IN THE KLONDYKE

INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF

A WINTER’S JOURNEY TO DAWSON

FREDERICK PALMER

ILLUSTRATED

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK 1899

TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK

CONTENTS

I. THE START FROM DYEA

Choosing Comrades--Jack Beltz and his Dogs--Fritz Gamble--From Sheep Camp to the Summit--Packing over the Chilkoot Pass--The Halt at Lake Linderman--A Night in a Sleeping Bag--Coasting down the Frozen Yukon--Half Way to Dawson Page 1

II. ON THE TRAIL

Personalities--The Forebears of Jack and Fritz--Good Camp Manners--Dog Individuality--Dude--The Team of Huskies--Wayfarers at Five Fingers--Fort Selkirk and Pelly--The Thanksgiving Turkey that Did Not Get to Dawson--A Diet of Flapjacks--Suburbs of the Klondyke Capital--The Passing of the Trail Page 36

III. DAWSON

Social Aspects of Dawson--Cornering the Tinned Food Market--Cheechawkos and Old-Timers in the Early Days Page 61

IV. THE FIRST DISCOVERIES

The Beginning of Mining in Alaska--Forty Mile Creek--Canadian and American Deposits--The Largest Log-Cabin Town in the World--Life of the First Adventurers--The Superfluity of Six-Shooters--Leaving the Latch-Strings Out--The Way of the Transgressors--Indian Charley and his Nugget Page 66

V. MINERS AND MINING

Reaping the Gold Harvest--Thawing and Sluicing--Miners and their Theories--The Dome--Expensive Timber--Empty Pockets but Dollars in the Dumps--The First Millionnaires--Color in the Pan--Once a Prospector Always a Prospector--Figuring Fortunes--Capitalists in Demand--The Forty Happy Kings on Eldorado Page 85

VI. SOME KLONDYKE TYPES

The Fool and his Lucky Friends--More Theorizers--Joe Staley and Billy Deddering--French Gulch Bench--Good Fortune that was Deserved--Neighbors and Twins--No Cure for the Gold Fever Page 111

VII. GETTING ACQUAINTED

Mr. and Mrs. “Meenach” and their Menage--The Juvenile Mining Company, Limited--Voss--The Arch-Deacon--A Sour-Dough Stiff--A Dalmatian and a Turk--Siawash George and his Steam-Engine--Miss Mulrooney at The Forks--The Price of a “Square” with Trimmings Page 126

VIII. ARCTIC TRAITS

Daily Life in Dawson--Renting a Cabin--Circumventing the Huskies--Joey Boureau and his Restaurant--The Faro Dealer’s Wife and her Bakery--The Laundryman and his Claim--Jack Beltz’s Schemes--A Pair of Dreamers Page 153

IX. PILGRIMS’ TRAILS AND TRIALS

Itineraries--Alleged Unimportance of Experience--The Case of Father Stanley--Press Agents and Primers of Wealth--The Secretary of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce his own Convert--Pardners and Promoters--Outfits--Home Comforts for an Arctic Climate--Heterogeneous Boat Loads--The Nancy G--Tragedies of the Passes Page 163

X. PROFITS AND LOSSES

Newspapers as Profit-Winners--Hearing about Dewey--A Drop in Eggs--Market Items--Lemons against Scurvy--The Mercury at 110 Degrees--An Averted Moving Day--Industrious Scavengers--The Klondyke Itself--Aspects of Summer--Bandanna Hats and Pink Lemonade--A Restaurant Trust--The Grasshoppers and the Ants--Disillusions Page 181

XI. GOVERNMENT

The Canadian Policy in the Yukon Province--Taxes and Fees--The Gold Commissioner’s Office--Conflicts between Territorial and Dominion Governments--Timber Grants--The Value of the Mounted Police--The Newly Rich at Dawson--The Order of the Yukon Pioneers--Mrs. Constantine Page 200

XII. DOWN THE YUKON AND HOME

Good-By to Dawson--The Extinction of the Unfit--Steamboating to St. Michaels--Mosquitoes and Sandbars--Pilgrims by the All-Water Route--Behring Sea--Civilization Once More Page 212

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Chilkoot Pass Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

“Packing” Timber 8

Pilgrims Resting on the Chilkoot 8

A Halt 14

Guiding the Team 18

Borrowing a Hint from Ice-Boats--Just Above White Horse Rapids 22

Over the Bench Ice of Thirty Mile River 26

Crossing a Brook 32

In Camp--The Dogs’ Porridge 40

The First Boats 54

A Typical Pilgrims’ Boat 66

Yukon Indians 78

On the Creeks 88

A Flume on Bonanza Creek 102

Cleaning Up 108

Shovelling a Clean-Up into a Gold Pan 108

The Discoverers of French Gulch Bench at Work 124

Pardners and Twins for Forty Years 124

Miss Mulrooney of The Forks 142

Jack Beltz 156

“The Huskies” 156

On the Pass 164

Caches of Pilgrims’ Outfits at the Summit 172

Bargaining for a Newly Arrived Boat-Load, Dawson 182

In the Camps of the Cheechawkos 188

A Yukon Steamer 198

The Main Street of Dawson 208

A Dawson Good-By 214

IN THE KLONDYKE

THE START FROM DYEA

CHOOSING COMRADES--JACK BELTZ AND HIS DOGS--FRITZ GAMBLE--FROM SHEEP CAMP TO THE SUMMIT--PACKING OVER THE CHILKOOT PASS--THE HALT AT LAKE LINDERMAN--A NIGHT IN A SLEEPING BAG--COASTING DOWN THE FROZEN YUKON--HALF WAY TO DAWSON.

Originally, I had intended to accompany our Government expedition for the relief of the miners of the Klondyke, which was in part mobilized at Dyea when I arrived there late in February. As it never went any farther, for the good reason that Dawson had been rescued from famine by the migration of a portion of its population, I was left to my own resources. Wholesome fatigue and clean camps on the snow were better than the hospitality of a mushroom town built of rough boards and tar-paper; a little adventure was better than watching for two months the thousands of pilgrims of fortune in the desperate and monotonous labor of putting their outfits over the passes; and I determined, rather than to wait with them for the opening of navigation, to undertake with dogs and sleds of my own the untried journey of six hundred miles over the ice-fields of the Lewes lakes and the ice-packs of the Yukon River which the Government expedition had contemplated.

Whoever was to go with me must be companionable, industrious, and loyal, lest in pitching a tent in a storm, when limbs ached from the strain of the day’s tramp, an unruly temper might lead to the crisis of blows or separation. In turn, I must work as hard as he; for we could not afford to carry food for a stomach that nourished idle hands.

Precisely the right kind of comrade, equipped with experience, I had hoped would be forthcoming from among the men who had violated the traditions of the early communities of gold-seekers in regard to winter travel. Some members of this hardy little army were almost daily arriving in Dyea. But their dogs were worn out, and they themselves were inclined to laugh at my suggestion, more particularly at my money. Having pointed out the greater difficulties of ingress than of egress, they asked, with a touch of sarcasm, if I thought that they had made the journey out from Dawson for the purpose of immediately retracing their steps.

Meanwhile, adventurous spirits but lately arrived from Seattle or San Francisco came to offer their services with all the self-confidence characteristic of a floating population. The references of some were belied by their demeanor, and the demeanor of others by their references. All were further belied by their dogs--Newfoundlands, setters, and what not--which had received a few days’ training for market purposes in Seattle. In consequence, I was almost despairing, when I was accosted by a powerfully built, blond-haired, blue-eyed fellow who impressed his personality upon me at once.

“I hear you’re lookin’ for a dog-puncher,” he said, awkwardly. “My name’s Jack Beltz. I’ve been a cowboy, and done a good many other things in the West, and now I’m up against it with the crowd in Alaska. I think I could do what you want”--and then with sudden fervor, “but come around and look at the dogs! If the dogs are no good, you don’t want me, that’s sure.”

“Any further references?”

“Well,” after a moment’s thought, “there’s Bangs, up at the Miner’s Rest. He knowed me when I was on a ranch in Nebrasky. Dunno what he’ll say. You can ask him, though. Anyhow, I’d be obliged if you’d see the dogs ’fore you make a decision.”

He waited outside the Miner’s Rest while I spoke with Bangs.

In the Klondyke : $b including an account of a winter's journey to Dawson