A YEAR'S PROGRESS IN THE KLONDIKE. 457 



Horse Rapids. So here, as in the olden days of the Mississippi, the 

 struggle for supremacy has led to the opening of the throttle and 

 to the scraping of the fire box. Upward of a hundred arrivals from 

 down the river were registered at Dawson during the season of 

 open water of 1899. 



Dawson has been further put into comparatively close touch 

 with the outer world by the entry of the telegraph, and since the 

 early days of October messages have been freely going to the sea- 

 board at Skaguay. It is true that a cableless stretch of hundreds of 

 miles still separates this town from the nearest port of importance 

 on the continent, but doubtless before very long even this blank 

 in the line of communication will have been supplied. It may be 

 first by means of wireless telegraphy, as it is mooted that the Cana- 

 dian Government looks with favor upon experimentation with the 

 Marconi system; or, what is more likely, the desired end will be 

 brought about by the laying of a continuous wire. The extraordi- 

 nary rapidity with which the five hundred to six hundred miles of 

 land wire were laid — five and seven miles per day — speaks well 

 for the morale of the Canadian sapper and engineering service. 



In its commercial and residential aspects the city has made 

 vast progress. The days of ingulfing mires are virtually over, and 

 from one end of the town almost to the other, one may safely tread 

 the streets on secure board sidewalks. Not alone the main street 

 is furnished in this way, but also several of the streets running 

 parallel with it, and parts of streets that run across at right angles. 

 A wise enactment, not perhaps absolutely just in its details, haa 

 swept off the shacks and booths from the river side of the front 

 street, and one now enjoys an almost uninterrupted view of the 

 opposing bank of the stream, already marred by giant advertising 

 letters announcing bargain sales in merchandise, and directing to 

 particular shops in the metropolis of the North. 



The shops of Dawson have risen to the dignity of establish- 

 ments having corrugated-iron covers, plate-glass fronts, and red- 

 wood shelves and counters, rollowdng closely upon the pioneer 

 constructions — department stores, they might be classed — of the 

 Alaska Commercial Company are the depots of the North Ameri- 

 can Trading and Transportation Company, the Alaska Exploration 

 Company, Ames Mercantile Company, and the Yukoner Company, 

 several with retaining warehouses placed beyond the reach of a 

 city fire and with dimensions that would lend dignity to locations 

 of much larger size than the emporium of the North. Many of 

 the smaller shops also carry a varied line of goods, but others are 

 restricted to a specialty, and their' wares are now offered at rates 

 which are in the main only reasonably in advance of the " high " 



VOL. I.M — 35 



