1902.] on Gold Mining in Klondike. 73 



and deaths during the great rush into the country in the winter of 

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

 just low enough to escape the terrible White Horse Rapids, 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 

 5 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 River 

 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, theatres, saw-mills, large stores, electric 

 light, telephones, power works and all the resources of modern civili- 

 sation. 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 

 1500 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 " 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 en- 

 joying 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 

 Rockies, and their majestic chain was only to be seen from the sum 

 mit of Moosehide Mountain above Dawson, and at a distance of about 

 40 miles to the north. The inhabitants had begun to grow potatoes, 

 cabbages, 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 

 traveller from ever forgetting that he is close upon the Arctic circle : 

 if a hole be dug only 3 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 201. a day for the hire of a rig and team of horses. 

 The rent of a log cabin is about 120Z., and a sense of economic 

 insecurity is inspired by the fact that the rent of a house is about 



