All about the Klondyke gold mines Part 5

"Eight of us made the trip from Juneau to Dyea, 100 miles, on the little steam launch Alert. The steamer Mexico reached Dyea the same morning with 423 men. As she drew so much water she had to stay about three miles off sh.o.r.e and land her pa.s.sengers and freight as best she might in more or less inaccessible places on the rocky sh.o.r.es.

"Then up came the twenty-two-foot tide and many poor fellows saw their entire outfits swept into the sea. The tide runs there like the Fundy race. At Dyea there were but two houses, a store and, of course, a saloon. So when we landed on the beach and got out on the snow and ice we had to "rustle" for ourselves. We have kept on "rustling" for ourselves from that on.

"We camped the first night at Dyea. It is a most enjoyable thing, this making camp in the snow. First you must shovel down from three to six feet to find a solid crust. Then you must go out in the snow up to your neck to find branches with which to make a bed, and then comes the hunt for a dead tree for firewood. Dinner is cooked on a small sheetiron stove.

"Always keep an eye on the 'grub,' especially the bacon, for the dogs are like so many ravenous wolves, and it is not considered just the proper thing to be left without anything to eat in this frostbitten land. At night it is necessary to tie up the sacks of bacon in the trees or build trestles for them. But to the trip.

"The second day we went up Dyea canon. It is only three miles long, but seems fully thirty. This is true of all distances in this country. About one hundred pounds is about all a man wants to pull in this canon, as the way is steep and the ice slippery. So camps must be made short distances apart, as you have to go over the trail several times in bringing up your outfit. Remember, an ordinary outfit weighs from 500 to 800 pounds, and some of them much more.

"But the summit of Chilcoot Pa.s.s--that's the place that puts the yellow fear into many a man's heart. Some took one look at it, sold their outfits for what they would bring and turned back. This pa.s.s is over the ridge which skirts the coast. It is only about 1,200 feet from base to top, but it is almost straight up and down--a sheer steep of snow and ice. There is a blizzard blowing there most of the time, and when it is at its height, no man may cross. For days at a time the summit is impa.s.sable. An enterprising man named Burns has rigged a windla.s.s and cable there, and with this he hoists up some freight at a cent a pound.

The rest is carried over on the backs of Indians. We were detained ten days waiting our turn to have our outfits carried over and for favoring weather.

"After going about three miles up a dark canon a whirling snow storm struck us. But having risen at such an unconscionable hour we would not turn back. Our pride was near the end of us. I hope I may never experience such another day. The air was so filled with snow that at times it was impossible to see ten feet. It was all we could do to keep our feet against the wind which howled down the mountain. My beard became a ma.s.s of ice.

"The trail was soon obliterated and we were lost. But we stumbled on and by a rare chance we came upon the handle of a shovel which marked our cache. There was nothing to do but fight our way back to camp. The storm did not abate in the slightest. In fact, it raged for four long days. It was nearly dark when with knocking knees we got back to camp, more dead than alive.

"The next day ten men made up a party to go on the same trip back for their outfits. The day after that they were found huddled in a hole dug in a drift eating raw bacon. After another day of rest we put masts on our sleds, rigged sails and came across Lake Linderman and over Linderman Portage. We are now camped on the head of Lake Bennet."

Another letter written by Mr. Mizner from Forty Mile City, as late as June 12th, is quite as interesting. He says:

"The trip was an interesting one, but very dangerous. Many men lost their boats and everything they had, and there are rumors of men having been drowned. Shortly after leaving Lake Laborge we came upon a party who had just rescued two young fellows from rocks in the middle of the rapids. They could not save their outfit or their demolished boat, and all they had went down the river with the rushing flood. One of the young men had everything but his shirt stripped from him by the swirl.

We took him in charge and landed him at Klond.y.k.e.

"The big canyon between Mud Lake and Lake Laborge is a grand and impressive place. The river above is a quarter of a mile wide, but in the canyon it narrows to fifty feet. The walls rise on either side, sheer and smooth, full seventy-five feet. Down rushes the water with a frightful roar, rolling the waves at least ten feet high. Like everybody else, we went down ahead to take a look before shooting these rapids.

From the cliff view the task seems impossible, but there is no other way, and shoot you must. So, with Wilson at the oars to hold her straight, I took the steering paddle, and we made for the mouth of the gorge.

"It was all over in about thirty seconds. We were through in safety, but it was the most hair-raising thirty seconds I ever experienced. There was quite enough thrill in it for a lifetime. Over the terrifying roar of the water we could faintly hear the cheer put up by the undecided hundred or more men who lined the cliffs above us. Up came the ice-cold water against us in tubfuls. We were wet through. So was everything else in the boat, and the boat itself half full of water. But we were soon bailed and dried--and safe.

"Then we went on to the White House Rapids, and here we let our boat through with long ropes. Two days later we shot the Five Finger Rapids and the Rink Rapids without any trouble. The last four days of the trip we fixed up our stove in the boat, and only went ash.o.r.e twice for wood.

The mosquitoes on the sh.o.r.e are numbered by the million and are fierce as bull terriers, but in the middle of the river they troubled us but little.

"The sun sinks out of sight now about 10.30 p. m., and comes up again about 3 a. m. About midnight, however, it is almost as light as noonday.

There is no night. At Dawson there is a little sawmill and rough houses going up in all directions, but for the most part it is a city of tents.

On the sh.o.r.e of the river are hundreds of boats, and others are getting in every day.

"The Klond.y.k.e has not been one particle overrated. I have seen gold measured by the bucketful. Just think of a man taking $800 out of one pan of dirt. Mrs. Wilson panned out $154 out of one pan in one of the mines I am to take charge of. This, without doubt, is the richest gold strike the world has ever known.

"Of course all the claims in the Klond.y.k.e district are taken up now, and there are hundreds of men who own claims valued from $50,000 to $1,000,000. But with all these men in the country many miles of new ground will be prospected, and from the lay of the country I think other gold fields are certain to be located."

CANADIAN GOVERNMENT'S ATt.i.tUDE.

AN INTERNATIONAL QUESTION AS TO MINER'S RIGHTS.

The fact that the Klond.y.k.e placer diggings, as thus far prospected and developed, are well east of the 141st meridian, which forms the boundary line between Alaska and the Dominion of Canada has attracted no little attention among our northern neighbors, and many contradictory reports as to what att.i.tude the Ottawa Government will a.s.sume as to the rights of miners who are not British subjects, have come to us. That the Canadian Government has the right to prohibit all but British subjects from working these diggings cannot be questioned. But, as the New York Sun puts it, it would be preposterous to suppose that the Dominion would really attempt to exercise its right of exclusion. Gold fields all over the world are open to miners without regard to nationality. Canadians to-day are free to work in the Yukon diggings on our side of the boundary. The Dominion will do well enough in collecting its revenues and customs duties on the new industry, and on the collateral industries certain to spring up among the population that will flock there. Already it has a customs officer for the district.

American miners have rushed in large numbers from Forty-mile Creek and other points to the new Klond.y.k.e, Bonanza Creek, Eldorado Creek, or other regions, and they have staked out their claims. The Dominion would have its hands full in dispossessing these men, and there would be plenty of reason for retaliation on our part. We do, it is true, exclude Chinese immigration, but it would be dangerous for the Dominion to put Mongolians and Americans on the same footing in an exclusion policy.

American miners who have written to the Department of State asking protection for their Klond.y.k.e claims have no reason to worry; and, in fact, it maybe surmised that their anxieties, rather than any indications given by the Ottawa Government, are the source of the absurd rumor of exclusion.

DAWSON NOT A TOUGH TOWN.

THE CIVILIZATION OF A MINING CAMP.

Ladue, who is a veteran prospector, and has seen all the tough mining camps on the Pacific coast, gives this interesting description of the new city of Dawson, which promises to have 30,000 inhabitants before Spring:

"It may be said with absolute truth that Dawson City is one of the most moral towns of its kind in the world. There is little or no quarreling and no brawls of any kind, though there is considerable drinking and gambling. Every man carries a pistol if he wishes to, yet it is a rare occurrence when one is displayed. The princ.i.p.al sport with mining men is found around the gambling table. There they gather after nightfall, and play until the late hours in the morning. They have some big games, too.

It sometimes costs as much as $50 to draw a card. A game with $2,000 as stakes is an ordinary event. But with all of that there has not been decided trouble. If a man is fussy and quarrelsome he is quietly told to get out of the game, and that is the end of it.

"Many people have an idea that Dawson City is completely isolated and can communicate with the outside world only once in every twelve months.

That is a big mistake, however. Circle City, only a few miles away, has a mail once each month, and there we have our mail addressed. It is true the cost is pretty high, $1 a letter and two for a paper; yet by that expenditure of money we are able to keep in direct communication with our friends on the outside.

"In the way of public inst.i.tutions our camp is at present without any, but by next season we will have a church, a music hall, a schoolhouse and a hospital. The last inst.i.tution will be under direct control of the Sisters of Mercy, who have already been stationed for a long time at Circle City and Forty-Mile Camp.

"Nearly a score of children were in Dawson City when I left, so I donated a lot and $100 for a school. No one can buy anything on credit in Dawson. It is spot cash for every one, and payment is always gold dust. Very few have any regular money."

All experts estimate that the minimum supply of provisions which a man should take to Klond.y.k.e is 1,000 pounds, though several say they wouldn't venture in without at least one ton, as the season over the Juneau route closes up by September 15. The rush promises to be unprecedented, and a large number of prospectors, after being landed at Juneau, will find it impossible to get their supplies transported. Like all other great mining rushes, this promises to be full of disappointments.

A new route to the Klond.y.k.e will be opened next spring. It is overland from Juneau to Fort Selkirk, on the Yukon, and is entirely by land.

Captain Goodall, of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, inspected it this Summer, and reported it practicable. It is about 700 miles long, and it crosses the divide over Chilkat Pa.s.s, which is lower and more easily crossed than the Chilkoot Pa.s.s. No lakes or rivers are on the route, but the trail runs over a high level prairie. Old Pioneer Dalton, after whom the trail is named, is now driving a band of sheep on the trail to Dawson City, where he expects to arrive in August, with fresh meat for the miners. This Dalton trail is well adapted for driving stock, but for men the tramp is too long.

"Dawson is not like most of the mining camps. It is not a 'tough' town.

Murders are almost unknown.

"The miners are a quiet and peaceable kind of men, who have gone there to work, and are willing that everybody else shall have an equal chance with themselves. A great deal of gambling is done in the town, but serious quarrels are an exception. As a gambling town I think it is equal to any that I have ever seen; and this, by the way, is always the test of a mining camp's prosperity. Stud poker is the usual game. They play $100 and oftentimes $200 or $500 on the third card."

L. B. Roads said: "I am located on claim 21, above the discovery on Bonanza Creek. I did exceedingly well up there. I was among the fortunate ones, as I cleared about $40,000, but brought only $5,000 with me. I was the first man to get to bed rock gravel and to discover that it was lined with gold dust and nuggets. The rock was seamed and cut in V-shaped streaks, caused, it is supposed by glacial action. In those seams I found a clay that was exceedingly rich. In fact, there was a stratum of pay gravel four feet thick upon the rock, which was lined with gold, particularly in these channels or streaks. The rock was about sixteen feet from the surface. The discovery made the camp. It was made on October 23, 1896, and as soon as the news spread everybody rushed to the diggings from Circle City, Forty-Mile, and from every other camp in the district.

"Some of the saloons here take in $300 per day in dust and nuggets. Beer is fifty cents per drink. I have quit drinking. Logs are worth $30 per 1,000, and lumber $150 per 1,000. Most people live in tents, but cabins are being put up rapidly.

"We have the most orderly mining community in the world. There is no thief, no claim jumping, no cheating or swindling in the many gambling houses. The greenhorn gets an honest game and every man's hand is above-board. If any funny work is attempted we run the offender out."

FEARS OF STARVATION.

If twenty or thirty thousand go to the mining camp, as now seems probable, starvation will result, as it will be absolutely impossible to feed more than ten thousand people with the supplies that are now on the way. In another season boats can be built and arrangements made for laying down an unlimited supply of food, but now the Alaska Commercial Company has only three vessels, while the other two lines only run to Juneau. Yukon river steamers are sent up in small sections and put together on the river. They draw only three or four feet of water, but with even this light draught they often become stranded on the sand bars in the upper waters of the Yukon. By the Juneau waters it is impossible to carry in any large quant.i.ty of provisions, as every pound of supplies must be carried on Indian's backs over Chilkoot Pa.s.s and by frequent portages that separate the lakes and streams on this overland route.

After Sept. 15 this Juneau route is impa.s.sible to all except Indians, because of fierce storms which only Indians and experienced travellers can face.

The Alaska Commercial Company is very fearful that starvation will occur in the new camp this winter. President Louis Sloss said to-day that his company would do the best it could to feed those who rushed into the Klond.y.k.e, but he said that probably it would be impossible to get in more than 3,200 tons of food before ice closed the Yukon River. The company has 500 tons on the way to St. Michael's, but the river usually freezes over about the middle of September. They have only three boats, as one of the best boats was wrecked last spring. The supply will not suffice for more than the number of people already at the mining camp; so, if 20,000 or 30,000 should rush in, carrying only a small supply of food, the stores will be compelled to limit sales to each purchaser, and those not able to find work will starve.