THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



117 



lo, bears, elk and antelope will appear on 

 the menu of a barbecue. At the one in 

 Denver there were, in addition to eight 

 beeves, forty sheep and ten pigs, six elk, 

 ten antelope, four bears and let the darkey 

 smack his lips 400 possum. To accom- 

 company the possum was the inevitable 

 sweet potato forty barrels of them. A 

 half ten of ckeese, 3000 loaves of bread, 

 ten barrels of pickles and 400 kegs of 

 beer completed the bill of fare. One is 

 saddened at the thought of the rapidity 

 with which the wild game of America is 

 being exterminated. A western woman, 

 in speaking of this, said that it made her 

 positively angry to see the Eastern sports- 

 men coming in legions to the West at the 

 opening of the hunting season, wherewith 

 a hunting outfit that was fearfully and 

 wonderfully made, they proceeded to shoot 

 far more game than they could possibly 

 use. Shooting birds that they had no 

 hope of being able to preserve until they 

 returned home, for the sake of being able 

 to report a great number killed. Such 

 willful waste is indeed sad to contemplate. 

 On to Kion- Despite the discouraging re- 

 <Iike - port made by returned Klon- 



dikers, the rush to the gold fields still con- 

 tinues. A Nevada man who went to Klon- 

 dike early last fall wrote from Dawson 

 City to his wife, telling of the safe arrival 

 of their party, but adding that "if the Lord 

 would let him, he would get out of there 

 at the first opportunity." Everything is 

 overdone, according to him, while from 

 other sources comes the news that the 

 tales of gold have not told half the truth. 

 The first sitting of the supreme court of 

 the Yukon judicial district was held Dec. 

 9, and the case on trial was for theft. A 

 bag of gold dust and nuggets valued at 

 $8,634 was stolen from the cabin in which 

 the owners were staying and two men were 

 arrested on suspicion. The evidence was 

 not strong enough to convict them, how- 

 ever. The court was held in a log cabin 

 17 by 15, and Judge McGruire was attired 

 in a blue shirt and corduroy coat, instead 

 of the customary gown. The Crown pros- 



ecutor, Wade, wore a buckskin suit. On 

 the fifth of February the relief expedition, 

 which the United States is sending to the 

 interior of Alaska, started from Portland, 

 Ore., on, the steamer George W. Elder. 

 Two hundred tons of provisions were for- 

 warded and more is to be sent in the near 

 future. The contract for carrying 150 

 tons of provisions from Dyea to Dawson 

 City was let to the Snow and Tec Trans- 

 portation Co., of Chicago, but as the 

 company was not yet in working order, the 

 supplies will be carried by pack train to 

 Lake Lebarge, at which point boats will 

 be built to carrry them down the Yukon. 

 The government has bought 500 reindeers 

 from Norway, which are expected to ar- 

 rive in Alaska in the course of a month 

 and will carry additional supplies. There 

 is urgent need of troops being sent to 

 Alaska to enforce the proposed measures 

 that are to prevent persons unprovided 

 with suitable food and clothing from en- 

 tering the territory. 



The Klondike, Yukon and Copper River 

 Company has been awarded the contract 

 for carrying the mails for four years from 

 Seattle, Wash., to Dyea, Alaska, includ- 

 ing Juneau, Sitka and Skagaway. The 

 company is to make five round trips each 

 month and to receive $15,250 per annnm. 



Gleo. Swineford says, regarding the dis- 

 comforts to be encountered in the Klon- 

 dike: "You can say to anybody who 

 thinks of going to Klondike that they will 

 have a pleasant time if they live to get 

 there. After they have been there three 

 day they will begin to draw comparisons 

 and wonder what kind of a paradise hell 

 is, anyway, compared with that country. 

 The result will be much the same whether 

 they arrive there in the summer or winter 

 The fact is that the upper Yukon shows 

 the greatest extremes of heat and cold 

 that are shown anywhere in North Amer- 

 ica. In winter 30 degrees below is mild, 

 the thermometer reading as low as 80, 

 while during the months of June, July 

 and August it gets ambitious and climbs 

 to the top of the tube, ranging from 110 



