A YEAR'S PROGRESS IN THE KLONDIKE. 455 



in the space between the gun cotton and the side of the can, occu- 

 pied by the water, three distinct sets of waves were produced, hav- 

 ing an increasing amplitude from the center proceeding outward. 

 It is evident that many curious effects can be produced with explo- 

 sive substances, and I do not doubt that useful applications will be 

 found through a close study of the phenomena attending them. 



A YEAR'S PROGRESS IN THE IvLONDlKE. 



By Prof. ANGELO HEILPRIN. 



TWO years ago the difficulties of reaching the Klondike were 

 thought to be of such a nature as to preclude the probability 

 or even possibility of DaAVSon ever becoming a place of permanent 

 habitation. The trials of the Chilkoot and AVhite Passes were 

 exploited in magazine and journal from one end of the continent 

 almost to the other, and the wrecks of humanity, and particularly 

 of the thousands of beasts that lay scattered along the trail — the 

 tribute to the Sahara turned to shame — Avere appealed to as grim 

 testimou}' of the almost insuperable barrier which separated man 

 from the object of his search. To-day, and since July 6th of the 

 past year (1899), a steam railway traverses the full forty-two miles 

 of the White Pass trail, and the traveler enjoys the beauties of 

 the subarctic landscape in much the way that he enjoys the trip 

 through the Alleghany Mountains in the East, or of the prairies 

 in the West. Deposited at Bennett, on Lake Bennett, at virtually 

 the head of navigation of the mighty Yukon River (otherwise 

 known as the Lewes), he engages passage on one of several commo- 

 dious steamers heading down stream or northward, and with one 

 change — at the Miles Canon and White Horse Rapids, where 

 there is a five-mile portage — reaches Dawson after a voyage, de- 

 lightful in its change of scene and novelty of experience, of from 

 four to six days. It is a fact, therefore, that with a strict timing 

 of departures the traveler from ISTew York may make the journey 

 to Dawson in summer time in twelve days, and exceptionally even 

 in less; and the journey has indeed been made in eleven days and 

 a half. Such is the change which the effort of less than two years 

 has accomplished. 



The Dawson of 1899 is no longer the Dawson of 1898, and 

 much less that of the year previous. The thousands of bateaux 

 that were formerly lined up against the river front, in rows six 



Note. — Acknowledgment is here made to Mr. E. A. Hegg for tlie use of most of the 

 photographs accompanjing this article. 



