. so that the white man finds his pre-
cious stores largely wasted before reaching his des-
tination. These facts are mentioned, not because it is
now necessary to endure this extortion and expense,
but to show how little dependence can be placed
upon the hope of securing the aid of Indian packers
in carrying the goods of prospectors or explorers
elsewhere in the interior, and the great expense in-
volved. This pass descends to a series of connected
lakes leading down to Lake Labarge and thence by
another stream to the Lewes: and it requires twelve
days of pack-carrying — far more than is necessary
on the other passes. As a consequence, this pass is
now rarely used except by Indians going to the Ak-
sekh river and the coast ranges northward.
Chilkoot. Taiya or Parrier Pass.- — This is the
pass that has been used since T885 by the min-
ers and others on the upper Yukon, and is still
a route of travel. It starts from the head of
canoe navigation on Taiya inlet, and follows up a
stream vallev, craduallv leading to the divide, which
Golden Alaska. 45
is only 3,500 feet above the sea. The first day's
march is to the foot of the ascent, and over a terrible
trail, through heavy woods and along a steep, rocky
and often boggy hillside, broken by several deep
gullies. The ascent is then very abrupt and over
huge masses of fallen rock or steep slippery surfaces
of rock in place. At the actual summit, which for
seven or eight miles is bare of trees or bushes, the
trail leads through a narrow rocky gap, and the
whole scene is one of the most complete desolation.
Xaked granite rocks, rising steeply to partly snow-
clad mountains on either side. Descending the in-
land or north slope is equally bad traveling, largely
over wide areas of shattered rocks where the trail
may easily be lost. The further valley contains sev-
eral little lakes and leads roughly down to Lake
Lindeman. The distance from Taiya is twenty-three
and a half miles, and it is usually made in two days.
Miners sometimes cross this pass in April, choos-
ing fine weather, and then continue down the lakes
on the ice to some point where they can conveni-
ently camp and wait for the opening of navigation
on the Yukon; ordinarily it is unsafe to attempt a
return in the autumn later than the first of October.
Lake Lindeman is a long narrow piece of water
navigable for boats to its foot, where a very bad river
passage leads into the larger Lake Bennett, where
4'» Golden Alaska.
the navigation of the Yukon really begins.
"The Chilkoot Pass," writes one of its latest trav-
elers, '"is difficult, even dangerous, to those not pos-
sessed of steady nerves. Toward the summit there is
a sheer ascent of 1.000 feet, where a slip would cer-
tainly be fatal. At this point a dense mist overtook
us. but we reached Lake Lindeman — the first of a
series of five lakes — in safety, after a fatiguing tramp
:' fourteen consecutive hours through half-melted
snow. Here we had to build our own boat, first
felling the timber for the purpose. The journey
down the lakes occupied ten days, four of which
were passed in camp on Lake Bennett, during a vio-
lent storm, which raised a heavy sea. The rapids
followed. One oi these latter, the "Grand Canyon."
is a mile long, and dashes through walls of rock
from 50 to too feet high: six miles below are the
"White Horse Rapids." a name which many fatal
accidents have converted into the "Miner's Grave."
But snags and rocks are everywhere a fruitful source
:' langer on thus river, and from this rapid down-
ward scarcely a day passed that one did not see some
cairn or wooden cross marking the last resting place
of some '.:' wne '. [ ".grim to the land of gold. The
is a ' rief sketch of the troubles that beset the
Alaskan gold prospector — troubles that, although
unknown in the eastern states and Canada, have for
( ioLDi-.x Alaska. 49
many years past associated the name of Yukon with
an ugly sound in western America."
It is probable that few if any persons need go over
this pass next year, and its hardships will become a
tradition instead of a terrible prospect.
White Pass. — This pass lies south of the Chil-
koot, and leaves the coast at the mouth of the
Shagway river, five miles south of Dyea and 100
from Juneau. It was first explored in 1887 and was
found to run parallel to the Chilkoot. The distance
from the coast to the summit is seventeen miles, of
which the first five are in level bottom land, thickly
timbered. The next nine miles are in a canon-like
valley, beyond which three miles, comparatively
easy, take one to the summit, the altitude of which
is roughly estimated at 2,600 feet. Beyond the sum-
mit a wide valley is entered and leads gradually to
the Tahko arm of Tahgish lake. This pass, though
requiring a longer carriage, is lower and easier than
the others, and already a pack-trail has been built
through it which will soon be followed by a wagon
road, and surveys for a narrow guage railway are
in progress. At the mouth of the Shkagway River
ocean steamers can run up at all times to a wharf
which has been constructed in a sheltered position,
and there is an excellent town site with protection
from storms.
50 Golden Alaska.
An English company, the British Columbia De-
velopment Association, Limited, has already estab-
lished a landing- wharf and is erecting- a wharf and
sawmills at Skagway, whence it is proposed (as soon
as feasible) to lay down a line of rail some thirty-
five miles long, striking the Yukon River at a branch
of the Marsh Lake, about ioo miles below Lake Lin-
demann. By this means the tedious and difficult
navigation between these two points will be avoided.
and the only dangerous parts of the river below will
be circumvented by a road or rail portage. Light-
draught steamers will be put on from Teslin Lake to
the canon and from the foot of the latter to all the
towns and camps on the river.
Dyea is a village of cabins and tents, and little if
anything in the way of supplies can be got there;
it is a mere forwarding point.
Pending the completion of the facilities mentioned
above, miners may transport their goods over the
pack trail on their own or hired burros, and at Tah-
gish Lake take a boat down the Tahco arm (1 i miles)
to the main lake, and down that lake and its outlet
into Lake Marsh. This chain of lakes, filling the
troughs of old glacial fiords to a level of -'.150 feet
above the sea, "constitutes a singularly picturesque
region, abounding in striking points of view and in
landscapes pleasing in their variety or grand and im-
Golden Alaska. 51
pressive in this combination of rugged mountain
forms." All afford still-water navigation, and as soon
as the road through White Pass permits the trans-
portation of machinery, they will doubtless be well
supplied with steamboats. Marsh Lake is 20 miles
long, Bennett 26, and Tagish 16^ miles, with Windy
Arm 11 miles long, Tahko Arm 20 miles, and other
long, narrow extensions among the terraced, ever-
green-wooded hills that border its tranquil surface.
The depression in which this group of lakes lies is
between the coast range and the main range of the
Rockies; and as it is sheltered from the wet sea-
winds by the former heights, its climate is nearly as
dry of that of the interior. The banks are fairly well
timbered, though large open spaces exist, and
abound in herbage, grass and edible berries. Lake
Marsh, named by Schwatka after Prof. O. C. Marsh
of Yale, but called Mud Lake by the miners, without
good reason, is twenty miles long and about two
wide. It is rather shallow and the left bank should
be followed. The surrounding region is rather low,
rising by terraces to high ranges on each side, where
Michie mountain, 5,540 feet in height, eastward, and
Mounts Lome and Landsdowne, westward, 6,400
and 6,140 feet high respectively, are the most prom-
inent peaks. "The diversified form of the moun-
tains in view from this lake render it particularly
5_> Golden Alaska.
picturesque," remarks Dr. Dawson, "and at the time
of our visit, on the 10th and i ith of September, the
autumn tints of the aspens and other deciduous trees
and shrubs, mingled with the sombre greens of the
spruces and pines, added to its beaut}'."
Xear the foot of this lake enters the McClintock
river, of which little is known. The oulet is a clear,
narrow, quiet stream, called Fifty-mile River, which
flows somewhat westerly down the great valley.
Large numbers of dead and dying salmon are al-
ways seen here in summer, and as these fish never
reach Lake Marsh, it is evident that the few who are
able, after their long journey, to struggle up the
rapids, have not strength left to survive.
The descent of the Lewes (or "\ ukon") may be said
to begin at this point, and 23 miles below Lake
Marsh the first and most serious obstacle is encoun-
tered in the White Horse Rapids, and Miles Canon.
Their length together is 27 miles, and they seem to
have been caused by a small local effusion of lava,
which was most unfortunately ejected right in the
path of the river, The canon is often not more than
ioc feet in width, and although parts of it may be
run at favorable times, all of it is dangerous, and
the White Horse should never be attempted. The
portage path in the upper part of the canon is on
die east bank, and is about five-eighths of a mile
Golden Alaska. 55
long. There a stretch of navigation is possible, with
caution, ending at the head of White Horse Rapids,
where one must land on the west bank, which con-
sists of steep rocks, very awkward for managing a
boat from or earning a burden over. Usually the
empty boat can be dropped down with a line, but
when the water is high boat as well as cargo must
be carried for 100 yards or more, and again, lower
down, for a less distance. The miners have put
down rollways along a roughly constructed road
here to make the portage of the boats easier, and
some windlasses for hauling the boats along the
water or out and into it. It would be possible to
build a good road or tramway along the east bank
of these rapids without great difficulty; and plans
are already formulated for a railway to be built
around the whole three miles of obstruction, in the
summer of 1898. to connect with the steamboats
above and below that will no doubt be running next
year.
The river below the rapids is fast (about four
miles an hour) for a few miles, and many gravel
banks appear. It gradually subsides, however, into
a quiet stream flowing northwest along the same
wide valley. Xo rock is seen here, the banks being
bluffs of white silt, which turns the clear blue of the
current above into a cloudy and opaque yellow.
;fi < .< >u>i:\ Alaska.
irteen inik'S i measuring, as usual, along- the
rivi-rj brings the vovager to the mouth of the Tah-
Keena, a turbid stream about 75 yards wide and 10
it! deep, whieh comes in from the west. Its sour-
ce- ari1 ai the ' kj1 of the Chiikat Pass, where it flows
t tin nf Wot Kussoa lake (afterwards named Lake
\rkell . and was formerly much employed by the
1 'hilk; ' hi Hans as a means of reaching the interior,
; ui was never in favor with the miners, ami is now
rarely followed by the Indians themselves, although
it.- navigation from the lake down is reported to be
' as.N ■
i .li veil and a half miles of quiet boating takes one
• 1 the head of Lake Labarge. This lake is 31 miles
lii - uearh north and south, and is irregularly
gated, reaching a width of six miles near the
lower i-nd. li is 2,100 feet above sea level and is
'. everywhere by mountain.-, those on the
-onth having remarkably abrupt and castellated
- and carrying summits of white limestone.
b '■■ ■ r; -tormy one. and traveler- often
a\'e ' ' wail ;;:;;;. for several davs on its shores
permits them to go on. This
r:\er va!le\ ;- a great trough sucking inland
hng -outln rl\ -umnur wind-, and naviga-
- i- Iikeb ti 1 be r< mgh for .-mall
Golden Alaska. 57
The river below Lake Labarge is crooked, and
at first rapid — six miles or more an hour, and in-
terrupted by boulders; but it is believed that a stern
wheel steamer of proper power could ascend at all
times. The banks are earthen, but little worn, as
floods do not seem to occur. Twenty-seven miles
takes one to the mouth of a large tributary from the
southeast, — the Teslintoo, which Schwatka called
Newberry River, and which the miners mistakenly
call Hotalinqu. It comes from the great Lake
Teslin, which lies across the British Columbia boun-
dary (Lat. 62 deg.),'and is said to be 100 miles long;
and it is further said that an Indian trail connects it
with the head of canoe navigation on the Taku
river, by only two long days of portaging. Some
miners are said to have gone over it in 1876 or 'jj,
Schwatka and Hayes came this way; and it may
form one of the routes of the future, — perhaps even
a railway route. This river flows through a wide
and somewhat arid valley, and was roughly pros-
pected about 1887 by men who reported finding
fine gold all along its course, and also in tributaries
of the lake. As the mountains about the head of
the lake belong to the Cassiar range, upon whose
southern slopes the Cassiar mines are situated, there
is every reason to suppose that gold will ultimately
be found there in paying quantities.
^8 < lOLDEN A LASKA.
I his pari of the Lewes i? called Thirty-mile River,
under the impression that it is really a tributary of
the Teslintoo. which is. in fact, wider than the
Lewes at the junction (Teslintoo, width 575 feet;
Lewes, 420 fecth but it carries far less water. From
this confluence the course is north, in a deep, swift,
somewhat turbid current, through the crooked de-
files of the Seminow hills. Several auriferous bars
have been worked here, and some shore-placers, in-
cluding the rich Cassiar bar. Thirty-one miles be-
low the Teslintoo the Big Salmon, or D'Abbadie
River, enter- from the southeast — an important river,
350 feet wide, having clear blue water flowing deep
ami quiet in a stream navigable by steamboats for
man}' miles. Its head is about 150 miles away, not
far from Teslin Lake, in some -mall lakes reached
by tlie salmi in. and surrounded by granite moun-
tains. Prospectors have traced all its course and
found fine gold in many places.
1 hirty-four miles below the Big Salmon, west-
■ 'rth-\ve-t. along a comparatively straight course,
carries the boatman to the Little Salmon, or Dalv
River, where the valley is so broad that no mountains
are anywhere in Mght, only lines of low hills at a
listanci from the bank.-. Five miles below this river
the riwr make.- an abrupt turn to the southwest
irouml Lagk-'- W-t rock, and 18] miles beyond
( ini.DF.x Alaska. 6i
that reaches the Xordenskiokl, a small, swift, clear-
watered tributary from the southwest. The rocks of
all this part of the river show thin seams of coal,
and gold has been found on several bars. The cur-
rent now flows nearly due north and a dozen miles
below the Xordenskiokl carries one to the second
and last serious obstruction to navigation in the
Rink rapids, as Schwatka called them, or Five-fin-
ger, as they are popularly known, referring to five
large masses of rock that stand like towers in mid
channel. These other islands back up the water and
render its currents strong and turbulent, but will
offer little opposition to a good steamboat. Boat-
men descending the river are advised to hug the
right bank, and a landing should be made twenty
yards above the rapids in any eddy, where a heavily
loaded boats should be lightened. The run should
be made close along the shore, and all bad water
ends when the Little Rink Rapids have been passed,
six miles below. Just below the rapids the small
Tatshun River comes in from the right. Then the
valley broadens out, the current quiets down and a
pleasing landscape greets the eye as bend after bend
is turned. A long washed bank on the northeast
side is called Hoo-clie-koo Bluff, and soon after
passing it one finds himself in the midst of the pretty
Ingersoll archipelago, where the river widens out
(}j ( i< )i.i)i:x Alaska.
and wanders among hundreds of islets. Fiftv-five
tniles by the river below Rink Rapids, the confluence
of the Lewes and Felly is reached, and the first sign
of civilization in the ruins of old Fort Selkirk, with
such recent and probably temporary occupation as
circumstances may cause. Before long, undoubt-
edly, a flourishing permanent settlement will grow
up in this favorable situation.
The confluence here of the Lewes and Felly rivers
forms the Yukon, which thenceforth pursues an un-
interrupted course of 1,650 miles to Behring Sea.
The country about the confluence is low. with ex-
tensive terrace flats running back to the bases of
rounded hills and ridges. The Yukon below the
junction averages about one-quarter of a mile in
width, and has an average depth of about 10 feet,
with a surface velocity of 4! miles an hour. A
good many gravel bars occur, but no shifting sand.
'1 he general course nearly to White River, 96 miles,
is a little north of west, and many islands are seen;
then the river turns to a nearly due north course,
maintained at Fort Reliance. The White River is
a powerful stream, plunging down. loaded with silt,
over ever shifting sand bars. Its upper source is
problematical, but is probably in the Alaskan
Mountains near the head of the Tenana and Forty-
mile ( 'reek.
Gold ex Alaska. 63
For the next ten miles the river spreads ont to
more than a mile wide and becomes a maze of isl-
ands and bars, the main channel being- along the
western shore, where there is plenty of water. This
brings one to Stewart river, which is the most im-
portant right-hand tributary between the Felly and
the Porcupine. It enters from the east in the middle
of a wide valley, and half a mile above its mouth is
200 yards in width; the current is slow and the water
dark colored. It has been followed to its headquar-
ters in the main range of the Rockies, and several
large branches, on some of which there are remark-
able falls, have been traced to their sources through
the forested and snowy hills where they rise. These
sources are perhaps 200 miles from the mouth, but
as none of the wanderers were equipped with either
geographical knowledge or instruments nothing
definite is known. Reports of traces of precious
metals have been brought back from many points
in the Stewart valley, but this information is as
vague as the other thus far. All reports agree that
a light draught steamboat could go to the head of
the Stewart and bar up its feeders. There is a trad-
ing post at its mouth.
The succeeding 125 miles holds what is at pres-
ent the most interesting and populous part of the
Yukon valley. The river varies from half to three-
f,_} ( ,( II.DKX A I.ASKA.
quarters i>t a mile wide ami is full of islands. About
23 mik- below Stewart River a large stream enters
fn>m the west called Sixty-mile Creek by the miners,
who have had a small winter camp and trading store
there fur some years, and have explored its course
for gold to its rise in the mountains west of the in-
ternational boundary. Every little tributary has been
named, among them (going up), Charley's Fork,
Fdwards Creek and ITawley Creek, in Canada, and
them on the American side of the line, Gold Creek,
Miller Creek and Bed Ruck Creek. The sand and
gravel of all these have yielded fine gold and some
of them, as Miller Creek, have become noted for their
richness. Forty-four miles below Sixty-mile takes
1 me ti ) I )awsi hi ( 'it \ . at the mouth 1 if Klondike River,
— tlie center 0; the highest productiveness and great-
est excitement during 1S07. when the gold fields of
die interior of Alaska first attracted the attention
< : the world. Leaving to another special chapter an
account of them, the itinerary may be completed by
-n_\ in- that < : mile- below the mouth of the Klon-
dike :- fort Reliance, an old private trading post of
no present importance. Twelve and a half miles
larther the Chan-din-du River enters from the east,
and 3/C below that in the mouth of Forty- mile
. or ('one Hill River, which until the past year
-wi- the mo-t important mining region of the inte-
-Golden Alaska. 67
rior. It took its name from the supposition that it
was 40 miles from Fort Reliance, but the true dis-
tance is 46 miles. On the south side of the outlet of
this stream is the old trading post and modern town
of Forty-Mile, and on the north side the more re-
cent settlement Cudahy. Both towns are, of course,
on the western bank of the Yukon, which is here
about half a mile wide. Five miles below Cudahy.
Coal Creek comes in from the east, and nearly
marks the Alaskan boundary, where a narrowed
part of the river admits one to United States terri-
tory. Prominent landmarks here are two great
rocks, named by old timers Old Man rock, on the
west bank, and Old Woman, on the east bank, in
reference to Indian legends attached to them. Some-
twenty miles west of the boundary — the river now
having turned nearly due west in its general course
— Seventy-mile, or Klevande Creek, comes in from
the south, and somewhat below it the Tat-on-duc
from the north. It was ascended in 1887 by Mr.
Ogilvie, who describes its lower valley as broad and
well timbered, but its upper part flows through a
series of magnificent canons, one of which half a
mile long, is not more than 50 feet wide with vertical
walls fully 700 feet in height. There are said to be
warm sulphur springs along its course, and the In-
dians regard it as one of the best hunting fields,
(,S ( ini.DK.N Alaska.
sheep being especially numerous on the mountains
in which it heads, close by the international boun-
dary, where it is separated by only a narrow divide
from Ogilvic River, one of the head streams of the
IVcl river, and also from the head of the Porcupine,
to which there is an Indian trail. Hence the miners
call this Sheep River. The rocks along this stream
are all sandstones, limestone and conglomerates,
with mam thin calcite veins. Large and dense tim-
ber prevails, and game is abundant.
Ik-low the mouth of the Tat-on-due several small
streams enter, of which the Kandik on the north
and the Kolto or Charley's River — at the mouth of
which there used to be the home of an old Indian
notability named Charley — are most important.
About 1 60 miles from the boundary the Yukon flats
are reached, and the center of another important
mining district — that of Rirch Creek and the Upper
Tenana — at Circle City, the usual terminus of the
trip tip the Lower Yukon from St Michael.
Gulden Alaska. 69
HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE UPPER YUKON VALLEY.
The; sources of the Yukon are just within the
northern boundary of British Columbia (Lat. 62
cleg.) among a mass of mountains forming a part
of the great uplift of the Coast range, continuous
with the Sierras of California and the Puget Sound
coast. Here spring the sources of the Stikeen, flow-
ing southwest to the Pacific, of the Fraser, flowing
south through British Columbia, and of the Liard
flowing northeasterly to the Mackenzie. Headwa-
ters of the Stikeen and rJard interlock, indeed,
along an extensive or sinuous watershed having an
elevation of 3,000 feet or less and extending east and
west. There are, however, many wide and com-
paratively level bottom lands scattered throughout
this region and numerous lakes. The coast ranges
here have an average width of about eighty miles
and border the continent as far north as Lynn
Canal, where they trend inland behind the St. Elias
Alps. Many of their peaks exceed 8,000 feet in
height, but few districts have been explored west.
Eastward of this mountain axis, and separated
from it by the valleys of the Fraser and Columbia
in the south and the Yukon northward, is the Con-
-(l i K >Li)i:x Alaska.
tinental Divide, or Rocky .Mountains proper, which
is broken through (as noted above) by the Laird,
but north of that canon-bound river forms the
watershed between the Liard and Yukon and be-
tween the Yukon and Mackenzie. These summits
attain a height of 7.000 to 9,000 feet, and rise from
a very complicated series of ranges extending north-
ward to the Arctic ( »cean, and very little explored.
The valley of the Yukon, then, lies between the
Kock_\ Mountain-, separating its drainage basin
from that of the Mackenzie, and the Coast range
and St. Klias Alps separating it from the sea. Gran-
ite is the principal rock in both these great lines of
watershed-uplift, and all the mountains show the ef-
fects of an extensive glaciation, and all the higher
peaks still bear local remnants of the ancient ice-
sheet.
The headwaters of the great river are gathered
into three principal streams. First, the Lewes, east-
ernmost, with its large tributaries, the Teslintoo and
I'.ig Salmon; second, the bell}', with its great west-
ern tributary, the MacMillon.
I he Lewes River has been described. It was
An to the fur traders as early as 1840, and the
1 lulkat and Chilkoot passes were occasionallv used
their Indian couriers from that time on. The
M fields in british Columbia from 1863 onwards
SCENfc IN JUNEAU ■- MOUNTAINS AND INDIAN HOUbES.
Golden Alaska. 73
stimulated prospecting in the northern and coastal
parts of that province, and in 1872 prospectors
reached the actual headwaters of the Lewes from the
south, but were probably not aware of it; and that
country was not scientifically examined until the re-
connoisance of Dr. G. M. Dawson in 1887. In :S66
Ketchum and La Barge, of the Western Union Tel-
egraph survey, ascended the Lewes as far as the
lakes still called Ketchum and La Barge. In 1883
Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, LA S. A., and an assis-
tant named Hayes, and several Indians, made their
way across from Taka inlet to the head of Tahgish
(a Tako) Lake, and descended the Lewes on a raft
to Fort Selkirk, studying and naming the valley.
From Fort Selkirk an entirely new route was fol-
lowed toward the mountains forming the divide be-
tween the Yukon and the White and Copper rivers,
which flow to the Gulf of Alaska, north of Mt. St.
Flias. After discovering a pass little more than
5,000 feet high, they struck the Chityna River and
followed that to the Copper River and thence to the
coast. The Copper River Valley was thoroughly ex-
plored somewhat later by Lieuts. Abercrombie and
Allen, LA S. A., who added greatly to knowledge
of that large river, which, however, seems to have
no good harbor at its mouth. The miners began to
use the Chilkoot Pass and the Lewes River route to
"■}
' ':< H.i)K\ A I.A5KA.
the Yukon district in 1SS4. Some additions were
made tu geography in this region by an exploring
expedition despatched to Alaska in 1890 by Frank
Leslie's Weekly, under Messrs. A. J. Wells,, E. J.
Cllave and A. Ik Schanz. They entered by way of
C'hilkat pass and came to a large lake at the head
of the Tah-keena tributary of the Lewes, which they
named Lake Arkell, though it was probably the
same ear!; r described by the Drs. Krause. Here
Mr. (Have left die party and striking across the coast
range southward discovered the headwaters of the
Alsekh and descended to Dry Bay. At Forty-mile
creek- Mr. Wells and a part}' crossed over into the
basin 1 if the Tanana and increased the knowledge of
that river. Mr. Schanz went down the Yukon
and explored the lower region. In 1892 Mr. Glave
again went to .Alaska, demonstrated the possibility
of taking pack horses over the Chilkat trail, and
with an aid named Dalton made an extensive jour-
ik-\ southward along the crest of the watershed be-
'1 ■ Yuki hi valley and the coast.
I urnii ^ now to the Lelly, we find that this was
arli si avenue of discovery. The IVlly rises in
- under die 62nd parallel, just over a divide from
'die 1 inlay sou and Frances Lake, the head of the
i>< - River, the northern source of the Liard,and
■ - entered bv the Hudson Bav Com-
Golden Alaska. 75
pany as early as 1834, and gradually exploring the
LairdRiver and its tributaries, in 1840 Robert Cam-
bell crossed over the divide north of Lake Finlay-
son (at the head of the Frances), and discovered (at
a place called Felly Banks) a large river flowing
northwest which he named Felly. In 1843 ne de-
scended the river to its confluence with the Lewes
(which he then named), and in 1848 he built a post
for the H. B. Company at that point, calling it Fort
Selkirk. This done, in 1850, Campbell floated down
the river as far as the mouth of the Porcupine,
where three years previously (1847) Fort Yukon had
been established by Air. Murray, who (founded by
James Bell in 1842) crossed over from the mouth
of the Mackenzie. The Yukon may thus.be said
to have been '"discovered" at several points inde-
pendently. The Russians, who knew it only at the
mouth, called it Kwikhpak, after an Eskimo name.
The English at Fort Yukon, learned that name from
the Indians there, and the upper river was the Felly.
The English and Russian traders soon met, and
when Campbell came down in 1850 the identity of
the whole stream was established. The name Yu-
kon gradually took the place of all others on English
maps and is now recognized for the whole stream
from the junction of the Lewes and Felly to the
delta.
-() ( i( )i pkx A I.ASKA.
The Yukon basin, east of the Alaskan boundary.
is known in Canada as the Yukon district, and con-
tains about 150.000 square miles. This is nearly
equal to the ana of France, is greater than that of
the I'nited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
b\ 71,000 square miles, and nearly three times big-
ger than that of the \*ew England states. To this
must be added an area of about 180,000 square
mile-, west of the boundary, drained by the Yukon
upon it- wa\ to the sea through Alaska. Neverthe-
less Dr. ( i. M. Dawson and other students of the
matter are of the opinion that the river does not dis-
charge as much water as does the Mackenzie — nor
could it be expected to do so, since the drainage
area of the Mackenzie is more than double that of
the Yukon, while the average annual precipitation
of rain over the two areas seems to be substantially
similar. Remembering these figures and that the
basin of the Mississippi has no less than 1,225,000
xjuare miles as compared with the 330,000 square
miles of the Yukon basin, it is plain that the state-
ment often heard that the Yukon is next to the
;sippi in size, is greatly exaggerated. In fact,
- proportions, from all points of view, are exceeded
those of the Xile. Ganges. St. Lawrence and
-everal other rivers of considerably less importance
the Mississippi.
Golden Alaska. 79
Resuming the historical outline, a short paragraph
will suffice to complete the simple story down to
the year 1896.
Robert Campbell had scarcely returned from his
river voyage to his duties at Fort Selkirk, when
he discovered that its location in the angle between
the rivers was untenable, owing to ice-jams and
floods. The station was therefore moved, in the sea-
son of 1852 across to the west bank of the Yukon,
a short distance below the confluence, and new
buildings were erected. These had scarcely been
completely, when, on August 1st, a band of Chilkat
Indians from the coast came down the river and
early in the morning seized upon the post, surpris-
ing Mr. Campbell in bed. and ordered him to take
his departure before night. They were not at all
rough with him or his few men, but simply insisted
that they depart, which they did, taking such per-
sonal luggage as they could put into a boat and
starting down stream. The Indians then pillaged the
place, and after feasting on all they could eat and
appropriating what they could carry away, set fire-
to the remainder and burned the whole place to the
ground. One chimney still stands to mark the spot,
and others lie where they fell. This act was not
dictated by wanton destructiveness on the part of
the Chilkats — bad as they undoubtedlv were and
8o Golden Alaska.
arc; hut was in pursuance of a theory. The estab-
lishment of the post there interfered with the monop-
oly of trade that they had enjoyed theretofore, with
all the Indians of the interior, to whom they brought
salable goods from the coast, taking in exchange
furs, copper, etc., at an exhorbitant profit, which
thev enforced bv their superior brutality. The Hud-
son 15av Company was robbing them of this, hence
the demolition of the post, which was too remote
to be profitably sustained against such opposition.
A little way down the river. Mr. Campbell met a
fleet of boats bringing up his season's goods, and
many friendly Indians. These were eager to pursue
the robbers, but Campbell thought it best not to do
so. He turned the supply-boats back to Fort Yukon
and led his own men up the Polly and over the pass
to the Frances and so down the Liard to Fort Simp-
son, on the Mackenzie. Such is the story of the
ruins of Fort Selkirk. Fort Yukon flourished as the
only trading post until the purchase of Alaska by
the I nited States, when Captain Raymond, an arm}'
officer, was sent to inform the factor there that his
post was on I nited States territory, and require
him to leave. 1 le did so as won as Rampart House
could be built to take its place up the Porcupine.
Old Fort Yukon then fell into ruins, and Rampart
House itself was soon abandoned. In 1873 an op-
Golden Alaska. 8i
position appeared in the independent trading house
of Harper & McQuestion, men who had come into
the country from the south, after long experience
in the fur trade. They had posts at various points,
occupied Fort Reliance for several years, and in
]SS6 established a post at the mouth of the Stewart
River for the miners who had begun to gather there
two years before. Many maps mark ''Reed's House"
as a point on the upper Stewart, but no such a
trading-post ever existed there, although there was
a fishing station and shelter-hut on one of its upper
branches at an early day. This firm became the rep-
resentatives of the Alaska Commercial Company (a
San Francisco corporation) and opened a store in
1887 at Forty Mile, where they still do business.
Gold Discoveries. — The presence of fine float gold
in river sands was early discovered by the Hudson
Bay Company men, but in accordance with the
former policy of that company, no mining was done
and as little said about it as possible. The rich-
ness of the Cassiar mines led to some prospecting
northward as early as 1872, and by 1880 wander-
ing gold hunters had penetrated to the Testintos,
where for several years $8 to $10 a da}- of fine gold
was sluiced out during the season by the small col-
ony. In 1886 Cassiar liar, on the Lewes, below
there, was opened, and a party of four took out
X_> * m m.im-.x Alaska.
$6,000 in 30 days, while other neighboring bars
yielded fair wages. I'y that time Stewart River was
becoming attractive, and many miners worked plac-
ers there profitably in 1X85, '86 and 'Sy. During
the fall of 1886 three or four nun took the engines
out of the little steamboat "Xew Racket," which
was laid up fur the winter there, and used them to
drive a set of pumps lifting water into sluice-boxes;
and with this crude machinery each man cleared
Si, 000 in less than a month. A judicious estimate
is, that the Stewart River placers yielded $100,000
in 1885 and ^6.
Prospecting went on unremittingly, but nothing
else was found of promise until 1886, when coarse
gold was reported upon Forty Mile Creek, or the
Shitando River, as it was known to the Indians, and
a local rush took- place to its canons, the principal
attraction being Franklin Gulch, named after its dis-
coverer. Three or four hundred men gathered there
by the season of 1887, and all dad well. This stream
is a 'dud-rock'" creek, — that is, one in the bed of
which there is very little drift; and in many places
the bed-rock was scraped with knives to get the lit-
tle loose stud out of crannies. Some nuggets were
found. At its mouth are extensive bars along the
Yukon, which carry gold throughout their depth.
I hiring iSSN the season was verv unfavorable and
Goldex Alaska. 85
not much accomplished. Sixty Mile Creek was
brought to notice, and Miller Gulch proved richer
than usual. It is one of the headwaters of Sixty
Mile, and some 70 miles from the mouth of the
river where, in 1892, a trading store, saw-mill and
little wintering-town was begun. Miller Creek is
about 7 miles long, and its valley is filled with vast
deposits of auriferous drift. In 1892 rich strikes
were made and 125 miners gathered there, paying
$10 a day for help, and many making fortunes. One
clean-up of 1,100 ounces was reported. Glacier
Creek, a neighboring stream, exhibited equal
chances and drew many claimants, some of whom
migrated thither in mid-winter, drawing their sleds
through the woods and rocks with the murcury 30
degrees below zero. All of these gulches and other
golden headwaters on both Forty Mile and Sixty
Mile Creek, are west of the boundary in Alaska: but
the mouths of the main streams and supply points
are in Canadian territory. In all, the great ob-
stacle is the difficulty of getting water up on the
bars without expensive machinery; and the same is
true of the rich gravel along the banks of the Yukon
itself. Birch Creek was the next find of import-
ance, and was promising enough to draw the larger
part of the local population, which by this time had
been considerably increased, for the news of the rich-
86 Golden Alaska.
ncss of the Forty INIile gulches had reached the out-
side world and attracted adventurous men and not
a few women from the coast not only, but from
British Columbia and the United States. A rival to
Harper & McOuestion, agents of the Alaska Com-
mercial Company, appeared in the North American
Transportation and Trading Company, which in-
creased the transportation service on the Yukon
River, by which most of the new arrivals entered,
and by establishing large competitive -tores at Fort
Cudahy (Forty Mile) and elsewhere reduced the
price of food and other necessaries. About this
time, also, the Canadian government sent law of-
ficers and a detachment of mounted police, so that
the Yukon District began to take a recognized place
in the w< irld.
Birch Creek is really a large river rising in the
Iauana Mills, just west of the boundary and flowing
northwest, parallel with the Yukon, to a debouch-
ment some jo miles west of Fort Yukon. Between
the two rivers lie the "Yukon Flats," and at one
p"int they are separated by only six miles. Here,
at tlie '\ ukon end of the road arose Circle City, so-
alleil frum its proximity to the Arctic Circle. This
i- an orderly little town of regular streets, and has
a n • nli r ■ : Funis, a st< »re, etc.
Birch (.reek has been thoroughlv explored, and
Golden Alaska. 87
in 1894 yielded good results. The gold was in
coarse flakes and nuggets, so that $40 a day was
made by some men, while all did well. The drift
is not as deep here as in most other streams, and
water can be applied more easily and copiously, —
a vast advantage. Molymute, Crooked. Independ-
ence, Mastadon and Preacher creeks are the most
noteworthy tributaries cf this rich field.
The Koyukuk River, which Hows from the bord-
ers of the Arctic Ocean, gathering many mountain
tributaries, to enter the Yukon at Xulato, was also
prospected in 1892, '93 and '94, and indications of
good placers have been discovered there, but the
northerly, exposed and remote situation has caused
them to receive little attention thus far.
THE KLONDIKE.
During the autumn of 1896 several men and wo-
men, none of whom were "old miners," discouraged
by poor results lower down the river resolved to
try prospecting in the Klondike gulch. They were
laughed at and argued with; were told that prospect-
ors years ago had been all over that valley, and
found only the despised "flour gold," which was too
fine to pay for washing it out. Nevertheless they
persisted and went at work. Only a short time
elapsed, when, on one of the lower southside
branches of the stream they found pockets of flakes
and nuggets of gold far richer than anything Alaska
had ever shown before. They named the stream
Bonanza, and a small tributary El Dorado. Others
came and nearly < veryone succeeded. Before spring
nearly a ton and a half of gold had been taken from
the frozen ground. Nuggets weighing a pound
(trnyi were found. A thousand dollars a day was
sometimes saved despite the rudeness of the methods,
but these things happened where pockets were
-truck. Probably the total clean-up from January
to June was not less than $1,500,000. The report
Golden Alaska. 91
spread and all those in the interior of Alaska con-
centrated there, where a "camp" of tents and shan-
ties soon sprang up at the mouth of the Klondike
called Dawson City. A correspondent of the New
York Sun describes it as beautifully situated, and
a very quiet, orderly town, due to the strict super-
vision of the Canadian mounted police, who allowed
no pistols to be carried, but a great place for gam-
bling with high stakes. It bids fair to become the
mining metropolis of the northwest, and had about
3,000 inhabitants before the advance-guard of the
present "rush" reached there.
Hundreds of claims were staked out and worked
in all the little gulches opening along Bonanza, El-
dorado, Hunker, Bear and other tributaries of the
Klondike, and of Indian River, a stream thirty miles
south of it, and a greater number seem to be of
equal richness with those first worked. All this is
within a radius south and east of 20 miles from Daw-
son City, and most of it far nearer. The country
is rough, wooded hills, and the same trouble as to
water is met there as elsewhere, yet riches were ob-
tained by many men in a few weeks without ex-
hausting their claims.
So remote and shut in has this region been in the
winter that no word of this leaked out until the
river opened and a party of successful miners came
1)2 ( i< n.iJKN Alaska.
down to the eoa.-t and took passage on the steamer
Rxcelsior for San Francisco. They arrived on
Tulv i_j. and no one suspected that there was any-
thing extraordinary in the passenger list or cargo,
until a procession of weather beaten men began a
march to the Selby Smelting works, and there began
to open sacks of dust and nuggets, until the heap
made- something not seen in San Francisco since
the days of 'uj. The news flashed over the world,
and aroused a fire < >:" interest; and when three days
later the Portland came into Seattle, bringing other
miner- and over $1,000,000 in gold, there was a
rush to go north which bids fair to continue for
month- to come, for one of the articles of faith in
the creed of the Yukon miner is that many other
gulches will be found as rich as these. One elderly
man. who went in late last fall and with partners
took four claim- on Eldorado Creek, told a reporter
that his pickings had amounted to Si 12.000, and
that he was confident that the ground left was worth
S2.000.000 more. "1 want to say." he exclaims,
"that 1 believe there is gold in every creek in Alas-
ka. Certain on the Klondike the claims are not
-potted. One seems to be as good as another. Tt's
gold. gold, gold, all over. Tt's yards wide and deep.
All you have to do is to run a hole down."
One might go on quoting such rhapsodies, aris-
Golden Alaska. 93
ing from success, to end of the book, but it is
needless, for every newspaper has been full of them
for a month.
One man and his wife got $135,000; another,
formerly a steamboat deck-hand, $150,000; another,
$115,000; a score or more over $50,000, and so on.
These sums were savings after having the heavy ex-
penses of the winter, and most of them had dug
out only a small part of their ground.
It is curious in view of this success to read the
only descriptive note the present writer can dis-
cover in early writings as to this gold river. It
occurs in Ogilvie's report of his explorations of
1887, and is as follows: "Six and a half miles above
Reliance the Tou-Dac River of the Indians (Deer
River of Schwatka) enter from the east. It is a
small river about 40 yards wide at the mouth and
shallow; the water is clear and transparent and of
a beautiful blue color. The Indians catch great
numbers of salmon here. A miner had prospected
up this river for an estimated distance of 40 miles
in the season of 1887. I did not see him."
C)4 CiOldkx .Alaska.
THE METHODS OF PLACER MINING
in the Klondike region and elsewhere along the
Yukon are different from those pursued else-
where, owing to the fact that from a point
about three feet below the surface the ground
is permanently frozen. The early men tried to
strip off the gravel down to the gold lying in its
lower levels or beneath, it, upon the bed rock, and
found it exceedingly slow and laborious work; more-
over, it was only during the short summer that any
work could be done. Now, by the aid of fires they
sink shafts and then tunnel along the bed rock-
where the gold lies. A returned miner described
the process as follows, pointing out the great ad-
vantage of being able to work under ground during
the winter:
"The miners build fires over the area where they
wish to work and keep these lighted over that terri-
tory for the space of twenty-four hours. Then the
gravel will be melted and softened to a depth of per-
haps six inches. This is then taken off and other
fires are built until the gold bearing layer is reached.
When thi' shaft i-; down that far other fires are built
at the bottom, against the sides of the layer and tun-
nels made in the same manner. Blasting will do
Golden Alaska. 97
no good, the charge not cracking off but blowing
out of the hole. The matter taken out, and contain-
ing the gold is piled up until spring, when the tor-
rents come down, and is panned and cradled by
these. It is certainly very hard labor."
Another quotation may be given as a practical ex-
ample of this process:
"The gold so far as has been taken from Bonanza
and Eldorado, both well named, for the richness of
the placers are truly marvelous. Eldorado, thirty
miles long, is staked the whole length and as far as
worked has paid.
"One of our passengers, who is taking home
$100,000 with him. has worked one hundred feet of
his ground and refused $200,000 for the remainder,
and confidently expects to clean up $400,000 and
more. He has in a bottle $212 from one pan of dirt.
His pay dirt while being washed averaged $250 an
hour to each man shoveling in. Two others of our
miners who worked their own claim cleaned up
$6,000 from one day's washing.
"There is about fifteen feet of dirt above bed rock,
the pay streak averaging from four to six feet, which
is tunnelled out while the ground is frozen. Of
course, the ground taken out is thawed by building
fires, and when the thaw comes and water rushes
in thev set their sluices and wash the dirt. Two of
ijS Golden* Alaska.
our fellows thought a small bird in the hand worth
a large one in the bush, and sold their claims for
$45,000. getting 84. 500 down, and the remainder to
be paid in monthly installments of $10,000 each.
The purchaser- had no more than $5,000 paid.
The\' were twenty clays thawing and getting out dirt.
Then there was no water to sluice with, but one
fellow made a rocker, and in ten days took out the
$10,000 for the first installment. So. tunnelling and
rocking, they took out $40,000 before there was
water ti > sluice with."
LEGAL ASPECT OF ALASKA.
Commissioner Hermann, of the General Land Of-
fice, has announced that the following laws of the
I nited States extend over Alaska, where the general
land laws do not apply:
hirst — The mineral land laws of the United States.
Second — Town-site laws, which provide for the
incorporation of town-sites and acquirement of title
thereto from the (Suited States Government by the
town-site tni>ter>.
Golden Alaska. 99
Third — The laws providing for trade and manu-
factures, 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 as in the case of
the general land laws Alaska is expressly exempt
from this jurisdiction.
On the part of Canada, however, 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 appointed, and a land
title office will be established.
The act approved May 17, 1884, providing a civil
government for Alaska, has this language as to
mines and mining privileges:
"The laws of the United States relating to min-
ing claims and rights incidental thereto shall, on
and after the passage of this act, be in full force
and effect in said district of Alaska, subject to such
regulations as may be made by the Secretary of
the Interior and approved by the President," and
"parties who have located mines or mining priv-
ileges therein, under the United States laws ap-
plicable 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."
< i( II.DK.N A I.ASKA.
There is still more general authority. Without
the 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 tree and open to explora-
tion and purchase, and lands in which these are
found to occupation 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.
One of the difficulties that local capitalists find in
their negotiations for purchase of mining properties
on the Yukon is the lack of authenticated records
of owner- of claim-. Different practice.- prevail on
the two sides of the line and cause more or less con-
fusion. The practice has been at most of the new
camp- to call a miners' meeting at which one of the
parties was elected recorder, and he proceeded to
enter the bearings of -takes and natural marks to
define claim-. Sometimes the recorder would cdve
Golden* Alask.
i°3
a receipt for a fee allowed by common consent for
recording-, and also keep a copy for future reference,
but in a majority of cases even this formality was
dispensed with, and the only record kept was the
rough minutes made at the time.
On the Canadian side a different state of affairs
exists. The Dominion Government has sent a com-
missioner who is empowered to report officially all
claims, and while no certificate is issued to the own-
ers thereof, properties are thoroughly defined and
their metes and bounds established. The commis-
sioner in the Klondike district, whose name is Con-
stantine. also exercises semi-judicial functions, and.
settles disputes to the best of his ability, appeal lying
to the Ottawa Government.
As to courts and the execution of civil and criminal
law general!}', none were existent in the upper 'Yu-
kon Valley on the American side of the line during
1897. The nearest United States judge was at Sit-
ka. At Circle City and other centers of population
the people had organized into a sort of town-meet-
ing for the few public matters required; and a sort
of vigilance committee took the place of constituted
authority and police. As a matter of fact, however,
the people were quiet and law-abiding and little need
for the machinery of law is likely to arise before
courts, etc., are set up. A movement toward send-
I04
( Ioldkx Alaska.
mq- a garrison of United States troops thither was
vetoed by the War Department.
Canada, however, awoke to the realization that
her interests were in jeopard}', and took early steps
to profit l>v the wealth which had been discovered
within her borders and the international business
that resulted. Idle natural feeling- among the Ca-
nadians was, and is, that the property belongs to
the Canadian public, and that no good reason exists
why the mineral and other wealth should be ex-
hausted at once, mainly by outsiders, as has largely
happened in the case of Canada's forests. A pro-
hibitory policy was urged by some, but this seemed
neither wise nor practicable; and the Dominion
Covernment set at work to save as large a share as
it could. As there are gold fields on the Alaska
side of the line, and the approaches he through
I nited States territory, a spirit of reciprocal accom-
modation was necessary. One difficulty has been
averted last spring by President Cleveland's veto
of the Immigration bill, one provision of which
would have prevented Canadian laborers drawing
wages in this country, and probably would have pro-
voki d a retaliatory act.
( anada has already placed customs officers on the
passes and at the Yukon crossing of the boundary
to collect customs duties not only on merchandise
Goldex Alaska.
io:
but on miner's personal outfits. There is practically
no exception, and the duty comes below 20 per cent,
on but few articles. On most of the goods the duty
is from 30 to 35 per cent., and in several instances
higher, but the matter may be very simply ad-
justed by purchasing tools and outfits in Victoria
or Vancouver, for thus far the United Slates has
placed no corresponding obstruction in the way of
Canadian travellers to the gold-fields, but, on the
contrary, has made Dyea a sub-port of entry, largely
to accommodate British transportation lines. The
Canadian Government is represented in that region
now only by customs officers and 20 mounted police,
but it is taking steps to garrison the whole upper
Yukon Valley with its mounted police, — a body of
officers, whose functions are half military, half civil,
and which, it may as well be conceded once for all,
cannot be trifled with. There is no question but
that they will do their level best to enforce the laws
to the utmost. The commander of each detachment
will be constituted a magistrate of limited powers,
so that civil examinations and trials may be speedily
conducted.
The plan is to erect a strong post a short distance
north of the sixtieth degree of latitude, just above
the northern boundary of British Columbia, and be-
vond the head of the Lvnn Canal, where the Chil-
iof) < 1< u.DEX Alaska.
kout Pass and the While I'ass converge. This post
will command the southern entrance to the whole
cf that territory. Further oh .-mall police posts will
lie established, ah' mt fifty miles apart, down to Fort
Selkirk, while another general post will patrol the
river near the international boundary, with head-
quarters, probably, in the Klondike valley.
The mining regulations of Canada, applying to
the Yukon placer claims, are as follows:
''Bar diggings" shall mean any part of a river
over which water extends when the water is in its
flooded state and which is not covered at low water.
"Mine- on benches" shall be known as bench dig-
gings, and shall for the purpose of defining the size
; uch claims be excepted from dry diggings. "Dry
diggings" shall mean any mine over winch a river
never extends. "Miner" shall mean a male or fe-
male over the age of eighteen, but not under that
age. "Claims" shall mean the personal right of
property in a placer mine or diggings during the
time for which the grant of such mine or digging-
is made. "Legal post" shall mean a stake standing
nut less than four feet above the ground and squared
on four sides for at least one foot from the top.
"Close season" shall mean the period of the year
luring which placer mining is generally suspended.
I he period to be fixed b'v the gold commissioner
Golden* Alaska.
109
in whose district the claim is situated. "Locality"
shall mean the territory along a river (tributary of
the Yukon) and its affluents. "Mineral" shall in-
clude all minerals whatsoever other than coal.
1. Bar diggings. A strip of land 100 feet wide
at highwater mark and thence extending along the
river to its lowest water level.
2. The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall be
two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right
angles to the stream, and shall be marked by four
legal posts, one at each end of the claim at or about
high water mark; also one at each end of the claim
at or about the edge of the water One of the posts
shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner
and the date upon which the claim is staked.
3. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square and shall
have placed at each of its four corners a legal post.
upon one of which shall be legibly marked the name
of the miner and the date upon the claim was
staked.
4. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long,
measured in the direction of the mineral course of
the stream, and shall extend in width from base to
base of the hill or bench on each side, but when the
hills or benches are less than 100 feet apart the
claim may be 100 feet in depth. The sides of a
claim shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as
i io Golden Alaska.
possible at right angles to the stream. The sides
shall be marked with legal posts at or about the
edge of the water and at the rear boundary of the
claim. One of the legal posts at the stream shall
be legibly marked with the name of the miner and
the date upon which the claim was staked.
5. Bench claims shall be 100 feet square.
6. In defining the size of claims the}" shall be
measured horizontally, irrespective of inequalities on
the surface of the ground.
7. If any person or persons shall discover a new
mine and such discovery shall be established to the
satisfaction of the gold commissioner, a claim for
tlie bar diggings 750 feet in length may be granted.
A new stratum of auriferous earth or gravel situated
in a locality where the claims are abandoned shall
for this purpose be deemed a new mine, although
the same locality shall have previously been worked
at a different level.
8. The forms of application for a grant for placer
mining and the grant in the same shall be according
to those made, provided or supplied by the goltl
commissi* >ner.
(j. A claim shall be recorded with the gold com-
missioner in whose district it is situated within three
days after the location thereof if it is located within
ten miles of the commissioner's office. One dav
Golden Alaska. i i i
extra shall be allowed for making such record for
ever}' additional ten miles and fraction thereof
io. In the event of the absence of the gold com-
missioner from his office for entry a claim mav be
granted by any person whom he may appoint to
perform his duties in his absence.
11. Entry shall not be granted for a claim which
lias not been staked by the applicant in person in
the manner specified in these resolutions. An affi-
davit that the claim was staked out by the applicant
shall be embodied in the application.
12. An entry fee of $15 shall be charged the first
year and an annual fee of Si 00 for each of the fol-
lowing years:
13. After recording a claim the removal of any
post by the holder thereof or any person acting
in his behalf for the purpose of changing the boun-
daries of his claim shall act as a forfeiture of the
claim.
14. The entry of every holder for a grant for
placer mining must be renewed and his receipt re-
linquished and replaced every year, the entry fee be-
ing paid each year.
15. Xo miner shall receive a grant for more than
one mining claim in the same locality: but the same
miner mav hold anv number of claims by purchase,
and anv number of miners mav unite to work their
112 Golden Alaska.
claims in common upon such terms as they may ar-
range, provided such agreement be registered with
the Gold Commissioner and a fee of $15 for each
registration.
16. And miner may sell, mortgage, or dispose of
his claims, provided such disposal be registered with
and a fee of $5 paid to the Gold Commissioner.
17. Every miner shall, during the continuance of
his grant, have the exclusive right of entry upon his
own claim for the miner-like working thereof, and
the construction of a residence thereon, and shall be
entitled exclusively to all the proceeds realized there-
from; but he shall have no surface rights therein,
and the Gold Commissioner may grant to the hold-
ers of adjacent claims such rights of entry thereon
as may be absolutely necessary for the working of
their claims, upon such terms as may to him seem
reasonable. He may also grant permits to miners
to cut timber thereon for their own use, upon pay-
ment of the dues prescribed by the regulation in
that behalf.
18. Every miner .-hall be entitled to the use of so
much of the water naturally llowing through or
past his claim, and not already lawfully appropriated
as shall in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner
be necessary for the due working thereof, and shall
be entitled to drain his own claim free of charge.
.A
,-*
CHILKOOT PASS.
Goldex Alaska. 115
19. A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned
and open to occupation and entry by any person
when the same shall have remained unworked on
working days by the guarantee thereof or by some
person in his behalf for the space of seventy-two
hours unless sickness or some other reasonable
cause may be shown to the satisfaction of the Gold
Commissioner, or unless the guarantee is absent on
leave given by the commissioner, and the Gold Com-
missioner, upon obtaining satisfactory evidence that
this provision is not being complied with, may can-
cel the entry given in the claim.
20. If the land upon which a claim has been lo-
cated is not the property of the Crown it will be
necessary for the person who applies for entry to
furnish proof that he has acquired from the owner
of the land the surface right before entry can be
granted.
21. If the occupier of the lands has not received
a patent thereof the purchase money of the surface
rights must be paid to the Crown and a patent of
the surface rights will issue to the party who ac-
quired the mining rights. The money so collected
will either be refunded to the occupier of the land
when he is entitled to a patent there or will be cred-
ited to him on account of payment of land.
22. When the party obtaining the mining rights
n6 Golden Alaska.
cannot make an arrangement with the owner there-
of for the acquisition of the surface rights it shall be
lawful for him to give notice to the owner or his
agents or the occupier to appoint an arbitrator to
act with another arbitrator named by him in order
to award the amount of compensation to which the
owner or occupier shall be entitled.
The royalty and reserve additions to this, made
since the recent discoveries and on account of them,
are as follows:
j. A royalty of 10 per cent will be collected for
the government on all amounts taken out of any one
claim up to S500 a week, 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 government proposes
2. That upon every river and creek where mining
locations shall be staked out every alternate claim
shall be the property of the government.
These regulations, say the Canadians, are made
with the purpose of developing a country, which,
as elsewhere shown in this pamphlet, is capable of
supporting a large permanent population and varied
industries. Whether they can be enforced remains
to be seen, and difficulties will certainly attend the
collection of a royalty on gold-dust. The effect of
these regulations, it is believed bv the authors, will
Golden Alaska. 117
be to encourage permanent settlement and the treat-
ment of mining as a regular industry and not simply
as an adventurous speculation. Another effect, un-
doubtedly, will be to cause immigrants, including
Canadians themselves, to prospect and mine on the
United States side of the line, whenever they have
an equal opportunity for success.
The boundary dispute does not as yet seriously
affect the question or rights and privileges in the
new gold regions, as the disputed part of the line,
southeast of Alaska, runs through a region not yet
occupied, and practically the whole of Lynn Canal
is administered by the United States, and the Ca-
nadians act as though it were decided that their
boundary was farther inland than some of them
pretend. From Alt. St. Elias north, the 141st me-
ridian is the undisputed boundary, and this has been
fixed by an international commission, crossing the
Yukon at a marked point near the mouth of Forty
Mile Creek. Nearly or quite all of the diggings
upon which are written Alaskan territory, as also
are the valuable placers on Birch and Miller creeks.
It will be a matter of extreme difficulty along this
part of the boundary to prevent smuggling, to dis-
cover and collect Canadian royalties, and to capture
criminals except by international cooperation.
1 1 8 Golden Alaska.
CLIMATE, ACRICULTURE AND HEALTH.
The Weather Bureau has made public a state-
ment in regard to the climate of Alaska, which says:
"The climates of the coast and the 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 rare-
ly falls to zero; winter does not set in until Dec. I,
and by the last of May the snow has disappeared ex-
cept on the mountains.
"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 it.- falling, viz.: in long and inces-
sant rains and drizzles. Cloud and fog naturally
abound, there being on an average but sixty-six
clear davs in thr vear.
GENERAL VIEW OF SILVER BOW BASIN, NEAR JUNEAU.
Golden Alaska. 121
"North of the Aleutian Islands the coast climate
becomes more rigorous in winter, but in summer
the difference is much less marked.
"The climate of the interior is one of extreme
rigor in winter, with a brief but relatively hot sum-
mer, 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 ob-
scured on a great many days, the character of the
winter months may easily be imagined.
"We are indebted to the United States coast and
geodetic survey for a series of six months' observa-
tions on the Yukon, not far from the site of the
present gold discoveries. The observations were
made with standard instruments, and are wholly re-
liable. The mean temperatures of the months Oc-
tober, 1889, to April, 1890, both inclusive, are as fol-
lows: October, 33 degrees; November, 8 degrees;
December, 11 degrees, below zero; January, 17 be-
low zero; February, 15 below zero; March, 6 above;
April 20 above. 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-
122 (.]< ildex Alaska.
"(jo, assuming that outdoor operations are controlled
by temperature only. The lowest temperatures
registered during the winter were: Thirty-two de-
grees below zero in November, 47 below in De-
cember. 59 below in January, 55 below in February,
45 below in March, and 26 below in April.
"The greatest continuous cold occurred in Feb-
ruary, 1890, when the daily mean for five consecu-
tive days was 47 degrees below zero.
"Greater cold than that here noted has been ex-
perienced in the L'nited States for a very short time,
but never has it continued so very cold for so long
a time as in the interior of Alaska. The winter sets
in as early a> September, when snow-storms may
be expected in the mountain- and passes. Head-
way during one of those storms is impossible, and
the traveler who is overtaken by one of them is
indeed fortunate it' he escapes with his life. Snow-
storms of great severity may occur in any month
from September to May. inclusive.
"The changes of temperature from winter to sum-
mer are rapid, owing to the great increase in the
length of the day. In May the sun rise- at about 3
a. m. and sets about o p. m. In June it rises about
half past 1 in the morning, and sets at about half
past 10. giving about twenty hours of day-light and
diffuse twilight the remainder of the time.
Golden Alaska. 123
"The mean summer temperature in the interior
doubtless ranges between 60 and 70 degrees, ac-
cording to elevation, being highest in the middle
and lower Yukon valleys."
Accurate data of the temperature in the Klon-
dike district were kept at Fort Constantine last year.
The temperature first touched zero Nov. 10, and
the zero weather recorded in the spring was on April
29.
Between Dec. 19 and Feb. 6 it never rose above
zero. The lowest actual point, 65 below, accurred
on Jan. 27, and on twenty-four days during the win-
ter the temperature was below 50.
On March 12 it first rose above the freezing point,
but no continuous mild weather occurred until May
4, after which date the temperature during the bal-
ance of the month frequently rose above 60 de-
grees.
The Yukon River froze up on Oct. 28 and broke
up on May 17.
The long and severe winter and the frozen moss-
covered ground are serious obstacles to agriculture
and stock raising. The former can change but lit-
tle with coming seasons, but the latter, by gradually
burning off areas, can be overcome to some extent.
On such burned tracts hardy vegetables have been
and may be raised, and the area open to such use
124 Golden Alaska.
is considerable. Potatoes do well and barley will
mature a fair crop.
Live stock may be kept by providing an abund-
ance of shelter and feed and housing them during
the winter. In summer an abundance of the finest
grass pasture can be had, and great quantities of na-
tural hay can be cut in various places.
Diseases: In spite of all that is heard in the
newspapers regarding the healthfulness of the cli-
mate of Alaska and the upper Yukon, the Census
Report of Alaska offers its incontestable statistics to
the effect that the country is not more salubrious,
nor its people more healthy than could be expected
in a region of violent climate, where the most ordi-
nary laws of health remain almost totally ignored.
From the Government Report we quote the follow-
ing:
"Those diseases which are most fatal to life in one
section of Alaska seem to be applicable to all others.
In the first place, the native children receive little
or no care, and for the first few years of their lives
are more often naked than clothed, at all seasons of
the year. Consumption is the simple and compre-
hensive title for the disease which destroys the
greater -number of the people of Alaska. Aluet, In-
dian and Eskimo suffer from it alike; and all alike
exhibit the same stolid indifference to its slow and
K *■■
I -■ - £
" *
■j?v£*<
■Br.. ■"• =>
ifcv "*^?-
^BMbta*»
^He
HBE3
■ten*
■
:
Goldex Alaska. 127
fatal progress, make no attempt to ward it off, take
no special precautions even when the disease reaches
its climax.
Xext to consumption, the scrofulous diseases, in
the forms of ulcers, eat into the vitals and destroy
them until the natives have the appearance of lepers
to unaccustomed eyes. As a consequence of their
neglect and the exigencies of the native life, forty or
fifty years is counted among them as comparatively
great age, and none are without the ophthalmic dis-
eases necessarily attendant on existence in smoky
barabaras. Against snow-blindness the Eskimo
people use peculiar goggles, but by far the greater
evil, the smoke poisoning of the ophmalmic nerve
is neither overcome nor prevented by any of them.
All traders carry medicine chests and do what they
can to relieve suffering, but it requires a great deal
of medicine to make an impression on the native
constitution, doses being about four times what
would suffice an Englishman or American.
128 Golden Alaska.
OUTFITS, SUPPLIES, ETC.
Houses. — Almost every item has been taken into
consideration by the prospectors starting out to face
an Alaskan winter except the item of shelter when
they shall have put their boats in winter dock. The
result will be that many hundreds will find them-
selves in the bleak region with plenty of money and
victuals, but insufficient protection from the cold
weather. From accounts that have come from
Alaska and British Columbia, there are more men
there skilled in digging" and bookkeeping than in
carpentry, and more picks and shovels than axes
and planes. With the arrival of parties that have
lately gone to the headwaters of the Yukon, there
will necessarily be an immense demand for houses,
for without them the miners will freeze. This mat-
ter is beginning to receive attention in San Fran-
cisco and Seattle, and preparations are now under
way to provide gold seekers with houses.
Within a week negotiations have been conducted
between parties in San Francisco and this city for
the shipment of entire houses to the gold re-
gions. The houses will be constructed in sections,
so that they may be carried easily in boats up the
Yukon or packed on sleds and carried through the
rough country in baggage trains. A New York
Golden Alaska. 131
firm which make- a specialty of such houses has re-
ceived orders for as many as can be sent there.
Xo tents are used in winter, as they become coated
with ice from the breath of the sleepers and are also
apt to take fire.
Clothing for Men. — A year's supply of winter
clothing ought be taken, especial pains being taken
to supply plenty of warm, durable underwear. Old-
timer- in the country wear in winter a coat or blouse
of dressed d ■ r skin, wit! tl hair on. coming down
to the knees and held by a belt round the waist. It
has a hood which may be thrown back on the
shoulders when not needed. This shirt is trimmed
with white deer-kin or wolfskin, while those worn
in extreme weather are often lined with fur. Xext
in importance to them are the torbassa or Eskimo
boots. These are of reindeer skin, taken from the
. .'.'. r the hair is short, smooth and stiff. These
are sewed together to make the tops of the boots
which come up nearly to the knee, where the}- are
tied. The sole is of sealskin, turned over at heel
and toe and gathered up so as to protect those
parts an '. then brought up on each side. They are
::.'.• :h larger than the foot ai 1 ; n
a pad of dry gras- which, fold 1 to fit the sole,
thickens the boo: and forms an additional prote
to the foot. A pair of strings tied about the ankle
132 Golden Alaska.
*
from either side complete a covering admirably
adapted to the necessities of winter travel. If the
newcomer can get such garments as these he will
be well provided against winter rigors.
Women going to the mines are advised to take
two pairs of extra heavy all-wool blankets, one small
pillow, one fur robe, one warm shawl, one fur coat,
easy fitting; three warm woollen dresses, with com-
fortable bodices and shirts knee length, flannel-lined
preferable; three pairs of knickers or bloomers to
match the dresses, three suits of heavy all-wool un-
derwear, three warm flannel night dresses, four
pairs of knitted woollen stockings, one pair of rub-
ber boots, three gingham aprons that reach from
neck to knees, small roll of flannel for insoles, wrap-
ping the feet and bandages; a sewing kit, such toilet
articles as are absolutely necessary, including some
skin unguent to protect the face from the icy cold,
two light blouses or shirt waists for summer wear,
one oilskin blanket to wrap her effects in, to be
secured at Juneau or St. Michael; one fur cape, two
pairs of fur gloves, two pairs of surseal moccasins,
two pairs of muclucs — wet weather moccasins.
She wears what she pleases en route to Juneau or
St. Michael, and when she makes her start for the
diggings she lays aside every civilized traveling
garb, including shoes and stays, until she comes out.
Golden Alaska. 135
Instead of carrying the fur robe, fur coat and rub-
ber boots along", she can get them on entering Alas-
ka, but the experienced ones say, take them along.
Leggings and shoes are not so safe nor desirable as
the moccasins. A trunk- is not the thing to trans-
port baggage in. Tt is much better in a pack, with
the oilskin cover well tied on. The things to add
that are useful, but not absolutely necessary, are
chocolate, coffee and the smaller light luxuries.
Beds are made on a platform raised a few feet
from the floor, and about seven feet wide. Often
consists of a raindeer skin with the hair on and one
end sewn up so as to make a sort of bag to put
the feet in. A pillow of wild goose feathers, and a
pair of blankets. Sheets, which have been un-
known heretofore, may become essential, but such
a conventionality as a counterpane would better be
left behind.
Provisions. — There was a report that Canadian
mounted police would guard the passes during the
latter part of the summer of [897 and refuse admis-
sion to anyone who did not bring a year's provisions
with him. This has been estimated as weighing
1,800 pounds. Whether this is true or not, it is cer-
tain that no one should go into the Yukon country
without taking a large supply of food, and taking
it from his starting-point. Whatever is the most
136 Golden Alaska.
condensed and nutritions is the cheapest, and this
should be collected with great care. There is well-
grounded fear that famine may overtake all the
camps there before the opening of navigation in the
spring. Newspapers on August 2nd reported agents
of the Alaska Commercial Company as saying:
"We shall refuse to take passengers at all in our
next steamer. We could sell every berth at the
price we have been asking — S250, as against $120
last spring — but we shall not sell one. We shall
fill up with provisions, and I have no doubt the
Facific Coast Company will do the same. We are
afraid. Those who are mad to get to the diggings
will probably be able to get transportation by char-
tering tramp steamers, and there is a serious risk
that there will not be food enough for them at Ju-
neau or on the Yukon. After the season closes it
will be next to impossible to get supplies into the
Yukon country, and a large proportion of the gold
seekers may starve to death. That would be an
ominous beginning for the new camp. Alaska is
not like California or Australia or South Africa. It
produces nothing. When the supplies from out-
side are exhausted, famine must follow — to what de-
gree no i.UL' can tell."
Tt was further understood at this date that there
are 2.000 tons of food at St. Michael, and the Alaska
Golden Alaska. 139
Company has three large and three small steamers
to carry it up river. It is hard to ascertain how
much there is at Juneau; it is vaguely stated— that
there are 5,000 tons. At a pinch steamers might p
work their way for several months to come through"
the ice to that port from Seattle, which is only
three days distant. But it may be nip and tuck if
there is any rush of gold seekers from the East.
Alaskan Mails. — Between Seattle and Sitka the
mail steamers ply regularly. On the City of To-
peka there has been established a regular sea post-
office service. W. R. Curtis is the clerk in charge.
Between Sitka and Juneau there is a closed pouch
steamboat service. Seattle makes up closed pouches
for Douglas, Fort Wrangel, Juneau, Killisnoo, Ket-
chikan, Mary Island, Sitka, and Metlakatlah. Con-
necting at Sitka is other sea service between that
point and Unalaska, 1,400 miles to the west. This
service consists of one trip a month between Sitka
and Unalaska from xA.pril to October and leaves Sit-
ka immediately upon arrival of the mails from Seat-
tle. Captain J. E. Hanson is acting clerk. From
Unalaska the mails are dispatched to St. Michael
and thence to points on the Yukon.
The Postoffice department has perfected not only
a summer but a winter star route service between
Juneau and Circle City. The route is overland and
140 Golden Alaska.
by boats and rafts over the lakes and down the Yu-
kon, and is 900 miles long". A Chicago man named
Beddoe carries the summer mail, making five trips
between June and November, and is paid $500 a
trip. Two Juneau men, Frank Corwin and Albert
Hayes, operate the winter service and draw for each
round trip $1,700 in gold. About 1,200 letters are
carried on each trip. The cost of forwarding let-
ters from Circle City to Dawson City is one dollar
for each letter and two for each paper, the mails
being sent over once a month. The Chilkoot Pass
is crossed with the mail by means of Indian car-
riers. On the previous trips the carriers, after fin-
ishing the pass, built their boats, but they now have
their own to pass the lakes and the Lewes River.
In the winter transportation is carried on by means
of dogsleds, and it is hoped that under the present
contracts there will be no stoppage, no matter how
low the temperature may go. The contractor has
reported that he was sending a boat, in sections,
by way of St. Michael, up the Yukon River, to be
used on the waterway of the route, and it is thought
much time will be saved by this, as formerly it
was necessary for the carriers to stop and build
boats or rafts to pass the lakes.
Contracts have been made with two steamboat
companies for two trips from Seattle to St. Michael.
Golden Alaska 143
When the steamers reach St. Michael, the mail will
be transferred to the flat-bottomed boats running
up the Y.ukon as far as Circle City. It is believed
the boats now run further up.
The contracts for the overland route call for only
first-class matter, whereas the steamers in summer
carry everything, up to five tons, each trip.
Sledges and Dogs. — The sleds are heavy and shod
with bone sawed from the upper edge of the jaw of
the bowright whale. The rest of the sled is of
spruce and will carry from six to eight hundred
pounds. The sleds used in the interior are lighter
and differently constructed. They consist of a nar-
row box four feet long, the front half being covered
or boxed in, mounted on a floor eight feet long rest-
ing on runners. In this box the passenger sits,
wrapped in rabbit skins so that he can hardly move,
his head and shoulders only projecting. In front
and behind and on top of the box is placed all the
luggage, covered with canvas and securely lashed,
to withstand all the jolting and possible upsets, and
our snow shoes within easy reach.
An important item is the dog- whip, terrible to the
dog if used by a skillful hand and terrible to the
user if he be a novice; for he is sure to half strangle
himself or to hurt his own face with the business
end of the lash. The whip T measured had a handle
144 Golden Alaska.
nine inches long and lash thirty feet, and weighed
four pounds. The lash was of folded and plaited
seal hide, and for five feet from the handle measured
five inches round, then for fourteen feet it gradually
tapered off, ending in a single thong half an inch
thick and eleven feet long. Wonderful the dex-
terity with which a driver can pick out a dog and
almost a spot on a dog with this lash. The lash
must be trailing at full length behind, when a jerk
and turn of the wrist causes it to fly forward, the
thick part first, and the tapering end continuing
the motion till it is at full length in front, and the
lash making the fur fly from the victim. But often
it is made to crack over the heads of the dogs as a
warning.
The eleven flogs were harnessed to the front of
the sled, each by a separate thong of seal hide, all
of different lengths, fastened to a light canvas har-
ness. The nearest dog was about fifteen feet from
the sled, and the leader, with bells on her. about
fifty feet, the thongs thus increasing in length by
about three feet. When the going is good the dogs
spread out like the fingers of a hand, but when the
snow is deep the}" fall into each other's tracks in
almost single file. As they continually cross and
recross each other, the thongs get gradually plaited
almost up to the rearmost dog, when a halt is called,
A TEAM OF DOGS AND DOG SLEDGES.
Golden Alaska. 147
the dogs are made to lie down, and the driver care-
fully disentangles them, taking care that no dog
gets away meanwhile. They are guided by the
voice, using "husk}," that is, Eskimo words:
"Owk," go to the right; "arrah," to the left, and
"holt," straight on. But often one of the men must
run ahead on snowshoes for the dogs to follow him.
The dogs are of all colors, somewhat the height
of the Newfoundland, but with shorter legs. The
usual number is from five to seven, according to the
load.
List of prices that have been current in Dawson
City during 1897:
Flour, per 100 lbs $12.00 to $120.00
Moose ham, ner lb 1.00 to 2.00
Caribou meat, lb 65
Beans, per lb 10
Rice, per lb 25 to .75
Sugar, per lb 25
Bacon, per lb ' 40 to .80
Butter, per roll 1.50 to 2.50
Eggs, per doz 1 .50 to 3.00
Better eggs, doz 2.00
Salmon, each 1.00 to 1.50
Potatoes, per lb 25
Turnips, per lb 15
Tea, per lb 1 .00 to 3.00
Coffee, per lb 50 to 2.25
Dried fruits, per lb 35
148 ( Ioldex Alaska.
Canned fruits 50 to ^.25
Lemons, each 20 to .25
Oranges, each 50
Tobacco, per 11) 1.50 to 2.00
Liquors, per drink 53
Shovels 2.50 to 18.00
Picks 5.00 to 7.00
Coal oil, per gal 1 .00 to 2. 50
Overalls 1.50
Underwear, per suit 5.00 to 7.50
Shoes 5.00 to 8.00
Rubber boots 15.00 to 18.00
Based on supply and demand the above quoted
prices may vary several hundred per cent, on some
articles at any time.
Fare to Seattle by way of Northern Pacific, $81.50.
Fee for Pullman sleeper, $20.50.
Fee for tourist sleeper, run only west of St.
Paul $55.
Meals served in dining car for entire trip, $16.
Meals are served at stations along the route a la
carte.
Distance from Xew York to Seattle. 3.290 miles.
Days required to make the journey, about six.
Fare for steamer from Seattle to Juneau, includ-
ing cabin and meals. $35.
Days. Seattle to Juneau, about five.
Number of miles from Seattle to Juneau, 725.
Golden Alaska. 149
Cost of living" in Juneau, about $3 per day.
Distance on Lynn Canal to Healey's Store,
steamboat, seventy-five miles.
Number of days, New York to Healey's Store,
twelve.
Cost of complete outfit for overland journey,
about $150.
Cost of provisions for one year, about $200.
Cost of dogs, sled and outfit, about $150.
Steamer leaves Seattle once a week,
Best time to start is early in the Spring.
Total cost of trip, New York to Klondike, about
$667.
Number of days required for journey, New York
to Klondike, thirty-six to forty.
Total distance, New York to the mines at Klon-
dike, 4,650 miles.
<»v:
■e-o'
•oi-\
•6-
■ox-1
■pgnvij
si (\
and Points.
Aldington, C-9.
Alitak, C-5.
Anchor, C-5.
Anxiety, A-6.
Banks, C-5.
Barnabas, C-5.
Barrow, A-4.
Bartolome, C-9.
Becher, A-6.
Beet hey, A-6.
Belcher, A-3.
Black, C-5.
Blossom, A-3.
Campbell, B-6.
Chlniak, C-5.
Chitnak, B-l.
Christy, A-4.
Cleare, C-6.
Collie, A-3.
Constantine, C-4.
Cross, C-8.
Current, C-5.
Dall, B-2.
Dan by, B-3.
Denbigh, B-3.
Douglas, B-2.
Douglas, C-5.
Dyer. A-2.
Dyer, B-3.
Edward, C-8.
Elizabeth, C-5.
Eroline, C-4.
Espenberg, A-3.
Etolin, B-2.
Fairweatuer, C-8.
Foggy, C-4.
Franklin, A-3.
Glasenap, C-8.
Grenville, C-5.
Lazareff, D-3. ittyna
Leontovich, C-8. »ttysto
Lewis, A-2. plitna
Lisburne, A-2. lvllle,
Low, C-5. p,per-,J
Lowenstern, A-8.J',e.^i f
Lutke, D-3. khkak
Manbv, C-7. J1- A'-
Manning, A-7. lta> B
Martin, A-? .
Martin. C-6.
Meuchikof, C-4.
Muzon, D-9.
Narrow, C-5.
iggetloi
igati, B
ikett, .
sh, A-3
rty-nd
Newenham, C-3. kona,
rsde, I
•odpas!
)kucha
isstiak
pikpui
glixalil
noko,
pewik,
Nome, B-2.
Ocean, C-7.
Ommaney, C-8.
Pankoff, D-3.
Peirce, C-3.
Pellew, B-6.
Pillar, C-5.
Pitt, A-5.
Prince of Wales, hnsoa
Providence, C-4. lknui *
Puget. C-6. ilucna,
Resurrection, C-6n,dl,k>
Rodknoft', C-8. irjuk'.,(
Rodnev, B-2. tsnunil.
Romaiiof. B-8. 'ssilof,
Romanzof, B-2. iviavaz
Saritchey, D-2. iy,lh' L
Seniavin, C-3.
Seppinge, A-2.
Sitkagi. C-7.
Smith. B-2.
Spencer, A-2.
Spencer, C-8.
St. Augustine, D-alk> 4B:
St. Elias, C-7. 30; A^
St. Hennogenes, *>kput
vwleel
nak, B
anarch
atena,
atsutal
awasin
Money Order Offices. ^ Post Offices not 1
b-7.
ne, B-7.
B-4.
A-5.
5-6.
-4.
at, A-4.
6.
jscat, A-4.
-6
V-5.
,'e, B-7.
B-6.
;-6.
er, B-6.
tna, A-4.
itua, A-4.
g, A-5.
:, A-4.
fi-4.
A-3.
B-6.
1-5.
B-7.
\-7.
'-5.
:, B-3.
B-5
ak, A-3.
-4.
:, A-3.
-3.
argat, A-6.
B-6.
;akat, B-5
a. B-6.
6.
'. V-3.
Ray, A-5.
Robertson, B-6.
Salmon, A-7.
Selawik, A-4.
Slana. B-6.
Soonkakat, B-4.
Stikine, C-9.
Sticker, A-7.
Snshitna, B-6.
Taclat, B-5.
Tahkandik, A-7.
Tanana, B-6.
Tasnioio, B-6.
Tatotlindu, B-7.
Ta/.lina, B-6.
Teiknell, B-6.
Traodee, A-7.
Tokai, B-7.
Tovikakal, A-5.
Ugaguk, C-4.
Ugashik, C-4.
Unalaklik, B-4.
Volkmar, B-6.
White, B-7.
Whvmper. A-6.
Woliek, A-3.
Yukon, B-3.
Towns, pop.
Afo^nak, C-5 409
Alaganik, B-6 ... 48
Anagnak, C-4
Anvik, B-3 191
Attanak, A-4
Attenmtit, A-4
Belkoffski, D-3 185
Belle Isle. B-8
Cape Sabine, A-2
Chilkat. C-8 153
71'
Katniai, C-4
Ketchikan, C-9
Killisnoo, C-9
Kipmak, B-3
Klawock, C-9 287
Kodiak, C-5 * 495
Kogei ting, C-4 133
Kutlik. B-3 31
Leather Village, B-4
Lorintr, C-9 200
Marv Island, D-9
Metlakahtla *
Mitchell, A-8 238
Morzhovoi, D-3 68
Kig-a-lek, A-6
Nikolski, A-ll
Nulato, B-4 118
Nushaeak, C-4 268
Old Morzhovoi, C-3
Orca, B-6
Ounalaska. A-ll
Pastolik, B-3 113
Redoubt Kolmakoff, B-4
Sandpoiut, C-3
Seward, C-5
Shaeeliik, B-3
Shakan. C-9
Shaktolik. B-3
Sitka, C-8 * 1190
St. Orlovsk, C-5
Sntkum, C-4
Suworof, C-4
Takti. C-9
Tikchik, B-4
Dkak, C-4
Unalaklik. B-3 175
Unalas^a, D-2 817
Unga, C-3 159
Village, C-4
Wrangel, C-9
Yakitat, C-8
Addenda.
Pop.
Weare, B 5
Circle City, B7
Dawson. U '■
Klondyke River. B8
Klond\ke District, B8 ..
Dyea, C8
Rand, McNally & Co.'s
Large Map of Alaska
SIZE, 24X36 INCHES.
From United States and Dominion of Canada Official
Survey, revised to July 29, 1897, shows in detail
THE GOLD FIELDS OF
THE KLONDIKE REGION
The Routes from
JUNEAU, YUKON RIVER and
NORTHERN
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Locates and names
DAWSON
FORT RELIANCE
FORTY MILE CREEK
SIXTY MILE CREEK
FORT SELKIRK
JUNEAU
TELEGRAPH CREEK
TESLIN RIVER
LEWIS RIVER
CHILKOOT PASS
CHILKAT PASS
WHITE PASS
ATLIN LAKE
WRANGELL
TESLIN LAKE
TAMZILLA RIVER
And all other points of importance.
SCALE 1 : 3,600,000, OR 55 MILES TO THE INCH.
Price, in pocket form, 50 cents. Sent to any address in the
United States and Canada prepaid, upon receipt of price.
Rand, McNally & Co., Publishers,
NEW YORK BRANCH f^ |_l I f* r% f r\
61 EAST NINTH STREET. ..t.UI lll> AUU.
For Convenient Reference.
NEW COLORED MAPS OF EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
AN ACCURATE UP-TO-DATE READY REFERENCE WORK FOR THE
USE OF EVERYBODY.
#ilpiy
Popular
160 PAGES. SIZE, 12 X 14 INCHES.
Showing NOTHING BUT MAPS of
Each State, Territory, and large City in the United
States, Provinces of Canada, the Continents
and their Subdivisions, with Ready -reference
Marginal Index.
Bound in stiff cloth, colored edges. Price, $2. 50
The LATEST
ACKNOWLEDGED
STANDARD MANUAL
FOR
Presidents, Secretaries,
DIRECTORS, CHAIRMEN,
ii^ rnr~ininr officers,
And everyone in anyway connected
with public life or corporate bodies
IS
Reed's Rules
BY
THE HON. THOMAS B. REED,
Speaker of the
House of Representatives,
"I commend the book most highly."
WILLIAM McKINLEY,
President of the United States.
"Reasonable, right, and rigid."
J. STERLING MORTON,
Ex-Secretary of Agriculture.
CLOTH, 75 CENTS,
LEATHER, $1.25. "
RAND, McNALLY & CO., Publishers,
CHICAGO.
MARAH ELLIS RYAN'S WORKS
A FLOWER OF FRANCE.
A Story of Old Louisiana.
The story is well told.— Herald, New York.
A real romance— just the kind of romance one delights in.— Times, boston
Full of stirring incident and picturesque description.— Press, Philadelphia.
The interest holds the reader until the closing page.— Inter Ocean, Chicago.
Told with great fascination and brightness. v * * The general impression
Jelightful. * * * Many thrilling scenes. — Herald, Chicago.
A thrilling story of passion and action. - Commercial, Memphis.
A PAGAN OF THE ALLEGHANIES.
A genuine art work.— Chicago Tribune.
A remarkable book, original and dramatic in conception, and pure and
noble in tone. — Boston Literary World.
REV. DAVID SWING said: -The books of Marah Ellis Ryan give great
pleasure to all the uest class of readers " A Pagan of the Alleghanies " is
one of her best works; but all she writes is high and pure. Her words are all
true to nature, and, with her, nature is a great theme.
ROBERT G. 1NGEHSOLL says: -Your description of scenery and seasons
— of the capture of the mountains by spring — of tree and fern, of laurel,
cloud and mist, and the woods of the forest, are true, poetic, and beautiful.
To say the least, the pagan saw and appreciated many of the difficulties and
contradictions that grow out of and belong to creeds. He saw how hard it is
to harmonize what we see and know with the idea that over all is infinite
power and goodness * • * the divine spark called Genius is in your brain.
SQUAW ^LOUISE.
Vigorous, natural, entertaining.— Boston Times
A notable performance. — Chicago Tribune.
A very strong story, indeed.— Chicago Times.
TOLD IN THE HILLS.
A book that is more than clever. It is healthy, brave, and inspiring.— St
Louis Post-Dispatch.
The character of Stuart is one of the finest which has been drawn by an
American woman in many a day, and it is depicted with an appreciation
hardly to be expected even from a man.— Boston Herald.
IN LOVE'S DOMAINS.
There are imagination and poetical expressions in the stories, and readers
will find them interesting-— New York Sun.
The longest story, "Galeed," is a strong, nervous story, covering a wide
range, and dealing in a masterly way with some intricate questions of what
might be termed amatory psychology. — San Francisco Chronicle.
MERZE ; The Story of an Actress.
We can not doubt that the author is one of the best living orators of her
sex. The book will possess a strong attraction for women —Chicago Herald.
This is the story of the life of an actress, told in the graphic style of Mrs
Ryan It is very interesting. — Ne w Orleans Picayune.
FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS
HAND. McNALLY & CO., Publishers, Chicago and fciew York
ESTABLISHED 1840.
GEO. B. CARPENTER & CO.
MANUFACTURERS OF
Miners' and Camping
■ — _Jfess£^?*3?*iS&fc._
Sleeping Bags
Camp Outfits
WATER-PROOF CLOTHING,
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WESTERN AGENTS FOR THE
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Used Exclusively by NANSEN on his Trip
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Send 4 cents in stamps for Catalogue,
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202, 204, 206, 208 South Water Street,
CHICAGO, ILL.
.uaska-Klondike
Gold Mining Company
CAPITAL STOCK...500,000 Shares.
Par Value...$10.00 each.
Full Paid— Non-Assessable,
********
This Company is a
Transportation,
Commercial, and Mining Corporation
owning large GOLD GRAVEL claims on the Yukon,
Klondike, and other rivers in Alaska, and now have
under construction steamers to ply on the Yukon
next season.
The Board of Directors are a sufficient guarantee that the
affairs of the Company will be well managed.
DIRECTORS.
JAMES RICE,
Late Secretary State of Colorado.
WM. SHAW,
Capitalist, Chicago.
E. M. TITCOMB, Vice-Pres't and Gen'l Manager,
Eastman Fruit Despatch Co.
H. C. FASH,
Member Maritime Exchange, New York.
GEO. W. MORGAN,
Circle City, Alaska.
A limited amount of Shares are offered at $10.00 per Share.
For information, address,
Alaska-Klondike Cold Mining Co.
96 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
Hon. JAMES RICE, president.
W. L. BOYD, SECRETARY.
+ HO! FOR THE
t Klondike :
X REGIONS AND THE T
I Gold Fields ♦
♦ — of Alaska ♦
♦ ♦
♦ "\\ e make a specialty of outfitting, and
can supply you with everything you ^
^L eat, wear, or use. We have ^
▼ JumbO Shirts, Underwear and Hosiery ▼
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# ♦
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♦ Pants, Portable Camp Outfits ♦
^ Overcoats, (tin and aluminum1!. ^
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A !n fact, we can supply you with anything and ^k
everything you'll need during your stay in Alaska.
^ Our General Catalogue ^ Buyers' Guide #>
^^ Tells the prices. Send 15 cents to partly pay ^p
♦ postage or expressage, and we'll send you a copy. ^k
It has nearly Soo pages, over 13.000 illustrations,
^^ and more than 40.00c descriptions of everything 4fr
^^ you wear or use. ^^
♦ MONTGOMERY WARD & Co. ♦
T 1 1 1 to 120 Michigan Ave.,
A CHICAGO. ?
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
This Look is DUE on the last date stamped "below
1 ,D FEC'D LD-URC j
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APR 1 7 REC^
AY 9 1951
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iftittL
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