GOLD MINING IN KLONDIKE. 231 



1897; and the traveler is brought down to the banks of the Yukon 

 just low enough to escape the terrible White Horse Eapids, where 

 also so many lives were lost in those early days. The voyage hence 

 to Dawson is a quick one, with a stream whose average current is five 

 miles an hour. 



Dawson City, which in 1898 was only a collection of huts on a 

 frozen mud swamp situated at the point where the Klondike Eiver 

 enters the Yukon, is now a town of about 10,000 inhabitants, con- 

 sisting, it is true, of wooden buildings and chiefly of log cabins, but 

 possessing hotels, clubs, theaters, saw-mills, large stores, electric light, 

 telephones, power works and all the resources of modern civilization. 

 New government buildings were rising at the time of my visit, and the 

 town wore an aspect of considerable and prosperous activity. 



It is interesting to watch the life of this remarkable city, situated 

 1,500 miles from Vancouver and close upon the Arctic circle: upon 

 the plank sidewalks are slouch-hatted, long-booted miners who throng 

 dance-halls and saloons and pay from pouches of gold-dust; busy 

 merchants, traders and storekeepers of all nationalities; well-dressed 

 ladies and children; military men, surveyors, engineers and lawyers; 

 while in the dusty roadway are to be seen men riding long-tailed horses 

 with Mexican saddles, driving pack-mules laden with boxes, or urging 

 yelping teams of dogs with the cry c mush, mush/ 



Popular accounts of this country generally represent it in its winter 

 dress of snow, and relate tales of the rigorous severities of the Arctic 

 frost. At the time when. I was there Dawson was enjoying the mild 

 and equable climate which prevails in the summer months, when the 

 temperature may even rise to 90° F. ; no snow was visible save that 

 which clothed the serrated peaks of the northern EocMes, and their 

 majestic chain was only to be seen from the summit of Moosehide 

 Mountain above Dawson, and at a distance of about 40 miles to the 

 north. The inhabitants had begun to grow potatoes, cabbage, lettuce 

 and other vegetables, and a considerable market garden was being laid 

 out on the left bank of the Yukon. And yet there is one remarkable 

 feature of the country which prevents the traveler from ever forgetting 

 that he is close upon the Arctic circle ; if a hole be dug only three feet 

 deep at any spot in the boggy ground, it will be found permanently 

 frozen at that shallow depth ; even in Dawson itself the log cabins rest 

 upon a foundation of ice which never thaws. 



There is also a striking feature of life in Dawson which ever 

 reminds the visitor that he is in a mining camp. He will have to pay 

 Is. or 2s. for a bootblack or a barber, 2s. for a glass of cow's milk, 

 6s. for three boiled eggs or a mutton chop, 30s. for a bottle of claret, 

 perhaps £20 a day for the hire of a rig and team of horses. The rent 

 of a log cabin is about £120, and a sense of economic insecurity is 



