THE KLONDIKE GOLD DISTRICT. 291 



colder period in the past, and that, if the climate continues to 

 improve, it is probable a time will come when there will be a per- 

 manently unfrozen zone just below the superficial layer which would 

 freeze every winter and thaw again in Spring. The concentration of 

 the gold in a narrow streak on the bed-rock along the very bottom of 

 the steep-sided valley of eveiy creek indicates that this took place 

 while the water was in a fluid state, and before the gravel had become 

 frozen into a solid mass. 



In order to get at these pay streaks, the miners require to exca- 

 vate open cuts in the frozen gravels, or to tunnel under them. The 

 courses of the existing creeks on top of the frozen gravels do not 

 correspond with those of the pay streaks on the bed rock below, but run 

 from side to side of the valley-bottom, frequently crossing and recross- 

 ing the underlying ancient channels along which the gold was deposited. 

 Much gold is found under beds of water-washed sand and gravel, 

 including the Klondike and White Channel gravels on the remains of 

 old benches, which are now permanently frozen. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that the deposition of the workable gold of the Klondike in the 

 ancient beds of creeks and imder the gravel of old benches was due 

 to water. There was no other means by which it could have been 

 finally sorted out and concentrated in its present positions. It is 

 equally evident that the deep freezing of the auriferous deposits, and 

 of everything above them, took place since the gold was left where 

 we now find it. 



Glacial Movements in North America. ' 



It was formerly supposed that the ice sheets which covered the 

 northern half of the continent in the Glacial epoch, all moved from 

 the northward to the southward; but it is now known that in some 

 of the northern parts their motion was northward, or in other direc- 

 tions than towards the south. In the Yukon region, wherever glacial 

 sheets existed at all, they moved towards the north; but the Klon- 

 dike district was never scoured by moving sheets of ice. To this 

 circumstance, and to the stability of the altitude of this part of the 

 continent for long periods, have been due the accumulation of the 

 gold of the Klondike in the lower levels, as its auriferous rocks 

 decayed away and deposits of exceptional richness were formed by the 

 action of water. Had the district suffered from moving land ice 

 during the glacial period, which, as we have seen, was subsequent to 

 the concentration of its gold, most of the precious metal might have 

 been swept away and lost. 



Discovery and First Workings. 

 Before the discovery of rich placers in the Klondike district, it 

 had been known for some years that indications of gold could be 

 found almost eveiywhere in the Yukon vallej'. In the summer of 

 1(^4 a party of prospectors discovered gold in workable quantity in 

 the bed of Quartz Creek, a northern tributary of Indian River, in 

 the southern part of the district. During the following winter, Robert 

 Henderson found gold in Gold Bottom, a branch of Hunker Creek, 

 which soon became one of the great producers. In 1896, a man named 

 Camiack struck rich placers on Bonanza Creek, and the excitement 

 following this led to the rapid development of the surrounding district. 



