GOLD MINING IN KLONDIKE. 237 



four lateral tunnels are driven from the shaft along the surface of 

 the bed-rock, and opened out in a fan-like manner to the limits of the 

 claim. The outermost portions are worked out first, and as the excava- 

 tion is carried back to the shaft, the roof and overlying muck are allowed 

 to cave in and settle down on to the bed-rock. Timbering is thus 

 entirely avoided. This absence of timbering in the Klondike shafts 

 and tunnels is one of the most striking features in the mining; the 

 frozen ground requires no support — it never thaws — and chambers as 

 much as 100 feet square are covered by an icy roof which never breaks 

 down. 



The operations in the creeks are carried on upon a very consider- 

 able scale, and there is a large amount of machinery in the country; 

 upon some groups of claims the work is not carried on by sinking 

 and drifting, but is more of the nature of open quarrying. Night 

 work is prosecuted by electric light or the acetylene lamp. 



Formerly the raising of the gravel and its storage in dumps were 

 mainly carried on in the winter, and the sluicing in the summer, and 

 enormous winter dumps were accumulated for summer work. This 

 last year the greater part of both has been carried on simultaneously 

 during the summer, and it seems likely that the winter work will 

 become less usual, and may even be abandoned altogether. 



The mining upon the hillside claims bears no resemblance in 

 appearance to ordinary placer mining. Horizontal tunnels are driven 

 into the White Channel from the face of the hill, and shafts are sunk 

 into it from the surface in a manner that more nearly resembles the 

 working in ordinary metalliferous lodes. In one such mine which I 

 visited, a horizontal tunnel 700 feet in length had been driven into 

 the gravel, and at right angles to this, and at intervals of about 60 

 feet, lateral tunnels were being driven to a distance of 70 feet on 

 either side; and there were 200 feet of pay gravel above the tunnel; 

 the men were working with pick and shovel at the end of the long 

 tunnels, and cars of rock were being wheeled along a tramway to 

 the head of the long wooden shoot which carried the gravel down to 

 the creek. 



In these high-bench claims, as they are called, two great diffi- 

 culties are encountered: (1) the difficulty of disposing of the tailings, 

 which cannot be allowed to slide down upon the creek claims but 

 must be artificially banked up; and (2) the difficulty of obtaining 

 water at this height. Both have cooperated to prevent hydraulicking, 

 which would otherwise be the obvious way of working gravels situated 

 upon a steep hillside. 



On Hunker Creek, however, Mr. Johanson, who owns both creek 

 and hillside claims, has, with much enterprise and at very great 

 expense, introduced hydraulicking upon a considerable scale. The 



