IN THE KLONDYKE

INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF

A WINTER’S JOURNEY TO DAWSON

BY

FREDERICK PALMER

ILLUSTRATED

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

NEW YORK 1899

Copyright, 1899, by

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

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

I